The trip took a more serious turn once we arrived in camp at the race hotel. A mix up with the organisers meant we had a couple of extra days to settle in. A bit more like a hotel with breakfast and dinner provided taking a bit of the pressure off us all having to sort out at least two of the meals a day!

The first day seemed pretty laid back for most but us as the coaches were pretty much on the clock talking to all of the athelets individually. This took quite a lot longer than anticipated but it was good to get a gauge on everyone, how they were feeling and what lay ahead of them.

Later in the afternoon we could go and check out the model map for the long distance. This was back at the Montevaccino area with the super narrow passageway to get to the event. As a driving this was by far the most stressful moment of the entire week! Lots of tight maneuvering in and out, backing up, squeezing forwards etc. Luckily I was able to ditch the kids and while they were checking out the model, I was trying to park!

The maps were totally not what we were expecting. The printing was pretty bad to say the least… then the mapping was also not quite what was expected. Unfortunately this left the team feeling a little bit underwhelmed the only reassuring thing was that it was the same for every other team. Also it seemed quite surprising the model area was actually one of the training areas so when the maps were not up to scratch it seemed that there was little value actually added by being there….

Never the less it’s just something extra to deal with…something as an athlete you have to learn to deal with! The next day was model map number 2, for the sprint events. Again a map that had a prior training on it, so more about looking at controls in the terrain. Morning activities done, there was a bit of free time prior to the opening ceremony, and Coach/Managers meeting. The opening ceremony was quite a good show as far as opening ceremonies go something Italians seem to do well! The meeting turned out to be not as controversial as it could have been… the organisers had anticipated questions about the map quality and that reassured everyone!

It felt like the first race day had rolled around really quick. The weather turned up today too, forecast to be around 35degC at race start in the afternoon! The day started out quiet and laid back and quickly turned intense. Our convoy of 3 dark coloured SUV’s rolled put of the hotel exactly on time and headed up the valley to Levico Terme, carefully following the driving instructions.

One thing that was clear in quarantine, it was hot outside, very hot. We claimed a space in the shade in the relative cool interior. The sprint relay is probably the easiest, but maybe one of the more stressful quarantine as a coach. This is because there are a lot of athletes all in a condensed area and they all need to go in waves through the pre-start. I could sense there were quite a bit of nerves in the NZ team, there was the potential for quite a good result so we did our best as coaches to be the extra hand the grabbed towels, spoke calmly and reassuringly to help with the nerves.

By the time we were able to leave quarantine everyone was out on the course and the race almost over. Quite a weird feeling. Our number 1 team runner made a mistake on the first leg, they repaired it well, making sure not to mispunch, but after that it was hard to come back. The two teams ended up running together for some parts of the course which was a bit of a novelty. Once it was all time to return home the mood was not to bad, but you could tell there was a hint of disappointment about what could have been.

The following day was the individual sprint. One of the longest drives of the event, so it was early starts ready for a long day in +30dgeC temperatures again. Leaving the hotel this was the first and only time I accidentally pulled out onto the wrong side of the road….whoops! Luckily my car ocupants let me know very quickly. After that I was very much switched on!

My task for the day was to be on the finish line, while Briana stayed at quarantine. I have to say there was a surprising amount of fomo. I hung around for a while, then noticed one of the athletes sitting down outside so went over and had a bit of a chat with them. Hopefully by the time I had to go they were feeling a bit less overwhelmed! 

It’s was quite different to be at the finish line with all the gear bags. Not a lot was happening to begin with and it took me a while to work out what was going to work best for the athletes as they crossed the line. There was quite a bit of shade in the trees around the finish, and th athletes area was about 500m away down a long alleyway  not the nicest of locations for them to hang out in. Eventually when they came through we gave them their gear bags and let them decide where to go.

The surprise of the day came from Jake with a middle start block, straight into 2nd place. That in itself was not the main surprise, it was more that it stood up against a lot of good runners and he was only bumped out of the top 6 by 1 second at the very end of the day. The boys all did very well with 3 of them into the top 30, with NZ being one of the few countries to have more than 1 in the top 15! The girls also performed well, with most of them ending up in the top 50.

Next came the long distance, and for me it was going to be a long day… almost longer than the kids really. I was first car into quarantine, then I went with the first runners on the bus to the pre-start. The bus ride was about 10 minutes and then there was a 700m walk from the bus stop to the start area. I spent a large part of the day at the start area, setting up a bit of a base camp there, with a ice bucket and some wet towels, as will as everything else you could have in a prestart emergency. From about 8:30am until about 2:30pm I was there at the start.

It was quite hot spread out day of lots of standing around, lots of chatting, indispersed with Athletes arriving and then leaving out onto the course. While it might have seemed a little boring, keeping calm, keeping the athletes happy as I could and seeing them on there way was super satisfying. Eventually the last on Felix came through, he lost his prerace gel in his pocket and I didn’t have much else other than some gu crews… not ideal but got him fueled just in time.

Time to move on back down the hill, back to the car and the arena to see how they were all did/were doing…. except it was quite late in the scheme of things and the start to quarantine shuttles were not as frequent, and that made the return to quarantine shuttles even more reluctant to go back down the hill. With the help of Warren Key we were able to convince them to take us.

It was a complete wasteland down there… and the NZ team gear was all still stilling there abandoned… thanks guys for packing it up… 😄. Finally back at the car, I opened the door and it was close to 45degC in there, so hot that my phone which had to be left there in the morning was too hot to turn on and use for directions let alone find out what was happening! Air conditioning to the rescue…

When I arrived at the arena of course there was not a lot of car parks… but I managed to find something on the side of the road not too far away which was good. Next task was to figure out where the team was and work out the arena layout… sounds straightforward but eventually I bumped into some NZ parents and the first thing they told me was that one of yesterday’s supporters had Covid… not exactly what I was wanting to hear… that meant to things Covid was around and there hadn’t been any outstanding results… 😔

I managed to find the team and got a good run down and there really was some glum faces floating around. Eddie and Jake had pretty solid runs and were top 30. Rachel had also done quite well, sitting also in top 30. Felix however was still out there and the commentary hadn’t really talked much about him so it wasn’t going to be the fairy tale ending in the long distance for him unfortunately. Still it was a very respectable finish given all his sickness and injuries in the build up. For me it was quite a weird feeling just seeing the end result and after arriving it felt like I was there for less than an hour before it was time to go home!

After dinner Kieran and myself had a good long chat with Felix, and he was very philosophical about it all which good. Quite a good display of professionalism so to speak.

The team was now heading into a well deserved rest day with just the Middle distance and Relay to go. After a bit of a sleep in, it was out onto the model map, a supermarket trip and a swim/volleyball meet up with some of the other Nations. It was an interesting exercise in cultural differences by the sounds of things… the Austrian/German/Danes seemed to be most keen on running a strict rules driven game keeping points etc where as the Kiwis were more up for a relaxed style of just hitting the ball back and forwards!

The model map in the morning was quite nice, while the team mostly walked and jogged, I was able to run around and get a real feel for the terrain. Very cool area, and very enjoyable.

No rest for the wicked, now the running events were done for the day it was time for swimming and partying. At some point there was a massive thunderstorm with so much rain, creating a massive washout for the competitors in the forest in the spectator races! Then backwards and forwards to the banquet/party location for the beer-o, a retrieval of a lost wing mirror cover 🤔 and finally the party… which for a while us coaches were able to escape to a nearby picnic table and listen to the Finnish coach’s story of how he got his car damaged and repaired again! The most exciting part of the night for us was probably the narrowest passage between buildings we had to drive through while in Italy… about 1cm each side of the mirrors or at least that’s what it felt like!

Rest day over and I was back to finish line duties while Briana took on the quarantine and pre-start roles. I found the middle distance particularly difficult, while not as long as the long distance day it was probably more emotionally draining. It was so good to see the Girls have some great runs and the crazy coincidence of Anna and Katherine with some weird sibling telepathy going on and finished with the same time. Rachel again was one of the top performers. The boys… not really their day, a number of them had got a bit trapped by some poorly mapped vegetation. The made finalising the relay teams quite difficult and not really much fun for us as the coaches and managers.

Once back at the hotel it was quite nice for us three to escape down to the lake for some time off and some time to cool off too.

JWOC was quickly coming to an end with just a super busy relay day to go… quarantine started quite early once again. I stayed with the team hanging out, being there to strap ankles, fix problems and try to stay calm and not too bored at the same time! Again for me it was largely an entire morning in lock down with no idea on what was going on on the outside other than what I could pick up from positions in the run through and snippets from the commentary. 5 days of racing in hot and steep conditions had taken its toll and while the team had solid performances all around nothing outrageous or a scandalous as the protest in the women’s race involving Sweden took place.

After moving out of quarantine, there was a bit of a wait in the heat for the coaches race to start while the protest was sorted. We were given the same maps from the JWOC courses with the only variation being both the start chute redirected to go through some headhigh blackberry, and the run through setup up  for torture…

It was quite a fun start, I hung quite far back in the pack to start with so most of the blackberry was trampled down nicely for me. I did however have something poored over my head, disturbing it was some sort of warm salty concoction….away from mayhem at the start, it was reasonably chaotic out on course. There were some quite good orienteers in the coaching teams and it was intense for the first few controls! Eventually things thinned out and I was on my own for a bit. Then came the run through…. I knew there was going to be a shoe involved and some beer…I was quite thirsty by this point in the race too, so while I just opened my mouth and tipped it in I swear some of it was drunk… not that they believed me! Also some gate hurdles that were moving, I almost ate the dirt… I continues on again too for the final loop, so ended up going through for a second time just before the finish. I have to say I was a little sad no one was there to hand me a cold towel at the finish 😞

Kieran had to leave at something ridiculous like 4am, then by 10am it was farewell to Siri who had come to visit/watch from Switzerland and the team then all dispersed in different directions.