Occassional thoughts about orienteering
|
|
| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
|
|
Monday, March 31, 2008 Similar to Oyvin ThonLast week I wrote a bit about Oyvin Thon and his record in WOCs - 7 gold medals and 1 silver in 11 WOC finals and relays. His worst results were a 6th and two 7th places.I wonder if anyone else has a similar set of results? I didn't have time to go through all of the WOC results, but I came up with a few names that I thought would be worth taking a look at. What I was looking for was a combination of a bunch of wins and very few non-medals. Egil Johansen had six WOC starts with 3 gold medals, 2 silver, and a 6th place. Annichen Kringstad had seven WOC starts with 6 gold meals and a 9th place. I think those two are the most similar to Thon. Simone Niggli-Luder has an amazing record - I count 14 gold medals, 1 silver and 2 bronze. She has won a bit over half of her WOC finals and relays. Five times she's been 4th place. Her worst result is 15th place. Maybe she belongs in the "similar to Thon" list. I looked at Petter Thoresen. He's got a bunch of gold medals - five. But, his worst results include 3 outside the top ten. Obviously a great orienteer. But he doesn't quite fit in the "similar to Thon" list. I looked at Jorgen Rostrup. 10 starts with 4 gold medals. Not quite in the "similar to Thon" list. Marita Skogum? She's a pretty good fit, actually. She's got 12 WOC finals and relays with 6 gold medals, 2 silver, and 1 bronze. Her worst results are 5th and 10th. As usual, my source for info was Maprunner's WOC database...and I did this comparison quite quickly, so I might have made a small mistake or two. Any other ideas about who might be a good fit for the "similar to Thon" list? Back to okansas.blogspot.com. posted by Michael | 6:34 PM 
Comments:
Thon was my childhood orienteering idol. Having spent a year living in Norway in the late 70's it was great to follow the Norwegian men dominance in the early 80's. But nothing was better than the 1986 World Cup in the Dundas Valley when the Norwegian team held a training day after the race. It was pouring rain and not many people showed up so Thon asked Brian Graham and I if we wanted to train with him. I realized that he wasn't super fast or super tall or super strong but smooth and steady in the woods.
Post a Comment
My old coach Ron Lowry had me analyze Thon's WOC wins. He won the race on the short legs (large perecentages faster) so I wonder how dominant he would have been in a short or middle distance race |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||
