Discussion: World Champs in Norway - Live coverage online

It seems like there will be excellent live coverage for those (like myself) who want to follow the championships from their computers:

http://live.woc2010.com/

If you haven't experienced live tracking of orienteering before, I can highly recommend it. It's becoming standard at bigger events in Scandinavia nowadays.

Have you successfully paid for it and gotten a confirmation? The site keeps freezing every time I try to pay.

According to bulletin 4 (and the dude at the techno model today) there will be GPS tracking in the women's middle qual and the mens long qual, as well as all the finals and the relay (all teams). I wonder if the online tracking will include the quals? Hope so.

Eric Bone posted the following in an email to USOFClubNet:

The U.S. Team is in Trondheim, Norway, preparing to compete in the World
Orienteering Championships. The Trail O team is here as well, and they
will compete in the World Trail Orienteering Championships on Tuesday
and Thursday.

The WOC racing starts tomorrow, with the sprint qualification race in
the morning and the finals in the afternoon.

U.S. Team start times are:
9:06 AM -- Alison Crocker
9:13 AM -- Samantha Saeger
9:28 AM -- Sandra Zurcher
10:05 AM -- Ross Smith
10:15 AM -- Eddie Bergeron
10:31 AM -- Nikolay Nachev

Times are 6 hours ahead of Eastern time and 9 hours ahead of Pacific time.

The sprint qualification race is reported to be 70% open forest and 30%
urban terrain, whereas the final will be 50/50 forest/urban.

The middle distance qualification race is on Monday, and the long
distance qualification race is on Tuesday.

The forest here is beautiful but tough to run quickly through, with a
carpet of peat, moss, and blueberries over the hummocky ground. The
forest is mostly pine and spruce, with some very open areas and some
areas with closely-spaced trees with branches all the way to the ground,
making for challenging visibility and runnability. The marshes are
soft, but firm enough to run on, and the open marshes in particular make
for excellent routes through the forest.

The WOC website (http://www.woc2010.com) will be links to race
information, as well as a live stream of the video and announcing from
the race arenas.

Other websites you can visit to follow the action:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/US-Orienteering-Team... -- U.S.
Team Facebook page; has some photos of what the team is up to and of the
terrain
http://attackpoint.org -- Attackpoint forum, as well as individual team
members' logs
http://usa-orienteering.blogspot.com/ -- U.S. Team blog (no WOC stuff
there yet)

Many thanks to everyone who supports the team throughout the year and
with your good wishes this week. We're here to do our best for
Orienteering USA!

Cheers,
Eric Bone

Also:

World of O: WOC 2010: All you need to know (includes live blog)

I haven't managed to pay either Boris - has anyone got it to work?

and I haven't succeeded in paying either... will try again tomorrow.

Go USA! Thanks for the update Eric.

Going through Firefox seemed to work for me, got to a page where it said that I paid. No e-mail or other confirmation yet though.
UPD: yep, the login seems to be working on the streamxpress page.
UPD: and yes, I found an e-mail confirmation in my spam folder, so it's all right then.

No live tracking for the Trail-O, then?

Here are the Canadian start times (CEST):

Louise Oram - 9:11
Carol Ross - 9:29
Will Critchley - 10:06
Jon Torrance - 10:16
Patrick Goeres - 10:34

Don't forget to follow the Team Canada blog.

Still can't pay... tried every credit card I have. Dammit.

Live audio (music) seems to be up. Trevlig!

Live audio, yes, but I don't get the live splits+results. Does it work for you?

Great run by Ali! 3rd of 7 right now. Good enough for the final? Go girls go!!

Yay Ali!!!

Quite the stacked heat#1 in the women's race. I'm following Woc live on an iPhone in a tent at 3am. :-). But my iPhone battery is low. Oops.
Good luck to the North Americans.

Great job by Sam, too. 6/13 so far.

Both Sam and Ali are in!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sandra just missed out. :(
Great runs by all three girls! Simply awesome.

nice job!

Well done!!

So a few people up in the wee hours....

Sam (14th) and Ali (12th) both through to the final, way to go! A few hours and you get to go again. :-)

Ali 13th now.

Nicolas Simonin 10th... best Irish performance in a qualie to date?

Nice!

Are you copying my WoO comments, Neil?

But yeah, awesome run by Nick!

check the time boris, mine went up first...

Both Sam and Ali are in good spirits and back at the hotel resting at the moment. They'll leave for the sprint final shortly.

Boris, my GB card works but my US doesn't. Want me to treat you? E mail if yey!

Thanks, Becky. Got it to work now on the third attempt with my Swedish card.

Great job Ali and Sam! Are these the best results ever?

No, Sam was 29th in Denmark in '06.

But now we have two in the finals! Hope we can continue with great results. Go team!

Unbelieveable - 4.5 seconds separates the top 6 in the mens sprint!

Wow! That was an exciting sprint final!! Tightest WOC final ever? Six runners within five seconds!

Two US women in the final is great. Just like 2006 in Denmark.

Here's a nice summary of results at past WOCs for the USA.

Thank you for this list.

On the way to #1, did the organizers put the fence up across the road?

Checked out the list and see they have Peter running the women's relay in France instead of me.

