WOC 2022 Individual Sprint: Maps, Results and Analysis

Kasper Fosser (Norway) and Megan Carter Davies (Great Britain) took the gold medals in the individual sprint at the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) 2022 in Denmark – the last race of the championships. 

Fosser was the biggest favourite ahead of the race in the men’s race – and took a clear victory ahead of Gustav Bergman (Sweden) and Yannick Michiels (Belgium). With excellent navigation and highest speed of the field, nobody was able to get within 15 seconds of the Norwegian – who won the WOC Long distance title less than a year ago in Czech Republic.

In the women’s class the big, big favourite Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) lost her first World Championships race since 2018, and did not even get a medal. Her speed was definitely high enough, but she did not handle the tricky orienteering. Instead of Swedish success, we got British success with two medals! Alice Leake (Great Britain) took a surprise bronze medal, with Swiss Simona Aebersold taking the silver medal between the two British runners. The day was nearly completely British with Kris Jones running in to third place in the men’s race, but Jones had a wrong punch and was disqualified.

Analysis Men

The below split time illustration shows the split times for the Top-6 men throughout the course. Fosser was in the lead from the 3rd control to the finish, with the gap really opening in the last half of the course. Notable legs deciding among the top runners was leg 2 where Fosser takes time on most of the other Top-6 runners, leg 13 and 14 where several lose time, leg 19 which is a very decisive long leg and leg 21 where Eidsmo loses a medal.

Below the legs where there are either interesting route choices or where one of the top runners loses significant time are shown. The split times shown for each leg are the official split times, so even if the GPS-data is of really poor quality it is still possible to get some understanding of what the different runners have done.

Leg 1-2

A very decisive leg with several distinct routechoices. Several of the top runners took the wrong choice here, including Michiels and Key.

Clearly going left is fastest, with Michels and Key along with many other outside the Top-6 going right.

Leg 5-6

Again a leg with distinct routechoice where you could lose significant time by taking the wrong – but none of the top runners lost a lot of time.

Leg 8-9

A routechoice leg where some runners took a wrong choice, but very few lost a lot of time due to wrong route here.

 

Leg 12-13

A routechoice leg where three of the Top-6 took the wrong routechoice and lost some 4-5 seconds.

Clearly running left is faster here, with 4-5 seconds lost if you run to the right like Michiels, Street and Eidsmo.
 

Leg 13-14

A routechoice leg where many take the wrong choice, but only one of the Top-6 (Street).

Clearly going left is slower, although it is difficult to see exactly where the runners ran based on the GPS-data.

Leg 18-19

The routechoice leg which separated the most.

Only Bergman of the Top-6 takes the best routechoice, but Fosser runs extremely fast on the slower route and only loses a few seconds to Bergman.

Leg 20-21

Not really a routechoice leg, but some runners, including Eidsmo, do mistakes out of the control and lose time here.

Analysis Women

The below split time illustration shows the split times for the Top-6 women throughout the course. Carter Davies was in the lead from the 2nd control to the finish – with nearly 15 seconds down to the other Top-6 women at the 7th control as the biggest lead. Carter Davies basically decided the race already to the second control, where she beat all the other Top-6 finishers with a lot. Tove Alexandersson and Simona Aebersold lost most time here and never managed to get all the way up to the lead again. The other two important legs where the long leg to control 6, the leg to control 11 and the long leg to control 16 – all legs where some of the Top-6 runners lost significant time. Note also the very strong finish of Carter Davies. Looking at Alexandersson’s race, the Swede had nearly “repaired” her big mistake to the second control when coming to control 16, but nearly 30 seconds lost to control 16 ruined her chances. Elena Roos also lost the medal chance to control 16, with another big timeloss to control 6. Andrine Benjaminsen’s nemesis was control 11 – and she also lost a lot of time to control 6. See below for more details on the specific legs.

Leg 1-2

Carter Davies was 8 seconds faster than the other Top-6 finishers here, but two of them (Leake and Benjaminsen) also run the fastest routechoice. Alexandersson runs in a wrong alley and in addition does a double-miss in taking the wrong routechoice (to the right) losing 25 seconds to Carter Davies. Simona Aebersold does a mistake early on the leg but then afterwards takes the fastest routechoice – but still loses significant time (17 seconds).

Leg 6-7

A long leg where the routechoices are not so different, but there are still time-differences among the top runners.

Tove Alexandersson is angry after her mistake and wins the leg with 4 seconds – all Top-6 finishers are 6 seconds behind or more. Benjaminsen (13 seconds lost) misses along the best routechoice and Leake (19 seconds lost) takes a wrong route (to the right).

Leg 6-7

Only included here because this is Carter Davies worst leg, loses 7 seconds to Leake.

Leg 8-9

A leg where there are two distinct routechoice and one is faster – but not very decisive for the Top-6.

Going left is clearly faster.

Leg 9-10

Another leg with two different routechoices with one faster – but not very decisive for the Top-6.

 

Leg 10-11

A routechoice leg where Benjaminsen loses a lot of time (14 seconds) due to a strange, long routechoice to the left.

Leg 15-16

This is were Alexandersson loses the possibility to win the race.

Clearly it is faster to run to the left here – and Alexandersson in addition runs up a wrong alley and has to run back.

Maps and GPS-tracking

See maps for the finals below. GPS-tracking for both qualification and finals is available from TracTrac.

Results

Men

1	Kasper Harlem Fosser	Norway	13:56		3:13
2	Gustav Bergman	Sweden	14:12	+0:16	3:16
3	Yannick Michiels	Belgium	14:20	+0:24	3:18
4	Havard Sandstad Eidsmo	Norway	14:25	+0:29	3:20
5	Aston Key	Australia	14:34	+0:38	3:22
6	Ralph Street	Great Britain	14:36	+0:40	3:22
7	Matthias Kyburz	Switzerland	14:40	+0:44	3:23
8	Martin Regborn	Sweden	14:47	+0:51	3:25
8	Florian Howald	Switzerland	14:47	+0:51	3:25
10	Jakob Edsen	Denmark	14:50	+0:54	3:25
11	Miika Kirmula	Finland	14:54	+0:58	3:26
12	Daniel Hubmann	Switzerland	14:57	+1:01	3:27
12	Tomas Krivda	Czech Republic	14:57	+1:01	3:27
14	Max Peter Bejmer	Sweden	15:00	+1:04	3:28
15	Riccardo Scalet	Italy	15:01	+1:05	3:28
16	Adrien Delenne	France	15:03	+1:07	3:28
17	Emil Svensk	Sweden	15:12	+1:16	3:30
18	Aleksi Niemi	Finland	15:13	+1:17	3:31
19	Riccardo Rancan	Switzerland	15:14	+1:18	3:31
19	Alvaro Casado	Spain	15:14	+1:18	3:31

Women

1	Megan Carter Davies	Great Britain	14:22		3:48
2	Simona Aebersold	Switzerland	14:28	+0:06	3:49
3	Alice Leake	Great Britain	14:40	+0:18	3:53
4	Andrine Benjaminsen	Norway	14:41	+0:19	3:53
5	Elena Roos	Switzerland	14:46	+0:24	3:54
6	Tove Alexandersson	Sweden	14:51	+0:29	3:56
7	Tereza Janosikova	Czech Republic	14:52	+0:30	3:56
8	Eline Gemperle	Switzerland	14:57	+0:35	3:57
9	Venla Harju	Finland	15:07	+0:45	4:00
10	Inka Nurminen	Finland	15:10	+0:48	4:01
11	Ida Agervig Kristiansson	Denmark	15:11	+0:49	4:01
12	Marika Teini	Finland	15:13	+0:51	4:01
13	Caroline Gjotterup	Denmark	15:18	+0:56	4:03
14	Ane Dyrkorn	Norway	15:19	+0:57	4:03
15	Emma Bjessmo	Sweden	15:21	+0:59	4:03
16	Sara Hagstrom	Sweden	15:30	+1:08	4:06
17	Ana Isabel Toledo Navarro	Spain	15:33	+1:11	4:07
17	Charlotte Ward	Great Britain	15:33	+1:11	4:07
19	Hedvig Valbjorn Gydesen	Denmark	15:34	+1:12	4:07
19	Cecile Calandry	France	15:34	+1:12	4:07

 

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