FinTrailO 2018

In the Easter just passed, the third set of TrailO world ranking events (WRE), FinTrailO was held in Turku. There are 6 competitions in this series, spanning over 4 days of Easter, schedule below:

30th March: PreO+TempO pre-competition
31st March: FinTrailO TempO (WRE, ECTO)
31st March: FinTrailO PreO 1 (WRE)
31st March night: Night TempO
1st April: FinTrailO PreO 2 (ECTO)
2nd April: Relay

6 athletes from Hong Kong participated the event, 5 of them in class E (elite), 1 in class A (advanced):
Tsz Ho Chui (MOPC): all competitions in class E (relay team HKG2)
Vivian Chung (OBAA): class E pre-competition, TempO, PreO 1, PreO 2, relay (team HKG2)
Yuet Ling Lau (OKOK Zone): all competitions in class E (relay team HKG2)
Chi Hang Liang (OS): all competitions in class E (relay team HKG1)
Wing Man So (OS): all competitions in class A (relay team HKG1)
Michael Chun Chi Tsang (Scout Orienteering Club): class E TempO, PreO 1, Night TempO

Pre-competition

Pre-competition was held on 30th March at a local winter swimming club in Uittamo Beach, which was a PreO and TempO combined competition, athletes completed PreO first and TempO followed immediately, and scored using relay rules. There were 25 PreO controls (3 voided) and 3 time stations with 5 time controls each in the competition.

101 athletes participated in class E competition, Petteri Suominen got the champion with great performance of 22 controls all correct, 143 seconds in 15 time controls. Ján Furucz got the first runner-up with 4 seconds behind. Alessio Tenani from Italy, the 1st in world ranking, got the 10th place with 224 seconds.

The best Hong Kong athlete was Tsz Ho Chui, 415 seconds at 53rd place. The results of other class E Hong Kong athletes were Chi Hang Liang, 425 seconds at 56th place; Yuet Ling Lau, 487 seconds at 63rd place; Vivian Chung, 843 seconds at 90th place.

TempO

TempO competition was the first competition among the 3 in the championship, which was a world ranking event and European Cup competition, held on 31st March in Ruissalo. There were 6 time stations with 5 time controls each in the competition.

105 athletes participated in class E competition, Antti Rusanen got the champion with blazing fast speed of 188 seconds in 30 time controls. Alessio Tenani from Italy, the 1st in world ranking, got the 26th place with 395 seconds.

The best Hong Kong athlete was Tsz Ho Chui, 39 seconds at 17th place. The results of other class E Hong Kong athletes were Chi Hang Liang, 439 seconds at 36th place; Michael Chun Chi Tsang, 561 seconds at 61st place; Yuet Ling Lau, 629 seconds at 69th place; Vivian Chung, 807 seconds at 91st place.

PreO 1

PreO 1 competition was the 2nd competition among the 3 in the championship, which was a world ranking event, held immediately following TempO competition. There were 28 controls and 3 time controls in the competition.

105 athletes participated in class E competition, Marit Wiksell got the champion with great performance of 28 controls all correct and 7 seconds in time controls. Antti Rusanen from Finland, and Alessio Tenani from Italy, the 1st in world ranking, both got the first runner-up with all correct and 9 seconds in time controls.

The best Hong Kong athlete was Michael Chun Chi Tsang, 23 points 80 seconds at 72nd place. The results of other class E Hong Kong athletes were Yuet Ling Lau, 22 points 87 seconds at 81st place; Chi Hang Liang, 21 points 16 seconds at 84th place; Vivian Chung, 21 points 45 seconds at 90th place; Tsz Ho Chui, 20 points 20 seconds at 91st place.

Night TempO

Night TempO was held at night 31st March in the centre of Turku. There were 6 time stations with 5 time controls each in the competition.

62 athletes participated in class E competition, Antti Rusanen from Finland got the champion with 259 seconds in 30 time controls. Alessio Tenani, formerly the 1st in world ranking, got the 6th with 343 seconds.

The best Hong Kong athlete was Tsz Ho Chui, 368 seconds at 10th place. The results of other class E Hong Kong athletes were Michael Chun Chi Tsang, 538 seconds at 40th place; Chi Hang Liang, 559 seconds at 44th place; Yuet Ling Lau, 694 seconds at 51st place.

PreO 2

PreO 2 was the final competition among the 3 in the championship, which was a European Cup competition, held on 1st April in Ruissalo. There were 39 controls and 3 time controls in the competition.

