According to the GPS meters of several skiers, the men’s 50 km race in Planica was five kilometers too short. FIS homologation inspector Janne Pylväs explains what the difference is.
The length of the men’s 50 km co-start race on the final day of the World Championships in Planica has caused confusion. For example, a British skier Andrew Musgrave GPS watch your measure for the trip (you will switch to another service) 44.72 kilometers. According to Ilta-Sanom (you will switch to another service) a Finnish skier’s GPS showed 44.69 kilometers.
The race route was announced as 7.14 kilometers, which was circled seven times. According to the results service of the international skiing federation FIS, 49.7 kilometers had been skied when the finish line was reached. A 45-kilometer race would mean about 750 meters of throwing per lap.
FIS homologation inspector Janne Pylväs says that a difference of five kilometers between the skied and declared distance is possible. Homologation focuses on the design, inspection and standardization of tracks.
According to Pylvä, the difference is due to the measurement method. Tracks are measured along the center line.
– In value competitions, the center line can be quite far from the edge where the skier goes. If the minimum width on the descent is six meters, the skier can go right from the edge, while we measure three meters from the middle. When there are a lot of descents and curves, that’s where the difference accumulates, suddenly there is a difference from the ideal line.
Pylväs considers the skiers’ GPS results quite reliable.
– When measuring distance, GPS is quite good at giving directions. I don’t think these latest GPS readings via phone or watch lie that much on the go. It does lie when measuring height and you can’t trust it.
Pylväs believes that the course of the royal journey has been measured correctly.
– Nowadays, it is possible to measure lengths very precisely with laser scanning material. We can get down to millimeter accuracy. We use the same measurement data as, for example, road builders. That hardly explains the difference. I understood the director Male Ponikvarin from the talk that five kilometers on this track was almost five kilometers. We are talking about a throw of less than 10 meters. I bet the longer runs were pretty close to the same. That doesn’t explain that difference.
– The difference must come from choosing the landing line. The skier goes in the ideal line, while the measurer goes in the middle.
Time for a change
The then head coach of the united Finland national team Petter Kukkonen brought up the measurement practice a couple of years ago at the World Championships in Oberstdorf.
– Does this make any sense? No skier actually skis along the center line, but the fastest possible route, Kukkonen said.
In combined, the issue is highlighted when you ski on shorter runs than cross-country and there are a lot of bends.
Janne Pylväs, should the measurement practice be changed so that the Ski Trips correspond to those announced?
– Absolutely. This is something that has been brought up from time to time by Finns. The last connected side had this challenge. This is something that needs to be changed. Isn’t there enough evidence here?