The overall World Cup will be decided in Switzerland this weekend. Excellent live coverage with GPS-tracking, web-TV (Sunday) and live results is promised . With the fight for the title still open in both the mens and womens class, everything is set for a great weekend for orienteering enthusiasts. Saturday the runners compete in a middle distance race in the Jura mountains – Sunday everything is decided with double World Cup points in the PostFinance Sprint – a city sprint in La Chaux-le-Fonds.

Note! Remember to set up your Fantasy World Cup Team ahead of the World Cup final!

Above you see the model map for the middle distance. The model map is relevant for the middle distance race on Saturday –  typical Jura terrain consisting of a mixture of open fields and semi-open forest with fine details. You can see the old map from the terrain in the second last page of Bulletin 3 for the event (PDF-file).

The sprint is organized in La Chaux-le-Fonds – the same area were the sprint qualification of the World Masters 2010 was held. The street pattern is quite structured – and it might thus not be as tricky as it was last year in Geneva. You can see one of the courses from WMOC 2010 below (full map here via omaps.worldofo.com) – or see the last page of Bulletin 3 for the complete map in better quality.

Program

• Saturday Middle: First start around 12:20 CET. Last start women 14:31. Last start men 15:00
• Sunday Sprint: First start women 12:46 CET. First start men 13:55

Follow the World Cup Final live

You can follow the World Cup final via webTV, GPS-tracking and live results via the following link:

• World Cup final live
• Start lists will be available here the evening before the race
• Bulletin 4 (latest information about the race, PDF)

World Cup standing

A lead of 148 points for Hubmann is quite clear, but still he has to take more than 152 points if Gueorgiou wins both the last races.

Daniel Hubmann and Annika Billstam still lead the overall World Cup (see results here) after the 3rd World Cup round in Liberec, Czech Republic. However, their leads have gotten smaller.

In the mens class Daniel Hubmann leads with 508 points compared to 360 points for Thierry Gueorgiou in second spot. Matthias Merz is the third runner who has a chance for the overall World Cup victory – sitting in third spot with 348 points. Both the last races count in the overall World Cup – and the last race gives double points (200 points for victory). Thus there are 300 points to be given in the last two races. A lead of 148 points for Hubmann is quite clear, but still he has to take more than 152 points if Gueorgiou wins both the last races.

- My position in the overall World Cup with a 148 points lead is very good. I have now got the decision in my own hands, and am looking forward to two exciting races [...] on Swiss ground, overall World Cup leader Daniel Hubmann writes on his blog.

In Saturdays race 100 points are awarded to the winner, 80 points for number 2, then 60, 50, 45, 40, 37, 35, 33, 31, 30, 29 and down to 1 point for the 40th spot – double these points for Sunday. Thus Hubmann – the winner of the last three editions of the PostFinance Sprint – needs to have a good race in the sprint on Sunday to be sure to get the overall World Cup for the 4th time.  Hubmann has been better than Gueorgiou on sprint races, and Merz might therefore be just as big a rival for Hubmann as the French superstar.

- A very surprising opportunity surfaced after the World Cup races in Czech Republic

In the Womens class it is a lot tighter. Annika Billstam has now a lead of 71 points after being ill last weekend and not starting in the long distance on Sunday. Between number 2 and number 6 there are only 35 points – and thus it is very open in the womens class with a lot of women having a change to take the overall victory.  With the sprint race on Sunday giving double points, the sprint specialists have an advantage. That means Lena Eliasson, Helena Jansson and Maja Alm.

- A very surprising opportunity surfaced after the World Cup races in Czech Republic. I am actually one of the runners who has a possibility to win the overall World Cup this year, a happy Lena Eliasson writes on her blog.

More than 100 of the participants in the World Cup races in Liberec last weekend signed a petition against the suggested WOC in the future program. The petition is very clear on the opinion of the runners. – We do not like the Council’s proposal on the WOC program, and we do not want to participate in such a WOC.

– The great majority of us runners are not happy with the proposal for the new WOC-program

Eva Jurenikova – part of the Czech silver medal team from the relay at the World Championships in France earlier this year – has taken the initiative to get the IOF to understand how the top runners feel about the suggested WOC program.

