[Updated with some GPS-illustrations and GPS-animations of last leg] Sweden won both the men’s and the women’s relay at the last day of the World Orienteering Championships 2019 in Norway after a thriller relay. In the women’s class silver and bronze went to Switzerland and Russia – in the men’s Finland and France joined Sweden on the podium.

Both in the men’s and the women’s relay we had very tight battles for the medals – with mistakes on the last leg making it exciting for the viewers.

Women: Switzerland against Sweden

In the women’s class Switzerland’s Julia Jakob started out on the last leg a few seconds ahead of Sweden’s Karolin Ohlsson. Behind the two top teams there were three teams around 1:30 behind – Russia, Norway and Czech Republic. It soon became clear that the battle for victory was between Sweden and Switzerland who followed each other throughout the course (which was mostly unforked, only a small forking at the very start of the leg). In the end Ohlsson was stronger in the finish sprint, and could decide the race for Sweden with Switzerland in silver position. Behind Russia and Norway had a tough battle for bronze, with Russia’s Natalia Gemperle winning the finish sprint ahead of Norway’s Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg.

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See #gpsanimation of how Karolin Ohlsson decided the battle against Julia Jakob Switzerland at the #woc2019 relay – and the battle for bronze between Russia and Norway #orienteering

A post shared by World of O (@worldof_o) on Aug 18, 2019 at 2:39am PDT

Men: Mistake by Dæhli – Bergman alone in the lead

In the men’s class Norway Norway’s Magne Dæhli started out alone on the last leg, but after a mistake early on the leg Finland’s Miika Kirmula and Sweden’s Gustav Bergman caught up with him. Some minutes later Dæhli did a bit mistake with Kirmula, and suddenly Bergman had a gap of more than a minute which he never let go off. From behind France, Czech Republic and Switzerland (nearly) got contact after another mistake by Dæhli, and suddenly there were four teams in the battle for silver. Finland and France got a gap at the 15th control which they managed to keep to the finish. Finland won this battle – with Czech Republic and Norway finishing 4th and 5th.

Here is Dæhli’s mistake on the 3rd control, allowing Bergman and Kirmula to catch up:

Here is the miss of Dæhli and Kirmula after the arena passage, where Bergman got away:

After control 7 Dæhli had a seemingly safe gap to the others in the battle for silver, but the mistake at control 14 allowed Finland and France to slip past:

Kirmula and Dæhli took different routechoices to control 16, and both were 20 seconds faster than Bergman. Dæhli however had some seconds to catch on Kirmula, and equal time with Kirmula was not enough.

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#gpsanimation of thriller finish of #woc2019 part 1: Sweden decides men's relay after mistakes by Norway and Finland . Finland still manages to take silver, France bronze. #orienteering

A post shared by World of O (@worldof_o) on Aug 17, 2019 at 3:32pm PDT

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#gpsanimation of thriller finish of #woc2019 part 2: Sweden decides men's relay after mistakes by Norway and Finland . Finland still manages to take silver, France bronze. #orienteering

A post shared by World of O (@worldof_o) on Aug 17, 2019 at 3:53pm PDT

Maps and GPS-tracking

• Map men
• Map women
• GPS-tracking

Results

Women

Men

• Full results

The women’s WOC 2019 Middle distance offered a tight battle for the gold medal between Tove Alexandersson (SWE) and Simona Aebersold (SUI) – and an equally exciting battle for the bronze medal between Venla Harju (FIN), Natalia Gemperle (RUS), Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg (NOR), Sabina Hauswirth (SUI) and Lina Strand (SWE).

Only 5 seconds separated the gold and silver in the end – and 7 seconds separated Harju/Gemperle in bronze position and Strand in 7th position. And that after 38 minute of intense orienteering. Most of the runners can probably find many places on the course where they lost 5 or 7 seconds – this article focuses on the biggest timelosses for the runners battling for the medals.

We can first take a look at the overall picture in a graphical split time comparison. Here you see how Alexandersson and Aebersold follow each other closely throughout the competition, never more than 22 seconds between them. In the battle for bronze there are much bigger time differences – notably Venla Harju is up in the battle for gold until control 12 where she is just over 20 seconds behind leading Aebersold.

Battle for gold: Alexandersson vs Aebersold

This graphical presentation from Woosplits is a nice way to look at the battle for gold between Alexandersson and Aebersold. Green means that Alexandersson is in front, red that Aebersold is in front.

