Discussion: USA and CAN in the WOC Relay Saturday evening, 8 PM EDT.

Tomorrow evening is the QOC Summer Series finale (Peggy is the series Mistress), which is by tradition held at Squirrel Kill (Ted and Darcy Good's house). Note that it is just below WOC on the QOC schedule :). Jon Torrance is a regular at those and was there last year throwing peanuts at me (don't ask). Our whole crowd will be there eating pizza and cheering you guys on - LIVE! Valerie, Ted, Tim, Me, Dave & Heidi, Ted, Darcy, Peggy & Nadim, Keg, the Strats maybe, probably a few other folks. I hope Ted has good broadband! Today is the last day to register with Ted so if you still want to come let him know soon, and slip him an extra five-spot for the team (The QOC summer series proceeds are all donated to the US Team). We're pullin' for you guys!!!

Anyone over there have the US and CAN rosters yet?

And, while Squirrel Kill is the official "finale," in the grand tradition of having opening and closing ceremonies within the event itself ... there is one more event currently on the schedule, a double-header sprint event (counting in the US Sprint Series) on 27 August. Host is Jon Torrance, who we'll watch in Japan tonight. :-)

the rosters are now linked from woc-online. It made me install something japanese for acrobat reader, so rather than make everyone else do that, here's the list:

Relay Entry List - Men Updated at 23:00 13th, August

1 Norway Holger Hott Johansen Oystein Kristiansen Jorgen Rostrup
2 Russia Roman Efimov Roman Ryapolov Andrey Khramov
3 Sweden Niclas Jonasson Mats Troeng Emil Wingstedt
4 Finland Jarkko Huovila Mats Haldin Petteri Muukkonen
5 Great Britain Matthew Speake Oliver Johnson Jon Duncan
6 Lithuania Svaj?nas Ambrazas Marius Mazulis Simonas Krepsta
7 France Fran?ois Gonon Damien Renard Thierry Gueorgiou
8 Latvia Kristaps Jaudzems Martins Sirmais Oskars Zernis
9 Switzerland Matthias Merz Marc Lauenstein Daniel Hubmann
10 Australia David Brickhill-Jones Troy de Haas Grant Bluett
11 Czech Republic Michal Hora?ek Michal Jedli?ka Petr Losman
12 Denmark Mikkel Lund Carsten Jorgensen Chris Terkelsen
13 Slovakia Ondrej Pijak Lukas Bartak Marian Davidik
14 Austria Felix Breitschadel Gernot Kerschbaumer Jan Zazgornik
15 Germany Ingo Horst Christian Teich Axel Fischer
16 Bulgaria Kiril Nikolov Ivaylo Kamenarov Nikolay Dimitrov
17 Estonia Andreas Kraas Marek Nomm Olle Karner
18 Italy Klaus Schgaguler Carlo Rigoni Michele Tavernaro
19 Canada Mike Smith Nick Duca Brent Lanqbakk
20 United State Eric Bone Boris Granovskiy Dan Stoll-Hadayia
21 Japan Daisuke Yamaguchi Yoshinori Takahashi Toshiyuki Matsuzawa
22 Spain Javier Gomez Pedro Pasion Esther Gil
23 New Zealand Karl Dravitski Darren Ashmore Chris Forne
25 China Guilong Li Qiangqiang Shi Jianfei Ouyang
27 Croatia Lino Legac Edi Ocvirk Vedran Bijeli?
28 Hong Kong Siu Tung Hui Chi Ming Chung Yu Ming Lee
29 Korea Jung Jong-Kun Lee Hyun-Dong Ryu Byung-Gu

Relay Entry List - Women Updated at 23:00 13th, August

51 Sweden Jenny Johansson Karolina A-Hojsgaard Emma Engstrand
52 Finland Paula Haapakoski Heli Jukkola Minna Kauppi
53 Norway Marianne Andersen Marianne Riddervold Anne Margrethe Hausken
54 Switzerland Lea Muller Vroni Konig Salmi Simone Niggli
55 Russia Yulia Novikova Olga Belozerova Tatiana Ryabkina
56 Great Britain Sarah Rollins Helen Winskill Heather Monro
57 Denmark Anne Konring Olesen Helene Hausner Signe Soes
58 Czech Republic Marta ?t?rbova Eva Jurenikova Dana Brozkova
59 Germany Elisa Dresen Gunda Fischer Anke Xylander
60 Latvia Inga Dambe Aija Skrastina Iveta Bruvere
61 Lithuania Diana Vosyliute Vilma Rudzenskaite Ieva Sargautyte
62 Australia Jo Allison Tracy Bluett Hanny Allston
63 France Celine Dodin Juliette Soulard Cindy Becu
64 Canada Sandy Hott Johansen Pam James Louise Oram
65 United State Erin Olafsen Sandra Zurcher Pavlina Brautigam
66 Japan Sakiko Miyauchi Yoko Bamba Tomoko Motoki
67 China Mingyue Zhu Fei Li Wei Dai
69 Bulgaria Antoniya Grigorova Lyudmila Gotseva Iliana Shandurkova
71 Hong Kong Maureen Olsson-lo Yuen Ki, Hilda Cheng Nga Yi, Rosanna Wan
72 Korea Heo Sun-Ok Choi Hyang-Ok Park Mi-Kyung
73 New Zealand Tania Robinson Penny Kane Rachael Smith
74 Romania Veronica Minoiu Zsuzsa Fey Val Duca
75 Hungary Eva Makrai Bernadett Kelemen Agnes Simon

