WOC 2007 KYIV

[Jenny Peel]

GG 4th
JD 6th
Jamie 8th

Shame it can't stay that way! Good races though for all 3 of them.

[Gross]

Latvia jumps into lead.......

[Spookster]

Johansson really fast to spectator, but appears to have slowed on last part. Merz and Guergiou could still take it.

Final positions:
GG 12th
JD 16th
JS 18th.

[RS]

Have to say that Gueorgiou is a true champion - he pulls it out time after time

[Spookster]

Helen B finished 15th, but has dropped to 23rd so far. Pippa about a minute down at spectator.

Meanwhile Minna Kaupi has set a great time - can Simone beat it?

[Mike]

It's looking that way, and she's with Heli.

[Spookster]

Must have been a great sprint finish - Heli beat Simone over the line by 0.1 secs (but obviously is a minute slower).

Pippa 28th, Helen 35th, final positions.

[ruth]

Its really great to see such long detailed reports with really good photos on the bof website, good job!

[SIman]

Its really great to see such long detailed reports with really good photos on the bof website, good job!

I wasn't sure that there wasn't a missing sarcasm smiley here until I looked on the BOF site and I saw just how good the reports were.
Well done, Chris and everyone else. I wish I had started reading them earlier.

[mharky]

Johansson chucked it. Shame. Look at the ages in the mens top 10

[Spookster]

Johansson chucked it. Shame. Look at the ages in the mens top 10

Yeah, at unlucky control 13. An 8 second lead turned into a 19 second deficit, and Gold turned to Bronze.

The maps and routes pages on the WOC site are great.

[Simon E]

I've now put quite a lot of photos up on Flickr.

You can also read some behind-the-scenes spectator thoughts from the week in the Maprunner blog.

[Gross]

Brilliant Simon... look forward to WOC 2008 reports:)

[EddieH]

Wow Simon! I am really glad I watched from home. You deserve a medal for that.

[kedge]

Excellent blog from Simon. The Trail-O squad's experiences would mirror much of what he says.

Although there was an excellent website for WTOC 2007 http://www.wtoc2007.org.ua/result.htm it seems no one from British Orienteering was looking at it, so no news about the team's results has yet been posted, and we were so far away from Kiev (our excellent accommodation at the "All-Ukrainian center of professional rehabilitation of invalids" was 30k out of the city in an internet free zone, that we were rather out of the loop.

The WTOC officials did an excellent job, although we did have one spectacular mishap.

In the great tradition of coach drivers getting lost whilst taking teams to the Start of World Championships, the driver taking the first batch of competitors to the Hydropark for Day 1 got hideously lost on the outskirts of Kiev.

Having managed to relocate himself (by getting out of the bus and asking several passers by where he was, rather than asking the competitors sitting behind him, who had been following his progress with increasing horror on the Kiev map provided to every runner by the organisers) he then drove back into Kiev into the kind of horrendous traffic jam which Kiev frequently experiences. The result was that the starts had to be put back an hour and we all ended up out on the course for two and a half hours in the hottest part of what was a very hot day.

For the record, the team was out of the medals this year. This was the strongest field since the World Trail-O Championships started in 2004, whilst Dick was still suffering from 'flu when the event began and John was unwell before Day 2, as well as suffering from a back problem.

On Day 1, Dave Gittus was 5th, Dick Keighley 7th and John Crosby 9th in the Paralympic class ( and 10th, 11th & 27th in the Open class)

Day 2 proved more problematical. After 2 days, Dave came 11th, Dick 24th and John 34th overall, with the team coming 5th in the paralympic team competition.