World of O News
Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland) and Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) took the victories in the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) Middle distance in Czech Republic today.
Silver and bronze went to Gustav Bergman (Sweden) and Ruslan Glibov (Ukraine) in the men’s class and Andrine Benjaminsen (Norway) and Simona Aebersold (Switzerland) in the women’s class.
Men: Tight battle until the finish
In the men’s class Kyburz won a tight battle against Bergman, Glibov, Lucas Basset (France) and Kasper Fosser (Norway). Towards the end of the course Kyburz managed to keep higher speed than the others without mistakes, and finished 40 seconds ahead of Bergman and another 7 seconds ahead of Glibov. Basset and Fosser finished 4th and 5th after quite large mistakes towards the end of the course. See how the race unfolded in the video below.
GPS Animation #WOC2021 Middle Men: See how Matthias Kyburz 🇨🇭 decided the race ahead of Bergman 🇸🇪, Glibov 🇺🇦, Basset 🇫🇷, Fosser 🇳🇴 pic.twitter.com/DRDaCpa3uL
— WorldofO.com (@worldofo) July 6, 2021
The below splitsbrowser shows the race development for Top 5. Except for a few controls in the start and briefly at control 16, Kyburz is in the lead all the race. Glibov is briefly in the lead at control 14 after a very strong long leg to control 13 (where he runs around to the left on the path), but then loses time on the next long leg (by running too high, getting stuck in the green). From the splitsbrowser Bergman’s two excellent long legs are also clearly seen – this is were he goes from being 80 seconds behind and up into the lead. Fosser was on the way into the medal battle on the second long leg which he executed very well – but the big mistake at control 17 took him out of the medal battle – and after that his speed was not the same anymore.
Here is also a comparison including all runners in Top 10. None of the other runners were really close to the medals – this course clearly required consistent orienteering from start to finish to perform well.
The below GPS “autOanalysis” illustrates the battle for gold between Kyburz and Bergman. Note how Bergman keeps Kyburz’s speed in the start, but then starts losing time between control 4 and 5. From here Bergman steadily loses time until control 12, the largest time loss being around control 7 (around 30 second mistake on the control). At control 12 Bergman is nearly 80 seconds down. Bergman closes most of this gap on the two long legs to control 13 and control 15, but then Kyburz is again stronger from control 16 to the finish, gradually increasing the gap.
Women: Alexandersson way ahead again
In the women’s class Tove Alexandersson made it interesting for the viewers through a mistake in the early part of the race, but in the end Alexandersson was again in another league than her competitors and won with more than 2 minutes. All the women in the top of the results made mistakes in this tricky terrain.
GPS animation of battle for the medals at #WOC2021 Middle: Tove Alexandersson 🇸🇪 wins ahead of Andrine Benjaminsen 🇳🇴 with Simona Aebersold 🇨🇭 in third. Misses are highlighted #2Drerun pic.twitter.com/izWNJ6b8qf
— WorldofO.com (@worldofo) July 6, 2021
The below splitsbrowser shows the development within Top 5. One can clearly see how Alexandersson starts quite carefully, then makes her big mistake at control 4 – and from then on she has a different speed until control 13. In the end of the course several of the other runners manage to keep Alexandersson’s speed – probably because Alexandersson heard about her big lead and could focus on safe orienteering. Kamilla Steiwer is in a nearly 50 second lead at control 9 – but loses time on nearly every leg from there and to the finish.
Here is also a splitsbrowser illustration for top 10:
Below is an autOanalysis GPS-comparison between Alexandersson and Benjaminsen. From the illustration one can note that Alexandersson has higher speed in the start, but then makes a mistake of around 1:40 at control 4 – which is followed by a 50 second mistake at control 5 by Benjaminsen. From here to the finish Alexandersson clearly has higher speed than Benjaminsen, and in addition Benjaminsen does some small mistakes around control 11 and 13.
Maps and GPS-tracking
See maps and GPS-tracking below.
