Post JWOC

We have now all left Primiero and split up for the rest of our trip. Though JWOC is over some of us are staying on for more orienteering or to see a bit of Europe. At the moment Kate and I are on our way through Northern Italòy before we head to Oringen at the end of the week. Simon is in Ireland on his way to Oringen. Jourdan is on his way to Oringen too. Mark is already running up in Finland at the Fin5 The rest of the team is either on their way home, or spending a few days sightseeing before the long trip back.
Thanks for reading the blog, posts got a little slow during the jwoc week, just a reflection of how busy we were. We appreciate all of your comments, the trip this year was amazing, and we have many more stories to share once we are home.

Ciao
Tom

Relays

The Relays were held yesterday afternoon at Val Canali. The start and finish were in a "meadow" and the courses had two spectator controls and a map change. This made the relays really exciting to watch.

Jourdan and Tom went out first. Both having fairly good runs, just a little bit of the pace.
Kate and Nicola went off for the girls relay teams. Kate came in about mid field and Nicola just a little bit behind.
Toby, in the second boys team, had a really good run, catching up to Scott, which meant that Simon and Andrew went out on leg three about 30 seconds apart. In the girls relay both teams were fairly consistent with each team member having about the same time for their leg.

The map was fast and had a few technical sections. The start was the part of the course that caught most of us out. It was really technical with lots of rocks and contour detail.

The course also had something which hardly anyone had done before and that was that we had a map "change". This meant that when you got to the first spectator control your first side of your map ran out and you ran to a new start triangle and turned over your map and did the rest of your course. The reason for the map change was that we had controls that were on the same part of the map and this made the map less busy and easier to understand.

One thing that we have all found out is that the Italians love long runs to the start triangle, long finish shoots and also long spectator legs. The long spectator leg after the second radio control was the worst. It was a gradual uphill run in an open field and everyone could see you!!

The European teams fought out the top places and the boys race was really close with second place only about 30 seconds behind.
The boys relay was won by Sweden and the top New Zealand team was about midfield - the boys can't remember. In the girls Switzerland won and the top New Zealand girls were 13th.

In the Overall country competition New Zealand ended up 10th - the best that we have ever done!

It has been a good week that has gone by so fast. Well Done to Everyone and thanks to all your support and encouragement during the competition!

Ciao Rachel and Nicola

Middle Final

Friday was the middle Final and the map was called “San Martino – Centro.” The starts of the races were in the same place but went in an opposite direction to the Qualification races.

The B and C Finals headed off first, followed by the A final. Competitors were numbered according to their places, so the fastest qualifier started last. This made for interesting racing.

All the finals had similar courses, but the A finals had a spectator pivot control, which made it more spectator friendly. Today’s map was much more technical that yesterday, with a lot of rock and contour detail towards the end.

In the girls A final, Tove Alexandersson from Sweden took out first place and the three Kiwi girls were all about 10minutes behind her. All agreed that there was room for improvement. In the B final Nicola had a good race, and Rachel and Greta had early mistakes, meaning that they were a bit off the pace.

In the boys, Tom had a fairly clean race with only a few small errors and all the other boys were about midfield.

Watching the A final, especially the last few runners was definitely a highlight. It was amazing to see the speed that some of them travel through the forest at. The boys had great fun cheering on the runners, in all kinds of languages as we were socializing with other teams.

Overall it was a fairly good day and most people were pleased with the end results.

Now there is just the relay to go.

The relay teams are;

Boys A;

Tom

Scott

Simon

Boys B;

Jourdan

Toby

Andrew

Girls A;

Kate

Georgia

Angela

Girls B;

Nicola

Rachel

Greta

Ciao Kate and Rachel

Middle Qualification

The middle qualification was Thursday. The map was “San Martino-Nord” which was a 30min bus ride up the valley of Primiero. The way that the middle qualification works is that there are three people starting together and each of those three people are on one of three courses, which are called heats. Which course you get is completely random. The top 20 from each heat qualify into the A final, the next 20 the B and the rest into the C.

The courses were fast, as the expected wining time was 20mins – meaning that the girls needed to do a km rate of about 6mins and the boys 4.5mins. It was pretty much a downhill course, with minimal climb compared to the step terrain that we were in.

The middle map was much cleaner underfoot than the long and the weather was significantly better too!! The start of the race greeted us with a nice 270m run to the start triangle. The courses had a fast, easy start with a bit of route choice. Then a more technical section in the middle of the course that was around a creek bed. The end of the courses reminded us of home, as it was steep clean pine forest.

