Frederic Tranchand and Minna Kauppi are only two of the 17 athletes who have been nominated for The Orienteering Achievement of 2010. 16 of the candidates have been nominated by an expert panel – the 17th nominee is the people’s wildcard chosen from the suggestions by the orienteering community.

In this edition of Orienteering Achievement of the Year we have asked the experts to nominate runners for the Orienteering Achievement of 2010: National Team trainers and other people with excellent knowledge of the orienteering scene have been asked to nominate their candidates for “The Orienteering Achievement of 2010″

• Radek Novotny, Czech National Team trainer
• Thomas Bührer, Swiss National Team trainer (until 2010)
• Janne Salmi, Finnish National Team trainer (until 2010)
• Kenneth Buch, Trainer of Halden SK (until 2010)
• Jørn Sundby, Orienteering speaker/expert

Have a look at the nominees the jury came up with – and the great achievement the athletes have been nominated for. Now it is up to you! Give your vote and please help spreading the news – and give all these great achievements by the worlds finest orienteers their deserved honor!

Who did the greatest achievements of 2010? Read their stories – and vote here:

• The Orienteering Achivement of 2010 – Men
• The Orienteering Achivement of 2010 – Women

Prizes for “Lucky voters”

Prizes will be drawn among the voters according to the following rules:

• A person can only vote once in each of the categories (if several people share one internet connection, only one can vote, as the IP address is used to identify the voter along with the email-address of the voter).
• The 14 great prizes from our sponsors will be drawn among all people voting. Sponsors and prizes have been announced on Monday November 29th.
• The winners will be made public after the poll closes and the winners have been presented at World of O and Ultimate Orienteering.

Note that in the vote for “The Orienteering Achievement of 2010″, the best achievement of the year is to be named – and not necessarily the best orienteer of 2010.

Spread the news

Help making the poll as representative for the international orienteering community as possible! Spread the news about the poll, by publishing an article about the election on your website, and encourage people participating. Please use this link:

• http://poll.worldofo.com/poll2010.html

Of all websites with on average more than 50 visitors/day who link to the poll after it has been opened for voting, five websites will be drawn who will get a free “Sponsored Link” at either World of O or Ultimate Orienteering. Websites with on average more than 200 visitors/day will count triple when linking to the poll. Send an email to Jan@Kocbach.net with the sites address if you want to be part of this draw for free sponsored links. Sponsored links may be to any orienteering related page or product – must not necessarily be the website drawn. All sites linking to the poll will be listed at the poll page.

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Main Sponsor: Trimtex

Trimtex Sport, based in Norway, is one of the main producers of orienteering sportswear. Since its foundation in 1976 with base in the orienteering market, Trimtex Sport has been producing sportswear with focus on unique colours and designs, for clubs and corporations. Today, Trimtex Sport is the proud maker of outstanding sportswear, which is carefully designed from top to bottom to fit the customer’s needs and specifications.

Trimtex Sport is, like last year, the main sponsor or The Orienteering Achievement 2010 election and they are generous to give the following prizes:

• Each of the two athletes winning “The Orienteering Achievement of the year” receive a Trimtex Speed o-shirt
• Among the Lucky voters, 1 Speed o-shirt, 3 Trimtex necks (buff) and 3 Vison LZR headbands will be drawn
• See the Trimtex webpage for more information about Trimtex

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Event sponsor: Fjord-o Arctic – Midnattsolgaloppen 2011

Fjord-o Arctic Midnattsolgaloppen is the biggest and most popular event which is regularly organized north of the polar circle. Fjord-o is known for its mix of interesting orienteering with wonderful nature between fjords and mountains. Fjord-o 2011 is organized from June 28th until July 1st 2011.

