Below you see pictures of the four best men and two best women in todays JWOC Sprint in the Dubbo Zoo. Congratulations to all these fine runners! Pictures: Rob Preston.

From the top left: Sarka SVOBODNA (Silver, women - the left runner in the picture), Eva SVENSSON (Gold, women), Ivan SIRAKOV (Bronze, men), Vojtech KRAL (Gold, men), Martin Hubmann (4th place men) and Olav Lundanes (Silver, men).

• More pictures of many of the runners - compare to the start list to find your favorite.

See also the pictures from the medal ceremony:

All pictures: Rob Preston. Thank you to Rob Preston for letting World of O use these pictures. Rob is also working on getting some video footage for you to see on woO-TV…

The start list for the JWOC sprint is available at the JWOC homepage - and we can also show some pictures from the model event earlier today.

In the mens class, the three favorites named in the previous posting - Søren Bobach, Mikael Kristensson and Olav Lundanes start at 11:05, 11:18 and 11:25. The first starter is John Goodwin (USA) at 9:30 - and the mens Sprint is closed with Daniel Martin De Los Rios (ESP) at 11:37 (all times are local times - subtract 8 hours to get CET, i.e. last start at 03:37 CET).

In the womens class, Aniana Senn (SUI) is the first starter at 09:30 - and Norways Kine Hallan Steiwer is the last to get out into the forest at 10:59. Hallan Steiwer is actually among the favourites, so in the womens class nothing is decided before everyone has finished the race. Siri Ulvestad at 10:47 and Eva Svensson at 10:20 are two of the favorites.

• Start list JWOC Sprint

Pictures from Model Event
Thanks to Christoph Rüedlinger, we can provide some pictures from todays Model Event, to give you some feeling of the athmosphere in the forests down under. According to the reports, everybody is having a good time, and the cold weather (8 degrees C and some rain tomorrow during the finals) does not seem to hide the smiles…

The night between the coming Saturday and Sunday - at 01:30 CET (09:30 in the morning local Dubbo time) the sprint distance starts the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Dubbo, Australia. Two and a half hours later, at 04:00 CET, the two first Junior World Champions in the 2007 Championships will be known.

The terrain is a new and somewhat unfamiliar experience for most of the runners (see pictures above from the middle distance training terrain - all photos by Christoph Rüedlinger) - and it will be interesting to see if this gives some special surprises on the result lists. However - a JWOC is always much more open and full of surprises than a WOC - so be sure we will see some surprises on the podium the following week…

Getting familiar down under
Most of the competing juniors have been in Australia for a week - many on an official training camp - getting used to the terrain, the Kangaroos, and the local specialties. But after a week of fun and getting used to things, the serious part of the program starts Sunday morning. As the Danish trainer said: “No summer camp anymore - from now it is a World Championship!” (Photo on the right: Danish Junior Team in Australia. Source: Danish Junior Team blog).

JWOC Program
The JWOC distance consists of 4 distances in 6 days, giving 5 competitions as there is a qualifier for the middle distance. The complete program (times given in CET and local time):

Sprint distance

The sprint distance is in Western Plains Zoo (Dubbo) - study the satellite picture above in detail at Google Maps. As you can see, this will be mainly a forest sprint, but with numerous out of bound areas. The organizers state that “The sprint event will be held at the Western Plains Zoo. It is a flat-forested area with sections of open parkland. It has an irregular road and track network with some buildings and fences along with numerous out of bounds areas. It is a public area with pedestrians, bicycles and cars and will be operating as normal during the event”.

And who will take home the victories in the sprint distance? Looking at the previous years competition usually gives a hint of possible favourites - so let’s take a look:

1	Weltzien Hultgren Ingunn	Norway	0:10:46.8
2	Allston Hanny	Australia	0:10:50.1
3	Svensson Eva	Sweden	0:11:25.3
4	Vaculikova Jana	Czech Republic	0:11:32.5
5	Terekhova Ekaterina	Russia	0:11:41.0
6	Stand - Horn Welle Fanny	Norway	0:11:42.0

In the women’s category, both Ingunn Weltzien and Hanny Allston are seniors now - so the Swede Eva Svensson is the best runner from last years sprint participating in Australia. Eva Svensson also got a second place in this years Nordic Open Champs (NOC) Sprint, and should therefore be counted as one of the big favourites. Also among the favorites is the Norwegian NOC Sprint winner Siri Ulvestad. Jana Vaculikova and Fanny Welle Strand-Horn are not on the starting list this year - but 5th placed russioan from JWOC 2006, Ekaterina Terekhova is present in Australia. This is very open in the womens category!

1	Kristensson Mikael	Sweden	0:11:44.8
2	Karisson Patrik	Sweden	0:11:53.5
3	Glebov Ruslan	Ukraine	0:11:55.9
4	Jochen Verdeyen	Belgium	0:11:59.7
5	Rizhkov Sergei	Belarus	0:12:02.4
6	Parton Matthew	Australia	0:12:08.4

In the mens class, the 2006 JWOC sprint champion Mikael Kristensson must be counted as the biggest favorite. However, several runners will fight hard against Mikael for the Gold medal - most notably Danish Søren Bobach (Gold medal NOC Sprint) and Norwegian Olav Lundanes (Silver medal NOC Sprint) - both nominated for Junior of the year 2006 along with Mikael Kristensson. In the Junior of the year 2006 poll, Bobach was the best of these three - will he manage at the JWOC sprint as well?

Update 7/7 10:00 CET: Søren Bobach just states on the Danish Junior Team blog that he has twisted his ankle quite hard. He still thinks he can run the sprint though - based on an examination by the Swiss doctor, but is not 100% sure.