The most nerve-racking part of the races was the wait. The wait for the last runners to come in, the wait for the names to move on the board and the wait for the final results.

In the girls, Angela managed to qualify for the A final in 19^th position, Kate and Georgia were in heat C and they both also qualified for the A final. Nicola, in heat B, narrowly missed out by about a minute and her, Greta and Rachel made the B final.

In the boys, Tom and Jourdan just missed out on the A final, due to the last few runners knocking them out of the top 20 positions. All the other boys had fairly consistent runs and managed to make the top 40 in their heats. This meant that all the New Zealand boys qualified for the B final.

Good Luck to all those in the A final.

Rachel and Kate

Long

Kate



Tom



Greta

Four seasons in one day today! Jourdan left for his 10am start in beautiful sunshine, he even managed to finish his race before the rain came. Those of us in the middle of the day were waiting with Mark at the pre start when the clouds rolled up from the far side of the Passo. The top of the hill disappeared and so did Mt Doom (one of the mountains). Then came the rain just before Simon arrived, complete with his jandals. Andrew, Simon and Kate settled down in the bivvy bag as the water began to flow through the tent.
Meanwhile the forest had been transformed by the water, streams were high, everything was boggy and the mist had rolled into the clearings. Those at the finish were trying to keep dry, in an increasingly boggy event area. We had the luck to get first and last start today so we were waiting until the end to see Andrew finishing under clear skies once again.

We found today’s map heaps of fun. The newer version with the Lidar contours and remapped rocks made the area so technical into the circle. The long legs posed problems with very few tracks to provide an easy option. Most of us used the streams on the map (though this got harder with the weather closing in). The vegetation varied from sparse trees down to tight small trees in some places. The rain made the slopes really slippery to traverse and bare rock really slick. The first control caught out quite a lot of people because it required lots of concentration right from the triangle.

Greta and Kate had great runs in the girls. Greta came in 19th. She said that her run had lots of hesitation and caution, which no doubt helped avoid a big error. Kate was 22nd after a great run right near the end of the girls start block. She had some great early time checks but lost out a little to mistakes near the end. I was best boy in 31st. I lost 2 minutes at 1 and had some more errors throughout. Quite surprised at the spread of the boys times. Simon was next in 54th, after a couple of mistakes.

Results are up on www.jwoc2009.it, along with radio control times (look for Kate at the first radio in 6th!)

Sprint o

The weather in Italy seems to follow the same pattern, clear and sunny in the morning, rainy in the afternoon. Yet on the day of the sprint the sun kept on shining. In the afternoon heat we all set out for the jwoc sprint. It had been a tense morning. Waking up at 8am, and not racing till after 3pm leaves you a lot of time to think about a race, making the first racing even more daunting. Jourdan and Angela managed to conquer most of the course, coming through with the best results for the NZ team, Angela in 22nd and Jourdan in 40th. No mean feat given the technical nature of the course with winding cobblestone roads, shoulder-width alleyways, and plenty of locals watching. While nobody seemed to come close to the mythical ‘perfect run’ that we all strive for, we all had an amazing day. The Italians put on an amazing event today and set the tone for an awesome week. The Swiss especially were on fire and ran some really impressive times. For the guys, we could only see a time of about 15.50 if we had been perfect. The course required so much concentration and very strict speed control. Most of us had mistakes at the speed change moments, either from the fast streets and fields into the tight alleys or vice versa. The Course setting also made planning ahead very difficult on the course. The tight portions required full concentration and put huge pressure on the start of the leg.

And man we can’t wait for the long!!!

Andrew

Opening and sprint start times!

Last night we had the opening ceremony. What and amazing experience, walking down the streets of Primiero which were lined with people supporting JWOC. It was great to see the kiwi supporters amongst all the other faces and see a few NZ flags waving. Thanks guys for coming all this way it means a lot to us! The opening ceremony itself was held in the square in the centre of town. We were lucky as it was the only afternoon the whole time we have been here that didnt rain.

We ate at our JWOC restaurant today for the first time. Its fair to say that we will not be going hungry, not to say we have been with Norms fantastic cooking! We now have a three course italian meal for lunch and dinner. Its good to see what the locals eat but we will have to be carefull to eat what we are comfortable with for the races.

