Eventual runner-up Jorgen Baklid of Norway just after crossing the canal in the qualification. He was one of the athletes to choose the crossing three times route. photo: on the red line
Central Edinburgh was a great setting for the World Champs 2024 Knockout Sprint Races on Tuesday July 16th. Several times in the knockout stages we saw all the runners taking inferior routes. Evidently many of the athletes were relying on their running speed on the last lap and/or the courses were so technical that many either chose or had to prioritise keeping up over navigational choice.
Sweden took three medals, Switzerland two, and Norway one. Megan Carter-Davies reached and then animated the final with alternate routes but a navigation slip near the end meant she finished fifth. Jonny Crickmore made the semis.
IOF Eventor - WOC24 Knockout Sprint Results
World of O - WOC24 Knockout Sprint, Maps, Analysis and Results. Comparing the finals: "the women’s race was a lot more exciting".
British Runners - Knockout Sprint
Women: Megan Carter-Davies, Grace Molloy, Cecilie Andersen.
Men: Ralph Street, Nathan Lawson, Jonathan Crickmore.
Qualification
The qualification races were in Wester Hailes, based at a School. All the British runners made it through, as did those from Finland, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. There were runners from 14 other countries in the knockout stages.
Big names not to qualify were Aleksandra Hornik of Poland, the Danes Hedvig Valbjorn Gydesen and Andreas Bock Bjoernsen, and the Ukrainian Ruslan Glibov. Joey Hadorn, winner of the World Cup knockout sprint earlier in the season, cut it fine - he was 11th in his heat with 12 to qualify.
Planner Joe Hudd required a roundabout route from runners for the penultimate leg across the canal to the School. The distance between the controls is 65m. Possible routes are about 400m. The last control before the crossing was used by all heats; there were three different ones after the canal. Here is one of the legs.
Most of the athletes chose to run around the distinctively shaped out-of-bounds.
With this control after the canal it was quicker to cross the canal three times! Jorgen Baklid and Martin Regborn, who both eventually reached the final, did this.
Finals Setting
It was pretty crowded in St John Street which was closed for the competition. There was a slightly uphill run-in and large screens at either end. It got very noisy despite some rain!
A sprint finish, photo: Rob Lines
Quarter-Finals
These were broadcast on Eurovision Sport with no geographic restrictions. The other finals were free in some countries including the UK.
In the quarters the first three go through, reducing both fields from 36 to 18.
GB Progress
Ralph Street, Nathan Lawson, Grace Molloy and Cecilie Andersen were eliminated. Jonny Crickmore and Megan Carter-Davies got through.
This was very well done by Jonny, who got a leg injury in the test races a fortnight before, and had to delay confirming he was recovered enough to run until the last minute.
Jonny Crickmore, photo: Rob Lines
Athlete-athlete contact
Reduing the fields to 18 isn't actually what heppened in practice because two protests regarding athlete-athlete contact were answered by reinstatement of the protesting (disadvantaged) athlete but not the relegation of the athlete complained against. That is, we think, it was judged a racing incident, nobody was at fault. Other protests were resolved by rejection. None resulted in a position relegation, which is really the only sanction in such races, although we are not sure if orienteering uses this.
Some contact is inevitable. Here Francesco Mariani leads his quarter-final to control 8 of the 10. After punching the control all the runners, with the route ahead blocked, turn back the way they have come (and then choose a route.) Surely they cannot avoid some contact? And less than two minutes later in this race there'll be some contact on the run-in which will cause one of the protests.
A sceenshot from the IOF TV broadcast
Here's a screenshot of a situation from one of the semi-finals, by a right-angle corner a few metres before the last control. The Swedish and French athletes are contesting the same space on the inside of the corner. The French protest was rejected.
contact at the corner, screenshot from the IOF TV Broadcast
Because of knockout sprint, we think orienteering does need to grasp the nettle of athlete-athlete contact.
The question is to what extent can a runner can put out a hand against another runner or change their racing line? Of course it may often come down to the need to judge between two different views of a situation, but how much pushing is reasonable?
Semi-Finals
The semi-finals had a possible route passing inside a building. The planners were pleased to have something new for the athletes. It was quite cool to see athletes run past someone at a desk.
inside a building, from the IOF TV broadcast
But probably some alerting of such a possibility should have been given. It had not been very clear to the athletes where the mapped entrance was. They did not want to run into someone's kitchen. The entrance was made more clear after the first semi-final.
semi-final 1, from the IOF TV broadcast
GB Progress
Jonny did not have the fitness to seriously contest his semi-final.
Megan needed a sprint finish, but did have the fitness to get through.
photo: Rob Lines
Finals
Describing the knockout stages beforehand we heard "This is the competition where someone does the navigating and someone else sprints past at the end".
In the men's final, five runners were not keen to lead,presumably content to leave the outcome to the later part of the race. Martin Regborn of Sweden led the race until control 6 of the 9. There Riccardo Rancan from position 5 in the line went the other way round a building and found himself leading. He led at 7 and then to 8 (in the women's final runners had gone different routes at this point.) The runners behind followed, jockeying for position. Then as the sprint really wound up the very fast Joey Hadorn and Jonatan Gustaffson tried to turn to control 9 too early. It was only a few seconds slip but it was decisive. Jorgen Baklid went past them. Rancan won, Baklid was second, and Jonatan Gustaffson of Sweden overtook Martin Regborn and Joey Hadorn on the run-in. Alvaro Casado didn't seem to have speed left and stayed sixth.
In the women's final were the four runners who had led off the last leg in the Sprint Relay two days before: Tove Alexandersson, Simona Aebersold, Venla Harju and Megan Carter-Davies. They were joined by Karolin Ohlsson of Sweden, and Cecile Calandry of France - who had also run the last leg of the Sprint Relay, bringing France home to 5th.
Out of the start Megan went to the front as she prefers. They went as a group to controls 1 and 2 (taking not a very good route for this.) There Simona took over the lead but Megan didn't let her keep it. Meanwhile Karolin and Cecile seemed content at the back of the group. After control 3 Megan went one way and Simona led the others a route that seemed slightly quicker to control 4. Then there was a big divergence as Megan went right after the others had taken a route to the left. The commentators said Megan's route was 20 seconds slower, but that assumed the others would execute their route without running three sides of a big building when one would have done. Megan had a 7 second lead at control 5. Simona and Tove were leading the chase, and Venla was getting distanced.
At control 7 Tove was 4 seconds behind Megan and went the same way (the way Riccardo Rancan led the men's final). Simona led Karolin and Cecile another route. Tove overtook Megan and was first at 8, as the others arrived from a different direction. Megan punched third but didn't follow Tove and went into a blocked route. After she turned back she was fifth. From there Tove ran in to win, and Karolin overtook first Cecile and then Simona to take silver.