World of O News
Thierry Gueorgiou, Minna Kauppi, Simone Niggli, Øystein Kvaal Østerbø – the most popular stories at World of O in 2008 where either written by the top World Orienteering Elite – or about them. Most read – and also most popular in terms of positive reviews was Minna Kauppi’s late autumn post about her lazy autumn. Next on the list, the interview with Thierry Gueorgiou for “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″. Take a look below – and see if you missed any of the stories.
Read on below to read the 100 top stories of 2008 – first we summarize the year at World of O.
2008 at World of O
With this post World of O also wishes you all a Happy New Year! A lot has happened at World of O in 2008. We have covered all major events – including a lot of pictures and updates at World of O Runners. Also, several new features have been introduced.
- All historical WOC results for each nation in one page – very popular during WOC in Olomouc. What is the best result for a German in the middle distance ever? The best Danish sprint distance result? And so on…
- New results archive from WOC, EOC and World Cup races – directly linked to World of O Runners.
- The World of O Ranking has been further developed.
- All pictures from WOC 2008 – sorted by team
- The Worldofo.com front page now gives you an overview of the most interesting stories on the top of the page – which has increased the number of articles read significantly – less people now miss the best stories.
- The World of O Calendar is now integrated with Facebook – now you can tell your friends on Facebook which events you are planning to attend by clicking the facebook-icon accompanying each event.
- Many new Orienteering pages and blogs have been added to World of O – also increasing the number of readers at World of O.
- The “Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and the “Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″ was a big success with more than 5000 votes given and a lot of attention given in the orienteering community – after a very nice cooperation with Ultimate Orienteering.
Any suggestions for 2009 – or comments about 2008 – are very welcome. Either using e-mail to jan@kocbach.net, or as a comment below.
We have some significant improvements planned for 2009 as well. Come by World of O in 2009 also – and you will see…
Minna Kauppi: We only live once;)
Every morning during the last month, Ive spent too much time on reading these certain pages of the morning paper. Ive also spent too much time looking for information in the internet, and dreaming. Those who know me better, would think that its a new home Im looking for, and theyre right as Ive also done that. But this is not a right moment for buying a bigger appartment due to inflation and rising interests. Thats why were spending our money instead:) And yes, Were going to spend it in Thailand. They finally caught me last Sunday, the advertisers, and after 15 secs of consideration, Pasi was in too. So were leaving there tomorrow, JIIIIHHHHHHHHAAAA! Those of you, who dont know me too well, may wonder why were not in Hungary, getting prepared fo the WOC next year. Well, I dont usually start panicing about next years competitions while there still are so many days ahead to be lived before that. Ive decided to grow up and stay home only when Ive got those 10 kids, 1 cow and 1 million euros mortgage. In addition, Ive got some problems with my legs again. Right out of the blue, I got an inflammation in my foot. To be more precise, the problem is plantari fascitis . So Ill just have to go somewhere where I can train alternatively like riding an elephant or playing Tarzan (or Jane) Yes, I know Im a spoiled brat, but hey, we only live once, so I suggest we try to do it properly and happily ever after :D…
World of O: Thierry Gueorgiou: Presentation
– I was a turbulent child who discovered orienteering at the age of 4, Thierry Gueorgiou says in this interview. Gueorgiou is known as The King of Middle Distance, but this year there was even more attention around the “lost” gold medal in the WOC Relay. Gueorgiou however worked hard mentally, and managed to get back in the top at the World Cup in Sälen only days after the tough WOC Relay experience. Below Gueorgiou is presented for the nomination “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: Taking his 5th WOC Middle distance gold medal in six years: The King of Middle Distance managed to defend his throne again! About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – are organizing a poll to name “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″. The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented. Starting November 12th we present all nominees on a day-by-day basis. The poll is sponsored by Trimtex. Voting will be possible after all nominees have been presented from the voting page. See also all nominees in the initial press release. Remember to vote for “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″ between Nov 18th and Nov 25th! Interview with Thie…
Simone Niggli: MALIN
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Simone Niggli: Saisonstart am Saisonende
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World of O: Free calendar 12 runners – 12 countries: Download now!
The World of O Wall Calendar 2008 – “12 runners – 12 countries” – is now ready for download! Compared to the preview version from December, more than 80 new competitions are included – including all WRE competitions. Thanks a lot for everybody contributing to making World of O Calendar what it is! The download is available as a PDF file: World of O Wall Calendar 2008 – version 1.0 (Powerpoint – 10 Mb download) Please send corrections to jan@kocbach.net in addition to doing the corrections directly online in World of O Calendar. To get more information about the competitions in World of O Wall Calendar, check out the competition details in World of O Calendar at cal.worldofo.com. About WoO Wall Calendar 2008 World of O Wall Calendar 2008: 12 runners – 12 countries is a calendar of all major orienteering events in 2008 – taken from World of O Calendar. The pictures in the calendar are selected from World of O Runners – choosing 12 runners from 12 different countries to show the spread of orienteering around the world. The calendar will be available for free download as a high-quality file in January 2008. …
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: Hungarian Championship Long Final
Today the Finals in the Open Hungarian Championship were held outside Mickolc. Daniel Hubmann and Anne Margrethe Hausken won the A-finals. Because I hurt my tie yesterday I was only running the B-final in easy speed. It went quite well, but didn’t want to take the risk to make it worse with running fast, because than its hurts more.Since the organizer don’t have any results on their homepage yet I have taken a picture of the results. …
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World of O: Francois Gonon: Presentation
– Actually I’m not sure if my biggest achievement was to get a bronze medal in long distance in the World Champs or “almost” manage to reach a 4000m legendary summit in the French Alps. Both experiences were extremely challenging and I was immediately thinking to try again with “better style” the next time, Francois Gonon explains his highlights of the season – and his goals for reaching even higher next time! Gonon took the first French WOC medal on the long distance – and also the first individual French WOC medal by anyone else than Thierry Gueorgiou. Below Gonon is presented for the nomination “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: A very strong Bronze medal at the WOC Long distance 2008 – climbing out of the shadows of Thierry Gueorgiou – showing that French Orienteering is a lot more than Gueorgiou! About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – are organizing a poll to name “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″. The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented. Starting November 12th we present all nominees on a day-by-day basis. The poll is sponsored by Trimtex. Voting will be possible after all nominees h…
World of O: Emma Klingenberg: Presentation
Emma Klingenberg surprised everybody – including herself – by winning the gold medal at the Junior World Champs Sprint in Gothenburg this year. Below Klingenberg is presented for the nomination “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: The youngest Junior World Orienteering champ, winning the sprint distance at JWOC in Gothenburg this year. Also victory in EYOC Long distance, silver medal in EYOC sprint and victory in EYOC Relay. About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – are organizing a poll to name “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″. The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented. Starting November 12th we present all nominees on a day-by-day basis. The poll is sponsored by Trimtex. Voting will be possible after all nominees have been presented from the voting page. See also all nominees in the initial press release. Interview with Emma Klingenberg Give a short presentation of yourself. My name is Emma Klingenberg. I’m 16 years old, born in ‘92. Both of my parents, my two sisters and my brother run orienteering, and we’ve been running for the past 10 years, tough I fell like I’ve been running my whole life. We ru…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 1 2008
The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. For now I found maps for the first 10 days – and based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop at December 10th. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg! Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 7 in H21E from the ÖSTM Lang @ 2008-09-21. ASKÖ Henndorf. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. Similar leg in the Junior Category There was a le…
Simone Niggli: Noch 5 Monate…
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World of O: Grouping of runners: EOC Long Qual
