MOC Day 3 & SpringCup Relay: Maps and Results

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 27 Mar 2011@16:07

moc3
Audun Weltzien and Annika Billstam took the overall MOC victories – whereas Vaajakosken Terä and Halden SK took the victories in the Spring Cup Relay. See maps from all three MOC and Spring Cup days below.

At the Mediterranean Open Championship (MOC), Weltzien did three strong races – and won the overall after victory with nearly three minutes ahead of Øystein Kvaal Østerbø today. The last MOC race today was a middle distance race in terrain made tricky through the many green areas which were difficult to read on the map (see map extract above).  Annika Billstam barely managed to hold Sarah Rollins and Angela Wild behind her in the overall standings – finishing third behind Wild and Rollings today.

At the Spring Cup relay, Vajakosken Terä took the victory after some confusion with disqualified teams – IFK Göteborg and Pan-Kristianstad came to the finish as winners and second place – but both these teams were disqualified due to running through a forbidden area according to orientering.no. Instead Vajakosken Terä took the victory – Vajakosken Terä was first into the finish, but had however first been disqualified due to a missing registration at a control (but the control in the forest showed that the team had been there, and Vajakosken Terä was thus reinstated at the results list according to orientering.no).

Maps

Here you find maps from the MOC and Spring Cup races this weekend.

Results MOC 2011

MOC 2011 consisted of three races – two sprints and one middle distance race. The sprint the second day had a very interesting part – see this video from Emiliano Corona to get an impression:


mocsample

moc2011ex_s

Results men overall
1. Weltzien Audun H. NOR 19.41 ( 2) 17.18 ( 1) 37.24 (1 ) 74.23
2. Lysell Jerker SWE 19.57 ( 4) 17.50 ( 2) 40.13 (2 ) 78.00 3.37
3. Osterbo Oystein Kva NOR 19.11 ( 1) 18.59 ( 5) 41.13 (3 ) 79.23 5.00
4. Gvildys Jonas Vytau LTU 20.16 ( 6) 18.25 ( 4) 42.15 (5 ) 80.56 6.33
5. Tenani Alessio ITA 20.14 ( 5) 19.03 ( 6) 41.44 (4 ) 81.01 6.38
6. Lind William SWE 20.26 ( 8) 18.01 ( 3) 45.02 (10) 83.29 9.06
7. Seppi Marco ITA 20.27 ( 9) 19.51 ( 8) 43.31 (7 ) 83.49 9.26
8. Carraglio Michele ITA 22.17 (14) 21.10 (16) 44.11 (8 ) 87.38 13.15
9. Negrello Manuel ITA 21.52 (11) 20.38 (11) 45.28 (12) 87.58 13.35
10. Lombriser Stefan SUI 21.47 (10) 20.16 ( 9) 47.44 (15) 89.47 15.24

Results women overall
1. Billstam Annika SWE 19.22 ( 2) 17.34 ( 2) 41.16 (3 ) 78.12
2. Rollins Sarah GBR 20.00 ( 5) 17.54 ( 3) 40.57 (2 ) 78.51 0.39
3. Wild Angela SUI 20.05 ( 6) 18.51 ( 6) 40.50 (1 ) 79.46 1.34
4. Friederich Rahel SUI 19.25 ( 3) 18.41 ( 5) 42.00 (4 ) 80.06 1.54
5. Brodmann Ines SUI 19.17 ( 1) 20.16 ( 7) 42.42 (5 ) 82.15 4.03
6. Eliasson Lena SWE 19.58 ( 4) 16.47 ( 1) 45.57 (8 ) 82.42 4.30
7. Egseth Elise NOR 22.13 (13) 18.33 ( 4) 44.28 (7 ) 85.14 7.02
8. Olsson Johanna SWE 21.00 ( 8) 20.37 (10) 44.16 (6 ) 85.53 7.41
9. Guizzardi Michela ITA 20.37 ( 7) 20.33 ( 9) 46.33 (10) 87.43 9.31
10. Johansson Emma SWE 22.12 (12) 20.28 ( 8) 46.33 (10) 89.13 11.01

