NORT Stage 1: Swiss and Swedish domination

Jan Kocbach June 16, 2011 Orienteering News Comments Off on NORT Stage 1: Swiss and Swedish domination

[Updated with Final results and maps] Swiss domination among the men – Swedish among the women. Five Swiss men in the top of NORT Stage 1 – with young Matthias Kyburz on the top! Three Swedish women on top – Linnea Gustafsson taking the victory.

In the mens class, Merz took second behind Kyburz with Hertner third, Müller fourth and Daniel Hubmann 5th (Photo above: From Daniel Hubmann @ Twitter). Best non-Swiss runner was William Lind in 6th spot. Olav Lundanes who won the qualification lost nearly a minute on a long route choice leg, and thus lost the possibility to fight for a place on the podium.

In the womens class, Linnea Gustaffson took a popular victory ahead of team mates Lena Eliasson and Annika Billstam. Eliasson was heading towards a clear victory when she did a mistake at the 13th control. The Swedish women did not perform very well in the qualification in the forest, but with Top 3 in the final they showed that their are on top in city sprints.

See the bottom of the article for maps, results and interesting GPS-analysis for the qualification – a lot of interesting orienteering there.

Overall NORT Results after Stage 1

The overall NORT result is found by subtracting the bonus seconds earned in the final (up to 120 bonus seconds for victory) from the race time in the qualification. Thus Lundanes is still in second spot overall even if he lost a lot of time in the final of stage 1. Matthias Merz is in the overall lead in the Nordic Orienteering Tour in the mens class – 21 seconds ahead of Olav Lundanes with Pasi Ikonen in third.

In the womens class Anni-Maija Fincke kept her overall lead from the qualification, even if she finished only 9th in the final. With Rantanen in second spot it is double Finland among the women overall – with Bagstevold and Wigemyr (both Norway) in third and fourth. Annika Billstam is the best Swede in 5th spot.

Men

Name	Time Qualification	Bonus Time	Total time Stage 1	Difference
Matthias Merz	31:33	1:30	30:03
Olav Lundanes	30:35	0:11	30:24	0:21
Pasi Ikonen	30:59	0:09	30:50	0:47
Daniel Hubmann	31:51	0:55	30:56	0:53
Matthias Kyburz	32:58	2:00	30:58	0:55
Matthias Müller	31:59	1:00	30:59	0:56
Fabian Hertner	32:23	1:10	31:13	1:10
Tero Föhr	32:12	0:07	32:05	2:02
Carl Waaler Kaas	32:28	0:12	32:16	2:13

Women

	Name	Time Qualification	Bonus Time	Total time Stage 1	Difference
1	Anni-Maija Fincke	32:53	0:36	32:17
2	Merja Rantanen	33:20	0:38	32:42	00:25
3	Heidi Bagstevold	33:17	0:11	33:06	00:49
4	Tone Wigemyr	33:27	0:12	33:15	00:58
5	Annika Billstam	34:28	1:10	33:18	01:01
6	Mari Fasting	33:43	0:09	33:34	01:17
7	Maja Alm	34:22	0:34	33:48	01:31
8	Tove Alexandersson	34:40	0:50	33:50	01:33
9	Julia Novikova	34:44	0:18	34:26	02:09
10	Rahel Friederich	35:24	0:55	34:29	02:12

Maps and GPS analysis Final

Map Men Final and map women final

The final of NORT Stage 1 was a typical urban sprint race – with a few long route choice legs (see map for the men above). Of these longer legs, the leg from 7 to 8 in the mens race proved to be very decisive for Lundanes, the winner of the qualification this morning. As you can see in the two illustration below, Lundanes and several other runners loose a lot of time to the ones taking a more direct route (note that GPS-times are very inaccurate – and the GPS of Kyburz stopped working around control 3):

The other route choice legs on the men’s course did not have the same impact. The one from 3 to 4 was the one splitting the runners most into left and right choices – but no significant time gains were made here:

Results final (unofficial)

