Latest News

2005 US Team Supporters
December 16, 2005 — A list of the 2005 US Orienteering Team Supporters has been posted on the Supporters page. Lets give them all a big thanks and be sure to visit the commercial sponsors' links there.

Ukraine WOC 2007 Terrain Report now on the Training page
December 5, 2005 — Some notes and Ukraine maps from Vlad are now posted on the Training page.

Denmark Training Camp Reports now on the Training page
November 26, 2005 — Tom and Sandra's reports are now posted on the Training page. Tom's Denmark map scans are posted on the Maps page, and they are linked from his report.

Denmark Training Camp Reports
November 8, 2005 — Sandra has written up a nice report on the training camp held in Denmark last weekend. There is also an attackpoint discussion on the topic. Maps and terrain photos posted at both locations.

Its a Girl!
November 2, 2005 — U.S. Team member Ken Walker Jr. and his wife Alex are the proud parents of a new future team member! Samantha Florence was born on October 30, 2005 (9lbs 2.5oz, 20.5"). With two uncles, a daddy, a great aunt, a great uncle and a grandaddy-O all active orienteers, you can expect to see her tearing up the string-O course in no time!

Upcoming Training
October 31, 2005 — I'm getting out from under a pile of stuff at work and hope to start reworking the team webpages shortly. In the mean time I'll post this notice that Peter sent around a few weeks ago regarding training (slightly modified).

You should have received the e-mail from Tom with plans for a training weekend November 4-6 in Denmark on the training maps for WOC-2006. Boris, James Scarborough (coming out of his temporary retirement -- hurrah!), Karen, and Sandra will be there, along with Mike Waddington, Charlotte MacNaughton, and Adrian Zissos from the Canadian team. It looks like Tom has really put together a great long weekend.

It may be too late to join in...obviously time is short, but I'm sure they'd be will to try and accommodate anyone flying at the last minute. Contact Tom if you are interested, and also let Peter know. There is some modest amount of Team funding available to help offset some of the cost (exact amount not yet determined, probably in the $100-200 per person range, more if you live in the USA, less if in Europe).

Also on the horizon is the winter training camp in Hamilton Ontario January 4-7, with guest stars Sandy and Holger Hott-Johansen. There will also be some modest amount of Team funding available to help offset some of the cost and encourage team members to go, exact amount to be determined. This special camp is open to all USA and CAN national team members. This will be a great oppportunity to get personal training tips from two of the best orienteers in the world, and its relatively close to home.

World Cup - Relay
October 8, 2005 — After a day of rest, the final event of the series was the Relay. On the men's side, Switzerland demonstrated incredible depth, finishing 1st and 3rd, with France sandwiched in the middle! With some solid running, the US men were 22nd. On the women's side, Switzerland was also on top, with Norway and Finland rounding out the top 3.

World Cup - Long Distance
October 6, 2005 — No qualifying race for the Long, so everyone into the Final. On the men's side, Chris Terkelson of Denmark was tops, with another exceptional run for Marc "SwissCheese" Lauenstein in 3rd. Eddie Bergeron had a solid run in 62nd place, while Boris Granovskiy and Randy Hall were 75th and 78th, respectively. On the women's side, it was Simone Niggli-Luder well away in 1st. Sandra Zurcher was the lone US runner, finishing up in 52nd spot.

World Cup - Sprint Distance Final
October 5, 2005 — On the women's side, Simone Niggli-Luder was back on top (after placing 2nd in the Middle). For the US women, Karen Williams and Sandra Zurcher were back-to-back in 44th and 45th spots. On the men's side, Daniel Hubman of Switzerland won in dominating fashion (43 seconds in front!). For the US, Boris Granovskiy, Eddie Bergeron and Randy Hall finished up in 13th, 18th and 20th in the B final, respectively.

World Cup - Sprint Distance Qualifier
October 4, 2005 — Next up was the Sprint Qualifier. Karen Williams had the US run of the day, landing a spot in the final with a 14th position in the qualifier. Sandra Zurcher also made it into the final, finishing a solid 16th in her qualifier. On the men's side, Boris Granovskiy was again the top US finisher, with a 20th position in the qualifier (0:37 out). Randy Hall and Eddie Bergeron were 23rd and 26th, respectively.

World Cup - Middle Distance Final
October 3, 2005 — The Middle Distance A Finals saw Michael Mamleev of Russia and Vroni Koenig-Salmi in the winner's circles. In the B Finals, Boris Granovskiy had another solid run (10th spot), with Eddie Bergeron and Randy Hall in 20th and 26th respectively. For the women, Sandra Zurcher and Karen Williams were 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in a relatively small B final.

