13WRC2015 Finland - Men's Open & Veteran's competition an observation

Version three, updated 15/09/2015 - AUSTEST 11.22

Rogaines are about points per minute per hour leading to points in twenty four hours. The opportunity to plan what your team may consider an optimal route with options to add and or delete is an essential part of the game; some gambit is required, I would suggest the table below demonstrates this.

13WRC2015 Finland was the most competitve WRCs we have seen and not just for the Men. See separate articles for the Womens and Mixed competitions. [and if I find the time some observations about the Superveteran, Ultra and Youth categories where there was some powerful performances put in.

I think it is a reasonable maximum that to win a WRC you have to go out as hard as possible and sustain that effort. The numbers would suggest that at Saariselka, Finland for WRC2015 you needed to do that for the full twenty four hours whilst maintaining an optimal route and options; many team did so however only two did so to the end whilst others tried hard and were competitive for most of the event.

Points totals taken prior to each hour during the event would suggest that the 13WRC was won in the twenty second hour of the event. A large foundation was prepared in the preceeding twenty one hours; a small gap was achieved in the nineteenth hour increasing in the twentieth hour with a remarkable push in the twenty first hour of 210 points and a further 210 points in the twent second hour which seperated the eventual Men's Open winners from the field of six teams that had been in contention to till then.

The numbers reveal that the Male winners 20 points in the last hour left them vunerable to a performance similiar to their own of hours twenty one and twenty two. The MO winners scored 120 points in the last two hours whilst second place rattled home with 300 points leaving them 30 points short of the winners; the winners finished leaving thirty five minutes unused whilst second place left only three and a bit minutes on the clock.

First and second place seperated themselves from the lead pack in the last four hours of the event as I suspect fatigue and errors began to undermine others performance. Though at least one team's problem came earlier in the moring with what appears to be a least a thirty minute error, I would suggest ineffect being the lose of at least one control in comparison to other teams, that error, may have been a rest break appeared to be the ony error of consequence made by any of these elevent teams during the competition.

http://wrc2015.rogaining.fi/

So at the end Petteri Muukkonen M 37 FIN, Hannu-Pekka Pukema M 33 FIN of Team Kuntokeskus Huippu won the Men's Open competition by 30 points from Silver Eensaar M 37 EST, Rain Eensaar M 40 EST of Team Estonian ACE Adventure Team in second place (past winners of the Men's & Overall WRC titles) with Timmo Tammemäe M 31 EST, Rait Pallo M 40 EST of team Salamon at the end of 24 hours 200 points behind in third place - though they were in the hunt for a higher place for most of the event.

The table (picture) above includes the first eleven places results, all MO, including four Mens Veteran (MV, =+40 years) teams, MVs occupied 4th, 8th, 10th and 11th places overall. Congratulations to Seppo Mäkinen M 52 FIN, Hannu Oja M-44 FIN3170 of team Free adventure 1 who with 3170 won the MV competition with 3170 points,  210 points clear of Kalinin Oleg M 40 RUS, Shvedov Andrey M-43 RUS of team Omega/Vipsport.ru who scored 2960 points to finish eigth MO and second in the MV. Third place MV and tenth MO was Armo Hiie M 47 EST, Lauri Lahtmäe M-46 EST of Team 68 who scored 2920 points edging out Miroslav Seidl M 41 CZE, Jan Fujacek M-40 CZE of team Czech team veteran 1 on 2900 points by 20 points-a control. As usual the best of the aging Men gave the younger ones reason to look over their shoulders, though in Rogaining one of its great attributes is that you don't know what other teams are scoring until after the event, you can only concentrate on your own efforts.

I hope the table provides a graphical insight into the closeness of the competition and what was required to win at the end - 820 points in four hours between 6am and 10am on the second day of the event - and even then it was won by only 30 points. Many teams occupied the lead places though as time passed the winners and placegetters accumulated more points and controls.

Congratulations to all the athletes for a fine competition, a worthy Mens and Mens Veterans competition.

Alan Mansfield,

IRF Promotion & Development Officer