Discussion: WOC relay challenge - just one US taker needed

I have done this before. Simple concept. USA men vs. Canada men. If Canada finishes ahead you make a donation of $100 to the Canadian National Team via COF. IF USA finishes ahead of Canada, I'll donate $100 to the US Team.

Any takers?

You can contact me anonymously if you prefer; I can then just post that it happened.

Obviously, time is of the essence.

Who is running for each team?

Not that I would ever bet against Canada though:)

I believe Canada is Patrick Goeres, Mike Smith and Jon Torrance. Not sure if that is the running order. Start lists do not appear to be posted yet on the WOC site.

Running for USA are Ross Smith, Eric Bone and Eddie Bergeron.

What, no competition for the women's relay? ;-)

Great idea Ross. That is the correct order for Canada.

3.5h to go!

Of course I need a taker by 2:00 AM Pacific.

That just means that the people who bet on the US women are really smart. Or, as smart as the people who bet on the US men, but perhaps more risk averse.

It looks like the Men's relay US v Canada competition will have an exciting conclusion - it's difficult to contrive a more interesting scenario than the start of the third leg, with Eddie 49 seconds behind Jon.

Less than a minute apart! Great GPS viewing!!

Eddie just passed JoN!!!! Go Eddie!!!

Wow, this is the strangest relay I have ever seen. Poor Martin Johansson! What a tragic day, and I hope he recovers, but also great to see good sportsmanship from Thierry, Smola, and Nordberg.

Thierry, Smola, and Nordberg are following Eddie now on a course

Thierry must be fated never to win a relay when leading on the last leg.

Live results suck!

USA men beat Canada - first time in a while! Great job Ross, Eric, and Eddie!

Looks like Sam is having another really good race!

Yes, 11th through spectator!!!

Go Sandra!

Awesome run, Sam, less than 3 minutes down!!!!

Good job by Sam and Ross today!

What happened Martin Johansson??

Why I love this sport.
"Thierry Gueorgiou, Anders Nordberg and Martin Johansson took the lead together, when the Swedish got an injury: a stick of wood went into his leg. His opponents stopped to help him, soon Michal Smola did the same, so they all gave up their positions." (from WOC web page)

I can only agree with upnorthguy.

Nice job Sandra! Go, Viktoria!!

just saw her gps tracking cross the path of the leaders. looking fast.

This race was sureal. I went through the spectator control thinking I'm ahead of Neil, but as it turns out I was a minute or so behind him. I missed the end of the spectator chute tapes and when I looked up again there was more tape. Not wanting to be DSQ by cutting through, I ran further until I recognized the start triangle and had to cut back left. Nearing the control after the spectator I saw Neil coming out. I figured he passed me during my mistake here, but he had been ahead all along. NZ comes out behind Neil. Next control is cake. One after that is a pit in a clearing - also easy. Then into rough open looking for a knoll in a wasteland of knolls and piles of slash covered with nettles. As I'm getting close I see Neil and a runner from Portugal I think about 40m ahead. They are gone before I can find the control. I miss, then turn back at the road just beyond. As I look back I see 3 guys punching and I jump in right behind them.

3 controls from the end I find myself running with Smola, Nordberg and some other guy - all just jogging the course together. Cooling down on the couse? Is that legal? Anyways, I try to ignore them as we all run a short leg down a reentrant with an indistinct trail in it. I'm running as hard as I can go and they are clearly just goofing around. As I punch second at this (my next to last) control, I look up and see that its Thierry Gueorgiou. Now I'm really confused. Oh well, I've got an Irishman to catch. We are all bailing down the reentrant to a road and TG who is in front of me looks back, sees that I'm trying to get by and he steps aside to let me go. Cool. I hit the GO control and head up the chute as fast as I can go. Per is saying something about bronze medals and there are huge cheers behind me. I'm drowning in French flags along the chute - no idea what is going on.

I finish, Neil is sitting on the ground at the finish. TV cameras rush in. I download and get booted aside. Coach Tom asks how it went and then tells me about Martin. Then the entire arena went completely silent - absolutely dead quiet - while TG and Nordberg are interviewed about the incident. I'm just standing there next to the camera watching the interviews, completely astonished at what just happened. I pat them both on the back as they are leaving. Really, really awesome.

Thanks for the report, Eddie! The fifteen minutes or so after we realized something was wrong from the GPS tracks and before we knew what was happening were agonizing. But what a day for orienteering, when three great champions stop their races to help an injured competitor!

Hats off to the three lads. I was just a little scared when in the bracken and brashing-ridden knolly zone from hell. I knew you (eddie) were closing in, had no notion the Portugese lad was just behind, so I was surprised when he appeared. I wasn't too stressed, but would have preferred not having to beast it from there to the finish. And I didn't know you saw me...

I had the 130-133-134-135 gaffel, I guess you had 130-131-135 or 130-132-135, and figured I was ahead of you there.

The swim in the lake in Lillafured was awesome on the way home, nearly feel human again now!

Congrats to you and your teammates, Neil. Well run!

And the US team need not despair. There was a taker who believed in you. So I will make the appropriate donation via your team administrator folks. Well done.
(and if it s not yet obvious to all readers why the women's relay teams were not included in the challenge; there were only 2 Canadian women at WOC this year.)

Update on the stick-in-the-leg of Martin Johansson, from world of O:
http://www.orienteering.is/iof-president-great-exa...

"The stick that got into his leg reached more than 10 cm deep, and Thierry Gueorgiou used his shirt to stop the blooding."

OW.

Eddie - thanks for sharing your story. Amazing!

Ian's link shows a screen capture of this story, which has a lot of details I haven't seen anyone else mention:

English (by Google Translate)

Norwegian (original)

It appears that Google translated "12 centimeter" as "12 inches".