• Among the Lucky voters, 2 transferable starts for the complete Fjord-o Arctic – Midnattsolgaloppen 2011 will be drawn.
• See Fjord-o Arctic – Midnattsolgaloppen webpage for more information about the event

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Event sponsor: Kopaonik Open 2011

Kopaonik Open is held since 2001 on beautiful terrains in the national and tourist centre Kopaonik in Serbia. Kopaonik is the biggest mountain of central Serbia, spreading its wide mountain-ridge 83km long. Kopaonik is also called “Mountain of the Sun” – with almost 200 sunny days annually. Kopaonik Open 2011 is organized in Kopaonik from July 12th until July 17th 2011.

• Among the Lucky voters, 2 transferable packets for the complete Kopaonik Open 2011 will be drawn. The packet contains “Training, model event and 6 events Kopaonik Open, accommondation in apartments in Hotels in Turistic Center (from Monday 11.07 to Manday 18.07), provided guides for excursions and hiking tours, T-Shirt of competition”.
• See Kopaonik Open webpage for more information about the event

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Event sponsor: OOcup

OOCup is a popular Slovenian event which is famous for its interesting karst orienteering and great nature. OOCup 2011 is organized from July 22th until July 26th.

• Among the Lucky voters, 2 transferable starts for the complete OOCup 2011 will be drawn.
• See OOCup webpage for more information about the event

Event sponsor: Portugal O-meeting 2011

For the second time in its history, Grupo Desportivo dos Quatro Caminhos organizes Portugal “O” Meeting. The Portugal “O” Meeting is a foot orienteering event, counting for IOF’s World Ranking (IOF WRE) and for the Portuguese Orienteering Federation’s Cup, open to people of any age, that may participate in the competition or open classes, individually, or in a group.

Portugal “O” Meeting 2011 is organized in the surroundings of Portalegre from March 5th until March 8th 2011.

• Among the Lucky voters, one free transferable start for the Portugal “O” Meeting will be drawn.
• See the Portugal “O” Meeting webpage for more information about the event

Great prizes from Trimtex, OOCup, Portugal O-meeting, Kopaonik Open and Fjord-o Arctic Midnattsolgaloppen are to be won in “The Orienteering Achievement of 2010″. One of the events even offers a full package including accommodation as the prize! Read on to see more about the prizes and sponsors! Winners are drawn among all voters in “The Orienteering Achievement of 2010″.

Nominated runners will be presented tomorrow – Tuesday November 30th – and then it will also be possible to start voting for The Orienteering Achievement of 2010.

» Click here to go to the voting page
» See here for all info about The Orienteering Achievement of 2010

Main Sponsor: Trimtex

Trimtex Sport, based in Norway, is one of the main producers of orienteering sportswear. Since its foundation in 1976 with base in the orienteering market, Trimtex Sport has been producing sportswear with focus on unique colours and designs, for clubs and corporations. Today, Trimtex Sport is the proud maker of outstanding sportswear, which is carefully designed from top to bottom to fit the customer’s needs and specifications.

Trimtex Sport is, like last year, the main sponsor or The Orienteering Achievement 2010 election and they are generous to give the following prizes:

• Each of the two athletes winning “The Orienteering Achievement of the year” receive a Trimtex Speed o-shirt
• Among the Lucky voters, 1 Speed o-shirt, 3 Trimtex necks (buff) and 3 Vison LZR headbands will be drawn
• See the Trimtex webpage for more information about Trimtex

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Event sponsor: Fjord-o Arctic – Midnattsolgaloppen 2011

Fjord-o Arctic Midnattsolgaloppen is the biggest and most popular event which is regularly organized north of the polar circle. Fjord-o is known for its mix of interesting orienteering with wonderful nature between fjords and mountains. Fjord-o 2011 is organized from June 28th until July 1st 2011.