Did the qualifiers get to the final based on their own achievements only, or did they get help from other runners through either co-working or following? Grouping of runners is always a hot topic at the major orienteering champs. The below analysis of the results regarding runners running in packs from the WOC Long Qualifier is done by Henning Spjelkavik as a part of a work done on separation methods in orienteering (read more about the work here) – and the way to display the material is inspired by methods shown by Martin Lerjen for WOC 2006 results. Note! Colored boxes in the below figures show that two runners have been within 15 seconds of each other at a control. Being within 15 seconds of each other does not necessarily mean that the runners get help from each other for the orienteering or to keep up higher speed – but if two runners are within 15 seconds of each other in a large part of the course, it indicated that at least one of the runners has gained time due to the grouping. These types of graphs are especially interesting in order to find out how effective separation methods are in orienteering. td.pack { width:18px} td.p1 { background-color: #ff0000 } td.p2 { background-color: #00ff00 } td.p3 { background-color: #0000ff } td.p4 { background-color: #880000 } td.p5 { background-color: #008800 } td.p6 { background-color: #000088 } td.p7 { background-color: #88ff00 } td.p8 { background-color: #ff8800 } td.p9 { background-color: #0088ff } td.p10 { background-color: …
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: PWT in Lonigo and the amazing street race in Venezia
The last weekend I have been on a great trip to Italy. Friday and Saturday this years Park World Tour were arranged in Alonte and Lonigo and Sunday the amazing street orienteering race was held in Venezia. …
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World of O: Daniel Hubmann: Presentation
– 2012 is already in my head – then the World Champs are held in Switzerland. I’m dreaming of winning WOC Gold in all 4 disciplines in my career, Daniel Hubmann explains in this interview. Hubmann had seven WOC and EOC silver medals before he took his Gold medal over the long distance in Olomouc in 2008 – now he has only 3 disciplines to go. Below Hubmann is presented for the nomination “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: Finally winning a WOC title after being very close for several years – his WOC long distance gold medal was very deserved and popular. Also: Victory in overall World Cup 2008. About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – are organizing a poll to name “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″. The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented. Starting November 12th we present all nominees on a day-by-day basis. The poll is sponsored by Trimtex. Voting will be possible after all nominees have been presented from the voting page. See also all nominees in the initial press release. Interview with Daniel Hubmann Give a short presentation of yourself. I’m 25 years old, started orienteering 13 years ago. Since beginning 2007 p…
World of O: Grand Bazar Orienteering Experience in Istanbul
Tricky orienteering over two levels – green control circles identifying the second level and purple circles the first level; that is what met Istanbul 5 Days competitors at the Supersprint on Friday. Istanbul is more known for its Grand Bazar than for its Orienteering – but put the two together, and you get a perfect match! Add to that night orienteering with first start at 22.00, and a fantastic party-atmosphere with disco-music greeting the competitors when arriving in the Grand Bazar – and you get an experience none of the 600 competitors will ever forget. The supersprint in the Grand Bazar is one of the main attractions for the Istanbul 5 Days orienteering – along with the fact that stages are being held both in Europe and Asia, the Island stage on one of the Princes Islands – and of course the great boat party at the Bosphorus with free drink and food after the final stage. It is rumored that some come mostly for the party … More than 6000 shops The Grand Bazar has more than 58 streets and 6000 shops according to Wikipedia – most of it with a roof. The Bazar gets between 250.000 and 400.000 visitors daily, and the area is fairly crowded during daytime. Not so at night. For the supersprint the Grand Bazar is only opened for orienteers – the number bib serves as the entrance ticket. – It is very expensive to hire the Grand Bazar for an event, according to Alen Gavar in the organizing team. – However, the state supports us, and for us the price is reduced to aroun…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 15 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008‘ is an extremely long leg from the Highlands Open Long Distance in Cesuna di Roana, Italy – August 31st 2008. Thank you very much to Cristian Bellotto for providing both map and routes of the best runners for this interesting leg. Please provide comments to the leg in the comment section below. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger – or even open it in a new window by clicking here): There were a number of different route choices for this leg. Benny Schuler had the best time with a variant to the right. Michal Mamleev – the overall winner of the race – lost 2 minutes after going right around the first hill, and then going left in a S-shape. Simion’s route choice was very impressive. He ran far to the right – about 400 meter longer than the route of Schuler, but still had about the same time. Corona run a shorter direct route, but lost time due to all the ups and downs. Michal Mamleev won the race with a regular run in the first carstic zone, good route choices, and a very good last part of the race. Then you can take a look at how some of the runners solved this leg (open in new window): This year Highlands Oped will be held on May 16-17 2008 (http://highlandsopen.com/) in very detailed terrains and will be a good chance to take confidence with…
Ultimate Orienteering: Presentation Timo Sild
Timo Sild won the silver medal at the Junior World Champs long distance in Gothenburg this year. Below Sild is presented for the nomination “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: winning the silver medal at JWOC long distance in Gothenburg this year. Also his overall victory in M-20 Elite at O-Ringen 2008. About: Two of the major sources for ……
Daniel Hubmann: SM-Silber über 5000m
Kurz nach der WM und den Weltcupläufen in Schweden war ich ziemlich ausgebrannt und konnte mir nicht vorstellen, schon bald wieder Wettkämpfe zu laufen. Doch die Ferien in Norwegen taten gut und so startete ich letzten Samstag wieder erfolgshungrig an den Leichtathletik Schweizermeisterschaften in Fribourg. …
World of O: Gueorgiou: – I had 20% of the normal capacity of my lung
Thierry Gueorgiou describes his nightmare at the WOC Relay in detail in the latest number of WOC News – a story you shouldn’t miss. Our team dream – the WOC relay gold medal – was gone but I started to realise that I was also in danger – I was really satisfied to see the great teamwork of my two mates. They were preparing my leg very well. On my leg, I took the lead in the relay quite early and was pushing very hard like in an individual race. After the spectator control in the field, I knew that my lead was good enough and I just had to take the last controls with care. – When I ran to the 22nd I was in full control. I punched this control and went out of the light green area. Then, in just a tenth of a second, I realized that several bees were flying in front of me. I had walked on to a bee swarm. I don’t know how, but a bee went in my mouth. I tried to spit it out, but the bee went into my throat. – Then I had a severe nausea reaction. My pulse at that moment was probably around 180-190. I got shocked and panicky. In my mind, everything became very confused. I knew that the finish line was so close, so I pushed myself to run. But I didn’t read my map and went in the wrong direction. In less than one minute, the bite reaction didn’t allow me to breathe normally. I went very fast into a sort of asthma reaction. I had some 20% of the normal capacity of my lung. – Our team dream – the WOC relay gold medal – was gone but I started to realise that I was also i…
World of O: EOC Long Final: Statements and Results
Gold medals went to Anne Margrethe Hausken (NOR) and Dmitriy Tsvetkov (RUS) in todays EOC over the Long distance. Today Hausken impressed everybody by taking her second Gold medal in this years EOC at the Long Distance in Ventspils, Latvia. Dmitriy Tsvetkov’s Gold medal was a very surprising one – as he has no previous top 20 positions in the senior category in WOC, EOC or World Cup races – although he has a Gold medal in JWOC in 2003. Statements Some statements and personal Blog entries from the Long Final (will be updated): Jørn Sundby: – Tsvetkov was a surprise five years ago in quite similar terrain in Estonia when he took the JWOC gold on long distance, fighting with Merz and Hubmann there as well. And we haven’t seen him much since then. As far as I remember Tsvetkov comes from the area around St.Petersburg, so he should be used to flat and fast terrains … [read more] EOC 2008 webpage: The course-setters had made good work to prepare nice courses for the long distance finals. The terrain was very unuusal and it was changing all the time through the course. Runners had the possibility to run in the very fast, but also hilly places, there were place where they had to cross the big sand field that looked almost like Sahara, there were a lot of marshes full of water and at there were even parts with very green areas. [read more] See also statements, results and maps from EOC Long Qualification. See also statements, results and maps from EOC …
Ultimate Orienteering: Presentation Minna Kauppi
“The highlight was definitely the performance and the victory in WOC middle distance as I really had thought to make IT […]“ – Minna Kauppi. Below Kauppi is presented for the nomination “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: winning the bronze medal at EOC middle distance and relay, the silver medal at WOC sprint, the gold medal at WOC ……
Daniel Hubmann: Tiomilasieger mit KOK!!!
Zusammen mit meinen Kollegen vom Kristiansand OK gewann ich letztes Wochenende die Tiomila, eine der wichtigsten und grössten Staffeln überhaupt. Sowohl für den Club wie auch für mich war es der erste Spitzenplatz bei diesem prestigeträchtigen Clubwettkampf. …
Daniel Hubmann: Gedanken & Fakten zur Saison 2008
Das Jahr 2008 war mit Abstand meine erfolgreichste OL-Saison bisher. Mit dem Weltmeistertitel und dem Sieg im Gesamtweltcup konnte ich zwei meiner Träume verwirklichen. Die Aufwände der letzten Jahre und der Entscheid es als OL-Profi zu versuchen zahlten sich nun voll und ganz aus. Hier ein paar Überlegungen und Gründe dazu… …
Simone Niggli: Every day is a new day!
