NORT Stage 1: Live from 08:00 and 15:00 CET

[Updated with maps!] Follow live GPS tracking from the qualification (08:00) and live GPS tracking and live TV from the final (15:00) from stage 1 of the Nordic Orienteering Tour today! The Nordic Orienteering Tours (NORT) marks the first part of the 2011 World Cup, and with 300 World Cup points to be won at NORT, the future 2011 overall World Cup winner will definitely have to participate at the NORT. Remember to set up your Fantasy World Cup team by 09:00 CET.

Links to live services:

• New! Analysis, maps and results from Stage 1
• Live GPS-tracking (both qualification and final)
• Live results – available from here (both qualification and final)
• Live webTV via YLE from 15:00-16:00 CET and 17:00-17:50 CET (Finals only)
• Start list stage 1
• Nordic Orienteering Tour webpage

About NORT Stage 1

The tour starts with a qualification race on the morning. The 30 best women and men are qualified for the final in the evening. The time from the qualification race is the time that counts for the tour. In the final the winner get 120 seconds in bonus and then all the other runners get less time down to 1 second.

This stage of a prolonged Sprint as a qualification race in the morning, with a winning time of 30-35 minutes, followed by a Sprint final in the evening. The qualification race has an individual interval start with a 1 minute start interval. The start order for the qualification race is determined by the reverse standing of the official World Rankings as published at the end of May 2011. The qualification race times (less any bonus seconds) are used (together with the day two qualification race times) to calculate the start times for NORT day three. The final is for the top 30 athletes from the qualification race. The start order is the reverse order of the qualification race
results (winner starts last).

Terrain for middle distance style sprint is mainly pine and spuce mixed forest, good visibility, dense network of paths and mainly good run ability. Kokonniemi hill is 60 m above Porvoo river level on its highest point; so that part is rather hilly and physically demanding. It has sharp slopes and steeps. The hill area is partly very detailed demanding concentration and offering enjoyable orienteering with variable speed. Only minor part has a nature of park. Good visibility.

Sprint is run in urban area in the centre of the Old Town with old stone and wooden houses, mainly cobblestone roads, stairs and small alleys. The area has mainly level underfoot, thus offering good run ability. Old Porvoo Castle hill as well as parts of western side of Porvoo river with sharp slopes and wide paths are sandy and partly uneven. Some grassy areas appear. Generally very good visibility.

NORT 2011 Program

Following the qualification Thursday morning is a regular sprint final in the afternoon. The race time for this sprint final does not count in the overall – instead bonus seconds are awarded – 120 seconds for the winner, 90 seconds for number two, and 70, 60, 55, 50, 40, 38, 36, 34, 32, 30, 18, 17, 16 and so on down to 1 second for number 30.

After stage 1 in Finland on Thursday, NORT moves to Sweden with a KnockOut-sprint in Göteborg on Tuesday. The NORT final is a chasing start south of Oslo in Norway. The full program is shown in the table below: