World of O News
Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) and Kasper Fosser (Norway) won the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) Long distance.
Both Alexandersson had large winning margins of around 3 minutes – and both were the big favourites of the day.
Women: Alexandersson with all gold medals
In the women’s class Alexandersson took all gold medals at WOC 2021. At the long distance the Swede had a nearly 3 minute winning margin down to Natalia Gemperle (Russia) with Simona Aebersold (Switzerland) in bronze position. The battle for gold was decided already after some minutes of running, but the battle between Gemperle and Aebersold was close – with Gemperle deciding it when Aebersold did a mistake a few controls before the arena passage. See the below GPS animation for the race development.
Tove Alexandersson 🇸🇪 wins #WOC2021 Long ahead of Natalia Gemperle 🇷🇺 and Simona Aebersold 🇨🇭. Clear win by Alexandersson – tight battle for silver! See #gpsanimation below. GPS here: https://t.co/ghehCmshuR. Results: https://t.co/t0tBqJzREW pic.twitter.com/vPheieJsPj
— WorldofO.com (@worldofo) July 9, 2021
Men: All medalists together from from leg 5 until the finish
In the men’s class Kasper Fosser had much higher speed than his competitors from the start, building up a two minute lead already after around 15 minutes of running. Already between control 4 and 5 he had caught up Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland) with 3 minutes and Magne Dæhli (Norway) with 6 minutes – and all three came together to the finish to take the medals. According to Fosser he had been in the front for most of the time. See the below GPS animation for the race development.
GPS animation: Follow Kasper Fosser 🇳🇴 to #WOC2021 Long gold ahead of Matthias Kyburz 🇨🇭 and Magne Dæhlie 🇳🇴. When were the other medalists caught? Where did Daniel Hubmann🇨🇭 lose the bronze medal? Check it out here. #gpsanimation #orienteering pic.twitter.com/sRhHGCvwkt
— WorldofO.com (@worldofo) July 9, 2021
Maps and GPS-tracking
See maps and GPS-tracking below.
WOC 2021 Long Women
» See map in omaps.worldofo.com
WOC 2021 Long Men
» See map in omaps.worldofo.com
Results
Women
| 1 | Tove Alexandersson | 1:17:11 | ||
| 2 | Natalia Gemperle | 1:20:09 | +2:58 | |
| 3 | Simona Aebersold | 1:20:28 | +3:17 | |
| 4 | Andrine Benjaminsen | 1:22:56 | +5:45 | |
| 4 | Lisa Risby | 1:22:56 | +5:45 | |
| 6 | Megan Carter Davies | 1:24:53 | +7:42 | |
| 7 | Marie Olaussen | 1:26:28 | +9:17 | |
| 8 | Jana Knapova | 1:27:04 | +9:53 | |
| 8 | Sara Hagstrom | 1:27:04 | +9:53 | |
| 10 | Johanna Oberg | 1:27:09 | +9:58 | |
| 11 | Miri Thrane Oedum | 1:28:28 | +11:17 | |
| 12 | Sabine Hauswirth | 1:28:50 | +11:39 | |
| 13 | Tereza Janosikova | 1:28:57 | +11:46 | |
| 14 | Svetlana Mironova | 1:29:03 | +11:52 | |
| 15 | Denisa Kosova | 1:29:29 | +12:18 | |
| 16 | Elena Roos | 1:29:34 | +12:23 | |
| 17 | Sandra Grosberga | 1:29:37 | +12:26 | |
| 18 | Isia Basset | 1:29:51 | +12:40 | |
| 19 | Hanna Wisniewska | 1:30:21 | +13:10 | |
| 20 | Aleksandra Hornik | 1:31:20 | +14:09 |
Men
| 1 | Kasper Harlem Fosser | 1:35:55 | ||
| 2 | Matthias Kyburz | 1:39:00 | +3:05 | |
| 3 | Magne Daehli | 1:41:53 | +5:58 | |
| 4 | Daniel Hubmann | 1:42:10 | +6:15 | |
| 5 | Emil Svensk | 1:43:08 | +7:13 | |
| 6 | Martin Hubmann | 1:43:54 | +7:59 | |
| 7 | Florian Howald | 1:44:54 | +8:59 | |
| 8 | Milos Nykodym | 1:45:08 | +9:13 | |
| 9 | Miika Kirmula | 1:45:10 | +9:15 | |
| 10 | Gaute Steiwer | 1:47:43 | +11:48 | |
| 11 | Olli Ojanaho | 1:47:48 | +11:53 | |
| 12 | Elias Kuukka | 1:48:05 | +12:10 | |
| 13 | Frederic Tranchand | 1:48:09 | +12:14 | |
| 14 | Timo Sild | 1:48:57 | +13:02 | |
| 15 | Albin Ridefelt | 1:49:16 | +13:21 | |
| 16 | Vojtech Kral | 1:49:20 | +13:25 | |
