- A good old long distance, few controls and just lots of hard work. I didn’t fully appreciate it while running, mostly I was just really tired, but it is such a good feeling afterwards when you reach the finish and have fought your way through that whole long course, all by yourself, Helena Jansson (Sweden) says about her choice for “The Course of the Year” – the Swedish Elitserien Longdistance 24th of april.

Of three World Orienteering Championships medalists from 2011 asked about the “Course of the Year 2011″ so far, all have chosen a map from Sweden. And two of them have chosen a long distance race. It looks like there has been a lot of interesting orienteering in Sweden this year…

Course of the Year 2011

Which course will take the prestigious top spot this year? The search for the course of the year  will be fun, for sure as it was last year! The rules are simple: Suggest a course from a competition or training in 2011 (click here to get to the suggestion page), and state the reason why you think this course deserves to be “The course of the Year 2011″. The best among all the suggestions will be chosen – and there will be a voting process among the readers of “World of O” in order to name “The course of the year 2011″. Prizes from sponsors make it more fun to be in on the suggestions and voting – Croatia Open, Lipica Open, Fjord-O and EOC Tour are sponsoring “The course of the year 2011″ with starts (see below).

Interview with Helena Jansson

We also did a short interview with Jansson to hear more about her 2011 season with respect to maps and courses.

WoO: What is the worst course you run in 2011?

I had a horrible day and for the first time ever I didn’t finish the course because I couldn’t find one of the controls

Difficult! I almost always enjoy orienteering, and I am not that good in criticizing courses, mostly I like them even when maybe I shouldn’t. I don’t know about worst course, but the worst race for me was the Norwegian and French WOC-test-long-race. I had a horrible day and for the first time ever I didn’t finish the course because I couldn’t find one of the controls. Maybe that was actually a sign the course was good, bud for me the whole day was a disaster.

(Editors comment: Below Øystein Kvaal Østerbø’s map from this race is included)

Q: What is the race you enjoyed most this year?
The WOC sprint finals. Sprints is something special when in old cities crowded with people. You can never copy a race like WOC in a training, and is was just so much fun with the start, map exchange, finish, all squeezed in to that small marketplace. For me it wad the first good competition race whole summer, such a good feeling that I knew how to read the map properly, and that my legs seemed to want to run pretty fast. I enjoyed every second of it- just so happy to be on the startling of a championship-final!

Q: What is your favourite map (from the top of your head)?
Asplövberget, between Piteå and Älvsbyn. Just last week I was there for the first time, it is some 260 km from Umeå, but it was beautiful, I could go there any time, despite the distance!

(Editors comment: The map below is found in omaps.worldofo.com – I hope I found the correct one)

WoO: Have you got a tip to young and inexperienced course setters out there about how to make a good course?
I myself am a lousy course setter, mostly I guess because I like running orienteering, but all the other stuff around it- mapping, courses, analyzing- not really my thing. I think the best thing is to just think about who your client is- that it is a challenge and something demanding for those who are going to run, and of course- that is seems like a fun course to run!

Picture: Helena Jansson.

WoO: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2012?

My primary goal is to stay whole and healthy! Zero new injuries! And after that comes making it ti the World Champs, and when I am there- trying to enjoy myself as much as I possibly can. That said, the best way to really enjoy a WOC is to be well prepared and fit for fight- preferably a fight for medals! I will not change that much in my training, but I will make sure to keep a better balance when it comes to how much I run and how much I train alternative things. I’ll also try to work on my speed a bit, Lausanne will demand both fast brains and fast feet I think!

WoO: Thank you very much for the Interview, and good luck with the winter training!

Prizes from our Sponsors

Prizes from our Sponsors always makes it more fun! There will be a prize for the course setter in “The course of the Year 2011″, a prize for the first one suggesting the course which ends up becoming “The course of the Year 2011″, and prizes drawn among the ones suggesting and voting. The sponsors will be presented in more detail later on – for now you can see some information about them below.

For the record: All sponsor gifts/income related to “The Best Course of 2011″ goes directly to the WorldofO.com readers.

- The course setter forced us to switch between different techniques along the course, Eva Jurenikova (Czech Republic) says about her choice for “The Course of the Year” – the Swedish Championships Middle distance final.

- It was not easy to decide, but I pick the Swedish Championships Middle distance final because it was a technically demanding course, and interesting terrain. But there was also a lot of variation and some route choices.

