Story from 2x bronze medal winner (with analysis)

At WOC-2015 I participated in two Sprint events (Sprint Relay and individual Sprint) and I won two bronze medals. Some highlights about this you can read here.

At Sprint Relay we had almost same line-up like last year at WOC 2014. But this year after changeover my team was only #10. There were a lot of strong teams ahead of me and I had not even thought about medals. I just tried to improve position of Russian team as high as I can.

At dunes part I made a safe navigation (cause I have not practiced such orienteering since 2012). At urban part I was focused on route choices and perfect implementation. And the last part (at open lands) I pushed really hard.

I realized my medal position only 10 meters before the finish line.

Detailed analysis and results of sprint Relay you can find here and here.

This is my 9th race at Sprint relays and 8th time I am running at the last leg.

1) First time I was running at sprint relay in World Games 2009 (Taipei) and kept first position to Russian team. I had fourth time at last leg (+0:57.4 behind Elise Egseth)

2) Second Sprint relay was at World Cup final 2013 (Axpo Sprint-Relay, Baden). I did not have a full team and I was running at first leg with second time (+0:03 behind Maja Alm).

Then I participated in all races of Unoficial World Cup in Sprint Relays 2014. Unfortunately Russia put strong line-up only at WOC:
3) World Cup event 2014 (Turkey): best last leg time (-0:14 ahead of Lena Eliasson). Russia was #6.
4) World Cup event 2014 (Imatra): fifth last leg time (+0:36 behind of Maja Alm). Russia was #6.
5) WOC 2014 (Trento): second last leg time (+0:09 behind of Maja Alm) and bronze medal for Russia:

6) World Cup final 2014 (Liestal): third last leg time (+0:19 behind of Lena Eliasson). Russia once more without top runners was only #7.

7) SPORTident Sprint Relay 2015 (Mira-Villa): best last leg time (-0:34 ahead of Mari Fasting) and 2nd place for mixed Russian/Portugal team.

8) World Cup event 2015 (Halden): 7th leg time (+1:44 behind of Emma Klingenberg) - lost ~50 seconds inside bushes:

As Mike mentioned before it is written In Appendix 6 to IOF competitions rules 2015 that Sprint Relay must provide “Very high speed”. And it was impossible to fit this requirement with bushes, cliffs, high grass during race in Halden. Then it is written about terrain: “Predominantly in very runnable park or urban (streets/buildings) terrain”. Judith Wyder also lost 1 minutes inside cliffs and this is not OK for sprint relays! I don't understand the reason to violate clear rules about Sprint Relays. Actually there were forest relay in Halden!

9) WOC-2015 (Nairn): second time at the last leg (+0:10 behind Maja Alm) and bronze to Russia!

Video from WOC-2015 Sprint Relay you can watch here.

Good performance in Sprint relay gave me some extra-confidence in the WOC sprint final.

There is two part at the course. First part is in the building area. It is required high level of concentration and good route choices.

I kept main focus to make correct route choices. To achieve this task I control my speed (slow down in tricky situations and push in clear situations).

S-1
1. Maja Alm A 0:54
2. Nadia Volynska A 0:56
3. Galina Vinogradova A 0:55

1-2
1. Maja Alm A 0:34
2. Nadia Volynska B 0:32
3. Galina Vinogradova A 0:34

 2-3
1. Maja Alm B 0:59
2. Nadia Volynska B 1:05
3. Galina Vinogradova A 1:06

 3-4
1. Maja Alm A 0:18
2. Nadia Volynska B 0:17
3. Galina Vinogradova A 0:19

 4-5
1. Maja Alm A 1:04
2. Nadia Volynska B 1:05
3. Galina Vinogradova C 1:12 - my first mistake - I recognized too late passages in the wall at last part of leg (extra 24 meters)

 5-6
1. Maja Alm A 0:38
2. Nadia Volynska B 0:43
3. Galina Vinogradova C 0:43

 6-7
1. Maja Alm B 1:06
2. Nadia Volynska C 1:07
3. Galina Vinogradova A 1:12

 7-8
1. Maja Alm B 1:03
2. Nadia Volynska B 1:09
3. Galina Vinogradova A 1:06

 8-9
1. Maja Alm A 1:11
2. Nadia Volynska A 1:14
3. Galina Vinogradova A 1:12

9-10
1. Maja Alm D 0:51
2. Nadia Volynska B 0:52
3. Galina Vinogradova C 0:56 -  This is my second wrong route choice (I have not seen correct alley).

 10-11
1. Maja Alm A 0:25
2. Nadia Volynska A 0:26
3. Galina Vinogradova B 0:27

 11-12
1. Maja Alm A 0:34
2. Nadia Volynska B 0:33
3. Galina Vinogradova B 0:34

12-13
1. Maja Alm A 0:38
2. Nadia Volynska A 0:41
3. Galina Vinogradova A 0:43

Second part was situated in the open park. Main task was to push as hard as you can.

18-19
1. Maja Alm A 0:21
2. Nadia Volynska B 0:22
3. Galina Vinogradova A 0:22

Before the start I had some stress-situation - my SI-air chip did not work but fortunately organizers gave me a new one. That's the reason why my progression during the race has not been at the TV-broadcasting. Moreover after the finish ~5 minutes I did not have any information about my place!

Results of WOC-2015 sprint:
1) Maja Alm (DEN) 13:32.5
2) Nadiya Volynska (UKR) 14:12.3
3) Galina Vinogradova (RUS) 14:24.5
4) Sara Luescher (SUI) 14:26.5
5) Hanny Allston (AUS) 14:26.7
6) Minna Kauppi (FIN) 14:27.1
7) Rahel Friederich (SUI) 14:29.9
8) Silje Ekroll Jahren (NOR) 14:42.8
9) Julia Gross (SUI) 14:50.4
10) Karolin Ohlsson (SWE) 14:52.5

Full results you can here, and splits times are here. Good analysis from Jan Kocbach you can find here.

P.S. The information about my training camps, summary about trainings, data and indicators from physiological test (VO2 max, etc.) are here.