– The great majority of us runners are not happy with the proposal for the new WOC-program. This is why we decided to show our discontent and organized a petition during the World Cup weekend in Liberec, Jurenikova explains.

- I was surprised how readily the runners signed the petition, and how forcefully some of the runners commented on the proposal.

9 World Champions

During the World Cup weekend in Liberec, Jurenikova organized a meeting including 9 World Champions to discuss the WOC program in the future – Thierry Gueorgiou, Helena Jansson, Annika Billstam, Olav Lundanes, Carl Waaler Kaas, Minna Kauppi, Dana Brozkova, Daniel Hubmann, Matthias Merz and Fabian Hertner.

The runners are very clear on that their motivation for the petition is that they are very much interested in the development of the sport of orienteering – and that they would like to contribute to the process and participate in the discussion with the IOF.

- This is the first step. We do not only want to criticise the proposal. We would like to form a new athletes committee where we can discuss and present which improvements, we, runners suggest, Jurenikova wrote in a letter to the IOF sports director on behalf of the group of World Champions.

The Council’s proposal for new WOC program

The background for the petition is the IOF Council’s proposal for a new WOC program – which can be formulated in the following way:

If 4 WOC finals are preferred, they should be

• Sprint qualification + Sprint final
• Sprint Relay (mixed teams 2+2)
• Middle Prologue + Chasing start
• Long final, individual interval start

If 5 finals are preferred, the following disipline is added:

• The traditional Relay is added to the above

The proposal for a new WOC program has been discussed widely in the orienteering community, and lately World Champion on long distance from Trondheim in 2010 – Olav Lundanes – was quite harsh in his critics against the suggestions. Now Lundanes has got support by most of the world orienteering elite.

- The reason we have decided to take this approach is that the federations do not listen to us, Lundanes explains.

- When the federations were asked to come with input to the new WOC-program, the runners on the national team wrote a long letter to the Norwegian federation about our opinions. I can say that it was almost the complete opposite of the letter the federation sent to the IOF.

And according to Lundanes – top elite runners from other nations have experienced the same problems to reach the federation with their opinons. – The Swiss runners have also tried to bring forward their opinion, but without being listened to.

The way forward

It will be very interesting to see if the world orienteering elite manages to get anywhere with this initiative. A letter has now been sent to the IOF sports director asking for a meeting.

The petition

Below you can see the petiton sent to the IOF – including the 111 signatures from top orienteers.

Marc Lauenstein took a surprise victory for Switzerland and Minna Kauppi is finally back on the top with another World Cup victory. The long distance chasing start in Liberec was a tough one – with more than 1:40 running time in the mens class and 80 minutes in the women’s class.

Marc Lauenstein had start number 14 – and headed into the forest 2:10 behind Thierry Gueorgiou. Gueorgiou started first as yesterday’s winner Pasi Ikonen could not start due to stomach sickness.

Maps

The course was varied with several butterflies and some very long legs. Both the men and the women had the same very long leg to the first control – below you see one illustration for the mens long leg and including routes and a corresponding illustration for the women. Interestingly, the women are fastest when going far left, whereas the men are fastest when going direct. Gueorgiou lost more than a minute already to the first control by taking a left choice – whereas the fastest 4-5 women go left. And none of the women choose the direct variant which is fastest for the men.

Complete map/GPS-tracking:

• Map/GPS tracking men
• Map/GPS tracking women

Links and stories

• Replay online webTV from the long distance chasing start
• World of O: WC Middle Liberec: Maps and Results – Published 2011-09-24 18:00:00
• Pasi Ikonen: 1st in World Cup race in Liberec! – Published 2011-09-25 08:35:00
• International O-Federation: Ikonen winner of Men?s Middle distance with – Published 2011-09-24 13:22:00
• David Andersson: World Cup Liberéc – Published 2011-09-24 16:42:00
• International O-Federation: Brozkova wins World Cup Middle on home – Published 2011-09-24 11:41:00
• Norwegian O-Federation: Sterk jaktstart av Fasting – Published 2011-09-24 22:00:00
• Celine Dodin: Coupe du Monde – Etape 7 – Published 2011-09-24 22:00:00
• Orientering.dk: Maja og Signe i top 10 på – Published 2011-09-24 16:00:00
• Swiss Orienteering: Hubmann weiter Top – Published 2011-09-24 15:59:00
• Halden SK Elite: Olav Lundanes på 5.plass WC i Liberec – Published 2011-09-24 16:28:00
• German O-Federation: Susen Lösch beste Deutsche in Liberec – Published 2011-09-24 22:00:00
• Swiss Orienteering: Weltcup-Sieg für Lauenstein – Published 2011-09-25 11:23:00

