Anna, Addison, Matt, and I are all running the JWOC Tour races, so we didn’t have a race the day of the sprint. We did have a very important job, though: cheering our teammates on through the spectator control and into the finish! And it turned out that we ended up cheering on a lot of the other countries as well (yeah Canada!), especially in the beginning, because there was hardly anyone at all spectating or cheering before the first couple finishers.
Matt walking around, checking out the arena
Dave at the finish!
The finish chute
Pavlina with our stuff
Sonia (that’s become her name for sure now), the least intimidating guard dog ever
We got to the arena early to scope out the area and set up our stuff, and then at 10:00, the first runner started. Austin, Connor, and Melanie were our earliest starters, and they blew by quickly. After they finished it started to drizzle, and then rain lightly, and then the sky opened up and dumped down a huge downpour, complete with thunder and lightning. It made the pavement and sidewalks pretty slick. We saw a couple runners fall after the spectator control, and some finishers with bloody elbows and knees, so there was probably a lot of slipping and sliding out on the course.
Other than the rain, though, it was a fine day to be out cheering (and to be out racing, I suppose!). Anna and I had a lot of fun spectating and yelling. The sprint is probably the race where you’re most likely to lose your voice, because all the races happen so quickly, and the whole thing is so intense and exciting that you’re basically yelling the whole time. Using Evalin’s camera, I tried to get pictures of everyone (either at the spectator control or at the finish, or both), but I was kind of lousy with the focusing so some of them came out blurry. I’ve included the best ones here.
Anne running down the chute from the spectator control
Will punching the spectator control
Elina finishing
Sliding into the finish punch!
Ethan after the spectator control
Matej finishing in the downpour
Melanie and Addison being cute at the spectator control
But there was somebody there who got good pictures of everyone: David Yee! My photography hero! His wonderful photos are linked here, and if he or Barb posts more on Attackpoint or on the Junior Team Facebook page I’ll be sure to give you a link to those photos as well. Please check them out—they’re definitely worth looking at!
After the races finished, we ate lunch and reviewed the course a little with our teammates, and then we left around 2 pm to drive to the stadium where the awards and the opening ceremony would be held. The results from the sprint are here. Although we didn’t make the podium or get in the top 10, we did really well as a team compared to previous years at JWOC.
Team USA on the bleachers
After the celebration we took some more photos (please check out Dave’s pictures!) and then headed back to the cottage for showers and dinner. After dinner we went to the hotel for a team meeting. After the meeting we hung out with our teammates a little bit and congratulated them on their performance in the sprint, then went back to the cottage and got ready for bed.
Wonderful dinner after the sprint
Chicken, carrot, and potato stew with rice
Barb computing after dinner!
Walking up the hill to the main hotel
My housemates up the hill in the fog
Going into the JWOC hotel
–Addie
neon goes abroad 