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In a very close finish, the Russian duo of Vladimir Askenov RW1AC and Alexey Mikhailov RA1AIP won a narrow victory in the 2010 World Radiosport Team Championship, the first time a team from outside North America has ever won the top prize in the "World Cup" of the ham radio contest community.
The winning team used the special WRTC call of R32F in gaining their victory, as the announcement set off huge cheers from the Russians on hand for the closing WRTC ceremonies.
Chief judge Dave Sumner K1ZZ proclaimed himself "100% confident in the placement of the winners," as the Russian duo barely edged Team Estonia, consisting of Tonno Vahk ES5TV and Toivo ES2RR.
Using the call R33A, ES5TV and ES2RR also won the award for most SSB contacts and the most multipliers, as they totaled 4,084,889 points, 99.675% of the winning Russian score.
The American duo of Dan Craig N6MJ and Chris Hurlbut KL9A finished in third place. Operating as R33M, the US squad had the most net contacts of any WRTC team with 3,549 total.
The US pair also lost no multipliers in log checks, which helped them move up in the final standings and into the bronze medal position.
The top three spots were different than the raw final scores posted by the WRTC online score database, which had the Russian duo in first, followed by S50A and S57AW, and then Team Estonia and the United States duo of N6MJ/KL9A.
As for the final log checking, the ARRL's Sumner called it "extremely difficult" as the team of judges had to go "contact by contact" at times to determine what should stay in the final log.
Sumner told the WRTC participants that judges went through the audio recordings of top finishers as well, verifying every contact possible.
"Accuracy counts," said Sumner, who grew emotional and was near tears as he prepared to announce the WRTC winner.
A review of the contest numbers provided by the WRTC 2010 organizers showed the winning team of RW1AC/RA1AIP jumped out to the early lead in the first hour, and never fell below second place at the end of any of the 24 hours of the WRTC.
The biggest threat was always second place finisher ES5TV/ES2RR. While Team Estonia got off to a slow start, they jumped into first place after hour 14 (0200z), but then slowed near the end, finishing third before log checks, and in second afterwards.
The most raw QSO's were made by S50A/S57AW, who ended up with 3,616 from the 24 hours - an average of just over 150 contacts per hour - a reminder that 100 watts can certainly do the job.
As many had expected, the top scorers were from European teams, maybe more acclimated to the type of propagation and openings one would expect from a Moscow-area QTH.
This WRTC had many firsts - the first conducted in a field day-style environment, as all teams operated from tents in an agricultural area south of Moscow, and the first where the final proceedings were streamed online, allowing contesters to hear the results as they were announced to the participants.
"Great to be attending via the net!" said Dan Eskanazi K7SS, one of the hundreds to watch on their computers and engage in live chat with other interested contesters from around the world, as the closing ceremonies built up to the final announcement of the Gold, Silver and Bronze medal teams.
After it was all over, organizers were thrilled with how the event worked out.
"Many emotions here," said Harry Booklan RA3AUU the morning after the winners were announced. "Many many happy faces all around."
"A great FAIR competition and social experience," said John Crovelli W2GD. "You were wonderful hosts," he told the Russian organizers.
Take second place Team Estonia, which had more QSO's than the winners and three more multipliers. But with 116 fewer QSO points - that was the difference.
The story was all mults for third place N6MJ/KL9A - they had the most contacts of any station after log checks and the highest number of QSO points.
But their problem was they were short on mults - 23 behind the winners. If they had 16 more mults, that would have just been enough to win.
For fourth place S50A/S57AW, their problem was simple - too many mistakes in the log, as they lost 8.5% of their QSO's - 323 in all, dropping them from second to fourth.
In fifth place, K5ZD/W2SC had the same problem as N6MJ/KL9A - not enough multipliers.