If you want to see the rest of the finals for free I think this is a good link: http://arenan.yle.fi/live

Yes, "artificial" fence built across road for first leg.

A very fuzzy screen shot, but still a nice reminder that Sam and Ali got a lot of time on Norwegian and Finnish TV today, and several mentions that there were two woman from the USA in the final. Way to go guys!

Some nice photos on World of O website, along with athlete profiles. Go to http://runners.worldofo.com/woc2010pics_USA.html

Here are my photos from the Sprint Final.

First few shots are the view from our hotel rooms, which are on the 12th floor of the "Milk Carton." Other interesting shots are the bridge along the 0.5km start chute and both sides of the shopping mall that the competitors passed through into the start arena. So they were just on a normal city street on one side, and when they came out of the other side to the last few intermediate lines they were in the square with hundreds of people watching! There were people everywhere on the courses, in both the quals and final.

Just getting to the starting line at the proper time can be a challenge. The pre-start was over 0.5km away, streamered, and there is at least one intermediate line between there and the mall entrance. They also had to cross a busy street. There was an official stopping trafic, but even then I saw a couple of close calls with drivers not paying attention. At the top of page 3 above you can see Ali nearly walking around the start platform because the officials weren't paying attention and (as Ali mentioned in her log) you've just walked from a quiet street into a crowded, noisy square that you've never seen before, getting ready to start a WOC final. Its an elaborate procedure, and it can be pretty intense.

Spectator Program from WOC 2010 Website.

There are mostly friendly spectating times for people in the US. (Eastern, anyway). And not terrible times for Australia, but kinda late.

Time Zone Calculator

Monday is the Middle Qual from 1400-1600 local. That's 8am for US Eastern time, and 10pm in Eastern Australia.

I sprung for the $15 for the extra coverage, didn't get my money's worth out of the regular video, because before I could get it working I tried the Finnish TV and it was fine (video only, the audio from the organizers).

But what was cool, and worth the money, was the GPS tracking. In real time it added a lot. Afterwards, replaying it as a mass start was wonderful. (Though I don't think it would have much appeal to non-orienteers.) Except each time I watch it Samantha still goes the wrong way leaving 11. It was so close to an awesome run.

And amazing how these folks run right through buildings, walls, across water. Quite something. Or maybe the signals get a little distorted by the buildings....

Eddie, your photos are great.

Start time tomorrow is 8 am EDT, a lot better than 3 am this morning -- actually meant getting up a little earlier. Not wanting to set an alarm and wake up Gail, I went with plan B, drink quite a bit before bedtime. Woke up about 1 needing to pee, looked at my watch, too early, back to sleep, woke up about 2:30 really needing to pee, just about perfect timing.... :-)

Great photos Eddie. Thanks for lugging your big camera around so we can all share in the excitement of the race with professional-quality photos. Not finished looking at them yet--but wanted to say that the best part is seeing the faces of the orienteers that mean the most to us as they approach the race, start the race and finish the race. I chose to look at some of the other runners' pics because of the glimpses of the town, the townspeople, and the spectators and am discovering that not only does Trondeim look like beautiful city, but those young women look so incredibly strong and fit that they make me want to do sit-ups and 4 x 100 sprints! Great camera angles and terrific capture of the intensity and emotion of the athletes. Back to the album. . .

Agree - Wonderful pictures. Thanks, Eddie!

I've got the three GPS tracks going, the live audio, the live results, a cup of coffee and a snack. I'm set for the morning. How cool is this!!

Nice run by Pavi! 3/9 so far in heat 2. Go Erin and Ali!!!

Pavlina's run looks really solid! A top 15?

She's got a shot - not worse than 15th at first radio. Ali is 6th at first radio so far!

And a good start for Ali!!

Amazing run by Louise! Looks like she will qualify with room to spare

Looks like Louise is in.

This coverage is pretty good! Awesome so far for Pavi and Ali!

Will be tough for Pavi - a few good runners to hold off in the end. Great job Louise!!
Go Ali!!

Very good run by Eddie - I think that might be his best WOC race so far.

so sad! for Pavi!...

Pavi will be 16th...

... but a very good start for Eric!

Is there men's GPS tracking somewhere?

No. Just the women today. The men will have tracking for the long quali

Any updates on Patrick?

Wow, heartbreaking. But, so good Pavi.

And other really good runs, too. Eric--especially nice. All US runners--way to go!

Sandy just missing...

A video clip of the Sprint Finals is available on Finnish TV at http://areena.yle.fi/video/1192036

The whole one hour broadcast is at http://areena.yle.fi/video/1192081 Unfortunately, it's viewable only in Finland.

What happened to Patrick?

It says on the Team Canada blog that he had a hard time and decided to abandon his race.

Ah, thanks Meghan. Weird that I couldn't find him in the splits. Hope it goes better tomorrow!

thanks for the link Tapio - that was pretty cool

So---The long distance qual starts right now?

Long distance qual is going on now. I am not able to get the gps tracking. Nothing at all comes up in Firefox. I get to the site in IE, but I get a message saying it failed. Any hints? Also, the results don't come up in Firefox, but do come up in IE. Kind of mysterious.

