EOC 2016: Middle gold for Kyburz and Alexandersson

Matthias Kyburz finally managed to get the gold in a forest distance. After his Sprint winning, five days ago, he was today faster than anyone else, achieving a mostly desired victory. In the Women Class, Tove Alexandersson was unstoppable, getting a two minutes win and reached the gold for the second time in this Championships.

The European Orienteering Championships EOC 2016 is come to an ending. Today, in Černa Voda, took place the last individual Final of the competition program, which was attended by 51 male and 52 female competitors for a tough and hard fought Middle Distance. Tenth placed in his qualifying heat, the Czech Jan Šedivý was the first to break the 34 minutes' barrier, taking the lead with 33:43. But the sweet taste of being first lasted less than ten minutes, when Gustav Bergman, Sweden, got a new best time, 1:13 faster than the Czech. From that moment on, it was a long wait of more than 43 minutes (!) to see if the Swedish would be able to keep the gold.

Matthias Kyburz was the last one to start. Since his European and World gold in Sprint, he's aiming for a victory in a forest distance and the opportunity is now. And he took it! Very stable throughout Černa Voda's curly terrain, with its slopes with many stones, stone grounds and watercourses, he managed to be the fastest, winning with the time of 31:56. Bergman was second while the third place went to the French Lucas Basset, with more 51 seconds than the winner. Oskar Sjöberg, Sweden, and Florian Howald, Switzerland, got the fourth and fifth places, respectively, while Šedivý would be the sixth placed, with the same time as the 41 y.o. Russian Valentin Novikov.

In the Women Class, the Danish Maja Alm was the first to register a result which could come to worth a place on the podium, with a time of 35:27. But when Tove Alexandersson ran under the 33 minutes – 32:37 (!), to be more precise -, the winner was found. Like Matthias Kyburz, Alexandersson joined to the gold, in the last sunday's Sprint, another tasty victory in this European Championships. Very irregular in the first half of her course, the Swiss Judith Wyder did an extraordinary recovery, finishing second, 2:20 after Alexandersson. Marika Teini, Finland, confirmed her excellent season, being third, 2:25 slower than the winner, but still reaching her first international medal ever. Maja Alm, fourth, the Finnish Saila Kinni, fifth, and the Swedish Helena Jansson, sixth, completed the podium. Out of the European Championships' accounts, the little Canadian Emily Kemp got the fourth best time, 6 seconds faster than Alm.

Results

Men

1. Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland) 31:56 (+ 00:00)

2. Gustav Bergman (Sweden) 32:30 (+ 00:34)

3. Lucas Basset (France) 32:47 (+ 00:51)

4. Oskar Sjöberg (Sweden) 32:58 (+ 01:02)

5. Florian Howald (Switzerland) 33:01 (+ 01:05)

6. Valentin Novikov (Russia) 33:43 (+ 01:47)

6. Jan Šedivý (Czech Republic) 33:43 (+ 01:47)

Women

1. Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) 32:37 (+ 00:00)

2. Judith Wyder (Switzerland) 34:50 (+ 02:25)

3. Marika Teini (Finland) 35:02 (02:25)

4. Maja Alm (Denmark) 35:27 (+ 02:50)

5. Saila Kinni (Finland) 35:35 (+ 02:58)

6. Helena Jansson (Sweden) 36:08 (+ 03:31)

Full results and further information at http://www.eoc2016.cz/en/.

[Archive photo]

Joaquim Margarido

ETOC 2016: Gerdtman, Turto, Jansson and Vovk leading after PreO's first day

With the PreO competition, the European Trail Orienteering Championships 2016 enters its last days. This morning, Stig Gerdtman and Jari Turto, in the Open class, and Ola Jansson and Vladislav Vovk, in the Paralympic class, were the most accurate, leading the respective standings. Still, there's a second half to play!

The European Trail Orienteering Championships ETOC 2016 it's heading for its end and the PreO competition was today's subject of all attention. This morning, in the ancient mining area of Zlaté Hory, with large amount of pits and depressions, 127 competitors tested their technical abilities, facing a very detailed terrain along which were placed 23 control points, with the “bonus” of two timed stations (with two tasks each), as an “amuse bouche”.

