WOC 2007

So, I'm sure you've all been waiting with baited breath for my next entry! It was a bit harder to get some good interneting time in Kiev than I anticipated - often due to the fact that after the main event had been run for the day we then had to wait around several hours before running our 'WOC Tour' events, so some of the days were pretty long.

We spent a few more days in our nice wee apartment in Kiev just before the world champs started. The weather was rediculously hot, it was about 35 during the day, and went down to a mellow 30 degrees at night - which was a bad sign for the orienteering!

We had an interesting night out before the world champs began, we headed out for dinner with Iryna (our Ukrainian 'guide'). When we were in the central square there was a large peel of thunder, and then it bucketed down. Thousands of people ran for the metro, including us, and we were packed on like sardines. We headed a couple of stops along, then got off and out of the metro into the streets which had turned to small rivers by now. Chris and I managed to lose the others in the chaos, and as we didn't know which restaurant we were going to this was a small problem!

By now we were completly soaked, and it was only thanks to my beady eyes that I noticed Rob Jessop's head in the window of a large barge moored beside the river in a Chinese restaurant. Once inside we had a very interesting meal...we ordered a 'banquet' which consisted of vast quantities of prawn crackers and not much else. Dave Melrose decided it was worthwhile to buy some very expensive and delicious red wine, so before long the whole thing seemed highly amusing. We didn't finish our meal till 12.30, and we never really got much to eat, despite the fact the meal was very expensive! Lucky for us Dave generously shouted the meal, so the whole thing seemed rather amusing.

The next day we got on the metro with all our gear and crossed the river to 'Hotel Tourist' where we were staying throughout WOC. For a 3 star hotel it was quite a let down, but that seems a bit typical of Ukraine really, where tourism as we know it is only just beginning to be important or occur. Our room was on the 17th floor and terribly hot. We went out to dinner at another buffet style restaurant that there seemed to be lots of, but the food was pretty average.

The first event was the sprint qualification in Golosivoo park. We meet a South African girl called Jenny who was also competing in the WOC Tour events, and she spent most of the week with us, her sense of humour and open personality seemed to fit in well with the kiwi crowd. Chris had a great run in the sprint and qualified pretty well, Ross snuck in also, but Tania was really unlucky to miss out because of a 1.5 minute mistake.

Nearby our hotel was a fancy mall called 'Komod' which with its nice airconditioning and food court upstars proved our friend. We had pizza for dinner and prepared for the first day of the WOC Tour (a long distance) and the long qualification the next day.

It was interesting for us 'WOC Tour' competitors (by now a good wee crowd of Andrew Jonstone who was photographing for the kiwi team, John Marshall form NZ on an orienteering holiday, Ed, myself and Jenny our adopted friend) to reach most of the events - the organised buses were sometimes good and sometimes non-existant, and public transport worked but was always an adventure.

Chris ran well in the long qualification, but sprained his ankle moderatly badly, so we were a bit worried it might not last the distance. He jumped on the bus and headed home to find some ice while we headed out on our long. The terrain was hilly, with pine forests and some clear patches of terrain too, but we were running in about 36 degree heat so it was hard work!

Day 3 of WOC was the middle qualification, and Chris didn't have a good run. The terrain was very green, lots of nettles and hard to see anything. Both Chris and Rob missed out, while Ross and Tania both had really good runs and qualified well. I had a terrible run in the WOC tour and managed in my state of heat exhaustion to completly miss a control without even realizing, so I was a bit annoyed. We got the bus back to the hotel all feeling a bit hot and grumpy.

Day 4 a rest day and the 'Opening Ceremony'. Chris was to be the flag bearer, so on another (by now normal sweltering day) we headed to the large arch in the nice botanic gardens for thel cermony. There were some good Ukrainian folkdancers wearing those big baggy pants and doing the splits. Chris recieved a loaf of bread (mmm).

After the ceremony we ate in a different part of town before jumping on the metro back to the hotel.

Day 5 was the middle final (a rest day for Chris, whose ankle needed it!) and they had a good arena set up with a bridge that the competitors ran over and a spectator control. The commentator (a Swedish guy) was really good, so that made the events more entertaining. We cheered the kiwis on, but Ross was a bit disapointed with his run, and Tanya wasn't particularly happy with hers either.

