NORT stage 3 with live GPS tracking starts at 14:00 CET. Simone Niggli starts first among the women – heading into the forest at 14:00. Daniel Hubmann starts first among the men at 15:00 CET. Get ready for tricky orienteering – even with clear leads, there may be changes in the top..

• Live GPS Tracking

There is no live video today, but the broadcast is sent delayed from 17:30 CET in Norwegian TV NRK2 (might be IP restricted to Norway).

- In the future probably only head-to-head duels and sprint concepts are interesting for further development as TV sports. Within a short time frame this must have consequences for which disciplines are on the program when international championships are organized.

This is part of Bjørnar Valstad’s comments after the two first races of the Nordic Orienteering Tour – published at the webpage of the Norwegian Orienteering Federation earlier today (Norwegian text).

Long horizon

The article also includes comments from Valstad regarding the TV productions from the first two NORT races. Valstad agrees with many of the comments given in the interesting discussion after the article on the KnockOut sprint in Stockholm here at World of O – i.e. that the TV productions from the first stages of NORT have not been good enough as a TV product. However, Valstad points out that it is important to have a long horizon in this work.

- We need to understand that the development of orienteering as a TV sport takes time and resources. If we are to succeed with in the goal of increased visibility and increased market value, we have to build concept with entertainment value, and make sure that the productions are good enough so that the excitement comes through to the TV viewer.

Valstad stresses that we need to give the concepts time to mature.

- We need two to three years until we can see if we have succeeded. All of Orienteering Norway wants this development, and we must use the necessary resources.

Three central elements

Head-to-head duels, GPS-tracking and many TV cameras is the secret sauce for a good TV production, according to Valstad.

- I think it is obvious that it is necessary to have three elements [in the TV production] to succeed in the future. Those are: Head-to-head duels, enough cameras to cover large parts of the course and GPS tracking. Take away one of the elements, and the TV broadcasts get boring. Therefore the development is obvious. A lot more competitions must be held as mass start, chasing start or other head-to-head concepts. And if IOF allows for more competitions in NORT, this can within few years become a spectacular week with many exciting competition elements. We have even discussed introducing one or more night legs without having discussed any specific details.

Agreement between Norway, Sweden and Finland

The article also tells that Norway, Sweden and Finland have made a political agreement for the years 2010-2013 to make sure that there are TV productions from all competitions in NORT and all international championships which are organized in the Nordic countries. The agreement ensures that each country has a duty to pricude good TV pictures, and make these available for the national TV companies. Through this cooperation, at least 3-7 TV production will be secured each year in addition to the international championships.

What is your opinion?

In my opinion, the significant effort initiated by Sweden, Finland and Norway in order to try to develop orienteering as a TV sport is very interesting – and surely good for the sport. The Nordic Orienteering Tour is a very good way to try out the new concepts, and I think a lot will be learned in this first edition (and has already been learned) – and that NORT will get very interesting in the years to come. You may agree or disagree on some of the conclusions – but without really trying (and failing), it is difficult to develop further. I think we need the head-to-head type concepts as part of a TV strategy, but I also hope (and think) that more “hardcore” orienteering can have a very good life on TV for a broad audience in the future when profiles have been built and it is part of an overall strategy.

Keep posting your comments and discuss the concepts – I am sure some of the responsible for deciding the way forward will read part of the discussions, and use it in developing orienteering as a TV sport further.

Fabien Hertner and Helena Jansson won todays KnockOut-sprint at the Nordic Orienteering Tour after big mistakes by favorites Simone Niggli and Daniel Hubmann made in the finals. Hertner was in the lead all the way from the start in both the semifinal and the final – and nobody was even close in the end. In the womens class, Simone Niggli had the lead for most of the final, but a big mistake in the end of the course cost her the top position – and in the end she was only 5th.

Hertner was really satisfied after his big win today.- It was really great. The terrain was really perfect for this. I was a little bit afraid that it was only running and following each other, but there were really routechoices. I know that if I took just a 5 seconds slower routechoice, they would be here again. So I was very careful with the routechoices, and pushed as hard as I could.

