Relay Maps

Here are Clare's maps from the relay event to give you an idea of the style of the terrain and the courses.

The first map shows two start/finish areas. The SE one is where competitors started out from quarantine onto the courses. The northern one is where your time actually started and stopped for solving controls 1 through 5. Then you could walk off the clock south to the other section where you once again went on the clock to solve controls 6 through 10.

In each map there is a small area outlined by purple dash which shows the approximate outline of where the competitors had to view from while solving the problems. Each team had three members with different versions of the course (A,B,C). These pictures are course version C. Each version uses the same controls and viewing sites, but has a different circle on the map and a different answer.

You can see the many rock features in the area. Some are very massive cliffs. The relay was different, as we were looking down on them from above. The other competitions have been from below. 

Team USA was 18th out of 19 teams in the open category.

A photo from the second PreO day to give you an idea of the cliffs. Can you find the control flag in this picture?

Meet the 2023 WTOC Team

(O) = Open Class
(P) = Physically Challenged Class
(J) = Open Class - Junior age

Sharon Crawford (O) from the Rocky Mountain Orienteering Club has been a fixture at orienteering championships of all kinds for decades. This will be her 14th WTOC. In addition to orienteering, Sharon is an avid hiker and has been conquering peaks her whole life. She has reached the highest point in every US State and is closing in on completing the same challenge for every country in Europe.

Clare Durand (O) from the Los Angeles Orienteering Club also serves as President of Orienteering USA. She is competing in her 9th WTOC. Clare has been training using virtual TempO games and is always striving for a personal best. When she achieves one, she rewards herself with an extremely large chocolate bar.

Daniel Heimgartner (P) from Capital Region Nordic Alliance will be competing at WTOC for the fourth time. He has been working hard as the course setter for the upcoming Trail-O WRE to be hosted by CRNA in Philadelphia in August.

Jarmo Latva-Kokko (J) from New England Orienteering Club is enjoying his second WTOC. He will be starting his senior year at Andover High School in the fall.

Katja Latva-Kokko (J) from New England Orienteering Club will be competing at WTOC for the first time. She will be a sophomore at Phillips Academy in Andover this coming school year.

Mika Latva-Kokko (O) from New England Orienteering Club has previously competed at five WTOC's and served as a team official and on the jury last year. Mika especially enjoys TempO and has come close to making the finals in the past. He his happy to be back competing this year.

Rhonda Liddell (P) from Capital Region Nordic Alliance has been active in Trail Orienteering for a number of years. She medaled at the 2021 OUSA Trail-O Nationals and is excited to be at her first international Trail Orienteering event. 

Anne Maker (P) from Capital Region Nordic Alliance started Trail Orienteering two years ago. She has been training hard and will be doing her best to represent OUSA at her first WTOC.

David Snypes (P) from Capital Region Nordic Alliance is competing at WTOC for the first time. He has appreciated the time that all of the experienced orienteers have taken to help him prepare for his competitions.

Peter Zielczynski (O) from Hudson Valley Orienteering has done trail orienteering since 2004, but will be representing USA at WTOC for the first time this year. He has attended six previous WTOC's as a member of the Polish team. In 2009 he had a great result landing him in second place - but it didn't last, as he fell to 14th on day 2. He hopes to finish in the top 100 this year.

Model Event

Each country was assigned a start block for the Model event today. Ours was 2:30pm, which gave the new arrivals some time to sleep in to recover from travel. The entire team is now here!

Back row: Daniel Heimgartner(P), David Snypes(P), Anne Maker(P), Mika Latva-Kokko(O), Peter Zielczynski(O), Amy Latva-Kokko(team official), Russ Myer(team official), Sharon Crawford(O)

Front Row: Jarmo Latva-Kokko(O-Jr), Rhonda Liddell(P), Katja Latva-Kokko(O-Jr), Clare Durand(O)

The model was a great little training day. The short course gave us all a chance to practice our rock reading and PreO and TempO strategies. After the finish, we wandered back through the course with the solution sheets. The seasoned Trail-O veterans helped out the newer team members and helped them analyze their mistakes and understand how to improve as the week progresses.

Tomorrow's first day of WTOC PreO competition packs 36 controls into a 500m long course. The map appears to be more bouldery and less cliffy than what we've seen so far with lots of boulder field symbols as well. It may be difficult discerning between individual mapped boulders and rocks that are part of boulder fields. You can find the start list here.