• Among the Lucky voters, 2 transferable starts for the complete Fjord-o Arctic – Midnattsolgaloppen 2011 will be drawn.
• See Fjord-o Arctic – Midnattsolgaloppen webpage for more information about the event

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Event sponsor: Kopaonik Open 2011

Kopaonik Open is held since 2001 on beautiful terrains in the national and tourist centre Kopaonik in Serbia. Kopaonik is the biggest mountain of central Serbia, spreading its wide mountain-ridge 83km long. Kopaonik is also called “Mountain of the Sun” – with almost 200 sunny days annually. Kopaonik Open 2011 is organized in Kopaonik from July 12th until July 17th 2011.

• Among the Lucky voters, 2 transferable packets for the complete Kopaonik Open 2011 will be drawn. The packet contains “Training, model event and 6 events Kopaonik Open, accommondation in apartments in Hotels in Turistic Center (from Monday 11.07 to Manday 18.07), provided guides for excursions and hiking tours, T-Shirt of competition”.
• See Kopaonik Open webpage for more information about the event

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Event sponsor: OOcup

OOCup is a popular Slovenian event which is famous for its interesting karst orienteering and great nature. OOCup 2011 is organized from July 22th until July 26th.

• Among the Lucky voters, 2 transferable starts for the complete OOCup 2011 will be drawn.
• See OOCup webpage for more information about the event

Event sponsor: Portugal O-meeting 2011

For the second time in its history, Grupo Desportivo dos Quatro Caminhos organizes Portugal “O” Meeting. The Portugal “O” Meeting is a foot orienteering event, counting for IOF’s World Ranking (IOF WRE) and for the Portuguese Orienteering Federation’s Cup, open to people of any age, that may participate in the competition or open classes, individually, or in a group.

Portugal “O” Meeting 2011 is organized in the surroundings of Portalegre from March 5th until March 8th 2011.

• Among the Lucky voters, one free transferable start for the Portugal “O” Meeting will be drawn.
• See the Portugal “O” Meeting webpage for more information about the event

Spread the news

Help making the poll as representative for the international orienteering community as possible! Spread the news about the poll, by publishing an article about the election on your website, and encourage people participating. Please use this link:

• http://poll.worldofo.com/poll2010.html (voting will be opened from here)

Of all websites with on average more than 50 visitors/day who link to the poll after it has been opened for voting, five websites will be drawn who will get a free “Sponsored Link” at either World of O or Ultimate Orienteering. Websites with on average more than 200 visitors/day will count triple when linking to the poll. Send an email to Jan@Kocbach.net with the sites address if you want to be part of this draw for free sponsored links. Sponsored links may be to any orienteering related page or product – must necessarily by the website drawn.

2010 has been another year full of great orienteering achievements – and as we now are moving towards 2011, it is again time to decide the greatest of achievements of the year. The annual poll to find the biggest Orienteering Achievements of the year is organized by two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering.

In this edition of Orienteering Achievement of the Year we have asked the experts to nominate runners for the Orienteering Achievement of 2010: National Team trainers and other people with excellent knowledge of the orienteering scene have been asked to nominate their candidates for “The Orienteering Achievement of 2010″:

• Radek Novotny, Czech National Team trainer
• Thomas Bührer, Swiss National Team trainer (until 2010)
• Janne Salmi, Finnish National Team trainer (until 2010)
• Kenneth Buch, Trainer of Halden SK (until 2010)
• Jørn Sundby, Orienteering speaker/expert

Based on these nominations, up to 10 men and 10 women are set up on the final list for the poll where YOU decide in a vote. In addition we leave one wild card for our readers based on suggestions (including reason for the nomination) to this post or the post at Ultimate Orienteering by Sunday November 28th 12:00 CET. A prize from our sponsors will be drawn those suggesting a candidate / participating in the discussions.

Note that in the vote for “The Orienteering Achievement of 2010″, the best achievement of the year is to be named – and not necessarily the best orienteer of 2010. Thus it is not necessarily the gold medalists who have done the greatest orienteering achievements. All nominees for the Orienteering Achievement of 2009 and 2008 can be found here. Note that only individual orienteers can be nominated – not group of orienteers.

