WOC Sprint and Classic.

Tuesday saw Swedish and Swiss dominance in the Sprint distance, whilst Wednesday saw the French and Swedish triumph.

Sprint.
There were some disqualification-based shenanigans after the morning's qualifying races, but once they were eventually 'resolved' we were treated to a cracking final in the fast, narrow and testing streets of Chambery.
In the women's race the Swedish trio of Linnea Gustafsson, Helena Jansson and Lena Eliasson swept the medals, finishing 25 seconds clear of 4th place. For GB Sarah Rollins finished in 13th place, 1.07 back, with Tessa Hill and Hollie Orr finishing in 22nd and 26th respectively.

Linnea Gustaffson, Helena Jansson and Lena Eliasson (from WorldofO.com)

In the men's race the Swiss Daniel Hubmann and Matthias Mueller were separated by the Swiss-based Swede Anders Holmberg. Hubmann was 26 seconds clear, with 4th placed brit Graham Gristwood being 17 seconds off the medals. In a great GB performance GG was backed up by Scott Fraser in 9th (having initially been DQ'd from the quali he only found out he'd made the final with an hour or so to spare) and Murray Strain in 12th. Swede favourite Jerker Lysell let the pressure get to him and missed out control 18 entirely.

Daniel Hubmann (from WorldofO.com)

Classic Distance.
In the men's race the French compounded their superiority in qualification with Thierry Gueorgiou taking  Gold by 4:27, and Francois Gonon taking Bronze, Finland's Pasi Ikonen separating the 2. Gonon's medal is quite impressive - starting 6mins ahead of Gueorgiou he made a big mistake early on and was passed by his compatriot. However, some superb splits followed, allowing him to get back together with Tero and they worked together all the way to the finish. The winning time of 1:47 was more than 10minutes longer than expected on a challenging course in sweltering conditions.
It wasn't such a great day for the Brits with Doug Tullie and Oli Johnson suffering to finish outside the top 30.
(men's map with GPS playback of the runners is available here)

In the women's race Annika Bilstam (Swe) ran a fantastic race and took Gold with a 4:28 gap back to Dana Brozkova (Cze), Helena Jansson (Swe) picking up her 2nd medal of the championships with Bronze. Podium Potentials Minna Kauppi (Fin) and Emma Claesson( Swe) both made big mistakes en-route to control #1, the former giving up and returning to the finish and the later finishing well down the final results. The British Trio of Helen Palmer, Rachael Rothman and Claire Ward finished between 23rd and 31st in another tough, overplanned course.

Middle and Relay Predictions.
The vast majority of the big names have made it through to the final on Friday, although Pasi Ikonen (Fin) and Heidi Bagstevold (Nor) missed out in qualification. Picking winners proves difficult, but Theirry Gueorgiou must be favourite to become the first man to win middle and long at the same WOC. Challenges will come from Peter Oberg (Swe), Reigning champion Carl Waaler Kaas (Nor), Anders Nordberg (Nor) and Valentin Novikov (Rus) although Oberg will have an advantage having not raced the long final. GBR's Matt Crane and Graham Gristwood both qualified, but Oli Johnson missed out.
In the Women's race the Swedish Trio of Jansson, Billstam and Eliasson will be challenged by Kauppi (Fin), Brozkova (Cze), Rantanan (Fin) and Andersen (Nor). GB's Hollie Orr and Rachael Rothman qualified well, with Claire Ward missing out.

As for the Relays, Sweden will be challenged by Finland and Cze in the women's, with Norway being an outsider. In the men's France will be big favourites, but Sweden, Norway, Russia and Switzerland will also field strong teams. GB have a good chance of good results in both.

WOC 2011 - Long Contenders.

Qualification for the long distance took place yesterday on the Les Creusates map. Whilst still difficult terrain this area didn't seem to match the model and training areas as much as expected - rough slopes and steep open meadows more indicative of some Swiss maps.

In the 3 Men's qualification races it was the French trio of Francois Gonon, Thierry Gueorgiou and Phillipe Adamski who set the bar, winning their heats by 0:55, 6:08 and 3:12 respectively on courses which proved winning times up to 9 minutes over those expected. With 15 out of approximately 40 qualifying from each heat none of orienteering's big names missed the cut despite mistakes being made in the forest.