TempO and Trosky

Saturday was the PreWTOC TempO competition. The course had six stations each with five tasks. Seven had been planned, but the grass is so high here that one station across a meadow had to be canceled. The organizers couldn't clear enough of the brush to make everything they needed visible. Similar to Friday, the terrain was steep hillsides filled with large and small cliffs and boulders. Quite technical for a TempO. Clare once again had the top US result with a raw time of 319 seconds and seven misses for a total score of 529. They scored the weekend with a combined scoring system that added up your TempO score, your PreO timed control time, and gave penalty points for missed PreO controls (similar to Trail-O relay scoring). In the final scores, Clare placed 70th, Sharon 98th, and Peter 101st out of 116 Open Elite competitors. 

PreWTOC results and maps

The organizers were kind enough to leave open the previous days PreO course and allowed us to go back to analyze things and even go into the terrain to investigate the sites. It's always nice to be able to visit afterwards and look for how you could have improved. I was able to check out number 18, where I was thrown by the mapping of a single large rock as a cliff with boulder above and a gap between (Not how I would map it!).

The offending rock feature and flag

After the competition, the team enjoyed a trip to the site of Hrad Trosky - ruins of a medieval castle built onto two imposing basalt towers. We then visited more nearby rocks for another fun hike. 

The team at Hrad Trosky

Peter is King of the Rock

Next up: The model event for WTOC. The entire team will finally be together and we will bring you team pics and bios.

Cesky Raj Rocks!

Clare, Peter, and Sharon have arrived early and competed today in the PreO day of the Pre-WTOC Orienteering Adventure. The terrain is full of sandstone cliffs and most of the problems involved figuring out which rock each control was on. Clare had the best score of the day with 23 out of 27 correct. This placed her 75th out of 117 participants in the Open Elite class. You can see the map and all of the results on the PreO results page.

After the competition, they took a trip to the Czech Natural Reserve Prachovske Skaly (Prachov Rocks) and enjoyed an afternoon of hiking through immense boulders with narrow passageways and steep rocky staircases. Although the competition area isn't so dramatic, similar rock formations underlie the large cliffs and boulders in the mapped area.

Tomorrow - TempO at the Pre-WTOC

WTOC 2023

The World Trail Orienteering Championships are only a few days away and the team is readying for their travel. This year's event will be in Czechia and you can find all the details at the event website: https://www.wtoc2023.cz/

Some of the team members will also be competing in the PreWTOC TrailO Adventure WRE taking place nearby just prior to WTOC. Follow this blog for all the news from the team!

Team Announcement from OUSA

TempO travails

While we entered the TempO day with high hopes, once again Team USA did not make the finals. Mika had the best result of the day placing 31st of 38 in his qualifying heat (top 18 in each heat advance).

How did it go today? Did you have a favorite or worst control?

Mika: It was one of the hardest TempOs that I've done--even in World Championships. It is not the kind of terrain that comes easily and fast to me and maybe I was trying to be too accurate today. I feel like it might have been overall better if I had gone maybe 10 or 15 seconds per station faster. It wasn't my best performance, it wasn't my worst performance in TempO. I think slightly below what I was expecting. 

For the most part, I liked the course and I liked the variety of different types of problems. Station five was really, really hard for me. I think I finally got a good idea of what the map was about after I answered the last question. I missed two on that station, but it was the one where I took the longest time. Station four I thought I was doing solidly, but something went wrong because I got three wrong on that one. I still don't quite understand what happened, maybe I misnamed the flags. It doesn't seem like the way I understood the terrain that I could have made those mistakes. 

Clare: I was disappointed in my performance today. A few years ago I had really improved, but TempO takes more constant practice and I didn't put in the work I should have this year. I was quite a bit slower than I should have been and made more mistakes than I wanted to. I also mispunched one, which always frustrates me. At station one, the Alpha flag was very far away and the first map was Foxtrot. When I looked back to that side of the station, I apparently just ignored Alpha and was misnaming the controls. Luckily, this only affected one of my answers, since the other in that direction was a zero (but I missed it anyway). 

I liked station three the best with a lot of huge boulders. I felt really good there, although it turns out I still missed a few. I did clean the next two stations, so maybe the good feeling from that one just spilled over. 

