Jukola 2015: GPS analysis of decisions and mistakes in the relay

This year’s Jukola and Venla relays were tricky with a lot of mistakes even among the top teams – and therefore there is a lot of interesting GPS-data to analyze. Here we take a look at some of the data from the Jukola relay.

Above an illustration from the decision point at the last leg – where Halden loses 3 minutes and the chance for victory.

If you want to head directly to the GPS-tracking without reading the analysis of selected parts of the men’s race, use the links right below. Scroll further down for the analysis. For all Venla runners: Sorry, I did not find the time to do the analysis for both relays this time. If somebody has done/wants to do an analysis, I would be very happy to post it here.

Jukola

Venla

Start number 1: Kalevan Rasti (3rd)

Kalevan Rasti was last year’s winner and the main favourite this year – even if Fabian Hertner chose to run for his Swiss club this year. Kalevan Rasti lost the initiative in the relay on the 3rd leg where Philippe Adamski lost several minutes – Kalevan Rasti was 5:28 minutes behind after this leg and never got closer than 3 minutes after that. However, the teams in front made several mistakes, and Kalevan Rasti’s runners on the later legs had several opportunities to get up to the lead again. Thus even if Adamski may look like the one losing the relay for Kalevan Rasti if looking purely at the third leg, it is just as much the later runners who did not manage to do their job and get Kalevan Rasti in position for victory again.

At the start of the last leg Thierry Gueorgiou had 3 minutes up to Kristiansand’s Daniel Hubmann – if this gap would have been 2 minutes smaller we could have had a very different last leg. Below some of the main time losses for Kalevan Rasti are shown.

2nd leg

Hannu Airila’s mistake was not crucial – but one minute lost is one minute lost, and one minute is the gap up to the lead for Adamski when heading out on the third leg.

3rd leg

Adamiski lost only 2 of 5 minutes due to mistakes – the rest seems to be due to running speed and/or orienteering speed.

A 50 second mistake for Adamski at the first control – and the forking is probably also 25 seconds slower than Halden/KOK’s forking which is the middle one.

Then a direction mistake to number 17 – not very crucial – worse is that a few seconds are lost all the way.

4th leg

Missed opportunity: Kalevan Rasti’s change to get up into the lead again disappeared in Jan Petrzela’s mistake at the 4th leg. The other teams also did mistakes – but that didn’t help Kalevan Rasti to get closer – just to not lose more time.

5th leg

Another opportunity for getting closer lost – Jere Pajunen gets some trouble on all the small paths in the green.

6th leg

And another direction mistake for Kalevan Rasti (or an interesting route choice?) – this time Jan Prochazka

Start number 2: IFK Lidingö (16th)

IFK Lidingö was second in last year’s Jukola, but lost the chance to repeat that already on the first leg. Nearly 10 minutes down on the leader after the first leg – and then the next legs were just as bad. Two leg wins in a row by Øystein Kvaal Østerbø (5th) and Mårten Boström (6th) shows that Lidingö could have been up there this year again with a better start, but the night got too tough for the Swedish team. After 3 legs Lidingö was 33(!) minutes behind the leading team. After 7 legs this was reduced to 25(!) minutes.

1st leg

Not the ideal route choice to number 14 –  from here a bad period.

 

2nd leg

3rd leg

Start number 3: Södertälje (15th)

Södertälje lost a bit of contact on the first leg when Ralph Street lost 5 minutes and changed over in 68th place. Södertälje did however not disappear out of the top fight until the long night on the third leg where Ivar Lundanes lost 10 minutes and changed over in 22nd place more than 15 minutes behind. Lundanes’ time losses were however no big control losses – rather somewhat lower speed and several smaller time losses. Two of the most significant timelosses (occuring in forked area probably following the wrong queue) are shown below.

Update (based on the comments): Ivar Lundanes realized his main headlamp was not working, just at the change-over area right before starting. He got the small Petzl reserver lamp from Klaus Schagaguler (IFK Lidingö 2) and run the whole 3rd leg with that small lamp.

From there and on Södertälje ran an OK relay and lost another 8 minutes on the last 4 legs – some of the time loss partly due to not being close to the leading group.

1st leg

2nd leg

3rd leg

Start number 4: Halden SK (2nd)

Halden SK ran a very good relay until the last leg, changing over first after the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th leg. However, Halden (probably) knew that last leg runner Magne Dæhlie wanted a significant gap of at least a few minutes to be certain of victory and be able to run safely to victory – in the end the gap down to Kristiansand’s Daniel Hubmann was less than a minute.

Halden’s earlier runners did however have several missed opportunities to give Dæhlie a significant gap – and in this regard it can be said that the Halden runners on the earlier legs did not do their job well enough even if they were first through the relay and managed to give their anchor a gap down to the chasing teams.

Leg 1

Halden’s Wingstedt was in the group taking the wrong routechoice to the 5th leg – losing more than a minute. Not crucial for the relay in itself, but that minute could have been valuable for Jarkko Huovila on the second leg who now had to chase the leading teams from one minute behind. Huovila did have the second best time on the leg, though.

