World of O News
Today’s leg in Route to O-Season 2020 takes us back to a World Cup race in Spain back in 2014. Today we take a look at the women’s course – and the long first leg is the chosen one.
Thanks a lot to Agnar Renolen for the tip. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):
Location
You find other maps from the area in omaps.worldofo.com here. See also latest additions in 3DRerun from this area in order to learn more about this terrain type.
Webroute
Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.
Then you can take a look at how the runners have solved this leg below. Here is the analysis from back in 2014 (Note: GPS-times only here):
On the first leg for women going all the way around to the right and taking the control from behind is the fastest (Eliasson, actual time 19:08). Helena Jansson has probably run approximately the same route (some of the GPS-track is missing), and is even a few seconds faster than Eliasson. Alexandersson looses half a minute (time 19:36 according to official split times) while Mironova runs 19:25 with a route a bit to the left of Alexandersson’s.
The women going left or direct loose a lot of time here – this might also be partly due to the fact that none of the top-runners choose these alternatives.
The men did, however, have a very similar leg (control moved a bit to the left). Here is the analysis for this leg:
Going slightly right like Kratov and Rollier do is the fastest choice here – not however that there are many “micro” route choices on the way, and the execution of the leg is just as important as choosing the correct variant. Rollier looses nearly half a minute to Lundanes on the first 400 meters of the leg – thus Rollier’s variant could have been even faster with a better start. Lundanes and Sild loose around half a minute by running direct.
Going far around to the right and taking the control from the road was fastest in the women’s course – the women having a similar leg. However, this option is a bit too long with the control placement in the men’s race – also the men are usually stronger when running direct.
Density map
See below for a density map of some of the ones who have drawn their routes so far (available during the day when some readers have drawn their route).
Additional information
You find the complete map in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.
Route to O-Season 2020 series
Route Choice Challenges while waiting for the real action: With the upcoming orienteering season indefinitely on hold in large parts of the the world due to COVID-19, regular orienteering route choice challenges may be one way to make sure those orienteering skills don’t get completely rusty. I’ll try to keep these coming daily, but need help from all of you out there to keep them coming and to keep up a certain quality.
Tips on good route choice challenges – either from races/trainings (even cancelled ones) or theoretical ones with accompanying analysis – are very welcome (please e-mail to jan@kocbach.net).
Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!