103 athletes participated in class E competition, Antti Rusanen got the champion with great performance of 39 controls all correct, 8 seconds in time controls. Ján Furucz from Slovakia got the first runner-up with all correct also and 9 seconds in time controls. Alessio Tenani from Italy, formerly the 1st in world ranking, got the 11th place with 38 points, 11 seconds.

The best Hong Kong athlete was Tsz Ho Chui, 33 points 16 seconds at 60th place. The results of other class E Hong Kong athletes were Chi Hang Liang, 28 points 93 seconds at 89th place; Yuet Ling Lau, 25 points 148 seconds at 98th place; Vivian Chung, 23 points 157 seconds at 100th place.

Relay

Relay competition was held on 2nd April in Kielletty Alue. There were 36 PreO controls in the competition, where each team member need to answer 20 of them, for each control, score is given only if it is answered by a team member, and all answered team members got it correct, and 5 time controls for each team member.

17 teams participated in class E competition, Italy team got the champion with 445 seconds, where Hong Kong HKG2 team got the 16th place with 1493 seconds, and HKG1 team got the 17th place with 1502 seconds.

Total result

97 athletes participated in all three championship class E competitions in FinTrailO, Antti Rusanen got the overall champion with 208 seconds total in three competitions; Sigurd Dæhli got the first runner-up, 329 seconds total; Ján Furucz got the second runner-up, 406 seconds total. Alessio Tenani from Italy, the 1st in world ranking before the event, got the 10th place with 475 seconds total.

The best Hong Kong athlete was Tsz Ho Tsui, 1245 seconds at 61st place. The results of other class E Hong Kong athletes were Chi Hang Liang, 1598 seconds at 74th place; Yuet Ling Lau, 1974 seconds at 82nd place; Vivian Chung, 2329 seconds at 91st place.

There will be 7 Hong Kong athletes in the world ranking list after the event. Remaining TrailO international competitions in this year include the European Championship at the end of April in Slovenia, Falco Cup at the beginning of August in Lithuania, the World Championship immediately afterwards in Latvia, and Prague Trail Autumn at the beginning of October in Czech Republic.

IOF has published a seeding list for world ranking in 2018

The world ranking score calculation for all orienteering disciplines relies on the previous score of the athletes. However, as the TrailO world ranking list has just been set up in 2018, there is no previous score available for initial events. The IOF has decided to make a seeding list to provide the previous score on a temporary basis.

The seeding list is made from the results of WTOC and ETOC in 2016 and 2017, and all ECTO competitions in 2017. The algorithm is listed below:

  1. Assign a same random score to every competitors.
  2. Apply the competition results using the world ranking scheme.
  3. Repeat the above step until the list is stable.

The seeding list contains 354 competitors. There are 10 Hong Kong competitors in the list with seeding scores between 9.56 and 14.17.

The brand-new world ranking list after Egypt Trail Orienteering Championships currently has 5 athletes from the seeding list, appearing mostly in the same order:

WRE rank name nationality WRE score seeding score
1 Alessio Tenani Italy 79.41 1.37
3 Ari Tetsunen Finland 81.27 3.05
4 Michael Chun Chi Tsang Hong Kong 81.60 12.24
13 Mohamed Abd El Baky Egypt 89.12 14.76
14 Pentti Koponen Finland 89.31 14.73

The seeding list will be used in all events in 2018. From 2019, the list will no longer be used.

For further information and the seeding list, please refer to the document published by IOF.

The next world ranking events will be Lipica TrailO in Slovenia, and FinTrailO in Finland this month.

Egypt International Orienteering Championship has ended

4 days, 5 races Egypt International Orienteering Championship in Alexandria has ended. Hong Kong athletes got great results, with 2 times within top 3.

The first race was PreO, in Montazah Palace Gardens on 1th February with 23 controls, where the top 4 got 22 correct. The champion was Alessio Tenani from Italy, beating other competitors with 10 seconds in time controls. The best athlete from Hong Kong was Chi Ko Abdon Cheung, who got the third with 22 correct and 44 seconds. Wing Chung Tam and Michael Chun Chi Tsang got the 5th and the 7th respectively with 21 correct.

Wing Chung Tam
Wing Chung Tam
Alessio Tenani (left) and Michael Chun Chi Tsang
Alessio Tenani (left) and Michael Chun Chi Tsang (right)

Two races was held on 2th February: sprint first and TempO afterwards, in Arab Academy. The length of sprint was 2.9 kilometres and the climb was 10 metres. Nikola Bilić from Serbia got the champion with 15 minutes and 16 seconds, where Alessio Tenani from Italy was 1 second behind. Wing Chung Tam (17 minutes 5 seconds) and Chi Ko Abdon Cheung (18 minutes 13 seconds) got the 6th and 7th place respectively, while Michael Chun Chi Tsang (24 minutes and 23 seconds) got the 16th place.