Results Spring Cup Relay 2011

Men (official)

1 3 FIN-Vaajakosken Terä 1 3:35:00
Juha Sorvisto 84 55:40
Anders Nordberg 78 52:29
Pasi Ikonen 80 38:21
Jonne Lakanen 79 1:08:30

2 9 SWE-Göteborg-Majorna OK 1 3:36:32
Vegard Brun Saga 55:24
Ola Martner 54:43
Johan Strand 40:03
Johan Runesson 1:06:22

3 31 NOR-HaldenSK 1 3:42:16
Jon Pedersen 80 56:12
Søren Bobach 89 53:53
Marius Bjugan 81 40:23
Olav Lundanes 87 1:11:48

Women (official)
1 101 NOR-HaldenSK 1 2:43:36
Celine Dodin 79 51:38
Ida Marie Næss Bjørgul 88 52:41
Galina Vinogradova 79 59:17

2 113 NOR-HaldenSK 2 2:50:49
Hollie Orr 89 52:00
Elena Roos 91 57:30
Léa Vercellotti 89 1:01:19

3 118 SWE-Göteborg-Majorna OK 1 2:55:15
Bodil Halvarsson 59:36
Petra Halvarsson 1:00:01
Lina Strand 55:38

Results Spring Cup Classic 2011

Men Saturday Long (unofficial results – from live results)
1 Olav Lundanes NOR-HaldenSK 1:12:17
2 Francois Gonon SWE-IFK Göteborg 1:14:27
3 Johan Runesson SWE-Göteborg-Majorna OK 1:15:24
4 Gernot Kerschbaumer SWE-OK Pan Kristianstad 1:15:54
5 Claus Hallingdal Bloch SWE-OK Pan Kristianstad 1:16:08
6 Søren Bobach NOR-HaldenSK 1:17:11
7 Adam Kovacs SWE-OK Pan Kristianstad 1:17:37
8 Rasmus Djurhuus NOR-Kristiansand OK 1:18:04
9 Søren Schwartz SWE-IFK Göteborg 1:18:07
10 Vincent Coupat NOR-HaldenSK 1:18:50

Women Saturday Long (unofficial results – from live results)
1 Signe Søes SWE-IFK Lidingö 0:56:50
2 Maja Alm SWE-Ulricehamns OK 0:58:13
3 Annika Rihma DEN-Farum Tisvilde OK 0:59:07
4 Ida Marie Næss Bjørgul NOR-HaldenSK 1:00:26
5 Celine Dodin NOR-HaldenSK 1:00:49
6 Galina Vinogradova NOR-HaldenSK 1:01:27
7 Lina Strand SWE-Göteborg-Majorna OK 1:01:50
8 Hollie Orr NOR-HaldenSK 1:02:30
9 Léa Vercellotti NOR-HaldenSK 1:06:27
10 Signe Klinting SWE-Ulricehamns OK 1:07:48

MOC Day 2 & SpringCup Long: Maps and Results

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 26 Mar 2011@14:55

springcup
Olav Lundanes and Signe Søes took the victories on the long distance race at Spring Cup today. Lundanes took the victory two minutes ahead of Francois Gonon with Runesson in third. Søes was two minutes ahead of Maja Alm with Annika Rihma in third. Note also Ida Bobach, winning D19-20E with 12 minutes!

Note! This article is according to unofficial results! It will be updated if the official results are different!

Maps

Here you find maps from the MOC and Spring Cup races so far this weekend.

Spring Cup 2011

This weekend we have the traditional Nordic season opening in Denmark – Spring Cup – with a night relay today, a classic race Saturday and a relay on Sunday.

