Finland took it all in todays very exciting WC relay in France. The finnish second team won the womens class after a magnificent run by Bodil Holmström on the last leg. Minna Kauppi made it a double for Finland by beating Simone Niggli in a tight fight at the last leg. And a triple by also securing the overall relay World Cup for Finland in the womens class.

20 minutes later, Jarkko Huovilla made the day close to perfect for Finland by giving Finland the victory also in the mens class. Switzerland ended as number two in the mens relay after a very good race by Daniel Hubmann at the second leg. Swedens second team took the third place in todays relay, securing the overall World Cup for Sweden.

Behind these teams, Thierry Gueorgiou started on what looked as his 5th super-performance this week. He started out as number 14, and at the 3rd radio control he had run the french team up to into 3rd spot. However, Thierry showed that he is human after all - and made some mistakes in the end, returning to the finish as number 4. In addition, both France and Sweden I had a mispunch on the second last control of the last leg.

Links:

• Official results and maps will be available here

Bodil Holmström decided the relay for the finnish second team.

After 30 minutes of running, Finland 2 is in the lead in the womens class before France 2, whereas France 2 has taken the lead in the mens class after 10 minutes of running before Norway 2.

This is going to be a very interesting relay in this very technical french terrain, as the runners are already now making a lot of mistakes.

Links:

• WC Live
• WC home page

Heli Jukkola is running the second leg for Finland 1.

Minna Kauppi had a clear lead - but lost it all. Valentin Novikov had the middle distance king on his knees - but blew it in the end. Niggli did two large mistakes of more than 2 and 3 minutes, respectively, which took away her victory chances. Even Thierry G. had a solid mistake at the 10th control. It was an extremely difficult middle distance today - with the big stars loosing lots of time in the tricky parts!
Some observations:

• Thierry G. caught Daniel Hubmann already at the fourth control. Thierry was in front most of the way - Hubmann passing by at the very end of the course.
• It looks like Holger Hott Johansen and Valentin Novikov have not been that close together all the way - rather changing the lead and running more separate ways.
• Minna Kauppi had a huge more than two minute mistake at the 10th control, after having run away from Emma Engstrand.

I show just a few screenshots below - see for yourself for all the juicy details..
Links:

• Splitsbrowser for middle distance
• Maps and full official results will be available here

The king of the middle distance - Thierry Gueorgiou - is back after taking a break at the WOC in Denmark. He has done three extremely good races, and showed that nobody can beat him in this technical terrain - neither on the sprint, the long distance, or on his speciality the middle distance. This also gave Gueorgiou the overall victory in this years World Cup, ahead of Daniel Hubmann who ran together with Gueorgiou for most of the course.

Gueorgiou took the lead at the first radio control, just 14 seonds ahead of Valentin Novikov. Daniel Hubmann again had a bad start, and came together with Gueorgiou already before the first radio control.

The hardest competition for Gueorgiou today was Novikov - who also had company - he caught up with Holger Hott Johansen at the first radio control, and together they set up a tremendous speed on the way to the second radio control - which nobody could match except for king of the middle distance - Gueorgiou - who lost 22 seconds to the pair in this area. Thus, now Novikov had the advantage - 8 seconds ahead of Gueorgiou.

However, Novikov lost more than a minute between the second radio control and the prewarning - and the victory again went to the fantastic french runner, 1.17 ahead of Novikoc and 1.56 ahead of Hubmann.

As Gueorgiou headed into the forest, the swede David Andersson just run into the finish and took a clear lead, 1.45 ahead of the former leader Carl Waaler Kaas of Norway. - I’m very satisfied with my race today. I made just a small mistake on the 4th control, about 20. It was a very difficult race but i took it easy enough. I like very much middle distance, especially when it’s very technical like this, Andersson said after his race - which in the end gave him the fourth place.

A little sidestep in the end: It is going to be interesting to hear what Holger Hott Johansen has to say about his run today, where he must have been around Novikov for large parts of the course, as Hott Johansen was indeed very hard towards everybody running together on his blog yesterday.

Unofficial results:

Marianne Andersen took her first World Cup victory ever after winning todays very technical World Cup final over the middle distance. Overall World Cup victory went to Simone Niggli after a 9th position today.

- I have done some small mistakes several places and have had some bad routechoices - but I did not really get lost, so it was OK. The terrain was difficult, so I tried to be careful all the way, Marianne said to the speaker after the race, - It is very fun to finally win a World Cup race after 4 second places. This is a big step for me. Several times I did not know excactly where I was in the forest, and got very happy when I saw the control. Andersen also secured the second place in the overall World Cup with this victory.

The most difficult part of todays middle distance course was between the first and second radio control - and it was here much of the womens class was decided, as many good runners lost a lot of time here. Marianne Andersen had a good start, and manged to get through this technical area without big mistakes.

Minna Kauppi took the lead at the first radio control after catching Emma Engstrand early in the course. However, Emma Engstrand managed to get away from Minna Kauppi with nearly two minutes again towards the second radio control, as Kauppi did some big errors in this very technical area. Kauppi had a very good last part of her course - but not good enough to beat Andersen - finishing only 6 second behind Andersen.

Simone Niggli lost some time in the start - and was nearly half a minute behind Kauppi at the first radio control. Simone had also big problems in this technical area, and lost 4 minutes to Andersen.

