- It is likely that there will be a World Cup event at the Olympic Cross-Country/Biathlon Stadium 1-2 weeks before the formal opening [of the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014], Chairman of the Ski Orienteering Commission in the IOF, Markku Vauhkonen, explains.

Alexander Bliznevsky, Leho Haldna (IOF vice president) and Sergei Belyayev (Russian Orienteering Federation president) had a meeting with Alexander Zhukov, Russia’s first vice-prime minister and the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, and Dmitry Chernyshenko, President of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games Organizing Committee in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss Ski Orienteering invitational event and promote Ski Orienteering’s Olympic inclusion in 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games.

- This is what we have formally proposed to the Russian Olympic Commitee and the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games Organizing Committee, and they are in the process of validating.

Long way to go

I think it is important to show to the sports world and decisions makers that Ski-orienteering fits excellently to Olympics

But even with this latest development, the way to the real Olympic Winter Games is still long. When asked about what the earliest time is when we can expect Ski-orienteering to be on the Olympic program, the answer is 2022.

- According to the IOC charter and rules, 2022 is the earliest. This we need to live with, Vauhkonen comments. – But they [Zhukov and Chernyshenko] were positive on bringing Ski-Orienteering in, and are now looking at making it possible.

Even if the road to the Olympics is still long and winding, the current development is very positive.

- “Out-of-sight is out-of-mind”´. Being able to be on site of the OWG – both the promotional races and presentation event – makes us visible. I think it is important to show to the sports world and decisions makers that Ski-orienteering fits excellently to Olympics, creates spectator attention and does not require any additional investments etc., the Chairman of the IOF Ski Orienteering Commission explains.

- Those fortunate ones who were in the Asian Winter Games, know this already, but we can show this again for the wider audience in 2014. This is important as our next chance for inclusion is in autumn 2014.

- Anxious to get this opportunity to make it happen

With regards to the program, the proposal is ready to go. The suggested program is to emulate the Olympics with sprint qualifications + finals and a mixed sprint relay with live TV and GPS tracking.

- We have a very clear programme proposal for the Olympic Games including the qualification systems, TV broadcasting, – everything is ready. We are just anxious to get this opportunity to make it happen.

- The Tänndalen mixed relay trial was one of the penny-pilots that we have done to prove the concept – from true-to-sport and spectator attractiveness point of view. In this respect, Ski-orienteering is technically ready for the Olympics. We also proved that at the Asian Winter Games both to the IOC, the OCA (Olympic Council of Asia) and to FIS and IBU that shared the stadium with us.

IOF and ROF initiative

This latest initiative to include Ski-orienteering in the Olympics is a joint effort by the IOF and the Russian Orienteering Federation.

- This is an initiative from the IOF Ski Orienteering Commision and the Russian Orienteering Federation. We have worked together with this to organize the meeting since the Asian Winter Games last year when I met the Russian Olympic Committee’s general secretary and brought up the issue of Ski-O inclusion to the Olympic Winter Games formally to the Russian Olympic Committee and the 2014 Sochi Organizing Committee.

- Still plans on a drawing board, but…further than ever before, is Vauhkonen’s final message

Photo: Per Frost ; from Ultimate-Orienteering.com webpage

- Since I quit the job for Halden SK I have wanted to feel the pressure of working with a team again, the new national coach for Team France, Kenneth Buch, comments the announcement made by the French Orienteering Federation earlier today. With Thierry Gueorgiou continuing on top level for another two years, Buch will be responsible for some of the best orienteers in the world when he starts his new job at November 1st this year.

Buch takes over after Alain Berger who has had a big success with the French Team in his final season as a trainer. Three gold medals at the World Championships on home ground – of them the long awaited relay gold.

Big ambitions for the women

Even if Buch has not even started in the new job, the goals for the job can already outlined.

- Even if I will work along the same lines I have done earlier, it can be big changes for some of the runners when I apply my principles.

- The main goal is to make sure that Francois (Gonon) and Thierry (Gueorgiou) are still on top. In addition closing the gap between them and the next to make sure there are new runners to take over when/if they quit.

- For the women I have big ambitions to increase the level significantly, so that they will be fighting for the medals.

Buch is not planning to revolutionize the way he works – but rather take his methods with him to France.

- Even if I will work along the same lines I have done earlier, it can be big changes for some of the runners when I apply my principles.

Photo: Jens Erik Mjølnerød.

