onemanfanclub
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Posted: 1 August 2015, 12:01 AM
Sprint quals underway - all 3 NZ women make the final (not a single Scandinavian country can claim this!) Lizzie and Laura convincingly, Imogene takes her traditional perfectly judged race to a whole new level - not just taking the final qualification place in her heat, but a mere 1 second ahead of Venla Niemi - the first to miss. How's that for efficiency?
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 1 August 2015, 1:06 AM
No real surprises in the mens heats - closest to an upset would be none of the Portugese (usually pretty good in sprints) got through. Tim in in 7th place, which will see him start mid-field in the final, WOC debutants Shamus & Gene both miss out (by 8 & 16 seconds respectively) though still in the top 20 - both within a minute of 2nd in their heats! Overall, an impressive start to the campaign!
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 1 August 2015, 1:16 AM
gps tracking was patchy, and unusually rather than there being distinct 'dead spots' on the map it would be individual athletes that would either appear and disappear at random or never show up at all (Tim included, of course), while others would show up for their entire race. More so with the men, no idea why. Live audio commentary was promised, and likely was available the whole time but the link was disguised as 'web-tv replay'(as I discovered right at the end)
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Michael
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Posted: 1 August 2015, 7:32 AM
Very well done team. Good luck for the relay. I see the forecast is for 13 degrees and light showers. To show our support, here in Wellington it's 13 degrees, and, yep...
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 2 August 2015, 1:39 AM
NZ (Lizzie/Gene/Tim/Laura) 12th in sprint relay, an improvement by a couple of places on last year. Won convincingly by Denmark, completely dominating 3/4 legs. Looked like Lizzie did more than her fair share of work at or near the front of the pack trying to chase Emma Klingenberg before getting monstered near the end, then the guys held their position with stable runs so that Laura was able to wind in a few places on the final leg. A much better race than last year with more actual orienteering required and packs splitting on route choice, not just the forked legs, yet still exciting head-head action all the way through. Disappointed with IOF live centre though (video never started, was given 'invalid token' message when trying to open gps tracking for anything more than one leg), won't be buying any more tickets if this morning's experience is repeated, thankful for SVT, by all accounts the Swedish commentary is as easy to understand as the Scots anyway!
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ACW
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Posted: 2 August 2015, 2:53 AM
It won't be much consolation for those in NZ battling with poor Live feeds, but the Arena viewing was first class. The big screen, commentary and run-through had the spectators enthralled. Just as important the sun showed its face and the rain stayed away after the course was hailed on a few hours before race start. Well done ornganisers. Well done Team NZ.
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 2 August 2015, 3:39 AM
Sprint final start times for anyone wanting an early rise tomorrow:
Immy (1)
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 2 August 2015, 3:48 AM
(Sorry, let's try that again)
Sprint final start times for anyone wanting an early rise tomorrow:
Ladies:
Immy (1) 03:51
Hanny (31) 04:21
Laura (34) 04:24
Lizzie (36) 04:26
Last starter Minna Kauppi 04:35
Lads:
1st starter Hakon Westergard 04:56
Tim (27) 05:22 - chasing Khramov and Scott Fraser!
Last starter Jerker Lysell 05:40
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 2 August 2015, 3:51 AM
I'm undecided whether the proposed sprint/'forest' WOC is a good thing or not, but if it does happen and late afternoon races stay the norm for sprint races, please keep the sprint WOC out of Western Europe! ;-)
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Martin
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Posted: 2 August 2015, 5:38 AM
The livecentre coverage was excellent, probably the same footage as the arena. and a separate commentary. Very easy to follow and know what's going on.
For the invalid token message, check the difference between the links. It should end in &token= and then paste your token.
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 3 August 2015, 12:29 AM
Great run by Tim! Still waiting on official results, I've seen 20th and 21st by 2 different sources but either way that's amongst Chris Forne's very best individual results. 49 seconds down, and I think he could probably find a few of those seconds early in the course but looked very clean and fast over the 2nd half. The women will be less pleased, although Laura got away to an excellent start, top 10 through the first km or so... but maybe a little too quick on the 3rd consecutive day of sprint racing?
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Mike B
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Posted: 3 August 2015, 12:46 PM
The word is from Renee that Laura got the stitch really badly after about 1 km which ties in with her winsplits as there was no mistakes just a general slowing down. Renee said it was very obvious at the spectator control she was in all sorts of discomfort and was extremely disappointed at the finish as she'd been going so well. I'm sure she'll keep for another year though and has proved both in the qual and the beginning of this race she really has the ability to deliver a top result.
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Michael
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Posted: 3 August 2015, 5:34 PM
Well done all 6, including the two just-missed. We once would have been glad to have ANY finalists. (I'm not looking forward to the time when we're the best in the world - the recriminations when we don't keep winning..)
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 4 August 2015, 4:49 AM
well said Michael - the team as a whole is doing great, and as the overall standard rises we need to keep the perspective on what is and isn't a disappointing result!
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 4 August 2015, 5:05 AM
Middle distance tonight - Renee and Matt's campaigns start, a WOC debut for Renee. NZ's current allowance for long and middle entries is 2 women and 1 man + any 2015 Oceania champions.
Start times (NZ-corrected, 90 sec start interval)
Women 23:00 - 00:48, 73 starters
Renee (12) 23:16:30
Laura (27) 23:39:00
Lizzie (46) 00:07:30
Men 01:18-03:18, 81 starters
Tim (134) 02:07:30
Matt (137) 02:12:00
Looks like IOF live-centre coverage will start from the beginning rather than part way through the women's race like last year, hopefully that includes the video feed! Think I'll follow the women live and catch the replay for the men, but if the team see this, know that whether awake or asleep I will be cheering for you!
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 4 August 2015, 7:52 PM
Women's race over, map reminds me a bit of Waioneke or parts of Woodhill, although looks like the ground-cover made it much tougher physically, looked very hard work for a middle and probably not surprising Billstam's win was at almost 4 mins over the EWT. Also some big names making some big nav errors.
Lizzie 19th, maybe had some early issues but soldiered on nicely to climb back up the placings; Laura a very respectable 40th ('forest' WOC debut, at +10:30, that might have been easily 10 places better not many years ago); solid debut for Renee for 55th, from what I saw of her GPS trace in the early parts of the course (this was very patchy again) she was having a very tidy run.
Looking forward tomorrow to seeing how things pan out for Matt and Tim, but I'll just reiterate "map reminds me a bit of Waioneke or Woodhill" - without adding any jinxy conclusions to that thought of course.
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