World of O News
… but Daniel and Emil can do it alone. That is the situation in the overall World Cup before todays long distance. Thierry is the master of this difficult french terrain – but can he manage a good long distance?
Update 13.18: Thierry no longer needs help after todays victory! See this article.
Below you see calculations in the WC calculator assuming two straight victories for Emil and Thierry – and two straight second places for Daniel. As you can see, Emils maximum point score is 295 points and Thierrys is 293 points, whereas Daniel gets 294 points for two second places. Thus both Daniel and Emil can get the overall WC victory on their own.
However, based on the results from yesterdays sprint, the fight will probably be between Daniel and Thierry.
- Thierry has trained especially for this WC final for several months – taking more than 1000 controls since the WOC in Denmark. His victory in the Middle qualification – although “wortless” now – showed that he masters this difficult terrain better than anyone else. Yesterdays sprint showed that he is physical on top – and remember that it was in the tricky part at the end of the course he managed to beat Daniel.
- Daniel showed with his sprint yesterday that he is in great shape, although he was beaten by Thierry with a 100% perfect race. He has not won any World Cup races this year, but he has performed well in almost every race. His series so far is 7-10-2-2-6-2 – and of his two second places, two are from sprint distances and only one is from the long distance. However, he said after the race yesterday that he feels that he is better on the long distance than Thierry. Can Daniel manage two more good races this week, and win the overall World Cup 2006?
- Emil has had several colds since the WOC in Denmark, and has not been able to train as well as he wanted to. After yesterdays sprint, he said that the race was technically as good as the race which gave him a gold medal at the WOC in Denmark this summer – but the speed is not high enough. According to himself, his only chance is the difficult orienteering.
My personal favourite to win the last two competitions during the WC final in France is Thierry – but he is going to need help! It is for sure going to be two exciting and also very special races. As Emma Engstrand put it: I have never before experienced this difficult orienteering.
Marianne versus Simone
In the womens class, it is Marianne versus Simone. From the results it may seem that this is going to be easy for Simone, but all it takes for her to miss the overall WC victory is one run outside the podium – that is, if Marianne manages two take two straight victories.
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