Success story

Even at an age of 32, the Dane has many successful results as a trainer on his CV.  With Halden SK he has won Jukola, 10-mila and most of what it is possible to win for an orienteering club. – It feels like we won what is possible to win for a club, Buch comments. Buch was also responsible for the Norwegian Junior Team in the years when they dominated the Junior World Championships in the same way the Danes have been doing the last years. One year as assistant for the Norwegian senior team is also on the job list. In addition he has been personal trainer for Olav Lundanes since he was 17 years old – leading up to the World Championships title in 2010 in Trondheim.

Busy man

The new French National Coach quit the job in Halden to start his Master studies related to orienteering and psychology. While still in the middle of his master studies, he has no fear to take on the job as national coach.

- The job for Team France is a 50% job. In addition I will continue my job as trainer for Wang at 25% and my Master studies is also around 25%.

The GoPro HD Hero2 and the Garmin Forerunner 910XT both promise to be best-in-class gadgets in categories interesting for orienteers. The Garmin 910XT is the first GPS-watch with built-in barometer – making it possible to analyze your trainings and competitions more accurately due to accurate altitude data. The GoPro HD Hero2 looks like it will be the best HeadCam on the market – with several interesting features.

Is the Garmin Forerunner 910XT or the GoPro HD Hero2 something for you?

Garmin Forerunner 910XT

The big advantage of the Forerunner 910XT is the barometric altitude data

The Garmin Forerunner 910XT is the second new GPS watch released by Garmin this year after the Forerunner 610 which was released in April this year (see introduction at WorldofO.com April 2011). At that time, the Forerunner 610 was the first GPS watch since the good old Forerunner 305 sporting 1-second recording – a feature important for accurate analysis of orienteering training and competitions. Since then the Forerunner 310XT has been upgraded for 1-second recording through a firmware update. And now the new Forerunner 910XT also sports 1-second recording.

The big advantage of the Forerunner 910XT is the barometric altitude data. The altitude data in the previous Forerunner watches was close to useless for orienteering purposes – the data from the 910 XT should however be very useful in that regard – especially if several runners have this type of data available for e.g. route choice comparison including accurate length and altitude information.

No day-to-day watch

Is the Forerunner 910XT something for you? That depends. The Forerunner 910XT is no day-to-day watch. It is meant only for use during sports like the 310XT, and has a battery which lasts for 20 hours. In contrast, the 610 and the 405/410 are day-to-day watches with a battery life of around 2 weeks if you turn off the GPS. The 910 XT (as the 310 XT and 305 before) sports hardware buttons instead of the fancy touch screen of the 610 and the touch bezel of the 405/410. The 910 XT is also larger than the 610/405/410.  For sports use only, I would recommend the 910XT – but to some life is more than sports…

• All you need to know about the Garmin 910 XT (in-depth review DCRainmaker)
• See also Forerunner 610 (best day-to-day GPS watch), Forerunner 310 XT (previous version of 910 XT), Forerunner 405 (day-to-day – watch, lower price point), Forerunner 305 (most for the money). There are also the less expensive Forerunner 210/110 with less features
• There are also other GPS watches than Garmin’s on the market (e.g. Timex, Polar, Nike), but Garmin has the biggest market share and the best products as far as I am aware.

PS! The Forerunner 910XT has also some interesting stuff like a swim-stroke sensor built-in. Now where is that AMRD-functionality? The accelerometer is there – only the software missing…

GoPro HD Hero2

The two most used HeadCams for high quality are the Contour cameras and the GoPro cameras. Contour recently released the Contour Roam – now GoPro released the GoPro HD Hero2. Of these cameras the Hero2 promises the best quality and the most interesting features. At $299 (US price) you get a lot for the price. For HeadCam videos the 170 degree wide angle lens in HD is a clear improvement compared to the previous GoPro HD Hero camera. Also better signal processing should give improved image quality.

Live video streaming

Coming this winter is also the Wi-Fi BacPac for the GoPro HD Hero2 – a feature which might increase the possibilities to see live HeadCam action in BigScreen productions and TV from orienteering? “When paired with the Wi-Fi BacPac, the HD HERO2 supports live video streaming and remote control via smart-devices, computers, and the Web wherever Wi-Fi or a mobile hotspot is present”, the GoPro website states.