Men

1	21	Matthias Kyburz	15:49.0
2	28	Matthias Merz	15:58.3	+9.3
3	24	Fabian Hertner	15:59.4	+10.4
4	26	Matthias Müller	16:02.5	+13.5
5	27	Daniel Hubmann	16:05.9	+16.9
6	16	William Lind	16:09.6	+20.6
7	4	Erik Rost	16:13.6	+24.6
8	17	Scott Fraser	16:14.1	+25.1
9	10	Andreas Kyburz	16:17.7	+28.7
10	1	Anders Holmberg	16:24.3	+35.3
11	2	Martin Hubmann	16:24.9	+35.9
12	7	Valentin Novikov	16:29.1	+40.1
13	20	Andrey Khramov	16:34.7	+45.7
14	8	Øystein Kvaal_Østerbø	16:41.2	+52.2
15	11	Mats Haldin	16:43.5	+54.5
16	22	Baptiste Rollier	16:44.9	+55.9
17	13	Gustav Bergman	16:46.9	+57.9
18	5	Tue Lassen	16:47.0	+58.0
19	23	Carl Waaler_Kaas	16:47.2	+58.2
20	30	Olav Lundanes	16:52.5	+1:03.5
21	9	Audun Weltzien	16:58.6	+1:09.6

Women

1	108	Linnea Gustafsson	15:44.3
2	111	Lena Eliasson	15:52.7	+8.4
3	124	Annika Billstam	15:54.4	+10.1
4	117	Signe Søes	16:01.5	+17.2
5	118	Rahel Friederich	16:07.6	+23.3
6	123	Tove Alexandersson	16:20.2	+35.9
7	106	Ines Brodmann	16:31.9	+47.6
8	128	Merja Rantanen	16:37.0	+52.7
9	130	Anni-Maija Fincke	16:48.0	+1:03.7
10	125	Maja Alm	16:49.3	+1:05.0
11	110	Amélie Chataing	16:54.2	+1:09.9
12	102	Tessa Hill	16:54.3	+1:10.0
13	122	Julia Novikova	16:54.5	+1:10.2
14	119	Judith Wyder	16:55.8	+1:11.5
15	103	Lina Strand	16:59.2	+1:14.9
16	112	Angela Wild	17:01.7	+1:17.4
17	121	Emma Claesson	17:04.8	+1:20.5
18	109	Elise Egseth	17:09.4	+1:25.1
19	127	Tone Wigemyr	17:14.8	+1:30.5
20	129	Heidi Bagstevold	17:15.7	+1:31.4
21	116	Sofie Johansson	17:21.0	+1:36.7
22	126	Mari Fasting	17:27.8	+1:43.5
23	107	Outi Ojanen	17:29.9	+1:45.6
24	115	Venla Niemi	17:30.1	+1:45.8
25	105	Ekaterina Popovich	17:41.2	+1:56.9
26	101	Galina Vinogradova	17:45.1	+2:00.8
27	113	Bodil Holmström	17:58.1	+2:13.8
28	120	Claire Ward	18:03.0	+2:18.7
29	104	Nataliya Vinogradova	18:25.1	+2:40.8
30	114	Maria Rantala	18:35.4	+2:51.1

Full results

Qualification

Olav Lundanes took a clear victory in the qualification of NORT Stage 1 – taking with him a big lead into the remainder of the Tour. Anni-Maija Fincke took an equally clear victory in the womens class. It looks like this qualification race will be just as important as expected, with big differences – nearly 2:30 down to number 10 on the results list both in the mens class and in the womens class.

The qualification was dominated by Norwegian, Finnish and Swiss runners. Lundanes (NOR) ahead of Ikonen (FIN) and Merz, Hubmann, Müller (all SUI) followed by Föhr (FIN), Hertner (SUI) and Waaler Kaas (NOR) in the mens class – and Fincke (FIN) ahead of Bagstevold (NOR), Rantanen (FIN) and Wigemyr, Fasting (both NOR) in the womens class. The Swedes were surprisingly absent from the top of the results lists – 11th spot in the mens class (Runesson) and 7th spot in the womens class (Billstam, after a huge mistake at the end of the course).

