Meanwhile Aaron and Sara continue to use the having babies excuse to minimise training hours. The latest addition to the family shares sister Karins (and her fathers) eyes, while having the lovely smile of her mother. (to the best of my knowledge the new addition currently goes by the name "girl", although it is unclear whether this will stick).
The participants will be from Australia, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Great-Britain, Austria, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, New Zealand, Russia and Estonia.
There are orienteers from New Zealand after a long absence; four in the class H21A. The most renowned name is be Chris Forne, whose position in the world ranking is 132.
There will be 179 runners in H21A, and 79 in D21A.
The other Kiwi's are Todd Oatts(Wellington), Greg Flynn(NorthWest), Keith Agmen(Nelson), the event takes place today (Thursday 11th June 2009)
You can watch a news report here
And there is a couple of photo's with this news report. (Click on the photo down the side that says "zoom" at the bottom)
Thats sensai Carsten Jorgenson in the background, and actually while I'm at it, I'll show you this...which I found the other day while trying to find image evidence of Carstens super hero marathon (Carsten recently completed a marathon dressed as the Norse god Thor, but was beaten by Batmans side kick Robin...what a kick in the guts for Norse gods.
Carsten and Antonia Wood in the 90's, no not the 80's!
And back to NOC, you wouldn't want to see your mistake exposed like this!!. At least they don't reveal the names of Norway 3 and Finland 2's final leg runners. And maps you want maps, the World of O map page is so awesome!
Squad members Lara Prince, Matt Scott and Georgia Whitla plan their routes for Sundays score event. Scott is also known for being North American Champion and Whitla for reading upside down
It was interesting lurking around listening to people discussing navigation (as lots of beginners were out there in teams). One common word which got me thinking was "might".
"Those rocks might be those ones on the map there"
It is something we are all guilty of from time to time... mmm that clearing could be that one there, hopefully it will work out...but this is poor navigation, and as you progress through the grades it becomes less likely that the consequences that befall you will be acceptable. One of the key differences between a top junior and a top elite is consistency, and you get consistency not from doing what might be right, but doing what is right....
"Those rocks are those ones there, and I have a plan from here
When you find yourself thinking "maybe" or "might be" it should ring warning bells. Your granny on your shoulder (see previous posts for the creation of this image) should be flicking your ear.
"I don't want to know what it might be sonny...I want to know what it is!!
And if you look at Osterbo's blog, the previous entry is details of a sprint in Trondheim where he raced head to head with Chris Forne (or maybe really Chris's head to his backside:-)). I guess this terrain is quite relevant in regards to next years WOC sprint as well.
Its a great story. After failing to finish the 2005 World Championships in New Zealand, the team finished 6th, then 3rd, then 1st in the next three editions; Sweden, Scotland and Brazil. They will defend their title this year in Portugal. Brent went over some of the key lessons they had learned (as if I would repeat them to this audience:-)), some of the difficulties they had faced and backed it up with some incredible video footage from the World Champs and other races they have completed like the famous Primal Quest. The best footage isn't available on the web, but I found a photo presentation below from the Scottish race.
Alongside the JWOC team heading off to the Dolomites it must have been a great inspiration for the young people present to see some of the places and challenges navigation sport can confront you with. And Brent isn't alone, at least five members of the National Squad have podiumed in either the World Championship or Primal Quest, with Chris Forne (arguably our best orienteer currently;-)) also a key member of the Nike adventure racing team. There is no limit on this earth to the places orienteering can lead you to.
Chris Forne in the process of winning Primal Quest
Brent was asked a few questions after the session, including some on the differences in navigation, "quite similar just a different scale and different stresses", but for any that are thinking about having a bit of a practice at the longer stuff check out this earlier posting I wrote on topo map navigation, or just get out there on the hills with a map in hand, nothing beats a few lessons through experience!
The map above is the beginning of the elite mass start event held as the finale of the recent Queens Birthday event. The terrain is a plantation of pine trees on top of steep ridge and gully systems. The bogs were horendous. A track system remains principally from when the area was farmland in a previous generation.
In this blog one of the themes has been making navigation decisions at the right time. Staying ahead of the game. Attempting to orienteer like Georgiou. You know 100metres in the future or whatever. So I thought I would reflect on where on this course I was making key decisions, feedback welcome if you agree/disagree or have any other ideas or strategies...my course went 1-7-8-9-6-12-13-14-10-3-4-5-15-16.
It is easier to read the map running or walking up hill. If you attempt to read the map on a sharp downhill it will affect your running speed and leave you vulnerable to making hasty decisions. Before the control 1 I had a good idea of the shape of the first loop. 7 was easy but the pack hesitated coming into 8, not knowing which way to turn. In retrospect the key moment here was the track crossing adjacent to the earth bank halfway along the leg. A few seconds here confirming our location and we would have attacked the control with a lot more confidence.
The next two loops followed a similar pattern investing time early, specifically when walking (it was that sort of terrain) up the hills and you reaped the rewards in preparedness for series of shorter downhill controls followed by route choice. There was plenty of planning time on the hill up to 11, and again immediately before 13. But you had to be two legs in advance because 14 was downhill and easy and there was time to be gained by optimising the route choice to 15.
Likewise the hill to 3 was followed by three quick downhill controls 4-5-15 and a crucial route choice to 16. The short controls would look after themselves with bearings so I used the hill to make my route choice decision (right). While I lost some time to the guys chasing me up the hill I am comfortable that it was time well invested.
I'm thinking when you are analysing your mistakes maybe don't look so much at where you went but when you made that mistake. Was there a moment you didn't master. A decision you didn't make at the right time? Or was there a part of the course during which you could have planned ahead more to give yourself a better chance? We had a quote up a few days ago which I quite liked "chance favours the prepared mind..."
