Among the runner not making the cut were Swiss Martin Hubmann, French Vincent Coupat, Finnish Hannu Airila and British Graham Gristwood. Among the women Bettina Aebi (Switzerland) just got outside the Top 17.

Maps & GPS tracking

The courses look seemingly easy when looking at them at the map, but still there were lots of mistakes made – mostly direction mistakes as you can see in the GPS-tracking from the women. A combination of running speed and good direction were the key ingredients to get to the finals.

• GPS Tracking Women A, Women B, Women C
• Map Men A, Men B, Men C, Women A, Women B, Women C

Results

17 from each heat went to the A-final – below reseults for all runners who got to the A-final are listed (Note some changes in official results compared to live results!).

Women heat 1

1 Minna Kauppi Finland 22:42

2 Ines Brodmann Switzerland 24:41

3 Annika Billstam Sweden 25:01

4 Claire Ward Great Britain 25:09

5 Judith Wyder Switzerland 25:12

6 Tone Wigemyr Norway 25:19

7 Emma Johansson Sweden 25:30

8 Natalia Vinogradova Russia 25:37

9 Karoliina Sundberg Finland 25:47

10 Céline DODIN France 25:57

11 Irina Nyberg Russia 26:50

Aušriné Kutkaite Lithuania 26:50

13 Emma Klingenberg Denmark 27:02

14 Nadiya Volynska Ukraine 27:03

15 Vendula Klechova Czech republic 27:19

16 Kristina Rybakovaité Lithuania 27:22

Ida Marie Næss Bjørgul Norway 27:22

Women heat 2

1 Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg Norway 23:17

2 Simone Niggli Switzerland 23:40

3 Lena Eliasson Sweden 24:14

4 Lina Strand Sweden 24:42

5 Venla Niemi Finland 24:47

6 Michaela Gomzyk Omova Czech republic 25:26

7 Inga  Dambe Latvia 25:37

8 Ida Bobach Denmark 25:41

9 Natalia Efimova Russia 26:13

10 Kine Hallan Steiwer Norway 26:18

11 Dana Safka Brozkova Czech republic 26:25

12 Sarina Jenzer Switzerland 26:26

13 Saila Kinni Finland 26:32

14 Amélie Chataing France 26:36

15 Rasa Ptašekaitė Lithuania 26:43

16 Anastasia Denisova Belarus 27:32

17 Christine Kirchlechner Italy 27:45

Women Heat 3

1 Helena Jansson Sweden 23:53

2 Tove Alexandersson Sweden 24:38

3 Maja Møller Alm Denmark 25:01

4 Sara Lüscher Switzerland 25:03

5 Merja Rantanen Finland 25:18

6 Tatiana Ryabkina Russia 25:21

7 Mari Fasting Norway 25:38

8 Isabelle Feer Switzerland 25:42

9 Signe Klinting Denmark 27:19

10 Ivana Bochenkova Czech republic 27:24

Sandra Paužait Lithuania 27:24

12 Anastasia Trubkina Russia 27:41

13 Iveta Duchova Czech republic 27:44

14 Heidi Østlid Bagstevold Norway 28:59

15 Helen Palmer Great Britain 29:03

16 Sofia Haajanen Finland 29:33

17 Karine D´Harre Ville France 29:36

Men Heat 1

Men Heat 2

Men Heat 3

• Full results

This article will be updated with further information during the EOC week

Program

• Monday May 14th: Qualification middle – Start men from 10:00 CET, Women 11:30 CET
• Tuesday May 15th: Qualification long – Start women from 10:00 CET, Men 11:30 CET
• Wednesday May 16th: Qualification sprint – Start men from 09:30 CET, Women 10:15 CET
• Thursday May 17th: Final middle – Start men from 12:15 CET, Women 14:00 CET
• Friday May 18th: Final long – Start men from 11:15 CET, Women 11:45 CET
• Saturday May 19th: Final sprint – Start men from 13:30 CET, Women 15:00 CET
• Sunday May 20th: Relay – Start men 11:00 CET, Women 13:20 CET

For the individual races, each country can entry 6 competitors, and the defending European champion has the right to start as the seventh one for the nation. There are 3 qualification heats. The competitors placed number 17 and better in each qualification heat are qualified to run the A-final. The competitors placed number 18 and worse in each qualification race heat will run the B-final. See also course lengths for all disciplines here.

Runner database

In a cooperation with the organizers, World of O offers a runner database with all EOC runners.

