Discussion: WOC Sprints Have Started!

The first results are starting to come in.

http://woc2005.bglb.jp/online/en/index.jsp?id=&sty...

Oh No, 16th again. 2:00 total away from all Three Finals for Samantha.

Unbelievable bad luck for Samantha -- 16th again, third time in a row, this time missing by 11 seconds. Still, fantastic runs by someone at her first WOC.

Pavlina and Pam both 17th, oh so close. Damn....

Oh no! Any word on Sandra and MCat? Rats. Looks like Jon is in at 21 and something mins. Annabel qualified!!

Sandra and MCat both listed as DQ. Their times were up for a little while, I think 21+ for Sandra and 24 for MCat.

Wow - those are great results for Sam - such consistency in disparate disciplines. And a lot of nice runs across the board. Go USA! Go USA women!

Eric is in at 19, Sergey at 23. Lets go Boris!! GO GO GO!!!

Woo hoo!

Are we all just too disappointed that no North Americans qualified, that our tongues are tied?

Samantha sure has had very impressive results all around!

And we get to "watch" Erin in the middle distance final ... is it, tomorrow?

Boris got 20th, but only 30 seconds out of qualifying. Damn again. He did beat the Norwegian in his heat....

Mike Smith also just over a minute out.

I dug up some archival photos of some of the NA sprinters.
A toast to Sam......oh so close 3 times.

she will definitely be "hungry" for/in the next WOC !!!, nice runs guys !

Eddie, I can't believe you doctored that innocent picture of Mike and Nick! Shame on you!

:) I realize Nick didn't run in the WOC sprint, but I seem to have lots of photos of him in compromising situations. Speaking of compromising situations...its hard to hold the camera steady when you're laughing.

Anyway, on a serious note - a very nice run from BG, only 30 secs from qualifying I think...

The Women's final is about to start in a few minutes. Interesting to note that 3 of 3 Japanese women made it to the final.

Maybe the green does indeed favor short people.

Yeah, and one of the men too. NZ got 2 and 2. There was a nice spread on the Oceana O-carnival (NZ) in the 01/2005 O-sport. The top 2 W and #1 and #7 men are the ones in the WOC sprint final. De Haas (AUS) was in there too, along with Jo and Natasha. Holger and Swisscheese are in! Marc is in that elite, low-clearance group.

Annabel is on the course.

Who are you picking to win this Eddie? And anyone else kicking around?

Did you know that De Haas has monkey troubles? Kangeroos and emus get after him sometimes too, according to the news.

Emuuuus?

Sime and Wingstedt

BTW - has anyone posted maps for anything?

Simone looks strong. I'm gonna pick Heather though.

Bold call.

Is Heather Munro the Brit born in Canada? I'm going with Simone and say Terkelson.

I can't decide on a men's winner, but I'll pick Cheesydude to medal.

Hot damn - Heather is at the top now! With a solid 15:02 time.

That's a good idea too. Japan = Switzerland + bugs + funky veg?

Is this Danish girl's name really Signe Soes? Tell me that's real.
What's the beer of choice for late night WOC watching?

Kirin? Asahi? Sapporo?

I don't have any :(

I just have diet cherry 7-up and Wheatables. Bleah.
Clem, which of those three is best? Maybe I'll try to find it for Erin's race later in the week (although it may be while I'm at work). eh.

Tim Horton's black coffee is the drink of choice out here for watchin' on the west coast eh'; but not too late here yet.

Heh heh, one more Finn behind Heather.
"Go Hea-ther, its yer birfday!"
"Go Hea-ther, its yer birfday!"

I think your crackers and soda aren't mixing too well together.

Wow - 1.4 seconds on Emma!

Wow, it's exciting now!

So much for my Czech sprinting star. Eddie, looks like the diet cherry 7-up is paying off.

So that's the one?
On a different note, does anyone else think that a Japanese webpage like this one should be more sophisticated or at least have links that work?

Uh oh... :)

Wow...

Yeah, really. The depressed looking waif in a pink jacket is getting tiresome.

Simone is just disgustingly fast...

Clem can say wow again. Deadly fast.

A full minute! Ugh. C'mon Heather...hold on for the Bronze.

Ya just can't beat Simone.... Not one of the people posting here either...

Well, the choice is between two Swiss queens...

Reminds me of an MC Hammer song...

Although I'd think Eddie & Magnus _might_ be able to beat Simone's time, if they ran the course a few times for practice...

Missed the beer question.
I think they are all quite similiar. Although I've always preferred Kirin in sake bombs.

