World of O News
– I have not much to say, except that I did a mistake. It is as simple as this, but I still can’t believe it and it really hurts. Thierry Gueorgiou’s “Back in Black” was the Top story at World of O in 2010. With 2010 being history, it is time to take a look back at the stories which interested the orienteering community the most in 2010 – many of them are worth to be reminded about again!
A total of 13402 stories were posted through World of O in 2010 – up from 11450 in 2009. Below you first find an overview of the most popular sites in World of O in 2010 (calculated by a popularity factor utilizing a combination of clicks/votes) – and thereafter you find the 100 most read stories in 2010 (sorry about some character set problems for some of the stories). Note that not all outgoing clicks are logged (due to technical reasons) – but the numbers below give a good indication. You can also compare the below statistics with corresponding statistics from 2009.
Most popular sites
| Page name | Number of stories | Total clicks | Average clicks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thierry Gueorgiou | 5 | 9129 | 1826 |
| 101 Orienteering Maps | 8 | 8895 | 1112 |
| O-training.net | 8 | 7178 | 897 |
| Fabian Hertner | 11 | 7876 | 716 |
| Minna Kauppi | 26 | 19007 | 731 |
| World of O | 151 | 135703 | 899 |
| Damien Renard | 9 | 3950 | 439 |
| Pasi Ikonen | 19 | 8301 | 437 |
| Matthias Merz | 19 | 7291 | 384 |
| Baptiste Rollier | 13 | 6121 | 471 |
| Matthias Müller | 38 | 10811 | 285 |
| Mårten Boström | 18 | 8544 | 475 |
| Olav Lundanes | 9 | 2548 | 283 |
| Anne Margrethe Hausken | 18 | 3827 | 213 |
| Øystein Kvaal Østerbø | 48 | 19405 | 404 |
| Simone Niggli | 64 | 28970 | 453 |
| Eva Jurenikova | 24 | 7030 | 293 |
| Lauri Sild | 12 | 732 | 61 |
| Daniel Hubmann | 66 | 20714 | 314 |
| Wojciech Kowalski | 23 | 3122 | 136 |
| Martin Johansson | 24 | 9196 | 383 |
Sites posting most stories
| Page name | Number of stories | Total clicks | Average clicks |
|---|---|---|---|
| OPN.no | 1253 | 61697 | 49 |
| Norwegian O-Federation | 486 | 39445 | 81 |
| Portuguese Orienteering Blog | 457 | 3560 | 8 |
| Swedish O-Federation | 371 | 48944 | 132 |
| Kart-Bosse | 356 | 7741 | 22 |
| Swiss Orienteering | 338 | 21808 | 65 |
| Finnish O-Federation | 320 | 9216 | 29 |
| Kondis.no | 294 | 6573 | 22 |
| British O-Federation | 253 | 8748 | 35 |
| German O-Federation | 243 | 6412 | 26 |
| Anton Tynong | 225 | 7909 | 35 |
| Danish O-Federation | 216 | 11200 | 52 |
| Olli-Markus Taivainen | 213 | 3558 | 17 |
Thierry Gueorgiou: Back in Black
I have not much to say, except that I did a mistake. It is as simple as this, but I still can’t believe it and it really hurts. I never saw the 17th control of relay and went straight to the 18th. I just realized my mistake when I passed through the arena and heard that I missed one control. Yesterday, I had everything to succeed: best starting position, shortest forkings and probably the best shape I ever had at any WOC race… but I screw it up and I have to apologize, first, to Philippe and François who has been the best teammates I could dream to have. And also, to the staff and all the supporters of the French team. I am deeply sorry. …
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World of O: EOC 2010 Bulgaria: All you need to know!
The European Championships in Orienteering starts Sunday morning 08:00 CET with Sprint qualification – the final starts from 14:30 CET in the afternoon. The championships in continues through the coming week – the last competition being the Long Final next Saturday. All individual events are also World Cup events. Below you find the key information you need in order to follow EOC 2010 in Bulgaria. Most of the information below is taken from Bulletin 4 and from the EOC webpage. Note especially that there is qualification for all individual events. 17 from each qualification heat go to the finals in sprint/middle/long. Program EOC 2010 Sunday May 30th – Sprint Qual 08:00 CET, Sprint Final 14:30 CET Monday May 31st – Long Qual 09:30-13:00 CET Tuesday June 1st – Middle Qual 09:00-12:30 CET Wednesday June 2nd – Relay 08:00-13:00 CET Friday June 4th – Middle Final 08:30-14:00 CET (A/B finals) Saturday June 5th – Long Final 08:00-15:30 CET (A/B finals) See more details about exact program for each competition at the bottom of this page – including exact start times for each category. Startlists and Results Startlists and results will be available from the EOC 2010 webpage Fantasy World Cup 2010 Remember to submit your team to the Fantasy World Cup 2010. 10 of the 13 World Cup events count in the overall – so you’d better set up a team already ahead of the first World Cup event – being the EOC Sprint on Sunday. At the time of writ…
101 Orienteering Maps: 101 Orienteering Maps you should run on before you die!
With so many magnificent orienteering destinations, it sounds a bit like a mission impossible to select the 101 Orienteering maps you should run on before you die. Yet, we have now started this mission – and you will be able to both follow and shape the list on this blog. We will surely need the help of our readers all over the world in order to get a good result! … most of all we want to enjoy the process of determining those 101 maps Our ultimate goal, to produce a real paper book about 101 orienteering maps which every orienteer should run on before he/she dies is clear, but not set as a “101% mustâ€. It depends on many people and circumstances how the project will develop. We will of course do our very best to complete it, however most of all we want to enjoy the process of determining those 101 maps. 101 Orienteering Maps Blog The “101 orienteering maps†blog was started by Jan Kocbach & Ivan Nagy with the general aim to open a discussion not only about the most outstanding orienteering areas of the world – but also about different aspects of orienteering maps, mapping and to some extent about the essence of the sport itself. We have both had the idea for a long time, an idea which was sparked again after reading a story at OPN.no a few weeks ago. In the map presentations here on the blog, we will go beyond the map itself  – and also try to present pictures from the terrain and area and interesting information related to the maps. In some cases…
World of O: WOC 2010: All you need to know!
The World Orienteering Championships start Sunday morning 09:00 CET with Sprint qualification. Impressive coverage with live video, GPS-tracking and live results for the championships is promised by the organizers (somewhat less coverage for qualifications than for finals, though). The first WOC final where medals are awarded starts already Sunday from 13:40 CET in the afternoon. The championships continues through the coming week – the last competition being the Relay next Sunday. All individual events are also World Cup events. Below you find the key information you need in order to follow WOC 2010 in Trondheim, Norway. This page is planned to be updated with key information during WOC. Latest updates: 04/08/2010: WOC Teams for all countries are ready 04/08/2010: Historical WOC results sorted by country have been updated 31/07/2010: Thierry Gueorgiou is now on Twitter – you find him and other elite orienteers on the @worldofo/eliteorienteers list Program WOC 2010 Sunday August 8th, Sprint Qual and Final. Qual: 09:00 CET Women. 10:00 CET Men. Final: 13:40 CET Women. 14:40 CET Men Monday August 9th: 14:00 CET – Middle Distance qualification Tuesday August 10th: 16:00 CET – Long Distance qualification Thursday August 12th, Long Distance final. 13:00 CET – Women. 14:50 CET – Men Saturday August 14th: Middle Distance final. 12:40 CET – Women. 14:15 CET – Men Sunday August 15th: Relay. 11:30 CET – Women. 13:15 CET – Men …
Thierry Gueorgiou: Blue sky mind
My WOC preparation is coming soon to its end – it is just 9 days left to my first race in Trondheim and everything feels good, Im just where I wanted to be.I managed to get rid of my back problems and I could fully enjoy the Scandinavian road trip – 5 weeks into rough Nordic forests to get my muscles used to those specific terrains. During that time, I even managed to (almost) find back my O’technique and realized that orienteering is actually simpler than what I thought lately… …
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Thierry Gueorgiou: Road to WOC 2011
Since the WOC relay in Trondheim, all my days have been filled up with thoughts and trainings for World Championships 2011. It didn’t help much to evacuate the frustration, but at least it gave something to look forward.The World Cup in Annecy was a part of this preparation and a good intermediate split time about 10 months before WOC. Now the race is over, and my feeling is a bit mixed. I am, of course, delighted by the result which confirms that I can hang on to my dreams for next year. But the general performance wasn’t that good with a couple of places where I lost the control of my orienteering. I haven’t yet seen the official split times, but while comparing with my teammates, I had about 3 minutes mistakes here and there. Of course, this is not much compare to the other competitors which are not yet accustomed to this type of terrain and probably not that concerned at this end of the season. But I have to still keep working on my technique over the next months. …
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World of O: WOC of the future: What will it look like?
Significant changes will be introduced in the WOC program from 2014 – or even earlier – but the only thing which is certain is that more races will have a format in which the first runner to the finish is the winner. During the XXV IOF General Assembly held in conjunction with the WOC in Trondheim, Norway, the IOF presented a report on future directions for WOC – and the IOF Council will now continue to develop a detailed programme. The future WOC program should be important for all orienteers, because it will form orienteering as we see it as a sport. After the first articles came out after the IOF General Assembly at orientering.no, orientering.se and later also at the IOF website, there have been a lot of speculations and discussions in the orienteering community about the future WOC program (see e.g. alternativet.nu, attackpoint.org, Nopesport, OPN.no). The discussions are partly wild, and partly based on information which is not fully correct. In this article I will summarize the facts, and discuss possible realistic options based on discussions with people close to the matter. At the end of the article I’ll put up my wishes for the future WOC program – and open for discussion. The facts At the 2010 IOF General Assembly, the IOF Council presented a report (the content of which has not been published, being one of the reasons for all the speculations) made by a work group emanated from the results of the IOF project “Evaluation of Elite …
Thierry Gueorgiou: New PB for the New Year!
