The fun starts tonight: 2 x GPS tracking from Night-o!

What a night this is going to be for orienteering fans! The GPS tracking season kicks off tonight with both the Swedish Championships in night-orienteering and the replacement race for the Norwegian Championships in night-orienteering (downgraded to Craft Cup due to snow in terrain). And guess what? Both races are with individual start – just what the biggest orienteering fans out there are after…

Norway: O-technically very demanding

Especially the Norwegian Craft Cup race in the Larvik area (see Larvik map search in omaps.worldofo.com) is going to be tough. – The terrain must be described as o-technically very demanding for night orienteering, can be read in the PM for the race. – The runnability is good in some areas, but is generally bad due to vegetation and cliffs/stony ground. Winning time is predicted to be 55 minutes for 6.6 km.

Who can beat Anders Nordberg in this kind of terrain? Start is from 21:30 CET – and GPS tracking is announced to start from 23:00 CET.

Sweden: Compass required

The Swedish Champs in night-orienteering and sprint orienteering are held in Gotland this weekend. Gotland (see map examples) is known for quite flat terrain with little height variation and quite few details. Thus compass navigation is key to success.

The last years the Swedish Champs night-orienteering have been a fight between Oleksandr Kratov and Peter Öberg in the mens class. Kratov taking the victory with 2 minutes ahead of Öberg in 2010 (map with GPS tracking) – and Öberg winning ahead of Kratov in 2009 (see map including WebRoute here). Will Kratov take another victory in 2011? Öberg has been injured, but is steadily getting better…

Tracking is announced to start at 22:00 CET.

Even more GPS Tracking this weekend

Here is the full list for this weekend

• 15.4. Swedish Championships Night – GPSseuranta
• 15.4 Craft-Cup night – GPSseuranta
• 16.4. Craft-Cup sprint – GPSseuranta
• 17.4 Swedish Championships sprint – GPSseuranta
• 17.4 Ankkurirastit in Finland. National race – the 1st individual race in Finland. Mass-start because of the snow conditions – GPSseuranta
• 15.-17.4 MTB-O World Cup in Hungary – tracking with local system, same as WOC2009)

Thanks to Pekka Varis/GPSseuranta for information about races with GPS Tracking this weekend

Predict the Top 3

Guessing the top 3 is not easy in such tough night races at the start of the season, but I’ll still take the chance.

Who do you think are the strongest night orienteers in Norway and/or Sweden tonight?

Links to all the action

Norwegian Craft Cup race night:

• GPS tracking (direct link)
• Live results / live center
• Runners with GPS tracking
• Startlist
• Pre-race report, OPN.no, interview with Anders Nordberg (Norwegian text)
• Pre-race report, OPN.no, interview with Heidi Bagstevold (Norwegian text)

Swedish Champs night:

• GPS tracking (direct link)
• Live center (Speakersound, results etc.)
• Event webpage
• Runners with GPS tracking
• Startlist