World Cup Final 2015: All You Need To Know!

[LIVE webTV + GPS-tracking: Long Friday, Middle Saturday, Sprint Relay Sunday] Arosa in the Swiss Alps welcomes the world orienteering elite to the World Cup Final the coming weekend from Friday October 2nd until Sunday October 4th. 

The start field in the World Cup final is one of the best we have seen in the World Cup final the last years – with all six individual World Champions except Thierry Gueorgiou (updated based on comment, see below) on the start line and 150 athletes from 23 countries at the start.

The terrain is Alpine – with the races taking place between 1600 and 2200 meters. The long distance will be tough – 12.4 km with 730 meter climb for the men, 8.8 km with 525 meter climb for the women. Above part of an old map of the Arosa area is shown. An interesting fact: Daniel Hubmann ran his first Swiss Championship here 20 years ago in the H12 category.

Links & Live services

Friday’s webTV production will be a low-key production with camera from the finish area, speaker sound and live GPS-tracking. Saturday’s webTV (and TV) production will be a proper TV production.

• Live TV (Saturday’s middle distance also available on SVT in Sweden and TV2 in Denmark)
• Official webpage – section with live GPS-tracking and live webTV
• Official webpage – main page. Start lists will be available from here – usually available the evening before each event
• Bulletin 4 with latest information about the race is available here
• GPS-tracking will be live from 13:00 CET all three days
• World Cup standing: Individual and Sprint Relay (see also standings and discussion about winner candidates below)

Program

• Friday Long distance. Start from 11:30. GPS-tracking from 13:00. Last start men 15:40. Last start women 15:34. Winner time 90 minutes for men / 75 minutes for women. 3 minutes start interval.
• Saturday Middle distance. Start from 12:50. GPS-tracking from 13:00. Last start women 15:25. Winner women finish 16:00. Last start men 16:30. Winner men 17:05.
• Sunday Sprint Relay. Start 13:20 CET. Finish 14:20 CET

All times are CET.

Women: Bobach versus Alexandersson

The fight for overall victory should also be exciting both among the men and the women. In the women’s class the fight for the overall victory is mostly between Danish World Champion long distance Ida Bobach and Swedish Tove Alexandersson (56 points ahead of Bobach). Alexandersson had injury problems during the World Orienteering Championships in Scotland, but is reported to be back in shape.  Ida Bobach is (for now) only registered for the middle distance race on Saturday. With  100 points for the winner on Friday’s long distance and double points to be awarded in the middle race on Saturday, the battle for the top position is still open, although Alexandersson has an advantage. Even Sara Lüscher in third, 151 points behind Alexandersson has a theoretical chance for victory.

Men: A Swiss Duel

In the men’s class the fight for victory is mainly between the two Swiss runners Daniel Hubmann and Matthias Kyburz (80 points behind). Down to the long distance World Champion Thierry Gueorgiou (France)  in third the gap is 223 points. Still there would have been a theoretical chance to win for Gueorgiou if he would have been on the start line, but this will now be a battle between the two Swiss runners – both have won the overall World Cup before, Hubmann 5(!) times.

Sprint Relay: Denmark vs Sweden

In the Sprint Relay World Cup, Denmark is the current leader 35 points ahead of Sweden – with 100 points to the winner and 80 points to number two in the final race. 6 nations still have a theoretical chance of winning, but it would be a big surprise if Norway in 3rd (67 points behind) or Switzerland in 4th (70 points behind) would climb all the way up to the top of the podium after Sunday’s Sprint Relay.

Registered athletes

Taking a look at the World Ranking list, 8 of the top 10 men and 9 of the top 10 women are present in Arosa for the World Cup final; 18 of the top 30 men and 22 of the top 30 women. This is a very good participation for the World Cup final – the new setup where the sprint race is skipped in favor of interesting orienteering in the Swiss Alps is probably one of the reasons for the increased interest.

WRE pos	Name	Country
1	Daniel Hubmann	SUI
2	Olav Lundanes	NOR
4	Oleksandr Kratov	UKR
5	Fabian Hertner	SUI
6	Matthias Kyburz	SUI
7	Magne Daehli	NOR
9	Gustav Bergman	SWE
10	William Lind	SWE
13	Baptiste Rollier	SUI
14	Carl Godager Kaas	NOR
15	Filip Dahlgren	SWE
20	Hector Haines	GBR
22	Fredric Portin	FIN
23	Jan Sedivy	CZE
24	Johan Runesson	SWE
25	Jan Prochazka	CZE
29	Gernot Kerschbaumer	AUT
30	Ruslan Glibov	UKR

WRE pos	Name	Country
1	Ida Bobach	DEN
2	Tove Alexandersson	SWE
3	Judith Wyder	SUI
5	Helena Jansson	SWE
6	Mari Fasting	NOR
7	Sara Luescher	SUI
8	Catherine Taylor	GBR
9	Sarina Jenzer	SUI
10	Saila Kinni	FIN
11	Nadiya Volynska	UKR
12	Maja Alm	DEN
13	Emma Johansson	SWE
15	Annika Billstam	SWE
17	Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg	NOR
18	Sofia Haajanen	FIN
19	Merja Rantanen	FIN
20	Sabine Hauswirth	SUI
21	Minna Kauppi	FIN
22	Natalia Vinogradova	RUS
26	Anastasia Rudnaya	RUS
27	Lilian Forsgren	SWE
28	Julia Gross	SUI