EOC 2022 Relay: Maps, Results and Analysis

Jan Kocbach August 8, 2022 Orienteering News 4 Comments

Sweden won the women’s relay and and Norway won the men’s relay at the European Orienteering Championships (EOC) in Estonia Sunday. Many runners did big mistakes in the tricky terrain, making the relays very interesting for the viewers.

In the women’s class Sweden took a clear victory ahead of Czech Republic, with a close battle for the bronze medal between Norway and Switzerland – which Norway decided towards the end. In the men’s class the relay was tight all the way to the end. Norway opened up a one minute gap at the second leg, and although two Swedish teams and Switzerland had a great chase and got closer halfway through the leg, Norway managed to keep the gap and even increase it towards the end, taking the victory ahead of Sweden 3 and Switzerland.

Women: Race development

Below the race development in the women’s class is shown graphically – showing all common controls with 13 common controls on the first leg and so on. See the first illustration for the favourite teams and the second illustration for the Top 10 finishers.

Finland 1 looked to be on the way to something big with being in the lead after the first leg with their (on paper) weakest runner. However, Marika Teini did a big mistake on the first controls on the second leg, losing more than 5 minutes, and was suddenly out of the battle for the medals. Sweden 1 and Czech Republic 1 did great races on the second leg, and decided the gold and silver medals here – while both Norway 1 and Switzerland 1 got off to a bad start on the first leg, and lost the chance for gold and silver here. See below for the start of the second leg where Teini is compared to Sweden 1 and Czech Republic 1. Both Norway 1 and Switzerland 1 did mistakes on this part of the course on the first leg.

With Sweden and Czech Republic clear on the last leg, several other teams fought for the bronze medal, with Norway deciding it on the last leg. The decision happened after Switzerland had opened a gap of more than a minute on Norway – Aebersold clearly running faster than Benjaminsen. However, Norway had a one minute shorter forking in the end which made it possible to come up to Switzerland and decide the relay (combined with a mistake by Switzerland). This forking with big difference in optimal execution time between the different forking alternatives came very late in the relay, and was arguably the second route planner mistake at this EOC after the problematic forbidden area at the long distance.

Men: Race development

Below the race development in the men’s class is shown graphically – showing all common controls with 15 common controls on the first leg and so on. See the first illustration for the favourite teams and the second illustration for the Top 10 finishers.

Several teams – among them Sweden 1 (Ridefelt), Czech Republic 1 and France 1 – lost around 2 minutes or more on the first two controls on the first leg – nearly ruining the chance for a medal already here as it was very difficult to come up to the top teams again as they ran very consistent and good races throughout the relay.

Sweden 1 (Regborn) could have managed to get up to the medal battle again with an excellent 2nd leg, but also here Sweden got problems in the start. Norway’s Kasper Fosser decided the race for Norway on this leg by giving last leg runner Eskil Kinneberg a gap which he never gave away.

On the last leg Norway’s one minute lead to Sweden 2, Sweden 3 and Switzerland shrunk down to around 40 seconds before increasing again as Kinneberg did a perfect race for most of the course. Sweden 3’s Max Peter Bejmer managed to win the silver medals after a late mistake by Sweden 2’s Emil Svensk, where also Switzerland’s Matthias Kyburz passed by to take the third place and bronze.

Maps and GPS-tracking

Results

Results included below show results for all teams for each nation. Note that only the first team for each nation counts in the European Orienteering Championships.

Men

1	Norway 1				1:46:44
	1. Magne Daehli	36:39	2	+0:20	36:39	2
	2. Kasper Harlem Fosser	34:18	1		1:10:57	1	-1
	3. Eskil Kinneberg	35:47	6	+1:44	1:46:44	1	0
2	Sweden 3				1:48:15
	1. Viktor Svensk	36:42	3	+0:23	36:42	3
	2. Isac von Krusenstierna	35:25	2	+1:07	1:12:07	3	0
	3. Max Peter Bejmer	36:08	7	+2:05	1:48:15	2	-1
3	Switzerland 1				1:48:25
	1. Daniel Hubmann	37:56	17	+1:37	37:56	17
	2. Florian Howald	35:26	3	+1:08	1:13:22	4	-13
	3. Matthias Kyburz	35:03	4	+1:00	1:48:25	3	-1
4	Sweden 2				1:48:31
	1. Henrik Johannesson	36:19	1		36:19	1
	2. Anton Johansson	35:38	4	+1:20	1:11:57	2	+1
	3. Emil Svensk	36:34	9	+2:31	1:48:31	4	+2
5	Sweden 1				1:49:49
	1. Albin Ridefelt	38:49	22	+2:30	38:49	22
	2. Martin Regborn	36:08	5	+1:50	1:14:57	7	-15
	3. Gustav Bergman	34:52	2	+0:49	1:49:49	5	-2
6	Finland 1				1:50:20
	1. Elias Kuukka	38:14	18	+1:55	38:14	18
	2. Olli Ojanaho	37:12	7	+2:54	1:15:26	10	-8
	3. Miika Kirmula	34:54	3	+0:51	1:50:20	6	-4
7	Estonia 1				1:50:27
	1. Kristo Heinmann	39:00	26	+2:41	39:00	26
	2. Lauri Sild	37:24	10	+3:06	1:16:24	13	-13
	3. Kenny Kivikas	34:03	1		1:50:27	7	-6
8	France 1				1:50:46
	1. Loic Capbern	37:52	16	+1:33	37:52	16
	2. Quentin Moulet	37:42	11	+3:24	1:15:34	11	-5
	3. Mathieu Perrin	35:12	5	+1:09	1:50:46	8	-3
9	Poland 1				1:54:07
	1. Wojciech Kowalski	36:47	6	+0:28	36:47	6
	2. Bartosz Pawlak	39:32	20	+5:14	1:16:19	12	+6
	3. Michal Olejnik	37:48	15	+3:45	1:54:07	9	-3
10	Finland 2				1:54:45
	1. Aaro Aho	37:31	11	+1:12	37:31	11
	2. Topi Syrjalainen	37:22	9	+3:04	1:14:53	5	-6
	3. Eetu Savolainen	39:52	20	+5:49	1:54:45	10	+5

