NEOC on Facebook
NEOC on TwitterWhile I'm pretty sure that the majority of people reading this do little or no ski-orienteering, I'm also pretty sure you will be interested in what's going on up in the mountains near Lake Tahoe in California. Namely, the first World Cup races of the winter, and I think the first races of this stature (World Championships or World Cup) in the USA since the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Minnesota in 1997.
And what makes these World Cup races especially interesting is that the USA, besides organizing the event, has two women competing —Alex Jospe and Ali Crocker -- who are among the very best in the world. At the Ski-O World Champs last winter in Sweden, Ali finished 8th in the Long distance and the women's relay (Ali, Alex, and Cristina Luis) finished 8th. So there was some anticipation to see whether those results were a fluke, or the sign of even better things to come.
And the results from today, the Long distance event, show that last year was clearly no fluke.
Against the best women in the world, Ali finished 4th today and Alex, despite suffering from a cold, finished 11th. They are right up there with the best Swedes and Norwegians and Russians, and beating some of them too. It is such a pleasure to see them doing so well.
Here are links to various reports and information from today's race --
The maps. There were two shorter loops, with forked controls (courses F-AA, F-AB, F-BA, and F-BB), and then a longer common loop (course F-3):
The results:
Ali's comments on the race on her AttackPoint log (I don't think you need to be logged in to read this):
Alex's comments on the race on her AttackPoint log (I don't think you need to be logged in to read this):
The schedule for the next few days:
Tomorrow (Tuesday): North American Champs middle distance (not a World Cup event)
Wednesday: World Cup sprint
Thursday: World Cup middle distance
Friday: World Cup mixed relay
Saturday: U.S. Champs middle distance
Sunday: U.S. Champs sprint
The web site for the organizing club, BAOC, is:
And a big thank you to Event Director Tony Pinkham, Course Setter Greg Walker, and National Controller Ken Walker Sr., who have made this whole event possible.