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World of O: Presentation: Beata Falk
Beata Falk won three medals at the Junior World Champs in Gothenburg this year. Below Falk is presented for the nomination “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: Three JWOC medals: Gold in Relay and silver in both long and middle. Also victory in D20E in O-Ringen. About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – are organizing a poll to name “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″. The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented. Starting November 12th we present all nominees on a day-by-day basis. The poll is sponsored by Trimtex. Voting will be possible after all nominees have been presented from the voting page. See also all nominees in the initial press release. Interview with Beata Falk Give a short presentation of yourself. I’m nineteen years old, was born in the “heart†of Sweden 200 km vest of Stockholm in a town called Örebro. That is where I grew up, but four years ago I moved to Eksjö in SmÃ¥land to go to an orienteering college. Now when finished school, I’ve moved to England to work as an au-pair throughout the winter, which has been a great experience so far. Of course a lot of my spare time is spent on orienteering, and…
World of O: Grouping of runners: EOC Long Final
At the EOC Long Final yesterday, runners running together in packs was a big discussion due to the fact that most of the men within the top 10 probably had some use of other runners to keep up the speed and lower their errors. The below analysis of the results regarding runners running in packs from the WOC Long Final is done by Henning Spjelkavik as a part of a work done on separation methods in orienteering (read more about the work here) – and the way to display the material is inspired by methods shown by Martin Lerjen for WOC 2007 results. Note! Colored boxes in the below figures show that two runners have been within 15 seconds of each other at a control. Boxed in the same color show that two runners are together. In each box, the position the runner has at this control is shown. Being within 15 seconds of each other does not necessarily mean that the runners get help from each other for the orienteering or to keep up higher speed – but if two runners are within 15 seconds of each other in a large part of the course, it indicated that at least one of the runners has gained time due to the grouping. These types of graphs are especially interesting in order to find out how effective separation methods are in orienteering. Please add your comments below! There is a lot of material for discussion here! td.pack { width:7px} td.p1 { background-color: #ff0000 } td.p2 { background-color: #00ff00 } td.p3 { background-color: #0000ff } td.p4 { background-color: #880022 } td.p5 { …
World of O: Kauppi: Outside the map on the long leg
Minna Kauppi run the fourth best time on the long leg in the womens class at the WOC long distance utilizing a route choice which went outside the map. A small gamble, but it took her from 9th to 5th place… Extract from WOC news number 11: – The women had a map exchange at the beginning of the long leg which prevented them from being able to plan the route choice in advance. One of the southern options resulted in the fastest time, utilising the roads which avoid the valley in the beginning (4.65 km / 90 m). The best time on this leg was achieved by Bernadett Kelemen of Hungary (22‘20‘‘) who ran it together with Sofia Johansson (22‘26‘‘). – Hausken, who opted for a route far left all the way, and even through the village (4.67 km/150 m), ran the third best time on this leg (22‘52‘‘). Minna Kauppi with her route choice across the field off the map even further north followed closely with a split time only 15 seconds slower. Here Minna climbed up from 9th to 5th place. The next best time (23‘17‘‘) was run by Andersen who made the exact same choice as Hausken. Sarah Rollins, who did not go to the village but preferred to run nine contours up over a spur to a road, was 15 seconds slower. Dana Brožková made a 24‘20‘‘ split time. See complete map and read complete routechoice analysis in WOC news number 11 …
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 7 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 7 in HE from the Swiss Champs long distance 2008 @ 2008-09-07 – OLG Cordoba. This is a really long leg today… The top runners did not draw their route, but it is still an interesting leg. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger. It is maybe too big even then – in that case you may click here.): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg (click here for it big): Source: Routegadget at this location. Note! You can see Daniel Hubmann’s routes here – and his discussion about the race here. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesti…
Simone Niggli: Malin der Medienstar!
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Simone Niggli: …waiting for the big moment
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Minna Kauppi: A great ending for the lazy days
Thailand was absolutely terrific. We snorkled, swam, travelled in speedboat, did some kayaking and burned our mouths with chilli and didnt even get a too bad diarrhea;) Now, were as brown as chocolate and smiling happily, so the real holiday (without real training) did just the job it was supposed to. So, we spent seven days, mostly explioring the great islands of Krabi area and enjoyed the sun and views. The sun was also the reason why its so easy to not to train. It was just so incredibly hot during the day that we only could run in the morning. You can find some pics of the vacation in the links beneath. So we cam to Finalnd already on Wednesday evening last week but I came home just today as i had some stuff in Helsinki and we also had our clubs traditional season ending on Saturday. Our girls also had a nice long training before it and we had time to make plans for next season too. On Sunday, we got together with my siblings and celebrated the fathers day. And today i also went to test the model for my dress for this years Independence day party in the presidential castle. This time the girls in the golden relay team got the invitation too! Today was finally the day, I decided to start real and hard training again even though the problem in my foot still makes me to train alternatively. The main thing is that the free floating and lazyness after the WOC has now gotten its end and the GOAL for next year is clear. To run faster than others and orienteer better than ever b…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 19 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is from Copa Catalana – Saldes 08 in Spain @ 2008-06-01. The chosen leg is leg 11 in Course 1. Thank you to Eva Jurenikova for the tip about the competition. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for to…
World of O: EOC: Middle Qualification
Matthias Müller (SUI), Valentin Novikov (RUS), Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA), Helena Jansson (SWE), Minna Kauppi (FIN) and Emma Engstrand (SWE) were the heat winners in todays EOC Middle Qualification in Latvia. Again several of the outsiders went out already in the qualification – among them the reigning World Champion over the Long Distance Matthias Merz (SUI). Results Men Heat A 1Muller,Matthias SUI 27:37 2Wingstedt,Emil SWE 27:52 3Detkov,Sergey RUS 28:17 [18Renard,Damien FRA + 02:39 / NQ] Men Heat B 1Novikov,Valentin RUS 28:23 2Gonon,Francois FRA 28:24 2Kostylev,Egor RUS 28:24 [ 18Casal,Roger ESP + 02:42 / NQ] Men Heat C 1Gueorgiou,Thierry FRA 26:33 2Karner,Olle EST 26:54 3Hubmann,Daniel SUI 27:36 [ 18Lundanes,Olav NOR + 04:17/NQ] Women Heat A 1Jansson,Helena SWE 27:20 2Holmstrom,Bodil FIN 28:28 3Korzhova,Natalia RUS 28:35 [ 18Razaityte,Gabija LTU + 07:25/NQ] Women Heat B 1Kauppi,Minna FIN 25:13 2Hausken,Anne Margrethe NOR 26:38 3Novikova,Yulia RUS 27:20 [ 18Brodmann,Ines SUI 33:10 /NQ] Women Heat C 1Engstrand,Emma SWE 27:06 + 00:00 2Rantanen,Merja FIN 27:33 + 00:27 3Ryabkina,Tatiana RUS 27:56 + 00:50 [ 18Elder,Rachael GBR + 06:17 / NQ] Some who did not make it who normally should have been in the A-final: 18Renard,Damien FRA 30:16 + 02:39 19Gristwood,Graham GBR 30:26 + 02:49 20Aadli,Erkki EST 30:33 + 02:56 24Ruedlinger,Andreas SUI 31:46 + 04:09…
World of O: EOC: Long Qual Maps, Statements and Results
The EOC Long Qualification was fast with some technically challenging parts (see map extract). Many runners did some smaller errors, but still the gap from the winner to the last qualifier in each heat was as low as 3.49 in one of the mens heats – and below 5.30 in all of the mens heata. Winners in all the three mens heats had around 55 minutes for 10.9 kilometers – giving a pace of around 5 minutes/kilometer. The best women run 40 minutes for around 6.5 kilometers. Statements Some statements and personal Blog entries from the Long Qualification (will be updated with more): Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: – Today the Long distance Qualification was held in a partly very detailed area north of Ventspils. I did a stabile run, and tried to orienteer well without pusing the maximum speed. My only bigger mistake was the 15th control where I passed the control flag with a few meters without seeing it, and lost 45 seconds. My result was a 13th place, 3 minutes behind the winner in my heat Matthias Merz. [read more (with map)] IOF World Cup news: – No top names missed out on qualification today but Andrey Khramov (Russia), bronze medallist yesterday, was only a few seconds inside the necessary qualification time in his heat. Times were close especially in the men’s heats, with the final qualification placers being only 4.06, 3.49 and 5.25 respectively behind the winners.[read more] De Laatste Post: – A lot of runners (like Merz) had some problems on their way to the second contro…
World of O: EOC: Sprint Qualification
Minna Kauppi, Heli Jukkola and Helena Jansson won the three womens heats, whereas Michal Smola, Emil Wingstedt and Jamie Stevenson won the three mens heats. Women – Heat 1 1 Minna Kauppi FIN 11:19 2 Sofia Johansson SWE 11:30 3 Anna Margarethe Hausken NOR 11:39 Women – Heat 2 1 Heli Jukkola FIN 10:32 2 Emma Engstrand SWE 10:56 3 Linnea Gustafsson SWE 10:58 Women – Heat 3 1 Helena Jansson SWE 10:50 2 Signe Soes DEN 10:59 3 Merja Rantanen FIN 11:05 Men – Heat 1 1 Michal Smola CZE 12:08 2 Erik Ohlund SWE 12:19 3 Martin Per Johansson SWE 12:22 Men – Heat 2 1 Emil Wingstedt SWE 12:03 2 Tero Fohr FIN 12:08 3 Tuomas Tervo FIN 12:23 Men – Heat 3 1 Jamie Stevenson GBR 12:34 2 Mats Haldin FIN 12:37 3 Daniel Hubmann SUI 12:41 Official results – Sprint qualification Photos from the sprint qualification …
World of O: Michal Smola: Presentation
– I ran a good race without any major mistakes but I still could not believe that I was second, Michal Smola says after winning a very popular silver medal at home ground in Olomouc – actually the first by a Czech man since the gold medals of Petr Kozák in 1991. Below Smola is presented for the nomination “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: Managing the pressure at home ground – becoming the first Czech man to take an individual WOC medal since the gold medals of Petr Kozák in 1991. About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – are organizing a poll to name “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″. The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented. Starting November 12th we present all nominees on a day-by-day basis. The poll is sponsored by Trimtex. Voting will be possible after all nominees have been presented from the voting page. See also all nominees in the initial press release. Interview with Michal Smola Give a short presentation of yourself. My name is Michal Smola. I am 27 years old and I have been doing orienteering since I was twelve. I live in the city of Zlin in the Czech Republic. I am a PhD student at Faculty of Applied I…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 3 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 12 from the Tampere-Jukola 2008 at June 14th 2008 – from the last leg. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Note! The overall times are not correctly given for this competition – however all runners shown here are good runners. Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – espec…
Daniel Hubmann: Sensationeller Weltcupabschluss!!
