Hello Dear Readers! What better way to welcome you to
Scotland than to provide you with a picture of the beautiful countryside. I am
posting this after I drove north to join Team USA in Inverness, for the World
Orienteering Championships. Over the next several days, I will be acting as the
team leader for Team USA and bringing you updates from the athletes and the
arena as the races progress.
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| Gorgeous scenery, heading into the highlands |
Team USA is here in Inverness poised and ready for the first
competition, which kicks off tomorrow, Friday, July 31. For an overview of the
WOC week, look no further than the incredible post over at World of O, where
Jan Kocbach has compiled a bunch of resources that will keep you close to the
action. I will highlight in particular the link for the official IOF onlinecoverage. It is possible to buy a single (10€) or a weeklong pass (18€) and
watch video and GPS tracking for all the races. Furthermore, it will be
possible to post on Attackpoint! forums to interact with your fellow spectators,
just be fairly warned that very little of what tRicky posts is serious.
Another wonderful link found in Jan's article takes you to a Team USA overview page. Click on the Athlete photos to read a bit more about each runner.
Friday’s race is the Sprint Qualification. The women's race
starts at 18:00 local time (10 AM Pacific/11 AM Mountain/ 12 Noon Central/ and 1 PM Eastern ) the men's an hour later. The six runners representing Team USA
and their start times are found below:
Men:
Ken Walker Jr. (CSU, QOC) 19:02
Greg Ahlswede (DVOA, Escondite(ESP) ) 19:17
Ethan Childs (GMOC) 19:33
Women:
Kseniya Popova (HVO) 18:05
Alexandra
Jospe (CSU, Trent-O(ITA) ) 18:14
Alison Crocker (CSU, CROC) 18:33
Complete start lists are published here.
To reach the finals, a runner needs to finish in the top
fifteen places in their qualification heat. For the Men there will be 3 heats
of 42-43 runners per heat and for the Women there will be 3 heats with 35
runners in each. The qualification is predicted to have a 13 minute winning
time. The course will have 10 meters of climb over 3.7k/3.4k Men/Women and the map is 1:4000 scale with
2.5m contours.
A special highlight for tomorrow is that these races will
be the first World Championships appearances for Greg Ahlswede and Kseniya
Popova.
When cornered and asked for a quote, Greg said, "Months of diligent preparation, and I'm ready to perform to my potential." Kseniya reluctantly offered, "I'm really excited to be here. And that's it."
Wish them luck as they toe the line tomorrow and fight for a spot in
the top fifteen.