The best 30 men/women go on to the final in the afternoon (from 15:00 CET). Down to number 30 in the mens class there was around 4 minutes – 4:30 for the women. With 120 bonus seconds to the winner of the final – and down to 1 second to number 30 – the running time in the final not counting, the loss of a spot in the final is the least worry for those outside the Top 30 with respect to the NORT overall standings …

Maps and illustrations Qualification

Map Men Qual and map Women Qual

The qualification courses were more middle distance than sprint – with tricky and technical orienteering. That can also be seen on the results list – the top finishers are rather middle distance specialists than sprint specialists.

Below you see the most interesting route choice leg in the mens race – leg number 2 to 3. A straight route choice was the fastest – and quite a few runners lost valuable time by going around. The fastest runner taking the left and right route choices were Swiss runners Andreas Kyburz and Matthias Müller respectively – both loosing around 30 valuable seconds in the overall.

Comparing the two fastest men of the qualification – Lundanes and Ikonen using the autOanalysis function (soon coming to 3DRerun), you can see that the running speed of Lundanes and Ikonen seems to have been approximately the same – if anything Ikonen was faster on shear running speed (Note! Handle these illustrations with care – study carefully before making your conclusions). Differences are especially in the route choices where Lundanes did better choices to number 3 and to number 5. Ikonen also seems to have a bad period around leg 12 and 13 – loosing time on what looks like micro route choices. The two runners have different routes from 14 to 15 – but here time differences are very small.

Below you find the complete courses and the GPS tracking.

Live services

Links to live services:

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)
Nordic Orienteering Tour webpage

Results Qualification (unofficial)

Men

1	269	Olav Lundanes	30:35
2	253	Pasi Ikonen	30:59	+24
3	262	Matthias Merz	31:33	+58
4	270	Daniel Hubmann	31:51	+1:16
5	267	Matthias Müller	31:59	+1:24
6	258	Tero Föhr	32:12	+1:37
7	264	Fabian Hertner	32:23	+1:48
8	268	Carl Waaler_Kaas	32:28	+1:53
9	257	Baptiste Rollier	32:51	+2:16
10	243	Matthias Kyburz	32:58	+2:23
11	254	Andrey Khramov	33:01	+2:26
	234	Johan Runesson	33:01	+2:26
13	232	Simonas Krepšta	33:06	+2:31
14	252	Scott Fraser	33:11	+2:36
15	246	William Lind	33:13	+2:38
16	251	Hans_Gunnar Omdal	33:24	+2:49
17	208	Gustav Bergman	33:32	+2:57
	231	Olle Boström	33:32	+2:57
19	239	Hannu Airila	33:34	+2:59
20	260	Mats Haldin	33:36	+3:01

Women

1	347	Anni-Maija Fincke	32:53
2	335	Heidi Bagstevold	33:17	+24
3	346	Merja Rantanen	33:20	+27
4	337	Tone Wigemyr	33:27	+34
5	342	Mari Fasting	33:43	+50
6	345	Maja Alm	34:22	+1:29
7	349	Annika Billstam	34:28	+1:35
8	332	Tove Alexandersson	34:40	+1:47
9	338	Julia Novikova	34:44	+1:51
10	344	Emma Claesson	34:51	+1:58
11	308	Claire Ward	35:03	+2:10
12	336	Judith Wyder	35:16	+2:23
13	341	Rahel Friederich	35:24	+2:31
14	350	Signe Søes	35:40	+2:47
15	303	Sofie Johansson	35:43	+2:50
16	321	Venla Niemi	35:45	+2:52
17	340	Maria Rantala	35:46	+2:53
18	326	Bodil Holmström	36:03	+3:10
19	339	Angela Wild	36:21	+3:28
20	348	Lena Eliasson	36:28	+3:35

Results Qualification

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:

Stage 1	Thursday June 16th	Qual 08.00 CET: Prolonged Sprint Final 15.00 CET: Regular sprint
Stage 2	Tuesday June 21st	Qual 10.00 CET: Regular Sprint Quarterfinal 13.00 CET: KnockOut sprint Semifinal 18.10 CET: KnockOut sprint Final 19.10 CET: KnockOut sprint
Stage 3	Saturday June 25th	Prolonged Middle distance Chasing start based on overall standing Start 14.00 CET (women) and 15.00 CET (men)