First real test ahead of WOC 2016 in Strömstad: Maps & Results

Many of the best orienteers in the world were present in Strömstad for the first real test in relevant terrain ahead of the World Championships this August. Norway won the men’s middle and long distance with Olav Lundanes and Eskil Kinneberg, respectively. Sweden’s Helena Jansson won both races for the women.

Although the very top of the result lists was Scandinavian, both French, Swiss and Canadian(!) runners were close to the top of the results list. Courses with many interesting routechoices were offered – especially Saturday’s middle distance had many route choice legs. Many runners ran with GPS (see illustration from the middle distance on top of this page) – and GPS-data is available in WorldofO’s GPS-analysis tool 2DRerun (see links further down).

Takeaways from this weekend: The Strömstad terrain will give interesting races this August at the World Champs – the terrains offers a lot of interesting orienteering. Many struggled technically, especially at the middle distance. Lundanes, Gueorgiou, Bergman, Kinneberg, Jansson, Wyder, Kinni, Bagstevold, Kemp and Alexandersson show that they have prepared well for this season & terrain – many others are very close behind. Canadian Emily Kemp’s second place on Sunday’s long distance was the biggest positive surprise.

Middle men: Lundanes ahead of Gueorgiou

Saturday’s middle distance was a close fight between two of the top runners the last years, Olav Lundanes and Thierry Gueorgiou. Olav Lundanes  won 33 seconds ahead of Thierry Gueorgiou  with Eskil Kinneberg in 3rd at 0:55.

Lundanes decided the race by running a stable race from start to finish, losing 12 seconds or less to the leg winner on all legs – that was least of all runners in this race. Until 20 minutes of running both Gueorgiou, Kinneberg and Matthias Kyburz were very close, but some non-perfect execution cost them the chance to win.

According to Gueorgiou his speed is still not there, but he was happy with his race,

– The speed is not yet there, but it was great to wear a racing kit again, and try to attack a tough middle distance course today. Still, I am happy to have some more months to sharpen my routes in this type of terrain.

The below illustration shows GPS-tracking from one of the most interesting legs. Going right was clearly faster here, partly due to avoiding the cliffs and steep hills which really slowed you down.

Middle women: Jansson ahead of Wyder

Helena Jansson (winner) , Tove Alexandersson (6th) and Judith Wyder (2nd) were the ones with highest speed in the women’s class.  None of them had a perfect technical race – but Jansson’s race was the best technical – leading to victory 31 seconds ahead of Judith Wyder with Saila Kinni in 3rd at 0:45.

The fight for victory was close due to the many mistakes; Judith Wyder (lost 56 seconds at leg 7, finished 31 seconds behind in 2nd), Saila Kinni (lost 1:01 at leg 5, finished 45 seconds behind in 3rd) and Tove Alexandersson (lost 1:52 at leg 2, finished 1:36 behind in 6th) were only one control away from beating Helena Jansson.

 

 

One example from the women’s middle distance GPS-tracking shows how different the routes chosen by the runners are. Some still have some preparations to do ahead of the World Championships to understand routechoices in this terrain. For this particular leg left seems to be the best option, although micro-routechoices and execution is just as important as long as you avoid the really bad routes.

 

 

Long men: Kinneberg ahead of Bergman

Eskil Kinneberg had a fantastic spring season last season, but his results later in the season were not on the same level. This weekend Kinneberg showed the same great shape as last spring – with a 3rd place on Saturday’s middle and victory on Sunday’s long distance.  Eskil Kinneberg  won 34 seconds ahead of Gustav Bergman  with Thierry Gueorgiou in 3rd at 1:45.

Gueorgiou writes the following in his training log about the race which took him to 3rd place:

There were a lot less surprises compare to yesterday as this terrain was already known from before. Most of the routes were quite obvious, it was mainly about execution, and putting some good speed which is obviously what I am missing at the moment.

Below is the GPS-tracking from the first leg – the leg where the Top 15 runners in total had the biggest timelosses. Clearly going slight left is the fastest solution here. Generally the routechoices were more interesting at the middle distance than at the long distance – with more broken terrain and some tougher choices to be made.

Long women: Another one for Jansson – Kemp in second

Last spring Helena Jansson struggled with injuries, and long distance races were out of the question to even start at. A winter with good training has obviously done Jansson well – in addition to winning Saturday’s middle she was also on top on Sunday’s long distance. The biggest surprise of the day was however Canadian Emily Kemp in second place. Kemp has been steadily improving – working her way towards the world elite. A second place in such a strong start field is the best we have seen from the Canadian so far – it looks like the training has been good this winter. Kemp was actually ahead of Jansson after two thirds of the race.

In the end  Jansson  won 1:13 minutes ahead of Kemp with Heidi Østlid Bagstevold in 3rd at 4:03.  Emily Kemp lost 43 seconds or less to the leg winner on all legs – that was least of all runners in this race.

 

Taking a look at the GPS-analysis for the women, two interesting legs are shown below. Both show how you need to plan your routes carefully with respect to avoiding climbs and places with bad runnability.

