July 14-21, 2012

Lausanne, Switzerland

The United States sent a talented team of orienteers to Switzerland for the 2012 World Orienteering Championships. Results and links to maps and photos are below.

Useful links -

• World of O Team profiles and photos
• The website for WOC2012: http://woc2012.ch/en/home.html
• For all results: http://woc2012.ch/en/event-centre.html
   
• The Team USA blog: http://usa-orienteering.blogspot.com/
   
• Maps: For training / Competition maps (after the races start)

Photos:

• Eddie Bergeron's photos from Sprint Qualifications | Sprint Finals | Long Finals | Relays
• Adrian Zissos's photos from Long Final

 Below: Ali on the Sprint Final course, Giacomo and Samantha running Sprint Qualification courses (photos: Eddie Bergeron)

  

U.S. Team: (listed alphabetically)

• Giacomo Barbone, CSU
• Eddie Bergeron, SVO
• Eric Bone, COC
• Hannah Burgess, USMAOC
• Alison Crocker, CSU
• Boris Granovskiy, CSU, OK Linné
• Alexandra Jospé, CSU
• Sandra Lauenstein
• Samantha Saeger, NEOC
• Ross Smith, CSU (injured; not running)

Alternates:
Pavlina Brautigam (WCOC), Cristina Luis (TSN)
Jordan Laughlin (USMAOC), Wyatt Riley (DVOA), Ken Walker, Jr (CSU)

Program and Race Assignments:

July 14th — Sprint Qualifier
(Finals run in the afternoon):

• Men – Boris Granovskiy (A), Giacomo Barbone (B)
• Women – Hannah Burgess (A), Alison Crocker (B), Samantha Saeger (C) — Ali qualifed 3rd in her heat

July 14th — Sprint Final

July 15 — Long Qualifier
(Finals on Thursday, July 19)

• Men – Eric Bone (A), Eddie Bergeron (B), Giacomo Barbone (C)
• Women – Samantha Saeger (A), Alex Josp (B), Alison Crocker (C) — Sam qualified 13th in her heat

July 16 — Middle Distance Qualifier
(Finals on Tuesday, July 17):

• Men – Eddie Bergeron (A), Boris Granovskiy (B), Eric Bone (C
• Women – Hannah Burgess (B), Alex Jospé (A), Samantha Saeger (C)

July 17 — Middle Final (no U.S. or Canadian qualifiers)

July 19 — Long Final

July 21 — Relay

• Men– Eric Bone, Boris Granovskiy, Giacomo Barbone
• Women – Alison Crocker, Sandra Lauenstein, Samantha Saeger

Results:

(will be posted as they are available)

Sprint

Qualifiers - 14 July (morning) (maps)

• Women's A – Winner: Helena Jansson (SWE), 13:57; USA: Hannah Burgess (27th), 18:47
• Women's B – Winner: Lizzie Ingham (NZL), 14:08; USA: Alison Crocker (3rd), 14:13 -- Ali qualifies for the Sprint Final
• Women's C – Winner: Annika Billstam (SWE), 13:32; USA: Samantha Saeger (16th), 14:41, just seconds behind 15th place, the cutoff
• Men's A – Winner: Adam Kovaks (HUN), 13:51; CAN: Robbie Anderson (25th), 15:38; USA: Boris Granovskiy (29th), 16:16
• Men's B – Winner: Matthias Merz (SUI), 13:23; CAN: Patrick Goeres (13th - qualifies), 14:19; HKG: Gerald Yip (30th), 16:15; USA: Giacomo Barbone (33rd), 16:54
• Men's C – Winner: Frederic Tranchand (FRA), 13:21; CAN: Will Critchley (20th), 14:28

Finals - 14 July (afternoon) (maps)

USA's Alison Crocker finished in 20th place (of 45 starters), just over 2 minutes behind the winner, Simone Niggli-Luder!

1 - Simone Niggli-Luder (SUI), 15:43.7
2 - Maya Alm (DEN), 16:20.2
3 - Annika Billstam (SWE), 16:28.0
20 - Alison Crocker (USA), 17:47.3 -- YouTube video, at last control

Canada's Patrick Goeres also qualified for the Sprint Final. He finished in 36th place, 2:22 behind winner Matthias Kyburz of Switzerland.