In the Paralympic class, the Ukranian Vladislav Vovk showed why he's currently the PreO World Champion, finishing his race with 22 points out of 23 and 106 seconds in the timed controls. Better than him, just the Swedish Ola Jansson, with the same points but with a better performance against the watch, recording 83 seconds overall. The defending European Champion, Michael Johansson, got the third best result, two points away from the leaders. The fourth and fifth placed were Inga Gunnarsson, Sweden, and Jana Kosťová, Czech Republic, with 18 points. Also fighting for a place in the podium, we can see the Lithuanian Laima Lažinskiene, the Russian Eduard Oginskii and the Danish Søren Saxtorph, with 17 points. It seems like the medals won't escape to Jansson, Vovk and Johansson, but we have to wait for tomorrow's decisive course.

In the Open Class, Stig Gerdtman, Sweden, and Jari Turto, Finland, did a clean race, finishing with 23 points each. Jari Turto, however, achieved a very unusual result in the timed controls, failing to correctly answer all the four tasks (in a set of 88 competitors in the Open Class, only four were able to perform this way). Stig Gerdtman benefited from his adversary's bad performance to take the lead. Jari Turto is the defending European Champion but he has to count on Gerdtman's revenge, fourth placed in the last European Championships and away from Palmela's podium by narrow 29 seconds. One point under the leaders, there was another pair, with the Swedish Jens Andersson ahead of the Norwegian Martin Jullum, silver medalist in the TempO competition but too little accurate today in the timed controls, missing three tasks. Waiting for a bad day of some of the leaders, there's a twelve competitors group, with 21 points. In this large group it's possible to notice the presence of the former World Champion Krešo Keresteš, Slovenia, the Swedish Marit Wiksell, the Croatian Zdenko Horjan, the Finnish Pinjä Makinen, the Portuguese João Pedro Valente or the current TempO European Champion, Pavel Kurfürst, Czech Republic. Out of the podium seems to be the current PreO World Champion, Michele Cera, Italy, with 20 points, the same as the World Champion in 2014, the Latvian Guntars Mankus, or the Portuguese Inês Domingues.

To see the complete results and for further information, please consult the (unofficial) event's webpage at http://www.etoc2016.cz/.

[Archive photo]

Joaquim Margarido

ETOC 2016: Analyzing the TrailO Relay

On the European Trail Orienteering Championships ETOC 2016's rest day, we seek to thoroughly understand the TrailO Relay competition's progress, which ended with the victories of Italy and Sweden, in the Open Class and Paralympic Class, respectively.

Italy and Sweden were the great names of the ETOC 2016's first day, by winning the TrailO Relay competition in the Open Class and Paralympic Class respectively. Looking on the moments that led to the final outcome, the Portuguese Orienteering Blog analyzes the course step by step, sharing some interesting facts. But before proceeding with the analysis itself, let's see the “game rules”. In the competition, every Federation was allowed to enter two teams in each class, each consisting of three competitors. Only the better-placed team would count in the prize list. The result was a combination of a PreO-part and a TempO-part where each wrong answers (or points deductions for exceeding the maximum time) in the PreO-part resulted in a 60 second penalty time. The end result consisted of the PreO penalty time, TempO answering time and TempO penalty time. The three legs of the competition were forked and there was a Mass Start. Every fork consisted in a 9 controls course (in fact, 8 controls, because one of it was voided), having in the end two TempO stations with four tasks each. Every team's last competitor had additionally an extra (spectator) TempO station, with four more tasks.

The TrailO Relay joined 34 teams from 16 countries, 26 in the Open class and 8 in the Paralympic class. This was the first-ever official relay competition at international level, following a trial competition at last year’s World Championships in Croatia. The 34 competitors in the first leg were distributed by the three forks, the same happening in the two remaining legs. Looking on the PreO-part overall, one can notice that V1 Fork was quite easier than the others. Fourteen competitors (one of each in the Paralympic class) hit the eight tasks in the V1 Fork, but this number falls to one competitor in the V3 Fork and none of the competitors did a clean race in the V2 Fork. It's worth looking on the overall results after the PreO-part, with Latvia leading with a 60 second penalty time in the Open Class and the Czech Republic being first with 240 seconds of penalty time. In the Open class Italy had a 60 second disadvantage and was the second placed, but the other teams were facing now the challenge of recover from a huge disadvantage of 180 seconds (Sweden, Norway, Great-Britain and the Czech Republic) or even more. In the Paralympic class, the advantage of the Czech Republic on Russia and Sweden, second placed, was of 180 seconds.

The TempO-part

The TempO-part brought some important changes to the standings. The Finnish Jari Turto, Pinjä Makinen and Lauri Kontkanen were the most accurate in the two clusters with four tasks each, getting 23 right answers out of 24 and the correspondent 30 second penalty time. With this performance, they jumped up nine places in the standings, taking the 9th position. The second team of Finland performed also quite well, with 90 second penalty time. With 120 second penalty time there was Italy, now in the lead, Portugal and Ukraine, in the Open class, and Sweden, in the Paralympic class. Latvia got 360 second penalty time, losing by far the leadership and falling to the 8th place.