Courses

The courses were typical shortened urban sprint courses with several routechoice options on some of the legs (see map with first loop in the finals above and second loop below- screenshot from TV broadcast on orientering.se). From watching the TV broadcast, it looked like the runners were mostly following each other – the tactics for the one behind being to wait for a mistake from the one in front. It will be interesting to hear the opinons of more runners than the winner Hertner.

Results

Men
1. Fabian Hertner (SUI)
2. Jerker Jysell (SWE)
3. Francois Gonon (FRA)
4. Øystein Kvaal Østerbø (NOR)
5. Graham Gristwood (GBR)
6. Daniel Hubmann (SUI)

Women
1. Helena Jansson (SWE)
2. Beata Falk (SWE)
3. Galina Vinogradova (RUS)
4. Maja Alm (DEN)
5. Simone Niggli (SUI)
6. Elise Egseth (NOR)

• Full results final
• Results from the rest of stage 2

Orienteering format of the future?

The TV broadcast was fun to watch, but the cameras were on the runners for significantly less than half of the time. What do you think of the race format and the TV broadcast?

At 19:30 CET today when the KnockOut Sprint finals start in Stockholm we might get the first part of the answer: Is the KnockOut Sprint format the way to get orienteering out to the public outside the orienteering community? The KnockOut sprint in the Nordic Orienteering Tour is a true copy of the popular sprint discipline in Cross Country Skiing, all the way down to the detail that all runners have the same course without any forking – not even a butterfly.

This last detail seems to be the most controversial in the orienteering community. – How can this race format reflect the true nature of orienteering when everybody runs the same short course with a mass start, is a question I’ve heard several times in this regard.

Tour manager of the Nordic Orienteering Tour, Henrik Skoglund answers the question about the race format the following way. – The basic thought is that if all runners do not run the same course, the unfairness becomes to big. In a course which takes 6-7 minutes it is not easy to get a forking which at the same time makes for a TV production which is easy to understand. Skoglund finishes by stating that he has an idea for next year which might do it even a bit more interesting.

- More important to be a good map reader

Jørn Sundby had a similar answer to the question some months ago (at which time Sundby was Tour manager). – The competition shall be a fight man against man with tactics as the main element. Routechoices shall be decisive, and runners who are ahead with their orienteering shall have an advantage. With as few as six runners in the heats, forking could be unfair because it could decide the race, and the lucky ones could come behind the best in “their” forking and earn time on it. With unforked courses everybody has the same chances.

- Our experience from testing of this race format have shown that if the course is good, it is more important to be a good map reader than to be a good runner. We think that more runners have the chance to win a KnockOut Sprint than a regular sprint (in which Hubmann and Khramov have been in their own class).

Orienteering format of the future?

The main reason for experimenting with the KnockOut Sprint format and the other novel race formats in the Nordic Tour lies in making orienteering interesting for TV – especially for viewers who are not part of the orienteering community.

- The Nordic Orienteering Tour shall take the orienteering sport into the future – that is the competitions in NORT shall mainly not be traditional orienteering, rather the opposite, Sundby said in February.

The good things about the KnockOut Sprint format are that the format is easy to understand for the viewers, there is time to present the runners properly ahead of each heat, and the first runner into the finish is the winner. On the other hand, I think most of todays elite runners won’t be too happy if the KnockOut Sprint format becomes the orienteering format of the future. If the TV viewers love today’s broadcast, this might just be a format which will be important in the future.

Later today we will get part of the answer – can really the orienteering be decisive in a 7-8 minute long unforked urban race? I’m definitely going to watch and see if this format works. Are you going to watch? What do you think about the format? You can watch the live broadcast from here from 18.20 CET (semifinals and finals). The old map of the area is shown above (screenshot from PDF from the Nordic Tour webpage).

Details about the race today

Start Qualification 10:00 CET. Start Quarter-finals 13:00 CET. Start Semi-finals 18:30 CET. Start finals 19:30 CET 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. The quarter/semi/finals are mass-start events with 6-8 minute winning time. Note: There is no gaffling in the semi-final and final heats! The 6 runners in the final will get bonus seconds 120-90-70-60-55-50. All other runners in the semi/quarter finals also get bonus seconds, counting down to 1 second for the slowest time in the quarter finals.