Today is the sprint race. We got our start times last night which we are all reasonably happy with I think, they are posted on maptalk for you to see. Its raining this morning so we hope it will not be thunderstorms this afternoon. We are running between 3 and 6 this afternoon. There should be coverage up on the jwoc website (see the link on the side of this page). Unfortunatly this race is not at the best time for you in NZ to watch! Everyone is trying to keep calm this morning and turn our nerves into excitement about the race ahead. I know I just want to have a clean run and orienteer the way I know how to.

Bye for now
Georgia

Preparing for JWOC and lightning

Today we started the morning early by packing up all our gear and walking to our new accommodation nearer town. Then it was across the river to catch the bus up to Passo Rollo. This was an experience in itself, up continuous switchback corners in a van and bus.

The area was a section of the long distance map so will be very relevant. Most of the team took a rest day and just walked or jogged the course. It was good to check out the vegetation, rough scattered trees but nice open white forest and a few marshes.

We all dodged the rain and massive lightning storm that surrounded the town tonight in an effort to get to the restaurant for dinner. Lots of tasty pasta and pizza were enjoyed by all.

Ciao
Angela

Fiera Di Primiero - Sprint Training

Today we did some sprint training around the centre of Primiero. We found that the map was not as technical as our previous sprint training in Tonadico. There was far more open running on roads and most of the route choices were confined to the longer legs. We also found that looking for a covered alley among shop fronts is not that easy when running through a crowd. We are still finding that it is worth the distance to take a wider flowing leg as opposed to a shorter zig zagging one.

After training we did the usual lunch chillout movies espresso and supermarket.

Simon and Scott were not content with this morning’s training so went to do some extra sprint training at a town up the road called Siror.

We haven’t really mentioned it but we are surrounded by glorious mountains. Although in the afternoons the rain haze tends to obscure them. However at nine in the morning, such as it is now, they are resplendent as the early morning sun gleams off their sheer cliffs, speckled snow and opposing peaks. Up one valley a castle forms as an extension of the rocky crag it sits on [I’m dictating this as Tom and Nicola hang out the window Ed.].

Ciao bella!

xoxo

Long Distance Training - Lake Caliata

Today we went up to a map called Calaita. Todays focus was to work on some long distance practice. The map was quite steep in places, but very manageable. There was a lot of rock and contour detail, which will be good practice for the races next week. Some of us did a lot of route choice exercises, especially for controls 9 to 10 - around the track seemed to be the quickest, even though it looked longer. Mark went straight and Tom went on the track, Tom ended up beating Mark to the control by about 7 minutes.

After training we decided to go to the stream on the map to ice our legs, it was definitely icy! Whilst down at the stream, the boys decided to build a mighty solid dam - the town in the valley below are currently experiencing a water crisis.

As always, up at the map, around lunchtime, the thunderstorms began to echo around the valley. We were beginning to get a little worried about the sprint being around the same time when it is rather wet.

In the arvo, we chilled, watched some movies, got some Gelato and just wandered around town.

More teams are beginning to arrive, we have seen the British, Irish, Swedes and the Aussies training around Primiero.

Sprint and some Middle

Norms surprise paparazzi



Todays middle training map



The view from San Martino, can just see the gondola in the distance

We began the day yesterday with some sprint training on the town we are staying in. Our accomodation is in a part of Primiero called Tonadico and we had a two loop sprint race around teh labyrinth of houses up here. The map also has a hill on one side which posed some route choice.

After the morning sprint we headed up to San Martino Castrozza and Passo Rolle for a drive through to get a look at the race terrain. Road goes up quite high quite quickly. The road has painting on it left over from the Giro d'Italia in May. San Martino is quite open with relatively clean forest floor, while Passo Rolle (long) seemed to have a little more branches and rock on the ground to slow it down. On the way up we also saw a suicidal gondola up to an impossibly small summit of a mountain, a little kid who thought he was in the Giro and the Norwegian team.

Afternoon training was halfway back on a tiny map called Dismoni. Magic terrain, mossy floor with lots of rock. We seem to have clicked onto the Italian rock mapping style (if in doubt leave it out) so we all felt much more precise with our orienteering. The map was steep and all on one hillside.

Picasa Photos

For some more photos from the last week or so and for during jwoc week check out Norm's Picasa Site. The link is:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Norm.Jager

Currently has photos from Asiago but Norm will keep them coming during this week and next.

Ciao Primiero!

We are now in Primiero. We arrived the day before yesterday after a pretty cool drive from Asiago. Instead of taking valley roads we went across the plateau straight down into the valley then straight up the other side. The Italians sure know how to do switchbacks.