Men Saturday Long (unofficial results – from live results)
1 Olav Lundanes NOR-HaldenSK 1:12:17
2 Francois Gonon SWE-IFK Göteborg 1:14:27
3 Johan Runesson SWE-Göteborg-Majorna OK 1:15:24
4 Gernot Kerschbaumer SWE-OK Pan Kristianstad 1:15:54
5 Claus Hallingdal Bloch SWE-OK Pan Kristianstad 1:16:08
6 Søren Bobach NOR-HaldenSK 1:17:11
7 Adam Kovacs SWE-OK Pan Kristianstad 1:17:37
8 Rasmus Djurhuus NOR-Kristiansand OK 1:18:04
9 Søren Schwartz SWE-IFK Göteborg 1:18:07
10 Vincent Coupat NOR-HaldenSK 1:18:50

Women Saturday Long (unofficial results – from live results)
1 Signe Søes SWE-IFK Lidingö 0:56:50
2 Maja Alm SWE-Ulricehamns OK 0:58:13
3 Annika Rihma DEN-Farum Tisvilde OK 0:59:07
4 Ida Marie Næss Bjørgul NOR-HaldenSK 1:00:26
5 Celine Dodin NOR-HaldenSK 1:00:49
6 Galina Vinogradova NOR-HaldenSK 1:01:27
7 Lina Strand SWE-Göteborg-Majorna OK 1:01:50
8 Hollie Orr NOR-HaldenSK 1:02:30
9 Léa Vercellotti NOR-HaldenSK 1:06:27
10 Signe Klinting SWE-Ulricehamns OK 1:07:48

MOC 2011

Gabriele Viale has again managed to attract several of the top elite runners to the Mediterranean Open Championships (MOC) in southern Italy– this time three of the big sprint favourites for WOC in France were fighting for the top positions in the mens class – Kvaal Østerbø, Hubmann and Jerker Lysell who finished fourth today. Strong runners like Annika Billstam and Lena Eliasson are on the startlist in the womens class- finishing second and fourth today, respectively.

MOC 2011 consists of three events:

  • Friday 25th March – 1st stage in Castelvetrano district
  • Saturday 26th March – 2nd stage in Gibellina
  • Sunday 27th March – 3rd stage in Selinunte/Castelvetrano

Results men
1. Weltzien Audun H. NOR 17.18
2. Lysell Jerker SWE 17.50
3. Gvildys Jonas Vytau LTU 18.25
4. Osterbo Oystein Kva NOR 18.59
5. Tenani Alessio ITA 19.03
6. Bostrom Marten FIN 19.49
7. Seppi Marco ITA 19.51
8. Lombriser Stefan SUI 20.16
9. Corona Emiliano ITA 20.17
10. Negrello Manuel ITA 20.38

Results women
1. Eliasson Lena SWE 16.47
2. Billstam Annika SWE 17.34
3. Rollins Sarah GBR 17.54
4. Egseth Elise NOR 18.33
5. Friederich Rahel SUI 18.41
6. Wild Angela SUI 18.51
7. Brodmann Ines SUI 20.16
8. Johansson Emma SWE 20.28
9. Guizzardi Michela ITA 20.33
10. Olsson Johanna SWE 20.37

Ski WOC Long Mass start: Live from 12:00 CET

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 26 Mar 2011@8:00

After a webTV production with great potential from the mixed relay on Thursday, the long distance mass start on the program for the ski-orienteers in Tänndalen, Sweden today. According to the reports there should be live GPS tracking, live web-TV and live results from the race. The start has been delayed two hours due to snow and wind conditions – the women will start at 12:00 CET and the men at 12:20 CET.

I will be following the event through a LiveBlog here at World of O (as long as the GPS-tracking and webTV works) – I hope some of you will join in on the fun.

Info from earlier events

Some preview videos and other information from earlier in the Ski WOC week are included below.

Ski WOC 2011: Middle winners from SkiOTour Club on Vimeo.

Ski WOC 2011: Sprint winners from SkiOTour Club on Vimeo.

