Today’s leg in Route to Christmas is from the Elitserien race in Bonäs in June this year. This is a race for which there was full GPS tracking for 50 runners, and thus there are interesting analysis possibilities. Thanks to Eva Jurenikova for the tip.

This was a middle distance race, and there were not many interesting route choice legs. The chosen leg is a very short – but still very interesting leg. And it proved to be quite decisive in the race.

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.

- There was one route choice leg in the middle distance race at Elitserien in Bonäs which was quite decisive for the final result, Eva Jurenikova wrote in her e-mail.

As you can see from the illustration below, it was significantly faster to run left on this leg with all the fast times having been run left. You save height, there is a lot path when going left, and the marsh was quite wet on the direct route.

Comparing Olav Lundanes (fastest left) with Jerker Lysell (fastest direct), you see that Lysell looses a lot of time both in the downhill, in the marsh and in the uphill – the downhill and marsh being nearly as slow as the uphill. If the downhill would not have been that steep, the time loss had probably been reduced by 15-20%.

The women had the same leg – and the trend is exactly the same. The six fastest women run on the leg have taken the left route. For the women there are some clear time losses by taking the right variant.

Note! You can open the analysis yourself in 2DRerun here (does not work in Internet Explorer – please use Google Chrome or Firefox).

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

In today’s Route to Christmas we are off to the British Championships long distance organized close to Sheffield in the middle of May this year. Thanks to Dave Schorah for the tip.

Course setters on this British Championships long distance were Oli and Jenny Johnson – both elite runners in the British Team.

- The challenge of three – for most competitors – very different terrain types and the physical challenge of some typical Yorkshire forest, alongside Oli and Jenny’s well planned courses made for some tired legs, the controller comments the race.

Here are some of the course setters comments:
- Using Grenoside, Wheata and Wharncliffe Woods together made it possible to plan really varied courses with some great route choice legs and tricky control picks. The goal was to design Classic races which would be won by the best orienteer (regardless of whether or not the area ’suited them’) and to provide a challenge on every leg. We hope we came close to achieving this and the best compliment we could be given was the excellent times set by the winners on all courses. Well done to them all.

Under 6 min/km for 14.5 km

- We are, of course, both impressed and disappointed that W21E and particularly M21E were faster than expected, having lengthened these courses during the planning stages. Wharncliffe is an area with a fearsome reputation and it is a tribute to Doug Tullie that he managed to dip under 6min/km for his 14.5km course. On W21E mistakes in the last 3rd of the course saw 3 different leaders over the last 4 controls with Claire Ward missing, Rachael Elder tiring and Tessa Hill storming through to victory with a run-in split of 1.01.

The chosen leg is leg number 21 in the Men 21 Elite course. 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). Note that the leg is run from right to left.

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.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. As you can see there are three main alternatives: Direct with few paths/roads or using the roads to go either left or right. As you can see, Matthey Crame runs the fastest time on the direct route – but Oleg Chepelin is only 20 seconds slower by taking a long detour to the left, running mostly on roads and saving significantly on height. Douglas Tullie – the fastest overall – looses 20 seconds to Chepelin on the firect route. Based on the running times, I would say going left is risk free and fast – not a bad choice towards the end of a long course!

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Czech Republic – one of the countries which is really active with RouteGadget with a lot of interesting terrain for long route choice legs. This leg is from a regional competition in hilly terrain – and we are faced with a classical “direct or around” question.

The leg in question is leg number 12 in the Men 21A course from the 8. kolo VèP at May 28th this year. This is typical continental terrain with good runnability in the white forest. 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.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. I asked Czech National Team trainer Radek Novotny to comment on this leg, and this is his short comment:

This was a regional race and as you can see from the total time, the level of the runners differes a lot. But the detour was obviously too long in this case. Drobnik is quite fit to loose so much time to Polak.

Thus, even if you save a lot of height by running around, this is just too long.

PS! If you wait a few days more, you’ll see a lot more interesting leg from Czech Republic, where I have got a much longer analysis from Novotny. So come back every day until Christmas….

