World of O News
Daniel Hubmann and Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg both did impressive races and won clear victories in the World Cup final long distance in Arosa, Switzerland. Even if the courses offered some interesting longer routechoice legs, execution proved to be more important than choice of route on most of the legs – as we very often see it in modern international orienteering.
The longest leg in the course – shared by the men and women – is shown above along with the routes of the best men who ran with GPS. Even faster than these was Carl Godager Kaas who tan 7 seconds faster than Daniel Hubmann on the same route as Olav Lundanes. Thus these three very different routes are nearly equal – only 19 seconds between the best and worst. Execution of the leg does however vary significantly, with many athletes losing time here (see further illustrations below). This is even more evident in the women’s class where Hausken Nordberg wins the leg with 2 minutes following a route similar to Hubmann’s – many women lose a lot of time on this leg (see further illustrations below).
Below we look at the men’s and the women’s race separately – taking a special look at the interesting legs from an orienteering technical point and at the most decisive legs.
Men: Hubmann with exceptional start
Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) won the race 2:14 minutes ahead of Carl Godager Kaas (Norway) with Olav Lundanes (Norway) in 3rd at 2:44. As always Daniel Hubmann had a very stable race – he lost 31 seconds or less to the leg winner on all legs – that was least of all runners in this race.
Daniel Hubmann had a very good start of the race – winning 5 of the first 7 legs (actually Hubmann won “only” 6 legs in total). Hubmann’s second leg is one of the most impressive performances in this race. He wins the 9 minute leg with 26 seconds – and down to Baptiste Rollier who is 8th on this leg there is nearly 2 minutes. Part of the reason is Hubmann’s routechoice – many run too far up on this leg. But a lot is about Hubmann’s execution. It may look like Hubmann has an extra gear here.
Leg times Leg 2
| 1. | Daniel Hubmann | Switzerland | 9:28 | (+0:00) | Total: 91:19 (1) |
| 2. | Oleksandr Kratov | Ukraine | 9:54 | (+0:26) | Total: 99:01 (7) |
| 3. | Olav Lundanes | Norway | 9:59 | (+0:31) | Total: 94:03 (3) |
| 4. | Martin Hubmann | Switzerland | 10:07 | (+0:39) | Total: 94:16 (4) |
| 5. | Matthias Kyburz | Switzerland | 10:23 | (+0:55) | Total: 94:26 (5) |
| 6. | Carl Godager Kaas | Norway | 10:26 | (+0:58) | Total: 93:33 (2) |
| 7. | Fabian Hertner | Switzerland | 10:51 | (+1:23) | Total: 108:53 (28) |
| 8. | Baptiste Rollier | Switzerland | 11:17 | (+1:49) | Total: 97:00 (6) |
The 7th leg was the last before the long leg – and also the last in the part of the race which Hubmann dominated. After 7 legs Hubmann more than one minute lead to Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland) in second – with the two Norwegians at more than 2 minutes behind. From here and to the finish Godager Kaas and Lundanes did have approximately the same speed as Hubmann.
One interesting aspect with the 7th leg is that several runners (many of them Swedish) lost a minute or more because they went too far around to the left.
Results after 7 legs
| 1. | Daniel Hubmann | Switzerland | 30:19 | (+0:00) | Total: 91:19 (1) |
| 2. | Matthias Kyburz | Switzerland | 31:33 | (+1:14) | Total: 94:26 (5) |
| 3. | Martin Hubmann | Switzerland | 31:40 | (+1:21) | Total: 94:16 (4) |
| 4. | Olav Lundanes | Norway | 32:31 | (+2:12) | Total: 94:03 (3) |
| 5. | Carl Godager Kaas | Norway | 32:47 | (+2:28) | Total: 93:33 (2) |
| 6. | Oleksandr Kratov | Ukraine | 32:47 | (+2:28) | Total: 99:01 (7) |
Long leg: Mostly about execution
The long leg was – as mentioned in the introduction – a lot about execution. But also some who took the leftmost route did run too much in the very steep hill instead of going down and taking some extra climb. Below you see the leg without routes, the leg with the fastest runners (except Godager Kaas who had no GPS but ran Lundanes’s route 7 seconds faster than Daniel Hubmann) and the leg with all runners who ran with GPS.
The long leg did not have much influence on the top of the results list, but the 11th leg did. Here Matthias Kyburz made a 2 minute leg – this took the Swiss from the second place and fight for victory down to 5th place – and he is also caught with 3 minutes by Hubmann after this mistake.
