Discussion: USA Orienteers at 50th World Military Orienteering Championships

Congratulations and good luck to the following US Armed Forces athletes selected to represent the USA in Finland at the World Military Orienteering Championships from June 10-16, held as part of the Conseil Internationale du Sport Militaire (CISM):

Men -
Joe Burkhead, RMOC
Kevin Culberg, QOC
Teddy Fong, USMAOC
Jordan Laughlin, ROC
Hans Sitarz, USMAOC

Women -
Maiya Anderson, RMOC
Hannah Culberg, QOC
Virginia DeBons, QOC
McKenzie Hudgins, USMAOC

The competition includes Middle, Long, and Forest Relay. In addition to competing for individual honors, the top 4 men and top 3 women's times in the Middle and the Long count towards the overall men's and women's team scores.

Follow along at http://puolustusvoimat.fi/en/web/sotilasliikunta/w.... There's also a Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/puolustus/

Looks like a strong US team! Congratulations and good luck to all athletes!

Yes, it does look like a strong team. Good luck.

Congratulations to all of the athletes! Good luck in Finland.

Thanks. Sadly I was informed my orders don't work despite being selected so I won't be able to go, but rooting from afar, go USA!

Interesting teams this time that weren't there when we were there in 2013-- China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cyprus plus a couple others. Pretty cool.

Here's our team page and I'm guessing additional photos and news releases will eventually be posted here from Armed Forces USA as they come in:

http://armedforcessports.defense.gov/Sports/Orient...

My best wishes to the rest of the team - rip it up!!

Starts tomorrow are:
Ginger 10:22
McKenzie 10:44
Teddy 10:49
Maiya 11:18
Hannah 11:34
Kevin 11:43
Jordan 12:19

The weather has some rain in the forecast but otherwise should be perfect for running. The men's course is 5.9k/175m/15c. The women's course is 4.4k/145m/11c. There will be gps tracking available after 11:05. Unfortunately the list of who will wear the gps hasn't been released. All times are in Finland summer time (GMT+2). During the model event today, the woods were technical and tough so the race will be a good one tomorrow. We're looking forward to racing.

Will Hannah be able to improve on her best (25th) military champs finish? How will Jordan do in his first military champs?

GPS: https://www.vehkalahdenveikot.fi/wmoc2017/
Event info: http://puolustusvoimat.fi/en/web/sotilasliikunta/w...
Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/puolustusvoimat
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/puolustusvoimat.fi/
FB: https://m.facebook.com/puolustus

Jordan being quoted in after the model: http://puolustusvoimat.fi/en/web/sotilasliikunta/a...

Good luck to all! Keep us posted on the answers to Jordan's questions (and more we may not have thought about). :-)

Yes, good luck.

Kill it!!

Maiya and Jordan will be wearing GPS trackers in the middle today. It has been a little chilly this morning and the rain just started. The racers look prepared for the tough Finnish terrain.

Hannah did the best on the us women's side placing 23rd/56, only 9 minutes behind the leader, Svetlana Mironova, a previous world champion.
Jordan did the best on the men's side placing 68th/156, 13 minutes behind Timo Sild, a top 10 finisher at WOC and a medal contender at WOC this year. The rest of the USA runners raced well showing good results.
Luckily the rain didn't get heavy until after most of the team finished. Tomorrow should be dry for the race although the woods and moss will be wet from today's rain. The racers are reviewing their performances today and are getting ready for the tough long courses tomorrow.

Kevin said "The woods were very pretty although demanding."
Full results from today: http://online.tulospalvelu.fi/tulokset/en/2017_wmo...

23rd for Hannah!! http://online.tulospalvelu.fi/tulokset/en/2017_wmo...

Starts tomorrow:
Ginger 10:24
McKenzie 10:38
Maiya 11:10
Hannah 11:50

Teddy 11:05
Kevin 11:48
Jordan 12:26

We have the distinct pleasure to have not one but two of the last starts. Both Hannah and Jordan are the last starters for their courses.

no news on who will wear a GPS yet.

The men's course is 12.9k/260m/26c with an expected win time of 69 monies.

The women's course is 7.2k/150m/10c with an expected win time of 50 minutes.

Thanks for the results. I recognize a couple of JWOC gold medalist names, there may be more as well as WOC medalist. The level of competition is high so good job USA and especially Hannah and Jordan.

Great updates, Jordan, thanks! Nice start by the team, run well on the long!

Great job team! Thanks for the updates. Hope the Long goes well tomorrow for you all and GO USA!!

Congratulations to the whole team! Nice job today and GOOD LUCK tomorrow!!

Kevin, Hannah, and Jordan will be wearing GPS in today's long distance race. The terrain is quite wet from yesterday's rain and the forecast calls for clouds and the possibility for rain all day.

I will reason on the monies taking the winter.

Good day of racing for the US team. Jordan improved his results placing 59, 22:44 behind Timo, the winner again. Hannah performed at an equal level as yesterday planning 25th, 15:09 behind Svetlana, the winner again. Kevin, Maiya, McKenzie, and Ginger all had a good races placing 94, 41, 48, and 55 respectively. Teddy has some problems with the course and didn't finish but is looking forward to the relay for redemption. Luckily there rain held off until after everyone was done racing. The team is tired and is ready for the rest day tomorrow followed by the relay on Thursday.

Results, GPS, splits can be found: https://www.vehkalahdenveikot.fi/wmoc2017/. Jordan, Kevin, and Hannah all wore GPS's today.

Thanks for the summary and congratulations to all the racers! Well done.

Congrats on another great day! Relay will be exciting to watch.

Tomorrow is the last and final race for the World Military Orienteering Champs. The relay starts at 1000 and 1015 for the men and women. The men's team is Jordan, Teddy, and Kevin racing in that order. The women's team is Hannah, McKenzie, and Maiya racing in that order. No news on who will carry the GPS.

The men's course is 6.4-6.7k with an expected win time of around 32 minutes per leg. The women's courses are 3.9-4.2 with an expected win time of around 26 minutes per leg.

The relay is now over. The US women performed very well placing 9th out of 14 teams. Maiya wore a GPS which is available at the link below. The US men's team placed 35 out of 46 teams with Kevin gaining a few places and having a tight race into the finish with Slovenia and China. Kevin's GPS is available at the link below.

Results, splits, GPS- https://www.vehkalahdenveikot.fi/wmoc2017/

Great job you guys! Seems like an excellent week of racing with some great performances.

Jordan, would you be willing to send me a short write-up with some photos and a link to maps for the OUSA monthly newsletter?

Boris, check your email.

Great job, everyone! Looking at our 2014 results, this year both Jordan and Hannah posted top US finishes individually, Maiya, Ginger and Kevin continued their strong performances (perhaps a few personal bests, looking at time back from the winners), Teddy and McKenzie had great debuts, the men continued a solid relay performance and the women really moved up in the field (we were 14 of 16 in 2014).

For a small team with a much higher average age than your competition, this was a really impressive performance and reflects the hard work everyone has put in since 2014. Way to go!

How'd the women come out in the overall team scoring? Hopefully we can get enough men next year to count, we've got a number of strong performers with potential to keep moving up the scoring list.

Nice job team on all those accomplishments!! Raising the bar for USA! Good momentum and congrats to you all on a successful championship.

The women placed 13/13 in the team competition. It was a tough competition where every runner mattered in the time at some point. The men did not have enough runners to count for a team score.

Team competition: http://puolustusvoimat.fi/documents/2035479/204270...

Makes that relay result even sweeter!