WOC Sprint GPS Analysis: Gold for Boström and Niggli!

Mårten Boström won a very popular Gold medal on home ground in the World Championships Sprint today – literally running away from his competitors with higher running speed on the longer legs. In the women’s class Simone Niggli took an expected gold medal – but Annika Billstam got very close in the end after a non-optimal route choice by Niggli.

The World Champion from 2012 – Matthias Kyburz – had a clear lead after 2/3 of the race, but then Kyburz made a fatal mistake on his way to control 17.

The fatal 17th control

There is no doubt which two controls will feature in Kyburz’s nightmares the coming months

First Kyburz took the slower southern route choice – and then he  lost control and suddenly stood in a crossing without knowing were he was. In total this mistake and wrong route choice cost Kyburz 23 seconds to the best split time – 22 seconds to Boström. To 18 Kyburz made a followup-mistake – loosing another 9 seconds – and suddenly Kyburz was out of the fight for medal. With 26 seconds up to Gold at the finish, there is no doubt which two controls will feature in Kyburz’s nightmares the coming months…

While Kyburz now was out of the fight for Gold, Boström’s lead was only 3 seconds down to the young Danish runner Rasmus Thrane Hansen with Jonas Leandersson, Fabian Hertner and Scott Fraser another 3 seconds behind when arriving at the 19th control – ready for long route choice leg of the day. This long leg was Thrane Hansen’s demise – losing as much as 17 seconds to Boström by taking extra climb and going over the top on paths instead of staying down on harder ground. Leandersson and Hertner also lost some seconds on their route choice.

The illustrations below shows a comparison between Thrane Hansen and Boström, connecting the points were they would have been at the same time if starting together at control 19. Thrane Hansen first looses time up the hill – then is slower in the terrain – and finally is significantly slower running down the hill. While Boström runs between 3 and 4 min/km for most of the leg – just going up to around 5 min/km up the hill – Thrane Hansen is nearly up at 6 min/km for the first half minute of running on the leg. At the top of the hill he manages to run below 4 min/km, but in the downhill Thrane Hansen is again up to around 4:30 min/km. Remember that Thrane Hansen and Boström had nearly equal speed earlier in the course – although Boström was somewhat faster on the long legs with a lot of pure running.

Fight for top 6

With Thrane Hansen out, there were still three runners fighting for the medals. Fabian Hertner lost the battle due to a mistake to control 22 – a mistake he described as a small mistake, but which nevertheless cost him a medal.

The splitsbrowser below shows the fight for Top 6 in the mens class. As you can see Fraser decided silver for himself on the leg to the finish – after being equal with Jonas Leandersson on the last control. Generally Boström was faster than Kyburz and the others on the longer legs – but is seems like Kyburz has an edge on the trickier short legs – an advantage the Swiss could not turn into victory today.

Detailed splits analysis – leg by leg

From this detailed split analysis you can see how the legs to control 17, 18 and 20 are the most decisive one in the race overall – where most runners lose time. Control 18 is also one of the legs where Boström looses most time.

Niggli challenged towards the end

Simone Niggli had the highest speed in today’s sprint as so often before. Before the long route choice leg from 16 to 17 – which was equal to the men’s long leg – Niggli had built a significant lead of 26 seconds by running several best leg times – especially dominating on the long legs. This is illustrated in the splitsbrowser below – a horizontal line indicating the best split time on a leg.

Billstam really finds her top speed on this leg and is 5 seconds faster than the next woman

As you can see, Niggli looses nearly all the lead she has built up on the rest of the course on the leg to number 17.  The lead shrinks with 17 seconds – from 26 seconds down to 9 seconds. Niggli’s mistake is the same as Thrane Hansen’s – going left over the hill. Billstam on the other hand takes the same choice as Boström – running fast on hard surface. Just as Boström, Billstam really finds her top speed on this leg and is 5 seconds faster than the next woman. Niemi also chooses the same route as Billstam – compared to Maja Alm running over the hill. This probably saves the bronze medal for Niemi as Alm runs fast on Niggli’s route.

1 meter shorter – 17 seconds slower

On the illustration below you see how Niggli’s choice is just as long as Billstam’s – but with the added ascent, the paths instead of hard ground and the downhill in terrain at the end of the leg. Rantanen chooses another option which is similar in running time to the one of Niggli with similar characteristics.

Maps and GPS-data

• Map men
• Map women

Results

Men

1	132		Mårten Boström	Finland	14:19.6
2	142		Scott Fraser	Great Britain	14:36.7	+17.1
3	133		Jonas Leandersson	Sweden	14:37.8	+18.2
4	141		Fabian Hertner	Switzerland	14:41.3	+21.7
5	143		Matthias Kyburz	Switzerland	14:45.8	+26.2
6	144		Rasmus Thrane Hansen	Denmark	14:47.3	+27.7
7	145		Øystein Kvval Østerbø	Norway	14:49.4	+29.8
8	146		Jerker Lysell	Sweden	14:52.3	+32.7
9	106		Murray Strain	Great Britain	14:56.4	+36.8
10	134		Jan Prochazka	Czech Republic	14:56.8	+37.2
11	135		Andreas Kyburz	Switzerland	14:58.2	+38.6
12	137		Yannick Michiels	Belgium	15:06.3	+46.7
13	105		Pavlo Ushkvarok	Ukraine	15:06.7	+47.1
14	140		Jonas Vytautas Gvildys	Lithuania	15:13.6	+54.0
15	113		Tuomo Mäkelä	Finland	15:17.9	+58.3
16	123		Kristian Jones	Great Britain	15:18.8	+59.2
17	117		Gustav Bergman	Sweden	15:19.9	+1:00.3
18	116		Bjørn Ekeberg	Norway	15:21.8	+1:02.2
19	125		Petteri Muukkonen	Finland	15:23.2	+1:03.6
20	136		Oleksandr Kratov	Ukraine	15:24.3	+1:04.7

Women

1	43		Simone Niggli	Switzerland	14:10.6
2	37		Annika Billstam	Sweden	14:18.7	+8.1
3	30		Venla Niemi	Finland	14:48.5	+37.9
4	45		Maja Alm	Denmark	14:53.0	+42.4
5	31		Tessa Hill	Great Britain	14:58.2	+47.6
6	44		Galina Vinogradova	Russia	15:04.3	+53.7
7	42		Emma Klingenberg	Denmark	15:08.9	+58.3
8	40		Merja Rantanen	Finland	15:15.9	+1:05.3
9	36		Heidi Bagstevold	Norway	15:20.8	+1:10.2
10	38		Anne-M Hausken Nordberg	Norway	15:22.8	+1:12.2
11	39		Nadiya Volynska	Ukraine	15:34.5	+1:23.9
12	15		Lina Strand	Sweden	15:35.0	+1:24.4
13	28		Iveta Duchova	Czech Republic	15:38.4	+1:27.8
14	26		Lizzie Ingham	New Zealand	15:39.6	+1:29.0
15	16		Olga Rieznychenko	Ukraine	15:49.3	+1:38.7
16	32		Rahel Friederich	Switzerland	15:53.9	+1:43.3
17	21		Léa Vercellotti	France	15:54.3	+1:43.7
18	24		Irina Nyberg	Russia	15:54.7	+1:44.1
19	29		Ausrine Kutkaite	Lithuania	15:54.9	+1:44.3
20	18		Sarah Rollins	Great Britain	16:01.5	+1:50.9

• Full results