NORT TV production: Middle + Sprint

In the end a comment on the TV broadcast from the first stage of NORT – the middle/sprint race in Finland last Thursday (you can see a replay of the TV production here for Finland – here for Norway). As an orienteer, I loved the live broadcast ; a very professional production with many cameras, nice TV-pictures from the forest, and integrated GPS tracking. In addition, there was full GPS tracking available in GPSSeuranta where one could watch the tracking for all runners. For me as an orienteer, this was a very interesting broadcast.

However, a 50 minute replay of the TV production was shown on Norwegian television (NRK2) in the evening. To my surprise, several of my non-orienteering friends had watched part of the production. Their comments were not too positive, though. Here are some of the comments: “Difficult to understand”, “the map was shown for such a short amount of time that it was impossible to understand anything”, “at the time when I understood which of all the small moving dots the commentators were talking about, they removed the map again”, “a lot of different runners from different countries, but not possible to get a grip on what was really happening”, “the pictures were from the forest, but there were lots of houses on the map”.

Some quick random thoughts below – please add your random thoughts in the comments if you have any.

• Why not switch sprint and middle ; first sprint then middle. Might lead to more changes in the end of the course when there is difficult orienteering – mistakes is what works best on TV and GPS tracking. 15+20 minutes should be enough – and with a really tricky last part.
• Why not focus on the “course setters ideal route” – maybe even show it alongside the tracking of a runner. It is always good if the viewer knows more than the runner.
• Why not show tracking from the same leg / same part of the course for each “interesting” runner – always comparing with the current leader or the “course setters ideal route”? That way the viewers can familiarize with the leg and understand it better (this was done to some extent in the NORT stage 1 live broadcast, but in the replay it didn’t work that well)
• Replay of the GPS tracking at triple speed or higher is very often better than live GPS tracking (especially for the non-orienteer).
• Full names on the dots on the GPS tracking (and maybe a country flag in addition?)  makes it easier to grasp for the viewers – rather show only two or three runners if it gets too crowded.

There are many highlights in the GPS tracking from the very technical Jukola and Venla relays. See how Anders Nordberg decided 10Mila for Halden SK on the long, dark and rainy 3rd leg – giving his team mates a lead of more than 5 minutes.

Decisive moments – Jukola relay

The following are some of the most decisive moments in the Jukola relay (see GPS Tracking of some of them in the video below):

• 1st leg, 7th 6th control. Kristiansand (Jostein Andersen) has no punch on the control, and gets disqualified. Halden SK (Kiril Nikolov) and Kalevan Rasti (Jan Prochazka) loose between 3 and 4 minutes, but this is not important for the overall results in the end. (GPS Tracking Jukola, 1st leg)
• 2nd leg. Kalevan Rasti (Tommi Tölkkö) looses nearly 7 minutes to Halden (Erik Axelsson) and several of the other top teams – down to 28th place for Kalevan Rasti. (GPS Tracking Jukola, 2nd leg)
• 3rd leg. Halden (Anders Nordberg) gets a 5 minute lead after a very good race at the long and dark 3rd leg. Note however that Kalevan Rasti (Hannu Airila) has a time which is only one second slower than Halden on this leg – getting Kalevan Rasti up to 3rd place. Thus there were two kings of the night at this years Jukola relay, although Nordberg’s solo in the lead is more impressive. (GPS Tracking Jukola, 3rd leg)
• 4th leg. Halden (Mattias Karlsson) continues to run very well with few mistakes, while Kalevan Rasti (Simo Martomaa) looses another 6 minutes. Second now is IFK Lidingö SOK 8:41 down. (GPS Tracking Jukola, 4th leg)
• 5th leg. Halden (Mats Haldin) does a good race, keeping Kalevan Rasti (Philippe Adamski) at a distance and increasing the lead to the other teams. Haldens lead is more than 11 minutes after the 5th leg, and the relay is decided. (GPS Tracking Jukola, 5th leg)
• 6th leg. Halden (Emil Wingstedt) does another good leg, not giving Kalevan Rasti (Fabian Hertner) any chance to get closer – Halden is actually increasing the lead further (GPS Tracking Jukola, 6th leg).
• 7th leg. Kalevan Rasti (Thierry Gueorgiou) runs a great race, decreasing the lead of Halden (Olav Lundanes) minute by minute, finally stopping at just above 7 minutes for a very secure 2nd spot. (GPS Tracking Jukola, 7th leg)