The winners from the Orienteering Achievement of 2009 were Daniel Hubmann and Simone Niggli. Help decide who will win “The Orienteering Achievement of 2010″.

Timetable

On November 30th, all nominees will be presented at World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. The winner is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering between Tuesday November 30th and Monday December 6th. The winners will be announced December 9th. The following categories are included in The Orienteering Achievement of 2010:

• The Orienteering Achivement of 2010 – Men
• The Orienteering Achivement of 2010 – Women

Prizes for “Lucky voters”

Prizes will be drawn among the voters:

1. A person can only vote once in each of the categories (if several people share one internet connection, only one can vote, as the IP address is used to identify the voter along with the email-address of the voter).
2. Prizes from our sponsors will be drawn among all people voting. Sponsors and prizes will be announced on Monday November 29th.
3. The winners will be made public after the poll closes and the winners have been presented at World of O and Ultimate Orienteering.

Sponsors

A full sponsor presentation will be given on November 29th. We have the following sponsors who will provide prizes for lucky voters and for the winners of “The Orienteering Achievement of 2010″:

• Main sponsor: Trimtex
• OOcup 2011
• Midnattsolgaloppen 2011
• Kopaonik Open 2011
• Portugal O-meeting 2011

Spread the news

Help making the poll as representative for the international orienteering community as possible! Spread the news about the poll, by publishing an article about the election on your website, and encourage people participating. Please use this link:

• http://poll.worldofo.com/poll2010.html (voting will be opened from here)

Of all websites with on average more than 50 visitors/day who link to the poll after it has been opened for voting, five websites will be drawn who will get a free “Sponsored Link” at either World of O or Ultimate Orienteering. Websites with on average more than 200 visitors/day will count triple when linking to the poll. Send an email to Jan@Kocbach.net with the sites address if you want to be part of this draw for free sponsored links. Sponsored links may be to any orienteering related page or product – must necessarily by the website drawn.

- The courses for the Jukola Relay are as difficult as we could make them, the course planner Ari Kattainen said an hour before the start of the men’s relay. For Kattainen, the greatest challenge in the course planning was to have the self-restraint to make the legs short enough. – The legs are [now] two kilometres shorter than in any other Jukola for the past thirty years.

With nearly twice as many points as number two on the list, Jukola was a very clear winner in “The Course of the Year 2010″.

Congratulations go to the course planner Ari Kattainen who managed to set challenging courses with real forest orienteering while adhering to a lot of restrictions for the gigantic Finnish relay.

Read on below for the top 10 list in “Course of the Year 2010″ – along with some goodies from the Jukola relay.

Prizes from our sponsors

The course planner Ari Kattainen receives a Trimtex Dynamic TX Jacket as a prize from our sponsor Trimtex. We plan to come back with an interview with Ari Kattainen.

Jukola 2010 has been one of the most popular courses among the WorldofO.com readers – first suggested by Alex L who receives a Trimtex Run Ventzone LZR Long Tights as a prize from our sponsor Trimtex. Jukola was since suggested by several others like Audun Weltzien, Maxime Gauduin, Olav Lundanes (as choice number two) and Thierry Gueorgiou (as choice number two).

In addition we have drawn the following prizes among the ones suggesting courses and voting:

• A voucher for a 2011 Sun-O Camp, value of 150 Euro (transferable to another person) goes to Helen Palmer for her suggestions and to Bjarne Christensen for his vote.
• Trimtex Necks go to Gurvas and Michael Wood for their suggestions, and Hannibal and Lukas Frei for their votes.
• Trimtex Vision LZR headbands go to Matija Razum for his suggestion via news.worldofo.com, Aron Less who suggested a course through the WorldofO.com Facebook page, and Jacek Morawski and Harald Storrønning for their votes.

All winners will receive an email in which they are asked to provide their postal address.