Program
  • Tuesday March 22nd. Sprint, 10:00 CET
  • Wednesday March 23rd. Middle, 10:00 CET
  • Thursday March 24th. Mixed relay 15:00 CET (2 skiers on each team, 3 times per skier)
  • Saturday March 26th. Long 10:00 12:00 CET
  • Sunday Match 27th. Relay 10:00 CET
Links

MOC 2011 Day 1: Maps and Results

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 25 Mar 2011@20:00


In a startfield with many strong sprinters, Øystein Kvaal Østerbø won the first stage in MOC 2011 ahead of Audun Weltzien and Daniel Hubmann. In the womens class, Ines Brodmann took the victory ahead of Annika Billstam. The sprint was held in a small towns with many small street – giving interesting orienteering challenges for the runners.

Gabriele Viale has again managed to attract several of the top elite runners to the Mediterranean Open Championships (MOC) in southern Italy– this time three of the big sprint favourites for WOC in France were fighting for the top positions in the mens class – Kvaal Østerbø, Hubmann and Jerker Lysell who finished fourth today. Strong runners like Annika Billstam and Lena Eliasson are on the startlist in the womens class- finishing second and fourth today, respectively.

MOC 2011 consists of three events:

  • Friday 25th March – 1st stage in Castelvetrano district
  • Saturday 26th March – 2nd stage in Gibellina
  • Sunday 27th March – 3rd stage in Selinunte/Castelvetrano
Maps

stage_1_M21

Results

Men 21
1. Osterbo Oystein Kvaaal NOR 19.11
2. Weltzien Audun H. NOR 19.41
3. Hubmann Daniel SUI 19.51
4. Lysell Jerker SWE 19.57
5. Tenani Alessio ITA 20.14
6. Ohlund Erik SWE 20.16

Women 21
1. Brodmann Ines SUI 19.17
2. Billstam Annika SWE 19.22
3. Friederich Rahel SUI 19.25
4. Eliasson Lena SWE 19.58
5. Rollins Sarah GBR 20.00
6. Wild Angela SUI 20.05

Spring Cup

This weekend we have also got the traditional Nordic season opening in Denmark – Spring Cup – with a night relay today, a classic race Saturday and a relay on Sunday.

Mixed relay at Ski WOC: Showed potential for good TV!

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 25 Mar 2011@5:00

The live headcam footage from the course was a first within orienteering – and made it possible to feel the speed of the athletes – and see some of the challenges the athletes met on the course. Even without GPS Tracking, the Mixed relay at Ski WOC yesterday showed good TV potential! That said, it was far from a perfect web-TV broadcast, but I saw so much potential that I had to write a short post about it after my negative article about the EOC Ski-o mass start earlier this winter!

Take a look at this video from around 37 minutes to see an example:

The good:

  • Live headcam footage is one of the best ways to show what the sport is really about. Great!
  • The mixed relay format chosen in ski-orienteering with two athletes, each skiing three legs of 10 minutes, worked very well. The race was tight, with several teams changing in the lead throughout the relay. I think this might work even better than the 2 men + 2 women mixed relay format suggested for WOC in foot orienteering (but maybe only if it is run in the forest instead of in a city – too early to say without testing different concepts, which should of course be done before a decision for the future WOC format is done…).

The bad:

  • No GPS-tracking. The reason for this was that the organizers could (1) only use it on the last leg due to the usual issues with GPS-tracking on relays and (2) they could only use it on a small part of the terrain due to reuse of parts of the terrain on the races this weekend. Thus they decided to skip it completely.
  • WebTV quality was not the best – and it was also lagging almost 10 minutes(!) towards the end of the race. The headcam quality was difficult to judge, but it looked like there is a way to go there as well.