Do you need one? If your main purpose is o-technical analysis, the answer is probably no. XCJagge uses “the ebay 720p keychain camera #11 ‘jumbo’ for 32 Euro – some modifications needed” for his videos. But the Hero2 will surely be a fun camera to play with. Your videos will have a quality which makes them usable for more than just analysis - the SD 120 frames-per-second mode will give some nice slow-motion action.

• Information about the GoPro HD Hero2 camera

Analysis of GPS tracking data from races outside Europe is still a novelty in the orienteering world. With the exciting and picturesque native forest of the Oceania 2011 Orienteering Championships – and several longer legs with different route choice options – this was really an interesting task to set out on.

This is by no means a complete analysis – but rather some illustrations and thoughts giving you some insight into orienteering challenges on the other side of the world compared to where most of the readers of World of O are situated.

Thanks a lot to Chris Terkelsen of TracTrac for providing me with the raw tracking data for the analysis.

Useful links:

• GPS tracking (replay of live data)
• Oceania 2011 webpage
• Results

Long distance: Hilly, hilly

On Saturday October 1st, the Oceania Long distance Championships was staged in Wangaratta. The terrain is generally open eucalypt forest with areas of slow running, undulating to steep in sections, with complex granite rock feature. It is described as technically challenging terrain in some of Victoria’s most picturesque native forest. You see a map extract of the first four controls in the men’s course above – and a picture of the terrain on top of this page and another one below (all photos courtesy of the Oceania 2011 webpage). This surely is not like your usual European terrain.

As usually, it is chosen to divide the analysis into two parts – the single-leg analysis of some of the selected longer legs, and the so-called autO-analysis where top runners are compared meter by meter to see where time is lost/gained.

M21E – leg 4-5

The first interesting leg in the mens category from a route choice perspective is the leg from control 4 to 5. The leg is first provided without routes in order for you to be able to study it properly.

Then we put of the routes of the best runners with GPS-data – colored by leg time (green = fast). Note that these times are from the GPS and thus are not accurate to the second.  Below you find a table with the split times from the official timing system. It is interesting to note that most runners choose to run around to the left – although this is quite a steep, stony hillside. Without terrain knowledge, I would probably have opted for a more direct variant. Looking at the split times, the fastest times are run around to the left – but the difference between the fastest around (10:16, Rob Preston/Simon Uppill) and direct (10:46, David Shepherd) is quite small – only 30 seconds. Thus even if it looks like left is faster, the difference is probably not too big based on the available data.

M21E – leg 10-11

Leg 10 to 11 is the most interesting of the day. A long leg with a lot of route choice options. Should you take the big hill in the stony, slow terrain – go around to the right using the paths or to the left in less stony areas but without paths?

Below several different illustrations are used for the leg. Looking at the different options taken below with coloring according to leg time, the first that strikes you is that the left option where you use the path in the first part of the leg and then continue direct must be the best option. However, when looking more into the details, you see that for error-free running, there is actually not much difference between the left, direct and right options. Looking at the dot plots below, David Shepherd (direct) seems to loose his time in the last part of the leg due to insecurity and mistake. Rob Walter (long right on the path) also looses most of the time the last part of the leg as it seems. Thus as very often seen on this level of orienteering, the main key is to choose a secure route and good attackpoints.

AutO-analysis: Rob Preston versus David Shepherd

Comparing the winner Rob Preston with second placed David Shepherd step by step (see autOanalysis figure below – click for large sized illustration), we see that Shepherd generally looses time on the longer legs by taking other routechoices compared to Preston – Shepherd often choosing direct routes. In most cases were the two took the same choice, Shepherd is actually faster.

Generally, however, it seems like you don’t loose a lot of time by choosing the direct route in this kind of terrain – the important thing is to choose good attackpoints into the controls – insecurity in the control region seems to be one of the main time losses by the runners here.

Comparing Preston with Grant Bluett (4th place), we see that they have mostly followed the same route all the way along the course. Bluett looses a bit of time all the way – the only major time loss being on his route choice to number 16 where he runs around the hill instead of taking the climb.

Women’s course

The women’s course also had some interesting legs. Below an illustration for leg 6-7 is given. As you see, the runners who were tempted to take the road lost time – it is too far to go around there. The direct route is the fastest here. Difficult to see on this illustration is that Vanessa Round actually looses a minute – and the victory – on this leg. See the autOanalysis illustration below for more details.

Below you see an autOanalysis of the two best women – Jo Allison and Vanessa Round. Although the final difference between them was only around half a minute, they both lost significant amounts of time. Whereas Allison has a very good start – Round is a lot faster in the final part of the course, winning nearly every single section. The long legs (6-7 and 10-11) are the biggest time losses for Round – a total of more than two minutes for these two together.