Result after leg 11
| 1. | Daniel Hubmann | Switzerland | 59:17 | (+0:00) | Total: 91:19 (1) |
| 2. | Carl Godager Kaas | Norway | 61:31 | (+2:14) | Total: 93:33 (2) |
| 3. | Olav Lundanes | Norway | 61:43 | (+2:26) | Total: 94:03 (3) |
| 4. | Martin Hubmann | Switzerland | 61:59 | (+2:42) | Total: 94:16 (4) |
| 5. | Matthias Kyburz | Switzerland | 62:23 | (+3:06) | Total: 94:26 (5) |
| 6. | Oleksandr Kratov | Ukraine | 64:02 | (+4:45) | Total: 99:01 (7) |
| 7. | Baptiste Rollier | Switzerland | 64:52 | (+5:35) | Total: 97:00 (6) |
| 8. | Magne Daehli | Norway | 66:53 | (+7:36) | Total: 100:10 (8) |
From here and on there are some interesting legs, but they don’t change the final result much. Matthias Kyburz was close to catching the 3rd place from Olav Lundanes, but did some non-optimal routes in the end which cost him this possibility. Martin Hubmann had a very strong last part of the race, but it was not enough to catch Lundanes or Godager Kaas.
GPS-comparison form the last interesting legs in the men’s course are included below.
Overall result men
| 1. | Daniel Hubmann | Switzerland | 91:19 | (+0:00) |
| 2. | Carl Godager Kaas | Norway | 93:33 | (+2:14) |
| 3. | Olav Lundanes | Norway | 94:03 | (+2:44) |
| 4. | Martin Hubmann | Switzerland | 94:16 | (+2:57) |
| 5. | Matthias Kyburz | Switzerland | 94:26 | (+3:07) |
| 6. | Baptiste Rollier | Switzerland | 97:00 | (+5:41) |
| 7. | Oleksandr Kratov | Ukraine | 99:01 | (+7:42) |
| 8. | Magne Daehli | Norway | 100:10 | (+8:51) |
| 9. | Johan Runesson | Sweden | 101:02 | (+9:43) |
| 10. | Jonas Leandersson | Sweden | 101:55 | (+10:36) |
| 11. | Yngve Skogstad | Norway | 102:43 | (+11:24) |
| 12. | Florian Howald | Switzerland | 103:26 | (+12:07) |
| 13. | William Lind | Sweden | 103:55 | (+12:36) |
| 14. | Ruslan Glibov | Ukraine | 104:12 | (+12:53) |
| 15. | Filip Dahlgren | Sweden | 104:21 | (+13:02) |
Women: Hausken Nordberg with different level
With four of the strongest long distance runners this season not on the start – Tove Alexandersson, Ida Bobach, Mari Fasting and Svetlana Mironova, this was a good opportunity for Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg to show her class. In the end Hausken Nordberg (Norway) won with a big margin of 3:18 ahead of Sabine Hauswirth (Switzerland) with Sara Luescher (Switzerland) in 3rd at 5:03.
Stable performance and a very good long leg to control 5 where the success factors behind Hausken Nordberg’s first World Cup victory since 2008.
Tricky 2nd leg
The women’s second leg was not as decisive as the men’s, but also in the women’s class many lost significant time either because they went to high or because they had trouble into the tricky control in the slope. Hausken Nordberg won this leg, but only with one seconds margin to Helena Jansson. Down to the others there was a gap, though. Sara Lüscher, finishing 3rd in the end, lost more than 1:30 by going too far up.
Hausken Nordberg did however not continue as well as Hubmann did in the men’s class. Hausken Nordberg lost half a minute both to the 3rd and 4th control, and at control 4 before the long leg Hausken Nordberg is only in 3rd, 20 seconds behind Sabine Hauswirth.
Standings at control 4
| 1. | Sabine Hauswirth | Switzerland | 16:53 | (+0:00) | Total: 83:10 (2) |
| 2. | Helena Jansson | Sweden | 16:56 | (+0:03) | Total: 86:47 (7) |
| 3. | Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg | Norway | 17:13 | (+0:20) | Total: 79:52 (1) |
| 4. | Cecilie Friberg Klysner | Denmark | 17:29 | (+0:36) | Total: 99:42 (29) |
| 5. | Sarina Jenzer | Switzerland | 17:31 | (+0:38) | Total: 86:35 (5) |
| 6. | Rahel Friederich | Switzerland | 17:40 | (+0:47) | Total: 85:54 (4) |
Long leg: Hausken Nordberg clearly fastest
Hausken Nordberg runs up and wins the long leg with more than one and a half minute. The three best women on this leg run up – Sabine Hauswirth runs the route of Carl Godager Kaas (fastest among the men) and loses more than 2 minutes to Hausken Nordberg. On the other hand Hauswirth is only a few seconds behind the other women running Hausken Nordberg’s route.