Further improving the good parts – and including GPS-tracking on all legs, this could really have potential as a TV sport! In an article at ski-o.com yesterday it was written that the work around this mixed relay was partly driven by discussions about TV broadcasts at Eurosport from this Ski-o WOC. And actually I believe that this can be developed into something which is interesting for the sports channels – the key is in bringing the action, the excitement and both how and when the decisions happen out to the viewers. And I think the track there goes through further developing GPS-tracking and headcam footage – both for ski-orienteering and foot-orienteering. Developing the technical bit is more important than developing new concepts in my opinion – keep it simple, and improve the visualization!

More from Ski WOC 2011

Some links from the Ski WOC 2011:

  • Ski WOC 2011 webpage. From the organizers webpage:
    – Mixed relay has come to stay!, says today’s winner Andrej Grigorjev. In the Russian gold team was also Polina Malchikova, who won the middle distance in Tänndalen on Tuesday. But none of the skiers in the Russian duo was in the lead until the last distance, where Malchikova finished strong and was able to take the gold medal. The mixed relay gave both the spectators and the athletes an exciting race where four teams long was in the running for the medals. Finland’s experienced duo Matti Kerkinarkaus, WC-debutant 1998, and Liisa Antila finished in third place – beaten by Russia with 45,5 seconds. Norway came in fourth place (Hans Jörgen Kvåle and Stine Olsen Kirkevik). They were 1.04,9 after Russia.

  • Report from the sprint relay from IOF A real cliffhanger thriller took place today, when a mixed sprint relay was organized for the first time at the World Ski Orienteering Championships in Tänndalen Sweden.
Interviews/previews from earlier on in the championships

Ski WOC 2011: Middle winners from SkiOTour Club on Vimeo.

Ski WOC 2011: Sprint winners from SkiOTour Club on Vimeo.

Program
  • Tuesday March 22nd. Sprint, 10:00 CET
  • Wednesday March 23rd. Middle, 10:00 CET
  • Thursday March 24th. Mixed relay 15:00 CET (2 skiers on each team, 3 times per skier)
  • Saturday March 26th. Long 10:00 CET
  • Sunday Match 27th. Relay 10:00 CET
Links

Ski WOC Mixed Relay: Live from 15:00 CET

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 24 Mar 2011@8:00


The GPS tracking from today’s Ski WOC Mixed Relay with one man and one woman on the team – each skiing approximately 3 x 10 minutes should be interesting to watch! (Update: No GPS tracking – but still very interesting with live headcam from the course – following the top teams). There is also live web-TV and live results from the Ski WOC in Sweden. The start for the mixed relay is from 15:00 CET.

The organisers have been offering both demanding courses and demanding weather – with the high pressure of a relay there is going to be a lot of action in today’s Mixed Relay. With a rest day on Friday, most teams will have top skiers on today’s Mixed Relay teams. Below you see interviews with the winners from the Middle and Sprint (video by the organizers).

Update 24.03.2010 10:30 CET! For those understanding Norwegian, Ski-o.com has taken a look at today’s favourites and a bit about the background for the mixed relay in the Ski-WOC program. To summarize in English: Russia and Sweden are held as the absolute favourites for the mixed relay, with Finland and Norway right behind them. Outsiders for a medal are Switzerland, Czech Republic and Kazakhstan (Based on comment from Sindre H. below).

Take a look at this O-Route Challenge from Ski WOC Sprint to see some of the challenges the athletes are up to in Sweden these days. See also the graphical analysis of one of the legs from the middle distance above – and another one below the videos.

Ski WOC 2011: Middle winners from SkiOTour Club on Vimeo.

Ski WOC 2011: Sprint winners from SkiOTour Club on Vimeo.

Program
  • Tuesday March 22nd. Sprint, 10:00 CET
  • Wednesday March 23rd. Middle, 10:00 CET
  • Thursday March 24th. Mixed relay 15:00 CET (2 skiers on each team, 3 times per skier)
  • Saturday March 26th. Long 10:00 CET
  • Sunday Match 27th. Relay 10:00 CET
Links

Ski WOC Middle: Live from 10:00 CET

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 23 Mar 2011@8:00


Another fun day in Sweden with live GPS tracking and live web-TV from the Ski WOC in Sweden. The Championships continues with a middle distance today – starting from 10:00 CET.

