The Opening Ceremony

Today was the official opening ceremony of the World Orienteering Championships, and unlike the rest of the competition so far, it was actually organised. You could almost say well organised, but that would be pushing the limits a little bit. We used the official transport (the Metro) to get there and a short walk through the most beautiful part of downtown Kiev brought us to the Russian / Ukrainian integration monument.

The ceremony started on time with the flag procession, we asked Markus to be our flag bearer, and then various dignitaries came up on the stage, followed by the usual speeches (all in Ukrainian of course). After the “boring” part of the evening, we were treated to some incredible dancing and good music from various groups, including the World Champion in handicapped classical dancing. Both handicapped pairs where very good, and the traditional folk dancing with costumes must have been murder on the dances (in 30 plus heat), but was very pleasing to the eye.

After this the team split up, with some going to eat dinner while others headed back to the hotel for various meetings, and then preparation for tomorrow.

You can find some more photo's here!

More about that later,
From a hot and sweltering Kiev,
Richard.