Chi Ko Abdon Cheung crossing the sprint finish
Chi Ko Abdon Cheung crossing the sprint finish

There were 5 stations, with 5 controls each at the TempO. The champion was got by Alessio Tenani from Italy again, answering all correctly in 184 seconds. Michael Chun Chi Tsang from Hong Kong completed in 153 seconds, but with 3 mistakes, getting the 2nd place with 243 seconds total time. Chi Ko Abdon Cheung and Wing Chung Tam got the 4th and 11th place with 227 and 442 seconds total time respectively.

from the left Chi Ko Abdon Cheung, Wing Chung Tam,
 Michael Chun Chi Tsang
from the left Chi Ko Abdon Cheung, Wing Chung Tam,
Michael Chun Chi Tsang

The long distance race on 3rd February was held in El Alamein Marina Resort, length 9.7 kilometres, climb 30 metres, 25 controls. The champion was got by Alessio Tenani from Italy again in 48 minutes and 5 seconds. The results from Hong Kong were 6th place Wing Chung Tam (56 minutes and 19 seconds), Chi Ko Abdon Cheung (59 minutes and 22 seconds) and 19th place Michael Chun Chi Tsang (1 hour, 38 minutes and 28 seconds).

France National Team
France National Team

The middle distance race on 4th February was held in Montazah Palace Gardens, the same venue as the previous PreO race, length 6.6 km, climb 30 m, 29 controls. Alessio Tenani from Italy got the champion again, 4 champions among 5 races, in 30 minutes and 14 seconds. The results from Hong Kong were 5th place Chi Ko Abdon Cheung (34 minutes 27 seconds), 7th place Wing Chung Tam (35 minutes 57 seconds) and 19th place Michael Chun Chi Tsang (1 hour, 3 minutes and 7 seconds).

The overall top 3 in FootO were Alessio Tenani from Italy (1 hour, 33 minutes and 36 seconds total), Sava Lazić from Serbia (1 hour, 35 minutes and 29 seconds) and Nicolas Gires from France (1 hour, 37 minutes and 24 seconds).

Photo credit: Juba Photographer

Egypt International Orienteering Championship is in progress

The 3rd Egypt International Orienteering Championships cum the 2nd Egypt Trail International Championships is now halfway in progress. There are 3 competitors from Hong Kong: Wing Chung Tam, Chi Ko Abdon Cheung and Michael Chun Chi Tsang.

FootO model event and TrailO PreO were held on 1st February at El Montazah Park. According to preliminary results, Hong Kong competitors made 1 to 2 mistakes among 23 questions, ranking between the 3rd and the 6th.

FootO sprint and TrailO TempO were held on 2nd February at Arab Academy. Hong Kong competitors finished between 17 and 25 minutes and ranked between the 7th and 16th in FootO sprint class M21 preliminary results, the winning time was about 15 minutes.

Long distance and middle distance races will be held on the upcoming two days, then a tourism day to conclude the series.

The first TrailO world ranking event in the world history is coming!

TrailO will have world ranking events (WRE) from 2018, the first event will be Mediterranean Championship in Orienteering (MCO) cum Egypt International Orienteering Championship (EIOC), which will be held between 1st to 4th February 2018 in Alexandria, Egypt.

The event will be organised by Egypt Orienteering Federation, OK Vihor from Croatia as the technical organiser. There will be 4 WREs, including FootO sprint, FootO middle, TrailO PreO and TrailO TempO, and a FootO long competition which will be a scoring competition for national teams of MCO, but not a WRE.

The event schedule follows:
31/1: registration
1/2: FootO model, TrailO PreO (WRE)
2/2: FootO sprint (WRE), TrailO TempO (WRE)
3/2: FootO long
4/2: FootO middle (WRE)
5/2: tourism day

Until 12/1, there have been 3 competitors from Hong Kong entered the competition, including Chi Ko Abdon Cheung, Wing Chung Tam and Michael Chun Chi Tsang. The entering deadline is 15/1, please enter soon. The bulletin 3 can be read here.

Furthermore, there will be 6 competitions in FinTrailO 2018 held between 30/3 and 2/4 in Turku, Finland, including 1 PreO and TempO combined, 2 PreOs (the first will be WRE), 1 TempO (WRE), 1 TempO night-O and 1 team relay. The deadline of entering the competition is 22/3, there has already been competitor from Hong Kong entered all 6 competitions. Bulletin 1 can be read here.

Apart from the above events, there will be WREs in Slovenia, Lithuania and Czech Republic. The details can be seen in the event calendar of IOF.