Results

Men

1. Marc Lauenstein            SUI  41.35 (14)  101.40 ( 1)  143.15

2. Thierry Gueorgiou          FRA  39.25 ( 2)  104.13 ( 3)  143.38   0.23

3. Topi Anjala                FIN  41.51 (18)  102.28 ( 2)  144.19   1.04

4. Daniel Hubmann             SUI  40.06 ( 4)  105.02 ( 4)  145.08   1.53

5. William Lind               SWE  40.38 ( 7)  105.18 ( 6)  145.56   2.41

6. Mats Haldin                FIN  41.47 (16)  105.29 ( 7)  147.16   4.01

7. Jerker Lysell              SWE  42.56 (29)  105.12 ( 5)  148.08   4.53

8. Matthias Merz              SUI  41.33 (13)  106.44 (11)  148.17   5.02

9. Gernot Kerschbaumer        AUT  40.00 ( 3)  108.31 (20)  148.31   5.16

10. Erik Rost                  SWE  43.02 (30)  105.33 ( 8)  148.35   5.20

• Full results men

Women

1. Minna Kauppi               FIN  39.56 ( 2)   78.43 ( 3)  118.39

2. Dana Šafka Brožková        CZE  39.38 ( 1)   79.26 ( 8)  119.04   0.25

3. Tove Alexandersson         SWE  40.31 ( 4)   78.48 ( 4)  119.19   0.40

4. Signe Søes                 DEN  42.48 ( 8)   76.55 ( 1)  119.43   1.04

5. Eva Juřeníková             CZE  42.02 ( 6)   77.54 ( 2)  119.56   1.17

6. Ines Brodmann              SUI  41.56 ( 5)   79.02 ( 5)  120.58   2.19

7. Maja Møller Alm            DEN  42.41 ( 7)   79.02 ( 5)  121.43   3.04

8. Lena Eliasson              SWE  43.25 ( 9)   81.04 (12)  124.29   5.50

9. Mari Fasting               NOR  45.25 (19)   81.05 (13)  126.30   7.51

10. Rahel Friederich           SUI  44.24 (12)   82.08 (16)  126.32   7.53

• Full results women

Pasi Ikonen and Dana Brozkova won the tight World Cup races over middle distance in Liberec, Czech Republic today. Ikonen – the WOC middle distance champion of 2001 – beat this year WOC middle distance champion Thierry Guergiou with 33 seconds.

In the women’s class Minna Kauppi did her best individual World Cup race this year with a second position – only 18 seconds behind Brozkova.

Note! Today’s middle distance race is the basis for a long distance chasing start Sunday which also counts for the overall World Cup. Again with live webTV and GPS-tracking.  Men start from 09:30 CET for the leader, 11:30 CET for the women. First 25 starting runners run with GPS. Courses are 16.7 km (680 m) / 10.6 km (480 m) with expected winning times of 95 / 75 minutes. Live video is available here - live results at the WC Liberec page.

Maps

Above you see a comparison of the route of winner in the mens class – Pasi Ikonen – with the second runner in the mens class – Thierry Gueorgiou (click for larger map). As you can see Gueorgiou looses time in the first part of the course (note that the GPS-data seems to be a bit strange in the start) – and after that never managing to catch up with Ikonen again even if keeping the same speed.

In the women’s class Minna Kauppi had a very good start, and was in the lead in the first part of the course. A mistake at the 8th control and another one at the 10th control made Helena Jansson take over the lead in the race. Another mistake at the 16th control cost her her first World Cup victory of the year – from the GPS data it looks like Kauppi might have orienteered to the wrong control when leaving the 16th control. This mistake lost Kauppi 37 seconds to Brozkova – and thus also the victory.