Alexandersson starts the race best and has a 13 seconds advantage after three (quite easy) controls. Then the women head into their longest leg of the day – the leg to control 4. Here Aabersold runs a fabulous leg, and suddenly Aebersold has a 21 seconds lead. Aebersold wins the leg with 19 seconds to Strand by taking a good routechoice to the right. Alexandersson on the other hand runs  to the left on a slower routechoice and loses 34 seconds (still Alexandersson has the 5th best split time, so Alexandersson is still among the fastest).

As a comparison, here are the routechoices of the top runners. Note also how Hausken Nordberg (+39 seconds) and Gemperle (+1:17) lose a lot of valuable time in the bronze battle here.

Aebersold makes some small mistakes on the next few controls, allowing Alexandersson to get closer:

Then there is not much happening in the gold medal battle until control 11. Here both of them made exactly the same 50 second mistake – definitely a place where one of them could have decided the race for good – but none of them took the opportunity. Note also again how Hausken Nordberg loses time here.

From here on towards the arena passage (control 16) there are only small time differences between Aebersold and Alexandersson, and there are only a few seconds between the runners with Aebersold in the lead except for around control 13. Then the crucial control for Aebersold – the control after the arena passage:

Here Aebersold runs to the left, trying to follow the paths – and loses 33 seconds. Thus the Swiss goes from a 10 second lead to being 23 seconds behind.

At this point in the race Alexandersson is really tired. Alexandersson passed the arena together with Hausken Nordberg, but Hausken Nordberg easily runs away from Alexandersson and gets a gap. Even on the downhill from the 18th control and down to the arena Alexandersson is not at her fastest, and Aebersold picks second by second, reducing the 23 second gap to a 5 second gap. Another 200 meters and this could have been the first gold medal for the young Swiss runner…

And here a comparison of the two throughout the course:

The battle for bronze: 5 women within 7 seconds

The battle for bronze was extremely tight! The below graph compares the 5 women control by control. The two strongest physically today were Anne Margrethe Hausken and Natalia Gemperle – and both had so big timelosses in the start of the race that they were nearly thought to be out of the medal battle: Gemperle 1:30 behind Strand at control 7, Hausken Nordberg more than 1:40 behind Venla Harju at control 12.

Already to the very easy first control Hausken and Gemperle had trouble, losing around 20 seconds (Hausken loses 23 seconds on a “safe” routechoice to the left). Even Strand lost 15 seconds here.

The next big timeloss for the women in the battle for bronze is the long leg to control 4. Here Gemperle takes the wrong routechoice (same as Alexandersson) and loses 58 seconds. Hausken Nordberg does some bad micro-routechoices and loses 20 seconds.

And another 20 seconds timeloss to control 5 for Hausken – while Harju is the one losing 16 seconds to control 6 and both Hausken, Gemperle and Hauswirth lose 15 – 20 seconds to the first TV control on camera (control 7).

Thus we have the following standings at the first TV control with Hausken down in 11th and Gemperle all the way down in 15th!

The uphill leg to control 9 gave even more trouble for Hausken (losing 42 seconds) – and Strand also lost significantly time here (47 seconds). This was an area where it was tricky to find the correct micro-routechoices through the dense vegetation  – a task which Gemperle handled very well.

Next up the leg to control 10. Another significant timeloss for Hausken – another strong leg for Gemperle who is now really in the flow:

The same picture down to control 11: Gemperle running extremely well, Hausken missing. At this point in the course Alexandersson catches up with Hausken, and they are together from here to the finish (but Hausken is not just running behind the big star of orienteering, she is up and fighting in front).

The leg to the second TV-control (control 13) is a tricky one were many men and women lost time. Before this leg Harju was in the battle for gold, but her 42 second timeloss due to taking this control from the right (this is also were Svensk lost his gold medal chance in the men’s class) made it clear that she would be out of the battle. Gemperle also loses a lot of time here (45 seconds).

At the second TV-control we then have the following standing:

From here on the course mostly looks like running on the map, but there was still some orienteering left, especially on the last loop with the added pressure of the arena passage and the tough climb up the hill in rough terrain. As Aebersold proved there was even a routechoice option here.

There were some time differences to control 16:

But the big mistakes happened to control 17 where Strand, Harju and Gemperle all lost 30 seconds or more! Gemperle had a real mistake, the other two a small direction mistake. Harju did in addition seem to be really tired at this point of the course.

Hausken Nordberg runs so fast up the hill, but does a small miss to 18 were she loses 8 seconds:

Going down towards the field Harju runs a bit in the wrong direction and loses another 12 seconds, luckily for her it didn’t influence her bronze medal.