So much for another Jenny-Sime showdown. How about those US women though? Erin will be hot on Sandy's toes.

OK - I'll pick the following medalists:
Men:
France
Switzerland
Norway

Women:
Swiss
Sweden
Finland

(in no particular order)

Results

How can you tell when they are starting? The main website doesn't list any details. :(

Pi and I are sitting in the sunny backyard having a bbq and betting on

Women:
Swiss
Finland
Sweden

Men:
Switzerland
France
Sweden

Women start at 9 men at 9:30 JP time

Women: Switzerland, Finland, Sweden
Men: Norway, France, Finland

Sandy and Erin seem to be together. I'm guessing they have the Swedish leg 3 runner in the splits where the Norwegian should be. Can't believe the Norwegian hasn't been through ...

Erin's glued to Sandy as JF suggested :) Or maybe Erin was leading, but Sandy just sprinted by at the control... ;)

It looks like they might be off the back of a fairly long train... hopefully saving strength for later ;) Japan's still on the train though, but near the end.

It's Sweden, Norway, Finland as 1-2-3 at Int.1. Switzerland already 1 min. behind. How big of a lead is needed against Simone?

Anybody know what the expected winning times are for the legs?

Doh, there's my answer. First leg winner is in...

Sandy's in ... 17th place.

Men through the intermediate - US, Hong Kong, and Canada within a minute. Japan through in a great position!

Looks like Höjsgaard for Sweden has pulled clear, and added another 30 seconds over Switzerland.

Erin's in too. So Sandy's given Pam a 2 minute head start over Sandra. Go Pam! Go Sandra! (As a Canadian living in the US I get to cheer either way.)

They are probably using forking, so the times may not be fully comparable.

Nice first leg run by the Japanese man.

Looks like we passed China - go Sandra!!!

Pam and Sandra through the intermediate. Gap is now 4 minutes (but Tapio's comment about forkng is appropo).

Hey guys. We are here. Theres a crowd of maybe 5-10 of us standing around in front of the monitor. They all think I'm crazy for watching numbers roll by! Let me see if I can get some picks here.

Hi you all (Peggy!!!!)

I suspect there's a half dozen at Sandy F's house too... We had to go home with the kids, but are watching too :)

Peggy:
W: Sweden, Finland, SUI
M: NOR, FIN, SUI

Eddie:
W: SUI, FIN, SWE
M: NOR, FRA, SWE

It is just like watching from the finish as a spectator ... just without the fresh air, crowds, or occassional person running up the finish chute.

Any comments on how they might have picked the last leg runners? I'm surprized that Canada is sending out it's 2 least experienced runners on anchor.

One thing I'm very glad to see is that the Japanese didn't search around for the most nordic terrain possible for their WOC. They went for something very typical for Japan instead. I hope next time when the WOC comes around to the US we hit upon some kind of "American" terrain. Nothing wrong with Harriman at all, but it just makes it too easy for those Scandies! ; )

Hey, Eric is in!

For the U.S. and Canada, probably picking the team with the best chance to stay close as long as possible (and putting people on the first leg who like running first legs).

Any one else watching this by dinner? Because it's surely dinner time in Laramie! Yum!

some kind of "American" terrain Kansas!

Eric's in. Not bad, not bad at all.

You don't see the US and the UK together side by side in the standings, now do you!

I bet entire national teams would faint dead away at the sight of an osage orange tree!

OK, It's Sweden, Norway for women after leg 2. Then Finland, the Swiss. Looks like Simone only needs to make up 2 minutes ..

We're having make-your-own pizzas. I bet Swampfox is jealous! Guess what - I put PINEAPPLE on mine! Muahh ahhha ahhh!!!

