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WOC IN UKRAINE
Ukraine Maps
ERRATA In the March’07 edition we printed a photo of Ingunn H. Weltzien and referred to her as being from Switzerland. Ingunn is, of course, from Norway and is expected to be part of the Norwegian team at WOC 2007 in Ukraine.
Ukraine to host WOC 2007
Come August 18 - 26, we Australian orienteers will be closely watching coverage of WOC in Ukraine in the hope that our increasingly talented Team can pull off some more great World Championships results. Can Hanny Allston do it again, repeating her Sprint triumph of 2006? Can Julian Dent rise to the occasion? He’s been in scintillating form early in the year. And will Troy de Haas fulfil his potential this year? Will Grace Elson and Jo Allison combine with Hanny in the Women’s Relay to equal or better their amazing 4th place run of last year?
No matter what the result, those Australians lucky enough to be actually there in Ukraine are in for a treat of top class Orienteering by our Australian Team and by the international super-stars who will all be vying for glory. Swiss multi-gold medallist, Simone Niggli-Luder, can be expected to shine again this year. But she has challengers hovering in the wings. Hanny is one of them. China’s “pocket rocket”, Li Ji, is another. Li certainly has great speed and her navigation abilities have been improving in recent times. Could she be the dark horse in the Sprint this year? And will the Swedish Sprint-master, Emil Wingstedt, win yet again? Hanny has proven she has both speed and endurance. Though she’s the current Sprint Queen she seems to be more suited to longer distance events. Could she be the one to challenge Niggli-Luder in the Middle or Long-distance Championships this year? And what of Norway’s Marianne Anderson who can be guaranteed to give her all in those longer events. She nearly did it last year. Could 2007 be her year? Who else could do well? The Czech, Dana Broskova, won bronze in the 2006 Long-distance event. There’s a good chance she will do even better this year. She’s a former Junior World Champion so she knows how to win. Rising Swiss star, Daniel Hubmann, won a Sprint silver last year. He can be expected to do well in the fast Ukraine terrain where his speed should be an advantage. Finland’s Jani Lakanen will be out to retain his Long-distance title and his women compatriots, Minna Kauppi and Heli Jukkola, can be expected to finish among the top places. The Swedish Sprint Championships were won earlier this year by David “wrong way” Andersson and Helena Jansson followed by, respectively, Russians Andrey Kramov and Tanya Ryabkina. All four can be expected to do well in Ukraine. We can also expect to see some other former Junior World Champions coming through, such as the Swiss Matthias Mertz and Norway’s Ingunn H. Weltzien (who beat Hanny in the 2006 JWOC Sprint). The terrain is likely to be fast, fast, fast, but hilly – for both the Sprint and the longer events. Only those who can navigate finely at high speed will survive. Route choice is likely to be track-track-track then a confusion of very fine contour detail to pick off on the way to each control. Good navigation and decision making under the influences of both stress and lactic acid will be required for success. The fast terrain will suit Julian Dent, Troy de Haas, Hanny Allston and the other Australians. They will need to be at their navigational best in the complex areas to match it with the Europeans. Intense concentration and confidence in their own abilities will be telling factors. Training on Tasmania’s sand dunes and Victorian gold-mining terrain will certainly help when they get to Ukraine. Example maps from Ukraine (on Page 28) are typical of those our World Championships Team will encounter. Track options abound, yet the green areas are readily runnable as well. Complex contour patterns in many areas provide an abundance of potential control sites for the course setters. And those very same contour patterns could be the undoing of any competitor who relaxes or loses concentration for even a moment. The weather will be a major influence as well. If the weather is fine it’s likely to be hot with energy-sapping high levels of humidity likely too. The Europeans have been training in this kind of weather in preparation and many have been running on Ukraine maps like the ones shown here. If the live coverage to the spectator assembly arena of races in progress is anything like last year in Denmark, those who will be at the events are in for a treat. Hidden TV cameras in the forest feeding back to the Big Screen; SI controls which immediately radio back to the commentary centre when a competitor punches; and Per Forsberg, the doyen of Orienteering commentators. Keep an ear out for some of his signature phrases, such as: “she’s having a very fast time to the spectator control and is likely to get a place – THAT’S FOR SURE”; and “he’s racing up the finish chute trying to get the fastest time – BUT HE’S TOO LATE”. It’s things like that which flavour the experience and stay in your mind for a long time afterwards. If you, like most of us, can’t be in Ukraine to see the action at first hand, tune into the Web at http://www.orienteering.asn. au/ for Orienteering Australia and www.woc2007.org.ua for the World Championships web site to get news of the latest results and even live feed from races in progress.