Overall results: The Course of the Year 2010

We got three tough long distance races on the top of the list for “The Course of the Year 2010″ – maybe because a long course gives more possibilities for varied challenges than a shorter course? It is at least a signal to all organizers that you should not let the long distance format dye – there are many fans of the long distance out there! The final Top 10-list for “The course of the Year 2010″:

1. Jukola 2010 17220 points
2. Norwegian Champs Long H21 2010 8920 points
3. World Cup France 2010, W21 8370 points
4. Portugal “O” Meeting 2010 – Day 3 7030 points
5. Finnish Champs Middle 2010 – Final 5990 points
6. NAOM Day1 long 5820 points
7. OTomne en Savoie Day 1 5190 points
8. EYOC 2010 Long 4540 points
9. JWOC 2010 Sprint – M20 with routes 3970 points
10. Temptation Island 3870 points

Jukola 2010: The race

Links to the map and coverage of the race:

• Here is for example the first leg in GPSSeuranta – but there are more than 50 maps from Jukola 2010 in omaps.worldofo.com – see for example here and here.
• Full event coverage of Jukola 2010 at WorldofO.com – including link to all maps, discussion of the decisive moments, possibility to replay the LiveBlog, and so on.

Selected legs from the Jukola relay 2010

Below you see some selected legs from the Jukola relay. For each leg, the fastest runner from the GPS-tracking along different routes is chosen – and the runners are compared by connecting points at the routes at which the runners have used the same time.

Leg 1, control 13-14

Of the runners compared, the direct route is the faster one. In the right route, it is the part in the green just ahead of the lake which is slower. Note also that it is significantly faster in the marsh north of the lake compared to at the south edge of the lake. The runner on the northern route looses time when climbing the hill in last half of the leg.

Leg 3, control 6-7

The southern route is more hilly – it seems like this is the reason for it being slower. Note that this is night orienteering.

Leg 3, control 9-10

Feel free to discuss the remaining legs in the comments – it is getting too late at night for the author of this article now…

Leg 7, control 17-18

Leg 7, control 19-20

Leg 7, control 20-21

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,  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

Prizes from our Sponsors

Prizes from our Sponsors always makes it more fun! There will be a prize for the course setter in “The course of the Year 2010″, a price for the first one suggesting the course which ends up becoming “The course of the Year 2010″, and finally prizes drawn among all suggesting and voting.

Sponsors for “The course of the Year 2010″:

• Trimtex sponsors “The course of the year 2010″ with 10 prizes. Trimtex Sport make technical team wear for athletes in clubs and companies. Trimtex’s products are world-leading within function, design and quality, whether it’s for cycling, running, skiing or orienteering.
• sun-o.com sponsors “The course of the year 2010″ with a voucher for a 2011 Sun-O Camp, value of 150 Euro. Sun-o offers orienteering travel-packages in Spain and Portugal, combining high quality terrains and varied O-maps, in regions with rich culture and sunny climate – organizing your O-holidays from from start to finish.
  
• For the record: All sponsor gifts/income related to “The Best Course of 2010″ goes directly to the WorldofO.com readers.

We are moving up to number two in the course of the year 2010 competition, and find yet another long distance race. There are fewer and fewer long distance races on the international calendar – but these races are still the ones the orienteering community long for. Number two in “The Course of the Year 2010″ is the Norwegian Champs Long distance (first suggested by Bjørn and since suggested by several others).

- I think [the best course of 2010] must be the Norwegian Championships Long distance. Challenging technical in the start which gave few possibilities to plan routes ahead, World Champion on the long distance Olav Lundanes answered when asked about his favourite course this year. The course didn’t make it all the way to the top – but a second place is still a very good confirmation for course setter Tore Sandvik that he has done a lot of things right here.

Three different types of terrain

- The course had both long and short routechoice legs with a lot of possibilities. It is not often that the medal winners run this differently. The course did also have three different types of terrain, which gave many differences in the o-technique one had to apply – and constant challenges, Lundanes continued in his description of the terrain in the interview with World of O ahead of “The course of the Year 2010″.