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Thierry Gueorgiou and Ida Bobach have been awarded with “The Orienteering Achievement of 2011″ titles in the mens and womens class, respectively! Among the men Thierry Gueorgiou got an impressive 52% of the votes – nearly four times many as Ionout Zinca  in second spot. Among the women, Ida Bobach – last year’s number two – won clearly ahead of Helena Jansson.

The vote has been decided by the big international readership of World of O – nearly 3000 unique votes from more than 50 different countries have been delivered – making these results very representative for the worldwide orienteering community. Big thanks go to all voters and to the event sponsors Croeso 2012, Prague Easter/Sandstones.cz, JK 2012, EOC Tour 2012, POM 2012, OOCup, Croatia Open, Fjord-O West and Jukola 2012.

Results

In the Men’s class Thierry Gueorgiou won with 52.4% of the votes ahead of Ionut Zinca with 13.7%, Daniel Hubmann with 11.9% and Matthias Kyburz with 6.3%. In the Womens’s class Ida Bobach won with 31% of the votes ahead of Helena Jansson with 16.0%, Tove Alexandersson with 11.1% and Judith Wyder with 9.7%. The fascinating stories behind each nomination can be read at the poll page for men and women, respectively.

Interview: Thierry Gueorgiou – Achievement of 2011

Nominated for: The King of WOC 2011 – 3 x WOC gold and finally taking home the WOC relay for France after three very dramatic defeats.

My average level was maybe better in 2007, but my peaks were higher in 2011

Q: Congratulations on being awarded “The Orienteering Achievement of 2011″! What a year! Is this your best year ever?

Well, it is always hard to compare my last years. I have the feeling that my best season was 2007. At that time, I had everything under control – the technique, the physique, the mental part and the motivation. This year, I had only one focus: WOC. But in many parts of the season, like in Jukola for example, I felt even stronger than in 2007. In sum, I would say that my average level was maybe better in 2007, but my peaks were higher in 2011.

Q: You won three WOC gold medals this year – and all have their special stories attached to them. Can you tell us the story behind why each of these gold medals were important to you – and which of them meant the most?

Yes, that is totally true. There was a story and inner motivation behind each distances, and that is why it was so easy to refocus during the week and start from a blank sheet of paper. Since 2009, I put as much focus on the long distance as on the middle distance, and I would not have liked to end my career without having this gold. When I woke-up the day of the Long distance, I knew that I had to take this chance. The race was a struggle and I never felt really strong but I hung on to my dream.

The race was a struggle and I never felt really strong but I hung on to my dream

Then, the middle distance is always special for me, and the bronze in Trondheim hurt as much as the 4th place in 2006. So, I really wanted to do a great technical performance in a demanding terrain. During the last 7 weeks, I ran 15 middle distances at competition speed in relevant terrain. I was far too eager at the beginning, rushing instead of trying to control my orienteering. Then, I got a series of 8 nearly perfect performances. My confidence was built on those trainings.

But the relay was the race I awaited most during this week. At every relay training in the previous months, I had the WOC relay in my mind with the same questions to answer: “- How to behave and on what to focus”. I knew there would be a lot of talk and expectations before the race. So, it was mostly about handling the “context”. This was the race I enjoyed the most during the week, both in forest and in the run-in.

I wanted to feel the frustration deeply, because I needed to remember what I didn’t want to feel anymore.

Q: Can you name three key moments in your preparations for WOC which you think where decisive for your achievement?

The most important one was one year earlier in Trondheim, after the WOC relay. I was walking in the neighborhood streets of our hotel. I was knocked-out and I didn’t want to feel any better. I wanted to feel the frustration deeply, because I needed to remember what I didn’t want to feel anymore. After this kind of scenario either you quit or you come back stronger mentally.

Then, another important step was couple of months later, in winter time, when my back problems were solved while stopping jumping and strength with weights.

Then, one crucial turn was also the test race in Prepoulain shared with the Norwegian team in May. That day I felt strong and wanted to show it. That was the absolutely wrong attitude and I remembered it all the days to WOC, that was just an inner battle: “Me versus Me”.

Q: It seemed like you were the only one who really mastered the terrain in Le Feclaz. Do you know how many hours you spent in French WOC-relevant terrain ahead of the championships – and how many more do you think it was compared to your closest competitors? Double?

