Thierry Gueorgiou gives two alternatives when interviewed about the course of the year 2010. The first is a race in Finland this September – the tricky Finnish short distance championships in Orimattila. – That was a real hit! I was already in trouble after just 300 meters, Gueorgiou comments. The second one was barely 300 meters long – and thus meant less trouble for the “King of Middle distance”.

When asked about what defines a good course for him, Gueorgiou focuses on technical challenges. – In general, a good course, for me, is a course where I realize that I need to develop my technique, and get even more passionate for this sport.

Read on to see the personal picks of Gueorgiou, and to read the complete interview.

“The Course of the Year 2010″

WorldofO.com has interviewed Thierry Gueorgiou for “The Course of the Year 2010″ – you can read more about “The Course of the Year 2010″ here, including all the suggestions by WorldofO.com readers – and also suggest your own courses and win great prizes by Trimtex and sun-o.com (more info about prizes and sponsors below the interview).

Interview with Thierry Gueorgiou

Thanks a lot to Thierry Gueorgiou who took the time to give long answers to the questions for “The Course of the Year 2010″ – and send over several maps and pictures.

Q: What was the best course you run in 2010 – and why?
Finnish middle distance championship in Orimattila, last September. That was a real hit! I was already in trouble after just 300 meters. I was always under a great pressure during the race to make a clear picture of the whole leg (lot of micro-routes). [See the map here (routegadget) and winner Kim Fagerudd's route here - in miniature at the top of this page. This course has already been suggested for the course of the year previously].

I also enjoyed much Jukola this year (map). It is just amazing to realize that it is possible to gather about 11.000 orienteers and still offer real orienteering from start to finish.

But, maybe, the greatest course of this year was a quite remote one, held in famous Peguerinos rocky terrain (Madrid). That was during Easter Monday, with Amelie Chataing and Philippe Adamski. We organized two competitions where there were chocolate eggs at control places in tricky terrain with “home-made map” (on Iphone, as we had no printer)…

[The article continues below the maps and pictures]

Q: What is the worst course you run in 2010?
Well, it is not so easy to pick one, because it is always hard to be unbiased as your performance has an influence on your judgment. But I would say that almost all the middle distances (or mixed middle like in NORT) of the World Cup season (including WOC) were quite frustrating. But if we look at it, the real problem wasn’t especially the course itself, but more the choice of the terrain (which is, for me, part of the course setting. The course setter should still have the power to say, despite other constraints: “sorry, this terrain isn’t made for international competitions”). I am still amazed that the WOC-organizers had to arrange fake forbidden areas to create route-choices…

Q: What is the best course you have run ever – if you must pick one from the top of your head?
Hopefully, I have been running many good ones. But, maybe, the one I remember most, is Finnish Long distance Champs 2003, in Juuka – pure Finnish forest, with real orienteering from A to Z (I have been running max. 500 meters of the 14.400 km on a track – see map with route and map without route). That’s the only map (along with NOM 84 – Aursfjord-Hamnvag in North Norway – map here) which hangs on my wall at my home.

[Read on below the map samples]

Q: Are the courses generally getting better, worse or staying on a level?
This is again hard to say, because of the “bitter old man” syndrome. But I can’t see how the arena concept used over the last years has been improving the course setting in general. It is often that starting from the arena or having spectator controls means not having the possibility to use all the good areas of the terrain or create longer legs.

But in the World Championships this year, it was funny to realize that people where seated in front of the giant screen, without looking at the runner passing just some meters from them. Hopefully in the future, the cameras in the forest will offer the same quality of the show without destroying the courses.

Q: What are the most important ingredients in a course in order for it to be a good course – in your opinion?
First I think it is about getting the best from the terrain (I still can’t figure out if it is better to have a good setting on a poor terrain or to have a bad course on a great terrain…). And then it comes to variety and fairness (especially in a relay). But in general, a good course, for me, is a course where I realize that I need to develop my technique, and get even more passionate for this sport.

Q: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2011?
My main goal in 2011 will be, of course, to win our next Easter Monday competition… and I will prepare for this as never before!

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.

- Places where a lot of you competitors run as fast as they want, but where they should not have. This is one of the most important ingredients in a good course according to Anders Tiltnes, who has been interviewed by WorldofO.com for “The Course of the Year 2010″.

Read on to see which course Tiltnes choose as his favourite this year – and why.

