Randomly we found ourselves in Wroclaw for a couple of days at the same time as the World Games – completely unplanned! The World Games is full of sports that don’t quite have the worldwide oomph to get on the Olympic Stage! On the Monday night we tried to get tickets to the men’s synchronised trampolining but in the end saw a couple of ‘ends’ of boules as the tickets were all sold out! There was all sorts else on – from tug of war to speedway and sport climbing!
Tuesday morning however brought the sprint distance orienteering races from a square in the old town of Wroclaw! First up were the Women, with Brits Megan Carter Davies and Tess Strain separated by a few minutes in the start list. We hung around the start finish zone and watched them both start and then again as they came through the spectator control before finally seeing them come in for the final time after the final loop. The finish area was surrounded by fairly grotty flats, in total contrast to the gorgeous main square where we knew from the GPS tracking the competitors went on their second loop.
So as the final few women started we headed for the main square and were treated to Maja Alm flying through before we took a well-earned break in a café before the Men started to appear in the square.
We moved about the square managing to see the same competitors a few times as they looped about, also keeping one eye on the Live O app which showed us the GPS tracking. Peter Hodkinson and Ralf Street were running for GBR. Ralf had a cracking run taking a great 7th place overall. I also got an interesting photo of Jerker Lysell being photobombed by a pigeon!
The courses looked relatively easy but we did see a number of people making mistakes – the sheer speed of the competition and the winning margins being so tight you had to run clean.
The World Games has a Middle Race tomorrow and a sprint relay following but we are now off to the Bohemian 5 day in Czech!