Primiero has a much more alpine feel than Asiago, we are very much sandwiched in between mountains. We have awesome views from pretty much anywhere in town.
Training yesterday was our first run on one of the official JWOC training maps. An area called Passo Cereda which is about 20 minutes drive up out of the valley. It is supposedly quite similar to portions of the middle map. We had a course with controls set by the organisers which most of the team did in its entirety. Some of us tested out some of the Leppin Sport products we are using. The forest had less scattered rock than Asiago and contours in places that felt a lot like Weiti, between 3 and 4 for instance with teh re-entrants ending part way up the slope. The rocks on the map were alot easier to read than in Asiago. The vegetation varied across the area, up by control 10 and 11 was perfectly clean and lightning fast, whereas 4 to 5 was quite green.

We encountered the ther teams for the first time today, Russa, Japan, South Africa and Hong Kong were all out on the map training at the same time as us. We expect to see heaps more of the other countries as the week progresses, as Primiero isn't a very big place! JWOC is being promoted much more than last year in Sweden. There are posters and o flags up in shops all over town and most of the lamp posts have JWOC 2009 flags hanging from them.

Everyone enjoyed the map and is happy with how the preparation is going. This morning some of the team are doing sprint training on a training map provided by the organisers with a pre marked course starting from our accomodation.

Passo Cereda training map:

Last day in Asiago

Jourdan hanging it out


Andrew on the charge

Today is our last day in Asiago. We are packing up in the moment to head up to Tonadico near Primiero. On the way we are going to be stopping for some 1:15000 training on a map along the route. Simon arrived last night so we are a full team of 14 now.

Yesterday we had two sessions. The morning, which most of the team did was a downhill course focussing on navigation in the rock detail around here. The last few controls were supposedly very relevant for the terrain in the JWOC middle. The morning was quite wet but not too cold.

In the afternoon we headed into asiago for some sprint training. We had a course set around the center of town that inclded some parks, some tight alleys in the town center and some more open streets. The slippery streets made it quite tricky. Lots of discussion afterwards about optimal routes, especially on the legs from 20-21 and 21-22.

Todays sprint map:

Asiago History

Cow with cowbells



One of the many caves

With the long race at 1800m, we thought today we'd train further up on an alphine map. The crazy italian roads seem to be made for only one car, so with perilous drops down a few hundred metres, and nasty blind bends, we put our trust in Norm and Mark to battle the trucks going the other way! The road workers seemed content to leave their digger in the middle of the road and refused to move it on the way down.

It was nice to explore a map that didn't have ankle breaking rocks with every step. However, while this meant we could run faster, the World War 1 trenches and monuments that we came across slowed us down somewhat. This lead to exploring caves made during the war, presumably to store ammunition and for sleeping. The trenches, covered in trees, were in fine condition- giving us a glimpse of how scary and terrible it would have been. Barely shoulder-width apart, well over head, and with small dugouts along the walls, it was an interesting experience. In fact, Jourdan and I managed to run a few hundred meters, following the bends and turns in the trenches- there were even old tins in them! We also got to try out our Italian on a local man searching with a metal dector for bombs (and presumably other WW1 artifacts)!!

On the way back, after another training session in a different forest, we stopped at the Asiago War Memorial; an imposing white marble arch, set at the end of a tree-lined promenade. In the crypt below, the walls were lined with the names of the fallen, with well over 25,000 from this area alone. Amist the photographs was the cemetery we ran across the other day- who would believe that the area was once completely devoid of trees.

The Italian front around the Asiago area saw fighting between the Austrians and the Italian forces, with support from the British artillery. A 1916 offensive by the Austrians drove the Italians off the plateau. However, subsequent coutner offensives in 1918 managed to reclaim this territory. The trenches we found at training represent the front line from 1918. Many of the deaths occured just prior to the Armistice.

Todays second map. Faster orienteering focussed on detail.

Full Team Training

Had our first training as a whole team yesterday. We went out on one of the maps adjacent to our accomodation. A map called tanabek, really rocky but with good visibility. The rocks here are mapped very minimally so a bit difficult to be confident especially into the circle. Map has a couple of World War 1 cemetaries on it and lots of trenches from the war. Really interesting to look around at.
Today were heading to some maps a couple of town over for some shorter, more detail focussed exercises. Maps and photos to come.