Beim Weltcupfinal in Zürich lief es mir ausgezeichnet und ich konnte nicht nur den Gesamtweltcup für mich entscheiden sondern auch noch gerade beide Läufe gewinnen. Damit hätte ich nie gerechnet und bin natürlich überglücklich, dass ich die Saison so beenden konnte. Nach dem WM-Gold ist der Sieg im Gesamtweltcup ganz klar der grösste Erfolg meiner Karriere. …
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: Norwegian Championship in Sprint in Stavern
Saturday the Norwegian Championship in Sprint was held in Stavern, close to Larvik, on the east coast of the south of Norway. The Qualification in the morning was mostly in forest and open areas. I tried to run a safe race without pushing maximum, and my biggest mistake was out of the 2nd control where I ran through a lot of dense vegetation before came to the opening in the fence, and lost 15 seconds. The result was a 3rd place in my heat, 4 seconds behind Babtiste Rollier. ResultsThe Final in the afternoon was held in a combination of streets, military area and forest. Results and splits VGarticle in Norway’s largest newspaper …
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Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: Training camp in Les Diablerets and Sprint in Solothurn
After the World Cup Final in Zürich Marte Reenaas, Eirik Watterdal and I have been one a one week long training camp in Les Diablerets together with the Swiss Ski-orienteering Team. Les Diablerets is a small village in a valley in the south-west of Switzerland. Every morning we took the lift up to a glacier almost 3000 meter above sea level, where it was good conditions for cross country skiing and also really nice weather most of the days. On the glacier we trained a lot of hours with easy skiing, but also some specific technique training for both the skiing- and orienteering-technique. It was a pleasure to out in the mountains with so nice conditions, and hard to go down from the glacier for eating lunch. In the afternoons we where training in the valley, around 1200 meter above sea level, with running, roller ski-orienteering, strength or speed-training. One afternoon we went to an Adventure Park in Aigle, and I think it is best to take a look at my pictures to get an impression of what we were doing there. On ski-o.com you can read more from Les Diablerets in Norwegian. The training camp was really good, and I will thank the Swiss Ski-o Team for letting us stay with them in Les Diablerets and train under so nice conditions.On my way home Sunday I stopped in Solothurn and competed in a National Sprint competition held in connection with the European Youth Orienteering Championship which was arranged the same weekend. The old town of Solothurn was a great venue for a cit…
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 2 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 3 from the XXIII Oravatonni in Finland at 2008-10-05 – organized by Mynämäen Suunnistajat. The category is M21A. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg! …
World of O: EOC Relay: Gold for Russia and Sweden
In the final day of the EOC 2008 Sweden and Russia took home the Gold medals in the Relay. The Swedish team with Lina Persson, Emma Engstrand and Helena Jansson finished only 12 seconds ahead of the Russian Silver medalists. In the mens class Russia took the gold medal with Dmitriy Tsvetkov, Andrey Khramov and Valentin Novikov – only 15 seconds ahead of Switzerland. Thus Tsvetkov can travel home from Latvia with 2 Gold medals in his bag – what a breakthrough on the senior level for this Russian runner! Exciting fight between Sweden and Russia Towards the end of the last leg in the women class, Sweden had worked up a lead of about 30 seconds. However, the second leg was problematic for many of the women – so also for the last leg on the Swedish team, Helena Jansson. Even with a mistake at this control, she manages to secure the Gold medal some meters ahead of Russias Tanja Ryabkina. Close race between Russia and Switzerland In the mens class, Russia was also in a tight fight for the Gold medals – in this case however Valentin Novikov managed to make the decision for Russia. The Swiss last leg runner Daniel Hubmann run well in the start of the leg, and got into the lead. However, at a longer gaffling control, Novikov got ahead, and Hubmann never managed to get ahead again. In the end, Russia won the Gold medal with 15 small seconds. Statements Swedish O-Federation: – Sveriges damer tog strax före klockan tio pÃ¥ söndagsmorgonen svensk tid EM-guld i stafett. Sista tävl…
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: POM – maps from all 4 days
Since last Thursday I have been in Portugal on a training-camp with the Norwegian National Team. The last four days Portugal O-meeting has been as arranged on the Algarve coast, and I have been running all the races. The terrains were not as nice as I had hoped, but maybe they did not choose the nicest pine forest because they wanted to make it more challenging. I have not been running so much the last months because of a lot of skiing, so I was not running fast on all races.The first race on Saturday was a Middle distance close to where we lived in Tavira. I was running in moderate speed, and did a good technical race except to the 10th control. Anders Nordberg won clearly. Sunday it was a Long distance close to Faro, and this race was also a World Ranking Event. I tried to run fast, but did some mistakes. I have not been running more than one hour for a long time, and the last part of the course was tough. Anders Nordberg won also this race. Monday it was a new Long distance in the same area as the previous day. I was running in easy speed, but did a good technical race. Jonn Are Myren was fastest. The last race on Tuesday was a Middle distance close to the Spanish border. The map-scale should be 1:10 000, but was actually 1:15 000, so many runner stopped to early to the first controls and lost time. The courses were also 50 % longer then they should be. I was running fast the fist half of the course, but then I suddenly felt pain behind my left knee, and had to walk th…
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Pasi Ikonen: Top Ten 2008
The season is over and it’s time to list the best experiences of the year. Even if I had a very bad end of the season in the World Cup finals in Switzerland (DNF & back problems) the sport psychology advices me to focuse on the good things. Let’s do it in a time order. Below the text there is a file concerning every piece of the Top Ten –list – check them out while reading: 1. O-session in Karstula 29.12.2007 (December-January) The wet map shows that it was possible to do orienteering quite a lot even during the darkest moments of the year. 20 times orienteering in two months at that time is quite a lot in Finland! 2. Minna running in le Lavandou (Our long trip in Europe 21.2-19.3) Our long trip was perfect in every way. 3. In Palokangas with my father (own EOC –training-camp in homeland 15.-20.5) As good as the 2002 Belgium WC –training-camp with Eikka&Maria. The spirit was high this time by Pentti Ikonen. 4. The important features on the coast of Latvija 28.-31.5 (EM-keskimatka) Team Finland’s 2nd coach mr. Taini provided me a good place to focus. In his apartment I could draw an interesting map against a window with the help of sunshine. The base was the old map of the EOC middle distance terrain, of course. 5. 1st in Forssa Games for the 4th time 12.6 One of the start referees had maybe something to do with the win? Thierry started 1min before me and the guy at the start said to his fellow that: “There went the winner of men’s race” (his back against me). I couldn’t help…
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 8 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 10 in HE from the Swiss Champs Sprint distance 2008 @ 2008-09-06. Again – not all the best have drawn their routes – but still an interesting leg. There is especially one route which is difficult to spot… The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Note! Daniel Hubmann ran the same route as Mathys/Ebetner – and run the fastest split of the day. According to Hubmann’s analysis, all three routes were about equal to this control if you ran well, but I still think that Rüedlinger’s (and others who run this way) did well by seeing this alternative… Maybe the course setter should have placed the 9th control a bit higher to make the alternatives a bit more unequal…? Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link…
Fabien Pasquasy: French night O champion…
French Sprint and Night champs were held on Champagne-Ardennes area, only 1h30 driving from my home. It was the last competitions in this season (2008) and last time to run for my French club OTB (Besançon). On Saturday afternoon Sprint qualification was organized in a university campus and was very fast and “easy”. I made two stupid mistakes (wrong control descr1ption in control 15) but was still 12 seconds behind J-B. Bourrin in heat 4 (finishing second). Results and map In the evening French Night champs was in JWOC’98 middle qualification area. Nice souvenirs and during warm-up I thought it was a so long time ago… a bit nostalgic. I’m old now… I made there a very good race (only one big mistake in control 23 along a … path and some small hesitations as usual in night orienteering) and won my first night champs ever. I used during the race the new Mila head lamp and it was very efficient (thanks to Airxtrem). The course was quite challenging and physically it was not easy neither (a lot of depressions and mud). Results and map On Sunday, the Sprint Final was set in a nice village (Hautvillers – famous in Champagne area) and inside the vineyard. A mistake during my start procedure confused me a bit. I miss my starting time and had a bad beginning (wrong route choice). I was not focus at all because I always need my one minute cool down / break before the start (mental procedure). I was not ready for that situation. Half of the race I made again some mistakes and felt I wa…
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woO-TV Prime: Online Orienteering TV: JEC 2007 video
Video clip about JEC 2007 in France. This excellent video shows that orienteering paradise terrain in southern France again. Video created by H18 runners from Latvia Ivars Ziemelis and Maris Zamovskis. Special thanks to Martins Lismanis who provided us this video material.. 2 min 54 sec seconds….