Maps and GPS Tracking

• Jukola, 1st leg. See also direct link to map for 1st leg Jukola
• Jukola, 2nd leg
• Jukola, 3rd leg. See also direct link to map for 3rd leg Jukola
• Jukola, 4th leg
• Jukola, 5th leg
• Jukola, 6th leg
• Jukola, 7th leg
• Venla, 1st leg. See also direct link to map for 1st leg Jukola
• Venla, 2nd leg
• Venla, 3rd leg
• Venla, 4th leg

LiveBlog

In the LiveBlog you can replay the excitement of both the Jukola and Venla relays – and see exactly where the decisive moments were.

Results Jukola

• Full results Jukola

Results Venla

• Full results Venla
• Article about the Venla relay at WorldofO.com

Tampereen Pyrintö’s Anni-Maija Fincke decided the Venla relay after an exciting last leg. Everything was set for a Domnarvets victory as Dana Brozkova changed over to Lena Eliasson with a one minute lead, but Eliasson did big mistakes at the start of the last leg – paving the way for a Finnish victory.

Ulricehamn’s Simone Niggli started 3:27 behind Domnarvets and about 2:30 behind Tampereen Pyrintö, but never managed to get closer. Instead she lost time due to several small mistakes, but still manage to save the second spot for Ulricehamn.

Halden SK was one of the big favourites today, but lost too much on the third leg to fight for the victory on the last leg. Hausken’s great last leg did however bring Halden up to 3rd place – one place better than last year – and looking like the most happy girls in Finland today.

Pictures/Maps: From YLE video feed

Replay the action

By replaying the LiveBlog below, you can follow the excitement through all of the Venla relay – including many map excerpts, most of the big mistakes by the top teams, etc. Here you may also follow the Jukola relay in the same way.

Results (unofficial)

• Full results

21:55 CET on Saturday more than 1500 men head into the forest – nearly 9 hours earlier at 13:00 CET 1100 women start their relay. The Jukola relay is the highlight of the season for many runners – here you find all the information you need about the biggest ever edition of the Jukola and Venla relay. This years edition features 15,295 runners – a record by more than 1000 runners!

Live TV/results/tracking/startlists

• Live TV feed (via YLE): Venla (Finnish – Swedish) – Jukola (Finnish – Swedish)
• Live results
• There is GPS Tracking (for 20 teams) on all legs. However, live GPS Tracking will only be shown on the TV feed – there is no separate tracking offered
• Startlists: Jukola – Venla
• Jukola webpage
• LiveBlog (via WorldofO.com – see bottom of this page)

See also the LiveBlog (at the bottom of this page). The LiveBlog can also be followed from you mobile phone directly from the assembly area.

Map and terrain

The competition terrain consists mainly of steep hills (from 20 to 30 meters) which alternate with marshy dells.  There are almost no paths in the terrain instead there are few forest roads and ski tracks which make running easier. Kilometer paces will be slower this year than in other Jukola relays in the 21th century. Kytäjä Jukola 2010 will be a challenging orienteering race. Time differences between the top teams will be big. An average mistake will be bigger in this terrain than in other terrains.

Some neighbour-maps and old maps of the area found from omaps.worldofo.com:

• Map 1, Map 2, Map 3

Venla relay

Start: 13:00 CET.

