okansas.blogspot.com

okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Some notes about tomorrow's sprint

The sprint races at the World Champs take place tomorrow. It'll be fun to see who takes the first medals of this year's WOC. I find the sprint an interesting race because it is so new. This is just the third time the WOC has had a sprint.

A couple of notes about the sprint:

1. Tom Hollowell is shown on the start list for the USA. I don't think Tom was expected to run. I wonder if someone got sick or hurt. Maybe we just didn't have three people who wanted to run the sprint. It'll be fun to see how Tom does. Tom might be the best prepared US orienteer. He lives in Sweden and does a lot of technique training in WOC-relevant terrain. I'd guess he's done more sprint-like races than most Americans. I put Tom on my fantasy team. Go Tom.

2. Emma Engstrand was quoted on the Swedish O' Federation web page:

I will try to make sure I don't win the qualification race. In the sprint it usually isn't good to start at the absolute last with all of the best runners. Being a bit further ahead in the start list for the final means that you've got people to catch, which can be a big advantage.

That's an interesting approach, but might be over thinking a bit. In any case, I hope Engstrand runs well because she's on my fantasy WOC team for the sprint.

3. How will Rostrup do? Rostrup got the last spot on the Norwegian team. Rostrup's selection wasn't without controversy. Apparently the team coach favored Bjornsgard, but the coach was over ruled and Rostrup got the final spot. I suspect the main reason is that Rostrup was considered a stronger candidate for the relay race. Rostrup was disappointed to get picked for the sprint -- noting that he didn't train for sprints and wasn't even familiar with the IOF sprint map standards. There is a bit of a "soap opera" feeling to the whole thing. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. I'm confident Rostrup will put together a couple of good races and I'd like to see him take home a medal. Like Engstrand, Rostrup is on my fantasy team.

posted by Michael | 8:13 PM

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