Sharon: I took it careful and slow, but it was too slow and then I missed some. It was awfully fun to do. I know I cleaned at least one station. There was one toward the end where there was a little pond, and I said "That's the pond, there's no water in it." But I think I missed one of the rocks on that.

I think the one I missed the most was...you were in a saddle, a rock on the left, a rock on the right. It looked really good and I was sure I identified everything. I think that's the one where I said the same thing twice.

Clare: In front of you there was some rocky stuff, some of it was cliffs, but a lot of it was bare rock. That's the one where I also picked the same flag twice and neither one was right. 

Daniel: It was a very long walk back from the last station, it was almost too much for me. Otherwise, no complaint. It was very challenging. My favorite was the third station with all the rocks. I didn't like the fourth one with all of the copses. 

General thoughts about TempO and training for it: 

Mika: I need to locate myself better on more complex maps. That's my take away from today. I have a good way of doing this if I find anchor points. but even that didn't help because there was so much detail on the map that I was constantly worried about picking the feature that's next to the one I wanted.

You have to go fast, and you have to train yourself to go fast. It's always this balancing act on accuracy and speed. If you can't go fast it doesn't matter how accurate you are. On the other hand, if you miss everything, it doesn't matter how fast you are. When I was in Finland, I was training being uncomfortably fast. Today was the first time that I've tried in the World Championships to slow down a little bit from what I normally do, with the idea that if I slow down a tiny bit, I will get more answers right. It didn't quite yet work that way. I think I will stick to being faster and learning to be faster on a more complex map.

Sharon: You do it, you stand up, you go to the next station, you're not sure how you did on the previous, you forget about it, you say focus on this one, you sit down. And I try to say "Where am I on the map?" I worked on that as I walked. If you know where you are you can anchor.

Choose one, be positive, and go on. If you could do this every week you'd be so much better about "When do you focus on where you are on the map? When do you focus on where the flags are? When do you focus on where the circle is? When do you focus on the description?" 

Clare: Now I know just how much the training I had been doing helped. When I slacked off, my performance definitely deteriorated.

(Note: maps to be uploaded when I get home)

Relay - Crazy with the Heat

Intense heat characterized the relay day. Because we only had two Paralympic attendees, we were only able to field an Open relay team. Running order was Mika, Sharon, Clare. 

The relay format involves both PreO and TempO. Each team member first solved 10 PreO controls out of a 30 control course and then solved one TempO station with five tasks. The final score combines the TempO score with an additional 60 second penalty for each missed PreO control. 

Team USA performed acceptably, but not stellar in the PreO. Together we missed six controls. then Sharon had one of the best TempO times of the day, cleaning the station in only 31 seconds. Mika was slightly slower and missed one. Together this went a long way and going into Clare's final TempO control, the team was in 16th place of 21 teams. But Clare didn't manage to place herself properly on the map and struggled with the station, having one of the slowest times of the day and missing three answers. The team dropped to 18th place. 

A little later, they announced that they were voiding one of the PreO controls. Sharon had lost a point on this control, and was now vindicated, adding to her TempO triumph. Mika, however, had the best overall score of the day contributing only 139 points to our score.

It was a long and hot, but satisfying day. The team looks forward to the TempO tomorrow. After Sharon's performance today, we feel that anything can happen and we'll all be doing our best. The TempO team will include Mika, Sharon, Clare, and Daniel.

PreO 2 - What's the Score?

A number of different scoring issues made the arena on Day 2 an emotional roller coaster. Beginning with a timing problem due to a non-synced replacement SI unit, through some miscoded answers in the software, and ending with a voided control, scores just kept changing. The good news was they seemed to be mostly going up. The result was that initially everyone thought they had really tanked the course, but as time went on, we learned it wasn't all so dismal.

Control number 11 was voided after the organizers determined that the Alpha flag was only four meters from the circled zero position--inside of the published zero tolerance. This benefited Mika and Clare, who had missed the control, but hurt David and Sharon, who had come up with the correct zero answer.

In the final two day standings, David Irving's 48 points placed him 8th out of 39 in the Para category--one of the best US placings at WTOC in a while. Congratulations, David! Top US scores of the day were Clare with 25 and David with 24 points out of a possible 29. Clare ended up with the top US two-day result, which was 49 points (compared to a winning score of 56) and placing her 41st of 65. While neither day was exceptional, the two solid days gave Clare a personal best in terms of percentage of controls of the winner at her seven WTOCs.