I bet I know who is looking at the Men's race so far and is feeling pretty happy about it (Tapio.)

I was going to be jealous for a moment there, but once you mentioned the disaster/utter travesty of putting pineapple, the feeling went away. What next, ham too? Oink, oink, oink!!!

It's pasta night here.

If it stays just like it is, Muukkonen would go out with Rostrup and Gueorgiou (together) chasing after him. That would be fun.

Pasta? I'd have thought it'd be a WOC pizza.

Eric picked up a few places from the intermediate onward ... go Boris!

My total guesses:
M: France, Finland, Norway
W: Sui, Finland, Sweden

Could it be possible that France wins a first ever Gold in a relay? Man O' man, that would be something!

FYI, I've just been told that the take at today's US Team fundraiser event (QOC summer series): $251 for the team.

How about me? Eric made up a bunch of time after the intermediate control, passing Spain and China who were 2.0 and 1.5 minutes ahead of him. Go Eric!

Well, it would have been WOC pizza, but it isn't. Maybe tomorrow night. Pasta is indicated when Happy Jack is up next for training, which is the case for tomorrow.

Well done on the fundraising.

And well done Mike Smith, just picked up 2 places.

Silver for the Frenchmen. Jorgen is DA Man!

Kristin, I don't know if you should be waiting until more than half way through the race to make your picks.

Yes, great run by Eric!

Assuming Boris doesn't catch him, that is. GO Boris!

Yoko Bamba!

RRREEEEEEE!!!!! :)

Too bad the IOF shortened the relay to only 3 legs instead of the traditional four. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. There was some chatter last year in Sweden at the WOC about a return to 4 legs, but obviously it hasn't happened yet.

I've never been much of a gambler :-)

All this talk about food. I think I need to go get a cookie ...

Is Kenny anywhere around?

I see Esther there anchoring for the Spanish.

Very nice run by Eric. If my quick calculations are right, keeping up that pace compared to the leaders would give the U.S. a chance to match or break the best ever U.S. men's relay result (1983).

"Val Duca" for Romania ... any relation to Nic?

Boris is through the split.

Sitting at a computer following a 3-leg/2 hour relay beats sitting at a computer folloiwng a 4-leg/4+ hour relay.

Denmark surely dropped off a few contours over in the Womens race!

Women's split on leg 3 is obviously farther into the course. Or else they're all screwing up....

Go Boris...very good.

Boris and Spain together ... the big question will be: who is faster Dan or Esther? :-)

Boris is at the int!

Val is one of Nick's wives. Not sure if it is his ex or his current ...she lives in Canada I think.

I think Lumi Duca was first wife, Val second, but I wouldn't bet on it ...

Do you think we have a shot at AUS?

Oh no, Germany DSQ. Poor Anke!

Simone!

"lumi" is "snow" in Finnish.

Woah, there's goes Simone again ...

Minna only 6 sec. behind Simone.

Four together on the women's last leg.

Personally, I think there ought to be a law against multiple wives, and leave some for the rest of us! ; )

Nick is at the Int control, he's made up a few seconds on Boris ....how will Dan and Brent stack up? I know Brent is fast as snot, but unpredictable....

That could be quite a sprint at the end.

"Tapio" is "the man" in Finnish, at least it is according to Tapio.

Yeah, right on Swampfox!

Where is the Italian guy? Could be nice to have Tavernaro catching you up on leg 3 ....

I predict Brent will be FAST!

Sandra's in, just a couple minutes behind Pam.

Rigoni is long overdue. Maybe he got hurt. Or maybe he ran up the wrong hill.

Pam and Sandra both in, with splits only seconds apart! Well done! Go Pavlina! Go Louise!

Damn SANDRA!!!! GO GO GO

Actually, in finnish mythology tapio is the god of the forest. I am not making that up.

Goodness--look at that gap we have over Canada on the Men's side! If we pull off the upset of the year and beat Canada, I just may indulge in a Mt. Dew! Wow! Go, Boris!!!!

It's surely about time for the leader in the Men's race to change over.

Swiss cheese!

Lauenstein and Haldin in the lead.

Simone due in at 11:09AM

Whoa--are the Swedish men going to finish out of the medals again? Very bad move not to have used their ace relay star, Vagnis!

Da CHEESE!

ANyone know the leg lengths?

Swiss wins ...blistering fast run by Simone!

History: 4 for 4.

Simone!

Next year all courses should be flat, to give the non-climbers a chance.

Simone clearly lost the pack! If you are fast enough, no one can follow you!

Well, it's not going to be Japan, but it's not going to be flat either.