World of O: EOC Middle: Jukkola and Gueorgiou
Gueorgiou is still the King of Middle Distance – and Finland took the Triple in the womens class with Heli Jukkola, Merja Rantanen and Minna Kauppi. A very popular silver medal in the mens class to home runner Martin Sirmais. Bronze in the mens class went to Pasi Ikonen – former World Champion on the short distance. Results Men EOC Middle Final 2008 1Gueorgiou,Thierry FRA 35:41 2Sirmais,Martins LAT 36:07 3Ikonen,Pasi FIN 36:31 4Hubmann,Daniel SUI 36:59 5Wingstedt,Emil SWE 37:18 6Novikov,Valentin RUS 37:34 6Troeng,Mats SWE 37:34 Women EOC Middle Final 2008 1Jukkola,Heli FIN 31:05 2Rantanen,Merja FIN 31:31 3Kauppi,Minna FIN 31:55 4Ryabkina,Tatiana RUS 32:12 5Soes,Signe DEN 32:27 6Brozkova,Radka CZE 33:23 7Hausken,Anne Margrethe NOR 33:24 Official results available here as soon as the competition is finished (Live results) …
World of O: Andrey Khramov: Presentation
– I’m just a simple man. I have a family: a wife – Nadja, a son Sasha and a cat Masha. This is how Andrey Khramov – one of the best orienteers in the World in this century – presents himself. He is known as the orienteer who gets better the hotter the temperature – and also as one of the fastest orienteers on the track. Below Khramov is presented for the nomination “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: Previously being the man of the tough, long and warm races – this year he proved to be the World’s best sprinter – taking the Gold Medal at the sprint distance at the World Orienteering Champs in Olomouc, Czech Republic. About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – are organizing a poll to name “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″. The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented. Starting November 12th we present all nominees on a day-by-day basis. The poll is sponsored by Trimtex. Voting will be possible after all nominees have been presented from the voting page. See also all nominees in the initial press release. Interview with Andrey Khramov Give a short presentation of yourself. I’m just a simple man. I have a famil…
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: WOC 2009 training and Hungarian Championship in Mickolc
Since Monday I have been on training camp with the Norwegian National Team in Mickolc in Hungary, where the World Orienteering Championships are going to be held next summer. JWOC was arranged here in 2001, my last year as junior, so I have been running is this type of terrain before. The maps from JWOC 2001 can be found on the page with maps from international competitions 2001. This weekend the Hungarian Championship in Long distance is held, and today is was Qualification. It was 3 heats, but only 10 foreign runners from each heat qualified for tomorrows A-final. Because all the best nations are on training camp here with a lot of strong runners it was hard to get a place in the Final.Results will hopefully be found here soon …
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woO-TV Prime: Online Orienteering TV: 10Mila, Petzl video
Another look on this year 10Mila. We think this video is one of the best video about orienteering ever published here. Video presented by Petzl, famous headlamp manufacturer. More perfect videos from Petzl Crew here: http://en.petzl.com/petzl/frontoffice/Sport/static/Video/index.jsp. Thanks to Guillaume Broust for allowing us to publish this video on woO-TV channel. . 16 min 45 sec seconds….
Simone Niggli: Schweizer Familie Niggli
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Minna Kauppi: Le Caylar, no idea where…
Our tour in France has turned towards North. We arrived in le Caylars O-labyrints on Sunday and spent there 5 days looking for controls hidden in the stone holes. I was totally out too many times and even though it sometimes felt that I knew what I was doing, after a while I was back in the middle of nowhere again. We trained also with the Czechs national team and it was a great pleasure. The trainings were really demanding and there were always flags and SI-system in the woods. The only error was in my head, which seemed to be completely useless sometimes. There are some examples of this below…well maybe some better ones too. When we arrived it was really nice and sunny but on Tuesday it started to snow. After the freezing training in the morning (short O-intervalls) I was so turned off ( I went also 180 degrees wrong two times) that I didnt take part in the second o-training in the afternoon. Instead, I stayed inside in front of our fire place. I decided it wasnt wice to learn these kind of O-routines… Luckyly, the sun came back even though it was still really cold. On Wednesday we ”took it easy” and run and hiked around the Lac Salagou in Lodeve, which took almost three hours. Yesterday, we made two o-trainings in the Mont Merdous and Roc and Roc on our own. Le Caylar was great but I feel I really have to come back here and prove myself that I Can Do Better Than This. In fact, there is an opportunity already in the beginning of next August as The Aveyron 6 Days will b…
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World of O: Maps from PWT Final in Italy
Here you find the map from todays PWT Final race in Lonigo, Italy. Results Results will be available at organizers page See also PWT 2008 preview article Men Elite – Part Men Elite Women Elite …
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 17 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is from Finland and KuUS-rastit at 2008-05-17. The chosen leg is leg number 5 from the H21A course. Thank you very much to Kari Hovi for the tip. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. Note also a very similar leg for Men 45 in the same competition: Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also t…
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: Victory in Blodslitet
Last Sautrday I ran the traditional Ultra long distance race Blodslitet in Fredrikstad. It was as usual a high class event, and it was also this year several international runners in the start-field. The race was held as a mass start and the course was 25 km with 2.30 in winning time.In the beginning it was 3 forked loops of 4,5 km each. They went quite well, even if I lost a few seconds some places, and after all of the 3 loops I was between 33 and 45 seconds behind the leader.On the 12 km long last loop I ran out together with Emil Lauri and Giancarlo Simion, 45 seconds behind a group consisting of Emil Wingstedt, Anders Tiltnes, Rasmus Søes, Dimitri Tsvetkov and Håvars Lucasen. On the way to the 2nd control I caught of the group, except Tiltnes, who had got a gap to the other runners. After the 4th control I was one of the leading runners in the group, and on the 8th control we caught up Tiltnes. On the road to the 9th control I got a gap to the following runners, and was alone in the lead with Lauri closest behind me. But to the 10th control I came far too much to the left, and lost 2.30 together with Lauri. When we found the control we had been passed by the other runners we had been together with in the group, and was also caught up by Anders Nordberg and Ulf Brenna. The rest of the course I was mainly running behind Nordberg, and to the 12th control we caught up all of the other runners who had been in front of us, except Tsvetkov, who had a 30 second gap when we …
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Ultimate Orienteering: Sprint EYOC 2008 – nice closing of three intense days of competition (incl. photos)
As for the previous days, it is in the cold mist that the young EYOC partitipants fighted for the medals – and in the warm sun that they could celebrate them. The sprint event closed nicely those three intense days of competition and saw for the first time after the Danish dominance of past days […]…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 10 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 4 from the Tampere-Jukola 2008 at June 14th 2008 – from the 5th leg The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Note! Overall times are not correctly given for this leg! Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg! …
World of O: EOC Sprint: Wingstedt again!
