The World of O Ranking formula has been used to analyze the results from WOC 2007 - and not surprisingly Finland comes out on top before Switzerland and Sweden. Russia and Norway follow on the next two places. It is a bit surprising to find France only in 6th place, even if the French could travel home with Thierry Gueorgiou’s two Gold medals - but the better Team results of Russia and Norway give more points in the formulas.

Going further down the list, we find that countries who have most runners reaching a WOC final are strongly rewarded, and that for example the Netherlands lands all the way down at the 26th place even with Jonn Are Myhren’s 6th place over the Middle distance.

Thus, I guess there are still things which may be changed with the World of O Ranking to get an outcome which is more in line with how we feel about different results - but this seems to be a good starting point for a discussion - and also a good way to get an overview over WOC results in a systematic way, along with the pictures I know you want to see.

Some potential “problems” I see now:

• Only the best 6 relay positions get points in todays formula, and points are divided by 4 compared to an individual race. Should maybe divide by three instead, and let teams further down get points as well, but along a much steeper curve than for an individual event?
• Points maybe seem to be falling off too slowly. E.g. a 6th place in a WOC final is less worth than two 22nd spots the way it is formulated now.

Any comments about the ranking formula are very welcome - please post them here, where also the ranking is explained.

Links

• The World of O Ranking formula applied to WOC 2007 results with all pictures and results sorted by country.
• See also description of the World of O Ranking formula and the World of O Ranking list.

See all results and pictures from WOC 2007 weighted according to the World of O Ranking formula and sorted by country. What were the best results for each country? Did you miss any results at the WOC this year - or are you looking for a picture of a runner from a special country? This is where you want to look for it!

Links

• The WOC 2007 summary with all pictures and results sorted by country.
• See also description of the World of O Ranking formula and the World of O Ranking list.

Note that points are calculated with the World of O Ranking formula, which is still under development. Any comments about the ranking formula is very welcome - please post them here, where also the ranking is explained. A study of WOC results and accompanying points is a very good way of checking what you think about the ranking, as some effects of the ranking are not as intended. I leave it to the reader to comment on this…

Use the pics!

Feel free to use any of the pictures from runners.worldofo.com at your webpage as long as you reference AND link to either runners.worldofo.com, worldofo.com or directly to the runner profile from which the picture is taken at runners.worldofo.com. If you would like to use pictures for any other purpose (e.g. print, newspaper etc.), you can receive the picture in original quality for a small fee. You may then use the picture for any purpose.

The runner profiles at runners.worldofo.com are updated with about 1200 pictures from WOC in Ukraine last week. Enjoy! Pictures and results from WOC 2007 will be presented in an alternative way in the near future, so it will be even easier for you to navigate to the pictures you are really interested in.

Use the pics!

Feel free to use any of the pictures from runners.worldofo.com at your webpage as long as you reference AND link to either runners.worldofo.com, worldofo.com or directly to the runner profile from which the picture is taken at runners.worldofo.com. If you would like to use pictures for any other purpose (e.g. print, newspaper etc.), you can receive the picture in original quality for a small fee. You may then use the picture for any purpose.

Videoclips to come

At this WOC, I concentrated on Video instead of Pictures like in Denmark last year, and therefore pictures are not as many and high quality as last year. However - already 9 video clips from the WOC have been published and seen by more than 10.000 viewers - and I will also post quite a few video clips of different runners running in the coming weeks, which you will then be able to find through the runner profiles at runners.worldofo.com.

Some pictures from WOC 2007 are shown below - the rest you find at the runner profiles at runners.worldofo.com (or here).

Thierry Gueorgiou and Simone Niggli-Luder are still on top of the World of O Ranking after the World Championships in Kiev, Ukraine. Excellent WOC performance has though brought Minna Kauppi and Heli Jukkola a lot closer to Niggli-Luder in the womens class - and in the World of O Ranking over long distance, there is even a shared first place between Jukkola and Niggli-Luder. In the mens class, Matthias Merz has secured his second place in the overall ranking after his silver medal in sprint distance - in addition to the gold at long distance

• World of O Ranking - click the tabs to get to the womens ranking and rankings for long, middle and sprint.
• Discussion about point calculations in World of O Ranking - please join in on the discussion about point calculation for the World of O Ranking. Based on comments, an evaluation will be made after this World Cup season, and the ranking formulas will be changed if this seems appropriate.
• Extra bonus for the specially interested: Ranking with different calculation scheme which gives more credit to previous years results. 2007: 100%, 2006: 90%, 2005: 80%, and so on until 1999: 20%, 1998-1996: 10%. 10 Best races are listed, but still only best 5/4 races count.

Thierry Gueorgiou and Simone Niggli-Luder are still on top of the World of O Ranking after the first two WOC finals - long and middle. Excellent WOC performance with one gold and one silver has though brought Heli Jukkola a lot closer to Niggli-Luder in the womens class - and in the World of O Ranking over long distance, there is even a shared first place between Jukkola and Niggli-Luder. In the mens class, Matthias Merz has jumped up to second place in the total ranking after his impressive performance over the long distance on thursday - but due to his bronze over WOC long distance in 2006 and gold in 2005, Andrey Khramov has taken over the lead in the long distance ranking.