I spent 300 hours on relevant training maps over the last 12 months. But over the last 20 years, I have also orienteered a lot in karst terrains. I was probably the most prepared, even if many guys had taken the terrain with respect and invested lot of time. But finally the courses were not as demanding as they could have been. Therefore, as some runners have shown, it was possible to do well with just 2 weeks in relevant terrains.

Even losing a training still hurts and it means a lot to me

Q: After WOC you told me that you needed some special goal to motivate you if you choose to continue on WOC level. Now you have decided to continue – what is this goal which is driving you to train on day after day now when you have “got it all”?

There are two main points. The first one is that there will always be one control, somewhere, that I have not found and that I can eventually miss. It keeps me awake because I believe I can get better technically.

The second one is about winning, or better to say losing. I realized it quickly after WOC – even losing a training still hurts and it means a lot to me, because the day I will not feel anything, it will be the time to quit.

Q: What do your days look now, in the middle of winter? Have you changed anything about your training or your preparations compared to the last years? From what i hear it looks like even before Christmas you are hungry for orienteering and traveling from one training camp to the next?

I like to be in training camp because it is the time I am training the best, usually 4 times/day (morning run/1 fast training/ 1 long training/ 1 night). At home, I am spending too much time answering emails and motivation to train decrease quickly. So, a training camp without internet is a luxury now (well, it also nice to be able to play with 2DRerun : )

Q: Due to busy times with a lot of training camps you never had the time to answer what your favourite course of 2011 was for “Course of the Year 2011″. Now you can maybe tell us?

Swedish championship Long distance (Editors comment: Number 5 in course of the Year 2011 – see map here). I didn’t run that one, but I sat the whole race in the press tent looking at the GPS screen, and I am still wondering what were the best routes for some of the legs…

Q: Do you have any comments about the suggestions for “WOC in the Future”?

I read recently the Czech position on the subject (Editors comment: you find the document here) and there is not a single word I would change.

Q: Any final words to your fans out there – there seem to be many!

Thank you all for your votes and cheering through the season! I wish you all a great 2012, full of smiles, lactic acid and tricky controls!

Interview: Ida Bobach – Achievement of 2011

Photos: World of O and Torben Utzon

Nominated for: As a junior winning the silver medal in the World Championships middle distance in France – after a few weeks earlier having taken three gold medals in the Junior World Championships.

Q: Congratulations on being awarded “The Orienteering Achievement of 2011″! What a great year for you – did you expect to get this good results at the start of the season?

I was also nominated last year, so I hoped to be it again. But I really did not expect to have such a great season.

It was a demanding course, and I beat so many good runners. So I’m really proud.

Q: You won a silver medal at the World Orienteering Champs this year. Was this the race you targeted highest this year – or where there other races which were more important up front?

JWOC was my main goal this year because I would like to finish my junior career with style. But I did also look really much forward to WOC, because I knew that the terrains would be very technically demanding. I am really happy that I won all the individual races at JWOC, but it felt bigger to win a silver medal at WOC. It was a demanding course, and I beat so many good runners. So I’m really proud.

Q: What is your strength and weaknesses as an orienteer? You seem to master both the sprints and one of the most technical races of the year – the WOC middle distance?

I’m really good at understanding the map and quickly visualizing it

The reason why I’m good at both sprint and technical middle distances is that I’m really good at understanding the map and quickly visualizing it. I think that it is important in both sprint and middle distance. I think that my biggest weakness as an orienteer is my physique. I have to run faster and be able to do it for a longer time. So I will try to improve that during winter.

Q: Can you name three key moments in your preparations for WOC which you think where decisive for your achievement?

The first preparation I had was really important I think. I ran the World Cup in France in the autumn 2010. I was really turned on by this technical terrain and I started having a dream of doing great at WOC 2012.

In March I was on a training camp in Clermont Ferrand at the same time as the Norwegian National Team. We had some training competitions where I did really good and I won a middle and a long distance. I think these races were important for my self-confidence in the French terrain.