Links to the map and coverage of the race:

• Map in GPSSeuranta available here
• Route choice analysis available over at o-training.net

Overall standings

The voting for “The course of the Year 2010″ finished two days ago- now the top 3 courses are presented one each day until the winner is revealed on Thursday along with the complete list.

1. Revealed November 25th 2010
2. Norwegian Champs Long 2010, 8920 points
3. World Cup France 2010, 8370 points

Analysis

I have already made a routechoice analysis of the course over at o-training.net, but to make the day a little bit more interesting for you, I have remade some of the legs using a different visualization technique. In these illustrations, lines connect points at which the runners have used the same time from the start of the leg (Note! Split-times are approximate taken from GPS-data and not from split times – usually off by some seconds). You might want to have the complete map handy while looking at the illustrations. For the analysis, I suggest visiting o-training.net.

Prizes from our Sponsors

Prizes from our Sponsors always makes it more fun! There will be a prize for the course setter in “The course of the Year 2010″, a price for the first one suggesting the course which ends up becoming “The course of the Year 2010″, and finally prizes drawn among all suggesting and voting.

Sponsors for “The course of the Year 2010″:

• Trimtex sponsors “The course of the year 2010″ with 10 prizes. More information about the prizes to come. Trimtex Sport make technical team wear for athletes in clubs and companies. Trimtex’s products are world-leading within function, design and quality, whether it’s for cycling, running, skiing or orienteering.
• sun-o.com sponsors “The course of the year 2010″ with a voucher for a 2011 Sun-O Camp, value of 150 Euro. Sun-o offers orienteering travel-packages in Spain and Portugal, combining high quality terrains and varied O-maps, in regions with rich culture and sunny climate – organizing your O-holidays from from start to finish.
  
• For the record: All sponsor gifts/income related to “The Best Course of 2010″ goes directly to the WorldofO.com readers.

– Maybe the best course I have ever run, was the comment from a very tired reigning World Champion Olav Lundanes after the race. – This is the kind of courses I long for all the year, he continued. The readers of World of O have voted the course to be the third best course in 2010 – we are of course talking about the World Cup race in France in the Annecy region this October (see map above).

Links to the map and coverage of the race:

• Map World Cup Final 2010 Women (and mens course)
• Article about the race at WorldofO.com – including comments from Thierry Gueorgiou and Olav Lundanes

The voting for “The course of the Year 2010″ finished yesterday – now the top 3 courses are presented one each day until the winner is revealed on Thursday along with the complete list.

1. Revealed November 25th 2010
2. Revealed November 24th 2010
3. World Cup France 2010, 8370 points

The courses at the World Cup races in France were tricky, but still had several interesting route choice legs.

Example leg: W21 control 12-13

Below you see the route choice leg from 12 to 13 in the womens course. The fastest one on three of the main alternative routes (of the runners with GPS tracking) is shown – runners are Simone Niggli, Sara Lüscher and Lena Eliasson. The positions at which the runners have used the same time for the leg are connected (kind of a “contour plot”), in order to show the development on the leg. From the illustration it is clearly seen how all runners have the same speed for the two first minutes, but then Niggli increases her speed for the next few minutes down the track – and also chooses the best route in the last part of the leg. You can see the complete course in GPS replay here. There was also an option to go even more right, but that option was even slower than the ones shown here.

Another interesting way to compare the routes of Niggli and Eliasson is to draw a line between their routes every second, to see how they move along the routes relatively to each other. Expect to see more of these types of illustrations in Route to Christmas starting early in December.

Prizes from our Sponsors

Prizes from our Sponsors always makes it more fun! There will be a prize for the course setter in “The course of the Year 2010″, a price for the first one suggesting the course which ends up becoming “The course of the Year 2010″, and finally prizes drawn among all suggesting and voting.