• Courses include 900 meters of taped routes. Competitors born in 1994 and 1995 may participate in legs 1, 2, and 3. Competitors born in 1993 and earlier may run all legs.
• There is forking on all legs

Top Teams last year:

Jukola relay

Start: 21:55 CET

• Teams that have not changed by 7.45 a.m. CET can take part in two separate mass starts at the map stands. The mass start for leg 7 takes place at 8.00 a.m. CET  and one for legs 2. – 6. at 8.15 a.m. CET
• Courses include 900 meters of taped route. Competitors born in 1994 and 1995 may run legs 4, 5, and 6. Competitors born in 1993 and earlier may run all legs. The sun will set on June 19th at 22.55 p.m. and rise on June 20th at 3.49 a.m.
• There is forking on all legs

Top teams last year:

LiveBlog at WorldofO.com

- Reading the national teams’ and runners’ webpages, partly with the help of Google translator, I got some background information, the new leader in the Fantasy World Cup writes in an email. The new leader is Manager Ulis with the Team “OrientExpress”.

- Helena Jansson was said to skip the race, and Matthias Merz to be somewhat injured. So I voted for Lena Eliasson and Matthias Müller instead, which came out to be good choices. The hopes on Novikov and Föhr were partly based on their starting position and ability to catch up with other runners, which also came true, Uli continues. Thus, his way to the top has taken time, but now Uli can rest for some days until the next World Cup race starts on Tuesday in Stockholm. The last chance to set up your team is Tuesday morning at 09:00 CET.

• Overall results Fantasy World Cup
• Results for World Cup race 4

1. OrientExpress – 318.50 points

Manager: Ulis

Points: 318.50

1.   Simone Niggli – 75.00 points	2.   Daniel Hubmann – 62.50 points
3.   Signe Søes – 22.00 points	4.   Minna Kauppi – 40.00 points
5.   Marianne Andersen – 15.00 points	6.   Lena Eliasson – 30.00 points
7.   Valentin Novikov – 30.00 points	8.   Tero Föhr – 20.00 points
9.   Peter Öberg – 1.00 points	10.   Matthias Müller – 23.00 points

2. Danish Dynamite – 315.50 points

Manager: Lars Lindstrøm

Points: 315.50

1.   Simone Niggli – 75.00 points	2.   Daniel Hubmann – 62.50 points
3.   Valentin Novikov – 33.00 points	4.   Fabian Hertner – 2.00 points
5.   Vesa Taanila – 12.00 points	6.   Matthias Merz – 13.00 points
7.   Minna Kauppi – 40.00 points	8.   Lena Eliasson – 30.00 points
9.   Maja Alm – 23.00 points	10.   Annika Billstam – 25.00 points

3. The Great Bananas – 299.70 points

Manager: Martin Hoset

Points: 299.70

1.   Simone Niggli – 75.00 points	2.   Daniel Hubmann – 62.50 points
3.   Fabian Hertner – 2.20 points	4.   Marianne Andersen – 15.00 points
5.   Matthias Merz – 13.00 points	6.   Minna Kauppi – 40.00 points
7.   Valentin Novikov – 30.00 points	8.   Signe Søes – 20.00 points
9.   Mats Haldin – 19.00 points	10.   Matthias Müller – 23.00 points

4. Skogvokterne – 299.50 points

Manager: Magnus Johnsson

Points: 299.50

1.   Simone Niggli – 75.00 points	2.   Daniel Hubmann – 62.50 points
3.   Minna Kauppi – 44.00 points	4.   Lena Eliasson – 30.00 points
5.   Valentin Novikov – 30.00 points	6.   Vroni König-Salmi – 4.00 points
7.   Matthias Merz – 13.00 points	8.   Peter Öberg – 1.00 points
9.   Tero Föhr – 20.00 points	10.   Signe Søes – 20.00 points

5. Team Power – 296.80 points

Manager: Ruairi

Points: 296.80

1.   Daniel Hubmann – 75.00 points	2.   Simone Niggli – 62.50 points
3.   Matthias Merz – 14.30 points	4.   Valentin Novikov – 30.00 points
5.   Matthias Müller – 23.00 points	6.   Fabian Hertner – 2.00 points
7.   Helena Jansson – 0.00 points	8.   Signe Søes – 20.00 points
9.   Lena Eliasson – 30.00 points	10.   Minna Kauppi – 40.00 points