Unofficial results show Gold for Emil Wingstedt (SWE) in EOC Sprint distance. Daniel Hubmann (SUI) and Andrey Khramov (RUS) are in the next spots. We are still waiting for official results. Wingstedt is the king of sprint – with 2 WOC Gold medals and 3 EOC Gold medals over the Sprint distance. Last year at WOC Wingstedt was pushed down from the sprint-throne by Gueorgiou in Kiev – but Wingstedt is now again at the top. See his profile at World of O Runners. Unofficial results: 1 Emil Wingstedt, SWE 13:11 +00:00 2 Daniel Hubmann, SUI 13:25 +00:14 3 Andrey Khramov, RUS 13:35 +00:24 Splits – EOC sprint men – unofficial …
World of O: Søren Bobach: Presentation
Søren Bobach started the spring season of 2008 very good – with very good runs on both 10Mila and Jukola. Injuries made preparations for JWOC less than ideal, but Bobach still returned home from Gothenburg with two Bronze medals at this years Junior World Champs. Below Bobach is presented for the nomination “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: Two bronze medals in Junior World Orienteering Champs in Gothenburg – over the sprint and middle distance. In addition very good runs on the big relays – Jukola and 10Mila. About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – are organizing a poll to name “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″. The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented. Starting November 12th we present all nominees on a day-by-day basis. The poll is sponsored by Trimtex. Voting will be possible after all nominees have been presented from the voting page. See also all nominees in the initial press release. Interview with Søren Bobach Give a short presentation of yourself. My name is Søren Bobach and I’m 19 years old. I come from Denmark and live in a small town called Virklund. It lies next to some of the best and toughest …
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 18 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is a Ski-Orienteering leg from Finland. The chosen leg is leg 18 in Men 21 from the Hiihtosuunnistuksen SM-kilpailut @ 2008-03-15. Thanks to Sindre Jansson Haverstad to the tip about the competition. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – espec…
Graham Gristwood: France – Auvergne 3 day and Aveyron 6 day
After Oringen, I went to France for a holiday, by which I mean I went to do 10 orienteering races in 11 days and some other running and kayaking. I flew to Paris to meet up with Pippa and Duncan who are living there at the moment, and then I had a day sightseeing before we drove down to the Auvergne. First up was a 3 day competition in Aydat, very close to where the World Cup Final was. There wasnt a high standard of competition, but the races were good, with a sprint, a long classic and a middle which I won in 80 minutes. The last race especially was amazing, and one of the most enjoyable races of the year. Results from sprint race, splits Classic race results, splitsMiddle race results, splitsAfter the 3 day, we drove down to Aveyron for the French 6 day. We started off getting very lost on the training map, and going kayaking near Millau. The 6 day itself had quite a lot of elite runners, including Mr Gueorgiou himself. The terrain was incredible, with fantastically detailed maps showing every bush, stone and cave. This was the kind of terrain where relocation is almost impossible, and big mistakes are very possible. The best way to orienteer is to stay in full contact, and try to pick lines in the terrain which make that possible and easy where you can. I managed to have 3 really good days, 2 quite good days, with only one disaster on the second day. My results were 4th (9 minutes down on TG), 15th (11 mins down), 2nd (3.15 down), 6th (12 seconds down in the mass start), …
World of O: Kauppi and Hubmann: Orienteering Achievement of 2008!
Minna Kauppi and Daniel Hubmann have been awarded with “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ titles in the womens and mens class, respectively! Among the women, Minna Kauppi got 29.4% of the votes – winning ahead of Vroni König-Salmi with 23.7% of the votes. The mens class saw a very clear winner in Daniel Hubmann getting 53.4% of the votes – more than five times as many as Thierry Gueorgiou and Michal Smola in shared second position, each with 9.9% of the votes. The vote has been decided by the big international readership of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – more than 3500 unique votes from 52 different countries have been delivered, making these results very representative for the worldwide orienteering community. Read on below the results to find interviews with Minna Kauppi and Daniel Hubmann. Results – Orienteering Achievement of 2008 Men 1. Daniel Hubmann 53.4 % 2. Thierry Gueorgiou 9.9 % 2. Michal Smola 9.9 % 4. Jamie Stevenson 7.5 % 5. Andrey Khramov 6.4 % 6. Francois Gonon 7. Dimitry Tsvetkov 8. Tero Föhr 9. Anders Nordberg 10. Emil Wingstedt Women 1. Minna Kauppi 29.4 % 2. Vroni König-Salmi 23.7 % 3. Anne Margrethe Hausken 18.0 % 4. Dana Brozkova 14.2 % 5. Signe Søes 6.6 % 6. Merja Rantanen 7. Radka Brozkova 8. Marianne Andersen 9. Helena Jansson 10. Annika Billstam Interview: Minna Kauppi – Orienteering Achievement of 2008 Congratulations on being awarded &…
World of O: JWOC Sprint: Gold for Kodeda and Klingenberg
Gold for Czech Republic and Denmark at the sprint distance in the Junior World Champs in Gothenburg today. …
Mats Troeng: World Cup, deltävling 12
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Anne Margrethe Hausken: Hjertesukk fra Hausken
Kjære Tiomilaforeningen……
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 14 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 18 in Men Elite from the 6. Nationaler Baselbieter OL @ 2008-09-14 (OLV Baselland). A really long leg in alpine terrain – towards the end of the course. Thank you to Stefan Lombriser (running himself) and Marcel Schiess for this tip. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. As a bonus, I also give you the leg to the first control. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christm…
Marc Lauenstein: 140 swampy kilometers…
Last week, the Swiss team went on a training camp in Trondheim. The goal was to get a first impression of the terrain for 2010 WOC, work on our technique and on our physical ability in this type of forest. We did 12 very high quality orienteering trainings during our camp, and I feel like it gave me a really good sense of how to run in Trondheim. The terrain is Scandinavian, but it clearly differs from what I have seen so far. Rolling hills, very few rock features, and an interesting contrast between the typical “Trondheim” open swamps and some dense “bushy” forest, characterize the terrain. We trained 140km of orienteering during this camp, most of it in the swamps… my shoes haven’t dried yet. I really enjoyed it and I am looking forward for some further training camps in sight of the 2010 WOC. …
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Daniel Hubmann: Trainingspause
Dieses Jahr gönnte ich mir wieder einmal eine etwas längere Trainingspause, was bei mir vor allem heisst, nach Lust und Laune zu trainieren. Die Umfänge der letzten drei Wochen mit je sechs Stunden zeigen mir, dass ich mich ganz anständig zurückhalten konnte, vor allem auch da der Anteil an Ausgleichtraining recht hoch war. Trotzdem wurde es mir nicht langweilig, denn es gab so einiges zu tun… …
Pasi Ikonen: O-Ringen – facts and maps
Hello. I have landed in Jyväskylä after a long trip filled with competitions. Sun is shining brightly and the Finnish people are enjoying their vacations. That was the case also in O-Ringen on this week. We had three World Cup races there and also a chase-start as the last competition, deciding those generous prize moneys for the winners. A short briefing what happened on last week in Sälen (maps below): 1. WC-sprint, Högfjället 22.7. 3,0km 14.55 – 8th, +34s after Öberg. – a downhill race, a bit boring technically (excluding the 5th control) – legs were heavy after traveling and the WOC – could have done 30s better 2. WC-long distance, Tandådalen 23.7. 15,8km 1.33.40 – 8th, +4.07min after Tero. – hard running on the fells, a bit boring course compared to the capabilities of the terrain – tired feeling already on third control, but the next 40min was better. After 75min I was however out of fuel, as usual – could have done 2mins better 3. WC-middle distance, Hundfjället 24.7. 6,8km 33.47 – 10th, +2.09min after Hubmann. – open fell terrain with couple of demanding controls – feeling tired, but had a good fighting spirit. Made two really stupid and big mistakes. – could have done 2mins better 4. O-Ringen chase-start, Lindvallen 25.7. 10,5km 1.00.18 – 1th place together with Tsvetkov. He was keen to run with me but was stronger both in route choices and physically in the end – marshes on slopes, firforest and long legs – top feeling already in the warm-up, that was unbelievable -…
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World of O: EOC Sprint Final: Maps, Statements and Results
The EOC Sprint Final was flat and fast – and the orienteering was a bit more challenging than in the qualifications, which was said to be very technically easy. Winning times were in the low end for sprint – the fastest women Anne Margrethe Hausken running the 2.6 kilometers long course in only 11.11 – whereas Emil Wingstedt took home the victory in the mens class with 13:11 in 3.3 kilometers. The courses There were not many tricky routechoices in the courses – in several of the longer legs the optimal routechoice was quite obvious. An example – the longest leg in the womens A-final – the second leg. The blue line shows the part of the leg were there is no route choice whatsoever, However, there were some tricky parts which cost some of the favorites a few seconds – and there were changes between different types of orienteering and different terrain types which challenged the runners. Below you see a few of the most tricky legs with the routechoice of Mikkel Lund (from Mikkel Lund homepage). Mikkel Lund denotes the course as “a nice sprint course with many changes during the course”. The rest of the Mens EOC Sprint Final course is shown at the end of this page. A link to the womens course is also provided. Results A big day for Scandinavia, with the five first women from Norway, Sweden and Finland (3!) – and three of the first six men also from Sweden (2) and Norway. Anne Margrethe Hausken celebrated her first individual championships medal since 2005 – whereas…
Fabien Pasquasy: End of season ?
No news from a while… but after 3 months of recovery and alternative trainings I’m still suffering from my quadriceps injury. I could sometimes restart running for 10 days but the pain went back quickly. Everybody knows that 10 months is needed after such break to be in top shape. EOC and WOC are too close now and I still don’t know when I will get the green light for training or running (never ?). As I’m not a professional orienteer I decided to work again full time with my University (ULg – Département de géomatique) during this long recovery time (I was in a very flexible 80% system). My hopes and dreams are very low right now : I just want to be able to run in forest one day !!! I’m most of the time indoor to do alternative training like cycling, stretching and working strength. I have to practise also a lot of running technique drills. The most valuable sessions are done in the hospital on Biodex machine two times a week. Great times… and my five dreams are far away : – top 15 in a WOC race ; – reach a top result in a big relay-events with SNO ; – beat my 30’50 in a 10km race ; – beat my father’s record from the race Sierre-Zinal (2h55’ Moutain race in Switzerland) ; – win the Belgian relay champs (with my two new team mates – Jo Tinchant and Vincent Coupat from France)and win the race Crêtes de Spa . …
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Asplövet goes H40: Visst vann jag, eller hur, visst var det sÃ¥?