“The Course of the Year 2010″

WorldofO.com has interviewed Anders Tiltnes for “The Course of the Year 2010″ – you can read more about “The Course of the Year 2010″ here, including all the suggestions by WorldofO.com readers – and also suggest your own courses and win great prizes by Trimtex and sun-o.com (more info about prizes and sponsors below the interview).

Interview with Anders Tiltnes

Thanks a lot to Anders Tiltnes who took the time to answer a few questions for “The Course of the Year 2010″.

Q: What was the best course you run in 2010 – and why?
Blodslitet 16th of October 2010 (map available here – see also at the top of the article). Because it was a race I had as a goal to win. I knew I didn’t have a chance, but I really tried. It was special for me because I actually managed to come 2nd, and outsprint great runners like Lukasen, Winstedt and Haldin on the last 5km of the long course. It was also special because I became really demotivated during the race, but when I got tired I decided to run as fast as I could for a period. It was fun, and I kept running until the finish line!

Q: What is the worst course you run in 2010?
I don’t remember really, but I’m sure must have been a sprint-race. There are so many bad sprint-races. In my mind the sprint-discipline can be very challengig and fun! But it requires so much from the terrain and the organizer. In real orientering with a good terrain it is a great thing to do in life – no matter what the course-setter do with the courses. In sprint, he has to think through things to be able to deliver a good competition to his athletes. In particluar, I remember a sprint organized by Lillomarka OL (Editors remark: probably this course). We were cut off with 2,4km because of a map-scale problem. A good friend of mine drove 90minutes to run 8minutes! That was a real catastrophic race. It was actually quite sad, because Oslo City Cup, a spring sprint-cup in Oslo, really has the potential to be one of Oslo’s, and maybe Norway’s biggest races – but the organizer “threw it away” with mistakes like this. I really hope they come together and make something better next year:)

Q: What is the best course you have run ever – if you must pick one from the top of your head?
It must be one of Jørn Sundbys night-o courses. He is making this really though and challengig night-o race each October in Oslo. For me these races are actually one of my biggest challenges as an orienteer after they stopped organizing Norwegian Championships in night-orienteering (its now called mass-start with reading-lights). Everything else is easypeasy after a night in the forest together with J.Sundbys course-setting! (See map here with routechoice of Anders Øksenholt).

Q: Are the courses generally getting better, worse or staying on a level?
I think its staying more or less at the same level, but we have a lot more really terrible courses now. But it is more because of bad finish-areas and public-controls which not always are needed, than a problem of the actual courses. Orienteering should be done in the forest. Give us GPSes and drive us as far away as possible! Asphalt is not the new mud ;)

Q: What is the most important ingredients in a course in order for it to be a good course – in your opinion?
One long leg, some short legs, places where you can run as fast as you want, and places where a lot of you competitors run as fast as they want, but where they should not have ;)

Q: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2011?
My goals for the upcoming season is to become 1 minute faster at an 3km sprint-race. Norways national coach thinks the way to do it is to do as much technical training as possible. I don’t ;)

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.

Surprisingly, the course which gave her World Champs Gold medal is also the biggest disappointment of the year for Minna Kauppi. The worst course of the year according to Kauppi? The WOC Middle distance. – I quess the biggest disappointment was the World Champs in middle distance, Kauppi says in this interview with WorldofO.com in relation with the Course of the Year 2010.

However, the final in the Finnish o-league Huippuliiga is proof that you can make many compromises and still make a course which the top runners are satisfied with. Minna Kauppi chooses a Finnish event which has not yet been suggested as her candidate for the course of the year 2010. – It was just really demanding and still nice to run, she says about the final race of the Finnish o-league Huippuliiga. – I’m not sure if the course setting was the best possible as the course setter always has to think of cameras as well, but the terrain and the nature of the competition was cool (see map above).

“The Course of the Year 2010″

WorldofO.com has interviewed Minna Kauppi for “The Course of the Year 2010″ – you can read more about “The Course of the Year 2010″ here, including all the suggestions by WorldofO.com readers – and also suggest your own courses and win great prizes by Trimtex and sun-o.com (more info about prizes and sponsors below the interview).

Interview with Minna Kauppi

Thanks a lot to Minna Kauppi who took the time to answer a few questions for “The Course of the Year 2010″.