Middle distance: Gold mining terrain

The middle distance terrain on Sunday was a very different one from Saturday’s long distance. The terrain was “a heavily sluiced gold mining with a network of minor tracks” according to the preview video embedded below.

- The mildly undulating area is generally slow run but is very variable across the map. The unrelenting nature of the terrain is such that competitors will be greatly challenged to manage their speed and navigation to ensure clean passage through their course. The area is more complex than any existing gold mining area known to me, the description continues.

For the middle distance two autOanalysis figures are set up without further analysis.

Runner profiles have now been updated with 1000+ pictures from the World Cup Final, the World of O Ranking has been updated, the results archive has been updated and photos from the World Cup final have been added to the World of O Facebook page and many have been tagged with runner.

Gueorgiou and Jansson

The best orienteers at the end of 2011 according to the World of O Ranking are Thierry Gueorgiou in the mens class and Helena Jansson in the womens class. The World of O Ranking is designed to tell who is the best orienteer when it really counts (see details)! Points for different results are set based on this – giving a lot more credit for a gold medal compared to silver medal – and very little points when you are out of the top 10. Also, the World Champs count twice as much as the European Champs, and four times as much as a World Cup race (NOC and JWOC results also count).

This year it is interesting to see that the official IOF World Ranking gives the same two runners on the top as the World of O Ranking.

Best in each discipline

The World of O Ranking is also designed to tell who is the best runner in the different disciplines – as there is currently no other ranking scheme for international orienteering giving any information about this. At the end of 2011 Daniel Hubmann is on top in the Sprint ranking while Thierry Gueorgiou tops both the middle and long distance ranking. In the womens class Linnea Gustafsson leads the sprint ranking, Helena Jansson the middle ranking and Dana Brozkova the long distance ranking. Note that in the overall ranking, Simone Niggli is still in second spot overall after her fantastic season last year.

• World of O Ranking
• World Cup Final Photos on the World of O Facebook page
• Runner profiles updated with pictures from World Cup Final
  Results archive updated with World Cup Final results

Who was the best man and woman orienteer in 2011?

With 3 individual WOC gold medals to be given out in both the men and women classes – in addition to the overall World Cup – it is not always clear how to determine who was the best orienteer of the year. What is most important – a WOC gold medal or the overall World Cup? Is the winner of the classical long distance the best orienteer in 2011? The World of O Ranking is one way to answer the question of who was the best orienteer in 2011 ; Thierry Gueorgiou among the men and Helena Jansson among the women. What is your opinion?

Daniel Hubmann did like he has done the last years – took the victory both in the overall World Cup and in the World Cup final. Gueorgiou gave Hubmann a real fight for the overall World Cup in his first sprint race since the PostFinance Sprint last year – and finished 4th, only 17 seconds down on Hubmann.

Jerker Lysell had a super finish – and had the lead for a long time until Daniel Hubmann came with the last startnumber and took the victory.

Map and course

As for the women where Minna Kauppi took the victory, the course was varied – with several legs where the runners choose different routes. However, rather the route choice options did not seem to vary very much – and it was thus mostly running speed and technique which decided the race. Above you see one of the route choice legs – the leg from number 16 to 17.

• Map with GPS-tracking

Results

Full results

Overall World Cup

Daniel Hubmann won the overall World Cup ahead of Thierry Gueorgiou, Matthias Merz, Matthias Kyburz and Matthias Müller. Full World Cup results updated here.

Minna Kauppi took the victory in the World Cup final – but Helena Jansson secured the overall World Cup victory after a big mistake by Annika Billstam in today’s sprint. As always in the PostFinance Sprint the atmosphere was magic – with lots of load spectators cheering the runners on.

Minna Kauppi took the victory ahead of Lena Eliasson with Helena Jansson in third. Tessa Hill took a surprisingly strong 4th place .

Map and course

The course was varied – with several legs where the runners choose different routes. The 6th control is the one which lost Annika Billstam her chances in the overall World Cup – here she made a huge mistake after having been not far behind the lead. Kauppi securedn her victory due to higher speed in the first part of the course. In the final long leg to number 15 Kauppi lost some time on a left route choice – but not enough for the others to come up and beat her.

