World of O News
The Orienteering World Cup starts already January 2nd/3rd with a sprint race in Tasmania. The next week the World Cup continues with two more races – a middle distance race on Thursday (Wednesday evening/night European time) and a long distance race on Saturday (Friday evening/night European time).
Program
- Friday January 2nd 06:00 CET (16:00 local time). Sprint Qualification
- Friday January 2nd
23:0023:46 CET (January 3rd09:0009:46 local time): Sprint Final women.00:4501:30 CET/10:4511:30 local time: Sprint Final men. (see startlists). The last starter in the women’s A-final is Judith Wyder at 00:25 CET (10:25). The last starter in the men’s A-final is Olav Lundanes at 02:09 CET (12:09) - Thursday
Wednesday January 7th 23:00 CET (January 8th 09:00 local time)January 8th 00:13 CET (January 8th 10:13 local time): Middle distance - Friday January 9th 23:00 CET (January 10th 09:00 local time): Saturday January 10th 00:30 CET (10:30 local time): Long distance. – Start list men / women.
– start list men and women.
How to follow the races
All the organizer’s live services will be available from the World Cup live page – including start lists and results:
- World Cup Tasmania LIVE page – see also Bulletin 4 for all details about the races.
- Live results including live splits (All races)
- Live speaker (Sprint and middle)
- Video feed (Sprint Final only, maybe middle)
- Live Twitter updates using @2015OceaniaWCup (Sprint and Middle)
Note that in the arena for the long distance there is no mobile coverage – reports is based on satellite phone and therefore very limited and limited to intermittent live splits and live results.
There will be limited coverage of the Sprint at WorldofO.com – better coverage is planned for middle and long distance. For the sprint your best source of updates is the organizer’s Twitter account (along with the other live services):
Start field and favourites
Only four teams fully focus on this World Cup round with large teams; Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland
Even though the start field is quite slim, many world class athletes are on the start – including all who are aiming for an overall World Cup victory. Only four teams fully focus on this World Cup round with large teams; Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland – but still there are orienteers from 16 nations on the start line – including the four current World Champions Søren Bobach (Denmark), Judith Wyder (Switzerland; stomach problems the last weeks according to Swiss Orienteering, but in full training again), Olav Lundanes (Norway) and Svetlana Mironova (Russia). Other favourites include the Swiss men Daniel Hubmann (overall World Cup winner 2014) and Matthias Kyburz, the Swedes Jonas Leandersson, Jerker Lysell and Tove Alexandersson (overall World Cup winner 2014) and home favourite Hanny Allston.
One reason for the slim start field is that few teams have the necessary funding to pay for the travel cost – for example all the Danish runners – including current sprint World Champion Søren Bobach – pay the full travel costs themselves and combine it with a longer stay in Australia/Tasmania according to the Danish orienteering federation. For an example of what the athletes have been doing in Tasmania/Australia ahead of the World Cup round, see e.g. Sabine Hauswirth’s webpage where she writes about how it is to be tourist in Australia and Tasmania with some nice pictures (text in German).
Races
Both the sprint qualification and final are organized in the second largest city in Tasmania, Launceston. The qualification is more of a formality with two heats and the 20 best in each heat going to the final. With 43 starting women and 53 starting men there will only be 13 “unlucky” men and 3 “unlucky” women not making it to the final. The middle and long distance races are organized in quite hilly, stony terrain at the east part of the Island (see an example of Lizzie Ingham’s preparations here). There is no qualification for middle and long. The middle distance start list is set up strictly according to the World Ranking whereas the long distance start list is set up using seeding groups which are again based on the World Ranking.
Race details: Sprint
Race details: Middle
Race details: Long
See also the full old map at the top of this article. An example leg from the long distance terrain was part of last year’s Route to Christmas series.
Warnings