Jag viker inte för nÃ¥got. LÃ¥ng där borta finns det en tygbit i orange/vit-kulör och för mig är det bara en passerpunkt i jakten pÃ¥ nästa och nästa för att sen spurta i mÃ¥l. Inte alls till publikens jubel, för sÃ¥na är orienterarna, men jag vinner ändÃ¥ trots medtävlarnas okunskap. Inombords är glädjen kallt kontrollerad och jag duschar bort barr frÃ¥n ryggslutet innan jag tar en korv i väntan pÃ¥ prisutdelningen. Det blir en lÃ¥ng väntan för en massa smÃ¥glin ska ha pris först och sen mÃ¥ste vi vänta in ett par motionerande lallare i min klass som verkar ha blivit kvar i skogen. Men till slut är det äntligen dags för arrangörerna att ropa ut vinnaren i H35 och jag kliver bestämt fram emot prisbordet för att förekomma.Vinnare är Mats Jonsell IF Thor, hör jag ringa i mina öron och jag tvärstannar halvvägs över avspärrningsrepet.VADFAN MENAR NI! HAR JAG INTE VUNNIT?Lilla gubben nu fÃ¥r ni nog fan ta och köpa in ett riktigt tidtagningssystem. Det finns inte en människa pÃ¥ hela det här tomma TC´t som tror pÃ¥ den här resultatlistan.KUKEN! sa jag och Ã¥kte hem tomhänt.; …
Ultimate Orienteering: Questions & Answers with Daniel Hubmann and Thierry Gueorgiou
Last but not least in our series of World Cup 2008 runners! Ultimate-Orienteering interviewed for you the two biggest stars of the year, Daniel Hubmann and Thierry Gueorgiou, who will both fight for victory at World Cup final. After an impressive season, Daniel is now leading with a 87 points gap on Thierry. A duel […]…
Mårten Boström: A summer without Championships
The Finnish Orienteering Federation made my summer planning significantly easier by deciding not to select me to the Finnish World Orienteering Champs selection races. Therefore, even if I feel like I’m in as least as good a shape to fight for a medal at the world champs sprint distance as last year (when finishing 9th) I will not be competing at WOC this year in the Czech Republic. This is a huge disappointment to me after having competed at the last four World Orienteering Champs and being the best Finn in the sprint distance twice. As I have not taken part in enough races in Finland this spring I was told it’s not possible to select me. Doing two sports seems to rise to a problem in my career once again. I was trying to qualify for the Olympics in the marathon while the orienteering season had already started in Europe. As my time in the Ottawa marathon was not fast enough for the Olympics I decided to shift my focus to orienteering, but obviously too late. The Finnish orienteering federation does not give the third fastest runner in the country even a chance to run in the WOC qualification races. Whenever I partake in running in Finland I am known as the “orienteer” and have never been a part of a permanent national squad or training group. It seems to be an easy excuse for national team coaches to put the blame on the other sport. I have learnt that I have to be good enough so that they can’t bypass me in selections. I am still in the process of recovering from t…
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 4 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 3 from the Spring Cup 2008 Classic @ 2008-03-29. FIF Hillerød. H 21 E1. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. Bonus A second leg from the same competition as a bonus… Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 5 from the Spring Cup 2008 Classic @ 2008-03-29. FIF Hillerød. H 21 E1. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@K…
Mårten Boström: Fastest time ever over a half marathon
The Finnish Championships over half marathon in Sjundeå was as good a race as I had expected. The first 5k was heated and ran in 15’39”, followed by a 15’28” second 5k. By this time the lead pack had been reduced to four guys and I felt very comfortable running this pace. The next 15’40” 5k still felt good, but I had been going too hard for the training state my body was in and had to let Jussi Utriainen and Obed Kipkurui go during a 15’54” 5k. The wind had not felt bad before, but as I was now switching in the front with only one other runner, Henri Manninen, I could feel it blowing now. I made a move soon after the 20k mark, but Manninen had still another gear left and gapped me on the last 1,1k, even if I ran 3’19” to finish in a disappointing 4th place in 1.05’59”. I had improved my PR with 33 seconds, so I am happy with the time, considering that I am still training towards my peak. I was able to keep my heart rate above 175 for more than 55 minutes and reached a max of 191, which tells me that my body is able to work hard for an extended period. During a marathon my average heart rate is considerably lower, but at the second half of the 42,195k the heart rate curve resembles that of a faster paced half marathon. I still have to do some hard long runs to be ready to upkeep my goal pace of 312/km for the full distance in the end of May, but being faster than ever before over half the distance helps the mind. This was the best short visit Ive ever done to Finland, b…
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World of O: Top 2008 events: 6 Days in France – Aveyron 2008
How do you orienteer and plan your routechoices in the terrain used for Aveyron 2008 in Southern France? France 6 Days of 2008 – staged from August 2nd until August 9th 2008 in the Larzac region of France – is one of the events featured in the article series “Top Multiday O-events 2008″ at World of O – giving you event presentations with a special twist! Read more about the “Top Multiday O-events 2008″ feature articles here – including information about how to submit your event. The content in this article is written mostly by the organizers, and World of O is not responsible for any inaccuracies – and the spelling errors. The terrain – and how to master it! The terrain can best be described as a Labyrinthique zone with reduced visibility! There are lots of rocks, relief and many vegetation elements, as you can see at this map extract to the right. To manage a good race, you very well have to manage your speed and raise your eyes as much as possible to observe the most characteristic objects! Typical routechoice challenges Take a look at this 400 meter long leg. The map is full of information – there is so much information that you really have to be careful with which part of the map information you use for your orienteering – reading all is close to impossible in high speed! To take the good route, you must know if you are ready to fight with elements, physically and mentally! There are three main alternatives for this leg: Routes of the North : 56…
Ultimate Orienteering: Presentation Emil Wingstedt
“The highlight for me was the first two races of the season EOC sprint and long distance.” – Emil Wingstedt. Below Wingstedt is presented for the nomination “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: winning four EOC gold medals of four possible – the last one in this years EOC in Latvia. About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering ……
Holger Hott: WOC without me
A winter and spring full of sickness ended with another sickness leading up to my only chance to qualify for WOC. 3 days after Jukola and 2 days before World Cup in Oslo I woke up with a sore throat….
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 6 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 5 in H21E from the Swiss Champs Middle Distance at April 12th 2008. Note that few of the best have drawn their route (but the winner Matthias Merz has), and therefore not too much can be taken from the results. Maybe somebody participating can tell more about what was really the fastest here…? The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: You can also take a look at Daniel Hubmann’s description of the race (silver medal). Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for …
World of O: Routechoice comparison: EOC Long Qual
There were some legs where the runners had to decide between different routechoice options in the EOC Long Qualification 2008. However, the differences in running time for the different routechoices do not seem to be very significant based on routechoices of the best runners. It seems like the most important thing is to take a choice, and follow your choice with fast and good orienteering. The time differences between the best runners are mostly due to orienteering mistakes. The lack of real routechoice problems is quite typical for these qualification runs in the championships – the courses are typically also a lot easier than the runners experience in the finals. Hopefully we will see some bigger challenges in the finals! Selected legs We start with a few legs were there were significant differences in routechoices – and conclude with more legs below. More legs – for completeness Below, routechoices for more legs are compared. Most of these legs are not that interesting from a routechoice comparison viewpoint – but it may still be interesting to see what kind of choices the World Orienteering Elite took for these legs. Source: Routegadget at Orientansas.lv …
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 22 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is another leg from the Hungarian Champs Long Distance – October 25th 2008 – where Daniel Hubmann made one of the most impressive runs of the year. Many world class runners where present – and Hubmann won with impressive 5 minutes. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. See also Hubmanns analysis of the race and his map. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is n…
Daniel Hubmann: Ausser Spesen nichts gewesen…
Nach fast drei Wochen ohne Wettkampf startete ich dieses Wochenende an den beiden nationalen Läufen am Lukmanierpass, welche auch zum Biofarm-OL-Cup zählten. Leider konnte ich keine Punkte sammeln, da ich am Samstag einen falschen Posten stempelte, daher nicht klassiert wurde und zudem auch den Jagdstart vom Sonntag verpasste. Trotz spannendem Gelände und tollem Wetter in der schönen Gegend vom Lukmanierpass, war es sportlich gesehen ein enttäuschendes Wochenende für mich. …
Simone Niggli: Goldiger Herbst im Emmental
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Minna Kauppi: ????????