Looking on the board after the TempO-part it's easy to realize that only a disaster would move Italy away from the highest place of the podium. Sweden and Slovakia were in the fight for the silver. Separated by 33 points, Norway, Portugal, Latvia and Finland still had a little hope on the medals. In the Paralympic Class, Sweden took the lead, 18 seconds before Czech Republic. Fighting for the bronze, Russia and Latvia were separated by 22,5 seconds. There's still the final TempO cluster to play just once, by the last competitor of each team. Who is going to lose? Who is going to win?

The final act

The last Cluster will be decisive. Four tasks and lots of precious seconds to play should made the difference for some. In the Paralympic class, both Ola Jansson, Sweden, and Jana Kosťová, Czech Republic, performed similarly and could keep the relative positions. Inga Gunnarsson, Michael Johansson and Ola Jansson were the first-ever TrailO Relay winners in this Class, while Hanka Doležalová, Bohuslav Hůlka and Jana Kosťová got the silver. Dmitry Dokuchaev, Dmitry Kucherenko and Pavel Shmatov could manage to keep the bronze to Russia.

In the Open Class, the three third placed had a 60 second penalty for two wrong answers and the short answering time between them didn't change anything in the final standings. With Remo Madella, Michele Cera and Alessio Tenani in the last leg, Italy saved the gold. Sweden, with Stig Gerdtman, Martin Fredholm and Marit Wiksell got the silver and the bronze went to Slovakia, with Marián Mikluš and the brothers Ján and Dušan Furucz. After Inês Domingues and Grigas Piteira, Edgar Domingues had just 30 seconds penalty and Portugal would rise up three places, overtaking Norway and getting the fourth place. Norway and Finland finished fifth and sixth, separated for close four seconds. Hungary got the seventh place, with Zoltán Miháczi winning two positions on Latvia and Croatia in the decisive cluster. Luis Gonçalves, from the Portuguese second team, was brilliant in the “final act”, winning seven places and finishing tenth overall. One last note to the Czech Pavel Kurfürst: He was the only competitor clearing the final TempO cluster. Twenty four hours later he would be on top again, getting the European gold in the TempO competition!

To see the complete results and for further information, please consult the (unofficial) event's webpage at http://www.etoc2016.cz/.

[Photo: Skogssport / facebook.com/Skogssport]

Joaquim Margarido

EOC 2016: Sweden takes twelve to the Middle Final A

With victories of Johan Runesson, Carl Godager Kaas and Matthias Kyburz, in the Men, and Dana Šafka Brožková, Catherine Taylor and Judith Wyder, in the Women, took place this afternoon the European Orienteering Championships' Qualifying Heats of Middle Distance. Sweden and Finland, in the Men, and Sweden and Czech Republic, in the Women, placed all their six athletes into tomorrow's big final, in a day marked by Daniel Hubmann's fail.

Horní Údolí (“Upper valley”, in Czech) hosted this afternoon the Qualifying Heats of Middle Distance. The races took place in the highest altitude amongst all the European Orienteering Chmapionships venues, 750 - 975 meters above the sea level. 126 men and 89 women entered the courses, spared by three heats in each (Men and Women) class. The only absent at the start was the British Hollie Orr, brilliant 6th placed last Monday, in the Long Distance Final.

The big surprise of the Qualifying came from the current European Champion, the Swiss Daniel Hubmann, 19th placed in the Heat A and out of the Final A by 9 seconds. This was also a terrible heat for Daniel's team mate, Andreas Ruedlinger, Hector Haines, Great Britain, Aaro Asikainen, Finland, Andreu Blanes, Spain and Tiago Romão, Portugal, all of them under the 17th position and thus away from the Final A. The Swedish Johan Runesson took a 32 second win over Martin Hubmann, Switzerland, with Lucas Basset, France, being third. In the Heat B one could see Carl Godager Kaas' really close win on Oskar Sjöberg and the third place of the Estonian Tino Sild. In the Heat C, the winner was the Swiss Matthias Kyburz, with an advantage of 33 seconds on the second place, the Swedish Albin Ridefelt. The Czech Jan Petržela got the third position, 1:26 after Kyburz while the young Finnish Olli Ojanaho stayed out of the Final by 34 seconds, being 18th placed. Also the Finnish Mårten Boström, the British Ralph Street and the Romanian Ionut Zinca fell out of the Final in this Heat. Sweden and the Czech Republic will have six representatives each in the Final A, while Switzerland and Norway will be represented by five athletes. With four athletes we'll have France and Russia. The 51 athletes that got the ticket to the Final A, will represent 19 countries.

