Muddy Trails and Team Travails

After a rainy night, Team USA set forth to conquer the first day of PreO competition at the World Trail Orienteering Championships. The rain created extremely muddy trail conditions such as the organizers had never seen in their two years of preparations. They had worked valiantly to build bridges, provide volunteer escorts and make the trail as suitable as possible, but the competitors, especially those in wheelchairs, had a very slippery and muddy experience.

Technically, the course was quite good, with many difficult controls, yet little to argue about upon seeing the solutions. For the first time in Championship competition, the organizers provided competitors with guidance on the tolerance distance for zero answers. This helped to prevent frustration when controls seemed minorly displaced. It was very nice to be able to safely choose a control knowing that the task at hand was not about the difference of one or two meters in control placement.

As of this writing only preliminary results have been released and it seems likely that these include errors in calculating overtime (including for at least one Team USA member) so we will hold off on discussing our personal placings other than to say - there's always Day 2!
Tomorrow is the TempO qualification day. TempO has traditionally been a weak point for Team USA so we figure there is nowhere to go but up. We are hoping for some faster times than in the past and perhaps to not be at the bottom of the results. The top 36 competitors will move on to Thursday's final round.

Control of the Day:
Controls 10 and 18

This was an interesting course set-up and control 10 was one of the most missed of the day. Even many of the top competitors missed this one. The course had two sections. We started out traveling northwest on the trail in the top corner of the solution map. The viewing station for 10 was there. From that viewpoint it looked like the river cut through just by control C and it was hard to determine that the terrace inside the river bend continued beyond the control.
At a break point, we turned in our map and got a new one. This second part of the course traveled southeast on the other trail closer to the river. Now the same controls were used for a new problem. This time it was easy to determine that B was the control on the proper knoll because the view was much closer and you could see what the river was actually doing.

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Model Day 1

The weekend events are over and it's time to move on to the actual WTOC. None of the team had stellar results over the weekend, but we can certainly say that we learned a lot.

Today was the first model event. We had a PreO course with 12 controls and one timed control station plus two TempO stations. The area included very subtle terrain and extremely detailed mapping. Clare got all of the PreO controls correct, although she took her time to really understand the mapping. Mika worked on his speed at the timed controls and solved the TempO stations much more quickly than past Saturday.

Team Interview Question:
"After last weekend and today's model, what have you learned that you will bring with you into the competition?"
David: The model was a lot better done than last weekend. It gave me a better feeling that they are going to do a competent job for the rest of the competition. It was good to see them doing the timing. I think it was as much for them to iron out their practice as it was for us to learn how they're doing it.
Clare: To use the contour detail and relative height to solve problems. Many US Trail-O maps don't have accurate enough contour detail for that to be the best solution method, but it's clear that they are using that significantly here.
Mika: I'm not going to be as zero happy as I have been in the past. So I'm going to make sure that my zeros are clear zeros. I'm not going to pick zero just because the flag does not appear to be exactly in the right place.
Sharon: I think to analyze and keep my confidence up. Don't hesitate -- choose and move on.
Karen: (advice to the team) Wear insect repellent.

Control of the Day:
Control Cluster number 8 and 9

This cluster of four controls was used for two problems. Number eight required determining which of the first three flags was on the proper knoll and number nine was basically like an A control problem, trying to decide whether flag "D" was or was not in the correct position. From the viewing point, control eight was difficult. Many of the details in the area were hard to see. It was much easier to solve by viewing from the west, where this was the view:

In the first photo you can see that flag "B" is properly situated relative to the rootstock and that "A" is much too far south. In the second photo, you can see that flag "C" is on the wrong side of the trail. With this information you needed only to verify from the viewing site that control "B" was actually on the knoll.

Number 9 was solved by noting that the contour line ran directly between the rootstocks. You could then follow that contour over to the reentrant to determine that the control was at the correct position within the reentrant.

Solutions: 8-B, 9-D

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TempO Results

The TempO results from yesterday were published late last night. You can find them here.

Best US result was from Clare who placed 71 of 123 competitors, missing 4 controls along the way. Mika Latva-Kokko missed 5 controls and placed 87th. While these placings may seem low, they are quite an improvement for Team USA, who have had disappointing TempO results in earlier years. Let's hope we keep it up for the actual WTOC competition in a few days.

