Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Sunday, September 12, 2004 Some notes on the long qualifying raceI spent a few minutes looking at the U.S. results and split times. None of the U.S. runners qualified. Qualifying would have been quite an achievement. I'm not surprised no U.S. runners qualified, but I am disappointed. I think the terrain at the WOC is really tough for us -- some difficult footing combined with some fast running and difficult navigation. It looks like tough, but fun, orienteering.Brian seems to have had a good race until the very end. He boomed 14, losing several minutes. Check out Pasi Ikonen's routes for the last few controls. Brian and Pasi ran the same course. Brian missed at a tricky control -- a bit diffuse, some green and at a time on the course where he must have been tired. Eddie ran the same course at Bjornar Valstad. Check out Bjornar's routes. Eddie lost time on 2, 6 and 7, where I'm guessing he's losing time because of the footing. Each of those legs takes you through some rough stuff. Eddie lost a few minutes on the 5th leg. I don't know if he boomed the control or lost time on the route (or both). 5 looks like the kind of leg where you could lost a lot of time since both route choice and fine navigation are coming in to play. From the splits, it looks to me like Eddie managed the part of the course that goes in the most detailed terrain quite well. Take a look at Valstad's routes through the detailed area. I haven't seen the course that Mikell ran. His split times look like he had a reasonable race. Karen ran the same course as Hanne Staff. Check out Hanne's routes. Though I can't be sure, it looks to me like Karen lost time in the detailed areas around controls 5, 6 and 7. She also dropped a few minutes on the 9th leg. Again, I can't tell from the splits if she missed the control or lost time on the route or both. But, the 9th control looks a bit scary -- diffuse area near the end of a tough run. Sandra lost time on several legs, but the story of her run has to be that she lost a bunch of time on the first leg. Losing time at the beginning of a race hurts. Time is just time, but to start badly is tough mentally. I haven't seen the course Sandra ran, but all of the courses I've seen have similar first legs. The terrain around the first controls on other courses looks fairly tricky. If you lost contact or ran too fast, relocating would be a bit difficult. Erin's race looks like the best of all the U.S. runners. She lost time on a few legs, but didn't have any really big time losses. I think Erin is the youngest U.S. runner at the WOC (or is Sandra?). It is good to see her having a good race. Overall, I'd say the U.S. has done about what could be expected, especially given the difficulty of the terrain and courses. I'm looking forward to seeing how the races go tomorrow. posted by Michael | 3:55 PM 
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