Q: What was the best course you run in 2010 – and why?
I choose the final in the Finnish o-league Huippuliiga (map is available here) which was held as a chasing start according to the prologue’s results. It was just really demanding and still nice to run. Besides, I managed to do quite nice job there. I’m not sure if the course setting was the best possible as the course setter always has to think of cameras as well, but the terrain and the nature of the competition was cool.

Q: What is the worst course you run in 2010?
I quess the biggest disappointment was the World Champs in middle distance (see map here). I quess I don’t have explain…

Q: What is the best course you have run ever – if you must pick one from the top of your head?
Well, the biggest memories and feelings I’ve ever got in a World Championships was in the middle distance in Czechs (see map from mens course here – see also headcam-video from the womens course – it got completely dark in the end, though). I think it was great that no-one had a map from there before, and the course was really demanding , too.

Q: Are the courses generally getting better, worse or staying on a level?
It varies. I think the sprint courses are just getting better, but I’m afraid that the real stuff is suffering from all the public controls, butterflies and so on.

Q: What is the most important ingredients in a course in order for it to be a good course – in your opinion?
Terrain makes a good competition, of course. But I also think that there should be different kinds of challenges during the course. Not just short legs, but not just long ones either. A mixture of route choices and detailed control taking in a great forest is a dream come true.

Q: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2011?
My goals are to improve my orienteering from year to year and maybe finally reach a stable level in all the distances. However, this winter goes in terms of studying which will have an effect on my training. But I have already noticed that it will be really good for my motivation. This better motivation will definitely give extra power to make the important trainings even more effectively.

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.

Norwegian Orienteering has its annual weekend of orienteering focused seminars this weekend – Storsamlingen 2010 – including the O-Galla in the evening where Norwegian Orienteering will celebrate itself and hand out 12 prizes for those who have done most for Norwegian Orienteering the last year. I have put up a LiveBlog where I will post my notes and ideas from the seminars.

Thus, this is more for note taking than a LiveBlog – but you still might be able to pick up some ideas here. That is the thought behind the seminars anyway.

Some useful links:

• All about “Storsamlingen 2010″ (Norwegian) text
• Detailed seminar program.
• All Tweets with hashtag #storsamling2010 or #ogalla2010 will get directly into the LiveBlog.
• Mobile version

Note! I might mix Norwegian and English in my notes/comments. Please add your own comments/ideas – especially if you are present.

- The area is just great, demanding both physical and even more technical, the reigning World Champion on the Sprint distance tells WorldofO.com when asked about the best course he run in 2010. The competition in question is the Swiss long distance championships held at the map Got Grond in August this year. – Well, I performed quite bad in that competition, but anyway, this was for me the best competition in 2010, Müller comments.

“The Course of the Year 2010″

WorldofO.com has interviewed Matthias Müller for “The Course of the Year 2010″ – you can read more about “The Course of the Year 2010″ here, including all the suggestions by WorldofO.com readers – and also suggest your own courses and win great prizes by Trimtex and sun-o.com (more info about prizes and sponsors below the interview).

Interview with Matthias Müller

Thanks a lot to Matthias Müller who took the time to answer a few questions for “The Course of the Year 2010″.

Q: What was the best course you run in 2010 – and why?
The Swiss long distance championships. The area is just great, demanding both physical and even more technical. The course was very varied between short difficult legs and routechoices. Well, I performed quite bad in that competition, but anyway, this was for me the best competition in 2010. [Editors comment: See map with route of Dani Z here - small version of the map included at the top of this page].

Q: What is the worst course you run in 2010?
That was a middle distance training in France this autumn. It was cold, foggy and rainy. And I made many mistakes, sometimes because of my fault but often because the map was so terribly bad. During the race, I got quite angry and demotivated. Superman had 40 minutes, the winner 51 minutes, and I had 54 minutes. As I remember the times went up to 70 minutes… Once we all were dry and warm again, it was great fun to tell all the stories about that session! (Map available here – read more about the training camp at the website of Müller)

Q: What is the best course you have run ever – if you must pick one from the top of your head?
Last year in November in Trondheim in Nordmarka, frozen marshes, blue sky above and fog below me. That was amazing! [Editors comment: The Nordmarka map is available here with a course run by Francois Gonon from the Norwegian Champs 2001].

Q: Are the courses generally getting better, worse or staying on a level?
The courses I ran this season were all good! I see a trend to more controls, if that is good or bad? I don’t know, sometimes I think it could be better to let some of the controls away to find some more long legs and routechoices.