Interview with the open team

How did it go today?
Mika - Not the best time management, got a little dehydrated towards the end. I missed four of the last eight controls.
Clare - I missed two of the last eight. My biggest miss was that I mispunched one where I missed the fact that there was a control, not really part of the cluster, but nearby up above. It was supposed to be counted in the group, but I didn't include it so even though I picked the correct flag, I gave the wrong answer.
Sharon - dismal day. I missed quite a few. Then one that I got they threw out. Toward the end I ran out of time.

What did you like or do well today?
Mika - I loved the course. If I had a little bit more time
Clare - I didn't feel as confident on this course as on Day 1. Today I felt there were more controls were even though I came up with a solution I wasn't really sure if I came up with the best way to solve it.
Sharon - Sounds like me. I enjoyed the course, it was a lot of fun to do. In the end time is running, I've got to choose and go on.
Clare - I like all the rocky hillsides and trying to figure out which boulder is which. At the end today, I didn't have as much time as I would have liked. Quite a few were almost a Hail Mary with only a few seconds.
Sharon - If one had a little more time to figure out all that rock. If you could do that, it all fit together.

How did the problems at the arena affect you?
Clare - It was hard for me to process that I had done better than I originally thought. I got in the mindset of  "I really blew it" because that's how I felt at the end of the course.
Sharon - You dwell on what you missed and then you forget about what you had done well, because it didn't take as long. And you think you didn't do well because you missed one.

Anything else?
Mika - Timed controls all right and they were quick. So a lot more confidence for the TempO. I'll just relax and read the map and answer.

The final eight control cluster that we all wished we had more time for:

PreO Day 1 - Hot and Rocky

First day of PreO was on the map Quinto do Valongo. The terrain is semi-open grassland with many rock features.

Pinja Makinen of Finland had the only perfect score of the Day, so is in fine position going into Day 2. Top USA results came from David Irving and Clare Durand, who both scored 24 out of a possible 28 points. This places David 14th of 39 in the Para class and Clare at 42nd of 65 in the Open class.

Daniel punches in

David - I'm suprised I did as well as I did. I think I was guessing a lot of my answers, but getting them right. I mispunched one control and if I hadn't done that I would have ended up 7th instead of 14th. I had solved 18 and 19 together and when I turned around to punch 18, I had the punch I was planning on punching at 19. Just after I punched it, I realized I'd made the mistake. I answered 19 properly.  It got hot out there.

Daniel - I thought I did much better today than I actually did. I didn't like the mapping, particularly the vegetation boundaries. I would have mapped them with the boundary symbol. Maybe it's just me. I didn't like the weather, it was too hot.

Sharon - I started out well, and then in the middle of the course I got a little bit rushed, so I missed a couple in there. It was adequate but not brilliant. Some of them were kind of clever, but others were vague. We had a timed control at the beginning and I thought I had missed one of those, but then you went to the start and got the map for the PreO and I said "Just forget about it, you've got two hours of this other stuff in front of you, you've got to seal that out of your mind." When I did finish and we had the second timed control, that one I did nail. I felt much more confident. Most were quite fun to do.

Clare - I had a pretty good time. In general I've been enjoying the terrain because it's California like. And I've done a lot of rock mapping, so that's something I have a handle on. I'm enjoying the style of the courses because it's a lot of feature identification and not a lot of other tricky stuff. I had a couple of controls where I thought I saw through a trick and I was wrong--there wasn't a trick. I felt good when I solved number 6. Most people did solve it, but it was far away with copses and trying to figure out the edge of the copses. I used a lot of time up early, so late in the course I was going fast. 

Mika rushes while Pinja Makinen
studies her way to first place

Mika - I think it was good and fair today. I'm still having a hard time adjusting to the maps. Today my problems were mostly with reading stuff that I could use to figure out elevations. I really liked the cluster at the end of the course, starting from 20 and on through 27, which were basically all one viewing station you just would move around. You ended up having to read almost everything over there to solve those problems. That was working well for me. Many people say that A controls take them the shortest amount of time. For me, A controls seem to be taking the longest amount of time because I have to read exactly where it is. I can't get a hint from "the flag is probably placed at something" and read from there. The 16/17 combination was not good for me today. Anytime there are pairs of controls fairly close to one another, if I read one wrong there is a good chance that I might get the other wrong as well. I had a mistake at the timed control. I can't count to five it seems.