Some orienteer likes to keep their best times on track; I prefer to chase my record in the forest… When my watch showed 00:00, on the 1st January, I started my favorite orienteering course: The famous Night from Per Sterner, in Guardamar, Spain.I had been waiting my whole first week to have a rainy night to get a harder sand surface, but so far the weather has been excellent and therefore I had to use my 15 mm spikes to get a good grip on sand dunes.17’05’’ later (3,8km), I was back from the forest and really satisfied with this good start for 2010. …
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Thierry Gueorgiou: WOC middle distance qualification
Today, in middle distance qualification, I got what I wanted : a good starting position while saving energy for the finals.Still I am not fully satisfied with my performance with some hesitation and not always a full understanding of the map. But I’ll have about 60 minutes tomorrow to get the right flow.My routeResults …
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OPN.no: Olav Lundanes: – En idiotisk avgjørelse!
– Det er bare trist for O-sporten at det satses pÃ¥ sirkus Nordic Tour framfor Nordisk mesterskap, sier Olav Lundanes til OPN.no….
World of O: – Because this is real orienteering
This is what Thierry Gueorgiou answered when asked why he won today’s World Cup over the long distance in Annecy, France today. Gueorgiou won with a clear margin ahead of Matthias Müller and Olav Lundanes. In the womens class the victory yet again went to Simone Niggli ahead of Helena Jansson and Tone Wigemyr. Results We will come back with more. …
World of O: World Cup France: Fun and Technical
The World Cup finishes with technical orienteering and a strong starting field in the three final races in France and Switzerland the two first weekends in October. The very strong starting field is mainly due to the fact that most teams will use the week between the WC in France and the WC in Switzerland for a training camp in terrain which is very relevant for World Championships 2011 in France. Relevant links: This is what Thierry Gueorgiou wrote on Twitter after training on the WOC 2011 official training close to this years World Cup race in France (see map above): – “WOC’11 official training map: most difficult terrain I have ever been, it is hell – first smile since 2 weeks :)”. Webpage of World Cup 2010 Annecy, France – Long distance Webpage of World Cup final 2010 in Switzerland – Middle distance + Sprint distance Fantasy World Cup – set up your team ahead of each race Mappers of World Cup Annecy map webpage – with comments about the map World Cup standings Very detailed terrain The final three races in the orienteering World Cup consist of a long distance in France Sunday October 2nd. The following weekend the World Cup is decided in a middle distance race (Saturday) and a sprint race (Sunday) – both races in Switzerland close to the French border. The terrain for the World Cup in France the coming Sunday is said to be very relevant for next years WOC terrain, situated close to Annecy in France. The terrain i…
World of O: Jukola: All you need to know
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-map…
World of O: Jukola+Venla: Maps and full GPS tracking
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. 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 …
Jan Prochazka: I feel lonely
And maybe I am not alone. What is the reason of EOC? To arrange competitions just for best runners and give IOF diplomas and IOF medals without spectators and with poor media coverage? What about live-GPS? And what about…On the other side competitions are interesting and our 5th place (ok 7th…) in relays is really good! My performance was good, but there is still something to improve. Thanks to Bingo and Olaf for nice runs…resultsLast Sunday I did one of my poorest performances in the sprint, and did not make final…Let’s hope that my performances will be better tomorrow and on Saturday.you can watch it on competition webpages…
Carl Waaler Kaas: WOC`10: WORLD CHAMPION! (map w/comments)
Friday 13. 22.15pm on Friday 13th of August 2010. 17 hours 28 min to the start of my first WOC middle distance final. On home ground. I have a dream of winning a medal. I know I am good enough. … Continue reading →…
Fabian Hertner: DNF! – Out for weeks
My second mission during the WOC week was the longdistance in Granasen. This spring i felt that i made a big step physically and technically on the 1:15000 map and after the EOC medal i was very motivated for those 15km. …
World of O: Gueorgiou: Orimattila and Peguerinos rocks
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 championshi…
Wojciech Kowalski: The worst prizes of 2009
It was in June: Polish Championships in long distance.First place Robert Banach 89 1 , second me 9027, third Richert Marcin 9520Usually I don care about a prize, but this time it looked as if someone was clearing old magazine. You can just go to the shop and bay mouse with PS2 connection, becouse they stopped selling it couple years ago. Polish Champs, the most important competition in the country… … it would be better not to give anything. Shame.; …
World of O: Nordic Orienteering Tour: All you need to know
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? 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. I am still waiting for an answer on a request to the responsible for information/media at NORT regarding more details about live video/TV and GPS-tracking (this post will be updated when I receive the information). This post will be updated with information during the Nordic Orienteering Tour. Fantasy World Cup All three stages in the Nordic Orienteering Tour are part of the World Cup – and therefore also part of the F…
Damien Renard: New life – New projects
After the past season, I decided to quit the national team to focus on my family. To be honnest the last 2 years were allready quite much focused on family even if I had goals at WOC 10 in Trondheim. I didnt do choices that could help me to increase my performances at WOC actually, like moving to Lofoten during past winter. But I dont regret those choices anyway. My performances at WOC were OK but not as good as I was dreaming. I had the opportunity to make top 10 but I missed because of 2 bad routechoices on middle final (1min lost each). Anyway, my shape was really good and I could enjoy my last WOC.Then NM in Beitostolen was my last race under Kristiansand OK colors. Here I performed really good. This was this kind of performances I was expecting at WOC but I guess I was better prepared to the NM terrain which was much more nordic than WOC middle distance final terrain. It was a good feeling to run so good for my last races with the best Elite club I have been with. 5th place in middle was my best race this year and the relay was a good team race. We did good with 4th place, we were not having the best team this year, thats all. It is not easy to leave such a good club with so many good people (not only the best runners I mean). KOK was a huge inspiration for me the last 3 seasons. I warmly recommend young elit runners to move there to improve themself on rough trrain. Barbara and Pascal were very helpfull with training plans and so on. I understand easily that Pascal is …
World of O: Course of the Year 2010: Submit your suggestions!
What was the best orienteering course of 2010? Finding THE ONE won’t be easy, but the search for it will be fun, for sure! The rules are simple: Suggest a course from a competition or training in 2010, and state the reason why you think this course deserves to be “The course of the Year 2010″. A jury of elite orienteers will choose the best among all the suggestions – and there will be a voting process among the readers of “World of O” in order to name “The course of the year 2010″. Starting point To provide you with a starting point, I’ve picked out a few very different candidates for you based on maps and courses I have seen in omaps.worldofo.com and comments on various webpages: World Cup Annecy, October 3rd 2010 (see map above). Several runners said that this was the best long distance course they had run this year after finishing the race. Is that enough? Centrum Team Sprint: Silja Symphony Edition. This is the most popular course from 2010 in omaps.worldofo.com, but I somehow still doubt it will be named “The course of the Year 2010″… Malvikmarka – Rescue Island – a corridor orienteering course used in the preparations for WOC 2010 in Trondheim by Francois Gonon is also one of the most popular courses in omaps.worldofo.com in 2010. World Cup Final sprint, Geneve, October 10th 2010. Several runners said that this was one of the best sprint courses they had ever run. WOC Long Final, …
Simone Niggli: 42.195km und 1829 Höhenmeter!
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 1 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is chosen just as much because the map and terrain looks beautiful, as for the challenging routechoice on this particular leg. The leg is from the Canadian Orienteering Championships 2010 (COC), and the course was actually one of the nominations for “The Course of the Year 2010″. The leg in question is leg number 8 in the M21 Elite course. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location. Omaps.worldofo.com The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2010-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it…
World of O: The Course of the Year 2010: Jukola!
