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Occassional thoughts about orienteering


Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Some quick notes

 

Skeptical?

In a comment a couple of days ago, someone wrote:

"Just wondered why are you skeptical about this idea?" The idea was Karolina Hojsgaard's practice sprint race the morning of the elite series sprint race.

Actually, I think this sort of thing is a good idea. But, I don't think it makes much difference. I certainly don't think doing something like what Karolina did is necessary. But, I also don't think it causes any harm.

I guess the reason I'm skeptical is a personal philosophy that one key to having a good race is to expect something you didn't expect. Simulating what you expect to face is fine, but you'll still face something you didn't prepare for. Another part of my personal philosophy is that once you've got your map in hand, every race is pretty much the same as every other race.

Course lengths

When I was mowing the lawn tonight I wondered about the average and median winning times for WOC races. There are nine races at the WOC: long qualifying, middle qualifying, sprint qualifying, sprint final, long final, middle final, and three relay legs.

The median winning times for all nine men's and women's races are: 45 and 40 minutes. The average winning times for all nine men's and women's races are: 42 and 36 minutes.

The reason the median and average winning times are so low is that sprint, middle and relay races dominate the WOC.

For the men, only two of the nine WOC events have a winning time of an hour or more (the long qualifying race at 60 minutes and the long final at 90-100 minutes). For the women, only one of the nine WOC events has a winning time of over an hour (the long final at 75 minutes).

posted by Michael | 7:28 PM

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