Also, where do you get the splits? I saw some comments on splits, but all I see are the intermediate checkpoints that show up in the online results. Are actual splits available somewhere?

I've got the gps tracking, the intermediate times and the arena announcing all up and running. This is so great!

How do you do it? I can't get gps. What browser are you using?

Firefox. It takes a really long time to load now since I'm guessing so many people are running it. (I had to reopen one and it's still loading but the other two are going.)

Here's direct links to the gps tracking:

Heat 1
Heat 2
Heat 3

(Cristina): we've got GPS going on Safari, men's heat B. I think only the men have gps tracking today.

A couple minutes now to Ross Smith's start

Quite a little drama between Bone and Teich...

GO ROSS

That was rather interesting ...

where is ross going?

Aaack! Ross -where are you going??

johncrowthers links work fine for me in Firefox.

Here's what I saw happen wtih Bone & Teich (GER): Teich caught up to Eric early (started immediately after him). They were together for a little while, then Teich stopped on the approach to 3, but a bit left of the line. Eric went on by, corrected and punched 3, while Teich wnadered about and eventually relocated. Now Teich is chasing Eric, though Eric probably is not visible, yet, on leg 4-5.

OK, Ross hit 1, though he swung way around to the left through extra green on the way in.

Go Matt go

I told Ross to be safe. That was a perfectly fine route, just a bit further south then ideal, but he corrected fine.

Safe is good.

Teich caught up to Eric just before 5.
I guess sometimes the signal drops out. Looks like Ross did fine getting to 2 & 3; signal dropped out for a little.

Interesting to see the clumping in real time.

Looks like Ross changed his routechoice halfway?

looks like Sandra is picking up some places

Ross caught Heikoop on the long leg to 4; started 4 places ahead of Ross.
Signal seems to have dropped again tho

Matt Scott with a nice swampy route choice 10->11. Guessing the swamps are pretty runnable.

They are.

Not looking brilliant for Australia with Kathryn and Shannon both having probably fatal time losses in the first half, though Anna should make it.

Eric hanging with Teich so far. Very nice.

Oh no! Erin is DQed.

Louise off to a strong start.

Erin DSQ??

That's what the intermediate time results are showing.

Sandra up to 15th at the 2nd check.

Eric and Teich taking different routes on 11. I wonder which is better?

Teich was faster...

Left seems a little safer and longer? Eric lost a little time to Teich...

Matt's almost done.

Decent second split for Kathryn. Her position's not totally beyond salvation but she can probably only afford to drop another two or three minutes over the rest of the course - hard to see her qualifying if she can't get in front of Lillehov.

Sandra finished well. Time to sit nervously and wait!

Eric coming up on interesting route choice 13->14.

I don't see Ross. I am worried.

Going left and around - extra distance and less climb

I'm guessing Ross is with the MIL/HUB/ALB/GVO group... Not transmitting.

Sandra will be OK - to miss out from here someone needs to come from five minutes behind her at halfway. Anna will also be OK. Shannon got missed by the intermediate but still looks like missing out, 14th with Kauppi and Hausken still to come.

Sandra, 9 out of 16 finished so far... going to cut it close...

I have Ross and Patrick Goeres stuck at #4 on my gps...

Ah, Ross is back

Teich took the high road; looks like Eric might catch up again.

Haha, Eric and Teich together again. Ross is missing though...

Congratulations to Sandra! She'll make it.

Sam: exciting -- #15 at halfway.

Eric coming into the finish

Still can't get the GPS. Bummer. It won't load in Firefox, and it loads, but I get an error message in IE and can't go any further.

Charlie>>Did you try JohnCrowther's links? It worked for me on IE.

It's between Sam and Carol for the last final spot in heat 2...

Matt Scott - Not

But Ross spending some time in the woods with Thierry...

speaking of Tero, the French men look very strong today

All of a sudden these splits upload and boom!... two more qualifiers for Team USA. Great race Sam!

Good finish by Eric, picking up three places.

Sam is qualified!!!

SAM!!! Really picked it up over the course of the race!

SAM ALL THE WAY TO 9TH!!!!!

Vlad, what are you talking about?

Kathryn and Shannon both out; in both cases by one or maybe two spots, but a fair bit of time. Anna is in. Rob looks gone.

Thanks, Boris. It didn't work earlier, but it comes up now.

Sam and Sandra IN!!!

Wow, did Sam really go from 15th to 9th? Rocket packs!

The split/finish times were coming to me in batches.

Looks like Shannon mispunched - maybe that's why she didn't show a split time. Rob looks like missing by maybe 4-5 minutes.

Thierry going around to the left on 12->13...

Thierry hits the trail and his speed increases noticeably... Ross taking the high route though maybe getting a little too far right.

Looks like Ireland will have two qualifiers - Niamh and Nick. Great to see!

Wow! Lauenstein finishes 3rd in heat, and Hubman 10th!!

Does Patrick Goeres have a chance of making the top 15?

I don't think so. He'll be a couple minutes out, I think.

Thiery wins!!! Getting older and better at the longer distances

thanks for the links John - that was awesome!