• Map/GPS Tracking men
• Map/GPS Tracking women

Results

Women

Men

• Full results

WC Liberec @ WorldofO.com

• World of O: World Cup Liberec: All you need to – Published 2011-09-23 05:00:00
• International O-Federation: Brozkova wins World Cup Middle on home – Published 2011-09-24 11:41:00
• International O-Federation: Ikonen winner of Men?s Middle distance with – Published 2011-09-24 13:22:00
• Zinca Iounut: WC Liberec – Published 2011-09-23 22:00:00
• Tue Lassen: World Cup afslutning og VM træningslejr – Published 2011-09-23 17:41:00
• British O-Federation: CZE World Cup – Liberec – Published 2011-09-24 10:00:00
• Hevoskuuri.fi: Pasi Ikonen suunnisti voittoon maailmancupin keskimatkalla – Published 2011-09-24 12:44:00
• Orientering.dk: Maja og Signe i top 10 på – Published 2011-09-24 16:00:00
• Czech O-Federation: ?afka-Bro?ková vyhrála v Liberci závod Sv?tového poháru – Published 2011-09-24 14:00:00
• Swedish O-Federation: Helena trea i Tjeckien – Published 2011-09-24 18:00:00

Replay the excitement

With both live webTV and GPS-tracking it was very interesting to follow today’s middle distance race in Czech Republic. Both the webTV transmission and the GPS tracking can be replayed.

• You may replay the excellent web-TV productions here
• Replay GPS Tracking men
• Replay GPS Tracking women

Excellent live coverage with hours of streamed webTV & GPS-tracking is promised for the third World Cup round of the season which is organized in Liberec, Czech Republic this weekend. The program consists of a middle distance race on Saturday and a long distance race with chasing start on Sunday. The World Cup 2012 will be decided in Switzerland next weekend in Round 4.

Note! Remember to set up your Fantasy World Cup Team ahead of the World Cup races in Liberec!

Live coverage

• Saturday September 24th: Live video. Live results. Start from 09:13 CET until 11:25 for women. Start from 10:22 until 13:24 for men. Last 25 starting runners run with GPS. Courses are 6.7 km (270 m)/ 5.5 km (250 m) with expected winning time of 37 minutes.
• Sunday September 25th. Live video. Live results. Men start from 09:30 CET for the leader, 11:30 CET for the women. First 25 starting runners run with GPS. Courses are 16.7 km (680 m) / 10.6 km (480 m) with expected winning times of 95 / 75 minutes.

92 men and 67 women are entered to the competition according to Bulletin 4. The organizers give no link for GPS-tracking, but if it is live during the competition I expect it to be available from here.

Preview

Except for the World Championships, Sunday’s race is the only long distance race in the World Cup this year. It will be interesting to see a long distance race with chasing start in the World Cup again (doubly interesting with a chasing start with all the focus which has been on the future WOC program lately) – it has been some time since the last time we saw that. The Czech terrain is perfect for some interesting long route choice legs, so everything should be set for an interesting race as long as there is some spreading in the middle distance and the course is set in a good way.

- The World Cup in Czech is one of the races I mostly looking forward to now, especially the individual middle distance, Anders Nordberg comments ahead of the races in Liberec.

Many of the other top runners have also had the races in Czech Republic this weekend in their focus for some time, such as the triple World Champion from France this year, Thierry Guergiou.

- World Cup is part of my plan for September. Yesterday, I was looking at the old map and pictures from the terrain and I got quite excited. It looks to be a great terrain. I don’t know yet how well I’ll be trained when I’ll show up in Czech Republic as I feel quite empty now. But I’ll try to get a good start with the middle distance as the course setters in Czech are always good at making orienteering challenges. Then I will give my all for the chase start. I think it is going to be fun and I looking forward to it!

Daniel Hubmann is the overall World Cup leader in the mens class – and a chasing start should suit the fast Swiss runner very well.

- I really like the fast and tricky Czech forests. Since WOC 2008 was really successful I’m really looking forward to come back. I like both middle and long chasing start. But I’m always looking forward to competitions with first to finish decisions!