Q: What is the most important ingredients in a course in order for it to be a good course – in your opinion?
The course should change in it’s difficulty. A runner should never feel safe and get bored. I think that it is more challenging to have 10 easy controls + 5 difficult controls than 15 difficult controls. With 15 difficult ones you get used to it and know how to master it, but if you have the chance to go full speed sometimes it’s difficult to find the challenging ones inbetween. Variety is the key to a good course!

Q: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2011?
I would like to compete on the same level as I did in 2010 and fight for top ranks in the big competitons. I have to work on my concentration over longdistance races to decrease the failurerate and become competitve also in that distance. Since I’ll stay in sweden one more winter I’ll do things more or less the same as last season.

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.

- The most fun competition I’ve [ever] run was the city orienteering in Venice. I had to be very concentrated to keep in contact with the map and all small alleys, Emil Wingstedt answers when asked about the best course he has ever run.

For “The Course of the Year 2010″ Wingstedt gives another vote to the Norwegian Champs Long distance – as suggested by Lundanes yesterday and first by Bjørn the first day the course of the year 2010 competition was made public – later repeated by Helen Palmer and Audun Weltzien. Read on to read all of the interview with Wingstedt.

“The Course of the Year 2010″

WorldofO.com has interviewed Emil Wingstedt for “The Course of the Year 2010″ – you can read more about “The Course of the Year 2010″ here, including all the suggestions by WorldofO.com readers – and also suggest your own courses and win great prizes by Trimtex and sun-o.com (more info about prizes and sponsors below the interview).

Interview with Emil Wingstedt

Thanks a lot to Emil Wingstedt who took the time to answer a few questions for “The Course of the Year 2010″.

Q: What was the best course you run in 2010 – and why?
The best course I ran was Norwegian champs long distance [Editors comment: Map is available here. This is also the same course as Olav Lundanes picked as his favourite in 2010 - more about that in this article). Non-typical Norwegian continental terrain with hilly, steep slopes interchanged with flat areas with detailed contours. The course challenged all of your technical abilities. Most of the legs had several different route or micro route choices. Course setter Tore Sandvik.

Q: What is the worst course you run in 2010?
The WOC relay first leg. You expect more from a world champs course than only two forked controls (both on the first half of the course) and long legs where the different routes were equal. And a large part of the course was run on tracks. There are so many extremely nice and challenging terrains around Trondheim. Just a pity that they are not surrounding Granåsen. [Editors comment: Again the same choice as Olav Lundanes. Map is available here.]

Q: What is the best course you have run ever – if you must pick one from the top of your head?
The most fun competition I’ve run was the city orienteering in Venice. I had to be very concentrated to keep in contact with the map and all small alleys. After the run I couldn’t remember my route choices.
[Editors comment: Map from Venezia city orienteering 2009 from Øystein Kvaal Østerbø available here].

Another good course was the Swedish long distance champs last year outside Strömstad. Only a few kilometres from Halden where my grandfather grew up. It’s seldom that you get a real long distance course with many long legs and few controls. Course setter Göran Olsson. [Editors comment: Map with course available here with route of Jan Troeng].

Q: Are the courses generally getting better, worse or staying on a level?
There are fewer competitions held in good orienteering terrain. Unfortunately terrains around cities and “good” arenas are usually not challenging, no matter how good course you plan. In that respect I guess the courses are getting worse.

Q: What is the most important ingredients in a course in order for it to be a good course – in your opinion?
That the course test your technical ability. That you never can relax but have to be fully concentrated. The terrain should also be nice.

Q: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2011?
My goals for next year are the big relays. Individually I’ll run competitions I enjoy and I hope to be competitive at national level.

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.

As an elite orienteer in 2010, you seldom get the chance to run a championships race in completely unknown terrain. This is something many of today’s elite orienteers envy the top runners of 20-30 years ago. At the Norwegian Champs Long distance this year, Olav Lundanes got this chance, a fact was a part of why Lundanes choose this course as his candidate for “The Course of the Year 2010″. – That the terrain was completely unknown ahead of the race did also give some extra spice to the course.

On the other end of the scale, Lundanes has strong opinions regarding the qualities of the World Champs relay course. – The last loop is tragic for the orienteering sport, but it was actually really surprising, this years World Champion in the long distance comments. – Because among the hundreds of last loops I had drawn on the map or considered ahead of the race, there were none that were similar to the course we actually got in our hands. I had not imagined that the third last control should be a ski track crossing.