As for Billstam’s choice “Swedish Champs Long distance” presented on Sunday, this course has also been analyzed in some detail over at o-training.net. For this course o-training.net even presented a comparison between the winner Jenny Johansson and Eva Jurenikova who took the bronze medal (click for larger image). The conclusion at that time was that they took similar route choices all the way – Jurenikova looses all the time she is behind around control number 12 – first on insecurity and then on a mistake.

Course of the Year 2011

Which course will take the prestigious top spot this year? The search for the course of the year  will be fun, for sure as it was last year! The rules are simple: Suggest a course from a competition or training in 2011 (click here to get to the suggestion page), and state the reason why you think this course deserves to be “The course of the Year 2011″. The best among all the suggestions will be chosen – and there will be a voting process among the readers of “World of O” in order to name “The course of the year 2011″. Prizes from sponsors make it more fun to be in on the suggestions and voting – Croatia Open, Lipica Open, Fjord-O and EOC Tour are sponsoring “The course of the year 2011″ with starts (see below).

Interview with Eva Jurenikova

We also did a short interview with Jurenikova to hear more about her 2011 season with respect to maps and courses.

WoO: What is the worst course you run in 2011?

The disqualifications could have been easily avoided

The worst course in 2011 was the World Championships sprint qualification (see map below). The course setter should avoid creating “traps”. There were very many runners disqualified at the WOC sprint qualification. The disqualifications could have been easily avoided. Also some of the controls, the ones in the green, were not suitable for a sprint race.

Q: What is your favourite map (from the top of your head)?
I am fond of the maps and terrain in Sälen, Dalarna, Sweden. It is a kind of training paradise for me, and I try to go there every year before the WOCs to do probably the most important part of my WOC preparation. I can not really say which one of the many maps in Sälen I like most of all. One of the trainings I enjoyed this year was this one.

I think also O-Ringen offered both interesting courses and terrain this year – see for example my map from E3.

WoO: Have you got a tip to young and inexperienced course setters out there about how to make a good course?

Check the IOF competition rules and read especially the appendix 6 – competition formats. Study courses set by others. The best source is omaps.worldofo.com.

“Practice Makes Perfect”. Set many courses and ask for feedback from somebody who is more experienced.

Picture: Eva Jurenikova, WOC Long Qualification 2011.

WoO: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2012?

I have not set any result goals, but I have identified a few areas which I want to focus on in my training in order to take some more steps forward. I want to come to WOC in my best shape ever. I do not plan any drastic changes in my training, but compared to previous years I want to do a bit more orienteering+running training (approximately 15% increase), especially during the winter.

WoO: Thank you very much for the Interview, and good luck with the winter training!

Prizes from our Sponsors

Prizes from our Sponsors always makes it more fun! There will be a prize for the course setter in “The course of the Year 2011″, a prize for the first one suggesting the course which ends up becoming “The course of the Year 2011″, and prizes drawn among the ones suggesting and voting. The sponsors will be presented in more detail later on – for now you can see some information about them below.

For the record: All sponsor gifts/income related to “The Best Course of 2011″ goes directly to the WorldofO.com readers.

- It got all the characteristics of a good long distance race, the reigning World Champion on the long distance Annika Billstam (Sweden) says about her choice for the course of the year 2011 – the Swedish Championships long distance.

Annika Billstam is full of praise for the Swedish Championships long distance course.
- It is seldom that there is more than one long leg in a women’s course – this time we had two!

Course of the Year 2011

Which course will take the prestigious top spot this year? The search for the course of the year  will be fun, for sure as it was last year! The rules are simple: Suggest a course from a competition or training in 2011 (click here to get to the suggestion page), and state the reason why you think this course deserves to be “The course of the Year 2011″. The best among all the suggestions will be chosen – and there will be a voting process among the readers of “World of O” in order to name “The course of the year 2011″. Prizes from sponsors make it more fun to be in on the suggestions and voting – Croatia Open, Lipica Open, Fjord-O and EOC Tour are sponsoring “The course of the year 2011″ with starts (see below).

Technically demanding

Back to Billstam and her choice for “The Course of the Year 2011″. Part of the reason for Billstam choosing the SM Long distance, was that in addition to the long legs with route choice alternatives, there was both technical orienteering and a physically demanding finish.

- The last loop was very physically demanding, and still technically demanding. Even though it was close to the finish area (including a spectator control). And the terrain was very nice.

The Swedish Champs long distance has already been analyzed in some detail here at World of O – but focus was on the men’s course. Below one of the long legs in the mens course is showed with a “dot-analysis”.

