Discussion: Kiwi wins Gold - Matt Ogden!

Congrats!

Awesome!

Nice Job

Matt Odgen, you're a star!

That's pretty amazing, great to see another non-traditional orienteering power doing well!

matt is a legend

Agreed!

And Tane is next for NZ/WOC attention on AP, I believe.

So...how long until we can claim that Matt is actually Australian?

Congratulations to New Zealand!

I may be mistaken, but is this the first competition which has two non-European medals?

I thought a Kiwi was automaticly granted Australian citizenship when they had success on the world stage. Isn't New Zealand a state of Australia anyway? :-)

Good to see such a result, regardless.

If he spends any more than 1 week in Australia we will claim him.................................... Lizzie Ingham is now Australian.

JWOC 2006 had long gold and sprint silver to Hanny Allston...

JWOC 2006 had long gold and sprint silver to Hanny Allston...

And she actually IS Australian. Maybe we don't need this Matt character after all.

I think the JWOC and WOC gold in the one year (2006) should be enough for us to allow the NZers to enjoy this as their triumph without we aussies feeling a need to bask in their glory. Its excellent to see more peripheral orienteering nations stealing the European limelight. I think its time for the Yankees to step up to the plate... (if I can borrow one of their own metaphors).

Congratulations to Matt and to New Zealand!

Congratulations!!! Just watching the relay here... Third leg....go for it NZL!!!

Invis - how about Canada joining the party - Emily Kemp.
Congrats to all NZers and especially Matt.

Emily celebrations are great, but in another thread. Great association with Mr Georgiou. Relay results are pretty good for both Kiwi and Aus men, especially when you look at the margins. Its tight up there on the leaderboard!

So awesome for Matt and New Zealand!

I think it's going to be even hard for any junior to repeat Hanny's performance what with WOC and JWOC basically conflicting for the next three years.

Wouldn't count out Tove this year.

Yeah, she's super impressive. I am just frustrated that the IOF is putting them back to back three years in a row. Maybe this year I understand because of trying to avoid the Olympics, but I certainly think it's not ideal. I doubt even Hanny Allston could have won the WOC sprint if she'd just finished a week of six JWOC races the day before, in a separate country. And that's the only non-European WOC medal, right? I thought the IOF was supposed to care about that.

Anyways, maybe I should not distract from Matt's success with this debate. I just think it's fantastic to have two non-European medals at JWOC, and I think it's notable that neither of those athletes will be competing at WOC this year.

Congrats!!

Matt was named in the NZ WOC team, but HE made the decision to pull out. It was a massive and hard decision for him, but it showed the thought process and maturity he has which has resulted in him being WORLD CHAMP

Thanks, I wasn't sure what his thought process was. From what I know, Emily went through a similar decision process.

I didn't mean to imply I thought these juniors should be going to WOC as the schedule stands. I absolutely think they both made the right decision and that the focus for juniors should be on JWOC. However, past years with more time between the two events meant that it was still possible to do well at WOC, once JWOC was over. I'm frustrated that the IOF doesn't seem to recognize that their schedule is making it extremely hard for juniors with medal potential to compete well at WOC.

Bloody brilliant results from both Matt and Emily - congrats to you both. They have worked hard over the years and it paid off nicely.

The IOF does recognise it (at least it does now), and it is likely that the 2014 JWOC dates will move for this reason (not yet sure whether it will be a bit earlier or a bit later). They weren't particularly happy about the WOC 2014 dates - not only because of the JWOC clash but because it also clashes with the final week of the football World Cup, which reduces the opportunity for media coverage - but the local organisers insisted they were the only ones possible, because of having to juggle availability of accommodation with finding a time when Venice wouldn't be totally overrun with tourists.

Ok, that's good to know. Last year when they told us at JWOC, they did at least seem concerned that the proposed Bulgaria 2014 dates overlapped with WOC but I walked out of there feeling like if they moved JWOC a couple days so WOC started right after, it wouldn't really make a difference for the runners and they might as well overlap. I suppose it's possible but three years in a row felt like they weren't really trying. I didn't think about Venice accommodation though.

One of the problems with having JWOC and WOC (and WUOC) back-to-back is that it precludes our WOC athletes from also serving as JWOC coaches/team officials.

This year's WUOC scheduling prevented some JWOC athletes from participating in the pre-JWOC training week, putting them at a disadvantage in terms of familiarity with the terrain.

And I was wrong. Wow, Tove!