6. Stjärntorps OK – 295.70 points

Manager: Erik Ivarsson Sandberg

Points: 295.70

1.   Simone Niggli – 75.00 points	2.   Daniel Hubmann – 62.50 points
3.   Fabian Hertner – 2.20 points	4.   Minna Kauppi – 40.00 points
5.   Matthias Merz – 13.00 points	6.   Valentin Novikov – 30.00 points
7.   Carl Waaler Kaas – 18.00 points	8.   Annika Billstam – 25.00 points
9.   Emma Engstrand – 0.00 points	10.   Lena Eliasson – 30.00 points

7. Maprunner – 295.50 points

Manager: Simon Errington

Points: 295.50

1.   Simone Niggli – 75.00 points	2.   Daniel Hubmann – 62.50 points
3.   Helena Jansson – 0.00 points	4.   Signe Søes – 20.00 points
5.   Maja Alm – 23.00 points	6.   Valentin Novikov – 30.00 points
7.   Minna Kauppi – 40.00 points	8.   Fabian Hertner – 2.00 points
9.   Matthias Merz – 13.00 points	10.   Lena Eliasson – 30.00 points

8. l\’ulteam – 295.50 points

Manager: Gianni Guglielmetti

Points: 295.50

1.   Simone Niggli – 75.00 points	2.   Daniel Hubmann – 62.50 points
3.   Helena Jansson – 0.00 points	4.   Matthias Merz – 13.00 points
5.   Fabian Hertner – 2.00 points	6.   Valentin Novikov – 30.00 points
7.   Matthias Müller – 23.00 points	8.   Minna Kauppi – 40.00 points
9.   Signe Søes – 20.00 points	10.   Lena Eliasson – 30.00 points

9. The Spikers – 293.70 points

Manager: Regina

Points: 293.70

1.   Simone Niggli – 75.00 points	2.   Daniel Hubmann – 62.50 points
3.   Fabian Hertner – 2.20 points	4.   Helena Jansson – 0.00 points
5.   Valentin Novikov – 30.00 points	6.   Matthias Merz – 13.00 points
7.   Carl Waaler Kaas – 18.00 points	8.   Matthias Müller – 23.00 points
9.   Lena Eliasson – 30.00 points	10.   Minna Kauppi – 40.00 points

10. Moastabratl – 293.20 points

Manager: Karin

Points: 293.20

1.   Simone Niggli – 75.00 points	2.   Helena Jansson – 0.00 points
3.   Fabian Hertner – 2.20 points	4.   Matthias Müller – 23.00 points
5.   Daniel Hubmann – 50.00 points	6.   Valentin Novikov – 30.00 points
7.   Minna Kauppi – 40.00 points	8.   Signe Søes – 20.00 points
9.   Lena Eliasson – 30.00 points	10.   Maja Alm – 23.00 points

A very good start for the Nordic Orienteering Tour today – excellent TV coverage, live GPS tracking and very interesting races in both men’s and women’s categories in Helsinki today. We got yet another successful day for the Swiss duo Daniel Hubmann and Simone Niggli. Both decided the races after tight races.

Winners comments:

• Daniel Hubmann: – First I was really nervous, because they said the last control was missing. It was not on the electronic timekeeping, but it was on the backup.
  Todays competition was pretty cool. No troubles with the map exchange.

• Simone Niggli: – I am very happy. I heard at the map change that I was a bit after Minna, but I made a mistake before the map exchange, so I knew that I had the speed. The map change went very well for me, so I had a good feeling.