Sponsors for “The course of the Year 2010″:

• Trimtex sponsors “The course of the year 2010″ with 10 prizes. More information about the prizes to come. Trimtex Sport make technical team wear for athletes in clubs and companies. Trimtex’s products are world-leading within function, design and quality, whether it’s for cycling, running, skiing or orienteering.
• sun-o.com sponsors “The course of the year 2010″ with a voucher for a 2011 Sun-O Camp, value of 150 Euro. Sun-o offers orienteering travel-packages in Spain and Portugal, combining high quality terrains and varied O-maps, in regions with rich culture and sunny climate – organizing your O-holidays from from start to finish.
  
• For the record: All sponsor gifts/income related to “The Best Course of 2010″ goes directly to the WorldofO.com readers.

With 4 days left to vote – the following are still in the Top 10 and fighting for the title “The Course of the Year 2010″ (randomized order): World Cup Final in France, the Norwegian Champs Long, OTomne en Savoie, WOC Long Final, EYOC Long, Jukola, Finnish Champs Middle Final, JWOC Sprint Final, WOC Sprint Qual and Temptation Island. If you have not yet votes – do so today!

By voting you can influence who wins “The Course of the Year 2010″ – and as a bonus win great prizes from our sponsors Trimtex and sun-o.com (see below). The last chance to vote is Monday November 22nd – submit your vote already today!

• Vote for “The Course of the Year 2010″ here.

Voting is done by setting up your “Top 5 List” based on the 60 nominated maps. Based on all the submitted “Top 5 Lists”, the best course in 2010 is found using a simple forumla: For each 1st spot in a “Top 5 List”, a course gets 100 points, 70 points for each 2nd spot, 50 points for each 3rd spot, 30 points for each 4th spot and 10 points for each 5th spot.

Top 10 after 4 days in randomized order

Overall Top 10: World Cup France 2010, W21

Overall Top 10: Norwegian Champs Long H21 2010

Overall Top 10: OTomne en Savoie Day 1

Overall Top 10: WOC 2010 Long Final Men

Overall Top 10: EYOC 2010 Long

Overall Top 10: Jukola 2010

Overall Top 10: Finnish Champs Middle 2010 – Final

Overall Top 10: JWOC 2010 Sprint – M20 with routes

Overall Top 10: WC Final Sprint 2010 – Men Part 1

Overall Top 10: Temptation Island

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Rules

The following are the rules for the voting in “The course of the Year 2010″:

1. The ‘Course of the Year 2010′ will be found based on summing all the votes. For each course being set on the top of a ‘Top 5 List’, 100 points are awarded to this course. For each course being set as number 2, 70 points are awarded, and so on with 50, 30 and 10 points for the next spots on the list down to number 5.
2. You are only allowed to vote once (if several people share one internet connection, only one can vote, as the IP address is used to identify the voter along with the email-address of the voter).
3. Among all people voting and submitting suggestions, a minimum of 10 prizes from our sponsors will be drawn. See below for the prizes.

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Prizes from our Sponsors

Prizes from our Sponsors always makes it more fun! There will be a prize for the course setter in “The course of the Year 2010″, a price for the first one suggesting the course which ends up becoming “The course of the Year 2010″, and finally prizes drawn among all suggesting and voting.

Sponsors for “The course of the Year 2010″:

1. Trimtex sponsors “The course of the year 2010″ with 10 prizes. More information about the prizes to come. Trimtex Sport make technical team wear for athletes in clubs and companies. Trimtex’s products are world-leading within function, design and quality, whether it’s for cycling, running, skiing or orienteering.
2. sun-o.com sponsors “The course of the year 2010″ with a voucher for a 2011 Sun-O Camp, value of 150 Euro. Sun-o offers orienteering travel-packages in Spain and Portugal, combining high quality terrains and varied O-maps, in regions with rich culture and sunny climate – organizing your O-holidays from from start to finish.

   

3. For the record: All sponsor gifts/income related to “The Best Course of 2010″ goes directly to the WorldofO.com readers.