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After a World Champs the tables that decide how many runners a country gets in the forest races next year are calculated.
This year the tables determined the number of runners for a country in the middle and long races. Next year it only applies to the long, as there are qualification races in the middle and so every country can have three runners. There are also individual places for regional (e.g. European) champions.
Photo: Alan Cherry finishes in the Long Race WOC2018, credit Janis Ligats / WOC2018 Latvia
Women
- Tove Alexandersson, Sweden
- Maja Alm, Denmark ,
- Sabine Hauswirth, Switzerland
British runners:
> 25. Jessica Tullie,
> 28. Charlotte Watson,
> 31. Jo Shepherd.
Photo: Hector Haines running in last year's World Cup Long Race in Switzerland
The World Champs Long races are on Saturday 11th. These are the final races of WOC2018 Latvia. They are in the Gauja river valley "and side ravines". It is hilly, and the runnability varies from very good to hard. The visibility is mostly poor due to the dense vegetation.
GB has three women and two men running. Good luck to them. The women's race is first; and a two minute start interval is used.
Photo: Kris Jones starts leg 2 for the GB men's team, WOC Relay 9th August 2018, by On The Red Line.
The races took place in very hot weather in the forest next to the Turaida fortress in Latvia. Both were decided right at the end.
In the women's the favourite teams pulled away. On the last leg it was Sweden and Switzerland together at the last difficult control after a climb to the wall of the fortress. The race was decided in the short parkland section right at the end.
In the men's there were nine teams almost together at the run-through on the last leg, and at the end here were eight teams within a minute. But after all the drama it was the favourite teams who took the medals. It was the long leg up to the fortress that had decided it.
Photo: Ralph Street, on the runthrough, WOC Middle 7th August 2018, by On The Red Line.
Neither of the GB teams are amongst the favourites, but both have the status of outsiders who can do well on a good day.
Alasdair McLeod (pictured) and Ralph Street ran the World Champs middle race in Sigulda Latvia today. Ali was 52nd and Ralph was 13th. Ralph improved from being 38th at the first timing point and was less time down on the winner at the end than he was on the then leader at the first timing point.
Kris Jones asked Ralph a few questions after the race.
It was the #WOC2018 middle races today. @Thekrisjones asks @Ralph_Street about his race. pic.twitter.com/0o8BAhKxGY
— On The Red Line (@OnTheRedLineO) 7 August 2018
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Photo: Alice Leake in the current leader's chair at World Champs Sprint Final, Riga 2018, by Maprunner
On The Red Line editorial. On Saturday 4th August, after qualification races earlier in the day, the World Champs (WOC) Sprint Final took place in Old Town Riga, Latvia, and Alice Leake, the current British Women's Sprint Champion, came eighth. Alice made her WOC debut three years ago, and in previous years was 35th, 22nd and 22nd. She said on Twitter "8th in the world. What is even happening." It was the highest position by an individual British athlete at the 2018 World Champs. It's the fifth best British Women's sprint result at WOC ever. Like many of her fellow athletes Alice combines full-time work with her orienteering and time and money are precious. The Riga race was rightly hailed as "a breakthrough performance".
Alice explains what happened.
Photo Composition: GB WOC Team 2018 by On The Red Line
The World Championships are in Latvia with races from 4th - 11th August. They are also Round 2 of the 2018 World Cup.
An IOF article in January is entitled
A very special WOC on a very special year for Latvia
The championships in Latvia will be 35th WOC and the last one in modern history of orienteering with both sprint and forest races on the programme.
The British team is quite large, with seven women and seven men, all members of the senior squad.
Of the fourteen athletes, three are selected for sprint only, three for sprint and forest, and eight for forest only. We noted in our 'one race' article how half the team, seven athletes, are concentrating on a single race.
Image: Training Map Extract: 2018 Latvia
On The Red Line editorial - Charlotte wrote about other team members making a trip to join her in Latvia and run the test races organised by WOC. Several of the nations who will win medals use these as selection races so they re high quality. Jess wrote this article on Friday morning before the Sprint Test. Yesterday was the Middle test race. Today Sunday is the long test. There are live results and GPS.
Training Trip Latvia
Some of the team have travelled to Latvia for a pre-camp to suss out the terrain and prepare for the World Championships in less than a month’s time. There’s no point being in your best shape if you don’t know the faster lines to run, the best ways to attack the controls or what constitutes a good route choice.
Image: Map Extract: 2017 World Cup Latvia Middle Race
Learning in Latvia - Preparing for the WOC Middle Race
At the beginning of the year I applied to the athlete support fund for a grant to spend an extended period of time training in Latvia prior to the World Championships. We already knew that the terrain would be similar to the World Championships 2017 in Estonia. Having raced the Long there I felt I could have done much better if I had gone and spent some time learning about the terrain beforehand. Looking to other members of the team who had got better results than me, and other top athletes, it became clear that all those winning medals at WOC spend considerable time training in relevant terrain. The athlete support fund very kindly gave me a grant and I was selected for WOC middle so I was all set to go. I must also thank the North West Orienteering Association for their support on this training camp as well.
Photo: by Steve Rush, Ali McLeod running in to win the JK this year
Many of the GB team travelling to Latvia have a single race at the World Championships that they are training for. This situation will influence the preparation and training for the weeks beforehand. The ideas below may help when you are thinking about an important race for you, be it the forthcoming World Masters, a home internationals, your club championships, or looking ahead at a particular championship race next year.
Photo Composition: GB WOC Team 2018 by On The Red Line
A campaign is launched inviting members of the British orienteering community to contribute towards the cost of the GB team attending the 2018 World Championships (WOC.) The fundraising campaign is, as last year, via the BT MyDonate site and the charity The Orienteering Foundation
The campaign page provides more explanation and provides the way to make a donation.
The success of last year's campaign really helped the athletes, easing financial pressure and being boosted by the support shown by the orienteering community.