Another thing, that helped my feel confident before the middle distance final, was the really encouraging atmosphere we had in the national team. One of the other Danish runners said to me on our precamp, that he thought that I could go in top 6 at the middle distance. I think it helped my dream come true.

I started having a dream of doing great at WOC 2012

Q: Now you already have a medal from the World Orienteering Champs. What is your goal for next year?

My goal next year is to have another medal at the middle distance at WOC. I know that it is going to be really hard because the terrain probably will not suit me as well as the one in France. But I will fight for it.

Q: What do your days look now, in the middle of winter? Have you changed anything about your training or your preparations compared to the last years?

The last couple of months I have been doing really much alternative training because I was injured after WOC. I have finally realized that alternative training actually can be really good. Therefore I will do more alternative training this winter so I can train for more hours without being injured. Hopefully.

Q: What was your favourite course for “Course of the Year 2011″ – and the most fun race or training you run in 2011?

I think it is really hard to decide. I have been running so many fun courses this year.

I think we should try developing the existing WOC instead of trying too many new things at a short time.

Q: Do you have any comments about the suggestions for “WOC in the Future”?

I think it is very important that IOF listens to the runners because in the last end they shall be the ones to bring WOC into reality. On the other hand I also think that the runners have to be open minded so orienteering can develop. I think we should try developing the existing WOC instead of trying too many new things at a short time.

Q: Any final words to your fans out there – there seem to be many!

Thank you for voting for me. It feels so good when other orienteers think that I have achieved something good. The dream of doing it again, and hopefully better, will keep me motivated during winter.

About the Orienteering Achievement of 2011

In this edition of Orienteering Achievement of the Year 7 men and 9 women were nominated for their great orienteering achievements in 2011. The nominated runners – and stories about why they were nominated – can be found here.

Other winners: Lucky voters and Sponsored links

Winners of prizes for lucky voters and sponsored links were published on Wednesday. You can check if you were one of the lucky voters here. Prize winners will be contacted by e-mail (but please contact Jan at jan@kocbach.net if you are listed as a winner but did not receive an email). We would also like to thank Croeso 2012, Prague Easter/Sandstones.cz, JK 2012, EOC Tour 2012, POM 2012, OOCup, Croatia Open, Fjord-O West and Jukola 2012 for sponsoring “The Orienteering Achievement of 2011″. Thanks to the sponsors World of O was able to draw lucky prize winners among those who voted in this years election.

---

Main sponsor 1: Prague Easter & Sandstones.cz

• Prize offered: 2 transferable starts at Prague Easter 2012 + double room with half board for 6 nights at Lesni hotel, Doksy + sandstones.cz trainings of free choice.
• The Prague Easter event (see website), organised by Kotlarka club in the nature protection area of Kokorinsko, has already become almost as traditional as the other unique-but-strange czech easter habits. 3-day event, ended by a chasing start, in the demanding rocky areas. Great opportunities for sightseeing as
  well.
• Sandstones.cz (see website) is a project focused on group orienteering trips to the famous czech sandstone areas around Doksy. Sandstones.cz organizes performance elite camps, as well as club trips, where the enjoyment is the only goal.

---

Main sponsor 2: Croeso 2012

• Prize offered: Free entry for two for 6 days of orienteering, 22-28 July 2012. Free campus accommodation for two, in a flat with single en-suite rooms (or same-sum subsidy for other accommodation), Free coach transport from the campus to each day’s event, Free rest day activity, either: a dolphin watching boat trip or a trip into the mountains on a narrow-gauge steam railway.
• Croeso 2012 is a 6-Day event based in Wales, ‘croeso’ being Welsh for ‘welcome’. The event is organized from 22-28th July 2012.

---

Event sponsor: POM 2012

• Portugal “O” Meeting offers two transferable packages of two starts each for the Portugal “O” Meeting 2012.
• The Portugal “O” Meeting has become the international season opener for the world elite and hundreds of other orienteers spending a week or two in the Portugal in February and March.

---

Event sponsor: OOCup 2012

• OOCup 2012 offers a package consisting of two transferable start places for the OOCup 2012 competition.
• OOCup is a 5 Day orienteering event organized annually in Slovenia. The event is famous for its Karst orienteering and excellent combination of orienteering and holidays.

