Road to WOC: Russia (with maps)

The Russian WOC selection process is quite different from what you see in many of the other top orienteering countries in the world. The selection races were held in Priozersk near Sankt-Petersburg July 2nd-July 6th a few weeks ago (see map from the long distance above), but 3 of 6 men were selected already ahead of the selection races. Thanks a lot to Mikhail Vinogradov for providing me with the information.

The Russian National team members have only had one training camp in Trondheim – in the beginning of May 2010. Several athletes from the Russian National team were in a training camp in Trondheim from May 2nd until May 8th (Tsvetkov Dima, Novikov Leonid, Novikov Valya, Khramov Andrey, Sitdikova Alia, Nuberg Ira, Vinogradova Julya Novikova Julya and Vinogradova Galya).

– Unfortunately the Russians athletes had only one training camp in Norway because there are no financing from the government for such training camps. This training camp was financing mostly by Scandinavian clubs or from personal incomes, Mikhail Vinogradov explains.

Still, the Russians count to the favorites in most disciplines in Trondheim – especially among the men where Andrey Khramov has now taken a gold medal in each of the last 5 World Championships. Can he take his 6th in a row? Also, Valentin Novikov is the middle distance champion from Bulgaria earlier this year. It would be a surprise if Russia would leave Trondheim without medals – but can they manage a Gold medal?

Maps from the selection races

The selection races consisted of one sprint, one long distance and one middle distance – all eld in Priozersk near Sankt-Petersburg July 2nd-July 6th (Russia Cup competition). Although there are many marshes in the terrain, it is quite different from what the athletes will meet in Trondheim this August. Here are the maps from the selection races:

• Map Long Men (routegadget) and route of Alexander Minakov (see also PDF-file with mens map and PDF-file with womens map)
• Map Middle Men (routegadget) and route of Alexander Minakov (see also PDF-file with both men and womens map)
• Map Sprint Men (route of Alexander Minakov) (see also PDF-file with both men and womens maps)

The sprint was a forest sprint only without qualification race, because in the last moment the local authorities said that they were not allowed to organize a city sprint in the museum area.

WOC team

WOC Entry

Selection criteria and selections

These are the principles of selection of athletes to the World Championships 2010:

1. Only 6 women and 6 men would be included to WOC team.
2. Andrey Khramov is a current WOC-champion in sprint. He was included to WOC team without selection.
3. Athletes from 1-6 places in EOC-2010 in individual races would be included to WOC team (in fact, Valentin Novikov – middle distance EOC-champion and Alexey Bortnik 5 place in middle distance).
4. Winners and silver medal winners from Russian selection races would be included next (See below).
5. One athlete may be included to WOC team on decision from Russian Orienteering Federation – without selection.
6. The rest of the athletes would be included to the WOC delegation if there sum of points from the two best selection races would be the maximum. The calculation formula is: Points from one race = (2 – Time of athlete/Time of winner).

Results Sprint

Results Middle

Results Long

Russian WOC selection basis

Team officials:
1. Vinogradov Mikhail.
2. Guriev Igor.
3. Kuzmin Alexey.
4. Merzin Alexandr.
5. Anders Mårtensson.
6. Anders Benson.