NORT Overall: 4 x Switzerland + Finland

Jan Kocbach June 22, 2011 Orienteering News 3 Comments

Lundanes will be chasing four Swiss men in real forest orienteering – only 1:05 behind. Hubmann, Kyburz, Merz and Müller are 4 x Switzerland in the lead of the Nordic Orienteering Tour, but probably don’t feel to safe with Lundanes chasing right behind in the final of NORT south of Oslo on Saturday. Among the women Finnish Rantanen will head out half a minute ahead of Danish Maja Alm – with Billstam (SWE), Bagstevold, Fasting (both NOR), Alexandersson, Gustafsson (both SWE) all following within 1:27.

With a 50 minute chasing start for the men – and 40 minutes for the women – in “real forest” (see old old map above – there is also a newer map of part of the area at the bottom of this article) as the last stage of NORT, it is going to be a real fight for the top position and the big money prizes. At least the top 5 men – probably also a few more may mix in on the fight for victory. Among the women it is even more open – all the first 13 runners (Signe Søes, +2:49 is in 13th spot) have a realistic chance of winning with a perfect race depending on how the others perform. We have got the unusual situation that it is tighter in the women’s class than in the men’s class – 20 men within 4:52 minutes and 20 women within 4:20.

Finals not important enough?

People might be confused as to why runners they have not seen perform in the finals are high up overall

An interesting observation: Qualifications seem to be extremely important in NORT. So important that I think that at least the first qualification should have been a separate stage if this overall calculation scheme is kept. People might be confused as to why runners they have not seen perform in the finals are high up overall. Some examples:

Rantanen who tops the women’s class overall has a 9th and an 8th place in the two first stages – whereas Eliasson who is seventh(!) overall has a 2nd and a 3rd place in the two finals and Billstam with 3rd and 5th is number three overall.
Bagstevold is 4th overall with 15th and 20th place from the first two finals.
Lundanes who is 5th overall in NORT has a 20th and a 23rd place from the two first finals in NORT.
Ikonen who is 6th has a 22nd and a 28th place. Carl Waaler Kaas who is 9th has a 18th and a withdrawal.

Overall results NORT men after 2 stages

Name	total time	Diff
1	Daniel Hubmann	42:16
2	Matthias Kyburz	42:46	0:30
3	Matthias Merz	43:00	0:44
4	Matthias Müller	43:07	0:51
5	Olav Lundanes	43:21	1:05
6	Pasi Ikonen	44:12	1:56
7	Fabian Hertner	44:29	2:13
8	Scott Fraser	45:09	2:53
9	Carl Waaler Kaas	45:55	3:39
10	Andreas Kyburz	46:09	3:53
11	Johan Runesson	46:12	3:56
12	Øystein Kvaal Østerbø	46:13	3:57
13	Baptiste Rollier	46:16	4:00
14	Gustav Bergman	46:31	4:15
15	Andrey Khramov	46:38	4:22
16	Anders Holmberg	46:53	4:37
17	Martin Hubmann	46:53	4:37
18	Erik Rost	46:57	4:41
19	Valentin Novikov	47:01	4:45
20	Olle Boström	47:08	4:52

Overall results NORT women after 2 stages

1	Merja Rantanen	44:46
2	Maja Alm	45:17	0:31
3	Annika Billstam	45:23	0:37
4	Heidi Bagstevold	46:07	1:21
5	Mari Fasting	46:07	1:21
6	Tove Alexandersson	46:10	1:24
7	Linnea Gustafsson	46:14	1:28
8	Lena Eliasson	46:38	1:52
9	Tone Wigemyr	46:52	2:06
10	Rahel Friederich	47:26	2:40
11	Julia Novikova	47:29	2:43
12	Emma Claesson	47:29	2:43
13	Signe Søes	47:35	2:49
14	Judith Wyder	48:12	3:26
15	Claire Ward	48:21	3:35
16	Galina Vinogradova	48:28	3:42
17	Amélie Chataing	48:29	3:43
18	Sofie Johansson	49:02	4:16
19	Elise Egseth	49:04	4:18
20	Venla Niemi	49:06	4:20

All results on the NORT pages

Stage 3

The last stage is a chase start where the total time and bonus time makes the ground for the start list. This makes that the runner that is first over the finish-line is the winner of NORT. Stage 3 is a prolonged Middle Distance chasing start (women 40 minutes, men 50 minutes) with the start times based on the NORT overall time standings after two days.

Only runners who started in both of the qualification races of NORT days one and two may start on day three. Runners who started but were not placed in either (or both) of the qualification races of NORT days one and two will take part in a separate interval start competition on the same course with the first runner starting 10 minutes after the last chasing start runner has departed. There will be a 2 minute start interval and individual start times are drawn at random. The first runner to the finish is the NORT winner.

The terrain is mainly old coniferous forest but also parts with mixed forest. Medium hilly.

3 comments

Paul Street
June 22, 2011 at 14:05

Yes it is the stage 1 qualification that has been the most significant factor in the current standings. In the men for example the current top 7 were all in the top 10 there.

Many orienteers will have really enjoyed the live GPS of that middle race in Porvoo and so have no problem with the overall mostly reflecting that, rather than the two televised sprints. I think it may also be a better guide than the sprints to speed in the final, except for following (which is a big “except”.)

I suppose an alternative would be to base the starts on say 15secs x positions in the sprints (max 31 as that was the qualification cut, and it’s a bit messy counting the QF and SF knockout but you might rank by time.) That would allow Matthias Kyburz, Daniel Hubmann and Matthias Merz to start first spread over a minute, with Matthias Müller and Scott Fraser a minute behind, and Fabian Hertner and Øystein Kvaal Østerbø a further two and a half minutes back. Olav Lundanes, with Andrey Khramov and Johan Runesson to keep him company would be 10 minutes back, and Pasi Ikonen even later. I think I prefer what we have.

One change might be to make the more significant of the early stages number 2; building up to the final.
Jagge
June 24, 2011 at 22:42

Merja Rantanen will start 41 secons before Maja Alm,
Merja got 10 extra bonus seconds for the timing mistake organizers did at Göteborg semifinal (she missed final because of it).
- Jan Kocbach
  June 25, 2011 at 0:49
  
  Thanks for the update!