– 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 course…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 20 2010
Today Route to Christmas takes another big step forward by introducing GPS analysis of today’s route – including a pace map and a calculation of the optimum route based on the GPS data. On top of that, the leg is also a nice one for you: A very long one from the Swedish Elitserien event of May 15th this year. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then over to an analysis of the leg. With full GPS data of 20 runners instead of only Routegadget-data, it is possible to say a lot more about what is the best route than in the previous editions of Route to Christmas. The leg is maybe not the most interesting one as there are several routes which are approximately the same time, but still the following analysis gives some interesting information – and also shows how it is possible to analyze a leg using GPS data. First we take a look at the routes of the fastest runners for the leg (note that the split times are based on the GPS data and not on the actual split times). As you can see from the routes, the direct variant an…
Minna Kauppi: GOLD
Only a few hours left before relay and the spirit is high even though i got what i was after yesterday in the middle distance. The small marginals turned out to be on my side this time and Im really happy to be the best in middle distance again! Ill write about that later on but now its time to concetrate on the last challenges in relay! Go FINLAND!!!!! …
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Baptiste Rollier: No WOC for me
The swiss team selections for WOC have been announced on Tuesday and I wasnt selected to run in Trondheim.This was a huge disappointment, even if I was expecting not be selected after a meeting I had last week with the national team coach.We had no real test races for WOC and therefore all the international races this spring counted as selection criteria. My international results this spring were not very stable with 35rd place at NORT Sprint, 24th place at EOC middle distance, 13th at EOC long distance, 12th at NORT chasing start and 4th place at NORT middle distance in Finland.Those results were not good enough to be part of a very strong swiss mens team with many potential medalists. My goal for WOC was to reach a top 6 place and I believe this would have been possible. But being a potential diploma runner was not good enough to be part of the team..So my plans for the summer had be adapted. Now my 1st goals is O-Ringen in Örebro where I want to enjoy running in a high quality competition, against strong competitors and in a nice atmosphere. My 2nd goal is Sierre-Zinal. This is a mountain race (31km, 2200m climb) which I wanted to run for many years already. In order to prepare for Sierre-Zinal Ill spend some weeks in Switzerland running up the hills and enjoying some hard trainings and long runs.In the end of August Ill run Military World Champs in Kongsberg.I wish the WOC swiss team a lot of medals and hope that they can secure more than 3 starting places in each discip…
O-training.net: Routechoice Analysis Norwegian Champs Long H21
The Norwegian Champs Long distance was organized in Indre Østfold today in a terrain which is very untypical for Norway. The terrain has many deep valleys, giving interesting routechoices. Below you find the routechoices of some of the best runners in the mens class on some of the decisive legs. Before taking a look at the routechoices below, take a look at the course without routes here: Map with GPSSeuranta tracking from Norwegian Champs Long 2010, H21 Split times Norwegian Champs Long 2010, H21 Note that all the split times given below are taken from the GPS tracking, and may differ by up to 10-15 seconds from the actual splites. Still, this is interesting for the routechoice analysis. Leg 2-3 In the interview after the race, the winner Olav Lundanes told that his tactics was to run around in this hilly terrain to save energy. We see this already on the first long leg to the third control where Lundanes (dark blue) choose a variant to the right around the forbidden area. His main rival Carl Waaler Kaas choose a more direct route – like he did in most of the race – earning around 30 seconds on Lundanes on this particular leg. The two fastest of the top runners have chosen a left/direct approach on this leg. At this point in the race, Waaler Kaas has a lead of around 40 seconds to Lundanes. Leg 3-4 On leg 3-4 we again see that Lundanes goes far around to the right, while Waaler Kaas takes a more direct approach. And again Waaler Kaas is faster. Weltzien choos…
O-training.net: O-training.net: Test-version ready
An early version of o-training.net is now available for testing. O-training.net is a project which I have had in my mind for years, but which I never have got time to realize. The content can still only be considered to be a test-version, but in my opinion there is too much interesting stuff here to just leave it hidden and unpublished until I some time maybe would have time to finish it. Wiki style The main part of O-training.net is built up as a community-driven wiki, where everybody is allowed to contribute. In an ideal world, I would allow anonymous edits at O-training.net, but due to todays spam-problems in the Internet, you will have to request an account to contribute to O-training.net. O-training.net is part of WorldofO.com. Main resource for O-Technical training O-training.net was planned to be the main resource for Orienteering Technical training available online. O-training.net will try to gather all the resources available on the internet in one place. The intention is that this will be the place to go for everybody wanting to improve as an orienteer. The main content will be O-training exercises, but other kind of resources like training camp sites, orienteering trainers, weblinks etc. will also be included. O-training.net is community-driven, and therefore in the end it is YOU who decide what these pages will contain. A few links to get you started: Orienteering exercises Use of OCAD to make O-technical training Request account to add content Early test-versi…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 16 2010
– I think that this leg is the best in any event I have run at in the past year. That was the first line in a very nice email which arrived in the mailbox yesterday evening. – It was at “Caw fell”, day 4 of the Lakes 5 Day event in England, Simon Bradbury continued. And indeed, it looks like a very nice leg – and was therefore chosen as the leg of the day for day 16 of Route to Christmas 2010. Thanks a lot to Simon for the tip (we are still open for more!). The chosen leg is leg number 7 in course 3. There were similar legs in the longer courses, but course 3 was most interesting because more runners had drawn their routes. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Unfortunately not all the best runners have drawn their route – so it is a bit difficult to make a full conclusion based on the posted routes. Based on the strength of the runners, I would think that you would not loose much time by going around to eit…
World of O: World Cup Final Sprint: Map and Results
– I have not often had this long a routechoice leg in a city sprint, an enthusiastic Simone Niggli – winner of the womens class in the World Cup final – said after the race. Niggli and Daniel Hubmann took popular victories on home ground in the old city of Geneva – both giving the big and load home crowd exactly what they had come for. Maps Men – part 1, part 2 Women – part 1, part 2 Results Women 1.NIGGLI-LUDER SimoneSUI16:36 2.JANSSON HelenaSWE16:50+00:14 3.BOBACH IdaDEN17:21+00:45 4.CEJKA CarolineSUI17:24+00:48 4. ALM MajaDEN17:24+00:48 6.WILD AngelaSUI17:31+00:55 7.FRIEDERICH RahelSUI17:32+00:56 8.EGSETH EliseNOR17:35+00:59 8. ELIASSON LenaSWE17:35+00:59 10.BRODMANN InesSUI17:37+01:01 Men 1.HUBMANN DanielSUI15:39 2.MÃœLLER MatthiasSUI15:48+00:09 2. GRISTWOOD GrahamGBR15:48+00:09 4.GUEORGIOU ThierryFRA15:52+00:13 5.ØSTERBØ Øystein KvaalNOR15:53+00:14 6.SKJESET LarsNOR16:14+00:35 7.KYBURZ AndreasSUI16:15+00:36 7. LYSELL JerkerSWE16:15+00:36 9.MERZ MatthiasSUI16:18+00:39 10.WELTZIEN AudunNOR16:25+00:46 Full results women (from online results) Full results men (from online results) Official results will be available here …
World of O: WOC Relay: Maps and Results
As always: A very dramatic WOC relay with France in one of the main roles in the mens class. In the end Russia took the gold medals in the mens class whereas Finland took the gold medals in the womens class. Norway took silver in both mens and womens class. Maps Relay Map men Map women Decided to attack The big excitement was in the mens class. After 16 controls on the last leg, Thierry Gueorgiou (France) was in the lead ahead of Valentin Novikov (Russia). On the way to control 18, Gueorgiou felt strong, and decided to push hard in order to get a gap to the Russian. – On the road to 17 I felt very strong, so I decided to attack Valentin (Novikov). I had seen on the GPS that around was very fast. Then the unbelievable happened. Gueorgiou didn’t see the 17th control on the map as the 16th, 17th and 18th controls were in a row, so he skipped the 17th control and went directly to control number 18. A big “Oh no” went through the crowd, and it was no good feeling standing there beside Francois Gonon – the second leg runner of France – watching it as it unfolded. When the French runner arrived first at the spectator control, he was told that he had skipped a control, and had to return to the forest and take control number 17. For the other teams, the excitement continued with Russia now in a lead with less than a minute down to chasing Norway. In the end, Russia with Valentin Novikov was the strongest team, and Russia took gold ahead of Norway and S…
World of O: EOC Long: Gold for Niggli and Hubmann (with map)
Two more Swiss Gold medals in todays demanding EOC Long distance – 5 out of 8 Gold medals went to Switzerland in this years European Champs. Nobody could beat the time early starter Daniel Hubmann set – in the end Phillipe Adamski was the closest. In the womens class, Dana Brozkova had a very strong race, but  it was not good enough to beat the “impossible” Simone Niggli. Map men (missing last loop) Map women (missing last loop) The article will be updated. Results (unofficial) 1 Simone Niggli 150:00 36:09 61:28 68:19 79:12 80:31 2 Dana Brozkova 126:00 35:24 62:54 70:07 80:39 81:53 3 Helena Jansson 147:00 66:31 73:29 84:59 86:22 4 Lina Persson 96:00 38:30 67:34 75:15 87:05 88:22 5 Eva Jurenikova 132:00 38:47 67:49 75:40 87:36 88:56 6 Maria Rantala 111:00 39:10 68:11 75:35 87:42 89:00 7 Lena Eliasson 138:00 37:03 67:34 74:45 87:55 89:24 8 Vendula Klechova 120:00 37:10 66:41 74:47 88:10 89:37 9 Vroni Koenig-Salmi 141:00 39:34 68:09 76:20 88:29 89:56 10 Anni-Maija Fincke 105:00 40:07 71:51 79:11 90:23 91:46 10 Emma Andersson 129:00 39:05 67:49 76:06 90:24 91:46 …
Jan Prochazka: LANGA NATTEN 2010 – the story of one leg
My place in the KR team on Tiomila was on the third leg, non-forked langa natten. I did have a phone call in the week before 10M with our national team coach Radovan:Radovan: By the way, which leg are you going to run?Me: Langa nattenRadovan: Are you so poor, or what happened?I did start to understand his words after talking with our experienced runners Tommi and Miika. My task was easy, just stay in the contact with Halden and Kristiansand. No problem, on non-forked course, but something against my view of orienteering.This task becomes bit more difficult after my start. I catch the leaders of my starting group on the second control, but I did not see Halden or Kristiansand. Ok, I have to reboot my system and take northern direction with full speed. Some teams did follow me and finally I reach the route and use my running skills. Only Bekkelaget manage to stay with me all the time. When I climb up to the hill before 3rd control, I saw I big group approaching 3rd control. Perkele! At least my route choice was equal… What a kind surprise, there is Järla and Stora Tuna. I just climb up trough group and I saw THE MASTER in front and Kristiansand just behind! YEP! WE ARE BACK!Thanks Jan Kocbach for this video!Rest of the course was quite boring, because I did play for the team. Anders was doing really good work in front. He is clear KING of the long night; I am just king of one route choice……
Matthias Müller: WOC Sprint: von Posten zu Posten
Hier mal eine etwas detailliertere Auswertung meines Goldlaufes. Gedanken, Routenentscheide, Probleme und so weiter….
World of O: EOC Sprint: Jansson and the Swiss! (With map)
Update: Now with map! Fabian Hertner and the other Swiss were fantastic in todays EOC Sprint – taking 6 out of the 8 first spots in the mens class and 3 of the top 10 spots among the women. Gold in the EOC sprint went to Helena Jansson among the women and Fabian Hertner among the men – the gold and silver medalists in last years WOC sprint….
