KnockOut by Klingenberg and Kyburz

First ever World Cup victory for junior Emma Klingenberg (Denmark) – Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland) increases his overall lead in the Nordic Orienteering Tour 2012. Simone Niggli lost a lot of time in the semi-final – and did not manage to qualify for the final.

Update: You can see a replay of the KnockOut sprint on YLE (Finnish TV) here (thanks Tim).

Olav Lundanes (Norway) took the lead in the men’s race from the start – keeping everybody else behind until the start of the forking scheme. In the forking the Swedes Bergman and Lysell lost significant time – while Lundanes managed to keep the lead for most of it. Out of the forking,  Tranchand (France) and Kyburz passed the Norwegian – never letting Lundanes come back up. From there and on, Kyburz simply was faster than the rest – having time to cheer wildly in the run-in. Tranchand finished second.

In the women’s class, Emma Klingenberg took the lead from the start – and never gave it away. Into the forking scheme the Danish junior managed to shake everybody off – getting on with a 8-10 seconds lead to Helena Jansson (Sweden). Klingenberg kept running fast and orienteering well – and could take an easy victory 5 seconds ahead of Tatiana Riabkina with Judith Wyder in 3rd.

Clear leaders

In the overall Nordic Orienteering Tour standings, Simone Niggli is still in a clear lead – although Helena Jansson reduced the lead down to 2:46. Judith Wyder in third is at 3:14. In the men’s class it is more open – with Kyburz being 1:27 ahead of Olav Lundanes with Thierry Gueorgiou in third at 1:59. With a sprint on Friday – Kyburz’s speciality – followed by middle chasing start on Saturday – nothing is yet decided.

Results

Women

Men

• Full results

Overall NORT standings

(Note: There seem to be some small errors in the overall standings, but it is correct for the top places)

Women

Name	Stage 1	Bonus 1	Stage 2	Stage 3	Bonus 3				Tour time	Diff
1  Simone Niggli	13:26	2:00	29:09	14:59	0:11				55:23
2  Helena Jansson	13:20	0:50	31:44	14:55	1:00				58:09	2:46
3  Judith Wyder	14:03	0:16	30:28	15:32	1:10				58:37	3:14
4  Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg	13:56	1:10	32:34	14:56	0:36				59:40	4:17
5  Minna Kauppi	13:33	0:18	31:33	15:53	0:55				59:46	4:23
6  Ida Bobach	14:19	1:00	31:36	15:10	0:12				59:53	4:30
7  Lina Strand	13:49	0:34	31:05	15:58	0:10				01:8	4:45
8  Merja Rantanen	14:41	0:34	31:42	15:25	0:50				01:24	5:01
9  Tove Alexandersson	13:19	0:50	32:39	16:01	0:36				01:33	5:10
10  Tatyana Ryabkina	15:04	0:13	31:00	16:13	1:30				01:34	5:11
11  Maja Alm	14:11	0:15	32:49	15:32	0:34				01:01:43	6:20
12  Sara Lüscher	14:14	0:02	32:26	16:03	0:15				01:02:26	7:03
13  Tone Wigemyr	14:26	0:30	32:34	16:17	0:14				01:02:33	7:10
14  Ines Brodmann	14:59	0:55	33:04	15:38	0:09				01:02:37	7:14
15  Sabine Hauswirth	14:26	0:36	32:23	16:27					01:02:40	7:17
16  Sofia Haajanen	14:45	0:12	32:37	15:49	0:18				01:02:41	7:18
17  Venla Niemi	14:29	0:03	32:00	16:29					01:02:55	7:32
18  Anastasiya Tikhonova	14:31	0:17	33:15	16:12	0:40				01:03:01	7:38
19  Annika Billstam	13:51	0:38	34:43	15:47	0:32				01:03:11	7:48
20  Silje Ekroll Jahren	15:20		32:18	15:47	0:13				01:03:12	7:49

Men

1  Matthias Kyburz	13:32	1:30	30:06	18:23	2:00				58:31
2  Olav Lundanes	13:16	2:00	30:15	19:22	0:55				59:58	1:27
3  Thierry Gueorgiou	13:41	0:36	29:00	18:41	0:16				01:30	1:59
4  Peter Öberg	14:28	0:15	29:42	18:26	1:10				01:01:11	2:40
5  William Lind	14:20	1:10	30:33	18:29	0:09				01:02:03	3:32
6  Gustav Bergman	13:47	0:50	30:37	19:11	0:36				01:02:09	3:38
7  Matthias Merz	14:09	0:55	30:29	18:54	0:10				01:02:27	3:56
8  Carl Waaler Kaas	13:54	0:18	30:35	19:25	0:36				01:03:00	4:29
9  Øystein Kvaal Østerbø	14:23	1:00	31:04	19:17	0:40				01:03:04	4:33
10  Jonas Leandersson	13:53	0:17	31:12	18:36	0:11				01:03:13	4:42
11  Tue Lassen	14:34	0:38	30:09	19:20	0:08				01:03:17	4:46
12  Fabian Hertner	14:03	0:15	31:06	18:43	0:15				01:03:22	4:51
13  Eskil Kinneberg	13:51	0:10	31:48	19:15	1:00				01:03:44	5:13
14  Frédéric Tranchand	14:49	0:40	32:11	19:14	1:30				01:04:04	5:33
15  Mattias Karlsson	14:16	0:34	30:42	19:44					01:04:08	5:37

• Full results

Maps

• Map men final
• Map women final

Impressions from the TV broadcast

For those of you who did not have the possibility to see the TV broadcast, below are a few screenshots giving you a feeling about how it was.

How would you change the KnockOut sprint?

This was the third time a KnockOut sprint was on the World Cup program – and both the forking and an improved TV production compared to previous editions made it quite interesting for the viewers. Several steps forwards for the KnockOut sprint format – but it is still a very open question if this is the future for orienteering.  Unfortunately SVT Play did not work internationally as advertised up front, so many orienteering fans could not follow the broadcast (and no live TV/webTV broadcast from the semi-finals). However, as pointed out in the comments, you can watch a replay of the KnockOut sprint on YLE here.

Two years ago – before the first KnockOut sprint – Jørn Sundby said the following about the KnockOut sprint format:

– The competition shall be a fight man against man with tactics as the main element. Routechoices shall be decisive, and runners who are ahead with their orienteering shall have an advantage. With as few as six runners in the heats, forking could be unfair because it could decide the race, and the lucky ones could come behind the best in “their” forking and earn time on it. With unforked courses everybody has the same chances.

KnockOut with Forking

This year forking was introduced. From a fairness point of view there has already been some discussion about the fairness of the forking as it was claimed that the ones with the long forking first could run on the back of the others. However, when looking at the GPS tracking, it looks like the time lost on the forking was just as much about not taking ideal route choices than about unfairness due to the forking in itself .

And although the fairness of the chosen forking scheme may be discussed, it brought another element into the race – making it more interesting for the viewers. From the start of the forking it started to get interesting to watch.

Assuming the KnockOut-sprint is to stay on the orienteering calendar – how would you change the format? I think introducing “blind controls” (i.e. other controls close to the ones in use) and also removing control codes from the controls (making it necessary to be more careful with the orienteering) would make it more interesting both for runners and for TV. The controls could then be like “easy trail-o controls” – making the orienteering element more important. With a map exchange you could even make fair forking in this way. I know – this sounds like Micr-o all over again – but still …