Hubmann is 408 points is 123 points ahead of Matthias Merz in second spot and another 56 points ahead of Matthias Müller in 3rd spot. Olav Lundanes and Thierry Guergiou are the best non-Swiss sharing the 4th spot with 200 points. In the overall World Cup the sum of the 7 best scores of the 9 first races count for the overall in addition to the last race. The last race gives double points. Thus there are still 500 points to fight for – and nothing is decided.

In the women’s class Annika Billstam’s lead is nearly as clear as Hubmann’s in the mens class. With 386 points she is 121 points ahead of Merja Rantanen in 2nd with Linnea Gustafsson a nd Lena Eliasson in 3rd and 4th.

Maps and terrain

The terrain is characterized as broken terrain in a hilly spruce forest with many valleys and ridges. The terrain offers a variety of details which are the vestiges of former mining activities. Granite stones, cliffs and boulders cover the whole area in a various concentration, creating stone labyrinths in some locations. However, there are many paths and roads – and not too many stone labyrinth areas as you can see from the old map.

The mapmakers have written an interesting article about how to read the World Cup map – and about the making of the map.

- The last form of the map presented in 2005 has undergone numerous changes. Refine the planimetry and altimetry, vegetation was changed. Single generalization approach significantly improved readability and got the map on the level of world o-scene, is one of the descriptions given. You find the complete article here.

Photo by holidaymappers.eu.

Fantasy World Cup

Remember to set up your Fantasy World Cup team ahead of the competitions. The last chance to set up your team for Saturday’s middle distance is Saturday morning at 09:30 CET. For Sunday’s chasing start the last chance is Sunday morning at 09:30 CET. Expect start lists for Saturday to be available Friday evening. It is very tight in the top in the Fantasy World Cup after 6 races – less than a point between geilistgeil on top and sloths in second.

World Cup Liberec: Around the Web

• Fabian Hertner: One last job to do… – Published 2011-09-20 05:00:00
• Baptiste Rollier: World Cup Training in Prague – Published 2011-09-20 19:10:00
• Matthias Merz: Abschiedswochenende nicht ganz nach Wunsch – Published 2011-09-21 23:50:00
• Daniel Hubmann: Bereit für Tschechien – Published 2011-09-20 16:16:00
• Ines Brodmann: Internationaler Saisonabschluss – Published 2011-09-21 23:00:00
• Norwegian O-Federation: Lundanes jakter pallen i sammendraget – Published 2011-09-22 05:00:00
• International O-Federation: Orienteering World Cup: Round 3 this weekend – Published 2011-09-22 07:11:00
• Swiss Orienteering: Ein Schweizer wird auch nach Liberec führen – Published 2011-09-22 10:16:00
• International O-Federation: Follow live video streaming from World Cup – Published 2011-09-22 10:55:00
• Hevoskuuri.fi: Robert Heczko toivottaa suunnistajat tervetulleiksi Liberecin maailmancupiin – Published 2011-09-22 09:04:00
• Austrian O-Federation: Weltcup Tschechien: Vorschau – Published 2011-09-22 16:11:00

Olav Lundanes started it with a short Tweet – now he is back with a long explanation about his views about the future WOC program. – Since I was the one that picked up the discussion I should come with my opinion, Lundanes writes in a comment to the article “Lundanes: – Looks like I am supporting the destruction of orienteering” which has stirred a lot of discussion the last days.

Read Lundanes’ comment – and join in on the discussions if you have something constructive to say. But remember: If you have an opinion which you think is worth listening to, bring it on to your national federation and put pressure on them to bring it on to the IOF – that’s the best way to influence the future WOC program.

Read Lundanes’ full comment and relevant background information:

• The full comment from Olav Lundanes
• The article “Lundanes: – Looks like I am supporting the destruction of orienteering” at World of O – join in on the discussion
• The original Tweet of Olav Lundanes

Olav Lundanes is not happy to be on the front page of  IOF’s latest update on the WOC in the future project - the Power Point presentation which was presented at the IOF Presidents Conference in France in August this year. On his Twitter-account Lundanes Tweets “Looks like I am supporting the destruction of orienteering”.