---

Event sponsor: Croatia Open 2012

• Croatia Open offers a package of 2 transferable start places for the Complete Croatia Open week with accommodation in Sport Hall included
• Croatia Open is a 4 day orienteering race – offering you 4 different types of terrain from extreme karst to mediteraean and continental terrain. “Croatia open” attracts more than 600 competitors from 30 countries offering you great orienteering holiday – combining orienteering with holidays on the Adriatic coast.

Fjord-O West 2012

• Fjord-O West offers a package of 2 transferable start places for the complete Fjord-O West week 2012.
• Fjord-O West is a four day race in the beautiful valley of Voss, organized from June 26th until June 29th 2012. Voss is a small village in the heart of the famous westcoast Fjords of Norway close to Bergen. The event can be combined with O-festivalen organized in Beitostølen the weekend ahead of Fjord-O West 2012.

---

Event sponsor: JK 2012

• The JK International Festival of Orienteering 2012 offers a transferable package of two starts for the 3 main days of the competition.
• JK is a 3 Day event organized in Scotland, 6th – 9th April 2012. A full social programme will be available, including Wine or Whisky tasting and a Ceilidh.

---

Event sponsor: EOC Tour 2012

• EOC Tour 2012 offers a package of 2 transferable start places for the complete EOC Tour 2012.
• EOC 2012 is an orienteering festival with four day public races which will be held in conjunction with EOC2012. 17th-18th May, Arena Skattungbyn, Orsa, 19th-20th May, Arena Lugnet, Falun.

---

Event sponsor: Jukola 2012

• Jukola 2012 offers 5 T-shirts to be drawn among the voters.
• Valio-Jukola is an unforgettable event for both orienteerers and spectators located in the middle of Helsinki metropolitan area. The orienteering competition is organized in Vantaa, Finland, at Hakunila sports park on 16th – 17th of June, 2012.

For today’s Route to Christmas we travel far away from Europe – to Blue Mountain and the US Timetrails long distance. – Blue Mountain is lovely terrain. The forest floor is largely clear, with very little rock or vegetation underfoot for the most part, course setter Neil Dobbs explains. – Visibility is also pretty good, but the terrain can resemble itself so if you lose contact it can be tricky to relocate in some areas.

- There used to be a lot more green on the map corresponding to groves of hemlock trees (a type of pine), Dobbs explains.

- These got attacked by a woolly adelgid and died and decomposed, so there are some remnants of dead trees, but mostly the runnability is excellent, and the best it has been in many years.

Channels to run along

Todays leg in Route to Christmas is leg 8 in the Blue course. 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). When considering which route to choose, take these words from Neil Dobbs into account: – The terrain is quite steep. The features are big – one-contour hills are usually 5-7m. It is important to find channels to run along where you don’t cross too many brown lines, both for speed and for ease of navigation. The small paths are usually MTB trails and not always designed to take the shortest path.

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.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. The course setter has made the following short considerations about the leg:

Judging by the results, Robbie nailed it. Anders’ route probably involves too much climb compared to continuing further along the path in the yellow. Nikolay’s route is nice, but I think in this case it is worth sucking up the climb to stay closer to the line, like Robbie did. There is an over-the-top route too, probably too much climb for a long race.

Bonus leg

It being the 15th December and all, we provide a Bonus leg today! This is leg number 19 from the same event. 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.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Dobbs’ analysis:

The route chosen by Anders, Robbie and Ross follows a channel in the terrain. The running is good, the navigation reasonably straightforward, the climb isn’t bad and I think it is a clear winner, if not *immediately* obvious that this is so on the map.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Today’s leg in Route to Christmas is a long leg up in the northern UK on Holme Fell. The event was used as World Champs selection races, and thus there were a lot of top runners present. The terrain is quite marshy, with a lot of contours to be fought. The leg in question is leg number 10 in the Men 21 Elite course.

To get in the mood for the leg, you can read the organizer’s comment after the race (see the full report and results here):

- There cannot be a much more rewarding area than Holme Fell to plan on and almost everyone we spoke to after their runs was very complimentary about the courses, even though many of them found the area tough, both physically and technically. It isn’t often that courses can be planned which maintain a TD5 level throughout whilst providing some subtle changes of terrain and several testing long legs as well as a control-picking series of short legs.