Maps

Here are maps from the model events:

• EOC Model, middle map, EOC Model, relay map, EOC Model, sprint map
• EOC maps – search in omaps.worldofo.com

Live coverage

Expect excellent live coverage during the events. Every day there will be

• Live results
• LiveBlog
• Live video streaming (”basic” service for the qualification races, full service for finals)
• Live GPS tracking (only some categories for qualifications, all runners for finals)

Swedish television will be sending live from the EOC in Mora and Falun next week-end. The production will also be provided via their SVT Play internet channel and will be available globally. Links here:

• Middle 17 May 13:10-16:25 CET
• Sprint 19 May 13:20-16:15 CET
• Relay 20 May 11:30-13:00 and 13:50-15:20 CET

LiveBlog Finals

LiveBlog Qualifications

The key to Lubina’s (unofficial as of now) victory was very good knowledge of women orienteers. His women tips got him 457 points – after hitting correctly with the top 5 on the results: Halden on top, Tisaren in second,  Tampereen Pyrintö in 3rd, OK Linnè in 4th and Domnarvets in 5th were all correct. A small disappointment maybe that Göteborg-Majorna finished only 8th instead of 6th, but still not bad! In the men’s class Lubina got only 327 points – but still enough to take the overall victory in the 2012 10Mila Tips!

Here you find the unofficial results – please add a comment if you spot any errors.

• Full overall prediction results
• Overview of predictions (above you see screenshot of predictions for the mens overall results)

10 legs for the men and 5 legs for the men – all with GPS tracking on around 25-30 teams – means a lot of interesting material for analysis. Everything is ready for analysis both in GPSSeuranta and in 2DRerun (see below) now. You may even upload your own GPS-routes and compare with the top runners if you choose to use 2DRerun for your analysis

The above example is from the long leg on the long night – were you can see the different variants run (see in long leg 6-7 variants in 2DRerun here). As you can see, the left/direct variant of TuMe (also run by Boström some seconds slower) is the fastest variant. However, when comparing in detail Boström versus Troeng, you can see that the first part of Troeng’s routechoice is actually faster.

AutOanalysis: Houvila versus Wingstedt

The autOanalysis functionality in 2DRerun gives you a useful tool to look at the decisive moments in the relay. The example below is Halden versus Kalevan Rasti (open full analysis in 2DRerun) on the 6th leg – where the gap from Halden to Kalevan Rasti went from manageable 2 minutes to “impossible” 4+ minutes. On the autOanalysis you can easily see where Halden takes the two minutes. More than a minute is taken in the southernmost part where Halden’s Wingstedt takes better routechoices: Exploiting the paths/roads were possible and running straighter were there are no paths to exploit.

Leg 10: Kristiansand versus Halden

Kristiansand’s Omdal went out on the last leg some seconds ahead of Halden’s Lundanes. In this autOanalysis you can see how the race developed between them. As you can see Lundanes in practice decided the race in the start by getting a gap to Omdal so that Omdal could not run in his back.

Leg 5: Nurmonen’s mistake

Another decisive moment for Kalevan Rasti was the mistake of Nurmonen on the first control of the 5th leg (Halden versus Kalevan Rasti autOanalysis 5th leg). More than 2 minutes lost on the first control – and even if Nurmonen run better for the rest of the leg, still a lot of time lost.

Leg 7: Another early mistake for Kalevan Rasti

The unforked leg 7 was were Kalevan Rasti with Prochazka had the opportunity to get closer to Halden again – to get within shooting range ahead of the 3 last legs. However, again Kalevan Rasti got a mistake on the early controls (see Halden versus Kalevan Rasti autOanalysis leg 7). More than a minute lost to the first three controls was enough to make it impossible to reduce the gap for the Czech runner.

Some further examples

Some examples from 2DRerun from the men’s relay:

• 1st leg: Halden versus Kalevan Rasti, all runners
• 4th leg (long night) long leg 6-7 variants / long leg 6-7 Boström versus Troeng , all runners
• 5th leg: Halden versus Kalevan Rasti,  all runners
• 6th leg: Halden versus Kalevan Rasti – this is were Kalevan Rasti lost contact, all runners
• 7th leg: Halden versus Kalevan Rasti
• 10th leg: Halden versus Kristiansand, all runners

Analysis of your own race

There is a lot of interesting GPS-data to analyze from 10Mila – the above are just some examples. For those of you running yourselves, using autOanalysis against the top runners is certainly going to be instructive in your analysis of your own race.  There are several screencasts available showing you how to use 2DRerun/3DRerun, but the quick variant is:

1. Upload your GPS-route here (or directly from your Garmin watch) – note that you need to login to upload
2. Choose the routes you want to compare here
3. Click Open routes in 2DRerun, and you are ready to go

GPSSeuranta links

Olav Lundanes decided 10Mila for Halden with an impressive performance at the last leg early this morning. Lundanes started the last leg 15 seconds behind Hans Gunnar Omdal, Kristiansand – but the World Champion on long distance from Trondheim in 2012 was simply stronger today, pulling away second by second.