Leg 2

Halden’s Houvila was in one of the groups doing a mistake to 14th – not finding the street.

Also some time lost at the forking due to following the wrong people or paths too long?

Leg 3

No significant time-losses for Halden – Portin ran a very good leg, second best leg time only beaten by a strong Gustav Bergman.

Leg 4

The 4th leg was where Halden really had the opportunity. Mattis Karlsson managed to come first back for Halden – but in the interview after the race it was clear that Karlsson was not very proud of his orienteering all the way. The reason for that is partly the 7th control as one can see below.  Nearly 4 minutes lost are 4 minutes which Magne Dæhlie would have been very happy for at the last leg … Karlsson loses 5:27 to the best leg time.

The forking controls 3-4 where also not very good for Karlsson.

Leg 5

More trouble in the forking region 3-4 for Halden on the 5th leg for Mats Haldin. Haldin loses 3:30 to the best leg time.

6th leg

A good leg for Marcus Millegård on the third leg. 3rd best leg time, 1:35 down on Mårten Boström, but faster than the other teams in the fight for victory. One non-optimal routechoice could have given an extra advantage though.

Leg 7

Kristiansand’s Hubmann has significantly higher speed the first part of the race – putting pressure on Dæhlie and nearly catching him.

The crucial 3 minute mistake on the 5th leg for Magne Dæhlie ultimately decided the relay. This was a forking control where both Kristiansand (Hubmann) and Kalevan Rasti (Gueorgiou) had the other forking control.

Halden also used 40 seconds more at the forking control at the 13th control.

Start number 5 Vaajakosken Terä (DNF)

Injury(?) at the second leg – DNF

Start number 6 Hiidenkiertäjät (8th)

5 minutes lost on the second leg and another 7-8 minutes on the third leg destroyed the chances for Hiidenkiertäjät. The rest of the relay the team ran very strongly.

2nd leg

Problems at the forking controls 9-10 cost some time for second leg runner Tomi Närvä. Note also from the comments: – Tomi Närvä of Hiidenkiertäjät injured his knee about halfway through his leg and it affected his performance quite a lot

3rd leg

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Start number 7 Järla (11th)

Järla was in the fight after 4 legs – in third spot only 4 minutes behind. Then Alain Denzler lost 5 minutes on the 5th leg and Espen Hultgreen Weltzien and Håkon Westergård another 3-4 minutes on the two last legs.

5th leg

Start number 8 Malungs OK (5th)

Malungs OK was another team who lost the winning chances on the two darkest and longest night legs – leg 2 and 3. Thomas Carlsson on the second leg lost 4 minutes (on top of 3 minutes lost on the first leg) and Jakob Lööf lost another 6 minutes on the third leg – letting Malung be 13 minutes behind the lead after 3 legs. No big mistakes to be found (see some of the smaller ones below) – this was more a question about speed being too low?

Leg 2

Leg 3

Start number 9 Kristiansand OK (1st)

Kristiansand won the relay, but not after 7 perfect legs. Some of the mistakes done on the way are shown below. They obviously never became crucial with Hubmann’s great last leg.

1st leg

2nd leg

3rd leg

4th leg

6th leg

Startnumber 14: OK Linné (4th)

OK Linné looks like the team getting closest to its potential. Very few timelosses of more than 30 seconds throughout the relay – timelosses are rather due to lower running speed than due to mistakes. Thus the Linné runners seem to have done their preparations well. The biggest downside was Albin Ridefeldt’s 2 minute mistake at the tricky 12th control at the long night leg (leg 3). Ridefeldt also made some other smaller mistakes, and in the end lost 8 minutes to the leader team. Oskar Sjöberg also lost some time on the last leg, but he secured the 4th place – and realistically that was the most possible for Linné today.

Leg 3

 

Leg 4

Leg 7

Turun Metsänkävijät

TuMe ran a very good relay and finished 6th – a new club record? (Answer: No, record was 2nd in 2001, thanks for comment from Aigars). A Top3 or Top4 had been possible if last leg runner Scott Fraser had had a perfect day – he run the first part of the relay together with Kalevan Rasti’s Thierry Gueorgiou, but lost him at a forking control and continued to make several mistakes. Still he managed to secure a good 6th place for TuMe.

Leg 1

Leg 2

Leg 3

Leg 7

Startnumber 10: Ärla

Leg 6

Angelniemen Ankkuri (27th)

Leg 1

Leg 2

OLV Baselland

Leg 2

Frol IL

Leg 1

Leg 2

Leg 3

Leg 6

IFK Göteborg

Leg 3

Leg 4

Leg 7

KooVee

Leg 6

OK Pan Århus

Leg 3

Leg 4

Leg 5

Leg 6

Leg 7

Rajamäen Rykmentti

Leg 3

Leg 5

Leg 6

Södertälje

Leg 4

Leg 6

Store Tuna

Leg 3

OK Tisaren

Leg 6

OK Trian

Leg 2

Leg 3

Tyrving

Leg 1

Leg 6

Vehkalahden Veikot

Leg 2

Leg 3