World Cup - Middle Distance Qualifier
October 3, 2005 — First event of the World Cup final was the Middle Qualifier, with relatively short courses in anticipation of the afternoon final. Boris Granovskiy had the best result for the US men (21st in his heat, 0:57 from qualifying). Eddie Bergeron and Randy Hall were both 27th in their heats. Sandra Zurcher had the best run for the US women (19th in her heat, 0:43 from qualifying). Karen Williams was also 19th in her heat (2:01 from qualifying). No Americans in the Middle Final unfortunately.

World Cup Final Round - October 3-9
September 30, 2005 — The Final Round of World Cup goes in Italy next week! The action-packed schedule includes: Middle-distance (Qualification and Final) on Monday; Sprint-distance (Qualification) on Tuesday; Sprint-distance (Final) on Wednesday; Long-distance (Final) on Thursday; and Relay on Sunday. See http://www.wcup2005final.info for more info on the races. Representing the US: Karen Williams, Sandra Zurcher, Eddie Bergeron, Boris Granovskiy, and Randy Hall. And from Canada: Mike Smith and Sandy Hott-Johansen.

Unofficial National Ranking at WOC - Switzerland 1st, Canada 22nd, United States 24th.
August 16, 2005 — About a year ago, I devised an unofficial method for ranking the nations at WOC. Basically, every runner at WOC gets points based on position in a given race (100 pts for first, ~0 points for last). All races (qualifiers and finals) count the same except for the relay, which is multiplied by 3. The calculations are complete for 2005 and Switzerland has landed on top ahead of Sweden and Finland. Of North American interest, Canada finished up in 22nd and the United States in 24th out of 35 teams. Compared with 1 year ago, Canada has moved down a spot (from 21st) and the United States has moved up a spot (from 25th). This is good news as the US is closing the gap on its neighbors to the north.

WOC Relay - Switzerland and Norway win; US Women 18th and Men 22nd
August 14, 2005 — Switzerland's Simone Niggli Luder claimed her 4th gold of the championships, storming into the lead on the final leg of relay. Norway and Sweden were 2nd and 3rd, respectably. The US team finished up 18th, with strong runs by Erin Olafsen, Sandra Zurcher and Pavlina Brautigam. On the men's side, it was a tight battle as the top 4 teams finished within roughly 1 minute of eachother. Norway prevailed, with France and Switzerland filling out the podium. The US Men (Eric Bone, Boris Granovskiy, Dan Stoll-Hadayia) had a strong outing, ending up in 22nd place.

WOC Long Final - Andrey and Simone (again)! Marc and Holger go 2-3!
August 12, 2005 — As in Switzerland in 2003, Super Simone Luder has been unbeatable in Japan, winning her third straight gold. She finished 2 minutes up on Heli Jukkola (Finland) and Vroni Konig Salmi (Switzerland). Former SDO orienteer Annabel Valledor had a solid run, finishing 34th. On the men's side, Andrey Khramov of Russia was the runner of the day, winning gold by 2 minutes. There were plenty of North Americans cheering for the other two podium finishers Marc Lauenstein (Switerland) and Holger Hott-Johansen (Norway) (check out the Attackpoint discussion forum). Marc is boyfriend of our very own Sandra Zurcher, while Holger is married to Canadian sensation Sandy Hott-Johansen. Congratulations Marc and Holger!

Boris Granovskiiy in the Middle Distance Qualifier. (Photo: orienteering.com)

WOC Middle Final - Thierry and Sime! Erin 44th; Sandy Hott-Johansen 9th!
August 11, 2005 — For the men, it was Thierry Gueorgiou, taking up where he left off, winning his 3rd straight Middle Distance title. His winning margin was a whopping 1:32 over Chris Terkelsen (Denmark) and Jarkko Huovila (Finland). On the women's side, Super Simone Luder was even more dominant, with a winning margin of 2:13 over Jenny Johansson (Sweden) and Minna Kauppi (Finland). Of the North Americans, Erin Olafsen was first out of the gate. Some trouble on early controls, she finished up 44th - perhaps not what she had hoped for but an excellent result nevertheless. From a North American perspective, the runner of the day was Canada's Sandy Hott-Johansen who had a spectacular run to finish in 9th position. She proved that her 3rd place in the Qualifier was no fluke and improved on Ted de St Croix's 10th place WOC finish (in 1985) to claim the title as "Best Ever North American" at WOC. Congratulations to both Erin and Sandy!

