WOC Long Final

[gg]

think you will find the pics are from the run through before the last loop....

[Gross]

you still had a great run though Congrats

[Adrian]

For goodness sake Adrian, are you seriously suggesting that if you happen to be caught by someone that you are able to keep ace with that you will deliberately choose an alternative route to get away? It is hardly cheating to choose the same routes as someone else and if you are fit enough it is a crackpot rule that says you must drop back.

Following is cheating. On a normal Sunday-morning run it's not a big deal, but it's a different kettle of fish where medals are concerned. You say you can't do anything about it, but at international level you have to do something about it if you don't want to be disqualified. (Make no mistake, Mamleev should've been dq'ed.) An obvious thing you can do is deliberately make a different route choice. And as I've said, the event planning must have as one of its main aims to design butterflies and gaffles well enough (i.e. better than in Hungary) to separate runners so that they can get back to concentrating on navigating rather than thinking of ways to make life easy for themselves.

[DJM]

At its recent meeting in Helsinki, the IOF Council decided to make some amendments to the Competition Rules for IOF Foot Orienteering Events.

Independent navigation and fair competition are key characteristics of orienteering. To this end, the definition of the sport in chapter 1 was refined. The rules now clearly state that the competition course shall not be revealed to the competitors before start (rule 1.1). Further, two new rules were introduced to distinguish between individual interval start events and events with mass or chasing start. In individual interval start events the competitors are expected to navigate independently (old rule 26.2, now modified in new rule 1.2). In mass start and chasing start events where competitors often run in close proximity to each other, navigational skills shall still be a major factor in determining the finishing order (new rule 1.3).

In addition, the start interval in the Long distance at the World Orienteering Championships was increased from 2 to 3 minutes (rule 12.14).

The agreement between the IOF and this year's WOC organisers was made on the assumption that previous IOF Rules would be followed and it remains to be seen if the change in Start time interval for the Long races is implemented in Trondheim.

[JEP]

Fairness has returned to the IOF agenda rather than chasing pots of gold at the end of rainbows.

Good change back to sound values.

[EddieH]

Well that may be because it is the World Masters OC that is their massive cash cow.

It would be nice to see the IOF respond to the wishes of those people in a similar manner instead of imposing their wishes regardless.

[graeme]

The IOF set up a working party to figure out the best way to split up groups. And that it produced a very thorough report (so much detail even I struggled to absorb all the statistics ). The facts show that none of the tricks (butterflies etc.) commonly used have much effect. There are more effective tricks (dead runs, gaffling, multi-loop), but they all risk compromising the nature of the event. Extending the start interval was reported as the best option.

I'd like to believe the IOF made the change based on this rather than someone's prejudice.

Most interesting was that, by a small majority, WOC athletes thought following was perfectly fair, an advantage earned by a good qualifying run. So the change isn't especially in line with the wishes of the athletes.

Three minutes down is still enough for a medal though ... I reckon they should have gone for six, alternating men and women.