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A great way to finish the week. Don’t know the details yet, but it sure looks like all 6 of our skiers had really good days. And Alex showed how good she is, started in 6th after Ali’s opening leg, Alex came in in 5th, just the 4 powerhouse teams (Sweden, Norway, Russia, and Finland) ahead of her, and not that far ahead of her. Good for her, and good for all of them.

A few photos are already up on the US Team blog.

And the results are at http://www.emit.nu/resultat/live/110322/

A little more from today’s relay, the last event from this year’s Ski-O world Champs.

from Peter Gagarin

U.S. Team in Saturday's Long Competition

Men:
1. Andrey Grigoryev, RUS 1:42:43
52. Scott Pleban, USA 2:26:43
55. Nikolay Nachev, USA 2:32:39
56. Greg Walker, USA 2:32:48
DNF Adrian Owens (broken ski)
67 starters

Women:
1. Helene Söderlund, SWE 1:20:52
8. Ali Crocker, USA 1:25:43
25. Alex Jospe, USA1:39:19
DNF Cristina Luis
48 starters

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Next, just to show that in ski-O, like in foot-O, everything does not always go as planned, even for the stars. Here’s Greg Walker’s report (and Greg, by the way, is a star wherever he goes in European orienteering circles because of his work developing the O’ game Catching Features):

- reported by Peter Gagarin

Congratulations to Ali Crocker and Alex Jospe, 8th and 25th in the Long distance World Champs.

top8

Tomorrow's events

Three-person teams, the men start at 10 am local time, the women at 10:05. Men’s team is Scott, Adrian, and Greg, in that order. Women’s team is Ali, Alex and Cristina in that order. So that’s a 5:00/5:05 start on the east coast and 2:00/2:05 on the west coast.

This is the last race of the WOC. Let’s all cheer for good races for all of them!

Photos from the Long, as well as a post-race interview with Ali, are on the US Team blog.

by Peter Gagarin

Today was the Sprint Relay, a new event. One team per country. Each team composed of one man and one women. A mass start. Each does 3 legs, so 6 legs for the whole thing, but very short legs.

And like Wednesday's Middle distance, held is a serious snowstorm. But, as they say, orienteering is an outdoor sport, and we race rain or shine, or in this case, snow and wind.

Skiing for the USA were Greg Walker and Ali Crocker, with Greg leading off. Now Greg has been the best of our guys, but even at that he has been about 40% behind the winner in the sprint and middle, whereas Ali has been a good bit closer to the best women. So there was the expectation that Greg might fall behind quite a bit, and then Ali recoup a little, and so on throughout the 6 legs.

by Peter Gagarin

What’s coming on Thursday --

The Sprint Relay. A new event. One team per country. Each team composed of one man and one women. A mass start. Each does 3 legs, so 6 legs for the whole thing, but very short legs.

Here’s the best part — start is at 3 pm local time, which means 10 am on the east coast and 7 am on the west coast. So you can watch it without getting up in the middle of the night. Go to the Ski-O WOC home page:
http://www.skiwoc2011.com/index.php?en&subj=18

Skiing for the USA will be Greg Walker and Ali Crocker. Good luck to them!

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More on Wednesday’s middle race race --