WOC Sprint Final - Sime and Emil!
August 10, 2005 — Same-day finals for the Sprints. Switzerland's Simone Luder (Super Sime) showed that she is still on top, winning with a comfortable 32 second margin ahead of Anne Margrethe Hausken (Norway) and Heather Munro (Great Britain). On the men's side, Emil Wingstedt of Sweden was first, closely followed by Daniel Hubmann of Switzerland and Jani Lakanen of Finland. No North American runners in the final, but runners with a North American connection included Marc (Swisscheese) Lauenstein in 15th, Holger Hott-Johansen in 23rd and Annabel Valledor in 41st.

Dan Stoll-Hadayia, during the Long Qualifier. (Photo: orienteering.com)

WOC Sprint Qualifier - Samantha 16th Again!
August 10, 2005 — Showing remarkable consistency, Samantha Saeger finished 16th in the Sprint Qualifier, missing out on the final by one place and just 11 seconds. Another excellent run - just terribly unlucky to be on the wrong side of the cut-off three times in row! Pavlina Brautigam was 17th in her heat, while Sandra Zurcher unfortunately mis-punched. On the men's side, Boris Granovskiy and Eric Bone both finished up in 20th place in their heats, while Sergey Velichko was 26th. Boris was only 30 seconds from qualifying, so a solid run for him.

Samantha Saeger, on the way to 16th spot finish in the Middle Distance Qualifier. (Photo: orienteering.com)

WOC Long Qualifier - Samantha 16th Again; No Americans in the Final :-(
August 8, 2005 — Another day of qualifying and unfortunately no Americans into the final this time around. Samantha Saeger and Sandra Zurcher both finished one spot out in 16th place (Samantha missing out by just 17 seconds!). These are excellent runs and despite missing the cut, the team should be pleased. Erin Olafsen had another solid run, finishing 19th in her heat. The American men, Sergey Velichko, Eric Bone and Dan Stoll-Hadayia, all finished 23rd in their respective heats. Also of note, Annabel Valledor (formerly of SDO) made up for her near miss by qualifying in 10th position, while Marc Lauenstein (a former US exchange student running for Switzerland) won his heat! Full results at woc2005.bglb.jp/online/index-en.jsp.

Erin Olafsen, during the Long Distance Qualifier. (Photo: WOC2005 Organizers)

WOC Middle Qualifier - Erin Olafsen makes the Final!
August 7, 2005 — Erin Olafsen nabbed a spot in the Middle Distance Final by finishing 15th in her heat at the World Orienteering Championships! This is an excellent result and we wish Erin the best of luck in the final. Just missing the cut, Samantha Saeger finished 16th in her heat (an excellent run for her first WOC). Pavlina Brautigam finished a respectable 19th. On the men's side, Boris Granovskiy was the top American in 22nd, with Dan Stoll-Hadayia 23rd and Sergey Velichko 27th in their heats. Other notable North American results include Sandy Hott-Johansen of Canada who qualified 3rd in her heat and former SDO orienteer Annabel Valledor who finished 16th in her heat (just 2 seconds behind Erin). Full results at woc2005.bglb.jp/online/index-en.jsp.

Pavlina Brautigam, during the Middle Distance Qualifier. (Photo: WOC2005 Organizers)

World Orienteering Championships coming right up!
August 5, 2005 — The US Team is getting set for the 2005 World Orienteering Championships in Aichi, Japan. The races start this weekend with the Middle Qualification and Long Qualification up first on August 7th (Sunday) and 8th (Monday), respectively. Check out the organizers web site at www.woc2005.jp. Also, check out the US Team Bios at www.woc2005.jp/team/USA/. You can also expect reports from US Team members to be posted at www.attackpoint.org (click "Discussion" on the left-hand side). Go USA!

US Team for 2005 World Championships named
April 8, 2005 — The US Team for the 2005 World Orienteering Championships was named following the team selection races at the Flying Pig IX, hosted by Orienteering Cincinnati. Representing the United States in Japan ...
Women:
Erin Olafsen, Samantha Saeger, Pavlina Brautigam, Sandra Zurcher, Suzanne Armstrong (alternate), Viktoria Brautigam (alternate)
Men:
Eric Bone, Sergey Velichko, Boris Granovskiy, Dan Stoll-Hadayia, Leif Anderson (alternate), Wyatt Riley (alternate)
Full results from the trials are available here. Tabulation of Team Trials scores is available here.

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2005 Standing Team