Read on below to read all of the interview – including Lundanes’s take on what he sees in a good course (pick up some tips for your course setter job next year) and how he will prepare in order to repeat the World Champion title of 2010 in France.

“The Course of the Year 2010″

WorldofO.com has interviewed Olav Lundanes for “The Course of the Year 2010″ – you can read more about “The Course of the Year 2010″ here, including all the suggestions by WorldofO.com readers – and also suggest your own courses and win great prizes by Trimtex and sun-o.com (more info about prizes and sponsors below the interview).

Interview with Olav Lundanes

Thanks a lot to Olav Lundanes who took the time to answer a few questions for “The Course of the Year 2010″.

Q: What was the best course you run in 2010 – and why?
It is difficult to choose the best course I have run this year, but I think it must be the Norwegian Championships Long distance. Challenging technical in the start which gave few possibilities to plan routes. ahead. 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. It has also been a long time since I did this big a mistake on the routechoice in the end of a course. That the terrain was completely unknown ahead of the race did also give some extra spice to the course. Map is available here (see also miniature of the map at the top of this page). [Editors comment: There is also a routechoice analysis of the course available at o-training.net.]

I also want to highlight Jukola, even if I was supposed to choose only one race. We don’t often get a close to complete long distance course on a relay. A course with constant challenges and good long legs, with big differences. The contrast to NORT [Nordic Orienteering Tour] organized before and after Jukola made the Jukola experience even greater. Map is available here.

Q: What is the worst course you run in 2010?
The WOC Realy. A quite easy choice, actually. Two (2) controls where there is more than 50 meters from we pass a big and distinct feature to the control is not a course for an elite athlete. The last loop is tragic for the orienteering sport, but it was actually really surprising. Because among the hundreds of last loops I had drawn on the map or considered ahead of the race, there were none that were similar to the course we actually got in our hands. I had not imagined that the third last control should be a ski track crossing. A very bad forking system, with big time differences. This does to a large degree set the result list for the relay, and makes the course definitely be the worst of the year. The results among the 8 first team is approximately equal to the length of the forkings. Map is available here.

Q: What is the best course you have run ever – if you must pick one from the top of your head?
The best course that I have ever run is the EOC Long distance of 2008, I think. 90 minutes with constant challenges, and big variations in visibility and runnability. Maybe not so many traditional routechoices, but lots of tactical routechoices. Map is available here.

Q: Are the courses generally getting better, worse or staying on a level?
Of course it is difficult to say if the courses get better or worse than earlier. But there is no doubt that there are some other considerations to make, like arena crossings and TV controls, which have made the quality worse for many of the courses which are run in important races. There are, fortunately, some exceptions which show that it is possible to combine without making to many compromises. I definitely think that the course from today are better than 20-30 years ago, but I think there are a lot of good courses from the en of the 90ies.

Q: What is the most important ingredients in a course in order for it to be a good course – in your opinion?
Det most important thing a good course should contain is challenging orienteering from start to finish. In some terrains is should be many long legs – in other terrains it is better to use relatively many controls. A leg is not good even if it is very long if it only contains running on a path. A good course should also pass through different terrain types in order to challenge runners to vary their technique. If that is not possible, there are nearly always variations in visibility and runnability which should be exploited.

Q: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2011?
My goal for 2011 is to win gold in the World Champs. It will be a World Champs where the o-technical will decide, and that will be my focus towards the World Champs. I know that I still have a lot to gain in many areas of the orienteering technique. Along with the experiences I have gathered the last month in France, I think I will be able to rise my level several steps. Physically I will focus on getting better to run fast in the though type of terrain which we will meet in the World Champs.

Translated from Norwegian to English by Jan Kocbach.

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.

Daniel Hubmann is yet another athlete who found the best course of the year in the north of Norway around Trondheim – but not at the World Championships (WOC), but rather on an important race on the way to WOC. – The Craft Cup in May was a nice and challenging course in the Norwegian wilderness with many route choices and green controls, Hubmann answers when asked for his favorite course of 2010.

As several other of the top athletes, Hubmann is not 100% satisfied with the compromises which must be made for the course setting at the WOC. – I like it when it is as challenging as possible, but I can live with some compromises in the course setting if our sport gets more interesting for media and if the athletes are getting back something, e.g. price money, the Swiss multiple World Champion and overall World Cup winner comments.