101 Orienteering Maps: Irbene
Classified as top secret military radio spying center by the ex-soviet army, the Irbene area opened up to the wide public only in the 90’s, after Latvia gained independence. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why this great orienteering terrain waited so many years to be mapped. Varying terrain As a matter of fact, it was not before EOC 2008 that this area was used for the first time. One of the best Baltic mappers Leonids Malankovs, equipped with the laser scanning data, created a masterpiece which served as a base for one of the technically most interesting Long courses in the last years of international championships. The top runners’ comments all seemed to agree in one thing – the race was truly difficult. Eva Jurenikova for example wrote on her blog: “The long final yesterday was one of the technically most demanding long distance races I have ever run.” And she has run many. In the Orienteering achievement of 2009 interview Swiss multiple World Champion Daniel Hubmann said that the Irbene map is one of his favorites. The often pointed out fact about this map is that it contains several different terrain types, each of which requires different orienteering technique and running speed. Parts of very runnable forest are exchanging with low visibility green areas, where extra care is needed. Sand dune forms are exchanging from very dense and intricate to rather straightforward features. A big portion of the map is covered by marshes, someti…
World of O: WOC Long men: Map and Route-choices
Double Norway with gold for Olav Lundanes and silver for Anders Nordberg. A very disappointed Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) took the bronze and is very hungry for showing his strength on the middle distance on Saturday. Francois Gonon (FRA) came 27 seconds too late for the bronze medal in 4th. Map Map WOC Long men See also map and route-choice analysis WOC Long women Route choice analysis Coming soon. Results 1Lundanes,OlavNOR1:32:41 + 00:00 2Nordberg,AndersNOR1:33:21 + 00:40 3Gueorgiou,ThierryFRA1:36:21 + 03:40 4Gonon,FranoisFRA1:36:48 + 04:07 5MillegÃ¥rd,MarcusSWE1:37:33 + 04:52 6Fraser,ScottGBR1:37:36 + 04:55 7Hubmann,DanielSUI1:37:57 + 05:16 8Haldin,MatsFIN1:38:25 + 05:44 9Omdal,Hans GunnarNOR1:39:39 + 06:58 10Tsvetkov,DmitryRUS1:40:07 + 07:26 Full Results …
World of O: EOC 2010: Comment
This years EOC in Bulgaria was hopefully the last international championships without live GPS-tracking. As a spectator at home in front of the computer/big screen, I have got used to live GPS-tracking from all the big national events in Finland, Sweden and Norway, several smaller national/regional events in both Finland and Norway, and even on some training camps. Let us hope GPS-tracking is set as a requirement for the organizers in the future. I think this was the last EOC/WOC without live GPS-tracking – time will tell if we are there yet… The remainder of 2010 looks good for the international races: The World Champs in Trondheim will have GPS-tracking, Jukola, most of the Nordic Orienteering Tour, EYOC in Spain will also, and so on (for JWOC in Denmark I have found no information yet – please add a comment below if you know any details). This is a personal comment from Jan Kocbach – the founder of WorldofO.com – based on following the European Championships on the Internet through the last week, and based on following most international races the last years. For most of the articles on WorldofO.com I try to be objective – this particular article contains personal opinons – comments are welcome! Barely good enough for the core community During the last week, I have followed the European Championships closely. The organizers had some problems with live results / live speaker sound in some of the competitions, but overall either …
Daniel Hubmann: Strongman!
Die Vorfreude auf diesen Sonntag und den StrongmanRun war bei mir schon fast etwas übertrieben gross… Trotz müden Beinen von der Nacht-SM war ich gespannt, was uns auf dem Parcour in Thun alles erwarten würde. Es wurde ein taktisches Rennen, bei dem ich mich in der Endphase von meinen letzten Verfolgern lösen konnte und mich somit als Sieger des 1. FISHERMANS FRIEND StrongmanRun der Schweiz feiern lassen durfte. …
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 8 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is an extremely long leg from Austria. The chosen event is Day 6 of the Tyrol 6 Days in the Innsbruck region organized at July 4th 2010. Leg number 27 in the M21 Elite course is chosen. Thanks to both Martin Veitsberger and Martin Lerjen for the tip – and special thanks to Martin Veitsberger for getting several of the Men 21 Elite runners to draw their routes during the last weeks. Please follow Martin&Martin’s good example and identify interesting legs and send some emails to runners who have not drawn their routes in order to get an interesting leg for Route to Christmas! It is even a good way to promote your event/area! The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger). Note that some out of bound areas influenced the routechoices for the leg (see to the right). Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Unfortunately still only one of the top runners has drawn his route (Klaus Schgaguler), and therefore his best time is not completel…
World of O: Daniel Hubmann: Trondheim, but not WOC
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). I…
World of O: Temptation Island
A somewhat unusual contour training dumped into the mailbox yesterday as a suggestion for The Course of the Year 2010. – Today, one of my friends asked me to set a course to work on his weakness: his ability to focus during the race, the course setter commented in his email. I found it best to censor part of the accompanying graphics and part of the map with some black censor bars – to make sure you can concentrate on the course and not on its immediate surroundings… Stay focused or go home – I set this course which, I think, might be part of the best course of the year voting, the course setter continues in his email which is held in a humorous tone. And looking at the artwork of the course he has created, it is clear that the best middle distance orienteer in the world can do more than just running fast in a middle distance race… Is training on these kind of maps part of the secret sauce of becoming a good technical orienteer? There are still a few days left to submit your suggestions to “The Course of the Year 2010″ here – if you follow the link you can also read all the suggestions by WorldofO.com readers for “The Course of the Year 2010″. 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 fina…
Minna Kauppi: BingO!
I had still the golden taste in my mouth when I started hunting Sweden and Helena in the relay. Merja and Anni had done a good job before me and our golden goal was still in sight. However, a stupid mistake on the second control wasnt really part of my plans. After getting cought by Norway and Marianne, I decided to let her do the job and mostly control the situation from the back seat. In the stadium, before the last loop, we were suddenly all together even though there had been some gafflings on the way. I didnt feel too strong but I was glad to notice that the other girls were tired too. On the second last control, I decided to take the spinning wheel and drive into the finish like a good Finnish should always do;) Now, Im at home rocking with loundry and singing with reporters. I even got some visitors from WADA as the doping controllers just visited me in order to make sure I can still pee on the pot after the relay gold too;)Now, my plan is to relax with some friends but even though jogging could be relaxing as well, I think im going to start running again just when I feel like it, not before. By the way, thank you all that have been cheering for me. I would offer you all some delicious cake if I had something in my fridge;)…
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Martin Johansson: World Cup on skiis
This weekend it was Scandinavian cup in Ã…sarna. I had a good weekend with a 7th and 12th place (1st and 3rd among the Swedes). This Monday I had a phone call from the teamleader of the XC-skiing team of Sweden asking if I wanted to go to Otepää to race in the WC. Of course my answer was yes and today we landed in Tartu with Skiiforce One (Team Swedens own plane) and now I’m in Otepää for my second time. Last time was at European Champinchips in orienteering in 2006 but a bad knee stopped me from running then. Foto: MartneWikner.se I’ve been out trying the challangening tracks of the 5 km long track that we will have 3 loops on enjoying the steep hills. The tracks was like a railway today and I’m hoping for the same conditions on Saturday. I can confess that classic technique is maybe not my favourite but this year I’ve improved a lot untill this season . I like the hilly tracks here and I’m looking forward for Saturdays race. …
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 5 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Scotland: – It’s one of the toughest areas in the World. And thats on a dry day! Mix in a persistent rain and the Trossachs becomes about as tough as it gets. Marsh, rock, heather, crags, streams and hills. Lots of hills. But the courses are the same for everyone, so the toughest will win [from a report from the Senior Home Internationals in 2004]. The chosen leg is leg number 2 in the mens elite course from the “Trossachs” WRE event on March 28th 2010. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger). You find the results from the event here. See also this training map from Øystein Kvaal Østerbø from the Trossachs map. Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. As you can see, there are not big differences in running time for the different straight-on options – but the runner going to the left along the road looses a lot of time. Of all runners drawing their routechoice, this is the only runner going all the way…
Fabian Hertner: Gold, Gold, Bronce, what else to say?
