World of O News
Linnea Gustafsson and Daniel Hubmann took the victories in the WOC sprint final in a Swiss and Swedish day here in Chamberly, France. In the womens class three Swedish women topped the results list – Helena Jansson and Lena Eliasson followed on the next places. In the mens class Anders Holmberg (SWE) was closest to Hubmann, with Matthias Müller (SUI) in third.
Daniel Hubmann was very happy with another gold medal. – I feel great, I had really good race. It was a very nice sprint, and it was a very nice feeling for me to run this competition.
– Sprint was the first discipline I was successfull in when I was young. I am happy to take the gold medal again, and I hope I will be ready to win again tomorrow.
– Of course the sprint took some energy, but I think winning the gold medal gave me the extra energy I need to fight for the victory tomorrow.
Linnea Gustafsson did not believe that she was really World Champion. – It is fantastic. I don’t believe it, Gustafsson said after her race. – I did have some problems in the start of the race, but then it went very well.
– I had perfect preparations, and I know exactly what to do to get in good shape, the Swedish golden girl said to orientering.se.
Maps and courses
Below you find the maps from the WOC Sprint final – including GPS-tracking. Some characterized this as a “runners course” – but there were also several technical challenges in the narrow streets of Chamberly. We will try to get uploaded a HeadCam video from the course for tomorrow.
Results Women
Rank Name Nation Finish Time Behind
1 GUSTAFSSON Linnea SWE 13:14.3 0:00.0
2 JANSSON Helena SWE 13:22.7 +0:08.4
3 ELIASSON Lena SWE 13:28.5 +0:14.2
4 ALM Maja DEN 13:54.4 +0:40.1
5 TIKHONOVA Anastasiya RUS 14:00.3 +0:46.0
6 FINCKE Anni-Maija FIN 14:01.1 +0:46.8
6 KLINGENBERG Emma DEN 14:01.1 +0:46.8
8 VINOGRADOVA Galina RUS 14:04.5 +0:50.2
9 FRIEDERICH Rahel SUI 14:05.7 +0:51.4
10 JURENIKOVA Eva CZE 14:10.8 +0:56.5
11 INGHAM Lizzie NZL 14:12.3 +0:58.0
12 EGSETH Elise NOR 14:19.5 +1:05.2
13 ROLLINS Sarah GBR 14:21.4 +1:07.1
14 SHANDURKOVA Iliana BUL 14:22.5 +1:08.2
15 SKRASTINA Aija LAT 14:23.1 +1:08.8
Results Men
Rank Name Nation Finish Time Behind
1 HUBMANN Daniel SUI 13:11.8 0:00.0
2 HOLMBERG Anders SWE 13:37.8 +0:26.0
3 MUELLER Matthias SUI 13:41.2 +0:29.4
4 GRISTWOOD Graham GBR 13:58.8 +0:47.0
5 ZINCA Ionut ROU 14:05.1 +0:53.3
6 MERZ Matthias SUI 14:07.1 +0:55.3
7 MERL Robert AUT 14:11.6 +0:59.8
8 PROCHAZKA Jan CZE 14:13.0 +1:01.2
9 FRASER Scott GBR 14:14.8 +1:03.0
10 TRANCHAND Frédéric FRA 14:15.7 +1:03.9
11 ØSTERBØ Øystein Kvaal NOR 14:17.9 +1:06.1
12 STRAIN Murray GBR 14:18.9 +1:07.1
13 TERVO Tuomas FIN 14:19.6 +1:07.8
14 STEIWER Gaute Hallan NOR 14:22.1 +1:10.3
15 KOVÁCS Ádám HUN 14:23.6 +1:11.8
All,
I guess this sprint final leaves a taste of bitterness again due to vast amount of DSQ runners for ‘crossing’ the grass while no one was DQ’d for crossing the impassable wall. If everyone is DQd, then everyone! It is sad that such an inconsistency is happening in WOC. If only 5 runners in the finals, then either let it be, or annul the whole race and re-run or all participate in the finals.
I am one of those who thinks that sprint is not a real orienteering, but more of a joke. Unfortunately TV like it, so we will need to live with it.
I hope adequate measures will be taken after these WOC. I believe quite a few people must be furious.
p.s. I understand that in the evening before it was emphasised not to crossing ‘jardins’ in the finish area in Qual races. I guess anyone can make an intelligent translation on Google and see what the word means – garden, yard, grove (and not a single hint on grass or a park). This is more of an excuse, but anyway – sad!
I think most of the elites like sprint, so it is here to stay. I was setter at the Australian Sprint championships this year, and we also had a situation with out of bounds olive green. In our case there was a narrow garden, but a small part of it had been dug up, so runners crossed at this point. We should have put tapes there to stop them. The same should have happened at the WOC qualification. If it is not clear that an area is out of bounds (and who could be expected to think that grass is not to run on) then it should be taped off. In fact the map shows a taped route from the last control – was it all taped? (I don’t know I wasn’t there).
Regarding the cafe areas (purple 50% screen), these may not be clear on the map if the cafe is actually closed at the time of the competition. Does anyone know if all the cafes were open? If not, then the organisers should either leave the purple screen off the map, or put tape around it if they leave it on.
Regarding the dsqs for jumping the impassable wall at no.3 Women/4 men, I think they must be referring to the wall next to the path? If this is correct, then either the mapper makes the whole wall passable or impassable (it doesn’t matter which), or there should be tapes from the start of the impassable section as runners at speed cannot otherwise be expected to know exactly where that is.
In summary, a setter for a major sprint event really needs to look at all parts of the course to see if there are any ambiguous no-go areas that might need to be taped off, or the map changed, or else the course simply doesn’t go there.