The orienteering family

fig.1. The orienteering family queuing for the shuttle bus to the  third competition of O-Ringen 2013 in Boden.

Analysis WOC 2013 Long Finals Men (Packfigures & Separation Measure)

Thanks to Jan Kocbach for providing me with the results according to the IOF Data Standard.

Packfigures
Packfigures is perspective on the championships competitions, giving an overview on the number, duration and effect of packs mostly as a result of the organizational measures taken. The concept of the caluclations is described here. There you also find for example figures from all WOC Long Finals since 1999 plus the one from 1995.

Here are the packfigures from the WOC 2013 Long Finals.

fig.1. Screenshot packfigures WOC 2013 Long Finals

Comments Mens Final

fig.2. Phi-Loop with two uneven loops. Separation measure WOC 2013 Long Distance Men

• 2 min. start intervall
• reverse order from the qualification result
• the course setting was described as "very fast, not so challenging technically, so it was a lot about keeping a high pace and being sure to keep this pace until the end. It was more about setting the speed than finding the controls" (Thierry on orienteering.se)
• A separation measure was applied, beginning at the 20 control, after 72% of the course consisting in a Phi-Loop with two wings very different in size (2.30 vs. 20 minutes). The phi is resolved at the 31 control after 96% of the course. This measure is pretty much the same as the on applied at the WOC 2011 Long Finals
• The measure was set up to separate two consecutive runners.
• the first 4 packs build around the 4 control, after around 17% of the course
• 4 runners have over 50% pack time (Krepsta, Simonin, Diogo and Kums)
• Generally there are no big gains and no longer cooperation among the top runners.
• The phi separated 7 groups, 2 groups persevered and 3 new groups where build.
• An aspect of the small loop is, that there is the risk that runners which ran approx. the same speed until the measure are grouped by the introduced offset of about the start intervall as Holmberg and Merz or Lakanen and Bertuks later on the longer loop.
• A last aspect of the measure is, that runners get in direct contact with their competitors. Merz stated, that to see that he was not so much behind Hubmann encouraged him to push on the last legs.

Roundup
The mens competition was only little influenced by packs. The main reason for this is probably the course setting. The separation method worked in general, but had a potentially high build-in risk to influence the podium.

Packfigures WOC 12 Langdistanz

Packfigures yu WOC 2012 Landistanz der Herren wie der Damen (Klicke auf das Bild oder diesen Link)  

Grundaussagen Herren

1. Das Podium der Herren kam sehr fair zustande Lundanes wie Merz haben nur mit einem Konkurrenten Kontakt (Jan Sedivy) beide über eine Abfolge kurzer Posten. Der drittplatzierte Edgars Bertuks läuft dazu ein astreines Solo.
2. Dahinter gibt es zwei Gruppen mit leichten Vorteilen für den stärkeren Läufer  (Adamski, Holmberg) und grossen Vorteilen für den (zumindest anfänglich) schwächeren Läufer (Tsvetkov, Lassen, H-Groups), die auch länger Bestand hatten.
3. Im Rest des Feldes nur  noch drei Gruppen, die über eine Viertelstunde bestand hatten (Portin-Fraser, Beliunas-Pawlak, Djurhus-Aleliunas)
4. 3 Minuten Startintervall, keine Trennmethode, Teils lange Routenwahlen, teils Postenpflück.

Grundaussagen Damen

1. Stärkere Cluster-Bildung als bei den Herren, möglicherweise auch bahnbedingt (siehe pkt.3). 6 der Top 11 Läuferinnen sind rund die Hälfte des Rennens in Gesellschaft (u.a. die Vierergruppe Bilstam-Hausken-Brodmann-Fasting). Allerdings profitieren nur die Schwächeren der Gruppen, während die designierten Leaderinnen allesamt an Fahrt einbüssen (keine Gewinne für die Top8).
2. Im hinteren Teil des Feldes bildeten sich auffällig weniger Dauergruppen.
3. 3 Minuten Startintervall, keine Trennmethode, anflänglich lange Routenwahlen, in der zweiten Hälfte kürzere Posten.

Lundanes macht den Weg frei für ein faires Rennen

Resten av løpet handlet for min del bare om å ikke forstyrre Novikov. Jeg løp andre veivalg, slik at han ikke skulle bli påvirket av meg, og få ødelagt sitt løp på grunn av meg.

Olav Lundanes, über seinen Lauf an der WM 2012 über die Mitteldistanz. Nachdem er von Valentin Novikov eingeholt wurde, habe er versucht andere Routen zu laufen, damit Novikovs Rennen möglichst unbeeinflusst bleibe. Damit hat er einerseits Novikov, andererseits dem Sieger Edgars Bertuks einen herausragend sportlichen Gefallen getan.

O-Mental: Homöostase

Zwei Zitate von zwei WM Teilnehmern (und meine Arbeit fürs Nationalkader) erinnern mich an den Begriff der Homöostase (Selbstregulation), die ich vor langer Zeit im Biologiestudium kennen gelernt habe. Dabei geht es um die Fähigkeit u.a. von Zellen, entsprechend dem inneren Bedarf und dem äusseren Millieu Kanäle zu öffnen oder eben zu schliessen.

I think everyone assumed I'd be nervous for my first WOC race, and pretty much everyone I saw yesterday and this morning tried to offer me advice. I figured it was easiest to just ignore them all and do my own thing - I know how to play this game; other people may be better at it, but I know what to do.

Alex Jospe [okansas got it first]

Now there has been time for thinking it all over. Main conclusion could sound like this: there might be some fundamental things missing in very base level of my O skills and it’s impossible to build stable technical performance on that kind of foundation. Cause it’s about stability and nothing else. Ironically, it has taken almost 6 years to become aware of things I knew from before. And being aware is what makes difference. I believe that good orienteering coach is one of “missing pieces” and I have started to put my puzzle together by getting one, cause I don’t have another 6 years to spent on trials.

Edgars Bertuks