Comments on: World Cup Chase: Maps and Results

By: Roman B

Roman B — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 18:43:50 +0000

6 sprints out of 13 World Cup races in 2013 – Is it orienteering?

By: Leif Størmer

Leif Størmer — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 09:20:27 +0000

First I have to say congratulation to Jerker Lysell. He did what he had to do and was best in this type of competition.

However, said that, the IOF committee who wanted to test this format in a world cup race never stops to surprise me. Everybody with some experience from orienteering races would understand that a chasing start on a middle distance in this type of open terrain just will be a cross-country race for everybody except the one in the lead.

And then I think; either the IOF committee would like it to be this way, or they are lacking so much experience that they were surprised that it developed like it did. I don’t like neither of the alternatives.

A chasing start might work well, and we have seen it before, but NOT on a middle distance with a lot of controls in a open terrain! You need a course with fewer controls and a lot of different route choices, a splitting system, and a terrain with low visibility.

Then you will get a orienteering competition and not a cross-country race.

By: Matthias

Matthias — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 21:57:15 +0000

The first international O-Race, which I watched as a spectator was the world-cup final in 1986 in Switzerland. For the man it was also a chasing start, but the distances were much longer (2x 1h?). I enjoyed it very much, there was a thight fight between Jörgen Mortensson an Urs Flühmann, who won in the end. Of course there was no TV and GPS, only a few intermediate times.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 20:29:08 +0000

Chasing Start is okay for World Cup races, assuming they’re all going to be televised! since it’s entertaining for the spectator, but there’s no way they should have this at the World Champs. Like Martin said, including entertainment-O at WOC suggests a sport with a lack of self-confidence.