Joe Brautigam's in 5th place after the first day of the Trail-O competition! Only missed one control and was super speedy on the timed controls, as usual.

in head-to-head today USA 4 Canada 2

When I saw Joe last, earlier in the summer, he had really bulked up and you could tell he had been training super hard. He said he had been sticking to a diet of discount granola bars and bottled Italian waters, and doing lots of free weight work. Just like Joe to find his own path.

Way to go guys!

And another really good run from Eric and Matt, in his debut.

Nice runs by guys and super runs by girls. Ross needs to look at his compass. I literally wanted to reach for his GPS dot and pull him to the right direction.

Six qualifiers for the U.S. in France, hopefully? and perhaps not all female?

actually Swampfox - Joe admitted to us, in an alcohol-induced moment of pure trust, that he was bulking up to intimidate his adversaries at Trail-WOC.

There are a few photos of Attackpoint types and other miscellaneous WOC runners available on the usual webpage here:

http://orienteering.smugmug.com/Sports

At the moment the computer is still busily uploading - I think there are 180+ images thus far in the pipeline, but check back for more updates. Slow connection here means my little notebook has only worked its way through 20-30 of them.

Sadly, I overslept on the sprint day and missed the qualifications plus the beginning of the finals. And was too busy staggering around randomly in the Norwegian forest on the Middle Q day to nab any pics there either. So you've only got Sprint Finals and Long Q at the moment. Sorry!

One of Eddie's Sprint pictures http://www.catchingfeatures.com/eddie/woc10/sprint... has found its way to a Finnish O-site discussion forum with some interesting comments. I leave the translation for those eager to study the Finnish language. See http://www.suunnistus.net/G2/code/apps/pesupaikka/...

Yeh, we've had a few discussions on that exact subject in this apartment earlier. Tried to keep the "Finnish short shorts" pics to a minimum though....

4 qualifiers.... I believe that is a US record

Here's an interesting head camera recording and a 3D map of women's Middle Qualification race (heat C) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSqD7cfYNIY

USA closes the gap with Canada.... winning the Kjellstrom Cup at the NAOC.. and now in WOC qualifying heats... USA Women 6 Canada Women 3... USA Men 5 Canada Men 4.... Overall 11-7 in favor of the USA!!!

Tapio, if you can name even one former governor of Alaska who is eager to study the Finnish language, then I will translate those comments for AttackPointers who are more eager for the translation than the language. And, no, naming a former governor of Alaska who doesn't know what or where Finland is does not count.

Btw, an ultra secret source--and I'm not saying he is bulked up or intimidating or anything--informs me that it is considered highly likely that a certain national team was using a potentially illegal "eeny-minna-kauppi-moe" method to correctly guess the correct answer at the several more difficult trail O' posts today. It was making the gossip rounds on all the Trondheim trails.

EEEEEEYEYYYYYYYYAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



(Photo: Wil Smith, CAN)

Sandra and Sam qualified for the Long FInal.

WE ARE STOKED!!!!!!!!

Here are my photos from the Long qual today. All of my shots were taken at the last bend in the finish chute - great afternoon light here for close-ups. Wil's collection above has some really nice shots from out in the terrain.

My fav of the day is this one of our own Matt Scott turning the corner:

Great picture, Eddie!!

Yeah, awesome.

If you have a little extra time, maybe you can straighten out the TV production people. I didn't think I'd be the only one to find their sprint coverage a little shaky -- announcers talking excitedly about someone finishing but the picture on the screen was of some benign scene elsewhere, timing and video not synched....

They promise it will get better.

Brilliant pictures, Eddie! Based on Matt's picture, I'd guess it is a little wet over there?

I have noticed a strong fashion disapproval of shorts on men. My nephew when he was about 8 said he would never in his life wear shorts shorter than his knees. For me, growing up in the 70s and 80s, anything longer than mid-thigh makes you some sort of Bermuda-shorts-wearin' preppie. The only people I ever see wearing actual true shorts are runners.

I've wondered if men's shorts will be like women's skirt hemlines and go up and down according to the dictates of fashion. I haven't really seen that happen. Until the last few years, Europe was my last hope for holding on to true shorts. But the US urban culture music scene is just too powerful, and long, baggy shorts are easy fashion. No one makes fun of you for wearing long shorts, unless they're too long. You can only wear long long shorts if your name is That Kevin Smith, you're a skateboarder, or if you're in Blink 182 (and honestly, Mark isn't rockin' this look nearly as much as Travis. But since Travis is by many measures the single coolest person on the planet, he can rock literally anything he wears. Literally. Anything.)

Long shorts defeat the whole purpose of wearing shorts, which is to be comfortable on a hot day. Baggy shorts just get in the way. I think there is more to the idea that it's all about peer pressure and the pure fear of wearing something different than other guys: Bill Cunningham, the famous NY Times "On the Street" photographer wrote in his June 16, 2003 photo essay of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade on Fifth Avenue, that "There was no androgynous dressing. Women's dresses clung to their figures while young men...wore oversize clothes that camouflaged them." (Unfortunately, I can't find the actual photos.)

Others have had enough of oversized clothes on men.

Shorts, real shorts, are awesome. They're comfortable. If you look good, they look good.

Of course, you forget that there are shorts and there are shorts. And not everyone can sport the shorts.

