okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Route from the WOC relay
I thought this was one of the more interesting routes from the WOC relay. It is leg 5 to 6 on the first leg of the men's relay. I've shown the routes of the medalists - Philippe Adamski (France), Carl Waaler Kaas (Norway), and Anders Holmberg (Sweden).
What caught my eye was Norway's route.
I saw a number of legs throughout the WOC where it looked like there were route options like this - out of the way, along a trail, and with a reasonable approach to the control. As you might guess, on this leg Norway's route wasn't the fastest. But it wasn't too bad either. I'm guessing it cost about 50 seconds compared to Sweden - running a shorter route and executing it well.
Compared to the Swedish runner, Norway lost about 50 seconds. But, compared to the French runner, Norway gained about 20 seconds. (The time estimates are a bit tricky because Sweden had a different fork). From the GPS track it doesn't look like the French runner missed the control. But he had to go a bit more slowly and carefully for more of the leg.
To me, the value of a route like Norway's is that you get a little bit of a break. You can relax you're map reading a little bit. You get a brief break from the terrain. It isn't a big break. In this case, Norway had about 2 minutes of easy orienteering (down the big hill and along the trail).