And finally the run-in decided the battle for the medals. Hausken was one second ahead of Gemperle at the last control – but behind in the finish ….

[Including team setups] Can Norway’s men take the fourth WOC Relay gold medal in a row? Can Sweden’s women continue their strong results in this championships with a third gold medal of three possible? Or will we finally get some non-Nordic gold-medals in this championship which has been dominated by Norway and Sweden?

The relay is always one of the highlights of the World Orienteering Championships, with an extra layer of tension compared to the individual races. Read on for the WOC 2019 Team & Favourite preview. Note that team setups may still be changed – the preview is made based on the official startlist.

• Program:
  • Women start from 16:20
  • Men start from 18:30
• Background material: 
  • Startlist WOC Relay, WorldofO All You Need to Know article, Maps &Results from WOC Relay 2018
• WebTV, live results and GPS-tracking at orienteering.sport

Women: Can Switzerland win for the second time in a row?

The main favourites in WOC Relay 2019 in the women’s class are Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Russia and Norway – while Czech Republic, Denmark and Austria are outsiders.  Last year’s winner Switzerland has a strong team with Sabine Hauswirth (top 6 in both Middle and Long), Simona Aebersold in second (bronze in Long, silver in middle) and Julia Jakob on the last leg. Jakob is the weakest link here, but Jakob has been in the winning team in several international relays, including last years’s WOC relay.

Results WOC Relay 2018

Switzerland wins #WOC2018 Relay ahead of Sweden in head-to-head finish after mistakes on two easy controls by Alexandersson in the very end. Russia takes clear bronze. See video here. Results https://t.co/DnPjiIJCIO pic.twitter.com/05HKinRh43

— WorldofO.com (@worldofo) August 9, 2018

Still, the champion from 2017, Sweden, is probably the main favourite with Tove Alexandersson on the second leg as double champion and dominating woman in this championships -and with Lina Strand who impressed with silver on the Long distance on the first leg. The biggest question mark is Karolin Ohlsson, but Ohlsson has proved several times earlier that she can decide relays – can she do it again? Russia got bronze in 2018,  silver in 2017 and won the WOC relay in 2016, and has a strong team  – again with the “veterans” Gemperle, Rudnyay and Riabkina. Finland won bronze in 2016 and 2017, and has a strong Marika Teini (fourth on long) and Venla Harju (bronze on middle) on the team. Can they follow up with another medal today?

Norway has an interesting team with Andrine Benjaminsen on the first leg followed up by Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg and Kamilla Olaussen. Except for the strong 5th place by Hausken at the Middle distance the Norwegian women have not been running a very good championships – but they often come back and do good relays anyway.

World of O’s tip:

1. Sweden
2. Switzerland
3. Norway

Team lineup:

Men: Four in a row for Norway?

Although Norway has three wins in a row – in addition to a win at the European Championships in Switzerland last spring, the relay is still open with Sweden and Switzerland as the biggest opponents. Also look out for France who did an excellent relay last year, finishing 3rd. Several outsiders can battle for medals on a good technical day, including Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Great Britain. 

Norway starts with their biggest question mark, Gaute Hallan Steiwer who also opened the relay for Norway at last year’s WOC, continues with a very strong Olav Lundanes and finishes off with Magne Dæhli who took his first individual WOC medal at the Middle. Switzerland has a strong team lineout as always, starting off with Florian Howald and continuing with Daniel Hubmann and Matthias Kyburz. Sweden’s Gustav Bergman and Emil Svensk have had impressive speed throughout the championship – probably fastest of all in the field, but with some mistakes from time to time. Johan Runesson runs his first discipline in this WOC, and should be rested and motivated. This could go all the way for Sweden – one of the biggest opponents for Norway.   France has the same team lineup as the bronze team from last year’s WOC:  Nicolas Rio, Lucas Basset and Frederic Tranchand is a strong setup. Of the outsiders, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Finland are maybe the teams which are closest to a medal – but also look out for Austria and Great Britain.

World of O’s tip:

1. Norway
2. Sweden
3. Switzerland

Team lineup:

Emil Svensk took the lead at the first control and stayed in front until control 2. The race lead then changed between Olav Lundanes and Svensk until the finish. See below for a graphical split times visualization of the time differences in the race.

Part 1: Svensk dominates to first TV control

Two of the runners in the battle for the medals lost time already to the very simple first control: Silver medalist Bergman lost 10 seconds to Svensk and 8 seconds to Lundanes. Dæhli 12 seconds and Hubmann even 22 seconds.