I'm more like Kevin Smith, and less like Tuomas Tervo, so...I'll be wearing appropriately long shorts for now.

I have noted elsewhere that it appears (from that link above) that the Finnish men's and women's shorts are identical.

Hey Wil, as an aside, is your photo browser your own design or one that anyone can pick up from the web for their own use - think it's one of the best I've seen

(answering for Wil) Yes, SmugMug is excellent. Its a commercial site.

Its actually been very dry and warm over here for the qualis - which I gather is unusual. We had showers on several of the training-week days, but its been overcast in the mornings, burning off to warm sunshine on each of the race days so far. All the water on Matt from the knees up is pure sweat, and from the knees down is pure marsh. You could also faceplant in a marsh, which is not uncommon. I've been hitting the ground 2-3 times per outing. Fortunately most of the ground is soft. A bit like landing face-first on a wet sponge.

Nikolay and I were talking about a gap in a cliff during the middle quali that we both saw. It wasn't mapped because it wasn't really a passable gap, but there was an opening that was tempting. I started down and it got really scary with a 2m drop to a thin ledge, then another 2m drop or something. I turned around and climbed back out, but Nikolay (noticing someone else's footprints already on the ledge) just jumped. He said "the ground is soft, so if I fell I figured I'd just bounce on the moss"

Yesterday I ran into the Norwegian family that was at the US SML, NorAm and Barebones events - the ones with the 3 blonde boys. They were with their Fossum clubmates in the arena yesterday. The Norwegian Junior Champs are taking place during the WOC Tour races each day. The boys placed 3,4,5th in their respective classes yesterday. Their mom however was sitting by the tent with her crutches - she broke her ankle during the long race in Whistler at Barebones :(

Here are some photos from the Middle Qualifier

After I mentioned that I had trouble finding running shorts, Nancy said that it's because I'm the only person in the world who wears what I'm looking for. Apparently I need to shop in Finland. Click on my name to see another photo by Eddie that shows what I wear.

Some photos from the sprint qualifier

Did the talk about shorts come from left field? Are we talking about O' pants that have turned into knickers that resemble long shorts? (I just spent 3000 words talking about WOC uniform/jersey designs, so I'm wondering if I missed something)

It was because of one of eddie's sprint photos. See Tapio's post above:
http://attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/messag...

Don't look!! Save your eyes!!

That Norwegian family (Hjermstad) has 4 boys, with the 3 younger ones being triplets, and 2 of them being identical. At the USOC/NAOC/Barebones events, a varying set of two of the triplets were consistently 1-2 on M-12 with the 3rd boy often in 4th place behind a Canadian.

But it isn't just the Finns with short issues
How many fashion faux pas can you see in this photo?
;-)

His socks aren't red, white, or blue.

Or knee-high.

I suspected all along that Trimtex gave us (the guys) girl's tops. Now this just proves it.

Mwahahahah AZ, those are some pretty scary looking shorts. Nice shot! (not to be confused with nice shorts)

Nice shot. Nikolay--my my...

I asked a friend to translate the comments on that Finnish discussion thread about the Finni-short-shorts. Google Translate made a mess of it, but a real human translation is rather entertaining :)

"Did Tero get a special permission to wear his own shorts or couldn't he fit his equipment in the one's the federation gave him?"

"I want those shorts! Where does the wallet go?"

"[...] I remember doing some long jumping in those kind of retro shorts as a child. I was so embarrassed when my balls slipped out of the shorts when I was landing on the sand...not because mine would have been big but because the shorts were cut in such a funny way, they were supposed to be just the right size and all."

"For once the Finnish man is noted in the fashion discussions around the world. :) I bet the women are gutted."

that is such a nice shot Eddie :-)

Thanks :) My first impulse was "Aghhhh - DELETE DELETE DELETE!!!!" but then I thought the gals might like it.

The unknown reason why Hubmann didn't win the sprint gold: http://emmaotomas.blogspot.com/2010/08/gront-medel... (look at the photos)

Mike Smith was there when it happened. The official didn't see the stand get pulled apart. Mike helped her re-assemble it. He said they had to hold it up manually while one guy came though and punched before they could get the screws back in.

Hubmann is a real class act to not mention this on his blog as a an excuse for "only" coming 7th, a whopping 7 seconds from a medal. Respect.

oh no! That's so unlucky.

Real classy of Hubmann, a true champ!

Having personal experience building control stands for a WOC, I have to say that I'm utterly appalled. We put the WOC93 stands through amateur karate-chop testing to make sure this kind of thing wouldn't happen. Classy not to mention it on his blog? More like saintly. I'm surprised his team officials didn't file a protest!

At least he was wearing shorts.

I guess Norwegian wood isn't good, after all.

Given some of the things Swiss officials have filed protests over in the past (with particular reference to the last time WOC was in Norway), I'm guessing that Hubmann didn't tell them.

He's acknowledging the sporting spirit of Gueorgiou, Nordberg and Smola - from which he benefited last year!

for those who are interested: Swiss sports TV shows the finals live:

http://www.schweizersportfernsehen.ch (start 12:55 today)

Might be in German though...

pretty frustrated. Trying to log in to see tracking, arena TV, but it is not working.