European Champs are over and of course there are some words to say. The last week down at the black sea was just perfect for me. Winning 3 of 4 medals is a balance i’ve never expected! I’m pretty curious now what the rest of the season will bring… …
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 4 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is a long leg from sandstone terrain with deep valleys in Czech Republic – making some interesting routechoice options. The chosen leg is leg number 7 in the Men 21E course from a national race in the Novy Bor area at June 6th 2010. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger). You may also take a look at a scanned version of the map with the complete course here (not including route choice on the leg in question). Full results with splits are available here. Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Note that the fastest runners have not drawn their route for this particular leg – Martin Janata who is best of the runners listed here finished 6th overall. See also maps from this race and nearby races in omaps.worldofo.com. If you participated in the race and know more about the route in question, please add a comment below! Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 17 2010
Today’s leg in Route to Christmas is the longest so far. Yet again we visit Switzerland – the Swiss are among the very best both at using Routegadget and at sending suggestions about legs for Route to Christmas. It seems like it is no coincidence that Switzerland is the world’s best orienteering nation these days. Today’s route was provided by Andreas Kyburz. – My club organized the TOM (Swiss Team Orienteering Championships) this November. There are 3 runners with only one SI card and you don’t have to run together). I was course setter and tried to create some routechoices, Kyburz wrote in his email – accompanied by a really long leg including some analysis about route lengths and ascent for the possible routechoices. – Although it was a team competition, all runners said that they were running the hole leg alone. That means they did not change the SI card, Kyburz explained. Thus the leg can be treated as any normal orienteering leg. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a lo…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 7 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is a long leg from Switzerland with several route choice options. The event is the 6th National event in Höhronen organized at October 3rd. The leg is from the Men 35 category – as the Men 35 in Switzerland seem to be better than the Men Elite at drawing their routes in Routegadget after the events. Thanks for Martin Lerjen for the tip – and to Gaudenz S. and Michael E. for drawing their routes on request from Martin to make the analysis more interesting. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. If you run the event yourself, please provide some analysis in the comments! The Men Elite category had a somewhat similar leg. Unfortunately only a few runners have drawn their routechoice – still here it is for you to take a look at. Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location. Omaps.worldofo.com The â…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 13 2010
This very long leg from the Hungarian Sprint Championships has deserved its spot in the 2010 edition of Route to Christmas due to the many different route choice options and the complexity in finding the best route. The leg was suggested by the controller for the event – Aron Less. The event was held on September 4th in Salgótarján – and the 9th leg in the men’s a-final is the chosen leg. As many as 15 of the 24 starters have drawn their routes! Thanks a lot to Aron Less for the tip – and also for providing his own analysis of the leg (see below). He also test-ran the route-choices on this particular leg. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Finally take a look at the analysis provided by Aron Less. As you can see both the splits of the runners and Less’s analysis confirms that the leftmost option is the best – and actually by as much as 30 seconds. The reason for this is that you av…
World of O: Dead running – separating method for the future?
Dead running is probably the separation method which has best potential for spreading runners without the course planner needing to make significant compromises (except for increased start interval). For all other known spreading methods, the course maker must change the course layout – i.e. the butterflies, phi-loops or the other spreading method “steals” part of the course. Yet, dead running has been given little attention. … get back the good route choice courses of the old days – The idea with “dead running” is to kill two birds with one stone, says the inventor of the method, Jarkko Ryyppö, also known as the man behind Routegadget. – We are trying to both eliminate the pack/following issues and get back the good route choice courses of the old days, Ryyppö explains. Read on to learn more about the method. Article series about separating This article is part IV in an article series about methods for separating runners in orienteering based on an extensive report on the topic. For background information about the report, see part I in the article series, which gives a general overview of the report along with main conclusions. Part I: The report Start Interval Phi loop implementations and start interval Part IV: Dead running (this part) Still untested – great potential Dead running was described and briefly discussed in the extensive report about separating runners in orienteering, but the method was not given much atte…
101 Orienteering Maps: Surebridge mountain
Only a few orienteering maps have such a scent of legendary as ‘Surebridge mountain’ does. The stories about mapping for WOC 1993 include some controversies, but the main fact is that the final product is a high quality map of world class terrain. You can love it and hate it – at the same time The WOC Classic race held on Surbridge Mt. map is still considered as one of the technically hardest WOC Classic courses ever. Allan Mogensen, the winner of the race seems to have an almost ‘love/hate’ relation to the area: “I loved this whole area mainly because of the huge amount of details – rocks, contours and thickets spread all over the map. And it was a great feeling to run the WOC having 110% faith in the perfectness of the map.” – but on the other hand, Allan explains: “the technical challenges were very high, not just because of the amount of details, but more because of the stony ground, which I really didn’t like. It was not my cup of tea. I had a lot of respect for the terrain and could really never push myself 100% physically. To me, it was one of the biggest technical challenges ever.” Two independent passes The Surebridge mountain map was done in two independent passes. The first pass was done by Mark Dominie, Janos Soter, J-J Coté and Kroum Sergiev through 1991 and 1992. The second pass was done in 1993 by Steve Key, the Australian mapper who also mapped for WOC 1985 in Bendigo, Australi…
World of O: Kauppi: – The real stuff is suffering from all the public controls
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…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 24 2010
What would be more fitting than to present a leg from The Course of the Year 2010 – Jukola – at the last day of Route to Christmas 2010? And as a big bonus, you get the winner interview from The Course of the Year 2010 – an interview with the course setter Ari Kattainen. Interview: Course setter Ari Kattainen – Course of the Year 2010 Q: When did you start planning the courses for Jukola 2010 – and how many hours do you think you spent on it? Some course examples were made in May 2004 for the Management Team of Jukola when we first time presented our plans to organize Jukola in Kytäjä. In 2004 we submitted an application to organize, Jukola 2009 but it wasn’t successful. We improved the application in 2005 for Jukola 2010, and then we got the rights to do it. Some of the controls and splits appears to be same as in the final courses. Serious planning started in 2008. For each control, ask yourself if it is really needed. My work in Kytäjä-Jukola included a lot of other duties in addition to course planning, and I used more than 2000 hours for the project. It sounds like a lot, but when split over seven years it is less than one hour per day. For a participant, Jukola might be just one out of thirty events per year, but for the organizer it could be 10% of a persons life. Competition Manager Risto Pirinen estimated that the total amount of work for Jukola 2010 was 140 000 hours. Q: What is the best course you have planned? I think it is th…
World of O: MOC 2010 Day 2: Maps and Results
Surprise victory for JWOC-champion Matthias Kyburz in the mens class in MOC 2010 – Helena Jansson took the overall victory among the women. The big favorite in the mens class – Daniel Hubmann – did a five minute mistake which cost him all possibilities for an overall victory. The second day of MOC 2010 was organized in the tricky Forest Umbra terrain – a limestone plateau carved with hundreds of depressions that make orienteering technically attractive. The competitors got what MOC promises in their “Follow-the-sun” slogan: A day full of sunshine – but strong winds made it a cold experience. Overall for Jansson In the womens race, Minna Kaupi took the lead when she came to the finish. 10 minutes later Simone Niggli Luder marked an incredible time. But Simone told that she had not a perfect race and the prelast starter Helena Jansson used her chance and took the victory at this race and won the MOC with 10 seconds. Comparing to the poll ahead of the competition, only 16% believed in Jansson, whereas more than half of the voters thought Niggli would take the victory. Who will win the MOC 2010 overall in the womens class?opinion 3 x Switzerland – 2 x Kyburz In the mens race, the medals went to 2 x Kyburz instead of 2 x Hubmann. Daniel Hubmann won the nightsprint ahead of his brother Martin – but after the middle distance race in the tricky Forest Umbra, JWOC champion Matthias Kyburz won with Baptiste Rollier in second…
Ultimate Orienteering: Jukola through the eyes of Olav Lundanes and Thierry Gueorgiou
Many weeks have passed since Jukola and the orienteering World’s focus has switched towards the future, however the memories remain forever and turn into legends. The following two stories told by Olav Lundanes and Thierry Gueorg……
O-training.net: Analyzing your map reading technique – Automagically!
How often do you read the map – and how does it influence on your orienteering speed and the amount of mistakes you do? With an accelerometer attached to the map or to your hand – and combining this with GPS data – it is possible to display on a map at which locations and for how long a runner reads the map. This gives very interesting possibilities regarding analysis of what happens before a runner does a mistake – and also to see if the map reading frequency and length is optimal (see illustration above taken from AMRD webpage, © map: OLG Bern). Swiss orienteer Michael Eglin has been working on a technique he denotes “Automated map reading detection (AMRD)” in which he uses an accelerometer (a device which can record its orientation relative to the ground) in order to record in which parts of the course a runner looks at the map. By combining this information with a GPS track of the route, the way the athlete reads the map can be analyzed. Why is this interesting for you as an orienteer? There are at least two very interesting applications for automated map reading detection: Analysis of map reading technique compared to other athletes in order to determine if the map reading technique is optimal. For example to see if the map reading frequency is too high/low, if the map reading time is too long/short (can be coupled to other technical training), how map reading influences on running speed, stop-time at controls / out of controls / in…
World of O: Road to WOC: Fjord-o Nordvestgaloppen 2010 (Maps)
Anders Nordberg, Francois Gonon, Anne Margrethe Hausken, Audun Weltzien, Helena Jansson and a lot of other top runners choose Fjord-o Nordvestgaloppen as part of their preparation for the World Orienteering Champs in Trondheim the second week of August. In the series “Road to WOC” we will present the road to WOC for some of the favourites and outsiders for the Trondheim championships – with focus on maps and selection of runners. This first article in the “Road to WOC” series gives you the maps from the first race of Fjord-o Nordvestgaloppen which started off with a (shortened) long distance race at 17:00 CET today. Thanks to the organizers for sending me the maps before the last start. Map Fjord-o Nordvestgaloppen Day 1 – W21 Map Fjord-o Nordvestgaloppen Day 1 – M21 (part 1 ; I have not received part 2 yet Webpage of Fjord-o Nordvestgaloppen and Startlist/results Article in NRK Sogn og Fjordande including picture of Francois Gonon Fjord-o Nordvestgaloppen is a 4-Day event with rest day on Friday. Maps for the other days of Fjord-o Nordvestgaloppen will be posted later in the week. Preparations in Sogndal Many non-Scandinavian runners have spent a lot of time training in Norwegian terrain – one of them is Francois Gonon (France) who has lived in Trondheim for the last half year, and who has spent a lot of time training in WOC relevant terrain. He arrived in Sogndal (the venue of Fjord-o Nordvestgaloppen) already Sunday, and h…
Minna Kauppi: It’s not the end of the world…
…but a new beginning. So I came home from Bulgaria with one a little bit bitter silver medal in relay (as I lost the gold in the end). In the sprint I got lost between small cottages and in the middle only the middle part of the course went well. But even though the finals in EOC didnt go according to plans, I feel good about the future. When things are not going too well, its so much easier to start making everythin so much better. If I had gotten all the medals Id wanted to, maybe I would have thought it would be enough later in Trondheim as well. Now, Im hungry to work harder. Still, theres a big but in my thoughts. I didnt run the long distance final in EOC as I noticed in the relay and middle that my body wasnt okay at all. The biggest problem is something I havent really talked about before. Ive had this chronic and stress-based disease, ulcerative colitis, which has been okay for the past three years but has during the past few months woken up again. So, its easy to figure that being a top-athletic is not always the best way to avoid stress. If theres a big inflammation in my colon going on, its just too hard for the body to do extreme performances. However, its not the end of the world and not the end of the season either. I just have to take it easy now and be very very careful in order to get my belly to work. If its better to not to compete too much during the summer, then I wont. Besides, even though I really have to develop my nerves and o-skills (because th…
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World of O: France Training Camp Maps: Worth a look!