Men's Qualifying B - Thierry Gueorgiou's route (from live.woc2011.fr)

Aside from the exemplary French showing, the Russian team qualified well, all finishing within the top 5, the Swiss trio all finished inside the top 6 and the Norwegians, Swedes and Fins all qualifying well. For the Brits, Oli Johnson and Doug Tullie both qualified in 10th place, with Hector Haines missing out in 17th place by 3.5mins.

British Long Distance Champion Doug Tullie qualified in 10th place (from WorldofO.com)

You can never be entirely sure how much the top guys are holding back in the qualifiers, making picking a winner for Wednesday's final dificult. That said, I can't look further that Thierry Gueorgiou. The 'King of the Middle Distance' has made it no secret that he wants gold in the classic and he appears to have the correct technique for this terrain. As for the rest of the podium there's 6 or so who could get up there. The Norwegians Olav Lundanes (defending long-distance champion) and Anders Nordberg (2010 silver) are long distance specialists, the Fins Pasi Ikonen and Tero Fohr are experienced, as is the Russian Valentin Novikov. Swiss all-rounder Daniel Hubmann (2008 and 2009 champion) can never be discounted, along with Adamski and Gonon with home advantage and confidence from their qualifying performances.

Tero, Thierry Gueorgiou, favourite for WOC Classic (and middle) Gold (from WordlofO.com)

No surprises in the Women's Qualifying either. Smaller fields than the men's races meant all the big names qualified without major issues. With Simone Niggli not in France, and Marianne Andersen not racing the long,  Helena Jansson (Swe), Dana Brozkova (Cze), Minna Kauppi (Fin) Emma Claesson (Swe), Eva Jurenikova (Cze), Signe Soes (Den) and Merja Rantanen (Fin) are my picks for the top 6. 

All 3 British Women qualified, Rachael Rothman and Claire Ward in 6th place, with Helen Palmer squeezing in in 15th.

Signe Soes (Den) (from WorldofO.com)

WOC 2011 Preview pt.2 - Sprint Contenders.

So, despite the fairly unpredictable nature of orienteering, here's some of my WOC predictions, based mainly on conjecture and rumour, but the cold hard facts of recent results, IOF runner ranking and WorldofO.com's ranking system (which also separates accoring to different disciplines) may also be taken into account! Seeing as WorldofO.com have not yet mentioned who they're tipping to do well, and the start lists are yet to be published so I'm not entirely sure who's running what, I'm sticking my neck out somewhat!

Sprint: Aix-les-Bains (Qual) and Chambery (Final), Tuesday 16th August.
Trying to predict who will win in each class is pretty ridiculous (at WOC2010 in Trondheim, the top 7 men were separated by 7.4 seconds, with the women's gold being decided by 0.7 seconds); as appraisal of the main contenders seems more sensible.

Chambery old-town (from WOC2011 website), part of the sprint final map.

Men.
The first sprint rounds of this year's World Cup (WC) were dominated by the Swiss, rounding out the top 5 in the first race (with 2 more in the top 10) and 4 of the top 8 in the 2nd round knock-out sprint. there team is unbelievably strong: defending champion Matthias Muller, 1st year senior Matthias Kyburz (winner, WC 2011#1 and 2009 JWOC sprint champion), Daniel Hubmann (4 WOC sprint medals, many podiums at WC races), Fabian Hertner (European sprint champion, silver in WOC '09 and '10 sprints) and Matthias Merz.
Outside of the land of Toblerone, the Swedish sprint specialist Jerker Lysell (Winner, WC 2011 #2) and Norwegian sprint specialist Oystein Kvaal Osterbo (4th WOC 2010) will head strong Scandinavian delegations, with the Russian Andrey Khramov (2008 & 2009 champion) always dangerous.
Potential outsiders (here comes some nepotism!) include Britain's Scott Fraser, Graham Gristwood and sprint specialist Murray Strain, France's Frederic Tranchand (surprise bronze in 2010) and Lucas Basset (JWOC 2011 Gold) or the Czech Stepan Kodeda (JWOC 2008 Gold). Then again, you can never discount anyone from having a stormer (I know it's a cop-out!)
I'm going to stick my neck out and go for a 2xSwiss and Lysell podium.