Arg! MInna?

Minna, schminna. It's Boris we want to see at the Finish!

Louise vs Pavlina ...24 years difference in age!

Looks like they made some mistakes in the last part of the course.

How hot is it there?

It's very hot.

C'mon, Wyatt--how can you even ask a question like that! It's Japan! And don't forget about the cicadas!

Blistering run by Oli Johnson on leg two for Britain.

If you haven't started worshiping Sime yet, now is a good time to start.

Mmmmm, cicadalicious...

Any salal in Japan? That should favour Lousie ;)

Who's running at FCE tomorrow?

davai boris! (he must be getting close)

Wave bye to AUS men. Troy was fast.

I don't think my girlfriend would appreciate it if I worshipped Sime.

Simone has it all - brains, brawn and beauty ;-)

It can be your secret addiction, Mindsweeper. Do you really think Peter is going to mention it to Gail?

Did anyone here go on the record picking Norway to medal? That seems like an oversight..

Yahoo says it Feels like 91, with 84% humidity. Just a tad cooler than Philly... at night...

I guess we'll get a WOC-like heat experience at FCE tomorrow. :) Maybe even some WOC-like Stiltgrass.

What is salal anyway?

If my calculations are right, Boris can get to the exchange by 1:57 and keep the U.S. on record pace.

Louise has made up 3 positions!!!

Go Boris! I can hear the refresh-clicking, he must be close!

YAY Louise! Burning up the course

Minna: 6 sec behind at 1h50, 4 min at 2h07 !?!

Damn. ESP is in.

Louise ~30 minutes at the split
Pavlina ~ 35 minutes

BORIS!!! Äàâàé! Äàâàé! Äàâàé!

BORIS! OK Dan - go get the GAL!!!

(he's in)

Damn Kenny, you are making my display flicker.

Holy cow--France in the lead!

Salal? Well, if you're on a map near Vancouver, and it's only waist deep, then you're in the light green ...

Gueorgiou and Rostrup running together. That is going to be tough to beat.

I've got a doubled ghostly image of Kenny on my screen.

Kenny, you ever going to run one of these things (WOCs) again?

Gueorgiou v. Rostrup...that would be fun to watch.

It *will* be fun to watch :)

Oh wow, they are all there together. But what happened to Finland?

And Nick Duca (oh wrong leg).

Meanwhile, Dan the Man is chewing up the contours. Go Dan, even if I can't spell your last name!

Louise should be in next!

El Duqe'!

The latest oil prices should give Rostrup an extra boost.

And let's hope SUI runs back into the medals!

The Sweden-Switzerland duel should also be fun. I'm sure there is no love lost between those two nations.

Looks like the women were 17-20 minutes from the radio to the finish on leg 3 ... so Louise is due about now ...

Right, I'm back at the computer from watching some real sport (CWS-BOS 4-7). What is this race you guys are all interested in?

Its Lawn mower racing.

PAVI PAVI PAVI!! Go girl!!

You've been in Boston too long, Will. (But the Patriots won nicely last night ...)
Nice run by those Aussie women, by the way.

Louise passed by Bulgaria :-(
Nice run by Shandarkova though in 45 minutes.

yes, more WOCs for me. you mean I'm not old enough to retire yet?

Rostrup wins

Great job by the CAN women!

SUI!!!

It's the oil price, I told you!

GO SUISSE!

Whohoo! SUI in in front of SWE. Now if only Tero can somehow do something with Rostrup...

And the Korean 1st leg runner finishes - must be a weird feeling...

And Finland totally out of the medals.

Wou miss too much when typing here...

Another medal for cheesydude! A heck of a run too! That makes 4 WOC medals for attackpointers!

No medal for the Swedish men... :(

congrats Mindsweeper! (will you bring my compass tomorrow?)

Pavlina took Hungary

Paveeeeee!!!! Yes, gained 2 mins on Hungary. *Almost* got Val too!

Pavlina is in, outkicking the Hungarian!!!

No medals for the Finnish men or women... :(

If the Croatians find out about AP, they'll be winning medals soon too...

Was wondering what has happened to the once mighty Danish men ... then realized that those names are the same as they have been for years. Thank goodness we have lots of up and coming young ones in the US so us 'old' ones can retire when we feel like it!

Will Dan catch Ester? Or will our hereo be dashed to bits on the jagged rocks below?!?! Stay tuned!

Good call about the Danes. But those guys are still keeping it real.

Yeah, I suppose if we were coming 8th in the relay (even if it was a drop from first), I might still be doing it.

cii00me9 - I'll bring your compass - congrats with the women's bronze!