Use the Swiss tv and then use the free arena audio whilst muting the German commentator.

any hints on logging in for tracking? I logged in on Firefox and nothing happened. Then I logged out and tried it on IE, but it tells me I am already logged in and won'[t go any further. Back to firefox, it tells me I have the wrong log in info.

I have the same problems, Charlie...

Charlie, clear your cookies and then go to http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/ and log in thropugh there

Sam's split didn't show up at #4. Hope she punched...

Has anybody pointed out that there are only four non-European women in this final? Sandra, Sam, Lara, and Anna Sheldon. I think this is a great group and they ought to get special awards for being the best of the rest of the world.

@Nana - very good coverage on SSF (uf Schwyzer-duetsch). Thanks

Charlie, Try doing the payment again. I couldn't log on either, so I did it again and it worked this time.

Sam finally shook the Belgian runner. Yes!

Boris - magic! Thanks very much.

Charlie

Sam is running with König-Salmi and Jurenikova. How cool is that?

Is anyone still getting the free arena audio?

nope

wow Sam. Outstanding run!!!!

Great run by Sam! Top 30? Nice finish by Sandra, too! Way to keep it together and pick up time and a place in the end.

Really great race from Sam - almost definitely Top 30! Fan-bloody tastic, as the English would say!

Wooooo! Brilliant run Sam! That was exciting :) Probably the most exciting thing since getting back to work...

Looks like Sam ties her best 29th...

... also looks like the World Champinship is gained or lost in the village... is that the course planner's intent?

Not quite the village, but the route choice into it. Claesson has made an amazing come back on that road!

:-))) WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooHHHHH 29th in the Long...

Why are my cheeks wet?

looks like Lundanes has recovered from a big error

On WoO chat they're saying it's radio control error, not Lundanes error. Happened to a few runners...

fully recovered!! Taking 1st after 4.4KM

what's up with Hertner?

seems like he is injured...

Yeah, hurt at/near 5th control and left the race.

too bad for Switzerland...

A great run from Chris Forne. Chris—these aren't the real World Champs. The real Champs are in November.

Interesting quote from Lundanes in Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten:

"I have done a lot of mental work. I previously thought I had to run beyond capacity to produce world class results. I opened too hard, was messy, stressed, missed, and blew up. Time after time. After a lot of help from Kenneth (Buch), I now know that I can be the best if I just do the right things."

Drinking lots of vodka cold also do that to you too! Just kidding :) But seriously, he is right.

How interesting that Millegard (SWE), went around to the right on both long legs 8-9 and 20-21, avoiding huge climbs and had near the top splits for both legs. What a vision!

Ok, here are my photos from today's Long Final. The arena setup isn't ideal for shooting. Mostly backlight at the best locations, and the finish chute is buffered with fences. Hopefully Wil and AZ had better locations and can post. There is a panorama of the whole arena on page 9 taken from the King's private box at the ski arena (not kidding). I'll assemble it later. Here are a couple of shots of our gals:

Sandra in the coaching zone, 1.5km to go - Erin and Matt are the pit crew:


Samantha signs kids (shirts):

It was an amazing final, but like Eddie says - tough to get any good photo locations. I have no good photos.

I was completely impressed that with no public races, and excellent internet coverage, there were still, what, 3000 (?) spectators at the arena. Some even paid 50kr (approx $8) for the better "seats" on the side of a small slope along the finish chute.

We also watched the TV coverage that evening and felt it was a great program, taking 90 minutes to cover the women's race only (they showed the men's race, but after my bed-time). I was particularly impressed at the start when they showed the course with a 3-D visualization that really made it clear why the various route choices made sense. I'm obviously biased, but I would think we are getting very, very close to having a way of showing these races that would not only appeal to the general public, but would also get them thinking "hey, I want to try that".

Who can explain the 18-19 leg for the women and the 22-23 leg for the men?

Those were the "spectator" legs. The women arrived at control 18 then followed a marked route for 430m through the stadium and out to a new starting point (where they picked up a new map with controls 19-finish). The end of the marked route / start of the orienteering on the final lap was a little bit west of the small blue pond close to the top-right corner of the map.

"Grouping" analysis of the long final: http://news.worldofo.com/2010/08/13/woc-long-group...

While the women's race was going on, I was surprised to see Celine Dodin glued onto the back of Marianne Andersen from about #5 to about #20. There were two others close behind that whole time as well.

You were surprised?

Well, I don't know the participants, but it was pretty awful looking on GPS. The circles were overlapped the whole time, and Dodin was never in front for even a step..

Seems like Louise was able to almost keept he same pace as Hagmann to the third intermediate :D

Top 10 actually!

Go Louise!

Looks like 28th for Louise...

Minna wins first medal for Finland.

Nice Louise!

It's GOLD!

hahah matthew speake is awesome

That was an awesome live broadcast again! I'm sitting here with the TV picture and speaker sound through my home cinema and the live results and the GPS tracking on two separate lap tops in front of me. Can it be better? :) Yes, if Öberg had won the gold.

And the footage hadn't twice cut out at the exact time the interesting things started to happen!

Poor terrain, poor course. Worst middle/short WOC courses ever I think.

