1999 WMC GRINDLEWALD SWITZERLAND

(by VIC EMERY - TEAM CAPTAIN)

In the days leading up to the races, we watched, mystified, the all-powerful democratic(?) system of the Swiss Cantons swing into action. Initially the Bernese Oberland functionary in Interlaken unilaterally cancelled the Masters. Then, with mounting pressure from the Association, Grindlewald and beyond, he recanted in part by allowing the contest to bigin, BUT only with those Masters already in situ! He only permitted "normal" tourists to enter Grindlewald (which included alpine skiers trying their hand at triggering avalanches where they happen - on the slopes!) and he forbade the helicopter company to transport Masters to Grindlewald!!!

That edict was never recinded but resoutceful masters ran the gauntlet as "normal" tourists. Two days late the show went on, albeit with a fall-out of probably 30% from the 1000 odd registrants. The Canadians fall out was only 6 of 36 registered, and so top marks for persevering to those of you waiting to get in. In spite of the verer-all fall-out, we would like to think that the quality was there, which I believe in large part it was. In our case, half of our Lake Placid medallists were back and two thirds of our contingent had been medallists in recent Canadian Championships.

And So, how did we do?  Comparing results with Lake Placid, individual performances were impressive! In Lake Placid, approximately 125 Canadians brought home 4 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze. In Grindlewald, 30 Canadians took 6 gold, 9 silver and 4 bronze! That's out of a total cache of 180 medals - over 10% from less than 5% of the participants. Sadly, however, no Canadian man reached the podium, as opposed to a gold and silver in Lake Placid. The men struggled with large, quality fields and only Pierre Harvey, Olav Stena, Norbert Meier, Paul Junique, Ernest Salzgebber, National director Jack White, Jean-Yves Babin, Peter Donitz, Vic Emery and Gosta Edvardsson managed top half performaces. Of these, Harvey, Stena and Emery managed top 20%, each placing 6th in one of their races. The top man's placing actually was Gosta Edvardsson who missed a bronze by 10 seconds in his select 75+ field. Commiserations Gosta - next time in the land of your birth!

Not to take anything away from their preformances, for the likes of Kathy Davies and Sylvia Stettler in particular can stand up to any field anywhere, in rather small fields our women took all of our medals. Kathy and Silvia each ended up with 2 gols and a silver!! They also combined forces with Judy Buchanan-Mappin and Katja Mathys to win the F1/2 relay gold. The relay men in M3 category were not so lucky, in spite of Pierre Harvey's fastest leg of the race, Mike Mappin, Ernst Salzgeber and Norbert Meier being hard pressed to keep up with the younger racers of the age group. But the team placed a very credible 4th out of 7 in a very tough competition, only 1'35" out of 3rd.

For complete results check the World Masters Web Site web site.

Whatever our results, we conclded that while masters racing in Europe is tougher, we will go forward and upward in Kiruna next year. At least there we will have drier snow conditions (goodbye fluora!) which will please Pierre Harvey amongst others. With temperatures above 0C for all the races, waxing was a mighty challenge and, particularly in the 50km skate, riding on the backs of one's skiis became a very tiring experience indeed. Hopefully also in Kiruna we will have tracks which will be at least as much of a challenge technically as they are vis conditioning and strength, these latter two criteria seeming to have become the emphasis over the past few years. This is the subject of another report to Jack White which he may choose also to publish for the member comment.

As of writing, I have just completed the Norwegian Birkebeiner 58Km classic for the 4th time. This is a tough grind over 900M mountains, once from 280M and a second time from 660M before descending into Lillehammer's fabulous Olympic Stadium at 500M. This is Norway's prestige citizen race over marvellous terrain with colourful Norweqian hospitality to cheer you on. But, if you think master's racing is tough, be prepared. In my age group, in spite of top 10 in the masters, I found 20 Norwegians ahead of me in a field of 215!!  Next year the Birkebeiner will take place on Saturday, 18th March, the day before the first races of the WMC in Kiruna. For those wanting to take in both, ther will be a flight from Oslo on the 19th for Birkebeiner skiers, returning to Oslo after the event. Then you can enter the Troll ski Marathon over the mountains of the Rondane - only 95km classic which I am preparing for now and why I am getting this off to Jack first!  more later I hope.  Vic March 25 Oslo.

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