World of O News
A new knock-out sprint format will be used at the Nordic Orienteering Tour (NORT) in June in Sweden – the second race in NORT and also the 5th World Cup race in 2010 – following the format used in Cross Country skiing closely. The qualification race in the morning for allrunners will be a normal sprint (12-15 minute winning time) with a 1 minute start interval. The top 30 athletes qualify for quarter finals, of these 12 qualify for semi finals and 6 runners will run the finals.
Overall, when looking at the NORT concept, it is easy to see that it is based on the successful Tour de Ski concept – which you can follow at WorldofXC.com these days. According to Bulletin 2, the prize money will be awarded to the best athletes in the overall NORT and to the best in each stage. The total amount will be at least 27 000 EUR
Nordic Orienteering Tour 2010
According to the World Cup Special rules, the Nordic Orienteering Tour consists of three races in three countries,
- Thursday June 17th, Finland. Middle and sprint mix.
- Tuesday June 22nd, Sweden. Knock-out sprint.
- Saturday June 26th, Norway. Prolonged middle chasing start.
Middle and sprint mix
Middle distance and Sprint combination. There will be a map change at the arena with a change of scale and map standard. The overall winning time will be approximately 35 minutes. There is an individual interval start with no prior qualification. The start interval is 1 minute.
Knock-out sprint
From the World Cup Special rules for this event:
- The quarter-finals are for the top 30 athletes from the qualification race. There are 5
consecutive mass-start quarter-finals each running the same course with a 6-8 minute
winning time. Quarter-final A: 1st, 10th, 11th, 20th, 21st and 30th of the qualification; quarterfinal B: 4, 7, 14, 17, 24, 27; quarter-final C: 5, 6, 15, 16, 25, 26; quarter-final D: 2, 9, 12, 19, 22, 29; quarter-final E: 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28. - The semi-finals are for 12 athletes. The first two runners from each quarter-final, and the two overall next fastest times from the quarter-finals, qualify for the semi-finals. There are 2 consecutive mass start semi-finals each running the same course with a 6-8 minute winning time. Semi-final 1: 1st and 2nd of quarter-finals A and B plus 2nd of quarter-final C and the runner with the 11th fastest time in the quarter-finals; semi-final 2: 1st and 2nd of quarterfinals D and E plus 1st of quarter-final C and the runner with the 12th fastest time in the quarter-finals.
- The final is for 6 athletes. The two fastest runners from each semi-final and the two runners with the next best times qualify for the final. The final will be a mass-start sprint with a 6-10 minute winning time.
Prolonged middle chasing start
For the prolonged middle distance chasing start (women 40 minutes, men 50
minutes), the start times are based on the NORT overall time standings after two days. Only runners who were placed on NORT day one and also in the qualification race on NORT day two may compete on day three. The NORT overall time standings after two days are calculated as the time on day one plus the time for the qualification race on day two less the following bonus seconds:
- NORT day one positions at the end of the middle distance section: First 60 bonus
seconds, second 45 sec., third 30 sec., fourth 20 sec., fifth 10 sec. and sixth 5 sec. - NORT day two: The 6 runners in the final will get bonus seconds 120-90-70-60-55-50. The other 6 runners in the semi-finals will get bonus seconds 40-38-36-34-32-30 according to their running times in the semi-finals. The other 18 runners in the quarter-finals will get bonus seconds 18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 according to their running times in the quarter-finals. If one or more runners are not placed in the quarter-finals, semi-finals or finals, they will be regarded as being placed at the end of that group and are awarded bonus seconds accordingly. The first runner to the finish is the NORT winner.
Nordic Orienteering Tour webpage
The webpage of the Nordic Orienteering Tour is to be found here. According to the page, it is going to be released in December 2009 – expect it to be updated soon. According to Bulletin 2, all existing maps can be found on www.nordicorienteeringtour.com in pdf format (not yet available, thus expect them to be available there soon).