The organisers offered demanding courses yesterday (see mens course here) – expect even more excitement in the middle distance today. Take a look at this O-Route Challenge from Ski WOC Sprint to see some of the challenges the athletes are up to in Sweden these days.

Program
  • Tuesday March 22nd. Sprint, 10:00 CET
  • Wednesday March 23rd. Middle, 10:00 CET
  • Thursday March 24th. Mixed relay 15:00 CET (2 skiers on each team, 3 times per skier)
  • Saturday March 26th. Long 10:00 CET
  • Sunday Match 27th. Relay 10:00 CET
Links

O-Route Challenge: Part 1 2011

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 22 Mar 2011@22:30

The Route to Christmas series has been very popular here at World of O the last years, and there have been many requests to offer some of these “O-puzzles” throughout the year. I have therefore decided to launch a similar series of “O-puzzles” throughout the rest of the year – at irregular intervals – named “O-Route Challenge”. I do not promise a lot of posts, but if time allows and I see interesting routes I will post them here.

Starting off with Ski-O Woc

Based on previous feedback I know that quite a few of you will be disappointed with me starting off with a ski-orienteering leg, but as we have the World Ski-Orienteering Championships going these days, it feels very appropriate to start off in northern Sweden with the Ski WOC Sprint held earlier today. Not a very interesting leg – but still the most interesting today in my opinion.

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.

Finally you can take a look at the GPS-data of the best skiers on each of the three alternative routes. Note that times are off the GPS, so there might be some inaccuracies at the start/end of each track.

Bonus: Pace distribution over the course

As a bonus I have assembled a pace distribution over the course. Here you can see how fast the fastest skier (of the ones with GPS) was at any point on the track.

Complete map

The complete map is available here in omaps.worldofo.com.

Ski WOC Sprint: Live from 10:00 CET

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 22 Mar 2011@8:40


Live GPS tracking, live web-TV – and even live TV feed from a control on the course is promised for this years Ski WOC in Sweden. The Championships start off with a sprint today – starting from 10:00 CET.

The organisers promise good terrain, demanding courses and the new touch free punching system will be used, which enables punching at a control without stopping.

Program
  • Tuesday March 22nd. Sprint, 10:00 CET
  • Wednesday March 23rd. Middle, 10:00 CET
  • Thursday March 24th. Mixed relay 15:00 CET (2 skiers on each team, 3 times per skier)
  • Saturday March 26th. Long 10:00 CET
  • Sunday Match 27th. Relay 10:00 CET
Links
Preview video

Ski WOC 2011: Teaser from SkiOTour Club on Vimeo.

WOC proposal ready: Chasing start and sprint relay

Posted by Jan Kocbach, 16 Mar 2011@18:00

DSC_8345_s
The WOC in the future groups suggestions are up: A prologue + chasing start race and a sprint relay is introduced – and all qualifications are removed except for the sprint. - It is proposed that WOC is divided into three blocks, “Sprint”, “Middle” and “Traditional” with a rest day in between each block, to give the organisers, TV, etc. time to re-group equipment and set-up in a new arena, IOF writes on their webpage.


Update! The full proposal from the WIF project group is now available here (via the Norwegian Orienteering Federation).

The full proposal includes some interesting detailing not available at the web version of the proposal, e.g.