We headed out for our runs later, and with my concerted effort to not make mistakes I actually had a good run in the difficult terrain and managed to come 16 out of 37 elite girls so I was pleased (0: This place had no easy public transport, and they stuffed up the buses, so we didn't get back until about 9 oclock for a late dinner.

The next day was the long final, and it was about 38 degrees, which was sad for Chris who was going to have to run 18km! The event was in an historic park with all these windmills and old fashioned cottages so that was cool. We watched Chris run through the spectator control, and cheered him on through the finish. He had struggled in the heat, and made not quite such a good route choice so he was a wee bit disapointed, but we thought he did pretty well considering the conditions, and he ran for 2 hours, so I hate to think how long that course would take us mortals!

That night was the banquet which proved a very interesting affair. We were all bused there, and lots of the teams were very dressed up. Once we got there they informed us that there actually were not enough seats for everyone! We crowded around a table in the middle of the room next to the Australians, but with no air conditioning it was like a sauna and everyone was dripping! Chris proudly showed us his drenched shirt. All the food contained meat, and it all looked pretty dodgy having sat out for some time, so no-one ate much and most people left early which was a bit sad. There was a good band and some entertaining dancing going on, but we retreated early too seeing as Chris had the relay to run in two days time.

On Friday it was a rest day for the world champs, but a sprint event in Golosivo park again for us WOC Tourites. Chris came along to spectate, but in typical Chris fashion got excited and ended up running the sprint too. I messed up and lost about 5 minites (and got chased by another pesky dog, grrr) but consoled myself I would have done quite well if it hadn't been for those minor hiccups. Ed zipped around well too, and afterwards we all got into the fountain! That was great, we were in a park and it was national independance day in Kiev so there was a big concert going on. There were people sitting all round the fountain watching the concert and eating free icecreams and some kids in the fountain, but Ed, Chris and I outlasted them all lying in there! Eventually we dragged ourselves out and metroed home, after a much more relaxing day.

In the evening we went to Independance Square for a concert followed by some fireworks and a huge crowd. It was like a massive version of Classical Sparks in Christchurch, but the crowds seemed very orderly and it was a nice evening. The large thermometer attached to the top of one of the highrises read 31 degrees!

Saturday was the relay event, at the park with the windmills again. We had no girls team, so it was the mens relay we were excited about. Ross had a good run on the first leg, Rob was out for a bit longer on the second, then Chris had a good third leg, but said he made heaps of mistakes. The best bit however was his sprint finish, which got the comentator excited, and kept us highly entertained. As he punched the last control he pulled the silliest face, then took off like a rocket down the finish shoot, catching everyone's attention, even though the winners were long since in!

We had to wait till 5 oclock for our WOC Tour runs, so it was actually getting a bit dark in the forest by the end! It was a long distance event again. I had a good start and got the first 6 controls really well, but then I took a bad route choice and ended up bashing up a hill into a paddock full of headhigh stinging nettles. In the paddock was a Ukrainian lady who started shouting at me to get out of her paddock, so I bashed down the hill wildly into a marsh were it was getting deeper and deeper and smelled of poo! Not liking this at all I scrambled back up into the nettle paddock, where the Ukraiinian lady started shouting at me again! I tried to get out of the paddock, but the nettles were too thick and I really did feel like Peter Rabbit! Eventually the lady actually took pity on me, and allowed me to pass through the way I had been trying to go all akong, out to the road, across a bridge very fast because I could hear dogs, and finally on to my next control. Phew! But I was abit traumatised, and my next 20 controls were not done so well, so I finished tired, stung, covered in mud, but happy it was over!

Once we got back to the hotel we collapsed into bed, and I had my usual 2 cold showers before bed, then one when I woke up stinking hot at about 3am every night, then another one in the morning. Chris had a similar routine.

The final day of WOC was the sprint event in the Botanic Gardens. It was thankfully a little cooler, and I got some photos of Chris on the start shoot before he took off. He had a pretty good run, but would have done even better had he not made a 30 second mistake on the second to last control..poos. It's so easy to make a tiny mistake in the sprint and it's all over. But he was happy to have finished.

