The sun was out in force at today's WOC Sprint race in Trondelag, Norway.
s p r i n t q u a l
The sprint team of Grace, Jas, Shannon, Simon, Robbie, Julian and coach Rob set off on the team WOC buses early this morning. All WOC competitors were mandated to take the official buses - so that we couldn't drive around the area of Sverresborg Folkmuseum beforehand! Shannon, Grace and Jas were wedged in the bus between World Champions Helena Jansson and Minna Kauppi - they looked relaxed too!
The quarantine area was a school south of the map... we had previously guessed that it might have been at the northern end - heading into the forest first, but alas, it was not.
We hung around for an hour or two until our starts and away we went. The pre-start call up was 12 minutes... and all up we probably ran 1.5km along through to the real start and finish arena. You could hear the loud speaker and commentary as you approached the start and all of a sudden you got your map and popped out in full view of spectators while you were making the first decisions for the course. Exciting stuff!
The qualification area was probably less forest than we had anticipated which kept a few of us happy! There was some quick route choice decisions to be made, full contact with the map and a solid speed required. The urban part included 4-5 controls in a tiny area of ye olde style Norwegian buildings with doors leading everywhere, which was fun but you had to keep up on the run. The middle section included the forested area and the remainder was in some residential streets.
Julian, Grace and Shannon were happy to make it through and Jas, Simon and Robbie put in top efforts but missed out on the final this time.
i n b e t w e e n r a c e s - o n e h o u r
* shower
* eat
* rehydrate
* go to next race
s p r i n t f i n a l
The sprint final arena was pretty spectacular - located in Trondheim Square in the down town. We hadn't actually been able to check out any of the sprint final area beforehand because it was embargoed the day we arrived exactly one week ago!
Once again, we had the usual accessories for the race...compass, control description holder, emit brick, emit timing band for arm and this time a gps tracking device worn on our back.
The quarantine area was Trondheim athletics track down by the river and as we made our way to the start it was pretty obvious we were going to emerge in the middle of the town square. The last 40 metres was through a shopping mall (but there was no time for window shopping)! Thousands of people, massive tv screens, loud speakers with English and Norwegian commentary and music blaring greeted us as we stood on the ramp ready to start. We ran through the down town, over the bridge, up to the fortress, along some parkland, back into the streets, over the bridge and back through the streets... You can check out the courses on the woc website www.woc2010.com
It was a fantastic sprint area with plenty of route choice and masses of people (compared to back home anyway!) to keep things interesting. A lot of fun and a great experience. The Aussie competitors had mixed feelings about the races today - check out some comments below.
Qualification:
Simon
" Pretty scrapy all over, bad route choice on the long leg, but happy to be within 1.20min of Khramov who won the heat"
Rob
"I worked hard from the pre-start to put a gap on Daniel Hubmann who started the same time but he caught up by the start. There were heaps of spectators throughout the first part of the course and I was very relieved to get into the map quickly and run well up to the 11
th control. I missed a little through 12-14 but finished course well, just lacking a bit of speed. I’m very happy with my WOC debut. The opportunity to release some nerves will be a great benefit for the upcoming Long qualifier.
Julian
" A good start, but I lost time on No.11, not looking at the leg calmly and losing 25sec. Happy to make it"
Jasmine
"Todays qual race was a bit disappointing. My nerves got the better of me and I made some mistakes, some bad decisions and wasn't moving fast enough to match the qualifying pace. Though it was nice to have the afternoon off to watch the others in the final. Round 2 tomorrow!"
Shannon
" Wasn't very good, lost 20 sec on No.5, didn't have a lot of flow, but happy to make it through."
Grace
" Happy with the run, navigation was good, but because it was a little longer, I tired a little"
Final:
Shannon
" Extremely disappointing, made a massive mistake in the fort where I mistakenly went through the underpass and had to come back in to get on top of the wall. Amateur hour!"
Grace
" Hesitated and got confused on the first leg, but the rest was good, and I was happy with the technical part, but just not quick enough to get my goal of top 29!"
Julian
" An average run which I'm content with. Need to improve smoothness, lost 10 sec coming the wrong way out of 1 and other little mistakes, generally happy with route choice, but more work to do on sprint technique"
Tomorrow is the Middle qualifier which kicks off at 2pm Norwegian time. Shep, Simon, Julian, Jas, Vanessa and Grace are all competing and we filled them up with lasagna and the famous chocolate risotto which tastes as good as it sounds.
Thanks to coaches Rob and Wendy and to Victoria for all their running around after us today.
It was also cool to have so many Aussie supporters at the race! Good luck in the WOC Tour event tomorrow!!