Here is an image from the area to give you a bit of an impression about what it is like.

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). I suspect that the road is forbidden to run on as you can see on this other competition map from the race (but there is a path beside it). From the comments below: The road was out of bounds, and there were compulsory crossing points on the fence half way. This makes a big difference to route-choice. You can see the fence crossing points here.

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.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Unfortunately only a few of the top runners decided to draw their route – so I can’t use that in an analysis. Based on the ones who have drawn their routes, it looks like the best option would be to keep on the western side of the hill – and not be tempted to stay down at the path beside the road for too long. On the other hand, it would be interesting to see how fast it is to take the path by the road all the way to the small lake, and then climb up to the top. There is also the possibility to run around the forbidden area on the western side, but that looks too long as it is now. I think I would have moved the 9th control a bit more to the left if it was my course:) Did you run this event? Do you know anything about which routes were the best? If yes, then please add a comment!

(Note! The 16% behind for total time for Matthew Crane is not true, that is behind a DSQ runner. Crane was less than 2 minutes behind the winner.)

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Check here if you won a full orienteering package including hotel/apartment for 6 days at Prague Easter/Sandstones.cz or Croeso 2012. Or maybe a package of 2 starts from one of the other event sponsors JK 2012, EOC Tour 2012, POM 2012, OOCup, Croatia Open or Fjord-O West. In addition Jukola 2012 gives T-shirts to 5 lucky voters.

In addition four of the websites who helped spread the news about the poll have been awarded with free ads. Check below if you took home one of the prizes!

Thanks to sponsors and voters

Before announcing the prize winners, I would like to thank all of you for voting – in total nearly 3000 unique votes were given this year – making the results representative for the orienteering community. We would also like to thank Croeso 2012, Prague Easter/Sandstones.cz, JK 2012, EOC Tour 2012, POM 2012, OOCup, Croatia Open, Fjord-O West and Jukola for sponsoring “The Orienteering Achievement of 2010″. Thanks to the sponsors World of O was able to draw lucky prize winners among those who voted in this years election.

Prize winners will be contacted by e-mail (but please contact Jan at jan@kocbach.net if you are listed as a winner but did not receive an email). The winners of “The Orienteering Achievement of the Year 2011″ will be published tomorrow. For winners who only gave the first name when voting the first part of the e-mail address is given as well.

Main sponsor prize 1: Prague Easter & Sandstones.cz

Winner: “Edi (dasilva23@….)”

• Prize offered: 2 transferable starts at Prague Easter 2012 + double room with half board for 6 nights at Lesni hotel, Doksy + sandstones.cz trainings of free choice.
• The Prague Easter event (see website), organised by Kotlarka club in the nature protection area of Kokorinsko, has already become almost as traditional as the other unique-but-strange czech easter habits. 3-day event, ended by a chasing start, in the demanding rocky areas. Great opportunities for sightseeing as
  well.
• Sandstones.cz (see website) is a project focused on group orienteering trips to the famous czech sandstone areas around Doksy. Sandstones.cz organizes performance elite camps, as well as club trips, where the enjoyment is the only goal.

---

Main sponsor prize 2: Croeso 2012

Winner: Corinne Imhof

• Prize offered: Free entry for two for 6 days of orienteering, 22-28 July 2012. Free campus accommodation for two, in a flat with single en-suite rooms (or same-sum subsidy for other accommodation), Free coach transport from the campus to each day’s event, Free rest day activity, either: a dolphin watching boat trip or a trip into the mountains on a narrow-gauge steam railway.
• Croeso 2012 is a 6-Day event based in Wales, ‘croeso’ being Welsh for ‘welcome’. The event is organized from 22-28th July 2012.

---

Event prize 1: POM 2012

Winner: Christiana (goodathlete@…..)

• Portugal “O” Meeting offers two transferable packages of two starts each for the Portugal “O” Meeting 2012.
• The Portugal “O” Meeting has become the international season opener for the world elite and hundreds of other orienteers spending a week or two in the Portugal in February and March.