  • Notably, the proposal means introducing a chasing start rather than a mass start, which was part of the project remits. The reason for this is that in consultations with TV and other media it has been concluded that a chasing start has considerable advantage over a mass start concerning production economy and the possibility for spectators and commentators to understand the development of the race, while still offering the element of first-to-finish . (A mass-start is foreseen to need complicated
    forking models to make it fair.)
  • The order of events within the Sprint- and Traditional blocks is free to be decided by each organisers, whereas the order of events in the Middle block should be fixed.
  • The project group has found two main alternatives for comparing federations strength in order to award starting slots. The first alternative is the World Ranking system. This model reflects the overall activity and strength of a nation over an entire season, and is therefore seen as a realistic measure. The second alternative is to use the nation s performance at WOC (the last WOC or latest WOC s) which compares a nation s ability to perform at WOC specifically. It has not been possible to conclude on a united view within the project group in this matter, thought there seems to be a stronger support for using the World Ranking system.
  • It is proposed that each federation can enter 1 man and 1 woman to the middle distance final. Additional starting slots are based on the nations strength. The number of nations receiving additional slots needs to be balanced by the size of the start field which should not exceed 75 starters.
  • Long final: The number of nations receiving additional slots needs to be balanced by the size of the start
    field which should not grow significantly larger than in the current model (editors comment: 45 starters).

The proposal for a new WOC program was presented at the WIF (WOC in the Future) page at the IOF webpage today. The IOF member federations now have until the 10th April 2011 to give their views and comments to the proposal. The input received will be analysed and the program possibly adjusted before a final proposal will be delivered to the IOF Council for its meeting on 5th May 2011. The Council will then decide on the further presentation of the matter to the 2011 President’s Conference in conjunction with the World Orienteering Championships in France.

Suggested program

The suggested program consists of 6 competition days – medals being awarded every competition day:

Day Block Event Alternative
1 SPRINT Sprint individual (qualification+final) Sprint relay
2 SPRINT Sprint relay (mixed teams) Sprint individual
3 Rest day
4 MIDDLE Middle individual
5 MIDDLE Prologue + Chasing start
6 Rest day
7 TRADITIONAL Long individual Relay
8 TRADITIONAL Relay Long individual
Consequences for the runners

Removing two qualification races means that qualifications have to be done based on prior results. It is not yet decided if this will be based on WRE points, on prior WOC results or based on some other/combined criteria. This is the suggestions for qualifications/number of guaranteed starters for each nation:

qualwoc

Summing up the main consequences of this proposal for the runners:

  • For top runners / biggest orienteering nations. There will be no big consequences, as no disciplines are suggested removed from the program compared to today. Instead two extra disciplines are added (sprint relay and chasing start) and two races are removed (long qualification and middle qualification). The main downside will probably be that it is suggested that the long distance is organized the day before the relay – but this is not difficult to change if there is interest for it as it would not influence the rest of the program. Another problem might be that the program is even tougher if the best want to run all disciplines – 7 full speed races is tougher than 5 full speed + 2 qualification races.
  • For the runners from smaller orienteering nations / runners further down on the results list, it might be worse. Only one runner per nation is guaranteed a start in the middle distance, and no runners from the small nations are guaranteed a start in the long distance according to the proposal. Additional runners in these two traditional individual start races are based on the nations strength. On the other hand, 3 athletes per nation are allowed to start both in the chasing start and in the sprint qualification. And there will in addition be two of each gender in the sprint relay and three of each gender in the relay. Thus the number of guaranteed start spots for each nation is exactly the same as today – however some might feel that they loose the chance to fight in the “real orienteering disciplines”. It will be interesting to see the response of the “smaller” IOF member federations to this proposal.
Comment: Consequences for the orienteering sport

In my opinion, the work group did the wise move of not including a mass start in the suggested program (the downsides of a mass start are discussed here) – a chasing start is a significantly better alternative in my opinion. They also suggest to keep the traditional relay – also a good move in my opinion. Including a mixed relay was given as one of the guidelines to the work group, and was therefore probably not to be discussed. The good thing about this is that there will now be two races for the pure sprinters – making it more attractive to focus on sprint.

The downsides with the new program is that it might make it difficult to run all disciplines for the best runners. This is not necessarily good for the sport, but is seen in other sports as well. Also, including more  gold medals might make each medal less valuable as some have suggested in the comments earlier.