- Few interesting and demanding route choices

We also did a short interview with Billstam to hear more about her 2011 season with respect to maps and courses.

WoO: What is the worst course you run in 2011?

The results showed more the running speed of the competitors than anything else

The Postfinance Sprint in Switzerland. Of course I might be a bit coloured by my performance. The mapped area was very interesting for making a challenging sprint course, with different levels of roads and a lot of stairs and narrow passages (see the southeast part of the map). The course we met had few interesting and demanding route-choices, and the results showed more the running speed of the competitors than anything else. If you are a course planner, you should also avoid making too “complex line- and control ring fuzz”. In this competition the ring of the 5th control is crossed by 4 lines which easily could have been avoided. Control number 8 is in addition placed on the map with a building behind, making it look like a 6th at a fast glimpse.

WoO: A good course is one thing – enjoying a race or training another. What is the race or training you have enjoyed most in 2012?
Middle distance is my favourite distance, but not yet my best. I really enjoyed this one – the Elitserien in Mora. I had a nice flow and feeling all along : )

(Editors comment: click here to see to the full map – below you see an autOanalysis comparison from 2DRerun between Billstam and Lena Eliasson from the race which Billstam won ahead of Eliasson.)

Q: What is your favourite map (from the top of your head)?

Lunsen, Uppsala, Sweden. (Editors comment: You can see the map here – a popular map with more than 100 entries in World of O Maps)

WoO: Have you got a tip to young and inexperienced course setters out there about how to make a good course?

Ask more experienced (your favourite) course setters about advice, and ask them for creative feedback! Study courses and how they are planned, on World of O Maps. Could you improve them in any way?

Picture: Annika Billstam on the way towards WOC Long Distance gold medal

WoO: What are your goals for next year – and how do you change your training and focus in order to reach your goals in 2012?

EOC in Sweden. WOC in Suisse. Especially give it all trying to win the relay together with the girls! Keep my physical level, and develop my technical skills, which means keep the ingredients which worked for my physical training and increase the amount and quality of my technical training.

To do this I decided to become a professional orienteer.

WoO: Thank you very much for the Interview, and good luck with the winter training!

Prizes from our Sponsors

Prizes from our Sponsors always makes it more fun! There will be a prize for the course setter in “The course of the Year 2011″, a prize for the first one suggesting the course which ends up becoming “The course of the Year 2011″, and prizes drawn among the ones suggesting and voting. The sponsors will be presented in more detail later on – for now you can see some information about them below.

For the record: All sponsor gifts/income related to “The Best Course of 2011″ goes directly to the WorldofO.com readers.

What was the best orienteering course of 2011? Last year’s winner was Jukola with great courses in fantastic terrain. Which course will take the prestigious top spot this year? The search for the course of the year  will be fun, for sure as it was last year! The rules are simple: Suggest a course from a competition or training in 2011, and state the reason why you think this course deserves to be “The course of the Year 2011″.

The best among all the suggestions will be chosen – and there will be a voting process among the readers of “World of O” in order to name “The course of the year 2011″. Prizes from sponsors make it more fun to be in on the suggestions and voting – Croatia Open, Lipica Open, Fjord-O and EOC Tour are sponsoring “The course of the year 2011″ with starts (see below). Note! There is still an opening for more sponsors if you are interested in getting publicity for your event.

Use the comments below, and submit either

1. The course which in your opinion is the best course you run in 2011 yourself!
2. The best course you set this year as a course-setter.
3. The overall best course you have seen/heard about in 2011

Most course-setters surely have to make some compromises, so finding the perfect one is probably not possible. Still, it is interesting to see which is the best course you run or set in 2011! Here are my choices for last year.

Starting point

To provide you with a starting point, I’ve picked out a few very different candidates for you based on maps and courses I have seen in omaps.worldofo.com and comments on various webpages:

• The WOC long final should in my opinion always be one of the best courses of the year – but was it this year? There are many compromises in a WOC race, but still this course had a lot of interesting bits… See the full map here
  
• WOC selection race on Le Revard in May 2011. While some of the technical “feinschmecker’s” were disappointed by WOC courses, the selection races ahead of the WOC had it all. The Le Revard race in May was one of those really nice ones. See the full map here
  
• I think that some time in the future, a type of labyrinth or Orient’show will get into the sprints at elite level to make it even more interesting for both TV and spectators – and also for the runners. Thus I am always interested in the various attempts to make nice show-orienteering. This indoor labyrinth from Latvia will surely not be the Course of the Year 2011 – but it is still nice to be able to highlight it here.
  See full map here
  
• The Swiss O-week offered some really spectacular orienteering this year again. The courses the third day started at around 2600 meters height, and offered a lot of interesting orienteering. See full map here
  
• - One of my nicest training ever, map super precise with all the single vegetation details – amazing, Thierry Guergiou tweeted after this training (see map at the top of this article). Probably not the course to be named the course of the year in 2011 – but the most popular map on omaps.worldofo.com of those posted in 2011. See the full map here.