In the Women, the final standings didn't bring big surprises, even considering the Danish Ida Bobach's 10th place and Maja Alm's 12th position. In the Heat A there was two Czechs in the first positions. Dana Šafka Brožková won with the time of 25:07, against 25:36 from her team mate Adéla Indráková and with Rahel Friederich, Switzerland, being third. This was a very strong heat, that included Saila Kinni, Finland (4th), Helena Jansson, sweden (5th), Nadiya Volynska, Ukraine (8th), Lina Strand, Sweden (11th), Natalia Vinogradova, Russia (12th) or Anni-Maija Fincke, Finland (13th). Catherine Taylor, Great Britain, could show a spark of her bright and got a tasty 10 second win on Svetlana Mionova, Russia, and 12 seconds on Venla Harju, Finland, in the Heat B. In the Heat C, the winner was Judith Wyder, with the time of 23:27. Julia Gross spent more 24 seconds than her team mate and got the second place, while the Swedish Emma Johannsson was third, with more 34 seconds than the winner. The Final A will receive 52 athletes from 19 countries, with Sweden and Finland represented by 6 athletes each. With five athletes there will be two other countries, Switzerland and Czech republic, while Norway and Latvia will have four representatives in the Final.

Results

Men

Heat A

1. Johan Runesson (Sweden) 28:29 (+ 00:00)

2. Martin Hubmann (Switzerland) 29:01 (+ 00:32)

3. Lucas Basset (France)

(…)

26. Tiago Romão (Portugal) 33:14 (+ 04:45)

Heat B

1. Carl Godager Kaas (Norway) 28:42 (+ 00:00)

2. Oskar Sjöberg (Sweden) 28:45 (+ 00:03)

3. Timo Sild (Estonia) 28:57 (+ 00:15)

(…)

33. Manuel Horta (Portugal) 34:33 (+ 05:51)

Heat C

1. Matthias Kyburz (Switzerlan) 28:08 (+ 00:00)

2. Albin Ridefelt (Sweden) 28:41 (+ 00:33)

3. Jan Petržela (Czech Republic) 29:34 (+ 01:26)

(…)

41. Pedro Nogueira (Portugal) 41:49 (+ 13:41)

Women

Heat A

1. Dana Šafka Brožková (Czech Republic) 25:07 (+ 00:00)

2. Adéla Indráková (Czech Republic) 25:36 (+ 00:29)

3. Rahel Friederich (Switzerland) 26:10 (+ 01:03)

Heat B

1. Catherine Taylor (Great Britain) 25:06 (+ 00:00)

2. Svetlana Mironova (Russia) 25:16 (+ 00:10)

3. Venla Harju (Finland) 25:18 (+ 00:12)

Heat C

1. Judith Wyder (Switzerland) 23:27 (+ 00:00)

2. Julia Gross (Switzerland) 23:51 (+ 00:24)

3. Emma Johansson (Sweden) 24:01 (+ 00:34)

Complete results and further information to check at http://www.eoc2016.cz/en/.

Joaquim Margarido

World Orienteering Day - A record breaking event

On Wednesday May 11th 2016, the first ever World Orienteering Day took place all over the world. It proved to be a great success, with more than 250 000 participants taking part in a global orienteering event.

After having finalised the results, the total of participation in the first ever World Orienteering Day stands at 252 927 participants at 2013 locations in 81 countries and territories.

What was once only an idea, has come to be a reality beyond what anyone could have hoped. Schools, clubs and enthusiasts in every global region made a fantastic contribution, and together managed to beat the world record.

From South Africa to Hong Kong, from Greenland to New Caledonia, from Ecuador to Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of youngsters participated in World Orienteering Day. Following the idea “Think globally, act locally”, people took part in locally organised orienteering events, and together celebrated the biggest world-wide orienteering event ever.

- World Orienteering Day has demonstrated that we are truly a global sport, and I just want to thank the thousands of people who organised over 2000 competitions for 250,000 people on all continents except Antarctica. – Well done the world orienteering family, says Brian Porteous, president of the International Orienteering Federation.

World Orienteering Day is an International Orienteering Federation project that aims to increase the visibility and accessibility of orienteering to young people, to spread orienteering to new countries and places, and to help teachers to implement orienteering in schools in a fun and educational way.

http://worldorienteeringday.com

[Press release from the International Orienteering Federation 2016-05-26]