World Cup Opener 2023 Long: Maps, Results and Analysis

After nearly 90 minutes of orienteering in tough terrain only seconds separated the top runners in both the men’s and women’s class in the long distance opening this year’s World Cup. Last years’ winners of the overall World Cup, Tove Alexandersson (SWE) and Kasper Fosser (NOR), had the margins on their side, and started the World Cup season with victories.

For Fosser the margin was as small as 3 seconds down to Emil Svensk (SWE) and another 6 seconds down to Martin Regborn (SWE). These three were in another league, with Matthias Kyburz (SUI) finishing more than 2 minutes behind and Joey Hadorn (SUI) and Ruslan Glibov (UKR) following at around 3 minutes – the two latter after getting some help by the speed from runners from the top trio.

In the women’s class Alexandersson finally got a real battle for the victory in a long distance where she did a good technical race – Sara Hagström (SWE) was only 55 seconds behind after 82 minutes of running – after being even closer for most of the race. This will be really interesting to follow as the season proceeds. From the two top runners there was a big gap to Norwegian runners Marie Olaussen and Andrine Benjaminsen at 4:43 and 6:20 – with Marika Teini (FIN) and Natalia Gemperle (SUI) finishing off the Top 6 within 8 minutes. Of these Gemperle seemed to be the fastest runners of those not getting help by the speed of the top duo, but Gemperle made one big mistake (control 2) and a route choice error (control 5) that costing her more than 6 minutes in total.

Maps and GPS-tracking

Analysis Men

See below for a graphical split time analysis of the men’s race – first the Top 10 and then the Top 3. Note how the Top 3 follow each other throughout the race, always within 70 seconds of each other. Anton Johansson keeps up with them until control 12, but then he gradually loses time – notne of the others seem to currently have this speed in this terrain. There are not too many mistakes among the top 10, but note some mistakes by Bergman and Ojanaho.

Looking at the top 3 only, we see that Svensk had a really fast start – taking 70 seconds on the others until control 7. His slower routechoice to control 8 (going further around, see GPS-comparison below) did however cost him 40-50 of those seconds. And it also looks like the fast start cost Svensk a bit towards the end, as the others are 40-60 seconds faster than him the last 8-10 controls. Fosser’s finish is especially strong.

Below the complete men’s course is shown:

And here GPS-data of some of the most interesting legs:

Analysis Women

For the women we see larger time differences for the longer legs – especially leg 2 and leg 5 – it looks like a combination of route choice and execution did have higher impact in the women’s class. The two top women are clearly in a class for themselves, with nobody else close to their speed (Olaussen’s curve looks very good for the middle part of the race, but here she closely follows Hagström).

Here is the comparison between Alexandersson and Hagström. At control 19 the gap was only 20 seconds, but a miss to control 20 by Hagström was enough for the victory to become relatively clear in the end.

Below is the course from the women’s race:

And here GPS-data from the most important legs:

 

Results

Men

1.	Kasper Harlem Fosser	Norge	88:06	(+0:00)
2.	Emil Svensk	Sweden	88:09	(+0:03)
3.	Martin Regborn	Sweden	88:15	(+0:09)
4.	Matthias Kyburz	Switzerland	90:26	(+2:20)
5.	Joey Hadorn	Switzerland	91:18	(+3:12)
6.	Ruslan Glibov	Ukraine	91:24	(+3:18)
7.	Gustav Bergman	Sweden	92:19	(+4:13)
8.	Anton Johansson	Sweden	92:26	(+4:20)
9.	Olli Ojanaho	Finland	92:32	(+4:26)
10.	Lukas Liland	Norge	92:33	(+4:27)
11.	Timo Sild	Estonia	93:37	(+5:31)
12.	Eskil Kinneberg	Norge	93:41	(+5:35)
13.	Miika Kirmula	Finland	93:46	(+5:40)
14.	Simon Imark	Sweden	94:03	(+5:57)
15.	Martin Hubmann	Switzerland	94:05	(+5:59)
16.	Axel Elmblad	Sweden	94:23	(+6:17)
16.	Albin Ridefelt	Sweden	94:23	(+6:17)
18.	Akseli Ruohola	Finland	94:40	(+6:34)
19.	Mathieu Perrin	France	94:45	(+6:39)
20.	Daniel Hubmann	Switzerland	95:26	(+7:20)

Women

1.	Tove Alexandersson	Sweden	82:07	(+0:00)
2.	Sara Hagstrom	Sweden	83:02	(+0:55)
3.	Marie Olaussen	Norge	86:50	(+4:43)
4.	Andrine Benjaminsen	Norge	88:27	(+6:20)
5.	Marika Teini	Finland	89:08	(+7:01)
6.	Natalia Gemperle	Switzerland	89:52	(+7:45)
7.	Anu Tuomisto	Finland	90:06	(+7:59)
8.	Simona Aebersold	Switzerland	90:11	(+8:04)
9.	Marianne Andersen	Norge	90:27	(+8:20)
10.	Andrea Svensson	Sweden	91:52	(+9:45)
11.	Karolin Ohlsson	Sweden	91:59	(+9:52)
12.	Sandra Grosberga	Latvia	92:04	(+9:57)
13.	Paula Gross	Switzerland	92:09	(+10:02)
14.	Elin Mansson	Sweden	92:16	(+10:09)
15.	Maija Sianoja	Finland	92:58	(+10:51)
16.	Lisa Risby	Sweden	93:10	(+11:03)
17.	Megan Carter Davies	Great Britain	93:48	(+11:41)
18.	Johanna Ridefelt	Sweden	94:08	(+12:01)
19.	Hanna Wisniewska	Poland	94:21	(+12:14)
20.	Miia Niittynen	Finland	94:40	(+12:33)

• Full results