We spent the afternoon with Iryna, who took us to the flower show, the World War 2 memorial with lots of tanks, planes and bombs, yikes! Then we went through the 'Caves Monastry' with lots of coffins!

That night Johan, a Danish media person had organised a party. We got tickets, and everyone got to go on a boat for 1.5 hours to an island up river where they had a disco. It was heaps of fun, and we were enjoying the dancing on the island. Unfortunatly for us it was spoiled a bit because someone (presumably someone local) found our pack and stole my nice new cell phone )0:, our hotel keys and my nice top, so we had to get a bus back to the hotel asap. Chris went to the police with Iryna and wasn't back till 5am. The hotel keys thankfully turned up (they were in someone elses bag which had also had things stolen from it) but not my cell phone or top.

The next day we packed up from the hotel and left on a bit of a sour note because we had to pay extra mony for some towels we supposedly lost, but we never actually had any to begin with, which made us pretty annoyed. We cuaght a bus out to the airport and hung around for a few hours before the flight to Münich. I also stupidly left the nice swiss army knife we bought in Kiev in my pack, so we lost that too! All and all I feel I've lost a fair bit of stuff in the last few days.

Nevermind, on the 2 hour flight we got some yummy pasta, and on arriving in Münich we successfully caught a train, got a nice hostel to stay in and ate dinner in a really nice restaurant with the yummiest food and lots of women serving wearing traditional clothing and holding big jugs of beer. We were very appreciative of the nice food, in Ukraine it seemed pretty hard to get anything very nice or wholesome for dinner, and I think we will appreciate the next we while of wealthy westerness, even if isn't as much of an adventure (-:

WOC 2007 so far...

I'm not going to post heaps right now because its late! But I thought I'd just do a quick post to let you know that so far Chris has managed to qualify for both the sprint and the long distance! He has been running really well, along with the other kiwis (Ross qualified for the sprint yesterday, and Tanya qualified really well for the long today).

Here's a link to the results so far and here is a photo of Chris running the classic qualification today.

Ed and I did our first day of the WOC Tour today and had fun, we have found a group of kiwis and a South African girl who are all doing the WOC Tour so we have our own little competition going.

Chris sprained his ankle today, so we are not sure how he will go in the middle tommorrow, but fingers crossed. Ed and I are also running tommorrow, we also have a middle distance, and then a rest day on Tuesday when I hope to get more update with my blogging including some pictures and the news of how Chris is going. So stay tuned!!

Kiev and the "Ukranian Cup"

Kiev is cool! We woke up in Tania, Ross, and Clem's apartment in the morning after our mission across the border from Romania to Day 1 of the "Ukranian Cup" (which was the long distance event grrr). To get there we headed down the steps right outside the apartment, then we bought a month long unlimited metro pass for 25 "Grovies" which is about $5! Then we swiped through the gates and headed down the most ginourmous escalatour I have ever seen!

It speed down and down and you couldn't even see the bottom. It was crammed with people, and Tania commented that this wasn't even rush hour. 4 million people live in Kiev, and it is a very busy city. The metro train hurtled into the station and we packed onto it like sardines, and a second later it zoomed away, and we all clung on to each other to stay upright. After stop 6 we joined the rush off the train, out of the metro and onto an even more crowded bus. The 30 min ride cost 25 cents NZ, and we only got off in the right place because we spotted people milling around in O suits outside, so we made a wild guess this was the right spot.

At the start our start times were posted. Chris, Ed and I were all feeling pretty tired from our travels still, and consequently the running seemed like hard work. Half way through the race a huge thunderstorm struck, and my map got thoroughly soaked so I couldn't read it. At exactly that moment a Ukranian girl ran past, and I asked if I could just follow her. She smiled, said "no english" and we were off. The best thing was, whenever we had a route choice she would get me to look at her map and say which way I thought we should go! Luckily most of the time I seemed to make a good decision, and it wasn't long before I reached the end of my course, even though I didn't have a map. Tania also gave me a hand as she came running past. So I was pretty chuffed to still have finished.

Ed and Chris both had less eventfull runs, but agreed they were feeling pretty knackered. It was then back on the bus and metro for a shower at the apartment. We went out for dinner at a buffet place, which we all decided was kind of 'safe' because you could see what you were getting, and could kind of work out what it was - although Chris and Rob's supposed 'steak' was actually liver, yuck ! Rob, Ed, Chris and I then walked to our apartment which is about 10 minutes from the others, and is right opposite a great supermarket with heaps of delicious cheese, juice, breads etc...what more could we want.

