JWOC 2016

[maprun]

JWOC sprint race this morning. Event site has live TV, GPS (not many from GB) and usual live results. First two GB starters appear to be DNS.

http://www.jwoc2016.ch/

[sloaner]

Great result from Megan Carter Davies with 7th in the sprint.... particularly as she has been recovering from a broken leg!!

[Homer]

Long race today.

Switzerland seem to be making the most of home advantage. 4 out of 6 medallists today!

Well done to Will Rigg (31st) and Fiona Bunn (47th), best of the Brits today.

[Arnold]

Looks like fab terrain although planning more middle-style than a "proper" long. But difficult to avoid given the layout of the area. In general the organisers seem to be doing a stunning job though, they certainly pulled together a world class planning and organising team.

On a separate note, when will we organise JWOC in the UK? A couple of years ago I tried to pull something together for WMOC but that didn't come together for a number of reasons. But JWOC seems somewhat less daunting and something that a really enthusiastic band of volunteers should manage to pull together. I'd like to have a go but might need to wait another 10 or 20 years...

[Homer]

Middle Qualifying today (anyone else interested? )

7 out of 11 Brits through to the A Final. Well done all.
The other team member forced to sit it out.

There appear to be many of the same names at the top of the results as for both Long and Sprint Finals (top 3 Men identical for Sprint and Long). Obviously they are coping well with the tough schedule. I still can't understand why the Brits aren't doing all the races??
Surely this event is mostly about getting top level international experience? This is surely maximised if everyone does every race (if they want to).

I'm convinced we'd have had better results in the Long Race if everyone had done the Sprint the day before. My theory is that sitting out the first race just allows the pressure and nervousness to build even more than it is already. This makes producing a good race much harder than any slight increase in tiredness.
Or maybe the coaches want to maximize the pressure?

[andypat]

I'm convinced we'd have had better results in the Long Race if everyone had done the Sprint the day before. My theory is that sitting out the first race just allows the pressure and nervousness to build even more than it is already. This makes producing a good race much harder than any slight increase in tiredness.
Or maybe the coaches want to maximize the pressure?

On the other hand, running about on a 1:4000 map might not necessarily gear up the brain for 1:10k contours.

[maprun]

Middle Qualifying today (anyone else interested? )

7 out of 11 Brits through to the A Final. Well done all.

Agreed, even more when you see how many major nation runners missed out in very closely fought heats.

I'm wondering how much effect the altitude had during the long races on Monday at an altitude of 1900m to 2300m, a similar altitude to Mexico City. Fortunately the middle heats were held lower today at 1700m to 2000m and finals will be lower still tomorrow around 1500m.

[Bart]

On the other hand, running about on a 1:4000 map might not necessarily gear up the brain for 1:10k contours.

This would just not affect them. Besides, all the athletes have run many JK's and British Sprint/Middle weekends where they have had to swap from a sprint map to a forest map the next day so even if this was an issue, they've plenty of experience dealing with it.

Also I'm pretty positive most, if not all the athletes, would like to run every event. You only get a limited number of chances at jwoc and so when you finally make it there, surely you want to be given as many opportunities as possible to get a good result?! I know for a fact that the one GB athlete that wasn't given the opportunity to run the middle was extremely frustrated to not be allowed to run today and you can certainly see why. Especially for the middle, how frustrating must it be to be the only one sitting around doing nothing while all your teammates are preparing themselves to race? Seems ridiculous to me and the jwoc team having talked to them that we don't run all the disciplines especially considering all the other nations do it and some of them are not exactly unsuccessful are they?

[housewife]

The reason why the GB athletes are not allowed to run everything is that those running the team don't understand the sport - but please, let's not get into that again! We as members are banging our heads against a brick all as far as that is concerned.

[jayelc]

Agree with so many of the points made, & now we hear that those in the B final might not be allowed to run & are having to try to argue their case .......
GB seem to have such different ideas to other nations, & it is the juniors who are missing opportunities - after having to fund over £1000 to be there.

[Arnold]

I thought we'd agreed in a previous discussion that specialisation was eminently sensible for seniors (unless you are Simone Niggli), but not so much for juniors because a) they're still developing b) they're less consistent and most importantly c) any international race is a good learning opportunity

I'd certainly be miffed if I was a junior..

[maprun]

I'm trying to get my head around this. If you finish 20th you get to run the next day, if you finish 21st you don't according to the coaches. So the decision is based on the how well the other athletes did in the juniors heat, as to whether they run the following day. A very logical reason (cough) for reducing the potential international experience of a junior.

You might as well toss a coin given the closeness of the heats.

[SJC]

Agree with so many of the points made, & now we hear that those in the B final might not be allowed to run & are having to try to argue their case

With only the relay still to come after the middle finals, surely an extra day competing in the forest is better preparation than a day spectating ?

[andypat]

On the other hand, running about on a 1:4000 map might not necessarily gear up the brain for 1:10k contours.

This would just not affect them.

Look I wasnt arguing against letting the juniors run all the races. Was countering Homers theory that running the sprint would be likely to improve their long run the next day. IMO much better to train on the model map at the right scale if you want to optimise your chances. Of course some top athletes can outperform everyone at everything, but that's not where we are in the GB team just now.

[afterthought]

Middle Qualifying today (anyone else interested? )

Yes, I'm interested. Thanks to contributors.

Cor, what a lot of viewings for the video about leg 10-11 on M20 long (Raffael Huber talking, in English):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9W-jpEbUqA&feature=youtu.be