Meet the 2019 OUSA WTOC Team

SHARON CRAWFORD, from the Rocky Mountain Orienteering Club will be competing in her 12th WTOC. Sharon has represented the US at the elite level in Foot Orienteering, Ski Orienteering, and Trail Orienteering over her long career. She holds numerous US titles along with many international age group awards.
In addition to competing when she can, she trains for trail orienteering by regularly reading over specifications and rules and practicing distance estimation. Sharon says, "Regular foot orienteering is the best training really. Paralympic competitors are at a disadvantage because many have not been off the trail."
Her approach to trail orienteering is do your best--and if you don't win, at least don't be stupid. 
Sharon loves orienteering and thinks the people in orienteering are some of the best people ever. 

CLARE DURAND of the Los Angeles Orienteering Club is competing in her seventh WTOC. Clare not only competes in TrailO, but also serves as Chair of the team Executive Steering Committee and President of OUSA. Clare would like to have two solid PreO days, as it seems she usually manages to do well on only one of the two days. She trains with competition, mapping, and course setting. Most recently she claimed the Bronze medals in both PreO and TempO at Nationals and set the Trail-O course at Anza-Borrego.

DANIEL HEIMGARTNER of Quantico Orienteering Club is competing in his third WTOC. He recently set the course at 5 Rivers in New York and regularly plays online trail-o games to train (trailo.it), as well as doing foot orienteering. His goal for the WTOC is to stay healthy. His degenerative condition means that he is now using two canes on the course.

Trail-O is worth it!

DAVID IRVING of San Diego Orienteering will be enjoying his tenth appearance at the World Trail-O Championships, he also attended the Trail-O World Cup in 1999 before Trail-O was a Championship discipline. He hopes to place in the top half of the Para category. His training primarily consists of vetting Trail-O courses in Southern California and attending competitions when possible.

David will be 80 this year, which makes him one of the oldest competitors at the World Championships.

MIKA LATVA-KOKKO from the New England Orienteering Club is competing at the World Trail Orienteering Championships for the fifth time. Mika has set multiple courses on the east coast over the last year, including the recent National Championships. His goal for the World Champs is to correctly answer at least 90% of the control problems, which he states is a "high goal." 

He especially looks forward to the TempO and hopes that competing in a prior weekend TempO has "gotten rid of the rustiness" so he will be at his best for WTOC.

2019 US Trail O Nationals

Happy Trail Orienteers gather after the TempO

The New England Orienteering Club recently hosted the 2019 OUSA Trail Orienteering Nationals. Phillips Academy - Andover Campus provided a mix of campus and park style terrain for the TempO on Saturday. Rock and contour detail were the challenge for the PreO at Houghton's Pond on Sunday. Afterward we enjoyed a get-together with NEOC foot-O members at their annual meeting and picnic.

The wildly different terrains kept the participants thinking.

Controls across the pond

Graham Urquhart (UK) makes his
way between TempO stations

TempO winners:

Gold - Richard Y. Ebright (DVOA)

Silver - Joe Brautigam (WCOC)

Bronze - Clare Durand (LAOC)

PreO winners:

Gold - Joe Brautigam (WCOC)

Silver - Mike Poulsen (CROC)

Bronze - Clare Durand (LAOC)

Many thanks to NEOC and all of the volunteers. Key volunteers are listed:

Meet Director - Bud O'Leary

Course Setter - Mika Latva-Kokko

TempO Vetter - Jim Crawford

PreO Vetter - Richard Y. Ebright

OUSA 2019 WTOC Selection Process

Details of the selection process for this year's World Trail Orienteering Champs have been posted on the Trail-O Team page of the OUSA Website.

Some thoughts on PreO

The Paralympic Team relaxing on TempO day

Christ Rasmussen is a Paralympic Team member competing at his second WTOC. He greatly improved his performance between the two PreO days. His thoughts going into the second model event:

Going into Model #2, is a training day to maximize learning experience of not only the map maker, but more importantly where I am making the mistakes from lack of experience. Going back on the course and discuss where I made the mistakes is crucial and beneficial to compete at a higher standard. 