Control of the Day -- Control Cluster 1:

Three of the top seven competitors missed the first control in this cluster -- the only control missed by any of them. Clearly they hit us with something tricky right out of the chute. Clare missed this one because she really didn't know the control description for hedge and was confused by it's similarity to wall. Mika, David, and Karen all missed control number three, which was a very commonly missed control. It was necessary to clearly identify that the tree indicated by the circle and the control description was on the other side of the wall, so couldn't possibly be the answer.

ECTO TempO in Varazdin

Today we competed on a TempO course as part of a pre-WTOC competition in nearby Varazdin. The solutions and results had not yet been released when we left, so we are in suspense until tomorrow. Clare had the fastest times of our team, and thinks she did fairly well, but only time will tell. The competition was held on the old castle grounds in the center of town. Problems mostly involved corners of buildings or individual trees and bushes. As always, many of the trickiest were Z controls where you had to realize that the featured circle was one that you couldn't really see from your vantage point. The coolest part was a small trail that went around the top of a berm surrounding the castle. A few of the viewing stations were up on the berm looking down toward the castle or out toward the town. Sharon has not yet arrived, so did not compete today.

The Varazdin events also include Foot-O, so Clare and Mika enjoyed a fast and furious park-O sprint in the morning before the temp-O. For more details you can visit Clare's attackpoint log.

Control of the Day:

Since we don't have solution maps yet available, I'll give you a taste of the sprint course. The craziest leg was 10 to 11. That opening between the building and fence north of #10 was a locked gate, so we had to run all the way around to approach #11 from the east.

On the Road Again

We are on the way to Croatia for the 2015 WTOC!.

This year's team consists of:

Sharon Crawford (RMOC) - Open Class

Clare Durand (LAOC) - Open Class

David Irving (SDO) - Paralympic Class

Mika Latva-Kokko (NEOC) - Open Class

Spots on the team were contested earlier this year at the amazingly exciting 2015 US Trail-O Championships. While team spots are awarded on the basis of National Ranking, that ranking consists of your top three scores from the last seven ranked competitions. Since this year's champs had two courses it counted as two scores and therefore was a significant component in team selections. Especially harrowing was the fight for the third Open spot, which came down to the last day at the Championships. Clare succeeded in bringing in the best result for the day, inching her above Mike Poulsen in the rankings and winning her the spot for the WTOC.

Sharon, Clare, and David have all attended multiple previous WTOCs, but this is the first for Mika Latva-Kokko, who is happy to represent USA and to celebrate his new citizenship.

Mike Poulsen and David Irving named US Trail-O Champs

Open Gold - Mike Poulsen; Open Bronze - Gavin Wyatt-Mair; Para Gold - David Irving

Mike Poulsen took the Gold Medal in the Open Class and David Irving in the Paralympic Class at the US Trail Orienteering Championships held Saturday, August 9 in Colorado. Mike was the only competitor with a perfect score of 14 controls. Sharon Crawford set 16 controls, two of which were voided by the Jury after a flurry of protests. For the first time, the US rule imposing a 1/2 point penalty on competitors who file a losing protest was applied. Five controls were protested, two of these were voided, two were deemed reasonable protests and the penalty was waived. Only those who protested number 10 were penalized.

Full results

USA Trail-O Champs Preview

The 2014 Championships are a few hours away. The course set by Sharon Crawford with Peter Goodwin as vetter promises to be challenging. Seven US team members will be competing along with other highly ranked Champs eligible competitors. TempO World Champ Martin Jullum is also registered, which will certainly elevate the competitive level. Watch for Team members on the course wearing their spiffy new uniforms.

The event asked for a waiver from the official OUSA rules to operate under current IOF rules. The timed controls will be one station with three problems and will count only for time and not for points.  Speed will be of the essence as only 30 seconds per problem will be allotted with a 60 second penalty for incorrect answers.

About 25 people brushed up their skills at the convention today. I led a workshop that included a presentation on various trail-O solution techniques. Workshop attendees also had an opportunity to try a demo TempO station and a few other field exercises. Anticipation is high for tomorrow's competition.