---

Event prize 2: OOCup 2012

Winner: Jakub Kamenický

• OOCup 2012 offers a package consisting of two transferable start places for the OOCup 2012 competition.
• OOCup is a 5 Day orienteering event organized annually in Slovenia. The event is famous for its Karst orienteering and excellent combination of orienteering and holidays.

---

Event prize 3: Croatia Open 2012

Winner: Jürgen Schmidt

• Croatia Open offers a package of 2 transferable start places for the Complete Croatia Open week with accommodation in Sport Hall included
• Croatia Open is a 4 day orienteering race – offering you 4 different types of terrain from extreme karst to mediteraean and continental terrain. “Croatia open” attracts more than 600 competitors from 30 countries offering you great orienteering holiday – combining orienteering with holidays on the Adriatic coast.

Event prize 4: Fjord-O West 2012

Winner: Amelie (melie42@……)

• Fjord-O West offers a package of 2 transferable start places for the complete Fjord-O West week 2012.
• Fjord-O West is a four day race in the beautiful valley of Voss, organized from June 26th until June 29th 2012. Voss is a small village in the heart of the famous westcoast Fjords of Norway close to Bergen. The event can be combined with O-festivalen organized in Beitostølen the weekend ahead of Fjord-O West 2012.

---

Event prize 5: JK 2012

Winner: Jonathan Crickmore

• The JK International Festival of Orienteering 2012 offers a transferable package of two starts for the 3 main days of the competition.
• JK is a 3 Day event organized in Scotland, 6th – 9th April 2012. A full social programme will be available, including Wine or Whisky tasting and a Ceilidh.

---

Event prize 6: EOC Tour 2012

Winner: Yngve Skogstad

• EOC Tour 2012 offers a package of 2 transferable start places for the complete EOC Tour 2012.
• EOC 2012 is an orienteering festival with four day public races which will be held in conjunction with EOC2012. 17th-18th May, Arena Skattungbyn, Orsa, 19th-20th May, Arena Lugnet, Falun.

---

---

T-shirt prizes: Jukola 2012

Winner 1: Pol Ràfols
Winner 2: Kenneth Buch
Winner 3: Naghibina Iulia
Winner 4: Mads Mikkelsen
Winner 5: Ross Smith

• Jukola 2012 offers 5 T-shirts to be drawn among the voters.
• Valio-Jukola is an unforgettable event for both orienteerers and spectators located in the middle of Helsinki metropolitan area. The orienteering competition is organized in Vantaa, Finland, at Hakunila sports park on 16th – 17th of June, 2012.

---

Websites linking to “The Orienteering Achievement of 2011

Thanks to all websites that linked to “The Orienteering Achievement of 2011″, we were able to make the election results as representative for the orienteering community as possible. We got nearly 3000 votes for this years edition!

As earlier announced, 4 free “Sponsored links” for one month at World of O have been drawn among the websites linking to “The Orienteering Achievement of 2010″. The websites winning are:

• OL-sport.at
• Czech O-Team
• Scottish Orienteering
• Orientering.no

The winners of sponsored links are asked to send an email to jan@kocbach.net to ask for further details. Note that the sponsored ads must be for orienteering related content!

A long leg and many stones and boulders! Today’s leg in Route to Christmas brings us back to France again – but to very different terrain from what we have visited earlier in the 2011 edition of Route to Christmas. This leg is taken from a national league championship that was the first important race of the season. Thanks to Mathieu Kern-Gillard for information about the terrain.

The reason for choosing another leg from France is simple: France is one of the countries (along with Finland, Czech Republic and Great Britain) who uses RouteGadget the most. In addition France has some very interesting terrain – and runners who share their routes with others in RouteGadget.

Fontainebleau: choose your route!

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):

A terrain description is always nice to have as a background when choosing your route – although it is not like really being there:

The race took place in Fontainebleau forest, a very nice place with some hilly slopes full of big boulders, and intricated contours separated by flat “empty” areas. The forest is a mix of decidious and pine trees, with heather on the ground. In some places (some paths and those yellow/orange open area) there is sand which slow you. The running speed, and visibility is mostly very good.