Building confidence with quick decisive problem solving techniques with precise positioning and zero expectations to compete on higher level. I will become better for myself and team USA.

From Mika:
Based on last year's European Cup event in similar location I knew to expect a challenging set of problems for the preO day 1. The process of solving them was to read everything on the map and determine where each flag was. Not easy but fair. That is why so many people got so many answers right. My problem was second guessing myself. On five controls I changed my mind from the correct answer to the wrong one at the last minute. Oh well, I'll try to do better on Day 2.

From Mike:
I was hoping to do better at Pre-O, but that didn't happen. I felt rushed from the beginning, with 28 controls at 5 minutes each. I was 10 minutes behind at halfway, but started making faster decisions, and finished with 2 minutes to spare. I will work on distance estimation into terrain at the second model.

Team USA thoughts on the TempO

Mika Latva-Kokko had the best USA TempO result to date, just missing a spot in the final. Mika is a member of the New England Orienteering Club and is competing at his third WTOC.

Doing the TempO qualification I felt slow so I kept pushing. I knew I had gotten at least two of the problems wrong and suspected I had possibly missed some zero answers. The problems felt easy and I thought I would need to be around 25 s per station averaging 1 mistake per station to qualify.

When I finished and saw my result I thought that I would probably just miss the final. Being the first starter it was tough to follow the scores coming in. At times I felt like I might make the final, at times I was convinced I would not. In the end I was 19th missing the final (18th spot) by 1.5s. The person I lost 1.5s in the qualifier to went on to win the world championship. He is a young guy from Finland and I know him quite well. I am happy for him, and had it been me that qualified I could not have done as well in the final.

I did all the stations at the upper limit of my skill level. If I go any faster (which I need to do) I'm going to miss a lot more. I'm happy and upset of my result at the same time. In hindsight the 1.5s could have been gained in multiple different ways.

Mike Poulsen of Columbia River Orienteering Club is competing in his sixth WTOC after a number of years hiatus. His best past result was 9th place in Ukraine in 2007. To prepare for WTOC TempO, he has been designing TempO courses and participating in photo-O and sprint events.


I am getting better at TempO, but clearly not at a high enough level. It was good to see Mika do so well. He carried the flag at the opening ceremony, which was actually much nicer than the WOC ceremony in Riga.

Final Thoughts

The WTOC came to a close about two weeks ago. The final competition was the second day of PreO. This was not a stellar day for team USA. Richard, who was in a great position entering Day 2, only scored 19 out of 28 and fell significantly in the standings. Clare and Sharon both scored 21, and Clare ended with the top US result in 36th place. Our Paralympic team continued to learn and, despite low scores, managed to keep out of the last spot. Best Paralympic finish was Matt Pietro in 35th place. Richard H. Ebright completed all three days of the Public competition and ended in 5th place overall in the public combined scoring.

We've had time to rest and recuperate and think about our performance. Here are some closing thoughts from a few team members:

Richard Y. Ebright:

How would you assess your performance at WTOC? 
Overall, my performance was worse than in my previous WTOC appearances (2008, 2011, 2012). However, this was driven by a poor showing on PreO Competition Day 2; on the first day, I did very well, ending at 9th place, which I'm proud of. 

What was your greatest strength at WTOC? 
For the most part, I've gotten much more accurate with timed controls. Of the 53 timed controls this year, between models, TempO, PreO, and the relay, I only missed 4. That's a lot better than at previous events, TempO or PreO. 

Where do you feel you most need improvement? 
In the same vein as my greatest strength, while my accuracy was high for the timed controls, my speed was not internationally competitive. My overall times for TempO were similar to those from the US Championships at Camp Scherman this year, but I found that international competition was simply much faster. So a big goal of mine is really to speed up those timed controls while maintaining at least some of the accuracy I demonstrated this year.

What was the high point of the week for you? 
Though I was riding high after seeing my top 10 finish after the first PreO day, I would say that the high point of the week was meeting the members of our Paralympic team. It was the first time in a long, long time that the US has fielded a full Paralympic team, and our group, though fairly new to the sport, was ready and eager to represent the red, white, and blue. They're just getting started, and I hope to see them at future US and international events! 