Guess the winners!
I am surprised if I have named the winners in both the mens and womens category in the sprint distance here. Add a comment below with your winner tips: No money but a lot of honor to the one who manages to guess the medal winners in both the mens and womens category! Even guessing the correct two winners won’t be an easy task. My guess goes for Søren Bobach and Siri Ulvestad!

Long, Middle and Relay disciplines
The location for the other disciplines is Southwest of Dubbo - near Mountain Creek (see satellite picture in Google Maps here). From the terrain description, it is evident that it is quite special terrain the runners will meet at the long distance at Monday:

The area is dominated by complex granite outcrops. Many of the higher hills support spectacular granite formations with grand views of the countryside. The terrain varies from flat and undulating to very steep. Generally broader hillsides with many gullies and saddles predominate throughout the area, although some complex contour details occur in some sections. The forest is made up of native trees, mainly Eucalypts, Cypress Pine and Wattle with runnability mostly fast to very fast through open forest.
The understorey in some sections of the forest restricts visibility and runnability greatly through a concentration of scrubby ushes, young Cypress Pine, fallen timber and rocky ground. The extensive rocky ground is a major feature of the area and reduces runnability in the sections away from the rock, especially along the many broad valleys. Granite rock is strewn throughout the area and presents many boulders (some towering over 6 metres), rockfaces, bare surface rock and rocky ground. Many clearings occur throughout the area. The region is currently experiencing drought and so water is rare. Most watercourses, pools and creeks are dry, with some small erosion gullies occurring.

Map sample: Typical terrain the juniors will meet in Australia.

At the trainings the week before the competitions, runners have been surprised by areas with extremely stony grounds - whereas other areas have had very good runnability. The ability to change speed when required, and to get fast through stony areas, will be important in these competitions! Who will manage best?

We will come back with more favorites for the other disciplines after the sprint distance.

Press release, WOC 2007: The newly released Bulletin 3 gives the athletes and other some more information about how the WOC-races will be. And the longdistance will create a historic moment with the longest WOC-courses ever for both men and women.

The men will fight on a course of 18,1 kilometer with 28 controls. This is the first time a WOC-course will pass the 18 km mark. The previous record was in Sweden 1989, 17,7km. Last years course in Denmark was also long, 17,5km.

The womens course for the longdistance will also be the longest ever, 11,9km. This is just 100 meter longer than the course in Switzerland 2003.

There will, however, not be a record for number of controls. The mens course in Switzerland 2003 had 34 controls. It remains to be seen if the races will be the fastest ever for a longdistance. Petter Thoresen ran close to 5min/km in 1989, and this means the race this year must have a winning time close to 95 minutes to be the fastest race ever. Will it be possible?

Come to Kiev and see it yourself on the 23rd of August!

Links:

• WOC 2007 homepage
• Bulletin 3

Source: Press release issued by the WOC organizers. World of O will cover WOC 2007 fully.

All four courses from World Cup round 2 in Bykle, Norway (both A and B-finals), are now available in Routegadget. The B-final courses where by some test-runners said to be better and more interesting than the A-final courses, as they did not have to pass the finish area. Now you can have a look for yourself…

• Routegadget World Cup 2 - 2007

Above you see the mens course from the World Cup in Bykle, Norway - including the route choice of Thierry Gueorgiou. Gueorgiou did a very good race - making only some minor errors in the end.

The two absolute world number one runners - Thierry Gueorgiou and Simone Niggli-Luder - were again the best here at the second World Cup round in Bykle, Norway. They both had fantastic runs - and got very clear victories.

• Results (unofficial)

Fabien Pasquasy and Becky Carlyle are the first man and woman to head into the forest at this second World Cup race of the year here in the beautiful Norwegian mountains at Bykle/Hovden. Everything is set for a very interesting middle distance race, with most of the absolute world elite present.

The Norwegian runners have an advantage in this terrain, and hope to repair the not-so-good results from this years NOC and the first WC round in Finland. Will Thierry Gueorgiou be able to take the Norwegians Holger Hott (who just let go of the Johansen name) and Anders Nordberg on homeground? Will Marianne Andersen show Simone Niggli-Luder the way in Norwegian terrain? Follow the live results from 18:00 (see link below) to get the answers in an interesting middle distance World Cup race here at Bykle by Hovden.

Just now, the last of the 2400 “normal” orienteers - participating at the Norwegian O-festival - are getting out of the very same forests as the world elite will head into now from 18:00 - and as one of these 2400, I can tell you that the World Elite will meet very interesting mountain terrain - with many open marshes and partly stony ground. The orienteering can for a large part be categorized as quite easy, but if you loose control - the errors may become large. Also, there are some tricky green areas where you have to know which side of the tree and stone you are heading to not loose time.

Maps with courses will be available here after the event.

• Start list Results (will be updated during the race)

Kalevan Rasti with Thierry Gueorgiou went out in the lead about 1 minute before Halden’s Mats Haldin on the last leg of this years Jukola relay - and everything looked like this would be another Jukola thriller. However, Gueorgiou and Haldin decided the race already at the very start of the leg - Gueorgiou by running an excellent first 30 minutes, and Haldin by loosing 2 minutes.

• Results

Minna Kauppi did a magnificent run on the last leg in todays Venla relay, and took Asikkalan Raikas to a very popular victory here in Lapua, Finland.

Below you see an interview with Minna Kauppi after her run by woO-TV:

• Online results - follow the Jukola relay from 22.00 CET