 

GPS-tracking

GPS-tracking:

• Saturday: Women and Men
• Sunday: Women and Men

Results

Men Saturday

1.	Olav Lundanes	Norges orienteringsforbund	33:06	(+0:00)
2.	Thierry Gueorgiou	Kalevan Rasti	33:39	(+0:33)
3.	Eskil Kinneberg	IFK Göteborg	34:01	(+0:55)
4.	Matthias Kyburz	OK Tisaren	34:41	(+1:35)
5.	Thomas Natvig Årstad	Norges orienteringsforbund	34:48	(+1:42)
6.	Frédéric Tranchand	Paimion Rasti	35:12	(+2:06)
7.	Johan Högstrand	IFK Göteborg	35:29	(+2:23)
8.	Torgeir Nørbech	Norges orienteringsforbund	35:32	(+2:26)
9.	Hector Haines	IFK Lidingö SOK	35:38	(+2:32)
10.	Daniel Hubmann	Koovee	35:44	(+2:38)
11.	Gustav Bergman	OK Ravinen	36:04	(+2:58)
12.	Martin Hubmann	Kristiansand OK	36:05	(+2:59)
13.	Olli-Markus Taivainen	Pellon Ponsi	36:08	(+3:02)
14.	Carl Godager Kaas	Norges orienteringsforbund	36:37	(+3:31)
15.	Bjørn Ekeberg	Norges orienteringsforbund	36:47	(+3:41)

Women Saturday

1.	Helena Jansson	OK Ravinen	34:19	(+0:00)
2.	Judith Wyder	Göteborg-Majorna OK	34:50	(+0:31)
3.	Saila Kinni	Tampereen Pyrintö	35:04	(+0:45)
4.	Julia Gross	Stora Tuna OK	35:20	(+1:01)
5.	Ida Marie Næss Bjørgul	Norges orienteringsforbund	35:21	(+1:02)
6.	Tove Alexandersson	Stora Tuna OK	35:55	(+1:36)
7.	Lilian Forsgren	OK Tisaren	36:21	(+2:02)
7.	Emily Kemp	Angelniemen Ankkuri	36:21	(+2:02)
9.	Anna Närhi	IFK Göteborg	36:39	(+2:20)
10.	Maria Magnusson	Sävedalens AIK	36:51	(+2:32)
11.	Anne M Hausken Nordberg	Norges orienteringsforbund	37:02	(+2:43)
12.	Alva Olsson	Linköpings OK	37:28	(+3:09)
13.	Eva Jurenikova	Halden SK	38:05	(+3:46)
14.	Sabine Hauswirth	Halden SK	38:14	(+3:55)
15.	Emma Johansson	Norges orienteringsforbund	38:16	(+3:57)

Men Sunday

1.	Eskil Kinneberg	IFK Göteborg	76:09	(+0:00)
2.	Gustav Bergman	OK Ravinen	76:43	(+0:34)
3.	Thierry Gueorgiou	Kalevan Rasti	77:54	(+1:45)
4.	Daniel Hubmann	Koovee	78:27	(+2:18)
5.	Matthias Kyburz	OK Tisaren	80:10	(+4:01)
6.	Fredrik Bakkman	IFK Lidingö SOK	80:12	(+4:03)
7.	Carl Godager Kaas	Norges orienteringsforbund	81:08	(+4:59)
8.	Magne Dæhli	Norges orienteringsforbund	81:22	(+5:13)
9.	Jan Sedivy	Kristiansand OK	81:50	(+5:41)
10.	Bjørn Ekeberg	Norges orienteringsforbund	82:49	(+6:40)
11.	Andreas Kyburz	Tullinge SK	82:57	(+6:48)
12.	Marcus Millegård	Sävedalens AIK	83:56	(+7:47)
13.	Ulf Forseth Indgaard	Frol IL	84:21	(+8:12)
14.	Jon Aukrust Osmoen	Norges orienteringsforbund	84:28	(+8:19)
15.	Frédéric Tranchand	Paimion Rasti	85:01	(+8:52)

Women Sunday

1.	Helena Jansson	OK Ravinen	72:49	(+0:00)
2.	Emily Kemp	Angelniemen Ankkuri	74:02	(+1:13)
3.	Heidi Østlid Bagstevold	Norges orienteringsforbund	76:52	(+4:03)
4.	Saila Kinni	Tampereen Pyrintö	77:11	(+4:22)
5.	Judith Wyder	Göteborg-Majorna OK	79:24	(+6:35)
6.	Julia Gross	Stora Tuna OK	80:00	(+7:11)
7.	Anna Närhi	IFK Göteborg	81:26	(+8:37)
8.	Lilian Forsgren	OK Tisaren	81:28	(+8:39)
9.	Anni-Maija Fincke	Halden SK	82:04	(+9:15)
10.	Sabine Hauswirth	Halden SK	82:12	(+9:23)
11.	Hollie Orr	Halden SK	83:01	(+10:12)
12.	Miri Thrane Ødum	IFK Göteborg	83:43	(+10:54)
13.	Jo Shepherd	Halden SK	83:56	(+11:07)
14.	Lisa Risby	OK Kåre	84:10	(+11:21)
15.	Marttiina Joensuu	SK Pohjantähti	85:28	(+12:39)

• All results Saturday and Sunday
• See also split times in WooSplits:
  • Saturday Men
  • Saturday Women
  • Sunday Men
  • Sunday Women