Discussion: USA at WMOC

Two medals for Americans at the sprint at WMOC in Australia:
Silver for Pavlina Brautigam in W45
Silver for Sharon Crawford in W65
Results: http://www.wmoc2009.orienteering.asn.au/files/WMOC...

Congratulations and good luck in the long distance!

Pavlina is in W45
next race is the first qualifier on Wednesday (tuesday night)

Another familiar name: Rich Parker, SDO in M65. No medal, but a time of 18:11 for a 1.9k course, and a finish in the top half of his group.

M35A (13) 2.8 km 23 m 27 C
13 35014 Alexei Azarov RUS 21:28
M40B (33) 2.1 km 18 m 19 C
21 40045 Scott Drumm USA 20:01
!!! M55A (50) 2.2 km 15 m 18 C
5 55063 Bill Pullman USA 14:47
M65A (58) 1.9 km 25 m 16 C
24 65121 Rich Parker USA 18:11

1 second behind 1st!
W45A (21) 2.1 km 18 m 19 C
1 45506 Su Yan Tay AUS 15:15
2 45504 Pavlina Brautigam USA 15:16
W50A (32) 2.0 km 18 m 17 C
11 50505 Natalia Deconescu USA 17:17
And, of course!
W65A (24) 1.5 km 23 m 11 C
1 65534 Birgitta Johansson SWE 11:42
2 65526 Sharon Crawford USA 12:45

Matt Scott was 4th in M35, running for NZL.

Matt said he was running for USA, and he was going to wear his US uniform. They just assumed he was running from NZ cause he put it down NZ as his residential address?

Oh that may be why Alexei is listed as RUS, too.

Carsten and Bill E. also listed as NZ ... clearly going on residential addresses ... and NZ is doing very well out of it :-)

Not only was Pavlina 2nd in W45A, she was only ONE SECOND behind first place (15:16 on a 2.1 km course). Way to go, Pavi!

Matt Scott is old enough for the Masters? OMG...

jjcote>>So is all of the US men's WOC team but Ross.

Yeah, but in my mind, Matt hasn't aged since he moved away (despite the fact that I saw him a year ago or so).

I took some photos at the Sprint warm-up last Friday, and at the Sprint presentation. Going to get them on the web some time soon I hope.
The winner of the W45 had to make up 6 seconds from the final control to overtake Pavlina for the win.

Go USA runners! Congratulations to Pavi and Sharon on their sprint placings!

prelim results:
Pavlina 1st W-45
Sharon Crawford 1st W-65

Woo-hoo! Great!

Also, kudos to Frances Vyse (CAN) for placing 8th in W65.

...and Nesta Leduc (CAN), 1st in W75!

... and Natalia Deconescu, W50??? Dunno who she is or if she's actually American (I'm not) but that's what it says on the list, so if the Kiwis get Carsten etc...

Natalia is a Chicago area resident (used to be Natalia Babeti). She's been dominating in F50 here in the US for a while now.

What a day for the NA women. Congratulations Pavlina, Natalia, Sharon and Nesta. So cool. Maybe I need a new poster designed...

Sandy, that's a great idea. (Seriously!)

Natalia is doing quite well in all "green" races ( over 40 ) in NA.. she was in Romanian National team in the late 70's and the 80's.Great job

Did anybody see Nesta run the finish chute at the Canadian Team Trials? she was taking bets wtih everybody, she's on fire!!! I'm not surprised she's doing so well at the WMOC
Yay Nesta!

Nesta has been training hard. She does the same sessions that the juniors do (granted often with a shorter cutoff) and was our most dedicated athlete making it to almost all our trainings. Hard work paid off-as it usually does.

Nesta's main rival our own Maureen Ogilvie (from OZ) was very disappointed to have MP'ed on the first qual.
It would have been a close contest otherwise.

I can claim some credit for Nesta's win since I did show her how to buid her "Hippie Camper" bed, otherwise she may have struggled due to lack of sleep.

Congrats to all of you North Americans that did well and I hope you enjoyed it regardless of our unusually crappy weather. It was abysmal except for the long final. I'm just starting to thaw out now I'm back at work.

How much support has USOF given to our (very very successful) masters team? What's the budget for masters team? Do they get travel support? A coach? Does AP agitate for support for them? Are they invited to team trainings? Could the masters team succeed even more with more support? Do they do any fund-raising themselves? Is there any value in making the team more of a team? Are there channels for them to feed back their expertise to younger orienteers?

Anyone over 35 can participate in the masters events. You don't need to be on a team of any sort.

the answer Barb is No, nothing, none, no....you get the idea.

None
0
No
No
No
No
?
No
?
No

< rant >
And nor should they get any funding either. The only reason JWOC and WOC team members should get any funding is because they are not yet old enough to have earned much money, and we don't want outstanding athletes being unable to compete because of lack of money. If you're older than 35 and still don't have any money, perhaps you should get a job rather than going to the WMOC.
< /rant >

Paying older athletes to contribute to training younger orienteers is a different kettle of fish. Normally we hope people do this voluntarily by the time they reach the masters age groups.

Funding/support aside...

Very, very nice job by a number of people, especially the women. Way to go!

Feet,

Interesting concepts

?The only reason JWOC and WOC team members should get any funding is because they are not yet old enough to have earned much money?

Sounds like a needs-based funding approach. Let?s get all the Team Members to complete Financial disclosure docs to determine amount of USOF funding. JWOC Team members would have their parents complete it, just like college

?we don't want outstanding athletes being unable to compete because of lack of money.?

Based on int?l results, the truly ?outstanding? athletes are the veterans. Wonder how the 4 Mens WOC members over 35 (according to Boris? post) would have fared in M35 at VMOC? Don?t know if it?s been done bfore where a US Men team member has run WOC and Vmoc in the same year but the results would be interesting

?If you're older than 35 and still don't have any money, perhaps you should get a job rather than going to the WMOC.?

I guess the same might be said for WOC, so half the US team would receive no funding, based on these criteria. Interesting way to help resolve the team funding debate

Well done by all the athletes, outstanding and otherwise, who represnted the US in OZ

Well, Matt Scott ran M35 this year. He could have likely been selected for the US men's WOC team had he been available/interested.

And Pavlina was at WOC.

I know your post was meant to be baiting, so I don't need to make the point that the level of competition is just slightly different.

Congratulations to all of the US athletes with great results at WMOC!

Clare Durand
USOF President

Agreed, Clare, and I'm pretty sure this is our best ever result. I'm wondering if anyone has easy access to the medals won by the US at WMOCs over the years? Or top-10s if one really had the data? Would be nice to have a record before things are forgotten.

Corinne Porter is currently serving as USOF Historian. Perhaps she could search through available results from past WMOCs and get some records going.