The background for Lundanes’s indignation is the suggestion for the WOC in the future program made by the IOF Council:

• No more individual middle distance in the WOC in the future (instead prologue + chasing start)
• Traditional relay replaced by mixed sprint relay if 4 medal disciplines in the future WOC – alternatively mixed sprint relay + traditional relay if 5 medal disciplines.

Basis for the proposed WOC program

The Council has suggested the WOC program for the future based on the input from the WOC in the future group (which suggested to keep both the middle distance and the traditional relay, but to introduce chasing start and mixed relay as additional disciplines) and based on input from the federations (a lot of different input from 14 federations pointing in many different directions – see summary of the opinions at the WOC in the future page).

The presentation can be downloaded here – or you can alternatively view screenshots of the presentation below. See also the WOC in the future webpage for more background information about the process and an article in O-zine 02-2011 about the project.

Gueorgiou: – I am really not optimistic for the future of orienteering

Thierry Gueorgiou has a similar reaction to the suggestions:

- To be honest, I am really not optimistic for the future of orienteering if IOF keeps going on that direction. Yes, I will feel extremy lucky to have experienced the good age of orienteering, but I will feel really sorry for the youngsters and I think it will be quite boring to become a coach also :(

Your opinion?

What is your opinion about the future WOC program? Please add a comment below.

Lars Skjeset won the Norwegian Championships middle distance with only 1 small second ahead of Carl Waaler Kaas. Reading the blog post of Carl Waaler Kaas about the race prompted me to make a quick comparison between the two runners.

Here is part of what Carl Waaler Kaas writes in his blog post (translated from Norwegian):
- In my eyes I was not well enough prepared for the Norwegian Champs. The basic skills in this kind of terrain er good – I have shown that before. But physically I was a bit below my best. With top physics I could have decided the duels with good margin, could have got peace. It is not about luck or bad luck. And mentally I was only 99%. I did not have the security and calmness which was needed to decide the duels.

Quick analysis

Skjeset is more offensive in the start of the course, earning time on Waaler Kaas all the way – both choosing better micro route choices and running faster when they take the same routes as it looks like – i.e. Waaler Kaas is obviously not on top physically. In the second part of the race – after passing the spectator control – Skjeset first looses time due to inaccurate direction on the leg to number 12 – then continues with higher speed than Waaler Kaas for a few more leg until seemingly getting tired when approaching the 15th control. From here and on Waaler Kaas is stronger except on the long leg from 19 to 20. Thus I would say the long leg from 19 to 20 could be counted as the decisive leg in the course – the leg where Waaler Kaas could have decided the race for himself. As you can see below – this is also where Forseth Indgaard lost his race.

This is quite typical for a middle distance race. Although there are many short and technical legs which are important for the overall result, the winner is often the one who manages to break the rythm and increase the speed on the longer legs while at the same time orienteering well.

See here for big map (Update! Fixed link – thanks to Eva J. for letting me know)

Skjeset versus Forseth Indgaard

I also included a comparison between Skjeset and Ulf Forseth Indgaard (map here) (eventually number 5 – but in gold position until he lost it on the long leg between 19 and 20). Interesting to note that Forseth Indgaard looses time to Skjeset approximately at the same places as Waaler Kaas did – so it seems like Skjeset had some very good periods here. And going right on the long leg to number 20 was disastrous for Forseth Indgaard.

Winsplits

Here is also a splits comparison of the three from Winsplits:

BTW: Skjeset retired from the national team ahead of this season, but still took the gold medal in the Norwegian Champs middle distance on Saturday.

Still a long way to go until Christmas – but there were so nice, long routechoice legs at today’s Swedish Champs long distance that we make an early start this year – 104 days ahead of December 1st. The leg in question is the leg from control number 10 to 11 (there was actually also a very nice leg from 3 to 4 – I have saved that one for later).

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger).

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers. When making your choice – remember that this is part of a long distance race.

Now you can take a look at a graphical analysis of the leg based on the GPS-data of some of the fastest runners between these controls (click on an image to see a larger version of it). Note that times are off the GPS, so there might be some inaccuracies at the start/end of each route/track.

As you can see below there are three main choices – either going direct, going far left or going to the right. Francois Gonon is fastest with a direct variant (15:28 according to the official splits). As you see from the illustration below, the runners which are closest to Gonon also run direct variants.