Maps

• Map and GPS-tracking men
• Map and GPS-tracking women

Results men

1	77		Daniel Hubmann	39:53
2	46		Audun Weltzien	40:03	+10
3	75		Valentin Novikov	40:28	+35
4	65		Baptiste Rollier	40:33	+40
5	73		Matthias Müller	40:37	+44
6	67		Tero Föhr	40:56	+1:03
7	64		Mats Haldin	40:57	+1:04
8	71		Carl Waaler Kaas	40:58	+1:05
9	39		Tuomas Tervo	41:07	+1:14
10	57		Øystein Kvaal Østerbø	41:14	+1:21
11	58		Olav Lundanes	41:17	+1:24
	50		Topi Anjala	41:17	+1:24
13	74		Matthias Merz	41:24	+1:31
14	60		Vesa Taanila	41:33	+1:40
15	36		Erik Rost	41:49	+1:56
16	42		Gernot Kerschbaumer	41:51	+1:58
17	66		Graham Gristwood	41:55	+2:02
18	55		Olli-Markus Taivainen	41:57	+2:04
19	63		Mikkel Lund	42:02	+2:09
20	51		Scott Fraser	42:16	+2:2

Bonus seconds after Middle part – men:
Hubmann: 60 seconds
Weltzien: 45 seconds
Novikov: 30 seconds
Müller: 20 seconds
Anjala: 10 seconds
Föhr: 5 seconds

• Full results men

Results women

1	156		Simone Niggli	38:11
2	150		Minna Kauppi	38:46	+35
3	153		Lena Eliasson	39:24	+1:13
4	124		Annika Billstam	39:58	+1:47
5	152		Maja Alm	40:20	+2:09
6	154		Signe Söes	41:18	+3:07
7	151		Céline Dodin	41:27	+3:16
8	123		Emma Johansson	41:34	+3:23
9	145		Caroline Cejka	41:54	+3:43
10	142		Julia Novikova	41:57	+3:46
11	126		Marianne Andersen	41:58	+3:47
12	147		Anni-Maija Fincke	42:10	+3:59
13	122		Mari Fasting	42:18	+4:07
14	140		Heidi Bagstevold	42:23	+4:12
	130		Sofia Haajanen	42:23	+4:12
16	135		Anne-Mari Leskinen	42:40	+4:29
17	148		Sarah Rollins	42:43	+4:32
18	116		Judith Wyder	42:51	+4:40
19	141		Elise Egseth	42:54	+4:43
20	106		Riina Kuuselo	43:18	+5:07

Bonus seconds after Middle part – women:
Kauppi: 60 seconds
Niggli: 45 seconds
Eliasson: 30 seconds
Billstam: 20 seconds
Alm: 10 seconds
Johansson: 5 seconds

• Full results women

1	77		Daniel Hubmann	39:53
2	46		Audun Weltzien	40:03	+10
3	75		Valentin Novikov	40:28	+35
4	65		Baptiste Rollier	40:33	+40
5	73		Matthias Müller	40:37	+44
6	67		Tero Föhr	40:56	+1:03
7	64		Mats Haldin	40:57	+1:04
8	71		Carl Waaler Kaas	40:58	+1:05
9	39		Tuomas Tervo	41:07	+1:14
10	57		Øystein Kvaal Østerbø	41:14	+1:21
11	58		Olav Lundanes	41:17	+1:24
	50		Topi Anjala	41:17	+1:24
13	74		Matthias Merz	41:24	+1:31
14	60		Vesa Taanila	41:33	+1:40
15	36		Erik Rost	41:49	+1:56
16	42		Gernot Kerschbaumer	41:51	+1:58
17	66		Graham Gristwood	41:55	+2:02
18	55		Olli-Markus Taivainen	41:57	+2:04
19	63		Mikkel Lund	42:02	+2:09
20	51		Scott Fraser	42:16	+2:23

LiveBlog Replay

The same importance for orienteering as Tour de Ski has had for cross country skiing: That is what Norway, Sweden and Finland hope for with the Nordic Orienteering Tour starting Thursday June 17th in Finland – and continuing next week in Sweden and Norway. This years edition has three races – the hope is to increase the Tour to 4-6 races the next years. Do you think the Nordic Orienteering Tour will be a success?