- I tried to run up in the back of Omdal as fast as possible – I caught him already at the road right after the start, Olav Lundanes said after his race.

- Then I got a chance to get away direct to the 1st control when he [Omdal] took to the right, and I could get a gap direct, Lundanes continued.

- I did not run so well the first two controls, but then it went very well. But it was a tricky course – I had to concentrate all the way. I did two small mistakes, but the rest of the race was very good.

Thierry Gueorgiou, Kalevan Rasti, started the last leg in third spot 5 minutes behind Lundanes, but Lundanes never made mistakes big enough for Gueorgiou to have the chance to get closer.

Reset after “Långa”

As often is the case, the race was restarted for the top teams after the 4th leg – “Långa natten”. Olle Boström did a fantastic performance on this monsterleg just like last year – coming back at the front of a 12 men big field containing all the three big favourites Halden, Kristiansand and Kalevan Rasti.

5th leg: Changes in the top

As often is the case, the 5th leg made for some bigger changes in the field. Halden’s Marcus Millegård does a good race and comes back in 2nd spot only 13 seconds behind Denseln. Kristiansand and Kalevan Rasti are left with a gap of around 1:40.

6th leg: Kalevan Rasti looses the chance for victory

Kalevan Rasti never got closer than after the 5th leg. Jarkko Huovila lost more than 2 minutes – finishing the 6th leg at 3:49 behind. Halden increases the distance down to Kristiansand – now being at 1:57.

7th leg: Kristiansand getting closer with young Hubmann

On the 7th leg the young Hubmann-brother Martin makes contact for Kristiansand again. Running faster than Halden’s Mattias Karlsson in the end, Hubmann takes Kristiansand to a 1:12 gap after a best leg time by Hubmann. Prochazka for Kalevan Rasti looses another half minute – the gap now going up to 4:26.

8th leg: Holger Hott takes Kristiansand up in the top again

On the 8th leg Holger Hott took Kristiansand all the way into the absolute top again, finishing 5 seconds behind Halden after a best leg time by Hott – the second in a row by Kristiansand. Philippe Adamski (Kalevan Rasti) looses another minute – now this starts looking hopeless for Kalevan Rasti with top national team runners in both the Norwegian teams in the last two legs.

9th leg: Hubmann takes Kristiansand into the lead

On the 9th leg Daniel Hubmann takes Kristiansand all the way into the lead – 15 seconds ahead of Halden. Hubmann would usually have taken the last leg for Kristiansand, but due to injury problems he run the 9th leg. Fabian Hertner has decided the relay for Kalevan Rasti on the 9th leg earlier – but the Swiss is not in his best shape and lost some seconds to the lead instead of deciding the relay this year.

10th leg: Lundanes decides

Lundanes (Halden) caught Omdal (Kristiansand) direct after the start – and managed to get a gap already to the first control. The gap increased steadily all the way until the end – in the end finishing at 3:30. Even some small mistakes did not make it possible for Omdal to get closer.

Relive all of the excitement: LiveBlog

Relive all of the excitement in the LiveBlog:

Do you know about more great 10Mila videos which can set the WorldofO.com readers in the right mood? Please add a comment below – and I’ll update the post accordingly… All videos are courtesy of either YouTube.com or Blip.TV.

Note! This is a repost from 2011 with some more videos added!

10Mila 2011 – The start

(see also summary of the 2011 women relay)

10Mila 2012 – Pre-race interview with Thierry Gueorgiou

(see also other pre-race video interviews here)

10Mila 2011 – Summary video

10Mila 2010 – The start

10Mila 2008 – Petzl video

10Mila 2010 – 3DRerun demo from decisive 3rd leg

10Mila 2008 – Slow Motion video (really sets you in the mood…)

10Mila 2008 – Summary from WebTV broadcast

10Mila 2007 – Tracking highlights

10Mila 2006 – suggestion from Ivan Banov

10Mila 2005

Thanks to comment below from Magnus

10Mila 2003

10Mila 2002

10Mila 1995(1)

10Mila 1995(2)

10Mila 1994

10Mila 1993

10Mila 1992

10Mila 1990

10Mila 1989(1)

10Mila 1989(2)

10Mila 1989(3)

10Mila 1988

10Mila 1987

10Mila 1986

10Mila 1985

10Mila 1984

As always in 10Mila, the women run 5 legs and the men run 10 legs. The women run from 5.7 km (third leg, ungaffled) to 10.9 km (last leg). All legs except for the third leg are gaffled. The men run from 6.9 km (7th leg, ungaffled) to 17.8 km (last leg, gaffled). All legs except for the 4th leg (”Långa natten” – the long night) and the 7th leg are ungaffled. The 5 first leg are run in darkness – the 6th and 7th in dawn, and the three last legs in daylight.

