WOC 2006 Rollercoaster ride!

Sandra here:

Dissapointing start
This year’s WOC was really a rollercoaster ride for me. I had a very dissapointing run in the long distance qualification, where I skipped a control and didn’t notice. In the finnish the officials had me look at the map and asked if I had been to number 7. I took one look and realized that I hadn’t. My heart sank into my stomach, this was hard to swallow.

Recovered well
At some point you just have to put a bad race behind you and start looking ahead. I still had the sprint ahead of me and I enjoy running sprint. I knew my chances to make the final were slim, and that it would take a clean race to do it.
I was happy with my race when I finished, eventhough looking at my time on my watch when I finished I knew it wouldn’t be fast enough. I was happy to have had fun and run reasonably well after my disaster race in the long.
(click on map to enlarge)

Missed the underpass


I missed making the final by 30 seconds, which is a lot in sprint, but it turned out that would not have been hard to be even 45 seconds faster if I had seen the underpass on the map. Oh well, I ran a consistant race and I could go home satisfied that I was at least close. The day was a great success anyway, the US team got 2 runners into the final. The speedy Saeger sisters had shown us that all their hard sprint training and track workouts pay off. We were insainly proud to have them both in the final, and they did well too. Congrats!

Relay revenge



The US women’s team has been making steady improvements over the last few years and we are getting stronger than ever before. The relay showed to us that we aren’t even that bad… it was a nice feeling. All three of us ran consistant races and felt statisfied in the end. One of our main goals was to beat Cananda, which we did with success, but we also managed to beat many other teams. Usually we are fighting for the last few places in the field, this year we were 17th out of 28 teams. Right on!


Life after WOC
Directly after WOC, once arriving at home in Switzerland, I headed off to the US for a wedding. Erin Olafsen became Mrs. Kristoffer Nielsen. What a beautiful event! Best of all it involved orienteering. The happy couple had mapped Erin’s parent's property, and Mr Daddy-O Ken Walker Sr. field checked the map, put it into Ocad and set courses for the event. After a beautiful cerimony, a reception with class and before the pig roast in the evening, the party shifted gears, changed clothes and had a healthy tournament against eachother. The events in the tournament were volleyball, horse shoes, some kind of college frisbee game, and of course orienteering!! What a great time!

Getting back to normal
My daily routines are going to have to get back to normal again. This shouldn't be a problem, but I also feel like the summer events have flown by in a flash. Now there is time to look forward to all the great orienteering in the fall. Switzerland has all of it’s championship events coming up, icluding the sprint and long this weekend in the Wallis. Should be really nice orienteering. I am looking forward to the fall and am ready for the next challenge.

WOC Relay

Well, today was quite a disapointment. I ran the last leg after Matthias Merz and Daniel Hubmann. Both did great races so that I could start as the 2nd in the forest, a few seconds after the leading Russian, Valentin Novikov.
Unfortunately things didn't turn out so well from quite early on in the course. I had the bad idea to go through a very tough green to my second control, where I lost my direction and than lost some time relocating. Unfortunately in the process of fighting through the bushes I got something in my right eye. At first I thought it would go away, but instead it bothered me always more during the course. I lost a lot of energy trying to concentrate enough not to make any bigger mistake because of my bad sight. But to the 5th last control I didn't succeed in keeping the damage under control. I searched for the control maybe 90 seconds and Mattias Karlsson from Sweden passed me. This way I also missed a place on the podium, and I came in the finish 4th, behind 1. Russia, 2. Finland, 3.Sweden. Congratulation to them!

Having missed such a chance for a WOC medal, especially in the relay is a big disapointment. But life goes on... in 3 days I have my first exam of a very long spate.

WOC Long Distance

Well, I have a big smile on my face... one year after achieving the 2nd place at the WOC Long Distance in Japan, I was able to defend this incredible result here in Denmark.

I want to thank deeply all the people who have supported me, coached me and inspired me on my way to this result. Such a performance is not a result of my own work, but the result of many people opening the right doors for me and giving me the right support at the right moment. Such a success is a long combination of things which went right in my surrounding. Thank you!

For several reasons this race is a great satisfaction:
-I went through the most loaded year of my life working very intensely for my last year in dental school. That I was able to build up such an O shape besides the 55 to 70 hours/week is something I could have only dreamt of. During this year I have surely learned to push my limits further.

-I felt quite jealous during all the spring, not being able to try my best at the WOC… finally I not only did I get the chance to do so, but I also achieved a very good performance.

-Maybe even the most resistant people understand now that my second place last year at the WOC was not a matter of running together with Andrey Khramov…
Yesterday I raced from A to Z without any beneficial contact with other runners. How seldom is that at a WOC Long Distance?

In 2 days we will compete in the relay. I feel like it will be a tight fight with many very good teams. But I am looking forward for the challenge together with Matthias and Daniel. Again, we will try our best!