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.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg below. The most tricky part on this leg is probably to spot where the paths are going between the stony areas. It would probably be easier to choose the optimal route on a contour-only map. Although some runners choose to depart from the big track very early (the two green routes), the best option is probably to stay on the big track all the way until the middle of the leg where the big track departs like the blue, cyan and magenta routes do. This saves you some altitude, and you run just as much on paths.

For the last half of the leg, there are several options, and I would guess that the most direct variant (magenta) is actually just as fast as the blue one which is the fastest of the day. What do you think?

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Today we are finally travelling out of Europe again – to some quite intricate terrain in the forests of Whitehorse in Canada! Todays leg is from the Western Canadian Championships Long distance 2011 organized on July 17th 2011. Thanks to Will Critchley for help with terrain description and analysis.

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). When thinking about your route choice, take into account that the forests of Whitehorse are not as fast as the white forest you might find in Europe.

Much of the forest is Spruce and Pine trees, both of which can have low branches which obscure running speed and visibility. The area had a fair amount of deadfall as well. Along with the many smaller hills and depressions, it can also be difficult to stay in contact with the map and avoid going off course if one is trying to avoid too much climb. Note also that this was near the end of the course, so fatigue was setting in.

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.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Taking a look at the alternatives used, there are three main alternatives:

• Direct with few paths and taking quite a lot of green (Robbie Anderson below)
• South using as much paths as possible, but longer than the other alternatives (Will Critchley)
• North using some paths and getting a good attackpoint from the paths (Eric Kemp – fastest on this route)

From the splits it may look as if the northern variant is the fastest, but the difference is not big. The northern variant gives a better entrance to the control than the other variants – and you may probably run faster in the last half of the leg. Here are the thoughts of the winner of the race – Will Critchley – about how he solved the leg:

- The set-up to this leg was 3 shorter legs that were good preparation for this long leg, since they were shorter and showed how easy it was to get off course quickly in a short distance. Many people made mistakes on those legs. So, on this leg I spent a few extra moments time planning a route that, although longer, allowed for faster running and got me safely to the obvious paths just before the control. To me, the other routes also had too much green or undergrowth; other runners may have found those sections to be easier. Between the indistinct trails and the rough open, I was able to run at a good speed most of the leg, and only did a bit of fighting through the forest near the last 1/3rd. However, the results show it wasn’t the fastest!

There is also a video available from the event here where you can get an impression about the terrain (you’ll have to endure some advertisements first). Results are available here.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

In today’s edition of Route to Christmas we visit Hungary for another long leg in an ultralong event – although the leg is not as long as the Finnish one of yesterday. The leg is from the Men 21 Elite course in the Hungarian Ultralong Championships organized on April 4th.

Updated with comment from Aron: As it was the beginning of April, leaves were still not yet out, visibility and runnability were both excellent. The hillsides in these mountains are generally very steep and most of the runners experienced this leg after 100 minutes of running and probably about an hour still to go.

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.

The event was the Hungarian Ultralong Championships. As it was the beginning of April, leaves were still not yet out, visibility and runnability were both excellent. But the hillsides in these mountains are generally very steep and most of the runners experienced this leg after 100 minutes of running and probably about an hour still to go.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. As you can see, there are three distinct choices chosen by the runners.

• A left variant – run by three runners, 21:23, 22:43 for the two fastest of them
• A right variant – run by two runners, 21:17-22:04
• A more direct variant – run by the fastest runner on this leg – Zsolt Lenkei, 17.41

Lenkei is a lot faster than the other runners on the complete course as well, thus it is not easy to draw any conclusions from the splits here. The direct variant does look shorter, without much more altitude to be taken. It looks a bit slow in the steep hillside at the last part of the leg though, but probably steep hillsides are not too bad in this kind of terrain.

Aron writes in his comment: Probably a few runners took more defensive route-choices just to avoid cramping later on.

Do you know anything about this event? Please add a comment – this is one of the events I have little knowledge about. If no comments are given, we’ll have to rely on the o-community’s drawing of routes…

BTW: This is an area with a lot of interesting maps. If you have got a rainy Sunday today, take a look at some of the other maps in the area here.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.