WOC 2007, Kyiv

KYIV by Jon M

“Kyiv, Kyiv, it’s a hell of a town” - or is the song about some other place?

Anyway, Kyiv will be a shock for anyone expecting a normal, nice quiet WOC in a small provincial town in the woods.

My notes here cover O aspects and domestic aspects as I feel both are vitally important for a successful WOC.

Orienteering

After visiting a couple of fairly revolting areas we found the right stuff – fast running and interesting navigation. Although each terrain type will demand slightly different techniques or blends of technique (see Bilbo’s exposee) there are some challenges that will be the same in all races.
The terrain is FAST (sub 5’s in parts of relay/middle areas) and the technical challenge, though straight forward, will occasionally throw up a tricky leg.
I see three essential aspects: The ability to run very straight, very confidently, very fast on a compass. The ability to pick out the tricky controls (before missing them and wasting time!) and plan accordingly. The ability to keep running flat out for long periods of a race without losing concentration.
Route choice will be important for the long race, but given modern planning there are unlikely to be any “get-it-right-and-win-the-race“ type options. Mostly a case of choosing a sensible option and executing it well.

I see cross country races as good preparation Hard terrain runs (with others and no quarter asked or given!). Technically - learn to love your compass and trust it with your life (well, your orienteering life anyway!). Run races in similar terrain – how about a visit to Ukraine next year to run some races?

Using two local orienteers to hang controls for us in the training forests was a great success – it freed the coaches to shadow athletes, run courses etc and still have time and energy to discuss the orienteering with the athletes rather than running ragged hanging and collecting markers. A definite plus and one that should be used in future camps (not just in the Ukraine). They also helped provide a couple of extra training areas that we had not previously been told about.

Domestic

Bus worked very well- after our day 1 excursion round the city! The drivers were friendly, took the bus into the forests, literally, and it gave the team a chance to relax and chat about training during the journeys. Traffic in Kyiv seemed to obey no rules other than “might is right” so driving hire cars might possibly appear cheaper initially but would be risky from the aspect of insurance and overnight parking. The metro provides an cheap, easy and quick way to visit several training maps and also to “escape” to the city centre.

Hotel Tourist was adequate but the lack of airconditioning meant sleeping was troubled and less than adequate. Using the airconditioned floors of the hotel would be essential for WOC (it was possible to cool the rooms by opening the windows but this also lets in the noise of traffic, trains, dogs barking etc).

Food was adequate with plenty available and supermarkets and stalls selling pretty much all types of western convenience food but was bland in the hotel buffet restaurant and eating out, though better, took a long time to get the team served. I think at a WOC week the type of food and the slow service would cause some problems with the team. Either finding a local restaurant and doing a private arrangement to eat at a set time every day or putting pressure on the UOF/Hotel to improve their set up will be necessary.

Water – we drank bottled water but still most tour members came down with some sort of stomach problems, 3 seriously enough to miss training or races. Possibly some bottled water was poor or topped up with tap water (one batch we got tasted much more minerally than others) or possibly eating fruit and veg that had not been washed in bottled water led to the illness. I don’t reckon much to the idea of radiation sickness! Being paranoid may work so try brushing teeth with bottled water, avoiding all food that could be contaminated (no veg, unpeeled fruit, diluted fruit juice etc), cleaning hands before eating (sterile wipes for when eating in the forest after training), taking low a low dose of antibiotics each day (as in Estonia and Ukraine in 1988 & 200). I suggest the squad doctors be asked for advice and a set of guidelines be drawn up for future tours.

Translator – having one was essential, we called on Indre to help with everything from directing the bus driver to the correct place in the forest, to sorting out the cleaners on our floor of the hotel, to sorting food at every meal and finally to helping to buy dioralyte for ill athletes. She was very helpful and I reckon a “full time” translator is well worth it for future camps (ie don’t try to economise by using an athlete who speaks Russian).

posted by daniel @ 5:20 pm