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[RC] WEC: moving on - John TeeterIt was indeed a day. Check out these images from Ramona Deunisch of Germany - a most beautiful capture of the day:) http://www.ramona-duenisch.de/fotografie/ or http://www.ramona-duenisch.de/ or and click on the coverage (how's your German??) Quite the day yesterday. I'm still sorting through stuff (and the whole of the Endurance City seems to be locked down -- go figure), so we can't get final detailed results etc. We'll have to wait till tomorrow for that. I'm sure there will be lots of stories and such coming out in the local press. I'll put links into that (mainly gulfnews.com if you want to go look). But there are lots of people around writing lots of things - and there are many more stories of the day floating between the people. Thoughts on the American strategy will peculate, but at least for now, going out so slowly on the first loop may have been a bit problematic. There was so much time differential between them and the leading teams at 40km that the only winning strategy from there on was based upon failure by the other teams (i.e. that, by going faster, the other teams would blow themselves out and the US would fall into a medal because the faster teams lost horses. But there were so many (14) teams running in front of the US at that point, that the odds were against that strategy. Then, having to hurry in the last 3rd of the event when it became obvious that there was just too much time to overcome - well that was the hot part of the day where caution may have been the watchword. I do hope the analysis and moving forward part of the USAs evolving focus on team building and training helps to understand what worked and what didn't in this effort. I also hope that Paladin is safe and sound and all our hopes go to Bev - he's a magnificent animal. Of course Lenoard and Orfeo and Team Belgium were Ecstatic. Lots of hugs and kisses and intoTheWaterTank all round. At that point they were the in 2nd place (b/c the Australians still had one rider out). Orfeo is the ONLY horse to have run in Dubai at both the 1998 and 2004 world championships. He finished both races and was on the Bronze medal team this year!! He is a very opinionated animal - has is his rider!!:) Team Italy is a mystery to me. I didn't see much of them all day and they moved through the competition as ghosts - they were always behind the UAE by @20-40 minutes, and when the UAE lost it's team at gate 5 Italy was there to ride with caution to the Gold. Australia was steady and confident throughout the day. Toby Crocket and Mal and Pam et.all. were in/out of the press room with little tidbits and were constantly in contact with their team strategists via cell phone. They were definitely on top of the competition and were happy and free with their thoughts, hopes, and opinions! It was great fun working with them. Team Canada finished 4th place following the first half of the US strategy. They continued to ride to the conditions and their horses (not the clock) in the latter part of the ride and finished 3 (with - YAHOO - Daphne Richards and Cuchulain finishing with 20 minutes to spare to take the Golden Desert Turtle Award!!) And for all those Canadians out there -- "GO MOTO!!" more in a bit (and stuff is moving up to the coverage site). check out the images of the winner carrying the flag of the UAE. A guy ran out on the course about 200 yArds from the finish and handed it to him. A perfect hand-off at speed:) FEI's strict rules can be softened when necessary:) more in a bit. I do think that I'm going to have to go play with steph a bit this afternoon - all work and ... I may be getting dull... johnt =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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