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The thunderclouds have gone. The sun shined down from a nearly clear sky today. The thermometer showed about 40 degrees, however only at a humidity of 60 per cent. That makes the heat somewhat more bearable. There are big differences of temperature between inside and outside. Entering a shop or restaurant, you feel like stepping into a refrigerator. About 15 to 20 degrees that is, depending on the time of day. We have already learned to take a jacket with us when we go to a restaurant. When the air-cons of the restaurants blow the cold without respite on the sweaty outfit and your neck, a thin jacket is really good.

After the Korean breakfast with meat, fish and Kimchi for some, but luckily also with toast and marmalade for others (the ones that like breakfast sweet), an hour of workshop was scheduled. Every unicycle was restored to a rideable state. For the flight, some had to be broken down completely, others just had their pedals taken off or some air taken out of the tire.

Then, there was a trip with the car to all the competition states. The days of competition often start very early, and there often is near to no time between the competitions. So there will be no time to look for the competition sites then. For the 10k road race on Wednesday for example, the registration of the first waves, and so Henriette and Konstantin, will already be at 6:45 am (11:45 pm at home!!!!). If you had to find the starting area in stress then, the day starts somewhat less than perfect. So we visited the two freestyle-gyms, the Ansan Lake Park for the stated 10k, the Suam Mountain for Downhill and Sokdal-Dong at the Suri Mountain for Uphill and Cross Country.

Under the shade-giving tent at the Wa~ Stadium, there was the registration in the afternoon. Now, we are equipped with a competitors-wristband, Convention-T-shirt, bag, info-material and the competitors additionally with their bib numbers. A pity, that some of the race directors weren’t there. Some questions or problems could maybe have been solved directly.

For breakfast, there was Pasta and pizza just around the corner. When we came back, the hotel lobby was filled with competitors from Japan. Belinda and Konstantin, who had gone for a stroll through the evening Ansan and came to the hotel maybe an hour later, still saw the same scene there. Should every check in take as long as ours the day before, we will perhaps encounter parts of them still tomorrow at 8am, when we will be on our way to breakfast. Or every one of us will get a additional room mate, should there be differences between the people and the number of booked rooms. The desperate looks on the staff’s faces leave room for speculations…

But the top of the Japanese delegation had an own stand in the lobby and informed all arriving competitors regarding the event – a very professional approach to a huge event. That emphasises the importance of that sport in Japan.

translated by Henriette Höhne