Besides…
Next to competitions and thrilling decisions the WMOC was also the stage for some smaller incidents that amused our organising team every morning at the breakfast table. Some of these shall be presented to the reader.
One runner for example should be disqualified because of trespassing private grounds… but as we are very obliging we leave her with the automatic time penalty: she ran into an underground garage when a car was just coming out at the sprint final in Goslar. Unfortunately for her the door closed when the car was gone, confining her for some time to forbidden terrain. But luckily a second vehicle came and let her out. The one question open is how long she had to wait – the opinions range from two minutes to several hours…
Rather brazen is the runner who tried to outsmart our team at the finish area. Trying to keep his map he had folded it as small as possible into his hand and professed to have lost it. But we were not born yesterday: our attentive volunteers spotted a corner of the map and snatched it away from the cheat. Although he probably fretted about that he should rather be happy not to have been disqualified…
At the second long-distance qualification a runner caused bewilderment in the finish area. The young lady left the forest, entered the finish straight, ran through finish and further without punching the finish control, reading out her SI-card or even stopping. But soon it was clear that the woman without bib, compass or map was just a “normal” jogger…
The joy overflowed when they reunited at the sprint final in Goslar – and many others were happy with them: Claudia Ducki, volunteer at the WMOC, waited an hour in the finish area only to meet her ex-boyfriend. It may sound odd and doubtless not necessarily like a happy event, in this case though it did have an extra appeal: They had not met in the previous 30 years…
Meanwhile volunteer Wilfred Holloway who was raised in England met a former concurrent: British Guy Goodair runs in category M75 at the WMOC. As a surprise for Holloway he brought a photo: it shows both at the British Championship in walking over the distance of 35 kilometres in which both had participated. When? In 1965!
Everyone will sympathise with the lady who applied to our parking guides for help: the athlete with an 80+ parking ticket searched her own car desperately! “Where is my car?” she constantly demanded in English language. But as we are all amiable people, she was invited into the organiser’s car und together the quest for a black Peugeot commenced. And – how could it be otherwise – the vehicle was found in the last corner of the parking lot…
We are very pleased about the daily articles in the Goslarsche Zeitung. And obviously we are not the only ones: when some organisers visited a café on a rest day they read the newspapers laid there for the guests. But both samples missed the sports section – it had been stolen…
They do a great job: the speakers in the finish area provide many facts for the audience, give useful additional information and ensure a great atmosphere – and all that in several languages. Thanks to a control with a radio system they can even give split times and announce orienteers coming. They do such a very good job that rumour has it that they will have offers from the next WMOC in Italy…
On the first two competitions they could be seen everywhere near controls: pupils of the Geschwister-Scholl-Gesamtschule Göttingen and the Corvinianums Northeim. They had an eye on the controls to prevent them from falling or being stolen. One pupil of the Corvinianum was excited at the fitness of some of the oldest athletes: “It shows that it is possible to do sports ambitious and joyful until high ages” he said…