Many women lost a lot of time on this leg – one of the biggest time losses is by Josefine Engström who attacks the control straight along the line – that hill hurt a lot for sure. Helena Jansson takes Sabine Hauswirth’s route, but with very bad execution (taking too much climb twice), she loses 4(!) minutes to Hausken Nordberg. All the women going down to the right also lose significant time.
Sabine Hauswirth does a 40 second mistake at the next control – and suddenly the gap from Hausken Nordberg down to the rest of the field is very large. Rahel Friedrich was in third after the long leg, but loses 4 minutes on the 6th control, and is out of the fight for a top result.
Standing at control 6
| 1. | Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg | Norway | 42:43 | (+0:00) | Total: 79:52 (1) |
| 2. | Sabine Hauswirth | Switzerland | 45:19 | (+2:36) | Total: 83:10 (2) |
| 3. | Silje Ekroll Jahren | Norway | 46:22 | (+3:39) | Total: 86:45 (6) |
| 4. | Sarina Jenzer | Switzerland | 46:28 | (+3:45) | Total: 86:35 (5) |
| 5. | Sara Luescher | Switzerland | 46:57 | (+4:14) | Total: 84:55 (3) |
| 6. | Helena Jansson | Sweden | 47:04 | (+4:21) | Total: 86:47 (7) |
Interesting route choice to 10th
Another leg with interesting route choice is the leg to control 10. Here several of the top runners – including Sarina Jenzer – run up in the slope and lost time on that – Hausken Nordberg is among the runners running down. Hausken Nordberg does however lose some time to Sabine Hauswirth in this period of the race, and after 10 controls Hausken Nordberg’s lead is only 1:34 – one minute less than at control 6.
Standing after 10 controls
| 1. | Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg | Norway | 58:08 | (+0:00) | Total: 79:52 (1) |
| 2. | Sabine Hauswirth | Switzerland | 59:42 | (+1:34) | Total: 83:10 (2) |
| 3. | Helena Jansson | Sweden | 61:52 | (+3:44) | Total: 86:47 (7) |
| 4. | Sara Luescher | Switzerland | 61:54 | (+3:46) | Total: 84:55 (3) |
| 5. | Silje Ekroll Jahren | Norway | 62:20 | (+4:12) | Total: 86:45 (6) |
| 6. | Rahel Friederich | Switzerland | 62:49 | (+4:41) | Total: 85:54 (4) |
| 7. | Sarina Jenzer | Switzerland | 63:13 | (+5:05) | Total: 86:35 (5) |
12th control: Hauswirth does mistake
With Hauswirth’s mistake at the 12th control, her chance for victory is gone – and this is all about Hausken Nordberg.
Hausken Nordberg also has an exceptional strong last part of the race.
Final results women
| 1. | Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg | Norway | 79:52 | (+0:00) |
| 2. | Sabine Hauswirth | Switzerland | 83:10 | (+3:18) |
| 3. | Sara Luescher | Switzerland | 84:55 | (+5:03) |
| 4. | Rahel Friederich | Switzerland | 85:54 | (+6:02) |
| 5. | Sarina Jenzer | Switzerland | 86:35 | (+6:43) |
| 6. | Silje Ekroll Jahren | Norway | 86:45 | (+6:53) |
| 7. | Helena Jansson | Sweden | 86:47 | (+6:55) |
| 8. | Julia Gross | Switzerland | 87:53 | (+8:01) |
| 9. | Emma Johansson | Sweden | 89:31 | (+9:39) |
| 10. | Sofia Haajanen | Finland | 89:57 | (+10:05) |
| 11. | Natalia Vinogradova | Russia | 91:01 | (+11:09) |
| 12. | Lizzie Ingham | New Zealand | 91:23 | (+11:31) |
| 13. | Denisa Kosova | Czech Republic | 92:39 | (+12:47) |
| 14. | Elena Roos | Switzerland | 93:40 | (+13:48) |
| 15. | Galina Vinogradova | Russia | 93:47 | (+13:55) |