Life has rolled on a couple of weeks again and Ive been enjoying it with some questions looming in the background. Last weekend, I became second in the second Huippuliiga (top-o-league) in Lohja. I was almost capable of running fast the whole middle distance race but lets not mention my o-technique:D The EOC-qualification sprint was held early in the morning next day and I was totally OFF, not having any function in my brains nor in my heart. (must be beacause I didnt get my morning coffee:) The maps are in the links below as well as one training from the EOC-camp. I got the ticket to the EOC anyway but there are some question marks surrounding my choice of distances. The only thing I know for sure is that the middle will be the most important race and that Ive got a place in the relay team. Otherwice, its really hard to decide wheather I should run all the distances or leave the sprint or the long out. Difficult choices, round one. The other questions in my mind have to do with (orienteering connected) social receptions. This week Ive already had three receptions and my phone is ringing a bit too often for some new ones to come. Its really hard to know wheather there will be some use for myself in the future from all these occations. On the other hand, even though they take plenty of time, theyre usually fun too. Last time was actually just fun as me and my friend got to try some buggy safari and rapids shooting! So to say no or just go? That is the question. Ive also had m…
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 16 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is from Thermenlandopen 2008 in Slovenia (Dobrovnik). The category is Men 21 Elite, and the leg chosen is the long leg to control number 8. Thank you very much to Martin Veitsberger who helped collect the routes of several top runners for this leg. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do o…
Ines Brodmann: 5000m Test
Gestern fand auf der Schützenmatte das jährliche Susanne Meier Memorial-Meeting statt, andem das Damenkader den 5000m bestritt… …
Marc Lauenstein: The long awaited daily flow…
After the World Champs and O-Ringen I worked for a couple of days before joining the Olympic athletes at their high altitude training camps in the Engadin, just before they left for Peking. But I wasn’t staying there because of the physiological benefits, instead to enjoy the beauty of the mountains. I ran a lot, mainly on small mountain trails up to some peaks or hidden lakes. I even orienteered at two local events, in a terrain I would classify as some of the most spectacular I know. They are situated in the center of the wildest part of the Alps, neighboring a national park. All around the intricate forest are high peaks that make up the scenery and the vegetation is typical alpine….
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Ultimate Orienteering: Presentation Johan Runesson
Johan Runesson performed very strong this season winning four medals at JWOC in Gothenborg this year. Below Runesson is presented for the nomination “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: winning the silver medal at JWOC sprint, the gold medal at JWOC middle distance, the gold medal at JWOC long distance and the gold medal at JOWOC relay ……
World of O: WOC Relay: Gold for Great Britain after big drama
After a very exciting last leg, Great Britain got the gold medal before Russia. France was in the lead in most of the last leg, but at the end of the leg the last leg runner of France, Thierry Gueorgiou, was observed walking in the forest. …
Mårten Boström: Getting Dirty in Belgium at European Cross Champs
I ended my 2008 season on high notes, by finishing 27th at the European Cross Country Champs in Brussels, Belgium on Sunday. This was only one place off of being the best Finn ever, but this is time wise the closest a Finn has ever been to the winner at Euro Champs, so I am very pleased with what might be the best result so far in my career! I knew I was in good shape but didn’t have a clue of where my good races in the States would transfer into in the rigid European competition. The muddy and hilly course was one I liked. I don’t mind getting dirty in the middle of a race and the toughness needed to keep fighting and changing rhythm suites my style of running. Sergey Lebid of Ukraine won his 8th Euro Cross title edging Mo Farah in the last 500m of the 10k race. I started out quite conservatively, but as we anticipated with fellow Flagstaff-runner, Irishman Martin Fagan the pace of the pack was controlled for the first few kilometers. My aggressive way of charging into the up and down hills and into the sharp bends started paying off after the halfway mark as I was picking up places left and right. I was up at 24th with 500m to go but wasn’t quite able to hold on to that in the finishing downhill even if that’s usually my strong area… I had fought well and will now probably have to continue my Cross Country career a little further, even though my collegiate XC experience is now solely a memory – but certainly a teaching and rewarding one! My preparations for the Champ…
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Ultimate Orienteering: Presentation Jenny Lönnkvist
Jenny Lönnkvist won the bronze medal at JWOC sprint, the gold medal at JWOC long distance but the biggest highlight of 2008 was to run towards the goal at the JWOC relay – together with her teammates Beata and Lina – winning the gold. Below Lönnkvist is presented for the nomination “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Nominated for: winning ……
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 5 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg 6 in H21E from the Løvspretten @ 2008-05-12 organized by Hamar OK og Løten OL. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. Same leg – juniors The juniors had the same leg – and were actually faster! Leg 2 from H19-20E from Løvspretten @ 2008-05-12. Hamar OK og Løten OL. Source: Routegadget at this location. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or becau…
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: 6th overall in O-ringen
Today’s chasing start in O-ringen was a really tough race for me. I was starting as the 5th runner, 3 minutes behind Babtiste Rollier, but only 12 seconds behind Thierry Gueorgiou and 6 seconds behind Marc Lauenstein. I had contact with Thierry and Marc in the beginning, but lost them on the long leg to the 3rd control. I tried to run fast alone and meet them again just before the control. On the 5th control Thierry stopped and quit the race because of an injury. Marc and I run together to the 6th control, but were then caught up by Pasi Ikonen and Dimitriy Tsvetkov. I was tired and to fight hard to don’t miss the contact with them on the shorter legs. In the green area out of the 9th control I could not see them any more, and was running alone the rest of the course. I felt I was running really slow, but was actually not loosing so much time despite to the 12th control where I missed 1 minute. I finished on a 6th place, and am quite satisfied with that, even if I had the possibility to fight for a top position. The Swedish terrain is not my favourite, and it was a little surprise for me that it should go so well here. Tero Föhr won in front of Tsvetkov and Rollier. Anne Margrethe Hausken won the women’s class in front of Ingunn Hultgreen Weltzien, so it was again a great Norwegian day. Results and splits …
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 12 2008
Todays leg in ‘Route to Christmas 2008′ is leg from the Hungarian Champs Long Distance – October 25th 2008 – where Daniel Hubmann made one of the most impressive runs of the year. Many world class runners where present – and Hubmann won with impressive 5 minutes. Hungary is the country where next years World Champs are held – so Hubmann has warned everybody now… The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Source: Routegadget at this location. See also Hubmanns analysis of the race and his map. About Route to Christmas The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. Based on tips from YOU, we’ll see if Route to Christmas comes all the way to Christmas Eve, or if we stop earlier. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2008 competitions, please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg in this years Route to Christmas – you can provide that yourself in the comments. Not all legs are taken for the interesting …
Simone Niggli: Wenn etwas so Kleines so grosse Wellen wirft…
Die Reaktionen auf meine Schwangerschaft kamen postwendend nach der Veröffentlichung auf meiner Homepage und der Pressemitteilung. Wenn das Kleine in meinem Bauch wüsste, welch grosses Echo es schon vor seiner Geburt auslöste ;-)…
Daniel Hubmann: Arge Alp in St.Gallen
Dieses Wochenende trafen sich die zehn Arge Alp Regionen in St.Gallen zu ihrem "Länderkampf". Am Samstag fand der Staffellauf im Altenberg statt, wo ich selbst nicht lief, da ich für die Bahnlegung zuständig war. Am Sonntag beim Einzellauf im Hirschberg durfte ich dann aber laufen und konnte einen überlegenen Sieg feiern. …
World of O: Top 2008 events: Nordvestgaloppen 2008
Nordvestgaloppen 2008 – staged from July 30th until August 3rd 2008 in Voss in Western Norway – is one of the events featured in the article series “Top Multiday O-events 2008″ at World of O – giving you event presentations with a special twist! Read more about the “Top Multiday O-events 2008″ feature articles here – including information about how to submit your event. The content in this article is written mostly by the organizers, and World of O is not responsible for any inaccuracies – and the spelling errors. Note! Only two contributions so far – please use this possibility to get som PR for your event! The terrain – and how to master it! The terrain around Voss is dominated by marshlands (easily run) and grassy slopes, with a moderate degree of steepness. To get an impression about the terrain, you can take a look at the below map extract from the map of day 3 and 4. Beside the map extract, you see a picture of the terrain taken from the top of one of the mountains surrounding the map. A suggested route for this short leg is drawn in red: As you see from the map extract, some areas are quite detalied, and reading all details in full speed is not easy as runnability is good in most of the terrain. A runner not familiar with this terrain, would probably try to avoid the marshes. In the area around Voss, you do exactly the opposite. The marshes have usually very good runnability, and in addition they are your best aid in the navigation as they are …
Daniel Hubmann: 14:44 über 5000m
Beim Pfingstmeeting in Zofingen konnte ich meine persönliche Bestzeit (PB) über 5000m um weitere 12 Sekunden auf 14 Minuten und 44 Sekunden senken. Das Rennen verlief sehr gut, ich konnte mich ziemlich genau an den Zeitplan halten, der auf 14:40 ausgerichtet war. Leider waren nicht gerade viele, schnelle Leichtathleten am Start, so dass ich vom ersten bis zum letzten Meter selbst führen musste. …
Olav Lundanes: Min første Cola
Cola er av og til meir enn berre skitvatten med sukker. Kvar torsdag er det premien på den o-tekniske morgontreninga. Svenskar er kjent for å være griske etter Cola, men i går greidde eg vinne ein. …
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