WOC 2021 Middle Final Men
» See map in omaps.worldofo.com
WOC 2021 Middle F Women
» See map in omaps.worldofo.com
Results
Men
| 1 | Matthias Kyburz | 39:31 | ||
| 2 | Gustav Bergman | 40:11 | +0:40 | |
| 3 | Ruslan Glibov | 40:18 | +0:47 | |
| 4 | Lucas Basset | 41:36 | +2:05 | |
| 5 | Kasper Harlem Fosser | 41:38 | +2:07 | |
| 6 | Eskil Kinneberg | 41:40 | +2:09 | |
| 7 | Miika Kirmula | 41:59 | +2:28 | |
| 8 | Daniel Hubmann | 42:08 | +2:37 | |
| 9 | Oleksandr Kratov | 42:42 | +3:11 | |
| 10 | Emil Svensk | 43:02 | +3:31 | |
| 11 | Timo Sild | 43:42 | +4:11 | |
| 12 | Albin Ridefelt | 43:51 | +4:20 | |
| 13 | Gernot Ymsen | 44:19 | +4:48 | |
| 14 | Pavel Kubat | 44:40 | +5:09 | |
| 15 | Leonid Novikov | 45:34 | +6:03 | |
| 16 | Noah Zbinden | 46:26 | +6:55 | |
| 17 | Konstantin Serebryanitskiy | 46:38 | +7:07 | |
| 18 | Nicolas Rio | 47:13 | +7:42 | |
| 19 | Mathias Peter | 47:43 | +8:12 | |
| 20 | Jannis Bonek | 48:31 | +9:00 |
Women
| 1 | Tove Alexandersson | 38:12 | ||
| 2 | Andrine Benjaminsen | 40:33 | +2:21 | |
| 3 | Simona Aebersold | 41:33 | +3:21 | |
| 4 | Kamilla Steiwer | 41:35 | +3:23 | |
| 5 | Sara Hagstrom | 41:46 | +3:34 | |
| 6 | Lisa Risby | 42:10 | +3:58 | |
| 7 | Isia Basset | 43:40 | +5:28 | |
| 8 | Denisa Kosova | 43:42 | +5:30 | |
| 9 | Adela Indrakova | 43:50 | +5:38 | |
| 10 | Natalia Gemperle | 44:24 | +6:12 | |
| 11 | Marie Olaussen | 44:37 | +6:25 | |
| 12 | Johanna Oberg | 44:45 | +6:33 | |
| 13 | Line Cederberg | 45:56 | +7:44 | |
| 14 | Amy Nymalm | 46:01 | +7:49 | |
| 15 | Venla Harju | 46:18 | +8:06 | |
| 16 | Cecile Calandry | 46:33 | +8:21 | |
| 17 | Evely Kaasiku | 46:55 | +8:43 | |
| 17 | Sabine Hauswirth | 46:55 | +8:43 | |
| 19 | Marika Teini | 47:13 | +9:01 | |
| 20 | Susen Loesch | 47:32 | +9:20 |
Big failure for the course setters. Courses too long. I am already scared for the long distance😬
Don’t agree at all. One of the most interesting middle distances I’ve seen on the international scene. The best ones won. Huge respect to organizers, course setters and TV crew. And many thanks to Jan for his brilliant reporting as always.
True. The rules should be followed. The course on both classes were over 5 mins too long. Sure the competition was interesting, but that is another point.
I don’t agree. The Superman’s time is 35:15 min, Superwoman’s 34:52 min.
Hats off to course setters for doing a great job!
@HurryCane: You are nearly always a few minutes off the superman/superwoman time – it is the winning time that counts.
Women’s winning time was 3 minutes longer, men’s was 4.5 mins longer. At WOC2018, the winning time was 32 mins in both classes, i.e. 3 minutes shorter. Both cases are imho within some bearable tolerance – sometimes it is a bit short, sometimes it is a bit longer. (Note that also at WOC2019 the women’s winning time was also 38.5 minutes, same as yesterday…)
Competition Rules by the IOF:
The courses shall be set to give the following winning times in minutes:
25min Middle distance qualification race
30-35min Middle distance final
So I would say it was perfect at WOC2018.
I don¨t remember if it was one of the commentators on swedish television or a competitior in an interview who said that there has been very few competitions in this kind of terrain, making it difficult for the course setter to estimate the running speed in this terrain.
Is it really a ”rule” we are dealing with here? Usually in sports when you break a rule you get disqualified, or the result doesn’t count. Maybe it’s more of a guideline or recommendation?
Should there be a rule? If Tove or Mathias had won on 45 minutes, should the competition then be canceled as a championship race and the medals be melted and recycled?
Yes, it is a rule:
WOC 16.9 The courses shall be set to give the following winning times in minutes:
women men
30–35 30-35 Middle distance final
https://orienteering.sport/orienteering/competition-rules/
So a rule has been broken, what’s the punishment? And for who?