WOC Relay: Maps and Results

As always: A very dramatic WOC relay with France in one of the main roles in the mens class. In the end Russia took the gold medals in the mens class whereas Finland took the gold medals in the womens class. Norway took silver in both mens and womens class.

Maps Relay

• Map men
• Map women

Decided to attack

The big excitement was in the mens class. After 16 controls on the last leg, Thierry Gueorgiou (France) was in the lead ahead of Valentin Novikov (Russia). On the way to control 18, Gueorgiou felt strong, and decided to push hard in order to get a gap to the Russian.

– On the road to 17 I felt very strong, so I decided to attack Valentin (Novikov). I had seen on the GPS that around was very fast.

Then the unbelievable happened. Gueorgiou didn’t see the 17th control on the map as the 16th, 17th and 18th controls were in a row, so he skipped the 17th control and went directly to control number 18. A big “Oh no” went through the crowd, and it was no good feeling standing there beside Francois Gonon – the second leg runner of France – watching it as it unfolded.

When the French runner arrived first at the spectator control, he was told that he had skipped a control, and had to return to the forest and take control number 17.

For the other teams, the excitement continued with Russia now in a lead with less than a minute down to chasing Norway. In the end, Russia with Valentin Novikov was the strongest team, and Russia took gold ahead of Norway and Switzerland.

Again: Andersen against Kauppi

In the womens class, there was also a tight fight on the last leg. Finland (Kauppi), Norway (Andersen) and Sweden (Jansson) were together in the forest when passing the spectator control on the last leg. Jansson had problems keepin the speed of the Finnish and Norwegian runner up the hill, and it was clear that the fight would be between Kauppi and Andersen for gold – just as at the middle distance.

Once again, Minna Kauppi was the strongest – taking the gold medal for Finland ahead of Norway with Sweden on third spot for the bronze medals. Thus Andersen got her fourth medal at this World Championships – none of them a gold medal.

Medal overview

Switzerland was yet again the best nation – just as in the last World Championships and European Champs. Norway was the second best country – with Finland in third spot.

Results women

Results men

Full results available here

Final words

It has been a great championships here in Trondheim. Some compromises have been done regarding the courses to make the races media-friendly, and it can be discussed if this is good or bad for the sport. Both terrain and courses were more interesting in the qualification races than in the finals in my opinion – and in the opinion of most of the runners I have talked to. Still, the runners had tough challenges in all races, and knowing which compromises have been done, the courses were as good as possible as far as I can judge. Which compromises should be done in order to suit TV, media and spectators is another discussion which I will not take here. I will follow up with some thoughts on the future of orienteering and TV in a later post based on discussions with different people I have had this week during WOC.

World of O Ranking and pictures from the relay will be updated in a few days – now it is time to travel back first. Thanks again for all contributing in the LiveBlog, with comments to the posts at WorldofO.com and through comments directly to me here at WOC in Trondheim. Great with all the feedback – keep it coming!