LiveBlog

If you are on mobile, please use the mobile version of the 10Mila LiveBlog. You can also open the LiveBlog in a separate window.

All you need to know

• Set up your 10Mila 2012 Tip here: Top 6 Men & Women – last year with more than 300 tips!
• 10Mila startlist
• 10Mila runner order (see also discussions on orienterare.nu as not all teams have posted official running order yet)
• 10Mila videos: Get in the 10Mila mood!
• Results 2011 men – women
• 10Mila 2012 webpage
• 10Mila 2011 WorldofO LiveBlog (coming)
• 10Mila Android & iPhone Apps
• Start times: Women’s relay:14:15. Men’s relay:21:30
• Old map over part of 10Mila 2012 area Old map over part of 10Mila 2012 area in RunOway (original link to map died)
• Old map in 2DRerun (blank) – use this to prepare legs (Note! Please help test the new direct Garmin-watch-upload functionality in 2D/3DRerun – you must log in to test)
• Old map in 2DRerun with a sample course and some legs
• Sample training on 10Mila 2012 neighbour map
• Online Web-TV (costs 100 SEK)
• Live GPS tracking will probably (as usually) only be available via Web TV (and not in GPSSeuranta) during the event – full tracking is usually made public after the event. However, more runners than earlier should be tracked this year – so we hope that the WebTV broadcast will be even more exciting than earlier!
• PM – Up-to-date race information
• Replay of LiveBlog 2011, replay of LiveBlog 2010 and LiveBlog 2009. From the 2010 edition; Thierry Gueorgiou: - It feels good. We have been so frustrated so many years. Now it feels really good. There is no better feeling than running in front. It just felt like an easy training on a Sunday morning. This year we were very well prepared. It is one of the last goals of my career. So now it is only left the long distance at the WOC.
• Replay of GPS tracking 10Mila 2010

Relay information: Legs & leg lengths

Old Map

Old map over part of 10Mila 2012 area

Can Kalevan Rasti and Tampereen Pyrintö repeat their wins from last year?

• Set up your 10Mila 2012 Tip here.
• See also: 10Mila 2012 – all you need to know!

Update May 4rd 10:00 CET: 10Mila 2012 Tips summary so far

Below you see the predictions of the World of O Readers for 10Mila 2012 as of May 4th 10:00 CET.

Men

1.	Kalevan Rasti 1			136
2.	Halden SK 1			135
3.	Södertälje-Nykvarn OF 1			113
4.	Kristiansand OK 1			106
5.	IFK Göteborg 1			73
6.	Järla Orientering 1			53
7.	Göteborg-Majorna OK 1			53
8.	Vaajakosken Terä 1			34
9.	Malungs OK Skogsmårdarna 1			31
10.	OK Linné 1			21
11.	IFK Lidingös Skid o OK 1			21
12.	OK Denseln 1			6
13.	Vehkalahden Veikot 1			6
14.	Fossum IF 1			3
15.	OK Tisaren 1			4
16.	IFK Moras OK 1			4
17.	Delta 1			3
18.	Tampereen Pyrintö 1			2
19.	Turun Metsänkävijät 1			3
20.	Lillomarka OL 2			1
21.	Skarpnäcks OL 1			1
22.	NTNUI 1			2
23.	Oppsal IF 1			1
24.	Oppsal IF 2			1
25.	Raumar Orientering 2			1
26.	Göteborg-Majorna OK 2			1
27.	Bækkelagets SK 1			1
28.	Rajamäen Rykmentti 1			1
29.	Modum O-lag 1			1
30.	Kongsberg OL 1			1
31.	OK Pan-Kristianstad 1			1
32.	Leksands OK 1			1
33.	OK Hällen 1			1

10Mila Women

1.	Tampereen Pyrintö 1			125
2.	Domnarvets GOIF 1			115
3.	Stora Tuna OK 1			98
4.	IFK Lidingös Skid o OK 1			92
5.	Halden SK 1			69
6.	Hellas Orientering 1			51
7.	OK Linné 1			40
8.	Göteborg-Majorna OK 1			44
9.	OK Tisaren 1			26
10.	Ulricehamns OK 1			22
11.	Leksands OK 1			27
12.	OK Hällen 1			25
13.	OK Kolmården 1			25
14.	OK Pan Århus 1			12
15.	NTNUI 1			10
16.	Bækkelagets SK 1			10
17.	Sävedalens AIK 1			7
18.	Kalevan Rasti 1			6
19.	Järla Orientering 1			4
20.	Fossum IF 1			2
21.	Delta 1			2
22.	Angelniemen Ankkuri 1			2
23.	Domnarvets GOIF 2			1
24.	Södertälje-Nykvarn OF 1			1
25.	Lynx 1			1
26.	MS Parma 1			1
27.	Lillomarka OL 1			1
28.	Täby OK 1			1
29.	Paimion Rasti 1			1
30.	Koovee 1			1

Below some of the top results are summarized – and links to maps and GPS tracking is posted.

