And we had the best ever relay team result by far! 15th placing for the men’s team and 16th for the women’s relay team!

Some of the WOC23 athletes have given 3 quick personal takeaways from the event. We follow this with the links to the WOC23 athlete profiles that were on social media, and links Malcolm’s ONZ WOC23 reports: 

Briana
Performance:  I came away feeling so proud of the NZ team (myself included) both for people’s personal results and how good the team atmosphere was. Given it was WOC number one for four of us it was really cool to see everyone cross the finish line and have some positives from the race to share. Also more personally, it was epic to spectate WOC as well given I’ve only ever seen it from my computer screen tucked up in bed back home. When I’d finished my race and when I wasn’t racing being able to be in the arena and cheer everyone in was amazing.

Preparation & reality: I definitely wanted my physical shape to be better coming into WOC but I was confident I had enough to get to the end of the long distance which was my goal, but I also would have preferred more time on the rock terrain in Flims before racing. However, given I have started what will hopefully be many more WOCs I feel I have time in the future to go all in on the terrain specific training in the lead-up instead of seeing more places and enjoying the holiday

Event: I assumed the groups would be large and the atmosphere exciting which was very true, and the lasting reality was that the step from JWOC to WOC is large. It shouldn’t be treated as the same size as the step going from NZ Nationals to Oceania.

WOC athlete profiles here

Read ONZ WOC reports:
• 17 JulyBest WOC relay for many years
• 16 July Tough WOC middle
• 14 July Toby, Gene and Lizzie lead way for NZL in WOC long distance
• 13 July Three Kiwis into WOC middle distance final
• 12 July  All ready for WOC Middle Qualification
* 10 July New Zealand WOC team ready to roll

Gene
Performance: The team performance seemed ok until we got to the highly specialised terrain in the middle final.

Preparation & reality: My preparations were highly specific to the WOC long distance with lots of orienteering on big slopes. I was reasonably well prepared considering how little time I spent in the region and few competitions I’ve done in the past in similar terrain.

Event: There were no surprises this year for me in the Long Distance thanks to good specific preparation, including being familiar with the old maps of the race area and previous competition set by the course setter.

Joseph
Performance: I was really impressed with how the senior team members showed the first-timers how to ‘get the job done’ (all the experienced athletes qualified for the middle final just as they needed to). It’s not a simple task and there is a lot of pressure from the expectation that you will qualify for the final

Preparation & reality: As with most of the team I had to make a trade-off between taking more time off work or spending less time in Switzerland preparing. This year I only came to Europe 10 days before my WOC race. Luckily a concentrated training camp was possible with Florian and the other team mates recommending the best terrain but in future a longer buildup is definitely preferable.

Specific preparation: I always like to have my last training go well to give me confidence in the race. The terrain was very tricky and I was not meshing with it (I needed Florian to shadow me for one training in which I got quite lost). I chose an easier map (but still relevant) for my last training and made sure to focus on my navigation. I succeeded and was able to approach my race with confidence – which I value highly

Event: It was very exciting to finally have all the WOC team in one place after we had done a lot of preparation and online discussion beforehand. Florian introduced a team building event to the pre-WOC week. There was a was rafting trip down the Rhine in the canyon created by a 1200yr old landslide which was also responsible for the unique terrain we raced upon. 

Tim
Performance:  I’m not where I’d like to be at the moment as I have a tendon issue, but I hope I am over it soon so I can start to train longer hours in the future.

Preparation & reality:  I was not expecting it to be that tough underfoot. The relay was good, but the climbs were even steeper.

Event: It was a very physical WOC!

Full athlete profiles can be found here