World Cup Long Kongsberg: Map and Results

Oleksandr Kratov (Ukraine) won the men’s class in a very exciting long distance race in the World Cup in Kongsberg today – in the end the Norwegian slow starters Hans Gunnar Omdal and Magne Dæhlie were only 21 and 31 seconds behind. Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) won the women’s class with more than 2 minutes – Ida Bobach (Denmark) finished second.

Course setter Damien Renard offered tough long distance courses with several long legs with route choice options. The athletes spoke highly about both terrain and courses – although many commented that they were tired towards the end of the course. After such a long race, it was surprising to see how tight the men’s race was: 7 runners within 1:17 is tight after more than 90 minutes running. One of the reasons might be that none of the runners had perfect races.

Kratov with middle distance speed from the start

– I maybe started a bit too fast, a tired but happy Oleksandr Kratov said after the race.

The Ukrainian won the World Cup race over middle distance in Spain the week before EOC, and his speed on the first kilometers today was definitely in the same class if not higher. After 35 minutes running his lead to Fabian Hertner and Matthias Kyburz (both Switzerland) was around 1:40. Hans Gunnar Omdal was 4th – 1:48 behind – and Magne Dæhlie was 13th(!), more than 3 minutes behind.

– I got tired towards the end. I nearly could not move in this area, the Ukrainian said while pointing at controls 16 and 17.

Still, Kratov found his strength again towards the end of the race, and managed to push himself the necessary seconds ahead of the Norwegian long distance specialists.

Wrong route choice to 16

Even if Kratov struggled physically towards the end due to his tough start, it was the route choice to control 16 which nearly cost him the victory (see blank map for the leg at the top of the article). Going left to 16 cost more than 2 minutes compared to William Lind who went to the right. Omdal and Dæhlie were also nearly two minutes faster with more direct routes.

Lundanes struggling

Olav Lundanes – the WOC long distance winner from 2010 and 2012 and the winner in the World Cup middle distance race yesterday- was one of the big favourites today. Lundanes did however have some back-problems and did not manage to keep the speed up all the way to the finish. Still, Lundanes lost most of the time the same place as Kratov. Lundanes lost around 2 minutes on the long leg to 16 – and was 2:17 behind Kratov in the end.

The Swiss runners were also among the top favourites, but struggled towards the end after strong starts by Hertner and Kyburz.

The below splits graph shows clearly how Kratov had an incredible start of the race – and then nearly lost it all on the long leg to the 16th control. At control 19 Omdal was actually in the lead for a short time, but then Kratov woke up and did a great finish sprint on the last legs.

Alexandersson – again

When Simone Niggli stopped her international career last year, many fronted Tove Alexandersson has the new queen of orienteering. At the European Championships Alexandersson did not manage to dominate the way Niggli has done previously – Judith Wyder taking that throne – but this weekend in Kongsberg Alexandersson has been very strong.

Alexandersson started fast, but lost more than a minute at the fourth control. Thus she was not in the lead when passing the first intermediate point – coming in 16 seconds behind Bobach in the lead. From there on Alexandersson was her usual self – increasing the lead steadily up to 2:10 at the finish.

Mari Fasting (Norway) had some problems early in the race – but finished strongly in a third place – 2:58 behind. Actually Fasting was the one with highest speed in the women’s class today – having a straight line in the splits-graph as in the last half of the race except for a mistake towards the end, as you can see below.

The women had a similar long leg to the men, but the start control was a bit further to the left (see below). Here the left variants were the fastest – Mari Fasting and running strong (note that times are based on GPS-times).

Maps and GPS-tracking

• Maps and GPS-tracking men
• Maps and GPS-tracking women

Results

Men

Women

• Official results (coming)
• Unofficial live results