- As much as I could see, this year’s WOC was well marketed, the interest of media was great, and the spectators had to pay to get into the arena, but the athletes didn’t get a single coin out of it for their medals.

“The Course of the Year 2010″

WorldofO.com has interviewed Daniel Hubmann for “The Course of the Year 2010″ – you can read more about “The Course of the Year 2010″ here, including all the suggestions by WorldofO.com readers – and also suggest your own courses and win great prizes by Trimtex and sun-o.com (more info about prizes and sponsors below the interview).

Interview with Daniel Hubmann

Thanks a lot to Daniel Hubmann who took the time to answer a few questions for “The Course of the Year 2010″.

Q: What was the best course you run in 2010 – and why?
The Craft Cup in May was a nice and challenging course in the Norwegian wilderness with many route choices and green controls. For me, this was an important race on my way to Trondheim and even though I lost 4 minutes on the winner i got a good feeling out of this race (map available here – also shown small version above).

Q: What is the worst course you run in 2010?
This was a training I did in Switzerland, close to the embargoed area of WOC 2012 (map available here). I got demotivated during the session because the map was not really useful in some parts, but I liked most of the competition courses in 2010. I think that as long as the map is good, even easier courses have their challenges.

Q: What is the best course you have run ever – if you must pick one from the top of your head?
My favorite is still the EOC Long final in Latvia: The terrain offerd highest technical orienteering in a wonderful area because there were several types of terrain like open areas, bushy and marshy parts and some high speed orienteering (map available here). To me this race was a real adventure since the terrain has never been mapped before and I think it was some kind of prohibited army zone with some old buildings of the Soviet Union, like this one in the pre-start area.

Q: Are the courses generally getting better, worse or staying on a level?
I think the courses are good in general. Of course, I like it when it is as challenging as possible, but I can live with some compromises in the course setting if our sport gets more interesting for media and if the athletes are getting back something, e.g. price money. As much as I could see, this year’s WOC was well marketed, the interest of media was great, and the spectators had to pay to get into the arena, but the athletes didn’t get a single coin out of it for their medals.

Q: What is the most important ingredients in a course in order for it to be a good course – in your opinion?
Many essential points about course setting have already been mentioned. The course should be fair and the interesting parts of the terrain should be used as good as possible. In my opinion, a good course has a lot of variety in direction as well as in the length of legs and different parts of terrain should be included in order to use all the athlete’s skills.

Q: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2011?
After a quite painful season, I’m now recovering from a surgery on my heel. It’s my number one priority to get my foot painfree again, and then I hope that there will be enough time to prepare for the big races in 2011. WOC is the big challenge again and I will focus on that .

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.

As a course setter, Asplövet is probably most famous for the “Orienteering in the Olympics sprint course” he set back in 2006 (see course above). WorldofO.com has interviewed Asplövet for “The Course of the Year 2010″, to see if the Swedish blogger has seen any courses in this quality range in 2010. Not surprisingly, he did not choose a sprint course as his candidate for “The Course of the Year 2010″, but rather a though, long course in technical terrain.

Asplövet was author of the popular Swedish Blog “Asplövet goes H40″, which contained many orienteering related stories (Swedish language) – often of the satirical type (see some of the most popular stories on World of O here). He is now blogging on the follow-up-blog Asplövet (Swedish language) – still with some stories with those great, satirical twists.

“The Course of the Year 2010″

You can read more about “The Course of the Year 2010″ here, including all the suggestions by WorldofO.com readers – and also suggest your own courses and win great prizes by Trimtex and sun-o.com (more info about prizes and sponsors below the interview).

Interview with Asplövet

Thanks a lot to Asplövet who took the time to answer a few questions for “The Course of the Year 2010″.

Q: As a course setter, I think you are most famous for your suggested “Orienteering in the Olympics sprint course” (map here and story from 2006 here – and also the course at the top of this page). Is this the course for which you have gotten most positive feedback over the years?
As tragic as it seems, I think it was. That one, or the adventure-relay for a youth-camp that I organized. (see one of the maps here and story here). Apparently my preaching for long classic orienteering is for deaf ears. I weep inside. [Editors comment: To say that the sprint discipline is not Asplövets favorite, is an understatement (these guys are probably the ones coming closest in opposing against the sprint discipline).]