Day 2 of the 'Ukranian Cup' was the middle distance event. It was a stinking hot day, at least 30 degrees. We meet the others down in the metro, and once again it was a metro followed by a short bus ride to the event. Today we met Iryna, a Ukranian woman who now lives in NZ, but has come back to Ukraine to help out the New Zealand team - very handy. She knows all about the terrain, have been the National orienteering coach here some years ago.

The terrain for the middle was much nicer, there was less stinging nettle and balckberry than the day before, but unfortunatly I was so tired I just wandered round slowly. That was a shame, because my time wasn't actually that bad, I beat several people, so if I'd actually tried....? Chris had an ok run, he was about 5th, which I think is pretty good, but he reckoned he was also still very tired and not feeling so good. Ed had a really good run, except his 50 minute mistake on one control! Once he gets those big mistakes sorted he will be flying round (-: We cruised home and tried a different buffet restaurant for dinner.

Day 3 was the sprint event, which I always dread a wee bit, cause people can see you! The event was in a city park a bus ride away from our apartment. We got all our gears on and warmed up, and I had another chat with my new Ukranian friend - the girl Maryna I followed round on day 1 when my map fell apart. She got her team mates you spoke better English to translate for us.

The park was very steep, lots of steps and banks everywhere, and Chris had the first start. He charged off up a hill to begin with. I started after Ed, and managed to run pretty well round my course, only making a couple of mistakes and out sprinting a girl at the end. I was about 6 places below last..wow! Ed also did well, he was mid field in his 21 A grade, so we were both chuffed and had enjoyed it. Chris did a pretty speedy time,but was a couple of minutes down on the winners, so we decided he definatly wasn't quite his usual speedy self.

We arrived back at the apartment at about midday, so we had time for some sight seeing before a group dinner at the others apartment. Rob, Ed, Chris and I wandered through the many big squares looking at statues, fountains, and the amazingly beautiful women who live here! So many of them have the most amazing outfits and look like super models -Ed and Chris agreed the 'scenery' was very good.

We visited 'St Sophia's' cathedral built in the 11 century, and saw the sarcofagas of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, evoking some conversation about 'The Mummy' movie (-: The churches had gold plated tops and look quite Arabic. We walked back past the supermarket and to the others apartment for a big feed of 'Spag Bol' prepared by Tania, which was most delicious.

We cruised back to our apartment nicely contented and ready for some more relaxing days of ahead of us.

The next day Rob and Chris went for a run around another park map in the morning while Ed and I went in search of some internet. We wandered through some of the shops and admired some of the fanciest shoes I have ever seen. The amount of 'mafia' like sparkling black Mercedes, Audis, Jeeps and Porshes is amazing - and you have to wonder where all the affluence is coming from. I managed to buy some long soccer socks to protect my legs from all the horrible nettles in one of the many underground malls, so when we headed out for some training in the forest in the afternoon I was well prepared.

There are lots of stray dogs in the forests here too - particularly because there are lots of residential areas nearby. Ed and I ran around together in the forest for our 'training' - neither of us were feeling particularly motivated, and the highlight was finding several smll wild raspberries which were sooo delicious in amongst all the nettles and stingers we had to battle through. There were also heaps of vicious mosquitos biting us. I stuck a little raspberry in my pocket for Chris to try. Ed and I proceeded to get a bit lost, then more lost still, and eventually we were bashing our way through the forest just rying to get back to the finish, let alone doing any 'training'.

Finally we found our way out, and all the others were back and waiting to go. I took my O pants off to find my leg had gone bright red! Everyone thought I had been bitten by something horrible, it was only a few moments later I realised it was my wee present for Chris - the raspberry - and there wasn't much left of it. Opps (-:

By the time we bused home from the training it was 8 oclock, and there was only time to pop to the supermarket and cook up some leftovers from the night before and it was bed time.

This morning Ed and our found an internet cafe to do some skyping while Rob and Chris went to another map for some training. Some more sightseeing is on the cards for this afternoon, so it should be a nice relaxing few days before the world champs start this Saturday (-:

Oh, and by the way, there is an article about Chris on Sportzub if you want to have a read.

