It took us a while to sort through all the entries we received in our 'Guess The Medal Winners At Worlds' Contest, but we have finally tallied all the points and determined the winners.
The prize categories were:
1. Predict medal winners (in order of finish) in each race. 10 points for guessing the winner correctly, 5 for getting second place correct, and 3 for third.
2. Guess the top North American in each race (Name and place). 5 points for getting either the name or the place correctly. Ten points if you get both. For relays, tell us Nation (USA or Canada) and place.
We are now awarding prizes to the winner and runner-up in each category. The prizes are donated by TorbjornSport, www.torbjornsport.com and are :
1st place: $75 worth of SOLDA Glide wax
2nd place: A copy of the Perfect Skating CD-ROM
In the category of predicting the medal winners, first place goes to Brayton Osgood who scored a total of 68 points. Osgood scored most of his points by correctly guessing Norway to win all the relays and Frode Estil to win the 50K classic. Second place goes to Fletcher Koos with 63 points. Honorable mention to Erling Christiansen with 59 points. The average score was 38 points.
Those who did well in the medal predictions also succeeded in predicting the best North American finish in each race. In this category, Erling Christiansen and Brayon Osgood tied atop the leaderboard with 30 points. The tie was broken by determining how close each person best guess was to being correct. Osgood guessed that the Canadian women would finish 8th in the Team Sprint. They actually finished 10th – a difference of two spots. Christiansen guessed that the US men would finish 10th in the relay, they actually finished 11th – off by one spot. So Christiansen wins the tie-breaker. We had 4 people tie for third place in this category with 25 points. The average score was 17 points.
A few interesting notes about the competition:
Only two people correctly guessed the entire podium for an event. Osgood correctly guessed Norway, Germany and Russia in the men's relay, and Doug Oppliger correctly guessed Norway, Finland, and Russia in the women's Team Sprint. No one guessed the entire podium of an individual race. The only race that anyone was able to get more than one spot right was the women's 10K free: Neumannova, Tchepalova, Bjorgen.
The women's relays were apparently the most predictable events. 80% of the entrants correctly guessed that Norway would win the women's 4x5K relay. Surprisingly, less than half the entrants guessed the that the Norwegian men would win the 4x10K relay, despite their success in nearly every major relay in recent memory. Approximately 60% of the entrants correctly predicted the 1-2 finish of Norway and Finland in the women's team sprint.
68% of the entrants predicted that Beckie Scott would have the top North American result in the pursuit.
The most frequently predicted medalist who did not end up winning a medal was Estonia's Kristina Smigun. And while many people predicted medals for the North American skiers, Beckie Scott in particular, only one person correctly predicted that Sara Renner would come home with hardware.
Note: These results will become official on Monday, March 14. If any participants believe that their point totals were higher than the winners listed here, you must contact us before Monday.