Long Distance

Qualifier - 15 July (maps)

• Women's A -- Winner: Tatyana Riabkina (RUS), 50:00; USA: Samantha Saeger (13th-qualifies), 57:37; (cutoff / 15th, 1:00:04)
• Women's B -- Winner: Simone Niggli-Luder (SUI), 47:39; (15th, 59:17); Canada: Louise Oram (13th-qualifies), 57:00; USA: Alexandra Jospé (22nd), 1:07:14
• Women's C -- Winner: Minna Kauppi (Finland), 49:34; (15th, 57:05); USA: Alison Crocker (17th), 57:58
• Men's A -- Winner: Olav Lundanes (NOR), 59:03; (5th, 1:06:01); USA: Eric Bone (27th), 1:17:34; Canada: Jeffrey Teutsch (29th), 1:24:01
• Men's B -- Winner: Matthias Merz (SUI), 59:22; (15th, 1:07:41); Canada: Will Critchley (25th), 1:15:34; USA: Eddie Bergeron (33rd): 1:37:44
• Men's C -- Winner: Edgars Bertuks (LAT), 58:13; (15th, 1:05:41); Canada: Robbie Anderson (21st), 1:11:29; USA: Giacomo Barbone (30th), 1:26:58

Finals - 19 July (maps)

Samantha Saeger finished in 40th place (her goal was top 40, so she made it!) in the Long Distance Final held in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her time was 1:41:39. Canada's Louise Oram of Vancouver finished 33rd place, with a time of 1:37:48. Winner Simone Niggli-Luder of Switzerland had a convincing win 1:31 ahead of 2nd place Minna Kauppi of Finland. On the men's side, Norwegian Olav Lundanes led, followed by Matthias Merz of Switzerland, and Edgars Bertuks of Latvia.

See the GPS tracking

The athletes have a rest day on Friday while the IOF holds its General Assembly. The relay will be the final event of WOC (and the last chance for Team USA to take on Team Canada until the North American Championships in October).

Middle Distance

Qualifier - 16 July (no U.S. or Canadian runners qualified for the Final) (maps)

• Women's A -- Winner: Tatyana Riabkina (RUS), 33:51; CAN: Louise Oram (15th - qualifies), 44:17; USA: Alex Jospe (24th), 56:20
• Women's B -- Winner: Tove Alexandersson (SWE), 30:38; (15th, 41:36); USA: Hannah Burgess (21st), 46:49
• Women's C -- Winner: Simone Niggli-Luder (SUI), 31:58; (15th, 39:25): USA: Sandra Lauenstein (22nd), 46:32
• Men's A -- Winner: Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA), 29:16; (15th, 35:06); CAN: Eric Kemp (34th), 48:43; USA: Eddie Bergeron (35th), 48:48
• Men's B -- Winner: Gernot Kerschbaumer (AUT), 30:34; (15th, 33:51); SUI: Marc Lauenstein (10th) USA: Boris Granovskiy (23rd), 38:48; CAN: Damian Konotopetz (29th), 42:14
• Men's C -- Winner: Carl Waaler Kaas (NOR), 29:21; (15th, 34:52); USA: Eric Bone (24th), 39:52; CAN: Jeffrey Teutsch (32nd), 53:24; HKG: Gerald Yip (36th), 1:01:55

Finals - 17 July (maps)

Canada's Louise Oram finished 41st at 53:31. Winner was Minna Kaupi of Finland, 37:37. On the men's side, Gold was won for the first time by a Latvian, Edgar Bertucks, in 36:45. Thierry Gueorgiou's recent injury was evident in his fourth place finish in a race he's dominated in the past.

Notable is Switzerland's Marc Lauenstein's 9th place finish in the Men's race; he's married to U.S. Team member Sandra Lauenstein.

Related stories from the IOF: Men's race | Women's race | GPS tracking

Relay

Saturday, 21 July - Relay Results (link also includes GPS tracking, maps, and video)

• Men– Eric Bone, Boris Granovskiy, Giacomo Barbone
• Women – Alison Crocker, Sandra Lauenstein, Samantha Saeger

The men running for Team Canada are: Patrick Goeres, Will Critchley, and Robbie Anderson

The U.S. Women's Team finished in 15th place overall! To quote Peter Gagarin: "Ten places better than last year and less than 5 minutes outside the top 10." And Ali had a superb run, finishing in 3rd on her leg, only 5 seconds behind first place. Sandra and Sam had great runs and held the U.S. in 15th position.

The Men's Team finished 29th, just 3:10 behind the Canadian team.

Photos by Eddie Bergeron (click a photo to get a larger version on Eddie's source page):

From the top:
Start of the women's relay / Ali Crocker / on the Jumbotron
Sandra Lauenstein / winning Swiss women's team celebrating / Samantha Saeger
Eric Bone / Boris Granovskiy (2) / Giacomo Barbone (2)

2012 U.S. Team Members

More complete biographies of the U.S. Team Members