Silva League

Thierry Gueorgiou has shown that he masters the Swedish terrain well these last two weekend – with victories in 3 of 4 Silva League races. The young Swedes are very close, though. Gustav Bergman took second spot around 30 seconds behind the French star both at the long and middle this weekend – after victory in the first Silva League long distance race last Saturday. Johan Runesson and Jerker Lysell have also shown impressive shape. On Sunday’s race, Bergman had higher speed on the short legs (see autOanalysis comparison here) in most of the course, but Bergman did some small mistakes and lost some seconds on some of the longer legs.

In the women’s class, Helena Jansson won the long distance on Saturday – after fighting closely with Simone Niggli in Switzerland in competitions and trainings the last months. She was far down on the list on Sunday’s middle distance race, though (after a three minute mistake at control 3 – see autOanalysis comparison here) – which was won by Tanja Ryabkina (overall Silva League leader in the women’s class after four races). Comparing Ryabkina’s race with runner-up Emma Johansson – Ryabkina has higher speed and better direction – taking time on Johansson on compass-running on the longer legs (AutOanalysis Ryabkina versus Joahansson).

But don’t forget Annika Billstam (World Ranking leader – impressed earlier this season – same speed as Ryabkina Sunday, but made mistakes at several controls and long legs – autOanalysis here), Tove Alexandersson (good season start – good speed but many mistakes Sunday) and Lena Eliasson (has shown very good speed – unstable orienteering so far).

• Map & GPS M21E Saturday Long – W21E
• Map & GPS M21E Sunday Middle – W21E

FinnSpring

In FinnSpring Minna Kauppi took the win with more than 4 minutes after having done good performances in Switzerland some weeks ago – the Finnish World Champions surely is back after problems earlier this winter. Among the men Pasi Ikonen showed his class last weekend, but did not perform well at FinnSpring after some illness. Winner in the men elite class in FinnSpring was Olli-Markus Taivanen – more than two minutes ahead of Topi Anjala and Hannu Airila. Interesting 4th spot for Jani Lakanen who is preparing a comeback in the top this year – just some seconds behind Anjala and Airila.

GPSSeuranta Replay – leg 1-3 for H21E (simulated mass start):

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• Map & GPS FinnSpring D21E – FinnSpring H21E

Norwegian season opener & EOC test races

Norway had their EOC selection races last weekend in Halden – victories went to Olav Lundanes and Silje Ekroll Jahren. Among the men Olav seems to be the strongest Norwegian this season also – but Audun Weltzien was only half a minute behind on Sunday’s long distance. In the women’s class Mari Fasting has performed consistently well this spring – but with a gap up to Helena Jansson, Minna Kauppi and Simone Niggli which needs to be made smaller ahead of EOC. Anne Margrethe Hausken is on her way back to the top after childbirth – she won Lørdagskjappen yesterday ahead of Tone Wigemyr and Heidi Østlid Bagstevold.

• Map & GPS Norwegian Sprint H21 and D21

Swiss EOC selection races

Simone Niggli has dominated the Swiss EOC selection races – long on Wednesday, middle on Saturday (Swiss champs) and sprint on Sunday. In the mens class, it looks more open. Matthias Kyburz has dominated the season opening in Switzerland and also won the long distance on Wednesday, but got injured on Saturday. Saturday’s race was won by guest runner Carl Waaler Kaas (Norway), with Baptiste Rollier one minute behind in second. Sunday’s race was surprisingly won by Severin Howald, but Daniel Hubmann finished only two seconds down. Hubmann has had injury problems the last weeks, and did not compete in the other selection races.