To control 2 Tranchand (finishing 6th) lost 8 seconds and Regborn (finishing far down on the list in the end) lost 12 seconds.

Another time loss for Dæhli, Hubmann and Tranchand to control 3: 9 seconds for Dæhli, 16 for Tranchand, 7 for Hubmann.

The routechoice lge to control 4 was quite interesting. Glibov and Lundanes went right and were the fastest on the leg. Svensk also goes right and loses only a few seconds. On the other hand Bergman loses 28(!) seconds, Basset 27 seconds and Hubmann even 57(!) seconds.

To control 5 Bergman gets up the speed again after the poor 4th leg – winning the leg with 5 seconds to Svensk with Lundanes losing 7 seconds, Hubmann 13 seconds and Tranchand 18 seconds.

Small time differences to the next few controls, but notably to the TV control Bergman and Dæhli run very fast, while Svensk loses 4 seconds, Lundanes 5 seconds and Basset even 7 seconds.

Summing up at the first TV-control, we have Svensk in the lead just ahead of Lundanes and Glibov. Bergman is down in 4th, already 29 seconds behind Svensk and 27 seconds behind Lundanes. Basset is down in 8th place at +0:42, Tranchand in 12th.

Hubmann is all the way down in 21st at +1:42! From the 9th control to the finish Hubmann loses only 48 seconds to Lundanes. Obviously his shape is good, this is all about technical performance.

Part 2: Lundanes takes over to second TV-control

Bergman runs a really bad leg after the first TV-control, losing 17 seconds due to a bad direction and/or micro-routechoice. Dæhli also loses 7 seconds here.

On the next leg Bergman is back, winning the leg with 2 seconds ahead of Lundanes. Here Kral (who was up in 13th place before this mistake) makes a big mistake and is out of the battle for a top result.

On the second routechoice leg on the course Bergman continues to run very fast – winning the leg with 15(!) seconds on a routechoice to the left. It does seem that running left is faster (and running too far right is definitely slower), but Bergman also has higher speed than the others, especially the last part towards the control. Maybe Bergman runs with a bit too high risk in this race? This is Lundanes’ worst leg, losing 27 seconds to Bergman. Several of the other top runners also lose significant time.

Some time losses for top runners also on the control before the TV-control – control 15. Here Svensk and Dæhli notably lose 10 and 12 seconds, respectively, by going too far to the right.

The TV control (control 16) was were Emil Svensk lost the gold medal. 39 seconds lost. Live on TV. Due to a wrong micro-routechoice, going to the right instead of left or straight. That hurts. Basset, Lundanes and Dæhli run well here, which Bergman loses 16 seconds (to Bassed), Glibov 32 seconds.

Thus we now have Olav Lundanes in the lead at the second TV-control – 14 seconds ahead of Gustav Bergman. Svensk who looked like a clear gold favourite is now down in third at +29, and looks to be more in the silver/bronze battle along with Basset (+0:38), Dæhli (+0:49) and Glibov (+0:51 – after having lost 32 seconds on this leg).

Last part: Close battle for gold

Looking at the map, it looks like the rest of the course from control 16 to the finish is purely running and no orienteering. This is partly correct, but there are still time differences of 5-10 seconds between the top runners. Most notable is the leg to control 19 where Lundanes loses 15(!) seconds to Bergman. This seems to be partly about running speed, but also partly about finding the good places to run in the terrain. It looks like going slightly left like Lundanes does is really tough, probably due to high under vegetation, but it is not possible to see this directly from the map.

At the arena passage (control 19) we have the following standing:

Bergman leads the battle for gold with 6 seconds. Svensk leads the battle for bronze with 9 seconds to Bassed and 12 seconds to Dæhli.

A decisive leg for the battle for bronze is the uphill leg to control 20. Glibov loses 1:17 and is definitely out of the medal battle – so is Basset with his 25 second miss on the control.  Bergman loses 4 seconds to Lundanes and is now only 2 seconds ahead.

Another 6 seconds time loss for Bergman to control 21, and suddenly Lundanes is in the lead with 3 seconds. Dæhli also runs better than his competition, and gets closer and closer to Svensk in bronze position (now only 3 seconds behind).

The downhill leg to control 22 is not really tricky, but under high competition pressure it may still give some challenges. Lundanes wins the leg ahead of Dæhli – those Norwegians know how to finish races. Svensk loses 5 seconds, Bergman 8 seconds. And the medal battles are both won by the Norwegians. 

This gives the following Top 6-list:

Auto GPS-analysis for the medal battles