I am sure you have a lot of better suggestions than the one I gave above – this is just a starting point to see the wide variety of candidates there are out there. Submit your suggestions now!

Rules

The following rules are given for “The course of the Year 2011″.

• The course must have been run in competition or training in 2011.
• Suggestions are submitted as a comment to this post – including link to the map with course in a quality which is good enough for the readers to understand the course and the challenges involved. Please add information about location/date if that is not clear from the link provided. Also include which sponsor prize you are interested in if you win.
• You must give a reason for why you think this course deserves to be named “The course of the Year 2011″ (or why it is the best course you run/set this year)
• All reasons are valid. Examples can for example be “varied orienteering challenges”, “extremely technical orienteering”, “high fun-factor”, “fantastic map”, “spectacular orienteering”, “fantastic nature” – a combination of these – or a totally different reason. To get all the way to the top you should probably have a combination of reasons…
• The course may be any discipline – e.g. a long distance, a middle distance, a sprint distance. It may also be a technical training course – like e.g. a corridor orienteering exercise.
• There will be a voting process among the readers of “World of O” in order to name “The course of the year 2011″.

Prizes from our Sponsors

Prizes from our Sponsors always makes it more fun! There will be a prize for the course setter in “The course of the Year 2011″, a prize for the first one suggesting the course which ends up becoming “The course of the Year 2011″, and prizes drawn among the ones suggesting and voting. The sponsors will be presented in more detail later on – for now you can see some information about them below.

For the record: All sponsor gifts/income related to “The Best Course of 2011″ goes directly to the WorldofO.com readers.

WOC in the Future: A suggestion to split the World Orienteering Championships into a separate sprint WOC and traditional WOC – organized alternating years – is finally on the table. Splitting into two different WOCs has been dismissed by the IOF in earlier discussions, but with the Swedish Orienteering Federation officially announcing a splitting into two different WOCs today, this will definitely be a topic going forwards.

- We have been contacted by WOC runners from other countries who have asked what we as a big orienteering country can do to push an alternative suggestion to a WOC program, Tom Hollowell, head of the Swedish Orienteering Federation says to Skogssport.

Here is the new program suggested by the Swedish Orienteering Federation:

• Sprint WOC: (1) Sprint Qual + Final, (2) KnockOut sprint, (3) Mixed sprint relay
• Forest WOC: (1) Long distance final, individual start, (2) Middle distance final, individual start, (3) Prologue + chasing start, (4) Relay – men and women separately

These two WOCs are to be organized every second year; i.e. one year the Sprint WOC – the next year the Forest WOC.

Here is the suggested program by the IOF:

• Alternative A: (1) Sprint Qual + Final, (2) Mixed sprint relay, (3) Prologue + chasing start (middle), (4) Long distance final, individual start.
• Alternative B: The above alternative with the addition of a traditional relay (men / women separately)

What is your opinion on the suggested WOC program? Either vote now – or read my list with Pros and Cons below before deciding.

Pros and Cons: Splitting WOC into two parts

I was recently asked by some “decision makers” to give some facts and opinions on splitting the WOC into two separate parts based on this article I wrote earlier – a sprint WOC and a traditional WOC – to be organized alternating years. Below are my Pros and Cons as it was written:

Advantages related to splitting

Advantages related to the forest WOC

• The WOC program makes it possible for all the best to run all disciplines
• Possibility to keep and further develop the individual discipline which works best for TV today (according to several TV people I have talked to) – the individual middle distance – while at the same time getting a “first-to-finish” discipline into the program
• Easier to organize and easier to get organizers because there are only forest disciplines and fewer finals
• No inflation in the number of medals (the total amount of medals summed over two years goes down)