Tom

Almost a family again

After waiting for 6 hours at Bassano Train Station for Mark, Georgia and Angela, Greta and I had some friends. After some delayed flights and non functioning cell phones we eventually met up after a day waiting by the beautiful Bassano train station (not).
We headed up to Asiago and Cesuna where our accomodation is. We are staying at a place called La Pineta, right in the centre of a whole heap of training maps. The terrain is very rocky, the maps don't seem to have much rock but that's only becuase there is too much to map. The area also has lots of old trenches and cemeteries from WW1.
After some adventures around Gallio and Asiago with just the 5 of us we spent yesterday waiting for the arrival of the rest of the family.

Andrew, Kate, Rach and I arrived in Venice airport after a wicked flight flying over the dolomites, making us very excited to finally be in italy after what seemed like non-stop travelling! Norm, Scott, Toby and Jourdan soon arrived too and we all got in the van and started our venture up to Cesuna. After driving around about 15 hairpin corners and through many small italian mountian towns, we finally made it to Cesuna and were greeted by the rest of the team!

This morning we are heading out training onto a map right next to the accomodation. The first chance for all of the recent arrivals to try out the white rocks and white pebble tracks through the forest.

Ciao
Tom and Nicola


The view from the frontdoor of our big house


Tom and Greta getting ready for training at Kasselruth


Greta looking out over Bolzano


Looking back towards Vols am Schlern up near Bolzano

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Probably the theme of our week. We are both getting pretty good at waiting. Waiting for buses, waiting for internet, waiting for more buses, waiting for cablecars. Luckily its a pretty cool place up here and Tom has a real simple mind, so it hasn´t been too bad.

Training for the last few days has been full of variety. We have been to some maps north of Bolzano, little towns called Völs and Kasselruth. Both of these maps were luckily right on the edge of town, a couple of hundred meters from the bus stops. Steeper than Wölfl and with more cliff detail. The vegetation is resonably well mapped and the boulders seem to get bigger on every map we go to. Both of us now feel like were over the jet lag and looking forward to seeing the others tomorrow (Mark, Georgia and Angela).

We have been up another cablecar, apparently the oldest in the world. We have also seen the Ötzi (The Iceman), a 5000 year old mummy in one of the museums here. Tom has also seen lots of logs floating in the river and has lots of cranes to look at while we wait for things.

Tonight is our last night here before we head to asiago, and once Norm arrives in 3 days we should be able to get some photos and maps up.

Ciao
Tom and Greta

Wölfl

Went on another exciting orienteering adventure today inthe hills around Bolzano. On the menu today was a map called Wölfl in the middle of nowhere. No cable cars today instead we had an hour long bus ride that went through tunnels, up a gorge that makes the Buller gorge look pussy and up and down some ridiculously steep hills.
We got off at a little town called Nova Ponente and walked about 3km to the map. We didn´t mind the walk because the panoramic views of the Dolomites sprinked with snow took our mind off it.

The map was amazing! It is my new favourite. Had a forest floor like Gothenburg last year, the rocks were a little bigger than yesterday but still quite small andthe contours were a mix of flat swampy plateaus, big round hills and STEEP gullies. We did a course with some short legs to get into it and then some longer legs to finish. We are going to visit this map again later in the week. Its worth the 2 hours of bus ride and hour of walking return.

Some exciting things we saw today were a MASSIVE snail, a squashed frog, Heidi´s house, a St Bernard dog, a bus stop at a skifield.

Ciao
Tom and Greta

Cable car to training, why not?!

Bolzano is very cool. 3 cable cars from town up into the mountains. We caught one to training today. We had light get-into-the-map session today and chose a map called Jenesien (Can´t get it online right now sorry). Turns out the best way there is via cable car. So we took the tiny cable car up over 1000m with some Italian women who looked quite surprised at our enthusiasm for what must have been a daily journey for them. Amazing views.
Map was fun, relatively clean, steep but not too bad with lots of subtle re-entrants. Rocks were like midget versions of what we would see in Aussie. Did a short course after we had got into the map.
Had our lunch on the edge of the forest in view of a house that could have been straight out of The Sound of Music. This combined with the German street signs and Cowbells made the area seem much more stereotypically Swiss or Austrian than Italian. Tomorrow we are heading furthur out to a place called Wölfl, no cable cars tomorrow only buses that conveniently run into the middle of nowhere.
We are working on figuring a way to get photos up and will bombard you once we can.

Ciao
Tom and Greta