You seldom get the possibility to get this much insight into how the best teams set up their training camps – and especially not in as interesting terrain. The Czech and Swedish National Teams had a great training camp in France the last week (instead of participating at Spring Cup). Czech National Team trainer Radek Novotny presents all the trainings on the webpage of the Czech National Team. Definitely worth a look! In addition to the two National Teams, there were also 10 other Swedish runners present, in addition to the French National Team/Thierry Gueorgiou in some trainings. Swedish junior Albin Ridefeldt – attended some of the trainings later in the week, and describes the Clermont Ferrand area as Heaven: – After 4 days with fantastic orienteering I am convinced. Clermont Ferrand has the best orienteering terrain in the world. The terrain is difficult, green and terrible, but as long as you have full control, it is just wonderful! (see the latest maps from Albin Ridefeldt in omaps.worldofo.com here) Maps and training manual Ahead of the training camp, a detailed training manual was published, including details about the focus of each training. Based on the training manual and the maps from the trainings, I present the two trainings from the first day below – for the rest of the trainings and maps see links at the bottom of this page. Moment training A welcome session consisting of several different exercises, ended by a very short sprint. The main g…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 11 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is leg from Hungary – a variant of the good old over-or-around-the-hill problem. The chosen leg is leg number 26 in the Men 21E course from the OCSB event at October 23rd 2010. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location. Omaps.worldofo.com The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2010-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute. There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each l…
World of O: JWOC Long: Map and results
Victories went to Pavel Kubat (Czech Republic) and Ida Bobach (Denmark) in today’s JWOC Long distance in Denmark. Sweden took silver medals in both categories – Johan Runesson among the men and Therese Klintberg among the women. The race development was very exciting – especially in the mens class were first Olle Boström (SWE) had an 8 minute lead in the finish for a long time, then Matthias Kyburz took over the lead with nearly two minutes. Johan Runesson came in to a new lead position towards the end of the race, and then finally Pavel Kubat took the gold medal at a very late start number. Take a look at the LiveBlog at the bottom of this page to replay the excitement. Maps The JWOC 2010 team served very demanding courses in interesting terrain. Here are the two courses from todays event: Map M20 Map W20 Maps with routechoices of the top runners will be available at the JWOC page later. Results men 1 Kubat,Pavel Czech Republic 1:18:48 + 00:00 2 Runesson,Johan Sweden 1:19:32 + 00:44 3 Kyburz,Matthias Switzerland 1:20:48 + 02:00 4 Kinneberg,Eskil Norway 1:20:58 + 02:10 5 Hansen,Rasmus Thrane Denmark 1:22:09 + 03:21 6 Boström,Olle Sweden 1:22:41 + 03:53 7 Bergman,Gustav Sweden 1:22:46 + 03:58 8 Sild,Lauri Estonia 1:23:34 + 04:46 9 Howald,Florian Switzerland 1:23:46 + 04:58 10 Vainio,Antti Finland 1:24:16 + 05:28 Results women 1 Bobach,Ida Denmark 1:01:55 + 00:00 2 Klintberg,Therese Sweden 1:03:46 + 01:51 3 Anttonen,Sari Fi…
Pasi Ikonen: New Year, New Methods?
Or are these new ones..? Firstly, training has been really good since the end of November (training diary). I’ve focused on “quality amount” type of training, so mainly low intensity training but not too much (training intensities). Ball games are also back in program because my back allows me to do them. And my new coach mr. Jarmo Heiskanen has even made some training programs for me. Last time I had a training plan was back in 1996…And my training diary is back online, check out some material there! Secondly, the winter seems to be an old-fashioned one here in Finland. That means a big amount of skiing during these darkest months of winter. The first training-camp on snow-free surface will not take place until the mid-February (in Alicante). Thirdly, it’s time to be an o-professor again! That means an increase of Polar hard- & software use will occur this year. Of course, I’ve used those special options all the time, but now it’s time to focus more on those important features of software (OwnOptimizer, Exertion –count, GPS). Then I’ll add some QuickRoute analysis featuring some Excel-calculations. Maybe these actions will rise some new thoughts about training and o-performance?PICTURES: Training diary 23.11-3.1 (DIARY) Training intensities 23.11-3.1 (SUMMARY) OwnOptimizer (TEST RESULTS) OwnOptimizer (CHART) …
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O-training.net: – How to become a WOC medal winner and other presentations
“How to become a WOC medal winner” (Janne Salmi), “How can we improved the quality of the o-technical training” (Eva Jurenikova) and “Developments in the international elite orienteering” (Janne Salmi) were three of the presentations presented at Elittränarträffen in Sweden which  should be very interesting to the readers of o-training.net. 60 of Swedens elite trainers within orienteering were present at the Elittränarträffen – with some very interesting sessions. See below for some of the content – and link to the full presentations at the bottom of this article. “How to become a WOC medal winner” (Janne Salmi) Janne Salmi presented the skills and qualities needed for a  top-orienteer based on a combination of previous knowledge and the coaches and athletes comments. Also included in the presentation was the background and training of the WOC medal-winners of Trondheim, both in their junior-years and in 2010. There is a lot of interesting content in this presentation for anybody interested in getting to the top in orienteering. Some example content: See above for big thumbnails of some slides related to how the skills and qualities vary through the years when going from a junior orienteer to an elite orienteer – this is of course also important related to where to put priorities in the training. See below for big thumbnails of two slides related to training amount, 3000 meter times and some other …
Minna Kauppi: Sadistic
My bottom, hamstrings, lower back and also head are a bit jammed at the moment, as I took part in the traditional Sadism-orienteering in the morning. 25 km was the planned route but I was so eager to play my own game in the beginning that I took some sadistic extra curves, too. I quess, theyll put some results on Teräs webpage sometime soon. I was still (and again) in the leading group with Terä guys before the last loop but when Jani and Jones really started to run I heard this little crack in my spine (just mentally:)) and noticed that my game was over. It was really sadistic to try to jog the last kilometers so slowly. However, this kind of competitions are great opportunities to test oneself. You dont really make these almost three hour long orienteering sessions every week. Besides, it was just so relaxing to get back home, put the sauna on and grill some sausages. Now, Im planning to just lay on our coach the rest of the day. By the way, my calendar says that in two weeks Ill be finally able to start to make sadistic trainings more frequently. And Im definitely going to kick some ass then. Especielly because my ass is so tired of all the sitting in the class:)…
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 6 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is a really long leg from Pinseløpene in Kongsberg, Norway. Kongsberg is famous in the orienteering world for having many interesting terrain types within a small area – and several important competitions have been held around Kongsberg. One example is this year Military World Champs which was held in the Kongsberg area – another example is WOC 1978 which was also held in the Kongsberg area. After many legs in Men 21, we are now up in Men 50 category (as very few Men 21 runners have drawn their routes). We are looking at leg number 8 in the H50. Thanks to Terje Mathisen for the tip about this leg. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg below. The best times are run for a direct variant. Terje Mathisen’s comment about the leg (run the southern-most variant): – I think I took the optimal route choice with respect to avoiding uphill in “lyng” (high undergrowth). Ple…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 10 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is a leg from the United States with several routechoice options. The competition is the 31st West Point Orienteering Meet on May 2nd 2010, and control 2 in the blue course is chosen. This is one of those legs where you feel you have to choose between “several evils” – no choice looking perfect… The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg below. Ross Smith has the fastest time by running furthest to the left – avoiding some climb and green compared to the ones running more straight, but instead running on stony ground and running a longer route. Based on the information available, I can’t say if straight or left is faster. The right variants seem slower based on the runners who have drawn their route. You find all information about the event – including invitation and results here. Bonus leg: Leg 15 Leg 15 in the same competition is a bonus leg – go…
Matthias Müller: Weltmeister!
Trondheim. City Square. Sprint….
Graham Gristwood: Recently discovered footage of orienteering from 1973
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 9 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Spain – in a maze-like area full of rocks, paths and green areas. The chosen leg is leg number 18 in the Men Elite course from the CEO 2010 event at April 4th 2010. This leg is not of those very long legs where you search a lot for a possible route – it is rather a short leg which included due to the interesting terrain. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. The basis for choosing your route on this type of leg is a bit different than on the longer legs which have been the topic in Route to Christmas the previous days. Here typically simplification and risk-reduction while keeping the speed at a maximum is what dictates the choice. Without having been in the terrain, it looks to me like attacking the control from below is the most secure way – following e.g. the blue route of BB. Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com You find the complete map and Routegadget info in …
Damien Renard: Mathis
Mathis is born today: 26/02/2010He came on a sunny day over Lofoten.It was nice to drive through Lofoten to get to the hospital (1h15 to drive) near Leknes.It is now time to rest and pack to move back to Kongsberg.2010 has started really nice a nice, healthy boy and very good training so far for myself.I hope the O-season is going to be nice as well.I am really happy to move back to Kongsberg soon to get ready for the biginning of the season with NM natt in Halden, test races in Clermont-ferrand in France and then Tiomila….
