WOC Long: Gueorgiou and Bobach take GOLD

[Updated with maps and splits analysis] The King is back – and Ida Bobach could very well be the new Queen of the long distance. After 99 minutes of running in the men’s class, the gap was only 25 seconds to silver. In the women’s Bobach had a “massive” gap of 2:44.

In a very exciting long distance race in real Scottish wilderness Thierry Gueorgiou and Ida Bobach were the strongest and smartest. World of O will come back with more analysis of the race later. And a BIG thanks goes to the organizers for getting up the Internet for me in the last minutes here in the arena!

Close fight for the medals

After 99 minutes of running, Thierry Gueorgiou (France) won 25 seconds ahead of Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) with Olav Lundanes (Norway) in 3rd at 0:57. Thierry Gueorgiou won 6 of 33 legs.

The fight for victory was close; Daniel Hubmann (lost 37 seconds at leg 2, finished 25 seconds behind in 2nd) and Fabian Hertner (lost 2:17 at leg 21, finished 1:58 behind in 5th) were only one control away from beating Thierry Gueorgiou.

Olav Lundanes took the lead at the first control. Then Thierry Gueorgiou took over the lead – but a 50 second time loss at control 4 made the King fall down to 7th(!) place! Here Swiss Matthias Kyburz took over the lead – keeping it until control 8. But Kyburz also didn’t manage to run without mistakes – on the leg to 9th he lost 47 second, and gave the lead over to Thierry Gueorgiou again. Thierry Gueorgiou kept the lead for 3 controls – but at control 13 another Swiss runner – Daniel Hubmann – took over the lead after a good execution on the long leg;  Gueorgiou lost 1:16 at this leg.  Daniel Hubmann lost time in the “phi loop” forking, and thus a new Swiss runner, Fabian Hertner arrived at the scene, taking a 16 second lead ahead of Olav Lundanes with Thierry Gueorgiou down in 4th (although French Frederic Tranchand briefly had the lead in the phi-loop when reordering so that everybody ran the same legs). Hertner however didn’t handle the pressure – losing more than 2 minutes on the long leg to control 21. Here Daniel Hubmann took over the lead – keeping the lead until control 25. Here the Swiss however loses 33 second to Thierry Gueorgiou – who never gives the lead away again and can run in to victory.

What a thriller & story setup! World of O will come back with GPS-data showing why the lead changed – for now this only tells how.

Daniel Hubmann lost 37 seconds or less to the leg winner on all legs – that was least of all runners in this race.

• Map men’s course

Bobach with nearly 3 minute win

Ida Bobach (Denmark) won 2:44 minutes ahead of Mari Fasting (Norway) with Svetlana Mironova (Russian Federation) in 3rd at 3:04. Ida Bobach won 2 of 20 legs.

Tove Alexandersson took the lead at the first control and stayed in front until control 8 where she had a 50 second mistake – and thus Ida Bobach could take over the lead and keep it until the finish. Alexandersson was not finished with mistakes though – at the long leg to control 12 she lost more than 3:20, also losing the fight for medals. Even her high speed in the end was not enough to get past Mironova.

Note also how Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg was in the fight for medal, but lost nearly 5(!) minutes on the long leg! Looking at the highest level of each runner, i.e. only considering the 50% of the legs with best performance, Ida Bobach (1st) showed the highest top level followed by Tove Alexandersson (4th) and Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg (7th).

Comparing Tove Alexandersson’s race with the race of Ida Bobach (see below), one can see that Alexandersson was fastest on 13 of 20 legs. Alexandersson had two really bad legs – one costing 1:38 compared to Bobach and the other 3:14 compared to Bobach. Thus Alexandersson run with the highest speed – but maybe with too high risk? Nevertheless impressive speed and power of the Swede who has had injury problems this World Championships and not been able to start since the sprint qualification.

• Map women

Results

Women

Men

Gueorgiou: – I am getting old, so I have to work hard to battle with the youngsters. #stillgoingstrong #WOC2015 pic.twitter.com/ueb8Ht2TuN

— WorldofO.com (@worldofo) August 7, 2015

GOLD for Ida Bobach, Denmark! #WOC2015 pic.twitter.com/k1UleCIw1E

— WorldofO.com (@worldofo) August 7, 2015

Norwegian silver woman Mari Fasting #WOC2015 #finally pic.twitter.com/LwHSChrIMu

— WorldofO.com (@worldofo) August 7, 2015

The three BIG men of #orienteering Long distance, have won all since 2008! Gueorgiou, Hubmann, Lundanes #WOC2015 pic.twitter.com/Jp7arD5it8

— WorldofO.com (@worldofo) August 7, 2015

GOLD for Ida Bobach (DEN), silver for Mari Fasting (NOR), bronze Svetlana Mironova (RUS) #WOC2015 pic.twitter.com/pP69m5FTce

— WorldofO.com (@worldofo) August 7, 2015