| 17 | Olav Lundanes | 1:49:34 | +13:39 | |
| 18 | Ralph Street | 1:50:07 | +14:12 | |
| 19 | Gernot Ymsen | 1:50:16 | +14:21 | |
| 20 | Bartosz Pawlak | 1:51:37 | +15:42 |
Kyburz from 13th to 2nd. Daehli from 40th to 3rd while in pack for an hour with Harlem Fosser who lead all the way to the arena passage. Then Daehli was seemingly given the information that he had to push hard to beat Hubmann, which he then did.
At the same time the route choice festival did not take place. Instead running the same tracks up four times gave better results. (a shame about this wonderfully tricky terrain).
At the same time “route choice festival” seems to be the only separation measure planed (and thus failed).
At the same time they actually did recycle the terrain from the relay. That explains that so many athletes ran the relay the evening before the long. (which then knocked out Bergmann).
One can of course argue, this is all part of the game and thus those playing the game best end up on the podium. But as an athlete and as a spectator I would sincerely question this game.
To sum it up:
1) men relay ay night withot lamps for everyone
2) relay runners poking their maps to judges and cameras
3) medal train in men long and no rule to quote in claim
4) discussions about spreading, solutions like butterflies, etc. all gone to waste
Team of advisers could perform better
Shame! I remember the dissatisfaction of “big nations” and their full with hate comments when Tsvetkov got silver in the same manner by following in EOC in Ventspils. Here the situation is even worse with all podium packed with followers to Fosser. Shame!
Fact checking^
2008, Long, Ventspils, Latvia D.Tsvetkov Gold
WOC 2021 is over, and I’m mostly impressed by the czech organizers, the very special terrain, very good coarse setting and competitions.
But there’s two failures as I see it – the map and coarse printing which seemed to disappear for some runners during the very wet mens relay. Even if not many runners were affected by this, it should never be an obstacle at all in these modern times.
And then ofcourse the train drawn by Kasper Fosser all ending up on the podium in the mens long distance.
That didn’t feel right, to anybody. Some kind of action should be taken to prevent that kind of outcome…longer intervals, butterflies, forkings, whatever…
Comment from Magne Dæhli on Instagram (in Norwegian – use Google translate):
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRJ4NzYMs4n/
There’s interesting reactions to that Instagram post where Magne Dæhli admits a hanging race and feels a bit ashamed about the won bronze medal.
Most comments are understanding and supporting to Magne – Daniel Hubman, Natalia Gemperle, Gustav Bergman and others all chime in on that and put the blame on the organizers and IOF for the outcome.
But William Lind, who Magne indirectly accuses of been doing the same thing in WOC 2017, is biting back on that statement.
As I wrote before, nobody’s happy with this kind of outcome. If nothing else I recommend a three winged butterfly for the long distance championship races ahead.
Looking at the grouping statistics (thanks Jan) it seems to me that the course planners have mostly succeded. Excdept for the Hubmann/Kimula pair and the front trio the runners punches nearly every control alone. Off course it is a pity that it is the three medalists that are together. But this is mostly due to an eceptioanlly good race by Kasper Fosser. How often will being 6 minutes behind the winner earn you a medal?
Normally groups form when the runners in front makes a mistake, it is very rare that they are actullay caught by a much faster runner. I this case you would need more than six minutes start intervall to avoid the silver medal being given to a runner following.