101 Orienteering Maps: Les Bouzigasses
Aveyron sounds like magic in the ears of many orienteers – the reason being the very special terrain which is both very runnable and very technical. The Aveyron terrain gives you a lot of navigational pleasure – if you manage to adjust your speed to the orienteering skills – and the open terrain with the big rocks give a special atmosphere. The question is not if there will be an Aveyron map on the list of the 101 Orienteering Maps you should run on before you die, but rather which Aveyron map to choose.  For now, our choice has landed on the map Les Bouzigasses, which was used for the Junior European Cup long distance in 2007 and for the 5th stage of French 6 Days in 2008. The hardest technically This was not an easy choice – we had to confer with the master of the Aveyron terrain and the King of Middle distance, Thierry Gueorgiou, to pick Les Bouzigasses: – There are many good maps in Aveyron – so it is difficult to choose only one of them, Gueorgiou responds when asked to pick a single one. When only one has to be chosen, Gueorgiou lands on  either Le Patus or Les Bouzigasses. – Les Bouzigasses has a very nice part with narrow passages.  Le Patus is special because the map contains several different types of terrain [Editors note: Le Patus was used for the 4th stage of the French 6 Days 2008]. In the end Les Bouzigasses was chosen for this article because of its very special north-western part. We invite you to discuss…
World of O: Vote for The Course of the Year 2010 now!
Set up your personal Top 5 List from the 60 nominated maps- and win prizes from our sponsors! The 60 nominated maps have been chosen based on submissions from the WorldofO.com readers and some of the worlds top orienteers through the last two weeks. Now YOU can choose “The Course of the Year 2010″ through your vote! 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. Voting is open from Monday November 15th until Monday November 22nd. When voting you will notice that it is not easy to set up a “Top 5 List”, as none of the courses are perfect. Still – do your best, and help the courses and course-setters you think deserve it towards the top! Note! There may be issues in some browsers with the voting process, but the voting should work well in most newer browsers (but not on mobile phones). Sorry to those of you with old browsers, but the drag-and-drop makes it so much easier for people to set up their list. Vote for “The Course of the Year 2010″ here See all the nominated maps here Read the Intro-article to “The Course of the Year 2010″ Temptation Island Gueorgiou: Orimattila and Pegu…
Ines Brodmann: Halbmarathon in 1:20:43
Am diesjährigen Hallwilerseelauf packte ich die Chance und lief meinen ersten Halbmarathon! Ohne spezielle Vorbereitung aber mit dem Ziel ein Tempo von 4 min pro Kilometer durchzuziehen. Es wurde schwierig ohne Stoppuhr die Zeiten einzuhalten, dank Michi wusste ich nach 2km wie schnell wir unterwegs waren. :-) Der Anfangsteil ist leicht fallend aber trotzdem sind wir recht schnell gestartet (3‘30‘‘ pro Kilometer). …
World of O: World Cup Final Middle: Map and Results
Thierry Gueorgiou and Simone Niggli took home the victories in todays World Cup over the middle distance in Switzerland – in a terrain which was not as technical as the runners had expected. – It was not very technical orienteering, Thierry Gueorgiou told after the event. – The map was easy to read, but the runnability was not clear from looking on the map, so you had to be flexible in your orienteering, the tall French runner told after winning his second World Cup title in a row. Maps Map WC Final 2010 Middle Women Map WC Final 2010 Middle Men Results Men 1.GUEORGIOU ThierryFRA35:30 2.LUNDANES OlavNOR36:38+01:08 3.HUBMANN DanielSUI36:46+01:16 4.MÃœLLER MatthiasSUI37:02+01:32 5.ROLLIER BaptisteSUI37:15+01:45 6.HUOVILA JarkkoFIN37:25+01:55 7.HALDIN MatsFIN37:27+01:57 8.KHRAMOV AndreyRUS37:34+02:04 9.MERZ MatthiasSUI38:00+02:30 9. KAAS Carl WaalerNOR38:00+02:30 Women 1.NIGGLI-LUDER SimoneSUI37:46 2.JANSSON HelenaSWE39:22+01:36 3.FASTING MariNOR41:43+03:57 4.BILLSTAM AnnikaSWE41:55+04:09 5.FRIEDERICH RahelSUI42:10+04:24 6.PERSSON LinaSWE42:44+04:58 7.CEJKA CarolineSUI43:14+05:28 8.RANTALA MariaFIN43:18+05:32 9.LÃœSCHER SaraSUI43:39+05:53 10.HAUSKEN Anne MargretheNOR43:41+05:55 Results men (from live results) Results women (from live results) …
World of O: Asplövet and “The Course of the Year”
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 – …
O-training.net: Keep it simple!
This simplification exercise from the French Team WOC 2011 training camp in the Jura region found in the map archive of Vincent Coupat looks like a very good variant of the orienteering exercise “Run on a simplification map”. Making a good simplification exercise requires a lot of skill – and often making the exercise is even better training than running the exercise, as all of the simplification lies in making the map. To get good value of running on a simplification map which you have not drawn yourself, it is important to do thorough work on analyzing the training afterwards. One part of this analysis could be to draw a new simplification map based on the outcome of the training. Some resources related to simplification in o-training.net: The map “Keep it simple!” Â in Omaps.worldofo.com (of which an extract is shown above) Orienteering exercise “Run on simplification map” in O-training.net wiki Orienteering exercise “Draw simplification map” in O-training.net wiki All exercises related to simplification in O-training.net wiki Maps from the WOC 2011 area on omaps.worldofo.com: Maps close to the “Keep it simple!” map …
101 Orienteering Maps: PlitviÄka jezera
Hidden in the middle of deep forests of Lika region in Croatia, Plitvice lakes are one of the Europe’s top natural attractions. Thousands of tourists vist this National park every year, but did you know that just a few steps off of the main paths there is a real wilderness, an orienteers’ treat at its best? On Darko Sakar’s (OK Maksimir, Zagreb) initiative in 1988 the first orienteering map of Plitvice was made by Arne Dirdal and Mats Karlsson, however, it was not before 18 years later that the first competition was actually organized there. In the period 2006 – 2007 a part of the map was renewed by Slovenian-Croatian and Czech mappers. This time it was Dario Å tambuk, a Zagreb based dentist and a keen orienteer, who decided to revive the Plitvice project. I happened to be one of the lucky guys invited for mapping. Strong similarity of relief features Despite some heavy rains and cold hands during my stay in Plitvice, mapping of the area was fun, though I have to admit that running on the unknown part of the map made by Czech mappers was even far better. The main challenge of the area is the lack of paths, occasionally greenish vegetation which hinders visibility and above all a strong similarity of relief features. You lose map contact once, and most likely you will end up with a bad race. The fastest way to navigate through this area is to use the gentle ridges and flat hill tops between depressions as kind of line objects whenever you can. A skil…
Fabian Hertner: Nice!
This years 10Mila ended with a big smile on all our faces! We could win the 10Mila 2010 with a margin of more than 6 minutes after several years being very closeto the victory….
Gernot Kerschbaumer: Difference between Austrian and Finnish Middle Champs
Austria: Men Elite: 25 starters (all in all with long and short: 64), no qualification Finland: Men Elite: 396 starters: 7 qualification heats, 7 per heat qualify to the A-Final Well, I arrive one day prior to the Finnish Middle distance championship and did one training in a not very similar forest. Still, I felt prepared and confident to have a realistic chance to qualify. As I was not ranked before, I had the very early start time (9:00). There are advantages and disadvantages of……
World of O: KnockOut Sprint: Orienteering out to the people?
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 …
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 3 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from a really long leg in Norway – featuring Olav Lundanes and Anders Nordberg among others. The chosen leg is leg number 9 in course from the Norwegian qualification races for WOC in Trondheim organized at July 4th in Verdal, Norway. Note that there was no GPS tracking for the Norwegian runners – but for the Swedish runners who had the same leg there was GPS tracking. Some details from the GPS analysis of the Swedish runners is included below. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger). Note that the leg goes from north (control number 8) to south (control number 9). Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: GPS data: Swedish test races Sweden had their WOC selection races in the same location with very similar courses. As Sweden had GPS-Tracking for many of their runners via GPSSeuranta, it is interesting to take a look at some of their routes on this particular leg. Below I have chosen the three Swedish runners who are fastest on each of three alternative rou…
Minna Kauppi: :) ;) :D
I like to use smilies. At the moment, theyre really smiling faces and not just some lousy idiotic creatures;)The TC in Bulgaria went okay even though I was mentally quite down. We made some nice and effective sessions anyway and as I found this other life with schedules and studies this week, Im more than happy to announce that the sun is shining. Even my legs seemed to like the days that I didnt do any third nor the second training as today I made a great run in Vaajakosken Teräs test run. (38.37 said Mr time) and the boys even said I might get a place in Tiomila team. Well, if chicks had cocks then…maybe. But in fact our team isnt even considering to travel there anymore. Too far away for us and too many big bellies (or just one;))for us. Nothing else to say. But something important. Lets just enjoy our lives like we only had one and think of the moments like there the only ones we have! With heart, Minna PS: Eva J., noticed your comment and hope youre coping with all the sporty life better than I do. For me, its a relief to have something else to do, too. Even trainings are going better when I dont have just one thing to think of!…
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 18 2010
As Saturday is usually a quiet day here at World of O, we bring two legs in Route to Christmas today. Both are from the same competition in Switzerland in March this year – the second National competition. And we have some big names on the startlist – Fabian Hertner, Marc Lauenstein, Martin Hubmann and Andreas Kyburz. Thanks a lot to Marcel Schiess for the suggestion! Thanks also to Martin Hubmann, Marc Lauenstein and Andreas Kyburz for drawing their routes on request. – It was a tough competitions because the ground was softened by the rain. The slopes were very slippery, Martin Hubmann explains about the race. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. As you can see, there are two main choices: Either taking the rightmost route where you drop down a steep hill and have to run up again at the end of the leg – or take the upper left route which has less ascent but is somewhat longer. I’m quite sure I would ha…
World of O: Vote for The Achievement of 2010 now!
