North American Sprint Champs!

GHO Canada GHO win multiple medals at North American Sprint Champs

Sprint Specialists?
Patrick Goeres won the North American Sprint Champs last weekend at McMaster. Now back in the 'Peg, Patrick trained with GHO Canada GHO over the winter and improved greatly. He was in a fight with GHO members Hans Fransson and Doug Mahoney through-out the sprint and pushed hard over the final few controls to take the Gold. Hans Fransson showed that he has a bit of Emil Wingstedt Swedish Sprint specialization in him taking the silver and Doug Mahoney ended up 5th (his first orienteering race in 2.5 years) despite a medal costing error on the 2nd last control.

Sergehi Logvin took bronze in the under 19 category (despite running up from his normal 15-16 category). Other medallists were:
Mark Tarnopolsky took silver in M35+
Jack Lee Gold in M65+
Marianna Weber silver in F35+
Barb Campbell silver in F45+

Congratulations to all medal winners.

Here is Hans' up-to-now unpublished sprint picks. He got them exactly right!

Trying to predict who will a sprint is very difficult. Just like at this year's WOC; who would have thought that Hanny Alliston would be the one to beat Simone? The NAOC sprint takes place at the McMaster university campus, so most of the decisions the runners will face will probably be; right or left around the building? No hesitations are allowed.
So, who is going to win? Well, it is a good field. The only top Canadian missing is Sandy H-J, while the Americans have a few of their best not coming; Sandra Zurcher, and Hillary Saeger. However, my favourite to win, is neither member of the Canadian team, yet, or the US team. Yes, I'm being a bit conservative, and I play safe; I think Katta Smith will race around the course the fastest. But, she will face some tough competition from Louise Oram, who made it to the WOC final, and Samantha Saeger, who won the sprint series finals, just a few weeks ago.
1. Katta Smith
2. Louise Oram
3. Samantha Saeger
Outsiders: Erin Nielsen, Pavlina Brautigam