World of O News
Ralph Street (Great Britain) and Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) were fastest in the tricky sprint course in the historic centre of Česká Lípa – with some challenging multi-level orienteering and some interesting route choice legs around an old castle. This was Street’s first World Cup victory – one year ahead of the Sprint World Orienteering Championship on home ground.
In the men’s class Gustav Bergman (Sweden) finished second with Yannick Michiels (Belgium) in third. The best runner of the recent forest World Orienteering Championship – Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland) finished fourth, with Tomas Krivda (Czech Republic) and Tim Robertson (New Zealand) in the next places. In the women’s class early starter Natalia Gemperle (Switzerland) finished second with Sarah Hagström (Sweden) in third. Elena Roos (Switzerland), Denisa Kosova (Czech Republic) and Ida Agervig Kristiansson (Denmark) finished in the next places.
Men: Strong finish by Street – many big mistakes in multi-level area
In the men’s race the Czech runners looked very strong early in the race – with Tomas Krivda in the lead until the 7th control were Jakub Glonek took over the lead and kept it until the 13th control. Glonek lost the lead due to a big mistake on control 14 which featured some tricky multi-level orienteering around the castle. Here Ralph Street took over the lead, and kept it until the finish – increasing the lead to most competitors leg by leg. The below graphical illstration of the split times shows the race development for the top finishers along with Glonek and Kasper Fosser (Norway) who was on the way to a top-6 race but made the same mistake as Glonek.
Street decided the race due to steady orienteering and a good finish. None of the top 3 finishers did bigger mistakes. Of the top 6 finishers, Krivda lost 10-15 seconds to the 9th control (did not see that it was not possible to get through to the left and had to turn around and take the route to the right) while Robertson (6th) lost around 15 seconds on the route to the 2nd control (took the slower route all the way to the right).
Looking at which controls did give the runners most problems, the 14th leg was were most big timelosses occured (at least 35 seconds for the ones misunderstanding the multilevel structure and running left). In addition many runners lost time to the longer route choices legs to the 2nd and 18th control, the route choice leg to control 10 and the tricky short leg to control 9 where Krivda lost time. The below graph shows the summed estimated mistakes for the top 30.
Below the most interesting legs are shown along with route choices (from official split times). There were many legs where it was important to choose the correct route on this course.
Leg 14
Leg 2
Leg 9
Leg 10
Leg 11
Leg 12
Leg 18
Women: Aebersold in the lead until wrong routechoice – Alexandersson on top again
The women had similar challenges to the men – here the decisive multi-level control was control 11 where even more time could be lost by taking the wrong routechoice. Simona Aebersold (Switzerland) did an excellent race until control 10 – but her clear lead evaporated when she lost more than a minute to Tove Alexandersson on the short leg to control 11. Here Alexandersson took over the lead, and extended it graduallly towards the finish. Alexandersson did not have a perfect race, taking several slower routechoices (for example leg 1, leg 9 and leg 14) – but as always the Swede had the speed reserves to be able to win despite some mistakes and not always choosing the fastest route. The below graphical split time illustration shows the race development for the top finishers and some other key runners.
Another fast runner who lost a top position at control 11 was Hanna Lundberg (Sweden), who was on the way to a top 3 before her wrong rotechoice to control 11. Natalia Gemperle (without GPS) seems to have taken a wrong route on the long legs to the second and ninth control, but did a stable race except for that. Hagström lost more than 20 seconds to the 14th control (wrong way out of the control + slower route to the right), but did not seem to have the speed for victory today.
Looking at which controls did give the runners most problems, the 11th leg was were most big timelosses occured (at least a minute for the ones misunderstanding the multilevel structure and running right all the way around, somewhat less for the ones understanding their mistake on the way and turning around when realizing the mistake). In addition many runners lost time to the longer route choices leg to the 14th control, while 2, 6, 7, 8 and 13 also were problematic for some. The below graph shows the summed estimated mistakes for the top 30.
Below some of the most interesting legs in the women’s course are shown.