Journey Across the Border

At 1.30am we boarded the train in Cluj destined for Sucaeva, a town in Romania near the Ukrainian border. The aim was to reach Kiev by August 10 for the first day of the Ukrainian Cup orienteering event, which gave us one full day plus two nights for traveling. But it ended up being quite the adventure to get there...

The train we boarded was pretty old and smelly, and absolutly crowded. It was the type of train you can imagine being used in the second world war for more sinister things. There was no space at all in the carrage we boarded, and we were going to be on board the train for 8 hours, so we found another carrage that was really quiet, we got a whole compartment to ourselves, and the seats folded out into beds, great! but a bit strange no one else was sitting in there.

At about 2.30 the gaurds checked our tickets and told us we had to move, we only had second class tickets and this section was first class, which explained everything. After some confusion (the guard did not speak english) we finally managed to slip him some money and he allowed us to stay, phew! We pulled into what we presumed was Sucaeva at 9.30 am, and had to run round checking we were in the right place before the train disapeared. Luckily it was, and we went to the ticket office to buy another set of tickets to get us through to Kiev.

However, the ticket lady informed us that this was not possible, international train tickets must be bought 24 hours in advance, which would mean we would arrive one day late in Kiev and miss the first and maybe second day of the event. What then followed was a series of coincidental events aided by several very helpful Romanians. The ticket lady suggested the bus, and then actually walked us down the block to a minibus station and bought us tickets and put us on a minibus to the main bus station in Sucaeva where we ought to be able to buy bus tickets to Kiev.

The minibus was hugely crowded and it was very hot. When we got to the bus station it turned out no big buses went to Kiev at all! But a taxi driver told us we could get a taxi to the border (only 30km away), then a minibus to Chinook (which was somewhere in Ukraine we surmised) then a bus to Kiev...sounded good?We wandered around, and eventually found a taxi driver who said he would take us to the border.

We had driven along for about 20 minutes on the highway when he suddenly pulled over alongside a big van. "You get in here and they will take you to the border, they have kids, they are good" said the taxi driver...hmmm. Anyway, we were loaded in amongst the grandma and the kids, and off we headed again towards the border. Suddenly we dived off the main highway and headed along some dirt roads to a house. At the house the van was loaded with vast quantities of sacks of stuff. By now we were all feeling a bit concerned that we were about to be invloved in some illegal smuggling of something accross the border, or who knows what? We questioned the family (who spoke no english) and ascertained it was wool (we hoped!).

Eventually we arrived at the border to a massive car queue, and many intimidating guards. After about 2 hours we were inspected, our passports intensly examined, then stamped through, phew! And the family did some intense haggling with the guard about the goods, and then we were over the border!

We hooned along a big highway, then off down some more dirt roads to another house where we delivered all the mysterious goods. This time Ed and Chris lended a hand, much to the Romanian's delight. The family all piled back in and we drove through to Chinook. In Chinook we would not have got far at all if it wasn't for our new Romanian family friends. They took us to the bus station, bought tickets and literally put us on another completly overcrowded bus which hopefully went to Kiev!

It was extremly hot, and the ten hour bus trip was pretty full on. Luckily after about 4 hours of stifling heat there was a big thunder storm and it poured with rain and cooled down a bit. We stopped every 2 hours for a very brisk ten minutes, and it was a challenge to jump off the bus, locate the horrible smelly squat toilets, pee, pay money to grumpy lady and get back on the bus before it took off again.

Finally we got to Kiev at 11.30 at night, and spent half an hour haggling with taxi drivers, till we got one to call Iryna (the New Zealand Orienteering Ukranian contact) on his cell phone, and she gave him directions to our accomodation.

When we arrived on the street outside where we were supposedly staying the taxi driver called her again, and after 5 minutes tentativly waiting to see if we really had actually finally made it to Kiev, Ross appeared wearing a top with a big silver fern on it and bare feet, grinning at us, and we were pretty relieved!

We walked upstairs to the apartment while he explained that "this place is a mansion, man!" We slept very well that night, and in the morning it was up and off to the first day of the Ukraine Cup.