Today the World Games middle distance competition was held in Rio Pance East.
This is a park/reserve near Cali popular for swimming and walking, and
includes a number of outdoor restaurants. The majority of the park is
a kind of spiny bamboo jungle, containing a network of big and small
tracks, along with a few buildings and fenced off areas. This offered
a good selection of route choice, and a bit more navigational
difficulty, resulting in some more interesting orienteering than the
previous day.
First starts were the girls again, with Rachel and Georgia both having
steady runs, but unable to get the legs moving fast enough in the hot
and humid conditions. The many small tracks were a challenge as their
entrances were often indistinct and some disappeared. Rachel lost
time on the early controls and towards 6 where the green stripe area
was very slow. Georgia slowed in the latter stages where the heat and
fast running caught up with her. Next were mens starts with Tane and
Chris both starting near the front of the field. As with the girls,
Chris and Tane both struggled with the heat, and were consequently
just not fast enough to make it further up the rankings, with Tane
also loosing another 1.45min through a mistake towards the end of the
course. Definitely one of the advantages of coming from European
summer for most competitors.
Both Chris and Tane are now inspired to up their running training,
although we will see how long that lasts :)
Tomorrow (Sunday) is the final day of competition with the mixed
sprint relay. This will be held at 10am local time in an area adjacent
to todays map so we can expect much of the same. Although there is
more climb and shorter distances. Chris will lead us off, followed by
Rachel, Tane and lastly Georgia. We'll join in with the World Games
closing ceremony tomorrow which will be a great way to finish.
(written mostly by Chris and a little bit by Rachel)
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