• Gustav Bergman is fastest of the ones running hard left (of the ones with GPS track available) – loosing 1:18 according to the official splits. Bergman runs nearly a kilometer longer (3.5 km compared to 2.5 km) – and still looses only a bit more than a minute. Too much time is lost on the parts without path on the middle of the leg to beat Gonon on the leg.
• Of the ones taking the rightmost option, Filip Dahlgren is fastest – loosing 43 seconds. Comparing Gonon and Dahlgren the routes are almost the same length – Dahlgren running some meters longer. It looks like there is too much height to be taken in the first half of Dahlgren’s route (this is were most time is lost).
• The winner of the day – William Lind – looses nearly a minute on his right/middle variant even if he runs some 40-50 meters shorter than Gonon. On the first part of the leg – until the path – he is just as fast as Gonon. The time seems to get lost on the second half of the leg where Gonon has a small path to follow the first part. Runnability also seems to be better after the end of this path.

Some resources:

• GPS tracking SM Long distance men 2011
• Split times

Q: Do you ever think of going back to using compass? Ikonen: I don’t think so. Going back in this issue would be… yeah, bad development.

Ikonen – who took silver at this years World Champs long distance in France – 10 years after his previous individual WOC medal – started using a compass again in 2010. The interview below was published at OrienteeringOnline in 2001 – the international orienteering news website driven by Ivan Nagy some 8-10 years ago which has now turned into OrienteeringOnline Cup (or OOCup).

With the silver medal of Ikonen at this years World Championships it was interesting to reread the interview. I therefore decided to republish it here. Thanks to OrienteerignOnline for the original interview.

Interview with Pasi Ikonen, OrienteeringOnline.com, 2001

Q: When did you decide to put your compass away and why? You really never use it, no matter what terrain?

Running without compass is my way to turn my orienteering into a piece of art

It was in 1998. I ran into Eino Havas who is my coach nowadays. He had these crazy thoughts about orienteering and I had the same sickness… I did it because I was unsatisfied with my concentration in orienteering. I found myself TOO often just running with compass and not knowing my location. So I decided to find best treatment and I threw my compass away. I have it sometimes with me, but I don’t have reasons to use it anymore. It’s also a big challenge to run without compass and I have figured out that the winner of biggest challenges is always the best. Because of that challenge-thing and image (haha!) I never use compass. Not even in night orienteering or flat terrains. People often consider me stupid because I don’t use compass. They say that why don’t you use it, it’s “legal help”. So, they miss the point because I don’t want help. Just map & me! What can I say, hmm… I’ve decided to be the best orienteerer in the world and I want to be perfect in my orienteering. To be perfect you need skills, and running without compass is my way to turn my orienteering into a piece of art.

Q: Do you have any problems in flat terrains, which are very poor in details? Do you make any special training for keeping direction without compass?
I have sometimes big problems, because I’m “just starting” my way. Flat terrains are not so difficult without compass. But flat terrain without details is challenging. It’s pretty nice feeling when it works; you have been running for 500 metres in “white forest” and you still know the direction exactly. That’s really something. Completely different feeling than with compass. So, I don’t do any special training for keeping direction because I do it all the time. But I I think I should do it because the consciousness of development could be more easily seen that way. I could see what I’m doing right and what wrong. When I do just ordinary training I often see just the big picture. And those important tiny details are hiding somewhere…

Q: Do you ever think of going back to using compass?
I don’t think so. Going back in this issue would be… yeah, bad development.

Q: Do you know any other Elite orienteers who don’t use compass?
Many other elite orienteers don’t use it much but most have it with them.

Q: Do you feel emptied out now that you’re World champion at this young age already? What are your motives for the next season?
Little bit. But my orienteering has always been based on enjoying orienteering and thank god it hasn’t changed. I thought that when I win the championship I’d be 30 years old, but now it came and I can’t help it… haha! Fortunately, there are some good things in winning the title. Now I don’t need to chase the world championship and I can concentrate on more important things like training, orienteering and my girlfriend, he he! Next season I’m going to learn the good runnability -terrains. So, I must get to work now!