Course of the Year 2014: Submit your suggestions!

What was the best orienteering course of 2014? Two years in a row we have had a Portuguese winner – a spectacular sprint between boulders and old building last year and some great technical orienteering in 2012. In 2011 the WOC middle distance in France took the first place and the year before a very special Jukola relay won.

Which course will take the prestigious top spot this year? YOU are the one to decide – first by submitting suggestions – and then by voting. As part of the “Course of the Year 2014″ we have got some great interviews from top runners where they talk about their favourite courses and maps from the last year: Starring Thierry Gueorgiou, Judith Wyder, Yannick Michiels, Baptiste Rollier, Svetlana Miranova, Aleksandr Kratov, Ida Bobach, Søren Bobach, Lauri Sild and Annika Billstam. There is really something to look forward to the coming weeks!

The search for the course of the year  will be fun for sure! The rules are simple: Suggest a course from a competition or training in 2014, and state the reason why you think this course deserves to be “The course of the Year 2014″. 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 2014″. And please, please, please state the reason for your suggestion!

More than 2000 Euro worth of prizes for YOU

Prizes from sponsors make it more fun to be in on the suggestions and voting. This year we again have some great sponsors and prizes – with a total value of more than 2000 Euro. We hope this means many good suggestions & a lot of interactivity from YOU! See all details about the 7 sponsors & prizes below – to me all of them are tempting!

Use the comments below, and submit either

1. The course which in your opinion is the best course you run in 2014 yourself!
2. The best course you set this year as a course-setter.
3. The overall best course you have seen/heard about in 2014

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 2014!

Starting point

To provide you with a starting point, I’ve picked out a few different candidates for you based on maps and courses I have seen in omaps.worldofo.com and comments on various webpages:

• The WOC middle distance in Italy (part of the course is shown at the top of this article) is clearly a good candidate for the course of the year 2014. A very varied course – taking the athletes through several distinct terrain types. But can the course compete against the competition?
• But WOC isn’t everything – there are many interesting courses on all levels out there, and not only in the forest. A course which has received a lot of praise this year is the PWT race  “Race the Castle” in Stirling, Scotland this autumn. A great sprint course with a lot of variation.
  
• The most interesting course I set myself this year is probably the first stage of Lipica Open – but with all the great courses out there this one does not even deserve to be nominated (far too many controls when I look at it now, but that was a decision to best fit the terrain).
  

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 2014″.

• The course must have been run in competition or training in 2014.
• 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 2014″ (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 2014″. 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 2014″, and prizes drawn among the ones suggesting and voting. All prizes are transferable to other persons (you don’t have to travel yourself).

Event sponsor: Andalucia O-Meeting 2015. 27th-28th February & 1st March 2015

• Prize offered: AOM Competition Package for 4 persons – including entry to 4 events in 3 days, 4 nights accommodation in apartment and a 4-map training package before or after the event. Value about 600 Euro. Transferable to other persons.
• Sweet terrains and maps, nearby accommodations and high level competitions (2 WREs) in a very mild climate! More info at aom2015.com

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Event sponsor: Liburnija Orienteering Meeting 2015. 14th-15th March 2015

• Prize offered: Big club package with entry for Liburnija Orienteering Meeting 2015 for 10 persons! Value about 200 Euro. Transferable to other person(s).
• The second edition of Liburnija Orienteering Meeting will be organized on the snow-free terrains of the island of Krk from 14th-15th of March 2015. Our vision is that this event becomes one of highlights of winter orienteering events in Europe for elite runners so therefore expect demanding courses and extreme terrain. Read more here

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Event sponsor: Bergen Sprint Camp – January 30th – February 1st 2015

• Prize offered: 2 packages – each consisting of 2 complete Bergen Sprint Camp packages: Entry for all 4 races + training Friday morning + Saturday evening program consisting of presentations and dinner. Value about 375 Euro. Transferable to other persons.
• For the 6th time in a row, BSC is held in the city center of Bergen, Norway. We provide all participants with challenging courses, good maps and interesting analysis of the sessions – hoping to improve the sprint orienteering technique for everyone. See more at Sprint-Camp.blogspot.no – including all courses and analysis from previous editions of BSC.

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Event sponsor: Orievents / NAOM 2015. 31st January – 1st February 2015

• Prize offered: Competition + training package for 2 persons, consisting of: Entry for NAOM 2015 (January 31st – Middle + WRE Sprint (Marvão), February 1st – Middle distance) + training camp (6 trainings) + 3 days of accommodation in half board. Value about 270 Euro. Transferable to other persons.
• Orievents Training Camps “Alto Alentejo” are an excellent training opportunity for Orienteering of good quality during the winter. Start the new season in training camps in Alto Alentejo, Portugal! More at www.naom.pt and about the training camp at Orievents.

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Event sponsor: Portugal O-Meeting 2015. 13th – 17th February 2015

• Prize offered: 2 packages – each one for 2 persons – consisting of: Entry fees for the 4 stages of POM 2015, model events, night sprint and sprint relay. Value about 200 Euro. Transferable to other persons.
• Portugal O’ Meeting is already a well-known established international event, normally reaching the highest average points in World Ranking Events, excluding the World Championships and World Cup events. More at pom.pt.

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Event sponsor: Lipica Open 2015. 7th – 11th March 2015

• Prize offered: 3 packages – each for 2 people – consisting of: Entry to complete 5 day Lipica Open competition + Slovenia training package consisting of up to 3 trainings. Value about 300 euro. Transferable to other persons.
• In 2015 Lipica open will again be organized as a 5 day event. Again we will add some new terrain and combine diverse areas. Training conditions in this part of Europe are now better than ever – both on forest maps and on sprint maps of nice little towns on the Adriatic coast! More at www.lipicaopen.com – for trainings see www.orienteering.si

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Event sponsor: Kopaonik Open 2015

• Prize offered: 2 competition packages, each consisting of 2 entries to Kopaonik open 2015 (5 competition stages + 1 training)
  and the Cup of Raska 2015 entry fee (1 competition stage).  Value about 200 Euro. Transferable to other persons.
• We are offering to you 6 days of orienteering challenges for you, combination of two classical long, two middle and one sprint distance challenges plus one night orienteering challenge with separate ranking, 1 training plus 6 competition stages in total. For more info see  www.kopaonikopen.org