Good run by Jon Duncan for the Brits. Wonder how they could've done if Jamie wasn't injured ...

Troy used to write a column for the Australian Orienteer called 'Keepin' it real'...

Tremendous results for the Brits - 20th at the end of the 1st leg, 14th at the 2d, then pick up 4 more places for a 10th!

I hope Dan isn't running with the Bulgarian.

maybe he shoud have... Guess he didn't get a split

Where's Pasi by the way? Minna's there...

Dan's is only due about now...

Pasi is injured.

Hmmmm ... maybe the intermediate timer went home?

So did the split person leave for the men's third leg? Should have been someone past there by now....

Either that or Brent & Dan ran off the map...

Is Jørgen Rostrup greatest anchor ever ? can't ignore last woc relay battle!

Split person's cell phone battery died...

Where are the NA men?

I think everyone is asleep. I should be, too.
Too close to give up now.

Esther is still out there too.

Hi Kristin :-)
And Eddie -- still at Ted's??

Looks like their software might have failed - Bulgaria's time is better than Latvia, but the places haven't been fixed accordingly.

Hey Peggy! Ted just whupped your hubby in table tennis.

Yep, still here...watching the non-updates.

Esther is in! No intermediate time. I think you guys are right - they are on strike.

Esther just finished...

I have utter respect for Spain.

Hubby doesn't have a table tennis table in his basement.
And he never will.

Wow... Ditto Vlad.

So the Spaniard just got the NA anchors - so will it be Dan? Or Brent?

Looks like Dan and Brent are floundering around a bit ...as compared to their team-mates.

Lots of snacks here. Mmmmmm. I think I'll stay here with Ted and Darcy forever. Maybe they'll adopt me. I can sleep in the garage with the cats.

ITS DAN!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!

Dan's in!!!

And now brent too - picked up some time on us - 4 mins or so!

Nice job USA ...it's a draw this year ;-)

Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brent! Rats.

Oh dear, the ol' DSQ ...

Well at least he finished after Dan ...so it wouldn't have changed the result in the battle of NA.

Well folks, "watching" all the races with you guys has been very enjoyable. Its midnight - time for bed. See some of you at FCE tomorrow? Hopefully there will be lots of relay pics online next week.

By the way, a *very* nice run by Louise on the anchor for CAN!

No relay medals for the Finnish men or women... :(
BTW, this has not happened since the WOC in France in 1987...

just in case some people didn't realize (obviously most did) the anchor of the spanish men's team was a woman.

They have already posted the relay pictures.

http://orienteering.com

FYI - the men's courses were about 6.6K with 440m of climb (I did M31 in the spectator race (same as Boris!), and there were a few brutal climbs), the women's were about 5k with 340m of climb.

Brent, starting maybe 5 mins down on the US, picked it up and more on the first loop, then had a little "incident" later in the course - check out the splits: http://woc2005.bglb.jp/online/index-en.jsp

Selected photos from the WOC relay:

Erin and Sandy start the relay
Erin and Sandy returning
Erin crosses bridge
Holger near the front
Sandy cools off
Erin cools off
Erin cools off more
Holger tags off
Eric at the exchange
ESP and Eric's back
Mike tags Nick
Mike cools off
Pamela tags Louise
Pavi waits for Sandra
There's the tag
...and after the tag
Sandra cools off
Swisscheese at the exchange
Wet Sweedish dude
Gold again for the Swiss Women
Boris tags Dan
Boris cools off
Nick at the exchange
Louise with a strong finish!
Gold for Norway men
Val finishing
Pavi ran a great anchor leg! (air time for a sponsor)
Esther Gil, last leg for ESP men's team
Marc on the podium
Holger on the podium

to all the NA fans out there...nice to see that you were watching and cheering even if it was from afar...to Canadians-SORRY!
to Americans-congrats and well done!

Not sure I can really fully explain it.
We were so far down after the 2 legs I thought I would just try and run really hard right off the bat. With the hot conditions and huge hills I was really tired by the end of the race. I think my brain just
stopped working after the last big climb. I must have lost 10 mins plus on #16 a tricky little re-entrant on the side of a huge hill. when I finally did find it I ran down the hill right past 17 without punching it and to the finish. I think I was so relieved to finally find 16, I didn't even realize that 17 had been there until much later.

I feel really badly. Sorry to my teammates. They have been amazingly forgiving.

I won't presume to speak for all of our teammates but I know that there, but for the grace of God, could go I - the incident is all to similar to my mispunch on day 2 of the 2003 COC Classic Champs.

It's OK. Karma payment plan for the 2003 WOC Relay.