Discussion: sprint race

I see the Chinese have taken a HUGE step forward in performance. Anything to do with home advantage? (a bit like CISM?)...

I'll say more on the main thread about why I'm reasonably confident about it, but I'm reasonably confident that we're not seeing anything beyond "normal" home advantage. Shuangyan Hao has come top-10 at WOC so it shouldn't really come as that much of a surprise that she's done well on her home terrain.

Incredibly the Chinese men were 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th at the first radio control.
Four women were also in the top 10 at the first TV control. Amazing that they were so much more confident starting than everybody else. Strange that we do not see this dominance from other countries when they have home ground advantage.

Is that where they ended up? (I can't access the live results at the moment). I know they were up there early. Of course only one of them sustained it. I can believe the good start - the first bit of the course would have come as a shock to those who haven't raced in that terrain before and I expect most would have had to slow down a bit in the first couple of legs just to get a feel for what was mapped as what, something the locals would be familiar with.

I couldn't rule out the possibility that there's been some training on old maps (and of course everyone these days tries to work out in advance where the course is going to go), but am reasonably sure that there's been nothing beyond that.

Chinese athlete was 3rd in men's: https://eventor.orienteering.org/Events/ResultList...
Winning the women's is impressive!