• Map DE Swiss Champs Middle (Silje Ekroll Jahren) – see also RouteGadget Swiss Champs middle (See course in RouteGadget viewer for mobile/iPad/easy access)
• Swiss test race long, April 25th
• Map DE Sprint race Sunday (Silje Ekroll Jahren)

The Swiss have used GPS-tracking on these events, but have unfortunately chosen not to make the GPS tracking public in order to not loose an advantage ahead of WOC on homeground in July. So no GPS-data from Switzerland:(

Update March 22nd 12:00: Switzerland and Italy have also submitted proposals for a new WOC program – see the details here. The Swiss proposal suggests to keep a yearly WOC week, but include a chase start event and get rid of the qualification races for long and middle. The Italian proposal suggests to get rid of qualification race for long, include a mixed relay. It also includes a specific form of spreading for the long distance.

The Nordic proposal is to organize a “Terrain” WOC and “Urban” WOC in alternating years.

• The terrain WOC would include the existing Middle, Long and Relay disciplines plus one additional “first-to-finish” discipline [Editors comment: Suggested to be 25 minutes prologue + 25 minute chasing start]. Qualifications for the middle and long distance races would be based upon some form of nation strength system. The new additional distance and relay would be open to equal participation for all nations.
• The urban WOC would include the existing individual start sprint discipline (with qualifications and final), a knock-out sprint discipline based upon the experience of the World Cup (NORT) and a sprint-relay. For the urban WOC, equal participation of all IOF nations for all distances will be possible.

You can read the complete proposal as submitted to the IOF here (English text) – for comparison here is the suggestion by SOFT last November – which is similar in most respects.

First “Terrain” WOC in 2016

It is proposed that the first “Terrain” WOC is organized at the latest in 2016 and the first “Urban” WOC 2017. Note that 2016 is the year Sweden will most probably be WOC organizer, whereas China may be a possible organizer for a sprint WOC in 2017.

Relating these goals to the current WOC format we do feel that it is appropriate to make changes to the current WOC program, as it is limiting in reaching these goals.

Analysis

The proposal from the Nordic countries is very well built up – building the proposed program on a vision for the future WOC and a set of goals. This type of argument was missing in the original proposed WOC in the future program from the IOF – and it surely strengthens the chances for the program to succeed in getting support at the General Assembly in Switzerland in June.

Looking back to the World of O article on the topic from August 2010 where I argumented for a split WOC as a very good alternative compared to the IOF proposal, the NORD suggestion is nearly identical to the program suggested there. Repeating and expanding on some of the arguments from that article:

• There will be room for both the traditional long distance, the middle distance and a first-to-finish event.
• Both a KnockOut sprint, a traditional sprint (possibly also both city sprint and forest sprint) and a sprint relay can be introduced into the program – disciplines which are easier to master for the less developed orienteering nations
• The Sprint WOC will be easier to organize for less developed orienteering nations, making it easier to spread orienteering to new nations. An urban WOC program can be organized in many locations where it would be difficult to organize a terrain WOC and vice versa.
• A Sprint WOC could be one of the best roads towards the Olympic goal of the IOF.

I still believe a split WOC is clearly the only good option if the premise is that you need to introduce new disciplines in order to develop the sport in the right direction – which was an important premise in the WOC in the Future project. But:

• If you would take the “need” for new disciplines out of the equation, there are still several advantages with splitting the WOC – but the picture is less clear. It might however be quite plausible that a sprint WOC would attract more nations 10-15 years from now than a combined WOC would do with today’s program. And if this is the case, that should be an important reason to go for a split WOC..?
• The need for new disciplines is also a more difficult question to answer. The two new sprint disciplines (Sprint relay and KnockOut-sprint) will both potentially make it easier for developing orienteering nations to fight higher on the results lists – and the (short) chasing start might give excitement which can be beneficial for TV broadcasts in the future.

Seen from the smaller nations view, there is still a problem with the qualification scheme, though. This is also recognized in the suggested proposal, which states

We recognize that exact qualification rules need further development and feel that this can be achieved within a reasonable timeframe for a future WOC program. There seems to be agreement that qualifications races, as currently run at WOC, can be removed from the program. But none of the qualification methods presented so far have received broad agreement among member federations.

A result of the suggested program & qualification scheme for the Forest-WOC is, as far as I can see, that only around 12 countries will have a reason to have more than 1+1 runners present for more than the last weekend (which contains the chasing start and the relay). This can be seen as positive (lower cost for these nations, larger chance that they send a full 3+3 team for the last weekend), but would probably be seen more as negative by the smaller nations as it could reduce the value of the Forest-WOC for many of the smaller nations. For the majority of runners present at the Forest-WOC (assuming the same number of participants as today) there would now only be two races to start in.

The proposal by the Nordic countries however opens for more runners in the final by stating “Based upon feedback from TV producers we also feel that qualification rules can be quite generous as long as the use of seeded starting groups, with the best ranked runners starting at the end of the starting field, are established” – and there is also a proposal for a IOF working group, led by Council, to define exact qualification rules.