I doubt it...

And Sime does it again. Great!

Yeah, probably not even on a track for me.

I don't know if Heather was born in Canada, but she does speak Norwegian like a native.

Men:
Terkelson
Wingstedt
Merz
Troy de Hass
Troy de Hass' Monkey

I like Merz, too, but I can't get carried away with these Swiss.

Can any of us beat the monkey?

I guess his monkey is on his back? Ugh. Time to lay off the crackers.

Quick Eddie, time to post another random picture to get you away from the "crackers"

Come on, be realistic. Lauenstein, Merz, Hubmann.

ok, here we go...

Lets GO swiss CHEESE (clap clap, clap-clap-clap)

Lets GO swiss CHEESE (clap clap, clap-clap-clap)

Why would you have your intermediate control a minute away from the finish?

Wire shortage.

I imagine it's an imperfect translation of "intermediate". That monkey that attacked De Haas is reputed to be quite good on hills and of course monkees are naturally evolved to take the heat quite well. I reckon he would be tough to beat in Japan, but maybe not at a place like Round Mountain. Nevertheless maybe if we all root for the monkey he will medal. How cool would that be! Imagine if you are on the Norwegian team and you have to go home and tell everyone that you got beat by the monkey that beat up Troy. You probably wouldn't go home. Probably you would just stay in Japan and eat rice and noodles.

I do believe the Swiss men are in action today. What's the average age of the team?

As it happens, I'm drawing my route on the Round Mountain map at this very moment. Immagine that!

About 23 years. Not kidding.

And Hakan Eriksson is how old? How much blood is he going to spill this year?

Hubmann takes the lead! The Swiss are making noise.

Hopp Schweiz!

Troy must have made a mistake in the last minute of running...

Now it is getting tight. Soon they have to use 1/1000 seconds to keep them apart. "Watching" the sprint is almost like watching a ski race. Except we are waiting for the Bode Miller in US orienteering...

What is happening to France?

The French guys forgot the whistle at home, got DQed.

They didn't sign the waiver.

This Carson Daily show sucks. But then again, what did I expect advertisers to pay for at 2 AM?

YES! Emil!

The Swiss Men are guaranteed at least one medal. Fitting for that very steep country!

Emil must have gone through the intermediate control so fast he didn't register.

The monkey snuck into the 0.1s between de Hass and Krepsta.

Jani Lakanen got the bronze. Hyvä Suomi!

Finnish is a very tough language. Technically what Tapio said translates to something like: "Go Finland with a hockey stick!" But if you know Finnish street slang, then you know what Tapio really said was: "Beat the monkey!"

Watch Jani win the Long Final on Friday, and on Thursday it's Minna Kauppi's turn...

Do I get a prize?

Clem, Tero has posted his qualifying maps

The women didn't run the same course as the men, did they?

Troy's monkey problems made it into the Australian, the main national daily newspaper in Australia (in brief at the bottom of the story: cricket is far more important in Australia at the moment, not to mention real forms of football). This is the first story mentioning orienteering I can recall in the Oz... It also made it into the Age, the main Melbourne daily. This is roughly the equivalent of a brief mention in USA Today and a full article in a major city paper like the Boston Globe, so the monkey isn't hurting orienteering too much... although the 'monkey off his back' references may be.

OPN has an interesting report about Holger (who finished 23rd in the final):

Under kvalik-løpet ble han stukket flere ganger i hodet av et eller annet - antagelig bier. En kraftig allergisk reaksjon med diare og oppkast tappet Hott Johansen for krefter og energi.

Basically what that means is that he got stung (probably by bees) during the qualification race and suffered an allergic reaction that wore him out.

Swampfox, be carefull with Tapio. If you are planning to visit Finland, he can easily arrange some trouble for you.

Being attacked by emus sounds even more frightening.

My scariest O-moment is running into a Norwegian baby elk. (The mom is never too far away...)

I gotta stop carrying banana-flavored power bars. What do NBEs eat?

NBEs are very fond of fig leaves, which is why Norwegians wear o-suits.

I finally understand the monkey reference.

Here's a nice shot of Pamela in the Sprint Qual (from the same SWE site that Spike posted earlier). Their other sprint photos are here.

Pam might not have a monkey, but it does look like she's got an EMIT. I'd almost rather have the monkey.

And a boo-boo on her arm. Or is it a monkey bite?!?

Rumour has it the monkey story (and I mean the australians story rather than swampfox's) might not be the exact truth. In fact far from the truth .. but hey orienteering in the national paper is good even if it's (possibly) lies....