Women

1	Sweden 1				1:49:18
	1. Lina Strand	38:48	4	+0:53	38:48	4
	2. Sara Hagstrom	36:08	1		1:14:56	1	-3
	3. Tove Alexandersson	34:22	1		1:49:18	1	0
2	Czechia 1				1:54:28
	1. Vendula Horcickova	39:06	12	+1:11	39:06	12
	2. Adela Finstrlova	36:50	2	+0:42	1:15:56	2	-10
	3. Tereza Janosikova	38:32	11	+4:10	1:54:28	2	0
3	Norway 1				1:55:32
	1. Ane Dyrkorn	41:54	18	+3:59	41:54	18
	2. Marie Olaussen	39:03	5	+2:55	1:20:57	7	-11
	3. Andrine Benjaminsen	34:35	2	+0:13	1:55:32	3	-4
4	Switzerland 1				1:56:21
	1. Sarina Kyburz	40:10	15	+2:15	40:10	15
	2. Elena Roos	40:50	8	+4:42	1:21:00	8	-7
	3. Simona Aebersold	35:21	4	+0:59	1:56:21	4	-4
5	Finland 2				1:58:27
	1. Ida Haapala	38:59	9	+1:04	38:59	9
	2. Enni Jalava	40:02	7	+3:54	1:19:01	3	-6
	3. Anu Tuomisto	39:26	15	+5:04	1:58:27	5	+2
6	Finland 1				1:58:51
	1. Miia Niittynen	37:55	1		37:55	1
	2. Marika Teini	44:44	19	+8:36	1:22:39	11	+10
	3. Venla Harju	36:12	5	+1:50	1:58:51	6	-5
7	Norway 2				1:59:23
	1. Tone Bergerud Lye	38:05	2	+0:10	38:05	2
	2. Ingrid Lundanes	41:57	13	+5:49	1:20:02	5	+3
	3. Victoria Haestad Bjornstad	39:21	14	+4:59	1:59:23	7	+2
8	Sweden 2				2:00:03
	1. Lisa Risby	46:33	28	+8:38	46:33	28
	2. Johanna Oberg	38:34	4	+2:26	1:25:07	14	-14
	3. Sanna Fast	34:56	3	+0:34	2:00:03	8	-6
9	Estonia 1				2:02:48
	1. Marianne Haug	43:43	21	+5:48	43:43	21
	2. Eleri Hirv	42:52	15	+6:44	1:26:35	20	-1
	3. Evely Kaasiku	36:13	6	+1:51	2:02:48	9	-11
10	Denmark 1				2:02:49
	1. Malin Agervig Kristiansson	38:06	3	+0:11	38:06	3
	2. Cecilie Friberg Klysner	41:31	10	+5:23	1:19:37	4	+1
	3. Miri Thrane Oedum	43:12	19	+8:50	2:02:49	10	+6

All results

4 comments

Andudi
August 8, 2022 at 11:55

route planner mistakes can happen, even in more developet O-countries… but why does the IOF not closer control in such an important race…?
Terje Wiig Mathisen
August 8, 2022 at 22:02

To me it looked like the late unfair fork in the ladies last leg was paired with a similar fork on control 5: I.e. Abersold gained the lead on the first fork, then lost it again on the last.
I do agree that it is better the way the men did it, with equal courses on the last part of the last leg.
- Jan Kocbach
  August 8, 2022 at 22:05
  
  Yes, I am quite sure it is paired, but that doesn’t help much when you introduce this big time differences between forkings very, very late in the race.
  - Lars Lindstrøm
    August 9, 2022 at 0:20
    
    Jan >> You are right, no teams had the E-G combination on the last leg (xBA on winsplits), but some teams (Denmark included) had the D-I combination (xAC).