Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Wednesday, August 06, 2003 A few WOC2003 thoughtsCourse setting blunder?From the IOF rules for the 2003 WOC: "The winning times of the finals shall be 70 minutes for women and 90 minutes for men." Simone Luder won in 1:26:14, and Thomas Burher won in 1:48:20. The weather was warm, but the winning times aren't even close. I haven't looked at prior WOC results, but I'm fairly sure the winning times are usually slower than called for in the rules. Fundamentals played a role in the sprint Some of the top competitors had big problems with real fundamentals in the sprint race. By "fundamental" I mean the sort of thing you're taught the first time you ever orienteer. Bernt Bjoernsgaard lost time when he mis-read the map and left 4 on his way toward 10 rather than 5. Johan Naesman was in the lead at the 4th control when he headed toward 10 instead of 5. Joergen Olsson skipped the third control from the finish. Four men and four women were disqualified for "miss ct." I think that must mean missing control. Maybe some of them didn't see a control on the map and ran by it. Maybe some of them ran to the control and punched but the punch didn't register. The WOC is using SI electronic punching. You can tell your punch worked when the control beeps and a light blinks. But, the crowds were apparently so large and noisy that runners couldn't hear the beep. All of those problems with "fundamentals" sound like what happens when you rush too fast. Staying calm and taking time when needed must be quite tough in a sprint race. You can see the course here. Running together? Two of the top 5 finishers seem to have run together. By the second control (after a bit less than ten minutes of the race), Omeltchenko and Mamleev were within ten seconds of each other. They were within seconds of each other until the last five minutes of the race. From the unofficial splits, it looks like they ran together all but about 15 minutes of the race. Both of these guys are fantastic orienteers. Either one is a medal candidate running alone. But, you've got to wonder how much a difference running together made. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first long distance WOC with a two minute start interval (I may well be wrong about that). When they do the start draw, they make sure two runners from the same nation don't start next to each other. To complicate matters, both Omeltchenko and Mamleev run for the same club even though they are from different nations. Again, I'm not saying this is cheating. But, I am saying having two runners together for nearly the entire course might have affected the outcome. Is Burher a surprise? On a discussion at Attackpoint, someone suggested Burher's win might be considered surprising. Burher won the European Champs last year in continental terrain in Hungary. I think he's had some injury problems, but he can't be considered a surprise (though I wouldn't have picked him as my favorite). posted by Michael | 1:03 PM 
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