Advantages related to the sprint WOC

• Possibility to include a KnockOut sprint on the WOC program without removing today’s sprint (today’s sprint works well for the spectators – not so well for TV). Typical WOC program: Sprint like today, KnockOut sprint, Mixed relay
• Easier to organize. Easier to find suitable terrain, and thus more areas are suitable for a sprint WOC. Increased chances to get the WOC outside Europe (necessary according to the Olympics goal of the IOF). This is the natural way towards orienteering in the Olympics in my opinion (if that is where you want to head).
• Potential possibility to integrate sprint-WOC in the World Games every second time (but problem regarding the restrictions on number of participants). Alternatively a sprint WOC should be organized in opposite phase to the World Games, giving a sprint type championship 3 of 4 years.
• A sprint WOC can easier be organized in the autumn – which is a lot better time for TV than in the middle of the summer. One of the main reasons for organizing the WOC in summer time today is for the spectator races which gives income and spectators and for the volunteers. A city-championships in autumn could give many spectators as only a weekend + a day is needed.

Disadvantages related to splitting

• Potentially lower license fee to the IOF – I have heard this a lot of times when discussing the matter. IOF is dependent on income from WOC organizers, and a splitting might reduce this.
• The WOC program is not recognizable by the public as it changes from year to year.
• You could get fewer participating nations on the WOC – especially on the forest WOC
• You could get lower status on one of the WOCs – either forest of sprint depending on how this develops.

I may have missed some here as I might have been focusing more on the advantages – please let me know in the comments and I’ll add them here.

Conclusion

My conclusion in my e-mail was that there are more arguments for splitting into two WOCs than against it – and that is still my opinion. But as always I challenge the readers to come up with arguments that I have not thought of.

Finally I want to pinpoint that all disciplines which are to be included in a WOC should be tested properly before the program is decided – including forking method which works for the chosen start form.

PS! The Swedish Orienteering Federation call this “a completely new and radical suggestion”, but it has actually been up in discussions many times already – for example in this article from August last year. It is not my original suggestion, though, but I have been advocating it as one of the most obvious solutions to the WOC in the future “problem”.

Don’t forget to scroll up again and vote!

[Updated with analysis and comments]: The chasing start in Camp Norway today featured a test of the new Runners Choice spreading method. With GPS-tracking available – it is very interesting to see how it worked out.

In the mens course, there were three legs with “Runners Choice” – in which the runners had to choose which variant to take without knowing what the other runners did. I am not sure exactly how the choice was made, but I will get information about that and update this article. The runners made their choice by punching the map “the old-fashioned way” at the control where the Runner’s Choice segment started (i.e. at the 5th control, 8th control and 11th control for the men)

First test in good start field

- It split the field a few times, but it did not give big differences

The runners see some potential in the spreading method, but don’t yet see it as the ultimate spreading method which one is searching for to make it possible to have a chasing start in the future WOC program.

- First time running “Runners Choice” today. If the goal is to spread the runners, it needs more development, so far not better than the butterflies, Olav Lundanes comments on Twitter.

Other runners commented that it was possible to see which control other runners choose based on the direction the runners in front left the control. However, it seems like a quite positive first test in a quite good start field.

- It split the field a few times, but it did not give big differences, Carl Waaler Kaas commented.

Illustrations

Below I have set up illustrations for each of the three segments in the mens class with Runners Choice. A full analysis can only be made with the split times – this is just a qualitative analysis based on inaccurate GPS-times. A short discussion of each of the Runner’s Choice legs:

• Control 5-7: Very good spreading to the three different alternatives. The fastest times are run in alternative A, but B is very close. Alternative C seems to be slower – more than 30 seconds for the best split times, but it also looks like not many of the best choose this option. This is of course a challenge in an analysis.
• Control 8-10: Only alternative A and B are used (except for a single runner for alternative C). Alternative C seems to be clearly better – the majority of good times being run here.
• Control 11-13: Again only two alternatives used – B and C (and a single runner at alternative A). However, alternative A might well be quite good, as the time run there is not that bad. Of the other two alternatives, it seems like B is faster – and also with more variance in the split times for variant C – probably because C is more challenging orienteering technically.

Overall there is good spreading into two variants for two of the Runners Choice segments and into all three variants for the third segment. Thus it seems like the spreading method works well in the sense that it spreads runners based on the runners’ own choice. I have not done any analysis on if the spreading method really splits up runners – of course that is the most interesting subject here (maybe Martin at O-zeugs want to take a look if we get the splits times). However, the first part of the mission – spreading the runners – was accomplished. Another side of the story is if the spreading method is fair from the runners perspective. I am looking forward to get some comments from the runners.

Link to full GPS-Tracking for men and women.

• GPS-tracking men
• GPS-tracking women