SA Performance at World Games 2009

Nicholas Mulder and Tania Wimberley represented South Africa at the World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan from 16-26 July 2009.  The Orienteering at the World Games consisted of a Sprint and Middle distance event.  The results of our runners in these events are included at the end of this post.  It is worth analysing the results of our athlete’s performances against the targets set in the SAOF’s 2010 high performance strategic plan (PDF doc 141KB).  In terms of our athletes’ finishing times as a percentage of the winners, they performed as follows:

Also included in this table are the targets set in the 2010 high performance strategic plan (PDF doc 141KB).   Nicholas had a good showing in the Middle distance event, coming close to the target level.  Tania’s performance exceeded the targets set and, in both cases, her performances amount to the best-ever performances by a South African woman at a world championship level event.  Tania’s performances can be attributed to a number of factors:

1. SASCOC intervention through access to the High Performance Centre and access to a high performance training program
2. It was her second international event (after WOC 2006), reflecting the benefit of experience.
3. The terrain was less technical, i.e. more like what we’re used to.

What this does show is that focus, commitment and access to elite-level physical assessment and training programmes are hugely important if we wish to raise the level of performance of our elite orienteers in the international arena.