LA TROBE COURSE SETTING COMPETITION RESULTS ANNOUNCED

Our apologies for the delay in deciding this competition but we’ve finally picked a winner! Unfortunately we’re unable to share the course at this point because we’re saving it for a pop-up sprint event sometime in the Summer but our adjudicator Mikkel Kaae-Nielsen has written up some comments about the judging process and his thoughts on great sprint course setting:

It is a difficult task to set a good sprint course, and it is an even more difficult task to set a good sprint course on a map with two layers. It has been interesting to see how the participants have used different areas of the map and come up with different takes on course setting. 
When I set a sprint course, I see it as a competition between me and the runner. I have to stress them and surprise them, so the runner that handles this stress the best, wins.
The first leg is a great opportunity to stress the runners. In this course setting competition, I saw a lot of different takes on a first control.
One the things that I put weight on in my evaluation of the courses was the leg variation, which I think is very important. A good variation between long and short legs have the possibility of catching the runners of guard, especially if you throw in some twists and turns when you have some short legs.
To make the second layer work, you have to put up some strategic barriers, which they were allowed to use three of.
The well places barriers and utilizations of the second layer is one of the main reasons that Eric Morris set the best course. Also, Teemu Niskanen and Quentin Andrieux used the second layer very well.

Here are the results of the top 5, with points out of 100.
1.    Eric Morris – 85 points
2.    Teemu Niskanen – 82 points
3.    Quentin Andrieux – 74 points
4.    Tomas Vavrik – 69 points
5.    Andras Bogdanovits – 64 points

Thank you so much to all participants, it has been a lot of fun rating your courses, and everyone of you brought something to the table.
Congrats to Eric for setting a good course, and to Teemu, who was so close behind.