• World of O Ranking - click the tabs to get to the womens ranking and rankings for long, middle and sprint.
• Discussion about point calculations in World of O Ranking - please join in on the discussion about point calculation for the World of O Ranking. Based on comments, an evaluation will be made after this World Cup season, and the ranking formulas will be changed if this seems appropriate.

The WOC 2007 top-of-page at World of O is saved here for future reference.

WOC 2007 woO-TV Video material

Videos from the WOC Finals » Report from WOC Long distance - including winners comments. » Long interview with Thierry Gueorgiou after his WOC Middle Gold medal. » Interview with Simone Niggli (4 minutes long) after her 11th individual WOC gold medal at the World Orienteering Championships » Interview with the biggest surprise in the WOC 2007 middle distance in Kiev, Ukraine - Jonn Are Myhren.

woO-TV: WOC 2007 Relay Video from WOC 2007 relay in Kiev, Ukraine including winner comments. Finlands Minna Kauppi decided the WOC Relay 2007 for Finland on the last leg in the womens class with exactly the same team as in 2006 - and Valentin Novikov did the same for Russia. Press play on the left to start video. Feel free to embed the video on any webpage. woO-TV WOC coverage: » Outlook: WOC 2007 Middle Final » WOC 2007 middle qualifier including video of heat winners and headcam. » The WOC Long Qual summarized by head of media services, Jorn Sundby. » Impressions from WOC 2007 Sprint Qualifier - including video from forest. » Interview with Alexandru Perstnev - first Moldavian orienteer to reach a WOC final

Three woO-TV production from the Middle Final in WOC 2007 are now available below. Hear Thierry Gueorgiou and Simone Niggli tell about their races, and how they prepared for them in long interviews - 8 and 4 minutes long, respectively. Also, see a very happy Jonn Are Myhren after his fantastic 6th place - the first ever orienteer from the Netherlands on the podium in a World Orienteering Championships!

If there are problems viewing videos inline above, please use these links,

• Thierry Guergiou
• Simone Niggli
• Jonn Are Myhren

Thierry Gueorgiou

Simone Niggli

Jonn Are Myhren

Note that video quality in these productions is not as high as usual on woO-TV, due to slow internet connections available here in Kiev, Ukraine. The material will be reuploaded in the usual high quality which allows for full-screen viewing after the WOC.

Just in time for the start of WOC in Ukraine the coming Saturday, World of O today launches its new ranking scheme for the worlds orienteering elite. The World of O Ranking is designed to tell who is the best orienteer - both in each discipline and overall - when it really counts! Points for different results are set based on a type of “The WOC winner takes it all”-scheme - giving a lot more credit for a gold medal compared to a silver medal - and very little points when you are out of the top 10.

Niggli and Gueorgiou/Wingstedt on top
The World of O Ranking is designed to tell who is the best orienteer when it really counts! Points for different results are set based on this - giving a lot more credit for a gold medal compared to silver medal - and very little points when you are out of the top 10. As expected, Thierry Gueorgiou and Simone Niggli top the rankings, but Gueorgiou has to split his lead with Emil Wingstedt due to his “failure” at WOC last year. Simone Niggli is unbeatable on the ranking in all disciplines - whereas Gueorgiou, Wingstedt and Jani Lakanen each have the lead in one ranking - middle, spring and long respectively.

Supplement to the IOF World Ranking
The World of O Ranking is seen as a supplement to the IOF World Ranking. The main difference is that only the important races count in the World of O Ranking, and that there is a big difference between good and not that good results. If a runner is 4 times number 4 - always close to the winner - it would give the runner a good position on the IOF World Ranking, but both the history books and the World of O Ranking would be less kind to the runner.

Furthermore, the World of O Ranking ranks the runners in each discipline - giving separate sprint, middle and long distance rankings. Due to the specialization evident in orienteering these days, separate rankings in the different disciplines makes a lot of sense. And lastly - and not least - the World of O Ranking is coupled to pictures, short biographies and video clips of the runners - letting the reader get all they need to know in one place.

In addition to being a supplement to the IOF World Ranking, the World of O Ranking will also be a very good supplement to the World of O Runners database, which was previously only sorted on country and alphabet - making it difficult to pinpoint the most interesting runners from each country.

Point calculations
Details on the calculation scheme for the World of O Ranking are given at the about World of O Ranking page.

Suggestions?
All ranking schemes can be discussed - and there may be some unwanted effects, especially when going down from the top 20 on the list. This is to be expected, as the ranking is made with emphasis on the ones who can get on the podium in the World Champs. However, all comments, suggestions are corrections are as always very welcome. Please post them at the About World of O Ranking page.

The Ranking
Follow the links below to get to the ranking! The ranking also features updated information on many of the runners, pictures from the first two World Cup rounds this year, and about 30 new video interviews taken at World Cup round 2 which have not been published previously. Browse around, and get to know the World Elite better - enjoy!

• Men Overall
• Men sprint
• Men middle
• Men long
• Women Overall
• Women sprint
• Women middle
• Women long