It is really interesting to study the splits from a race like the long distance today. To aid in the study of the splits, I have uploaded them into Splitsbrowser (see link below). Note that due to the butterflies, there is a part in the middle of the course where the splits are not correct as usual when butterflies are applied
Some observations:

• Thierry had a fantastic start of the race. It looks like he really run it like a middle distance, and did not manage to keep up the pressure in the last part of the course, whereas Jarkko Huovilla had a very good last part of his race. Look out for Jarkko tomorrow - he also had a very good middle qualification on monday.
• Thierry caught up Valentin Novikov already at the 4th control.
• The butterflies do not seem to have the intended effect in this terrain. Based on the two graphs below, you can see that it was in the butterflies that Simone caught up with Minna Kaupi and Thierry caught up with Janne Lakanen.
• Daniel Hubmann and Emil Wingstedt had a really, really bad day, losing 8 and 20(!!!) minutes on the 19th control, respectively - in addition to many, many other large mistakes.

Any other interesting comments and observations regarding the splits for the long distance? Write them as a comment at the bottom of this page (the email address you enter will not be shown).

Links:

• Splitsbrowser for Long distance
• Results with splits and maps available at the WC site

Thierry Gueorgiou is on his way to a victory in the overall World Cup after an impressive performance today. From the start, he run the race the way he is famous for running his middle distances - and had a lead of more than two minutes to Holger Hott Johansen already after half an hours running. Daniel Hubmann and Emil Wingstedt were 10 and 6 minutes behind already at this early point in the competition.

Gueorgiou caught up Valentin Novikov and Jani Lakanen starting 4 and 6 minutes before him already at the first radio control - and this trio had a speed which nobody could match. In the end, nobody got closer to Gueorgiou than Novikov four minutes behind and Lakanen 6 minutes behind. The best runner not in this group was Holger Hott Johansen in 4th spot, nearly 7 minutes behind Gueorgiou (Update: Holger was also caught by Thierry, but did not run along with him for a long time). Note that Novikov was the fastest one in the last part of the course - Thierry Gueorgiou struggling to keep his pace.

Luckily for Hubmann in the fight for the overall World Cup, the long distance is not the World Cup final, and therefore this race will not have to count in the calculation of his World Cup points. That is, he is still very much in the fight for the overall World Cup. However, now Gueorgiou is the one who can manage alone. With a victory in the middle distance World Cup final, he has the overall World Cup. If Hubmann wins the World Cup final, Gueorgiou must be number three or worse for Hubmann to win overall. That is - there is still much excitement here.

Note! This report is based on unofficial results.

Simone Niggli did it again! This was the third victory of three possible over the long distance in this years World Cup. Closest to Simone was Minna Kaupi - who run the last part of the course along with Simone. Simone started 4 minutes after Minna, and was more than 1 minute ahead of Minna in the forest at the first radio control. However, Minna caught up with Simone again, and they came together to the finish.

Again, Simone showed that she is in another class than the other women. Down to Emma Engstrand in the 3rd spot it was 7 minutes, and more than 10 minutes down to Martina Fritschy in 6th spot.

… coming back in groups?
Update 12:00: Simone Luder has had an incredible start, and is more than 2 minutes before Emma Engstrand at the first radio control. Martina Fritschy is in the lead in the finish, but had lost 4 minutes to Simone already at the first radio. In the mens class, Peter Öberg has the lead at the first radio, two minutes before Johan Modig. Johan Modig lost 25 minutes(!) between 5km and 10 km, and is now out of the fight. Instead Finnish Jörgen Wickholm is in the lead in the finish.

Follow the action at the live text feed from the organizers:

• http://www.wcup2006live.fr/live_text.html

Update 11:08: Live results are working again. Martina Fritschy and Johan Modig in the lead at the first radio control. Many runners are making big mistakes.
Update 10.47: Radio control positioning:

• Women: after 3 km, 5.5 km and prewarning 500 meter before the finish. The best time after 6 runners past at 3 km was 35.08 - Amelie Chataing.
• Men: radio 1 after 5 km, radio 3 after 10 km. These will be used for all runners. Radio 2 is after 6.5 km and radio 4 is after 11.5 km. The latter two will only be used for the top runners. After 20 runners passed 5 km, Johan Modig was in the lead with 38.48.

Update 1020: Live audio is not working due to problems with a firewall. According to information from the organizers, they think they will not manage to fix live audio today.

Live results are now working, and results are ticking in. The time differences are big, and it looks like many runners are making many mistakes.

Original story:
Follow the WC long distance live from 0900 at the official web site of the WC final and find out for yourself. The terrain is so difficult, that even the best runners will make errors. This fact, along with the bad runnability in parts of the terrain, makes the terrain very good for grouping runners. And running away from somebody is not exactly easy here..

Les mer »

… 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.

Links:

• WC standings at the official WC page
  
• WC overall standings calculator

Daniel Hubmann isn’t only one of the fastest in the forest - he is also fast updating his excellent homepage. The map from todays competition is already available, with Daniels routechoice. Seems to have been a challenging sprint course. Enjoy!

• Daniel Hubmann homepage

Update: Map with routechoice for top 3 in men and women classes are now also being made available at the organizers homepage - currently still being uploaded:

• http://www.wcup2006.fr/index.php?url=resultats.php

(but Daniel was faster!)

The first part of the course and the tricky last part with Daniel Hubmanns route choice.

- I did a good race without any mistakes, only a small one at the first control, Thierry G. said after his victory in todays sprint in the WC final. - I am in good shape for this week, and have trained good for the middle distanse. Tomorrows long distance will be very hard, he continued. Thierry G. won after a tight fight against overall WC leader Daniel Hubmann, and thus there is still excitement regarding the overall WC. Heli Jukola won in the womens class in front of Emma Engstrand and Sara Gemperle. A very good day for the swiss with a total of 5 runners on the podium (two in the womens class and three in the mens class) - and in addition there is Simone who was just outside the podium.
Les mer »

Below you find an online calculator to find the final WC standings based on the results for the runners in the three final races (only for the mens class at present - and only the top 10 in todays standing are included). Emil Wingstedt is the runner who may get the maximum number of points in the overall WC.

Les mer »

Here you find a full update on the situation at the WC final in France directly from the organizers. The best news first: the organizers still count on having live audio and 3 online controls at each of the three finals - and there will be no qualifications. Note also especially the new starting time for the sprint qualification tomorrow: 11.00 for the women and 12.00 for the men. Les mer »

There will be no sprint qualification, and the sprint final will go already at 1100. The middle final will hopefully be run on friday.

Les mer »