Conclusions & Your opinion

The conclusion: Splitting the WOC in two separate parts is a complex matter – and I feel that it has too many good sides to be dismissed without a being handled properly. I therefore welcome the proposal from the Nordic countries, and feel that the best way forward would be that an IOF working group should be formed to evaluate the consequences of a split WOC, to define the disciplines to be included, to define the qualification scheme and to define test events for the new suggested disciplines and put these test events on the international fixtures list.

What is your opinon? Do you welcome a split WOC model?

Read more

Read more about the proposed program in the links below.

• Complete proposal as submitted to the IOF (English text)
• Swedish O-Federation about the new WOC program (Swedish)
• Norwegian O-Federation about the new WOC program (Norwegian)
• Danish O-Federation about the new WOC program (Danish)

- The best terrain I found in Portugal, Thierry Gueorgiou said after his impressive win. – It was a very nice middle distance course with many micro route choices. It was really important to not get lost in the green.

See also full report from POM 2012 Day 3 including a Webroute from leg 1-2 in the men’s course.

Thanks a lot to the organizers for providing maps with route choices from the race. Note that as this race was a WRE race, the use of GPS watches was not allowed. Thus there will be less GPS-routes to analyze from this race.

Men

• Map men without route
• Thierry Gueorgiou (1st M21SE)
• Daniel Hubmann (2th M21SE)
• Olav Lundanes (3th M21SE)
• Mathias Kyburz (4th M21SE)
• Oleksander Kratov (5th M21SE)

Women

• Map women without route
• Lina Strand (1st W21E)
• Simone Niggli (2nd W21E)
• Lena Eliasson (3th W21E)
• Saila Kinni (4th W21E)
• Céline Dodin (missing)

The start field was a World Cup race worthy – especially in the men’s class were Olav Lundanes, Matthias Kyburz, Oleksander Kratov. Philippe Adamski, Tue Lassen, Baptiste Rollier and Dmitiy Tsvetskov followed Gueorgiou.

- The best terrain I found in Portugal, Thierry Gueorgiou said after his impressive win. – It was a very nice middle distance course with many micro route choices. It was really important to not get lost in the green.

In the women’s class Lina Strand’s victory was with nearly half a minute – with Lena Eliasson in third just behind Niggli. From Eliasson down to number 4 there was a gap of more than 3:30.

Video interview: Thierry Gueorgiou and Lina Strand

[Note! Not optimal sound/video quality for the interview]

Maps

Thanks to the organizers for providing full maps:

• Map men
• Map women
• Maps with routes of top 5 men and women

Partial maps:

Webroute – what would you choose, Men 1-2?

This leg from 1-2 is typical of the type of challenges you meet in this type of terrain. You can choose to go all the way around to the left, but that is bound to be too long. Going straight is shortest – and probably also fastest if you can still hit the control at full speed. Going right and following the small path the first part of the leg you can keep high speed while still knowing where you are – but then you are “trapped” and need to cross over. Probably the best choice is a straight variant where you use the path in the green ahead of the control and the big cliffs just to the northwest of the control in securing a good hit.

Results men

Results women

• Full results (preliminary)
• Official results will be available at the POM page

Tomorrow Portugal O-Meeting continues with the highlight of the 4 Day event – the middle distance counting for the World Ranking. Everybody still remembers how Thierry Guergiou took the highest WRE point value ever at the POM WRE in 2007 – it will be exciting to see what is possible tomorrow…

Portugal O-meeting (POM) is the international season opening – with most of the world elite on the startlist. 8 of the 10 highest ranked on the World Ranking in the mens class are on the startliste for POM 2012 – and several of the Top 10 ranked women are also ready for action in Portugal. The highlight of Portugal O-meeting is the World Ranking event on Monday February 20th – a middle distance race. All runners are expected to run at full speed on Monday – the other days there will be more variation as the athletes are in a training period.

Maps

Thanks a lot to the organizers for providing full maps. Here are maps from the men’s superelite and the women’s elite:

• Map men superelite with routechoice of winner Baptiste Rollier
• Map women’s course – and with route choice of Eva Jurenikova compared to Lena Eliasson in 2DRerun (Please add your route as well – you will find it here!)

Taking a look at the routes of Jurenikova and Eliasson, one can observe that there were no big route choice challenges in this middle distance, but it looks like there were many micro route choices were you could earn many seconds by “making it easy for yourself” – i.e. being accurate with the direction and using the visible terrain features to keep the speed up. Unsecurity seems to cost quite a lot of time.