Leg 11
Leg 14
Leg 2
Leg 6
Leg 7
Leg 8
Leg 9
Maps and GPS-tracking
See maps for men and women below. GPS-tracking is available here:
Results
Men
| 1 | Ralph Street | Great Britain | 14:30 | 3:37 | |
| 2 | Gustav Bergman | Sweden | 14:44 | +0:14 | 3:41 |
| 3 | Yannick Michiels | Belgien | 14:45 | +0:15 | 3:41 |
| 4 | Matthias Kyburz | Switzerland | 14:55 | +0:25 | 3:43 |
| 5 | Tomas Krivda | Czechia | 14:56 | +0:26 | 3:44 |
| 6 | Tim Robertson | New Zealand | 14:57 | +0:27 | 3:44 |
| 7 | Teemu Oksanen | Finland | 15:01 | +0:31 | 3:45 |
| 7 | Jonatan Gustafsson | Sweden | 15:01 | +0:31 | 3:45 |
| 9 | Timo Suter | Switzerland | 15:06 | +0:36 | 3:46 |
| 10 | Mats Eidsmo | Norway | 15:11 | +0:41 | 3:47 |
| 11 | Oskar Andren | Sweden | 15:12 | +0:42 | 3:48 |
| 12 | Jonathan Crickmore | Great Britain | 15:13 | +0:43 | 3:48 |
| 13 | Max Peter Bejmer | Sweden | 15:17 | +0:47 | 3:49 |
| 13 | Aleksi Niemi | Finland | 15:17 | +0:47 | 3:49 |
| 15 | Florian Howald | Switzerland | 15:18 | +0:48 | 3:49 |
| 16 | Mattia Debertolis | Italy | 15:19 | +0:49 | 3:49 |
| 17 | Jakub Chaloupsky | Czechia | 15:23 | +0:53 | 3:50 |
| 18 | Kasper Harlem Fosser | Norway | 15:24 | +0:54 | 3:51 |
| 19 | Eduardo Gil Marcos | Spain | 15:28 | +0:58 | 3:52 |
| 19 | Chris Smithard | Great Britain | 15:28 | +0:58 | 3:52 |
| 19 | Adrien Delenne | France | 15:28 | +0:58 | 3:52 |
Women
| 1 | Tove Alexandersson | Sweden | 14:19 | 3:58 | |
| 2 | Natalia Gemperle | Switzerland | 14:54 | +0:35 | 4:08 |
| 3 | Sara Hagstrom | Sweden | 15:03 | +0:44 | 4:10 |
| 4 | Elena Roos | Switzerland | 15:11 | +0:52 | 4:13 |
| 5 | Denisa Kosova | Czechia | 15:12 | +0:53 | 4:13 |
| 6 | Ida Agervig Kristiansson | Denmark | 15:21 | +1:02 | 4:15 |
| 7 | Maija Sianoja | Finland | 15:23 | +1:04 | 4:16 |
| 7 | Simona Aebersold | Switzerland | 15:23 | +1:04 | 4:16 |
| 9 | Tereza Janosikova | Czechia | 15:27 | +1:08 | 4:17 |
| 10 | Viktoria Mag | Hungary | 15:30 | +1:11 | 4:18 |
| 10 | Emma Bjessmo | Sweden | 15:30 | +1:11 | 4:18 |
| 12 | Elin Mansson | Sweden | 15:33 | +1:14 | 4:19 |
| 13 | Alva Sonesson | Sweden | 15:36 | +1:17 | 4:20 |
| 14 | Inka Nurminen | Finland | 15:37 | +1:18 | 4:20 |
| 14 | Karolin Ohlsson | Sweden | 15:37 | +1:18 | 4:20 |
| 16 | Josefin Tjernlund | Sweden | 15:42 | +1:23 | 4:21 |
| 17 | Laura Robertson | New Zealand | 15:43 | +1:24 | 4:21 |
| 18 | Andrea Svensson | Sweden | 15:44 | +1:25 | 4:22 |
| 19 | Paula Gross | Switzerland | 15:45 | +1:26 | 4:22 |
| 20 | Sandra Grosberga | Latvia | 15:48 | +1:29 | 4:23 |
| 20 | Marie Olaussen | Norway | 15:48 | +1:29 | 4:23 |