@ jagge, good that you know every WOC-course. looks like it was demanding enough if you see how many mistakes have been done. you should always remember that the terrain can be different from what it looks like on the map

Congrats Louise!

A few photos from the middle distance final. Just a few of Louise and then the last few men finishers (can you tell who won ;-)

From the photos, looks like a guy from the nation of Vital/Scatec/Craft won. And he beat out a guy from the nation of Sveaskog/Moderna/Silva/Craft/Salomon/Team Sportiva/Natur Passet. (Are these guys representing countries or corporations at WOC? I'm confused.)

At least there's no doubt which country Louise is from! Go Louise and Canada!

My photos from the middle final. Dark out there today. The US Team group photos are on the last page. Thanks to Sophie and James Scarborough for the awesome T-shirts!

Louise in the finish chute:

"And he beat out a guy from the nation of Sveaskog/Moderna/Silva/Craft/Salomon/Team Sportiva/Natur Passet. (Are these guys representing countries or corporations at WOC? I'm confused.)"

Worse in cycling, probably because of greater numbers. Car racing? Anything/everything?

I've always found such excess offensive but, w/o money, where would we be....?

Finally got these posted:

pre-WOC training photos starting on page 3. Some snaps in Oslo and from the train on pages 1 and 2.

Middle Qual pre-start area photos

"Worse in cycling, probably because of greater numbers. Car racing? Anything/everything?"

At least those aren't national teams. There's not even a flag visible on the winners' jersey.

He does look happy, though...

What's up with the tape on finnish runners' right legs?

There's not even a flag visible on the winners' jersey.

A flag on a jersey isn't very creative... Most of the costumes incorporate the colours of the country's flag (or their normal sporting colours, like black for NZL) quite prominently. Norway and Sweden have very distinctive designs for their uniforms. You see the distinctive design and colours of someone's jersey well before you see all of the sponsor patches - if you ever get a close enough view to see them - so I'm not sure they're at all detracting.

At least those aren't national teams.
There's not even a flag visible on the winners' jersey.

Bingo!

Unless I'm mistaken, the following countries have no visible identifier (flag, text, crest, national federation logo, etc) on the front of the jersey:
Norway
Finland
Sweden
Switzerland
Latvia
Croatia*
Slovenia*

(* if you follow international soccer, then these two are really easy to figure out)

Eddie, thanks for sharing all of your photos!

Don't the Swiss wear red shirts with a white cross on the back?

Maybe it's like the Yankees. If you're good enough, you don't need your name on your uniform.

Wait, how is an ugly yellow and blue outfit NOT a visible identifier of Sweden? How much more obvious does it need to be?



I say this only because I like colors better than flags. Flags are blocky and militaristic.

Taking a look at Eddie's pictures, I noticed the following jersey designs:

Norway - red, blue, and white jersey (colors of flag), says "Norge" on the back
Finland - blue and white jersey (colors of flag), says "Finland" on the back
Sweden - yellow jersey/blue pants (flag), Swedish flag sown on shoulder, says Sweden on the back
Switzerland - white cross on red background (flag), says "Suisse" on the back
Latvia - white and red (like flag), says "Latvia" on the back

and of course...
Canada - maple leaf (like flag), says "Canada" on the back.

Maybe it's like the Yankees. If you're good enough, you don't need your name on your uniform.

Not exactly. On their home uniforms, the Yankees only have two visible graphical elements. An 'NY' on the shirt, and an 'NY' on the hat. That's an identifier of the team. Two of them. And no ads.

The front of this Swedish kit has 11 identifiers, and none of them are related to Sweden. It doesn't have to be a flag. The Canadian jersey has the COF logo on it, plus a symbol of the country. The USA jersey says USA on it. If you look at national jerseys for other sports.

Also, blue pants and yellow top. Must be Sweden!



I know that all of the other jerseys say stuff on the back. But if you're going to put a photo on a webpage or newpaper, or an action shot from the front, it'd be nice to see something on the front that's not an ad.

But I'm a self-proclaimed UniWatch geek, so I obsess over stuff like this.

"Must be Sweden!" ???

Are you referring to the #71? with the "Australia" on the shoulder and "Orienteering Australia" logo on the left breast? Also some kind of crest on the right but can't make it out. The Aussies staying with us will be offended. Just when I had them convinced to give O a try when they get back to WA.

I think kupackman was probably trying to demonstrate his point that yellow top and blue pants with multiple logos is not sufficient to identify a national team.

Hmm, I don't have a problem telling AUS from SWE from a distance based on their uniforms. They are different colors.

In any case, I'd rather see uniforms that look cool than ones that more closely resemble a flag. Most flags are pretty flippin' boring. And some, like ours, just aren't fun to try to represent. The Canadians win this one, hands down. That leaf can get used anywhere.

"Must be Sweden"

How to tell Australian runners from Swedish...

Swedish runner will have:
* no green on front of shirt
* lots of sponsors on shirt
* lots of swedish-looking names on shirt
* announcer will be talking excitedly ;-)

Maybe it is a US / Canada thing. In Europe many teams have tiny team logo on the shirt, and massive sponsor logo dominating (how long can it be until NBA/NHL/MLB start exploiting that revenue stream). Still, everyone that cares about soccer can easily tell the difference between Man U, Liverpool, and Arsenal - three teams with red uniforms.

