Course of the Year 2012: Submit Your Suggestions!

What was the best orienteering course of 2012? Last year’s winner was the very technical WOC 2011 Middle distance course in France. 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 2012, and state the reason why you think this course deserves to be “The course of the Year 2012″.

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 2012″. Prizes from sponsors make it more fun to be in on the suggestions and voting: MOC 2013 + PWT Matera is the main sponsor with a package worth 600 Euros. Other event sponsors are Orievent training camps, Bubo Cup, Fjord-o Arctic Midnattsolgaloppen, and Nice Holidays. See all details about the sponsors & prizes below – about 1400 Euros worth of prizes!

Use the comments below, and submit either

1. The course which in your opinion is the best course you run in 2012 yourself!
2. The best course you set this year as a course-setter.
3. The overall best course you have seen/heard about in 2012

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 2012! 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 always be considered for the course of the year – in my opinion. But can the course this year compete against the competition?
  
• The Euromeeting middle distance course made World Champion Olav Lundanes smile a big smile right after running into the finish – even with several mistakes on the way. A very interesting course in extremely tricky terrain – but then again some might say that the tricky & interesting terrain gives it all for free for the course setter…?
  
• The course from Bri’O Tour in Disneyland Paris in September (see map at the top of this article) got a lot of people excited at the World of O Facebook page – the video (or synchronized with GPS-position via 3DRerun) shows you how it was to run around in Disneyland at night. Technically speaking this might not be the course of the year – or what do you think? At least the experience was “magic” according to many of the runners.

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 2012″.

• The course must have been run in competition or training in 2012.
• 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 2012″ (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 2012″. This is your second chance to win sponsor prizes!

Prizes from our Sponsors

Prizes from our Sponsors always makes it more fun! There will be a prize for the first one suggesting the course which ends up becoming “The course of the Year 2012″, and prizes drawn among the ones suggesting and voting. All prizes are transferable to other persons (you don’t have to travel yourself).

MOC 2013

• Prize offered: Hotel + entry package for 2 persons (4 nights accommodation in Hotel Formula B&B + entry fee for MOC 2013+PWT in Matera, value about 600 Euro).
• LET’S ROCK in MOC- Matera 2013! The Mediterranean Open Championship Orienteering 2013 is organized March 15th – March 17th. Great events with world class runners!Read more

Orievents Training Camps

• Prize offered: Training package with accommodation for 2 persons (6 trainings + 3 days of accommodation in half board at Castelo de Vide Hotel)
• Orievents / GD4C’s Training Camps – Alto Alentejo – are an excellent training opportunity for Orienteering of good quality during the winter. The TC will have the technical support of Eva Jurenikova. Start the new season in training camps in Alto Alentejo, Portugal!  Read more

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Bubo Cup 2013

• Prize offered: “Family” entry package (Entry for 4 persons for complete Bubo cup, transferable to other people)
• Bubo cup is a new 5 Day orienteering event in Slovenia – with the same quality you are used to from OOCup. The 5 day event taking place from 19th to 23rd of July 2013 will take you through some great orienteering areas in the western part of Slovenia – from Karst terrain above the world famous Postojna cave to the Trnovski gozd plateau (which was the venue of unforgetably tough OOCup 2011). The venue of the mid stage will be Vipava, an old little town in Vipava valley. Read more

Fjord-o Arctic Midnattsolgaloppen 2013

• Prize offered: Entry package for 2 persons (Entry for 2 persons for complete Fjord-O Arctic week)
• Fjord-o Arctic Midnattsolgaloppen is the biggest and most popular event which is regularly organized north of the polar circle. Fjord-o is known for its mix of interesting orienteering with spectacular nature between fjords and mountains. Fjord-o 2013 is organized from June 29th until July 3st 2013. This year it will take place in the Harstad-region. Read more

Nice Holidays 2013

• Prize offered: 2 packages – each consisting of entry fee + accommodation for 2 persons (Entry fee + accommodation in campsite for 2 persons)
• Nice holidays are traditional 2-days, 3-stages orienteering competition organised by TJ Turnov orienteering club in beautiful sandstone terrains of Bohemian Paradise since 1992. Come to the Czech Republic and enjoy challenging middle distance, tricky sprint and tough long distance in hilly sandstone terrain. We are looking forward to seeing you from 23rd to 25th August 2013 in Turnov, Czech Republic. The competition has a limit of competitors set by natural park management usually to max 1000 runners. This year it was sold out in two months. Read more

For the record: All sponsor gifts/income related to “The Best Course of 2012″ goes directly to the WorldofO.com readers.