• Map with GPS-tracking

Results

• Full results

The World Cup final offers a spectacular city sprint in the Swiss city Chaux-de-Fonds – you can follow it live via webTV and live GPS tracking.

The overall World Cup will be decided today – with double World Cup points in the sprint it is still very open for the victory in the womens class where overall leader Annika Billstam has a 45 point lead on Helena Jansson. In the mens class Daniel Hubmann has a clear lead to Thierry Gueorgiou – but still needs an 8th spot if Gueorgiou wins in order to defend his 128 point overall World Cup lead.

• Live webTV and results (see also direct link to Schweizer Sportfernsehen
• Live GPS-tracking (available after the first start)
• Startlist
• Preview article: World Cup Final – All you need to know
• World Cup standings

Tove Alexandersson and Thierry Gueorgiou took the victories in todays middle distance in the World Cup final weekend. In the mens class it was a very tight race between World Cup leader Daniel Hubmann and runner up Thierry Gueorgiou – but in the end Gueorgiou was the strongest. Still the 128 point lead of Hubmann is so large that he has to make big mistakes in the sprint tomorrow in order for Gueorgiou to have a chance. – I have to be really lucky to win the overall World Cup, Gueorgiou said after his race.

In the womens class, it is a lot more open in the overall World Cup. Annika Billstam had a quite bad race today – and lost many points to the runner up Helena Jansson. Now Billstam has a lead of only 45 points to Helena Jansson – and Maja Alm i third has only a theoretical chance to win the overall World Cup.

First World Cup victory for Alexandersson

Tove Alexandersson had a fantastic weekend already in Liberec last weekend – with one third and one fourth place. Now the young Swede took another big step.

- I knew after last weekend that I had the chance to win if I did a very good race. I knew that it would be hard, but I knew I had the chance. It was a good race. I have not done any mistakes – just some controls where I did not take the best routechoice. I am very satisfied.

Helena Jansson took a second place after problems with sickness since last weekend. In third spot we find a young Norwegian how had her international breakthrough today.

- I did not know what to expect because I have not been competing much this year due to injuries. I knew that top 6 would be possible with a perfect race, so I was very satisfied today, Ida Næss Bjørgul said after her podium-race.

- It was a very good race. I tried to keep the right speed to keep up with the orienteering, and I think I did this very well today.

Gueorgiou again

Even if the middle distance race today required a lot of running strength, Gueorgiou took home the victory today. And it was not without mistakes either.

- I lost 20-25 seconds at the 11th control. I first thought there was nothing left to orienteer when leaving the technical area at the 8th control, but then I saw that the 11th control was a tricky reentrant in the green. I was very careful, but still made a mistake.

- I was very disappointed because I thought it would be a very tight race. But when I saw Merz towards the end I was happy because I thought it could be good for the overall World Cup.

• Preview article: World Cup Final – All you need to know
• World Cup standings

Results

Results women

Results men

• Full results

Map and courses

The start of the courses was technical both for the men and women- although there are paths to help with the orienteering. With the partly dense forest with variable runnability, accurate orienteering and direction running is required in order to run mistake-free. Above you see the first 8 controls in the mens course.

The second part of the courses is set in a different terrain type – requiring a different style of orienteering. While the terrain forces you to keep the speed down in the first part, the challenge in the second part of the course is to speed up while still keeping the focus.

The last part of the courses was very steep downhill – with little orienteering technical challenges. Here all is about letting the legs run while keeping that little bit of concentration needed to find the controls. Still some made mistakes here – like Carl Waaler Kaas who lost a 6th place on the second last control.

• Full map and live GPS tracking men and  women

The runners are welcomed with interesting and varied courses in the Swiss Jura forest in today’s World Cup middle distance. The start of the courses is technical – although there are paths to help with the orienteering. With the partly dense forest with variable runnability, accurate orienteering and direction running is required in order to run mistake-free. Above you see the first 8 controls in the mens course.

The second part of the courses is set in a different terrain type – requiring a different style of orienteering. While the terrain forces you to keep the speed down in the first part, the challenge in the second part of the course is to speed up while still keeping the focus. This is probably the part of the race where the race will be decided – for example the 10th control in the mens course can be quite tricky.  The women have less 0f this middle part.

The last part of the courses is very steep downhill – with little orienteering technical challenges. Here all is about letting the legs run while keeping that little bit of concentration needed to find the controls.

Links:

• Live results
• Full map and live GPS tracking men and  women
• Preview article: World Cup Final – All you need to know
• World Cup standings