The swede Annika Billstam started as number five in the womens class, and was the first runner to finish the 3.7 kilometer long course in just above 36 minutes. After two very bad races, Billstam had decided to take it slow today: - I was really slow and steady all the way long and never was really sure of myself, so i think one can run much faster but i had two really bad races so far this week so i prefered to take it safe and easy this time. But it turned out she had indeed chosen the correct strategy - as the race gave her a 4th place in the end. Billstam did a very good race in the technical area between the first and second radio control - and this is where she secured her good position in the end.

Unofficial results:

As Simone Niggle is just running out into the forest now at 12:02, the early starting swede Annika Billstam is in the lead in the womens class, and the norwegian Carl Waaler Kaas (picture) is in the lead in the mens class. Speaker sound and online results work perfectly - so just tune in and follow the World Cup final (links below). Hopefully the online system can handle all the people wanting to follow the excitement.

Startlist of the last 10 in each category:
12:25 Pasi IKONEN
12:27 Mattias MUELLER
12:29 Jarkko HUOVILA
12:31 Michal SMOLA
12:33 Jani LAKANEN
12:35 Emil WINGSTEDT
12:37 Holger HOTT JOHANSEN
12:39 Valentin NOVIKOV
12:41 Daniel HUBMANN
12:43 Thierry GUEORGIOU

11:44 Helena JANSSON
11:46 Anne KONRING OLESEN
11:48 Sara GEMPERLE
11:50 Karolina A-HÖJSGAARD
11:52 Dana BROZKOVA
11:54 Heli JUKKOLA
11:56 Emma ENGSTRAND
11:58 Minna KAUPPI
12:00 Marianne ANDERSON
12:02 Simone NIGGLI-LUDER

Links:

• WC Live
• WC home page
• Full startlist middle final

At 10.01 Csaba Gösswein will start the show at the World Cup Final in France - at 13.15 this years overall World Cup is decided. At 10.21 Ona Rafols heads out into the forest as the first woman. This is going to be a very exciting middle distance, where everything can happen. The only this that is for sure is that Thierry Gueorgiou is the big favourite to take the third victory in a row this week - after his incredible performance yesterday. But favourites have missed before, and Daniel Hubmann will surely fight till the end. To win the overall World Cup, it is enough for  him to win with Thierry Gueorgiou on third spot or worse. That would not have seemed an impossible task a week ago - but now…?

This middle distance final was moved from tuesday, when the race had to be canceled when 2/3s of the field had started. The course setter has had a hard job the last days to set new courses in the same terrain. The finish area will be the same as on tuesday - and also the same as for the relay tomorrow. No controls will be reused from the cancelled race. The mens course will be 4.1 km with 260 meters of height (15 controls), and the womens course will be 3.7 km with 175 meter of height (13 controls).
Les mer »

Read on to see a full analysis of who was running together on yesterdays long distance in the World Cup finals in France. There has been lots of talking about this matter at discussion groups on the internet and elsewhere - both before and after the competition - and the general feeling is that almost everybody had lots of company in the french forests. Holger Hott Johansen, for example, writes the following on his personal homepage:

“[…] on the other hand I am really dissapointed to see how some of the best runners in the world behave when they meet other runners in the forest. They are not even just breaking the rules by following, but they are showing a great lack of respect for their fellow competitors. Long distance orienteering is nowadays too much about meeting the right people in the forest than finding your own route. The runners and IOF has to do something to stop this sad development. It looks like runners forget everything about rules and moral when they see an easy way to better results. Just imagine how this will turn, if we manage to bring money in to the sport.”

However, it is not as bad as one could think - just look at the analysis below! Actually, the two worst cases are the ones which  everybody  noticed when following the race, the Guerogiou-Novikov-Lakanen group (gold, silver, bronze in the mens class) and the Niggli-Kauppi group (gold, silver in the womens class). In addition, there is the Kvaal-Losman-Schneider group - but they ended outside the top 10, the Höjsgaard-Brozkova group (just within the top 10 for Brozkova) and the Gemperle-Müller group (also outside the top-10 - number 11 and 14).

(Photo: Copyright F.F.C.O./WorldCup2006-S.RUFFIO)

It is surprising how there has not been that much group-building among the other runners - not at all like in Japan in WOC 2005. Of course there are some groups, but it is not that bad. Below I have made a screenshot of all groups I could find. You can either look at my screenshots, or explore yourself with the new Splitsbrowser file I have made which now also includes starting times, making it possible to do the analysis yourself (Choose “Graph, Absolute” time in the left corner and click the ones you want to view. To see who may have seen each other, press “Crossing runners”). And guess what? One runner starting in the middle of the pack got through the race without being passed by anybody or passing anybody!
Les mer »

Pasi Ikonen has put the map from todays long distance on his homepage as the first (as I am aware of - thanks to Finn Birk Eriksen). On Pasis homepage, you can also see how his pulse varied during the competition, and a picture of the best runners in todays competition. The quality of the map image is not the best, but you get a good impression of what the world elite has been through today.

Les mer »

Even if Thierry Gueorgious performance today was fantastic, and he is the big favourite for winning the overall World Cup, there are still 6 runners from 6 different nations who can take home the overall World Cup in the mens class. And as we saw today from Daniel Hubmann and Emil Wingstedts performance - everything can happen in these french forests.

Below you see a figure which lets everybody win the last race except for Thierry Gueorgiou. As you can see, actually Valentin Novikov comes up as the possible runner up if both Gueorgiou and Hubmann fail to make good races tomorrow - after his second spot in todays long distance. However, for Novikov to win the overall World Cup, Gueorgiou must be number 32 or worse and Hubmann number 24 or worse in the middle distance tomorrow ….

Valentin Novikov.