Results women

1 Kristin Lövgren OK Kolmårde 34:45
2 Lena Eliasson Domnarvets 35:50
3 Sara Lucher Swiss Orien 37:02
4 Annika Billstam OK Linné 38:16
5 Vroni Konig-Salmi Swiss Orien 38:51

Results men

1 Baptiste Rollier Swiss Orien 30:48
2 Daniel Hubmann Swiss Orien 32:20
3 Martin Hubmann Swiss Orien 32:46
4 Oleksander Kratov Orievents T 33:03
5 Severin Howald Swiss Orien 33:23
6 Thierry Guergiou 33:31

• Full results
• POM 2012 webpage

Portugal O-meeting (POM) is the international season opening – with most of the world elite on the startlist. 8 of the 10 highest ranked on the World Ranking in the mens class are on the startliste for POM 2012 – and several of the Top 10 ranked women are also ready for action in Portugal. The highlight of Portugal O-meeting is the World Ranking event on Monday February 20th – a middle distance race. All runners are expected to run at full speed on Monday – the other days there will be more variation as the athletes are in a training period.

- I did a big mistake on the 3rd control were I lost a few minutes, lost my rhythm, and then I had to try to recover it, Thierry Gueorgiou said to the Portuguese Orienteering Blog. The winner in the women’s class, Simone Niggli, did not have a perfect race either: – It wasn’t a perfect race, I made a lot of big mistakes losing five minutes overall. But it’s a return to the competition after a long absence and it was very good to start again like this at the Portugal O’ Meeting.

Maps

Thanks a lot to the organizers for providing full maps. Here are maps from the men’s superelite and the women’s elite:

• Map men superelite
• Map women
• 2DRerun – GPS analysis – choose the runners you want to compare and click “Open routes in 2DRerun”
• Routechoices of the winners Thierry Gueorgiou and Simone Niggli

Webroute – what would you choose, Men 1-2?

Below you see the GPS tracks of some selected runners – note that the times partly reflect their varying running speed (e.g. Øystein Kvaal Østerbø taking it easy). Further analysis is necessary to see what is really the fastest. On this leg from 1-2 it looks like a left variant is the fastest – this is also the choice made by Thierry Gueorgiou.

Webroute – what would you choose, Men 10-11?

Below you see the GPS tracks of some selected runners (open in 2DRerun here) – note that the times partly reflect their varying running speed.

Results women

In the women’s race, Billstam lost nearly 2 minutes to the first split – slowly getting closer and closer towards the end of the race .

1 562 Simone Niggli 78 [5137] G1 Swiss Orient 1:04:04
2 501 Annika Billstam 76 [5081] G4 OK Linné 1:04:19
3 505 Rahel Friederich 86 [5137] G1 Swiss Orient 1:08:16
4 595 Trubkina Anastasia 90 [5158] Spb O-Team 1:08:46
5 510 Lina Strand 88 [5284] G1 Göteborg-Majorna 1:09:09
6 512 Vroni Konig-Salmi 69 [5137] G1 Swiss Orient 1:09:11
7 545 Emily Kemp 92 [5085] Ottawa OC 1:10:07
8 504 Eva Jurenikova [5302] G5 Domnarvets GoIF 1:10:40
9 558 Johanna Lindberg [5302] G5 Domnarvets GoIF 1:11:02
10 539 Helen Suzanne Palmer 81 [5125] Wing OK 1:11:10

Results men

1 101 Thierry Gueorgiou 79 [5326] G1 France O Team 1:08:06
2 112 Fabian Hertner 85 [5137] G1 Swiss Orient 1:11:16
3 136 Mattias Millinger 84 [5081] G4 OK Linné 1:13:14
4 122 Johan Runesson 90 [5284] G1 Göteborg-Majorna 1:13:30
5 114 Scott Fraser [5028] G1 Södertälje-Nykvar 1:13:33
6 107 Olav Lundanes 87 [5285] G1 Halden SK 1:15:20
7 103 Baptiste Rollier 82 [5137] G1 Swiss Orient 1:15:52
7 211 Ola Martner 87 [5284] G1 Göteborg-Majorna 1:15:52
9 227 Holger Hott 74 [5266] Kristiansand OK 1:16:05
10 177 Erik Axelsson 79 [5285] G1 Halden SK 1:16:07

• Full results
• POM 2012 webpage

Here only one of the legs is provided – but below I also provide links to the complete courses and analysis.
The puzzle is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would solve it (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger).

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack it, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain choice are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at the routes of the runners analysis provided by Radek Novotny. As you can see, running the direct/right variant is the fastest here.

Here are full courses and analysis (in Czech). A lot of interesting legs here – definitely worth taking a look at if you are interested in some theoretical sprint training.

• Sprint course 1 with analysis
• Sprint course 2 with analysis