Action time

Tonight we had the opening ceremony in the town center. It was nice. Pretty similar to previous years, but they kept the speeches nice and short for a change. We'll post some pics later.

The Sprint is tomorrow afternoon. Jess is first off - 14:05 and Ant is the last starter at 16:56. There should be online results on the official website. http://www.jwoc2012.sk/

Hoping it cools down slightly but otherwise very excited :-) 

Last Official Training

Today was our last official training, only model events left. It was another middle map but really enjoyable. Steph took the day off to rest her legs for the sprint. Sarah took it easy after having her finer finally sorted and Salome also took it nice and chilled to rest her legs up as well. The heat wasn't as intense today which was a really nice change with a bit of a  light shower in the afternoon....Tescos also got a visit for last minute sapplies for JWOC and then on to a close forest to do our poster. It was an interesting experience getting painted out in the forest with people around but fun non the less....Had our first official team meeting so the
JWOC excitement and nerves are starting.

Written by Jess

Today we did a middle training session - control picking. Map is included below. Everyone coped well. Coach, Zig and Zoe headed to the event center to do our accreditation in the afternoon. We got cool goodie bags with a t-shirt and a buff :-) So far everything feels really well organised.

Today we had long distance training, then we headed to a castle. It was slightly cooler today and we got caught in a hectic hail storm. The Spis castle was huge - one of the largest castle complexes in Europe. Very Lord of the Rings like :-)

Here are some pictures from the last few days:

Today we had a single training in the morning on a middle related area. We did control picking. The contour detail was insane. The gullies and marshes were really helpful. Everyone seemed to enjoy the session.

After training we headed to the lake. It was like a beach :) Bruce came along too :)


We were all pretty dead so most of the team decided not to go to the relay area for the afternoon session cause we had already run on that map. Nic, Zig, Zoe and Jess did the session cause they had missed the previous session on the map.

Last night we walked through the town center after dinner - our sprint area. It's the first JWOC sprint we've done were we've been allowed to check out the area before the race. It's a beautiful town! We checked out the narrow passages and went into the park on the east of the map. It's going to be an awesome sprint. We'll probably head there tomorrow and on Thursday night.

Long Times Two

Today brought another super hot training day with the temperature reaching 34 degrees, luckily it was a 90m drive so the aircon was on full blast.
Our first long training session for the day was in the forest with us getting used to the karst terrain. It was very technical but we seemed to get into it after a few controls. The depressions put our depressions to shame with a shallow depression looking like one of ours.
Our second long training session for the day took us out the "kind of cool" forest and out into the open area karst terrain which turned out to be a lot more technical. They are obviously more adventurous people with there semi-light green looking rather close to our dark green.
Spiders in the forest are also rather irritating with their webs sticking to everything but luckily they are not big enough to encourage the well known South African shreaks ;)
Been learning how to play tarrot cards with the Slovinean guys and now we got a game of "Bullshit"going with a few countries.
By Jess :)

Sweating in Slovakia

Now that Coach is here the serious training has started ;-) We did 2 sessions today. First up was a middle relevant training on a map called Broda. The first few controls were in a green area and a few of the paths were overgrown. The second half of the course was a lot easier and enjoyable. It helped having controls / toilet paper to find today.

We went back to our accommodation for lunch - potatoes, rice and chicken...again. Then we headed out to Bukovec for Relay / middle relevant training. A lot less green but very hilly. It was very hot and there was a fair bit of grumbling walking up the hill to the start. Luckily coach was feeling kind and knocked a km or so off our courses.

Long Walks and New Arrivals

Today we did some sprint training at Pavilon, we ended up walking 4km because we were having trouble with the buses ... We decided to do the course in intervals running 3 controls at a time with a short break in between ... Sarah and Salome ran together and Steph decided to run with Ant and Brad ... The pace on the course was good and there were some interesting route choices. (2-3, 5-6, 7-8,10-11-12-13)

It was some good training that we all seemed to have enjoyed!

We decided to just walk back to accommodation and on the way back each got an ice-cream for the equivalent of about R3 each :)

When we got back to the accommodation we looked on Google Earth and tested our different route choices with a few surprising results.

Big Nic (coach) arrived about 16:00 and gave us our new tracksuits :) and checked into his room.

After Dinner Nic told us about the training plans for the week ahead, we all had a chilled evening with some having an early night. Asaf (Representing Israel) arrived and will be joining us for training, glad to have him! Looking forward to tomorrows training  :-D

Soggy maps and soup

We arrived safely in Kosice yesterday afternoon. A dude met us at the airport and took us to our accommodation - a university res. It's decent - better than last year at least. The food is okay - not awesome but once again, better than in Poland. Soup is on the menu for every night - last night was garlic and tonight was barley. There's a small super market, bakery and bank just down the road. So far food seems really cheap! We can get a piece of cake at the bakery for R4 - R6 and a kilogram of cherries for 1 euro.

Coach is only arriving tomorrow so we spent the morning figuring out how to get to a training area. We asked a few people about buses / trams before we found a dude who spoke English. He showed us which buses to take and ended up buying us a map of the town and bus tickets. Very friendly! We're going to take him chocolate to say thanks tomorrow.

We headed to the training area after lunch - Hradova. Was a wise choice to get the bus and not walk there. Rather a hilly 5km! We walked to the start and hid our bags in the forest. Quite a straight forward area ...until it started raining and our maps turned to mush. We'll probably do some sprint training tomorrow morning. Coach arrives in the afternoon.

The NZL team and 2 Aussies are here.

Having a good time so far. Looking forward to the rest of the team joining us.

Almost in Slovakia! :D

We are currently in Austria for a bit of a wait until our flight to Kosice,

We found  a legit kids play arena, right by our next boarding gate, for playing with Bruceee! Worked up quite a sweat which has resulted in a few of us lacking a bit of energy:

Ant is probs just resting for the AWESOME training we are going to get started! :P

We are all really keen to hit up some Slovak forest! Keep checking this blog, our attackpoint links on the side.

Also check out the youth squds blog for info on their tour: sayoutho.tumblr.com

National Teams Announced

Congratulations to the athletes chosen to represent South Africa! The Junior team will be going to the Junior World Orienteering Champs in Slovakia. The Youth team will be doing the spectator events at the World Masters Orienteering Champs in Germany as well as at the Junior World Champs in Slovakia.

The junior team includes: Stephanie Courtnage, Jessica Hemer, Sarah Pope, Salome van Hoepen, Bradley Lund and Anthony Stott.
The Youth team includes: Jessie and Cian Oldknow, Christie Courtnage, Laura Troost, Sarah Dutkiewicz, Timothy Chambers, Dylan Barry, Greg and David Avierinos and Roark and Miguel Robinson.

Squads for 2012

The SAOF Selection Committee have announced the Junior, Youth and Development national squads for 2012:

Junior Squad:

Men: (In no particular order)

Bradley Lund

JP Sissing

Anthony Stott

Greg Avierinos

Women: (In no particular order)

Stephanie Courtnage

Jessica Hemer

Sarah Pope

Salome Van Hoepen

Youth Squad:

Boys: (In no particular order)

Roark Robinson

Timothy Chambers

David Avierinos

Dylan Barry

Miguel Robinson

Girls: (In no particular order)

Laura Troost

Cian Oldknow

Jesse Oldknow

Christie Courtnage

Sarah Dutkiewicz

Development Squad:

JP Sissing

All the athletes listed above will be expect to show steady improvement, commitment and fitness throughout the year. Included in this, the above athletes will be required to attend any squad trainings held in their respective provinces as well as 3000m track fitness assessments on dates to be advised. Team selection announcements will be made in March 2012.