What was the low point of the week for you? 
Probably also after PreO day 1, while waiting for results. It was downpouring all through the course, and when I finished, I was soaked. But I had forgotten to bring a change of clothes, and as one of the early finishers, I had to wait for hours in my soaked uniform. So that's my lesson from WTOC2017: always have extra, warm clothes. 

Curtis Schreiner:

How would you assess your performance at WTOC?

Trail O was a total learning experience. After seeing what it entailed and the level of skill required I am satisfied with roughly 50% accuracy. I was expecting much poorer performance considering the level of competition and am satisfied with how we did as a para team.

Where do you feel you most need improvement?

I need to recognize better the subtleties of each terrain feature. 

What did you feel well prepared for?I think I have a pretty good grasp of the control descriptions. 

Do you plan to continue with trail orienteering?I would like to continue in the sport and learn it much better. My goal is to try to attend events in the US and practice as much as possible. 

What was the high point of the week for you?

Seeing and experiencing the camaraderie between teams and meeting new friends. 

What was the low point of the week for you?The upper level organization at the event left a bit to be desired. Luckily we all returned home in one piece.

Any other thoughts or comments on your WTOC experience?I think we had a great team and all were totally willing to help instruct the new guys. Lithuania was great and the staff of the hotel was very nice. The volunteers from the O clubs there did a great job and worked very hard to make the experience a good one.

Clare Durand:

How would you assess your performance at WTOC?

I was hoping for better, specifically to make the TempO finals and two nice days on PreO. I only had one good PreO day. This sight line style of TrailO does not play to my strengths. I am really best at reading detailed terrain and contours and there wasn't a lot of that this year. 

What was your greatest strength at WTOC?
Probably increased speed at TempO. There is still much room for improvement, but I'm happy with how much I've already improved. 

Where do you feel you most need improvement?
Distance estimation for sure! I need to get much better at estimating how far away things are from me and from each other in the terrain. I missed a few controls that I might have gotten right if I were better at this. 

What are your goals in regards to trail orienteering over the next year?
Continue to improve in TempO and PreO. Win a U.S. Championship and help to get more TrailO and training happening here in the US. I don't want to lose the enthusiasm of our new Paralympic members, so we need to make sure they have opportunities 

What was the high point of the week for you?
10th place in the Relay.

Any other thoughts or comments on your WTOC experience?
Loved having the new Paralympic team with us. It was really interesting to see how these novices approached the sport, how much they still have to learn, and to share their excitement and growth. 

Russ Myer (Paralympic team organizer and coach):

How would you assess your performance at WTOC?

For a fresh face to trail O, I set no hard performance expectations. Realizing event formats and rules provided a platform from which I could gage assimilation more than anything-mission accomplished!!!. My Foot O background helped me work with the Para Trail O supporting their growing performance event to event.

What was your greatest strength at WTOC?

As a Para team coach…being adaptive and supporting the athletes so their experiences and performances would be positive.

What did you feel well prepared for?

Handling so many unique event and trip scenarios

What were you poorly prepared for?

Lack of precision for complex/tricky control stations

What are your goals in regards to trail orienteering over the next year?

Set up a Trail O course and program in NY’s Capital Region

Any other thoughts or comments on your WTOC experience?

A HUGE Kudos to Clare Durand for all her work….BRAVO!! Thank you to all the team members

Relay Mayhem

The day began with an early breakfast. With all of the competitors needing to be in quarantine by 9:00am and breakfast starting at 7:00am, the line snaked into the hotel lobby. Upon arrival at the Capitals Golf Course venue, however, we saw that had been unnecessary. The quarantine was still being set up, along with the course. Eventually we filled the quarantine tent and were entertained by Clive Allen's occasional announcements that he still didn't know when the starts would actually happen. That finally occurred around 11:00am, nearly two hours later than planned.

For the first time in many years, Team USA fielded full teams in both the Paralympic and Open categories with the following lineups:

Paralympic Team:
Leg 1) Curtis Schreiner
Leg 2) Matthew Pietro
Leg 3) Christ Rasmussen

Open Team:
Leg 1) Sharon Crawford
Leg 2) Clare Durand
Leg 3) Richard Y. Ebright

Sharon takes off in the mass start

The TrailO Relay course consisted of 27 controls. Each competitor solves exactly nine of the controls, with the first competitor having their pick of the lot and the second choosing nine more. The third leg runner finishes off whatever is left. The single time limit applies to the team as a whole. Each runner can use as much or as little as they need as long as the third leg finishes before the time limit has elapsed. Additionally, each team member solves one TempO station. Scoring is done by adding up all the TempO times along with a 30-second penalty for each TempO miss and a 60-second penalty for each PreO miss.

