Jonsered Training

On Saturday we hopped onto the Blå Express Bus to the Jonsered training map. It is a ‘middle distance relevant’ area. We both agree that it is one of the hardest places we’ve tried to ‘orienteer’ in. Notice the huge cliffs and the many confusing contours. We’re worried about having to race or go fast in this terrain.We spent the morning getting buffeted by the strong wind on the Göta River. We took a public transport ferry ride west along the river.

Here is a picture of our accommodation until Tuesday night.

This morning we met the event director Mats. We collected some more training maps, including the Swedish and Danish JWOC selection race map. We will try it this afternoon. It looks a bit crazy. We’ll put it up tomorrow.

We hope everyone enjoyed Gauteng Champs!

The first training

Our first run on a Gothenburg map was in a middle distance relevant area, on a 1:10’000 sprint spec map. We quickly found out that if all the bare rock was marked, the map would have been very grey. Almost all the open areas on the map are bare rock. There are lots of large rocky areas, in between all the forest. Its great to be in the Swedish forest again!

The city

We’ve got public transport passes so we can go where we please. It seems we can get to all our training area on the public transport network.

It’s very quiet at the moment because the Swedes are disappearing to their summer cottages to celebrate the summer solstice. Its light from 3:00 to 23:00.

The travelling

We left Jo’burg on Wednesday night and arrived at Schipol on Thursday morning. We had a short trip into Amsterdam, taking in the most important sights.

We arrived in Gothenburg on Thursday evening. We’re staying in a one man, one room flat that is about 10 minutes bus ride from the central station. Thank you to a very trusting Swede, Karl or Nightfox on Attackpoint, who is letting us stay in his flat while he is in Switzerland. Thanks Karl. We're enjoying the NCL (Nightfox Compact Living)

The Team

This year's Junior JWOC team sets off for Gothenburg on Wednesday the 18th of June.

We'll spend the first part of the trip training and getting to grips with the Gothenburg terrain and maps. Competition starts with the Sprint Final and Opening Ceremony on Monday the 30th of June. Four races later, the event will close with the Relay on Sunday the 6th of July.

The team consists of:

Alex Pope:
Witsoc
20 years old
2nd JWOC and 2nd time orienteering in Sweden
Links to Training Logs and ramblings are on the right

Dylan Hemer:
Witsoc

20 years old
2nd JWOC and 2nd time orienteering in Sweden
Links to Training Logs are on the right

The team is managed by Peter Hemer:
RACO
Not as young as he used to be
2nd JWOC as manager
1st Orienteering trip to Sweden

Fundraising

We'd like to say thank you to everyone who has contributed to South African Junior Orienteering.

Firstly, thank you to the Moms for putting in such an effort over the past year. We've steadily been raising money at every event, and they've even put on some special events.

Picture off the RACO website

Peter Hemer has been working very hard at making this trip a success. Hopefully you'll enjoy it Peter!

Our sponsors are shown on the right. Thanks for the donations and contributions. We are very grateful to everyone who has contributed.

Thank you to the Gauteng Orienteers for putting up with another year of fundraising:
- Thanks for buying boerewors rolls, chicken burgers and drinks.
- Thanks for supporting the raffles.
- Thanks for supporting the fund raising tea and the rally.

The Blog

We're about to jet off to Sweden and this is how we're going to show people at home what we get up to. We'll put up pictures, results and stories from Gothenburg and JWOC 2008

• You can get a good overview of last year's trip by looking at the posts from 2007.
• Our sponsors are shown on the right --->
• Some of the juniors log their training (...some of the juniors train?). Have a look for the Attackpoint
• The JWOC 2008 homepage is also listed. You can see the calendar of events for the week long competition --->
• We've got a good crop of juniors for the next few JWOC's. Have a look at the Italian and Danish JWOC's --->
• And the Gauteng Orienteering Clubs' web pages are also there --->