The WIF group indicated that the WOC program proposal is positive for the smaller nations by writing “In the new programme a general idea has been to provide more opportunities than in the past for nations to be represented in WOC finals”. However, in my opinion the maybe biggest downside for the sport with the new suggested program is that runners from the smaller nations will now only have the sprint race and “first runner to the finish”-races to concentrate on (except for one runner from each nation who will be allowed to run the middle distance). Take a runner from a country who today fights for a place in the A-finals ; with the suggested program this runner will probably (depending on how many will be allowed in each final) only be allowed to start in the sprint, the sprint relay, the chasing start and the relay. Thus, this runner will loose the possibility to run “real orienteering” – i.e. finding your own way in unknown terrain. Training must then be refocused onto running speed, sprint and tactics instead of o-technique in order to be best prepared for WOC. Based on conversations with several runners in this position, I think this will make some runners from the smaller countries loose their motivation for the sport. But I might be wrong – they will be represented in more WOC finals…

Your opinion counts!

What do you think of this proposal? Is this good for the development of orienteering? For the runners? Add a comment below – and if you want your opinions to be heard, approach your federation with your opinions.

Update: Comment from Björn Persson, WIF project coordinator

The WIF project coordinator commented to this article in the comments below – the comment is rewritten here:

We are happy to note the interest and publicity given on “World of O” to the proposal on WOC in the Future. It is not our intention as a project group to enter the discussion or pursuing arguments, while the IOF federations now have the proposal for consideration. However, it is important that the intentions with our proposal is clear, and for this reason we want to make the below comment.

In the article, Jan suggests that the opportunity for “smaller” nations to run in WOC may become “worse” with the proposal. We believe that this is not the case. On the contrary, the program is designed to provide more opportunties for new and developing nations to run in, and have results from WOC finals.

During the four last WOC’s, the number of nations having been represented in WOC finals are as follows:

WLong MLong WMiddle MMiddle
2010 24 22 23 23
2009 22 22 22 22
2008 22 25 20 20
2007 22 25 24 24
———————————–
New WOC 25-30 25-30 45+ 45+

It is correct that in theory, all nations have in the past had a chance to run a WOC final, if performing well in qualification. The above statistics shows the outcome in reality. Numbers are pretty consistent and reveals that about 60% of nations present at WOC have been represented in Middle and Long finals. With the new model, this opportunity will be higher for Long (about 70%), and significantly higher for Middle (simply 100%).

It is correct that the opportunity for individuals to run in WOC qualification races will go away. If this is considered negative, reactions will show. We believe that the value of WOC is about finals and one of our goals has been to raise the opportunity for nations to be represented in title races.

With two new formats proposed, sprint relay and chasing start, it will in fact be guaranteed for all nations to participate in as many as four finals, in comparison to the current model where only one final (relay) is guaranteed. In addition to this a nation can enter a full team in the Sprint Qualification. The only event where it is not guaranteed to start is the Long
final. Here the nation’s performance before WOC (either through World Ranking or results in earlier WOC’s) will be the deciding factor.

Björn Persson
WIF project coordinator

To answer Björn Persson’s comment briefly, I think that overall the proposal is a very good one, based on the guidelines the work group worked after. Also, my intention was not to say that the opportunity for “smaller” nations to run in WOC is worse – as I pointed out they will have just as many guaranteed starts as previously. They will obviously also get the chance to run more finals than previously (at least, on average). The problem I described is the chance for individuals to run in individual start races – which I think can be a potential problem for the sport as discussed above, because many will have. But I might have overestimated that problem based on some conversations I have had with runners from “smaller” nations earlier – in the comments to this post this does not seem to be brought up as a major problem. Also, if you let the chasing start prologue be a possibility to get a “wild card” for the middle distance, i.e. letting the best 10 runners in the chasing start prologue who were not already qualified for the middle distance run the middle, I think that would make things a lot better.


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