Hi All,

We participated in an interesting event last Sunday in a small town called Bassersdorf; the first race of the new year for the official Swiss points table.
Liz had a great win, 1/9 in W65 (9 points) and I managed 20/25 in M70, a result that left me with all of 0 points.

The senior and junior elite M and W runners started early at 10:00 with the temperature at 0°C. All the top Swiss boys and girls participated with he exception of Matthias Merz. The organisers had decided on a knock-out final for the first 6 in the 4 qualifying races and the mass start for the first sextet of 24 orienteers was scheduled for 12:30.


The race finished in the assembly hall and I only realised what the nature of the concept was when the doors in the men's changing room were opened, to let a cold draft and the first juniors into the hall, under tumeltuous applause. The progress of the 4 races was shown on a large screen in the hall with knowledgeable commentary and post-race interviews with the winners and runners-up. This provided for a nice atmosphere, greatly enhanced by the availability of Bratwurst, Hot Dogs, delicious homemade cakes and a variety of drinks.

The key to the final results was the "circle" on the attached map. No 2 was compulsory and the competitors had a choice of punching a further 5 out of 7 controls in this sector, before moving on to control no 3.
Rather tricky, as 17 time world champion Simone Niggli who in the qualification had been two minutes and twelve seconds ahead of Sabine Hauswirth (watch this name) found herself in second position at no 3, 14 seconds back. Strong runner as she is, she managed to regain her leading position, although her winning margin over Sabine was just 2 secs. It was obvious that 2011 world sprint champion Daniel Hubmann ran on position, Fabian Hertner finishing second, a mere 4 seconds behind. Interestingly, well known orienteers such as Matthias Müller, Marc Lauenstein, Baptiste Rollier and Sara Lüscher failed to make the top 6 in the qualification and had to watch the proceedings on the screen.
Finally, the map you are looking at was printed only after the names of the first 6 in each category were known. Some great organisation and attention to detail.
Incidentally, I caught quite a few people cheating, crossing olive green, evidenced by the results showing some very fast legs recorded by a number of normally very slow
competitors, sies tog vir hulle!


O'Cheers, Pieter.