”The one who wins the World Cup overall is the best sprinter in the world!”

I know what I have to do this following years. I have to be damn good in sprint. Why? If I want to fight for the top positions in the World Cup overall in 2013 and also in the Silva League 2014 it increases my chances big time. 

During next years World Cup there are 
– 4+1 middle distances (1 with chasing start)
– 5+1 sprint distances (1 knockout-sprint)
– 1+1 long distances (1 with chasing start)
(Total number of races with prologues, chasing starts, qualifications and finals provided that the NORT program with quals and finals are the same as 2012: 12 sprints, 7 middles and 3 longs. Read more about this here.)

During 2014’s Silva League there are
– 2 long distances
– 1+1 middle distances (1 chasing start)
– 3 sprint distances

If we start with the Silva League. The detailed program of 2013 is not shown yet but today SOFT presented the program of 2014 as you can see it above. Almost even between the 3 different distances, but why is sprint the one and only which is over-represented again? Why can’t the Swedish O-federation go against the IOF-trend with almost only sprints? On the other hand Sweden and the other Nordic countries maybe have ”ourselves” to blame. ”We” decided to shut down the Nordic Championships and started the Nordic Tour. A tour that consist mosly of sprints. And why ”we” persists to arrange sprints when we often have worse sprint areas than down in Europe and not distances in the wild forest that we have a lot together with really good maps is a good question. (Even if the Finns have shown how you can create a good sprint-map from a completely uninteresting area.)

I think that the one who wins the World Cup or the Swedish Silva League should be the one who is the best at all different distances (long, middle and sprint – we do not compete international in night-O… yet). At least that was my picture of it years ago when i followed the results from home and dreamed of being a part of it.

This year was the first year I joined the whole World Cup-trip and ran almost all races except from the ones during the Championships that i couldn’t take part in beacuse I wasn’t selected. There were a few who ran everything and they ran: 4+1 middle distances (1 chasing start), 2 long distances and 5+1 sprint distances (1 knockout sprint). Then we can count again with all the qualification races: 6+1 middle distances (1 chasing start), 4 long distances (2 qualifications with shortened courses), 12 sprint distances (2 knockout heats). 

Of course every result doesn’t count in the overall, even if 2012 was quite extreme because the whole Nordic Tour counted as the final races. The Nordic Tour consisted of 7 sprint races (if you managed to get to the final in the KO-sprint) and 2 middle distances with 1 chasing start. Of course the runners who is mainly better in sprint has a benefit. There is no must that you need to have at least one of each distances among your countable results. That means that you this year didn’t need to count any long distance and you don’t need to do it next year either (you just need to count at least one of your WOC-races and of course that COULD be a long distance if you do your best result at that one).

I think that it’s wrong that you have more chances to make good results in sprint, than other distances especially compared to the long distance. I like sprint a lot, and I want to be better at it as I want to be better at the middle and the long. But I don’t want to compete in only sprint. I also want to fight in the forest for a long time. Fight against the tiredness for 20 more minutes when I already been out for 1 hour. I want to find the best route choice of the really long leg and go through it with my decisions perfectly. The leg takes over 15 minutes (longer than a whole sprint race) and my mind starts to play with me and says that maybe another route choice was better, but instead of listening to that I have to take the fight and beat that thought and believe in my choice and that I can earn seconds instead of loosing them. Of course you fight tiredness, make routechoices and fight against your mind during a sprint race too, but it’s not the same and that’s why we have different distances and we should still compete in all of them. No distance should be more important from the IOF sight. I think every runner should get the possibility to decide that themselves.

Next year you just have ONE chance to do a long distance (without chasing start) and that is at the World Championships in Finland. BUT, there is just 3 persons of each nation that will get this chance (4 from Norway and Switzerland if Lundanes and Niggli – the reigning champions will start). This makes the long distance really exclusive and I think this is the only positive thing with the WC program of next year (if you are among the ones who loves the long distance and think everything else is just crap – I’m not among them) because this helps to save the long distance as it still is the classic distance and the one and only distance we call REAL ORIENTEERING.

I should say that the WC program of 2014 looks a bit better even if it’s not 100% decided yet (the WOC and the NORT-disciplines).

I think it should be like this: The one who wins the sprint distance at WOC is the best sprint distance runner in the world. The one who wins the middle distance at WOC is the best middle distance runner in the world. The one who wins the long distance at WOC is the best long distance runner in the world. The one who wins the World Cup overall is the best runner in all disciplines.

Now we have it like this: The one who wins the sprint distance at WOC is the best sprint distance runner in the world. The one who wins the middle distance at WOC is the best middle distance runner in the world. The one who wins the long distance at WOC is the best long distance runner in the world. The one who wins the World cup overall is the best… sprint distance runner in the world!(?????????) No offense to you runners who done good. This is for them who decides the program. We runners just run…

  
Photos: World of O

Make it even!