A Canadian in Sweden

AESOR 2006

The Canadian Forces have sent me to Lahti Finland to act as a liason officer between my sport - CIOR Pentathlon, and AESOR heptathlon. Yes, life is sometimes tough. For those of you who don't know much about these military sports, check out http://www.cior.net/Disciplines.762.0.html . AESOR doesn't seem to have any English language websites, but it is fundamentally similar to CIOR except it is a competition for reservist non commissioned officers. Anyhow.
The AESOR competition was in Lahti Finland, which is a place I have known about for years because it is the home of the Finlandia Hiihto ski loppet, as well as being host to the 2001 nordic ski championships. I would rate it as being easily one of the meccas for nordic skiing, behind legendary places like Holmenkollen in Norway and Mora or Ostersund in Sweden. So I was obviously happy to go.
Although my friend Pascal Tremblay ( a legend in CIOR) was instrumental in getting Canada's AESOR team off the ground a few years ago, this was my first contact with the Canadian team. I was really impressed. The team was composed of 6 reservist NCM's from Sergeant to Master Warrant Officer. These are some of the best people the Canadian Forces has to offer, and they reflect well on the Canadian Forces in general and the reserves in particular. They are all motivated, dynamic people who are physically fit and genuinely enjoyable to be with. The average age is about a decade older than CIOR athletes (32 vs about 22-24), so there is a certain amount of life experience and maturity on the team as well. It was my pleasure to meet them, and I hope that we can start building some bridges between our two sports. I believe both teams would profit from some cross-pollination.
Here are a few photos of the two teams I took during the obstacle course portion of the competition.

In the first shot Sgt Steve Koch (L) and PO Sean Neraasen (R) are just over the Gate obstacle, with WO Danny Boulay just behind them.

In the second shot, PO Elizabeth `Liddie´ Krawchuk, Sgt Annick `Celine´ Hardy and MWO Paul `Pull my finger` McIntyre are crossing over the 3 walls at the very end of the obstacle course. I would like to point out that Paul is courageously leading his team of girls from the rear.

posted by Jeff @ 9:13 AM