Jerker Lysell (from WorldofO.com) at WOC2010 Sprint (11th place) - now with the mockers put on his chances!

Women.
Reigning champion (and 17-times world champion in all disciplines, 5 in sprint) Simone Niggli (Sui) is not in France this year as she's expecting her second child, leaving Sweden's Helena Jansson (2nd last year by 0.7 seconds; 2009 champion) the stand-out favourite. Competition will come from the the other Swedish runners, I'm assuming 2 of  Linnea Gustafsson (WC#1 Winner), Lena Eliasson (WC#1 2nd) and Annika Billstam (WC#1 3rd), Norwegian all-rounder (and perpetual 2/3rd place runner) Marianne Andersen (WOC 2010 3rd) and Finnish all-rounder Minna Kauppi (2x sprint silvers, 7x WOC champion). Even with Kauppi and Jansson missing the early-season WC races due to injusy, I'm going for both to medal, along with Gustafsson, but, as Australia's Hanny Allston showed by winning whilst still a junior in 2006, anything can happen, and has!

Minna Kauppi (from WorldofO.com) at WOC 2010 Sprint (4th place) - mad as a box of frogs but pretty damn fine. You can find more pictures on her website ;)

As for the British girls, the experienced Sarah Rollins (5-times British Sprint champion), along with WOC second- and first-timers respectively Hollie Orr (current British Sprint champion) and Tessa Hill (11th place WC#1) all have an excellent chance of making the top 20.

I'll update with Long and Middle contenders after those respective qualifying races have taken place (Saturday and Sunday respectively)

Preview - World Orienteering Championships 2011.

This year's 28th World Orienteering Championships (WOC) are being held next week in the alpine foothills of the Savoie-Grand Revard region of France, centred around the towns of Chambery and Aix-les-Baines. In competition between the 13th-20th August, runners from 49 countries will compete in the 28th (by my counting!) WOC, fighting it out in the 8 (current) world championship disciplines - Sprint, Middle Distance, Long (Classic) Distance and Relay for both men and women.

During the week it will also be decided whether Scotland (YAY!) or Sweden (Boo!) will host WOC 2015.

The Forest Terrain.
Without beating about the bush - it's rough as a badger's arse and about as technical as it gets!

Swedish test race on Le Revard II, neighbouring the competition areas. From Olle Karner (Estonian runner) webpage.

The wealth of contour detail (mainly negative Karst-like features), altitude between 1200 and 1500m, along with rough underfoot conditions (rocky and covered in brashings, by all accounts) make running quickly and navigating cleanly tough on their own - let alone together! Add to that some 'iffy' sections of map on the training areas in which some of the best in the world have ditched 10+ minutes on one control, and the picture as to how hard it is starts to become clearer.
  However, with estimated winning speeds being much less than those seen in test races, coupled with new mapping of the WOC areas by the Romanian Marian Cotirta, suggest that the actual race areas are that bit kinder physically and the maps (hopefully!) a better representation of the terrain than experienced previously.

La Feclaz - part of the area used for the Middle and Long finals and the Relay - more open ground (both meadow and ski-slopes) on the map than in the surrounding training areas suggests WOC competitors will experience slightly easier running, although the forest still looks green, rough and rocky! (all old maps of WOC2011 areas are here).

The Sprint Terrain.

2010 Sprint Gold Medalist Matthias Muller (Sui). Picture courtesy of WorldofO.com

This year's sprint races are again an urban/parkland and forest mix. The qualification in Aix-les-Bains appears to be a more wooded affair, whilst the maps of the final areas in Chambery suggest a mixture of old-town alleyway hunting and hilly parkland-cum-forest.

Sprint Quali area - parkland and woodland.

Part of the sprint final area, Chambery old town. 'Traboules' is the French version of  gynel (sp).

The Programme.
WOC starts with Long and Middle distance Qualification on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th, respectively. The Sprint races will be on Tuesday 16th, qualification in the morning, finals in the afternoon/evening. The Long Distance final is on Wednesday 17th, Middle on Friday 19th before the champs are wound up with the usual finale of the relays on Saturday 20th, before the post-WOC banquet...


Coming soon - some conjecture as to who may win, and British team hopes (they're the same things, right?!)