Curtis considers the controls

The Paralympic team planned in advance to split the controls chronologically, so Curtis started by completing numbers one through nine. Matthew quickly determined, however, that this strategy didn't make sense for him given the difficulty of the trails in his wheelchair. He instead concentrated on tasks closer to the start/finish and left those further away for Christ.

The mayhem continued as the Open team waited for first leg runner Sharon to return. The time limit meant each runner should use between 70 and 75 minutes. This mark passed and still no Sharon. Eventually, Clare was the only remaining Leg 2 runner in quarantine. Sharon finally finished, using a little over 90 minutes. She had run into difficulty solving a few problems and had also been caught up by a one-way route section that prevented her from returning to the finish as quickly as intended.

Christ working it out

Clare and Richard had been busily recalculating the time they had remaining per leg. Upon seeing the map, Clare decided to do the furthest out controls. She figured that, given the time pressure the team was under, it was best not to have Richard worried about covering a lot of ground. Going too fast can increase silly mistakes. Clare mispunched on control 22, where control labeling was intended to be shared with control 21. Christ was not caught by the same situation and he solved number 22 successfully.

As preliminary results came in, one control had been voided and Team USA found they were in reasonable position in both classes. Open was in 13th and Paralympic was in 9th. Russ Myer, USA Paralympic coach, had promised the team champagne if they weren't last and it was looking good for the guys.

It was now mid-afternoon and Richard and Christ were quarantined until after the third leg finished the spectator TempO control. This meant they had spent at least six hours in quarantine or on the course. And lunch was not provided in the quarantine.

Is that another Zero?

The final TempO control was set up to allow spectators to watch and learn whether competitors were correct or not on each questions. Paralympic went first followed by the Open class, in reverse order of results so far. The TempO solutions were almost all zero and this caught less experienced Christ, who answered none correctly. Richard escaped with only two misses (a common score).

Then came the big wait for protests. While most of the team headed back to the hotel, Clare and Sharon stayed at the event center to monitor the proceedings. They eventually left when the jury finally rode out into the field in a golf cart to check a number of protested controls. The jury didn't return to the hotel until about 10:00pm and they had voided an additional two controls. Three teams were also disqualified for rule violations.

When everything was settled and the final results came out, Team USA Open was excited to find they were in 10th position out of 19 teams and Team USA Paralympic had earned their champagne.

Relay Results

Wet and Wild PreO

Thursday was the first day of the PreO competition, held at an outdoor museum showcasing Lithuanian traditions of various ethnographic groups. The weather was very wet and the course was quite challenging. With one control voided early on, no one had achieved a perfect score for the day. The course of 21 controls included a variety of challenges in terrain ranging from forest to buildings. After protests were handled an additional control was voided and three top competitors ended with the now perfect score of 19. 

Richard led Team USA with a score of 18 (9th place) and Clare was close behind at 17 points (28th place). Sharon scored 13 and stands in 61st place. 

In Paralympic competition, Matthew Pietro had the top US result with a score of 9 (34th place). Christ scored 8 (35th place) and Curtis scored 7 (37th place). 

This year the two days of Pre-O are separated by a day of Relay competition, so the second day of PreO won't take place until Saturday.

Results

 

Richard seems surprised at the result of his solution method.

Curtis using his patented "map on the ground" method.

Christ is determined to conquer the course despite the rain.

Clare measures carefully to avoid any errors.

Pictures!

Today was the PreO model event. The team spent a long time at the model trying out the course and receiving training tips from Richard Y and Clare. Since there wasn't any competition today, here are a few team pics:

Team USA at opening ceremony in Lithuania, WTOC 2017

Back: Richard Y. Ebright, Christ Rasmussen, Sharon Crawford, Richard H. Ebright (Team Official), Curtis Schreiner, Russ Myer (Team Official).

Front: Matthew Pietro, Clare Durand

Christ Rasmussen solves station five at the TempO public event.

Curtis Schneider carefully prepares at the same station.

Matthew captures Christ on the way to a TempO station.