Q: Overall – do you think the quality of courses has gotten better or worse over the years? What impact have the different disciplines had on the courses?
I actually think it has gotten better. There are still courses, even in big events, that I think are boring, but looking back through my own mapfiles there was more downright bad course setting 20 years ago. I have nothing to say about sprint orienteering, but when middle distance and long distance are set correctly, I think they are two different disciplines that complement each other and make the sport better.

Q:What was the best course you saw or run in 2010 – and why?
Since I haven´t run a competions since 2004, I am not the right person to ask this question. But looking at this years biggest events I would have loved to run Jukola (see map here). I also think this is a difficult question, since it is easy to focus on nice terrain and fantastic maps – and not the course itself.

Q: What is the worst course you saw or run in 2010?
Well… To avoid the question since I have a bad memory, and most days don´t even remember what I ate for breakfast (Note to myself: Nothing. Today again) I am really, really allergic to arena passage. I have yet to see this kind of mischief that makes a course better. This years relay and middle distance in WOC are two scary examples of this. Just a huge amount of “nobrainsrunningfornogoodreasonatall”. I think with todays technique – GPS, radio/tv-controls etc., we don’t need to downgrade the courses for the sake of showing the audience a glimpse of the runners before the finish line. Arena-thinking is good, but in no other sport they make the actual event poorer in favor of the audience.

Q: What is the best course you have run ever – if you must pick one from the top of your head?
The top of my head is empty so… I wish I could say all the Älgdrev-competitions but the courses where not always the best there but if I was older, I could have run Älgdrevet 1977 (see map here). Of course nowadays I also wish I was younger…

Q: What is the most important ingredients in a course in order for it to be a good course – in your opinion?
Good variation of the 3T (technique – terrain – tempo). Always and forever.

Image from Asplövet blog February 2008. Frontpage for Skogsport 2025. Some English translations: “Map or no map? Are we ready to skip the map? It is only in the way anyway.” “Grass cutting. Shall we have 10 mm or 15 mm as maximum grass length in the competition terrain?” “Away with the forest (=skog). From the next edition Skogsport changes name to the more correct Parksport”. “World Champs more often and more. From 2026 the World Champs will be organized every 3 months – and now with 14 disciplines”.

Image/map from Asplövet blog July 2010. English translation: All sprint courses should offer classic orienteering as an extra – called “pluss-menu”..

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.

- I really enjoyed to run such a big event in a challenging forest on a course that offered demanding orienteering from the first to the last step, Swedish orienteering star Peter Öberg answers when asked about the best course he run in 2010. Öberg’s pick is the Jukola relay, where he ran a great race andhad the best time on the 6th leg with nearly 2 minutes for OK Hällen.

WorldofO.com has interviewed Peter Öberg for “The Course of the Year 2010″ – you can read more about “The Course of the Year 2010″ here, including all the suggestions by WorldofO.com readers – and also suggest your own courses and win great prizes by Trimtex and sun-o.com (more info about prizes and sponsors below the interview).

Interview with Peter Öberg

Thanks a lot to Peter Öberg who took the time to answer a few questions for “The Course of the Year 2010″.

Q: What was the best course you run in 2010 – and why?
The Jukola relay (see map here). I really enjoyed to run such a big event in a challenging forest on a course that offered demanding orienteering from the first to the last step..

Q: What is the worst course you run in 2010?
I don´t want to judge what´s worst but I got disappointed at the WC-race in Finland before Jukola because I know there is so much good orienteering terrain to offer in south west Finland.

Q: What is the best course you have run ever – if you must pick one from the top of your head?
The world cup sprint race in Sälen during O-ringen 2008 (Editors comment: see map here).

Q: Are the courses generally getting better, worse or staying on a level?
In general it´s getting better but sometimes the organizers are focusing so much on getting a good arena that they forget to think of the map and the course.

Q: What is the most important ingredients in a course in order for it to be a good course – in your opinion?
At first it has to be a great area and a very good map. Then it´s even better with a good atmosphere at the arena. A good course offers a good mix of legs and demands many different orienteering skills such as, direction, detail reading, simplification, route decisions, etc.

Q: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2011?
I have recently had a surgery in my heel so right now I´m focusing on getting back on track again. If I´m back in full training in march I will aim for WOC in France. I have not been so much in that area but I guess I need to train hills, running and orienteer on stony ground. Mabye also some altitude training in the beginning of summer and before the championship.

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.