Update 16/9/2010 based on answers from the NORT media/information responsible (thank you very much):

• Stage 1 will be live broadcast by YLE on the Internet, and there will also be a 40 minute broadcast on regular TV in the evening (see here for Finnish and here for Swedish – thanks to Kenneth Lassila for Swedish link). No IP-restriction = viewable worldwide. TV/video for stage 3 will also be available worldwide on the Internet. For Stage 2 the broadcast will be available either through SVT or orientering.se.
• There will be GPS-tracking for Stage 1 and Stage 3 (not clear if both will be available online, or only for TV production)
• Sponsors: There are several local sponsors, but no sponsors are sponsoring all of the tour. The federations have given garanties that the organizers will not loose money, thus that means that the federations in principle are responsible for price money and TV production.
• The program for the Nordic Tour for 2011 will be planned based on how it works this year – more competitions is wanted (maybe 5-7 within 9-10 days).
• Regarding the choice of using no spreading at all in the Knock-out spint, the thought is that if the runners do not have the same course, the unfairness is to big. Also, in a course which takes 6-7 minutes it is not easy to make a gaffling which makes a TV-production which is easy to understand. There are thoughts about a possible solution for next year.

Note also that Bulletin 4 with latest detailed information is now available.

Program Overview

• Thursday June 17th, Finland. Middle and sprint mix. First start 15:26 CET. Last start: 17:44 CET.
• Tuesday June 22nd, Sweden. Knock-out sprint. Start Qualification 10:00 CET. Start finals 19:30 CET
• Saturday June 26th, Norway. Prolonged middle chasing start. Start first woman 14:00 CET. Start first man 15:00 CET.

WorldofO.com plans to follow the final parts of stage 1 and stage 2 through a LiveBlog – check WorldofO.com for more info the day of the events. There will at least be live GPS tracking online for stage 1. According to the NORT-page, links to live video/GPS-Tracking/results will be posted on this page.

Fantasy World Cup

All three stages in the Nordic Orienteering Tour are part of the World Cup – and therefore also part of the Fantasy World Cup. Remember to set up your Fantasy World Cup Team ahead of each event here:

• Fantasy World Cup 2010

Detailed Program

The Nordic Orienteering Tour consists of three races in three countries,

• Thursday June 17th, Finland. Middle and sprint mix. First start men is 15:26 CET. Last start men: 16:40 CET. First start women: 16:50 CET. Last start women: 17:44 CET. Tracking will be available on the Internet during the competition from here. There will be a map change at the arena with a change of scale and map standard to sprint 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. Bonus seconds 60-45-30-20-10-5 seconds will be given to the first 6 after the middle distance section. Old maps NORT stage 1
• Tuesday June 22nd, Sweden. Knock-out sprint. Start Qualification 10:00 CET. Start Quarter-finals 13:00 CET. Start Semi-finals 18:30 CET. Start finals 19:30 CET 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. The quarter/semi/finals are mass-start events with 6-8 minute winning time. Note: There is no gaffling in the semi-final and final heats! The 6 runners in the final will get bonus seconds 120-90-70-60-55-50. All other runners in the semi/quarter finals also get bonus seconds, counting down to 1 second for the slowest time in the quarter finals. Old map qualification area NORT stage 2. Old map final area NORT stage 2
• Saturday June 26th, Norway. Prolonged middle chasing start. Start first woman 14:00 CET. Start first man 15:00 CET. 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 bonus seconds. Old map NORT stage 3

Useful links

• Nordic Orienteering Tour webpage
• Webpage of O-festivalen (third race of NORT 2010)
• NORT Bulletins

Prize money

Prize money for the overall results in NORT (both men and women):

• 1st spot: 6000 €
• 2nd spot: 2500€
• 3rd spot: 1500€
• 4th spot: 500€
• 5th spot: 500€
• 6th spot: 500€

For stage 1 and stage 2, there is 1000€ for the winner, 500€ for number two and 250€ for number three. For stage 3, there is 500€ for the fastest man and women of the day.

In total this gives 27500€ in prize money.

Note that several of the top runners skip the Nordic Orienteering Tour this year.

Success?

Do you think NORT 2010 will be a success? Do you like the NORT Program with focus on sprint/middle? Please add a comment below if you have any thoughts about NORT and its place in the future of the orienteering world.

LiveBlog

Some of the competitions in the Nordic Orienteering Tour will be covered through a LiveBlog.

<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=12b65c1ffa” mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=12b65c1ffa” >Nordic Orienteering Tour</a>