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…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 2 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from the Swiss Jura mountains – featuring Thierry Gueorgiou, Olav Lundanes, Daniel Hubmann among others. The race chosen is the middle distance in the World Cup final at the PostFinance Sprint – and the chosen leg is leg number 4 in the mens class. This particular leg is interesting because it has several route choice options – and you have to choose how to attack the big hill. Runnability in the forest is quite good. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg: Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location. Omaps.worldofo.com The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O was very popular the two last year – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2010-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are sti…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 21 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from the first competition in the Nordic Tour in Finland. The leg is not as long as the legs of the last days – it is rather chosen because this is the event I have found with the most GPS units applied [77(!) GPS units just in the mens class] – and therefore this is a very interesting event for some analysis using the GPS data. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at the best splits for this leg based on the GPS data (I could not find the splits anywhere online – they might be off by some seconds – hopefully not so much as to change the conclusions:). As you can see Valentin Novikov is fastest on the leg on a direct/left route – some seconds faster than the right and left variants. When we start looking in more detail at the GPS data, it starts to get more interesting. First a density map which shows how many runners choose each route. Red color means that more runners choose a particular route. As you can see, there are th…
101 Orienteering Maps: Sekotsuji (Mt. Fuji 富士山)
As it last errupted in 1707, Mt. Fuji, the highest peak in Japan and one of the 3 holy mountains in the country, is still considered to be an active volcano. Through thousands of years of eruptions lava flows produced subtle formations in lower slopes of the mountain. Uncountable knolls and small depressions make things very interesting for orienteers in quest for unique navigational challenges. Meet the Sekotsuji map! Softest terrain ever?! The fact is that it is not easy to find a flat, runnable area suitable for orienteering in Japan. The cedar forests beneath Mt. Fuji, however, are the main exception to that – explains Rob Plowright, Japan based Australian and former coach of the Japanese national squad. There are actually several maps made in the Fuji area, but Sekotsuji is the most interesting one. The terrain there is of mixed technical difficulty – some areas are not too dense with relief features, while others are highly complex. The vegetation varies a lot affecting runability from bad to very good – and therefore gives opportunities for good route choice planning. What is quite unique about this terrain is its soft ground: -I remember when running downhill your shoes where filled with loose earth, because of the softness of the topsoil. It was not comparable to any other forest I have visited. It’s a bit like running in sand, but even softer. Even if the physical demandings of the terrain suited me perfectly, I wanted to use the tracks a lo…
World of O: Lundanes: – The terrain was completely unknown
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 Cours…
World of O: 3 Minutes Start Interval for WOC Long!
UPDATED 8/2! The old Rule 26.2 is now in Rule 1.2 – Orienteers are expected to orienteer independently….
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø: World Cup Long distance in Annecy
Today the 10th World Cup race of the season was held with a Long distance in Annecy in France.I did a good technical race until we passed the arena. But at the 23rd control I missed 9 minutes, and in the end of the race I got tired and did several other mistakes. 0 Comments …
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 15 2010
Today we are back to Switzerland for some hilly terrain in the Swiss test races this spring. The chosen event for today is the 4th National Swiss event of the year organized on May 9th 2010. There are interesting legs in several of the courses – but the category H18 is chosen as 16 runners(!) – including most of the top runners – have drawn their route in this category. That makes the routes & splits more representative – which again gives more fun for you. Thanks a lot to Severin Howald for the tip! The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. As you can see, the routes taken by the top runners vary significantly. Fastest of all is Aschwanden who choose the lower variant – whereas Truttman choosing the upper variant is 10 seconds slower. The route which seems slowest is the more direct route which involves a lot of up and down. Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com You find the complete map and R…
101 Orienteering Maps: Cappadocia: Terrain presentation
The Cappadocia region in Turkey is very special, and orienteering among the special Cappadocia rock features will be extraordinary. All that is needed is an orienteering map – the work towards getting this remarkable terrain mapped has been started. Sandstone According to Czech mapper AleÅ¡ Hejna, who has recently been in Turkey evaluating the terrain and its suitability for orienteering, the terrain can best be described as a “stony forest”. The stone features are  sandstones, not unlike what you find in many interesting areas in Hejna’s home country. However, the sand stone features in Cappadocia are often even more eye-catching than the Czech variants, due to them being located in non-forested areas and the more yellow color. Labyrinths The relief consists of a high plateau over 1000 meter in altitude, that is pierced by volcanic peaks. In this area, there are a lot of interesting sandstone formations, which are actually volcanic deposits. Many of the sandstone formations create labyrinths, rock cities and passages – making the terrain very suitable and interesting for orienteering. The volcanic deposits are soft rocks that the people of the villages at the heart of the Cappadocia Region carved out to form houses, churches and monasteries. According to Hejna’s reports, this most detailed terrain around the villages can be mapped as a sprint map – giving some challenging orienteering. – Turkish runners are also waiting with impa…
World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 19 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas from a hilly Czech terrain – giving interesting opportunities for the course planner. The chosen leg is leg number 11 in the H21E course from the Gigasport Èeský pohár organized at May 15th 2010. Thanks a lot to Eva Jurenikova for sending in a tip about this leg! The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): Webroute Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Although there are many possibilities to make big curves to save some altitude, it seems like the fastest option here (if you are strong enough) is to take all the hills directly – and keep quite close to the straight line based on the routes drawn. However, the one running the left route (Roman Zbranek) seems to have had a non-optimal route the last part into the control – in addition he is quite far behind the winner in the overall race. Thus I suspect that taking a left option might nevertheless be at least as fast as the direct route if the route is run well. If you run the race or have…
Minna Kauppi: FALLing
I noticed that orienteering can be fun after WOC as well. Usually Im more or less sick of competing, but this yar the excellent terrains has kept my good mood and Ive even been perfoming really well. The Huippuliiga (Finnish o-league) finals were held in Inkoo with a chase start according to the prologues results. (GPS). I won:) Last Sunday we took twice the gold on the bare rocks of Karjaa in the Finnish champs long distance.(My route) and the splits . I was doing an (almost) excellent job in both races, so Pasi decided that I should run the regional night champs in mens class tonight.;)Start list. Even though orienteering has been fun, Ive been really lazy when it comes to training. However, I did try some zumba for the first time yesterday. I ran there with a tired hip but came home with a great feeling. So i can really recommend some zumba for those who need some recovery for the tired and thight hips! Otherwice, Ive started my teacher training now and it taks pleny of time and Ive also been renovering some furniture for our new home. In addition, weve been causing trouble for the police. First I collided with an elk and got a nice fom for our car (and the elk got killed afterwards). Last weekend Pasi was too fast after the Finnish champs as well and got nice fines. So with a relief of staying alive and anger of loosing a great deal of money, I quess well have to take it easy outside the forrest. By the way. I wont be able to take part in the World Cup in France (nor the…
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World of O: Route to Christmas: Day 14 2010
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is another long leg from Czech Republic. This actually looks like a training course, but it still has an interesting long leg for which many runners have drawn their route. The chosen leg is number 11 in a course which consists of some long legs with routechoice options and several control-picking parts in tricky, stony areas. The training/competition was organized at April 4th 2010. If you know more about this training/competition, please add a comment below. Please don’t forget to tip about good candidates for Route to Christmas. I have only got a few good Routegadget-choices left (thanks to some tips from you) – and then I’ll have to go over to GPSSeuranta legs from Nordic terrain the last days until Christmas. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger): New: A giveaway for you!? We have been lucky enough to be able to give away a free copy of the book “O-Boka 2010″ (including shipping to wherever you live) to one of you who draws your suggested route for todays edition of ‘Route to Christmas’ in the Webroute below (remember to leave your e-mail address if you want to receive an email if drawn as a winner). “O-Boka 2010″ is a book in Norwegian language about the orienteering season 2010 including nearly 50 maps with …
Anders Nordberg: Treningshilsen fra Frankrike
Sondag for halvannen uke siden satt jeg meg ned……
World of O: WOC Middle: Map, Routes and Results
Very popular victories to Carl Waaler Kaas (NOR) and Minna Kauppi (FIN) in today’s middle distance at the World Champs in Trondheim.  While Kauppi had a clear victory, the mens class was tight all the way until the end – Kaas finishing only a few seconds ahead of Peter Öberg. The ones following the GPS on the arena or on the web TV could observe how Waaler Kaas was 5 seconds behind Öberg at the top of the hill, but took second by second down the hill and into the finish. There is no better way to show the excitement in orienteering – not even with a mass start race. Map Map WOC Middle final 2010 men Map WOC Middle final 2010 women Routes Results women 1 Kauppi,Minna FIN 30:01 + 00:00 2 Niggli,Simone SUI 30:21 + 00:20 3 Andersen,Marianne NOR 30:57 + 00:56 4 Jansson,Helena SWE 31:24 + 01:23 5 Billstam,Annika SWE 32:05 + 02:04 6 Fincke,Anni-Maija FIN 32:21 + 02:20 7 Søes,Signe DEN 32:38 + 02:37 8 Hausken,Anne Margrethe NOR 32:48 + 02:47 9 Brozkova,Dana CZE 33:16 + 03:15 10 Koenig-Salmi,Vroni SUI 33:34 + 03:33 Results men Coming soon …
