In today’s edition of Route to O-Season 2020 we are back to the mass start race earlier this week by the Czech national team in terrain relevant for next year’s World Orienteering Championship in Czech Republic.
See the Route To O-Season 2020 for the 4th leg in the men’s race here. Another interesting leg which was common for the men’s and women’s course has been chosen for today’s edition – the 7th leg in the men’s course and 14th in the women’s.
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 (the 4 first men have been adapted to actual split times, the rest GPS split times). As you can see, going around to the left was a few seconds slower for the men and fastest for the women. Based on evaluating the strength of the runners, I would say probably going down onto the road to the left is the preferred option here. It also has the added benefit of “rest” for the head and the possibility to read ahead.
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!