World Champs

[mharky]

why couldn't the GB team muster

Who said they couldn't?

It's their choice not to go.

[rocky]

If the TrailO squad hadn't been there, there would have been a poor little lad with his Great Britain banner, and nobody to follow him nor anyone to carry the provided flag! Which would have been embarassing for both the GB squad and their Italian hosts.

I'd like to thank the GB trailO team for being predictably reliable at turning up for ceremonies so that I could relax back at our hotel preparing for my next race without having to

stand for 60+ minutes in the blazing sun with nowhere to sit down

knowing that they would be there to enjoy the ceremony and ensure a GB presence.

Freefall et al, a better idea might be to not judge the success of your WOC organisation on how many nations turn up to the opening ceremony...

[Freefall]

I have to be careful posting on social media but having endured the opening ceremony sitting in a VIP seat I would have hated to be standing around for such a long time. I predict our 2015 opening ceremony (within the IOF protocol of course) will be short and snappy and I would of course hope that Team GB shows a major presence.

[graeme]

It seems all things WOC are short and snappy.

Untitled.jpg (20.75 KiB) Viewed 6768 times

[JK]

The opening ceremony was nowhere (about 3/4 of an hour on narrow roads) near the WOC/WTOC HQ in Lavarone (both of GB's teams were based very close to there), there were no podiums for the Sprint prize and [most importantly] scant information about what the procession would involve.

The organisers had, however, organised a Team Leader's meeting for WTOC immediately afterwards - which ensured at least a few of each WTOC team would be there.

If I was Foot-O TM then I wouldn't want my athletes travelling almost an hour each way and standing around in the sun on a hot humid evening for over an hour, even if their event was a few days later. Most other teams had guys there though - the Swiss, the Italian hosts, the triumphant Danes and of course Thierry + the French. Les Bleus seemed to have given the matter some thought though and while TG decided that there were spare seats in the shade with the VIPs (like Freefall, Clive Allen and il Presidente Porteous) for someone of his VIPness, the girls decided that the chaps from the GB TrailO team formed a substantial sunscreen and sat on the ground in our shade. Some teams did travel over an hour to be there and some WTOC competitors hopped on their crutches.

So the challenge for Freefall is to consider the following when agreeing on the Opening Ceremony format:
* What is the purpose of the Opening Ceremony?
* Who is it for? Athletes? Spectators? Media? Organisers? Local Dignatories? IOF?
* Consider what it will be like for these various groups in various weather conditions.
* Tell people in advance what the conditions will be otherwise teams will assume the worse (and past experience suggest that is a fair plan).
* After a km or so walk/stroll in the heat do you really want all the competitors standing or will you give them seats - important for many of the WTOC Para guys who walk with sticks or crutches.

Of course at WOC 2015 there will be no WTOC (I'm still pretty gutted that I won't have the chance to compete before a home "crowd") which implies that the procession doesn't need to be wheelchair friendly and also that there will be no TrailO team to bolster the numbers for any of the teams. i.e. you have to ensure that participation in the opening ceremony is somehow an attractive proposition, is convenient to lodgings, isn't too long and has some form of shelter from the 4 elements - sun, rain, wind and midges.

[Kitch]

I recommend the following

Put a section in the team info / bulletin saying that all teams are expected to be fully represented at the opening ceremony, also intimate that the OC will be short and snappy and lots of fun for all athletes.
organise the longest, most tedious and mind-numbingly boring opening ceremony that you can conceive. No seating no shelter from the elements ( it it could be in an area with a propensity for midges that would be a bonus)
British team should select a number of athletes specifically for the opening ceremony, these athletes should not represent GB in any other discipline.
There should be a selection "race" for these positions on the GB team.
I would expect that the nopesport community could be well represented in the final OC squad, given the ability many show for enduring long, drawn out, not to say endless discussion,

[JK]

Nice idea - you've obviously been reading "The Art of Course Rugby" Kitch.

In that there is an anecdote about a visiting rugby team who get welcomed off the train, get driven to their club house, given lots of beer and lots to eat. Feeling pretty stuff the captain eventually asks their hosts ... "How are you able to play after eating and drinking this amount" and they reply ..."Oh we aren't the team, we are just the welcoming committee!".

[DavidJ]

... and has some form of shelter from the 4 elements - sun, rain, wind and midges.

Shouldn't you have included snow and fire?

[JK]

... and has some form of shelter from the 4 elements - sun, rain, wind and midges.

Shouldn't you have included snow and fire?

Not unless WOC 2015 is so far N of Scotland it is in Iceland.

Having said that I had a very strange brown blob in the middle of the circle at a Finnish TrailO event that I couldn't suss out. Only after I finished and unfolded my map did I notice that there was a small hole in my map and the brown mark was on the back of the map (if you see what I mean). Although the maps were printed on waterproof paper they were not fireproof and unaccustomed to that big orangey thing they had in the Finnish sky I had burned the hole with my thumb compass's magnifier ... oops!

[PhilJ]

interesting blog by Tue Lassen on the Sprint prep for WOC and other majors:

http://tuelassen.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/sprint-discussion.html