British athletes in Ukraine

[Rockaldo]

I saw this link to okansas on worldofo.com just wondering if anyone knows if the british athletes are ok?
http://okansas.blogspot.com/2007/06/dogs-in-forest.html

[PG]

Results of Ukraine championships on WOC2007 site:
http://www.woc2007.org.ua/en/news/view/26

Only local runners in cyrillic alphabet!

Fri Middle qual
13 Helen Winskill
21 Rachael Elder
28 Jenny Johnson
35 Whitehouse Pippa
38 Helen Bridle
4 Gristwood Graham
16 Stevenson Jamie
23 Duncan Jon
33 Fraser Scott
34 Johnson Oli
48 Speake Matt

Sat Sprint qual
W21E1
8 Elder Rachael
12 Johnson Jenny
W21E2
3 Whitehouse Pippa
10 Winskill Helen
36 Bridle Helen
M21E1
7 Johnson Oli
21 Duncan Jon
25 Speake Matt
M21E2
3 Gristwood Graham
4 Stevenson Jamie
6 Fraser Scott
14 Brickhill Jones David
40 Rollins Dave
50 Peel David

I don't spot anyone missing on Saturday, so may be OK. I think Jenny is back today, so hopefully she can provide more info

[PG]

Whoops, I was cutting and pasting on auto-pilot and missed the fact that all entries had a finish position.

Looks like Helen Bridle was DNS on Saturday. I hope she is OK.

[gg]

both Jenny and Pippa are fine, they were treated at a local clinic and resumed training the next day

helen b had a sore throat

[mikey]

It sounds tough out there - dogs and flashers...

Courtesy of OKansas.

"Lena Eliasson wrote a bit about the dogs in the forest in Ukraine. Here is a rough translation:

...We ran a sprint qualifying and final, which was a reminder for me of how important it is to run sprints regularly to be ready to do my best in this discipline...Another feature that we experienced was all of the dogs that are everywhere in the Ukrainian forests. Sometimes the owner is nearby, but there are also wild dogs. Two British women were bitten and have to get rabies treatment, and it is difficult not to think about dogs when you run in the forest. The sprint final was in a park that turned out to be full of dogs off leash. We think that most had their owners nearby. Everyone made it through without being bitten. The biggest problem was that Anna Marsell came across a flasher [at least I think that is how you translate "blottare" - hopefully some helpful Swedish native reader will confirm the translation for me] near the first control!"

[Steve]

Were the orienteers warned about the dangers of loose dogs? Was the public informed about the event? It would be interesting to see the risk assessment carried out by the organisers, and what mitigating measures they took - by the sound of it, none.

[Blanka]

Were the orienteers warned about the dangers of loose dogs? Was the public informed about the event? It would be interesting to see the risk assessment carried out by the organisers, and what mitigating measures they took - by the sound of it, none.

This is exactly the sort of attitude that's killing any sense of adventurous activity in Great Britain. Risk assessment this/risk assessment that. We all take risks and could just as well be bitten by loose dogs in the New Forest as somewhere in the Ukraine.

If we're not careful, UK is going to end up like the US with its suing culture - "it's everyone else's fault but mine"!!!

Rant over!

[Gross]

Plenty of wild dogs in forests in Romania this weekend!

[gg]

it was at a training session not an event

[Steve]

We all take risks and could just as well be bitten by loose dogs in the New Forest as somewhere in the Ukraine.

Yes we all take risks, enjoy it even, but don't expect others to take them on our behalf - i.e. place us in a dangerous environment we have no knowledge of and no protection against.

Rabid dogs in the new forest? Methinks you jest.

[PeteL]

Far more likely to get Lyme disease or encephalitis (sp?) from one of the gezillions of ticks feeding off the wild ponies (and dogs?) in the New Forest than rabies from a random dog in Ukraine.

If you need to be told that dogs might be running free in a public park, then... I won't finish that sentence for fear of creating offence.

[Kitch]

It would be interesting to see the risk assessment carried out by the organisers, and what mitigating measures they took - by the sound of it, none.

It would be interesting to see the looks on their face when you asked.
They'd laugh their pants off.

We are talking about Ukraine, the kind of place where if you give the police chief $50 and buy him a few beers he'll give you a blue light escort all the way to the border - eh Gordon....

[Spookster]

It sounds tough out there - dogs and flashers...

If only the dogs could be trained to just attack the flashers.... Ouch.

[JennyJ]

lovely discussion and all that but Pippa and I did actually get bitten by a dog which may actually be rabid and even if it wasn't we have to go through the whole post-exposure vaccination programme etc etc so I actually think that maybe the organisers do need to do something about this for the World Champs. People were taking pretty large detours yesterday to avoid dogs which obviously belonged to a house so it could obviously affect results. We read that they kill 16,000 dogs a year in Kiev.

Anyway at least we'll be OK and can get bitten by as many dogs as we like next time and there was the added bonus that we managed to terrify a few of the other national team runners (esp the Swedish guys!) with our tales so hopefully we'll have an advantage!?

[ER]

Ticks are a known and accepted risk from orienteering. The measures to prevent and treat infection for a tick are publicised to orienteers. An encounter with a dangerous dog is not a risk an orienteer should have to take. The experience of being attacked by a dog is frightening and abhorent. The competition area should be as safe as possible. Jenny and Pippa should have our support and we should be demanding that the WOC competition area is cleared as far as possible of such dangers. Orienteering is a sport not some form of gladitorial competition.