I think it is interesting that some teams have their country name in English on their jersey, like Finland. I would rather see the country name in their language using their alphabet or symbols. Makes for a better trade.

>>>>Man U, Liverpool, and Arsenal - three teams with red uniforms.

AZ, there's only one premiership team with a red uniform in my books ;-) Their nickname oddly enough is...wait for it... the Reds.

I do like the Canadian uniforms. Canada will be sporting new ones next year.

you must be bored to discuss stuff like that here..

i mean without sponsors, our sport would not be on the way to grow bigger in media and so on. if you have a photo in a newspaper, than there is written the Swedish runner Emil Wingstedt is shown on that photo anyway somewhere in the article. It is more interesting for the sponsors to be on the front of the jersey.

it just shows how some people in orienteering are not ready for CHANGE and developing that sport. if it goes after your opinion we all should still look like that? don`t we?

http://www.wip-giornalistinarranti.com/wp-content/...

you have to have a design which is timeless and does not have to be changed every second year.

The pink tape on the Finnish pants was covering a sponsor's name - Uponor.
Here are Minna and Merja. Apparently Merja lost her tape in the forest. No idea why they did this. I don't remember it being covered earlier in the week, but I only have a photo of Merja in the same pants in the long final, and it was uncovered there as well.

Great first leg by Samantha!

Amazing run by Sam!!!

Yeah, to get back to the important stuff - amazing first leg from Sam! That girl is on fire this week!

And Ali is keeping it going!!

Still in front of Russia, and barely losing any time in the tough stuff. Fantastic! GBR are catching though.

Minna did it again! Gold for Finland!

What's happened to Ross's head?

Ross finished with a lot of blood on his head. Hope he is ok.

Amazing gold by the Russians again! Novikov seem to never get old.

I feel sorry for Gueorgiou though, who before forgetting the 17th control showed that he is still the king in the forrest.

>>I do like the Canadian uniforms. Canada will be sporting new ones next year.

That's an odd combination of statements in one line.

I like the Canadian uniforms too. And I hadn't realized it was already decided that new uniforms would necessarily be in the works for next year. At the WOC there was some discussion of the downsides of making everyone replace perfectly good uniforms at this particular juncture in the game. I think that will take a number of people somewhat aback...

Thanks! And Ross is ok - just took a branch to the head which left a shallow wound.

Excellent run by the Canadian girls!

Here are my photos from the relay. An absolutely beautiful day for picture taking.

What is the best relay leg in history for the US? Sam's run?

More relay photos

i dont know if this has been said yet but Australias sporting uniform originally was blue and yellow (back in the late 1800's)but the blue sporting caps clashed with the POMs in cricket duels so green and gold was adopted as the sporting colours of gods own earth.

Ah, thanks for the history! I love hearing about how certain teams/clubs/countries/universities choose their colors. There's even a history of why my orienteering club is fluorescent pink and blue.

Photo from NIck D. - showing Ross cheering no doubt for Canada ;-)

He didn't bring his vuvuzela?

If there's one guy that doesn't need one...

I could hear him in the long before I even reached the last control... and he was on the far side of the arena.

you might be biased Sam... his voice probably stands out to you more than to others ;)
then again maybe not... Ross is pretty loud ;)

indeed he was cheering for Canada. go Ross !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ross has always wanted to be a Canuck

Ross has HonCan (honoUrary Canadian) status. Just like Eddie they know what a toque is.

And a two by four and a mickey and a boot and a'bout.

Hey, the event center hotel in Trondheim had real canadian maple syrup every morning at breakfast! We had brought our own (from VT though) but didn't have to use it. I was psyched!

You brought your own syrup? I am impressed.

Linda brought it. And Erin brought some of her own stash as well from the old Walker place. I am humbled by their syrupy-ness. I keep a gallon of the stuff in my freezer, but even I didn't think to bring my own. For shame.

When I lived in Sweden I was going through maple syrup withdrawl so I went downtown Umea and bought a very expensive bottle of "Pride of Canada Maple Syrup", made up some pancakes, and invited several Swedish friends over for dinner. Then during dinner a Swede asked why the Pride of Canada maple syrup bottle had a label 'product of Vermont' on the back of it. GASP! ;-)

Well, at least they got to have some of the good stuff.

Can you get birch syrup in Sweden? I know they make it in Russia and Alaska. Supposedly it has a different taste from maple, but is more expensive because it takes more sap for the same amount of syrup.

I'm the same way with BBQ sauce. I have two bottles of Arthur Bryant's in my fridge. (And if this thread takes the direction of which style of BBQ is better, we may break the record of that logo debate...)

I used to take garlic salt with me when I traveled. A bit more versatile than syrup, and I can't imagine I'd use BBQ sauce on anything. A

I usually take my teddy bear with me when I travel. But that's not the same thing you guys are talking about is it?

Only if your teddy bear is filled with BBQ sauce.

Or if you cuddle with your syrup bottle.

sweeeeeet....

And...

Anyone getting hungry?

well I'll be...a teddy bear filled with BBQ sauce!

hahahah you guys are killing me! nice ones JJ and Patrick