Start of Women's Final in the Knockout Sprint, just before the forking, photo: Silvan Schletti
At the end of September the 2025 Orienteering World Cup was decided in Uster, Switzerland. As it worked out, both Aebersold siblings, Simona and Fabian,were main players.
Sunday was the last day, and it was Knockout Sprint. The women's race was won by Simona, who had already secured the World Cup by winning the individual sprint on Friday. She has run well in all this year's races, and ran the knockout finals from the front. Grace Molloy was a splendid second, her first medal in a World Cup Race.
The men's World Cup was much closer, and was decided in the final moments of the Men's Knockout Sprint Final a few minutes later. Fabian Aebersold, although not himself in contention for the overall World Cup win, played a key part as he led the field at the decisive point, the penultimate control.
IOF Eventor for the Competition.
World Cup Final
Switzerland often hosts the World Cup Final Round and it did so again for 2025. Earlier in the year there had been forest races in Sweden, the European Sprint Championships in Belgium, and now there was the final three races in Uster, not so far from Zurich.
The long weekend's Race 1 was a regular (individual) sprint, with no qualification. In each of the men's and women's the top 36 got a place in Race 3 the knockout sprint, and the top 50 got World Cup points (and the promise of more for the knockout sprint). (In fact athletes in positions 37-50 got double points, as they got them for the knockout sprint also.) There were 220 national team athletes in the individual race on Friday, so on Sunday a third were in the Knockout Sprint and 150 were free to take part in the spectator races.
In between races 1 and 3 was an exciting Sprint Relay, with up to four teams per nation.
Artificial Barriers
Artificial barriers are a regular feature of international spints. They are commonly used to close routes that would otherwise be open, to create better route choice problems. There are various constructions, one being a portable metal fence with identifying tape and sometimes advertising boards.
Barriers have also come to be used to make particular routes longer or to create artificial mazes (or "labyrinths"). They might make a route longer by, for example, extending a corner by some metres. In these cases runners are liable to go very close to the barriers so as to run minimum distance. And indeed they may put a hand on to the barrier if it a metal one, so as to turn quicker, the same as they might do with a pole mounting a road sign.
In the knockout sprint in Belgium all the finals had the runners doing identical courses, which often resulted in a group jog along one route until near the end when there was a very fast 800-1500m. In a quarter-final, at the late run flat-out stage, one athlete had been making a "U-turn" at the end of a temporary barrier in place to make one of the alternative routes a bit longer. It was a portable metal fence. The athlete put their hand on it as they turned, pulled it over, and that was awkward, especially for those racing just a few metres behind - where was the course now?
Possibly as a result, World Cup Final Bulletin-4 said:
> It is forbidden to intentionally touch any of the installed equipment in the race area (artificial barriers, labyrinth fencing, IOF-tape, crossing points, etc.)
At the team officials briefing before the races in Uster this topic was further addressed:
> Installed equipment (labyrinths, barriers, etc.): If you intentionally touch it and move the equipment or obstruct any other runners you may be disqualified.
Come the knockout sprint and we had labyrinth fences on an area of treacherous wet slippy grass, and athletes wanting to make tight turns on them.
You can see this is tricky. When does an athlete who touches get disqualified and when do they not? Does it depend on how the touch is made? Does it depend on other runners in the vicinity? What does an athlete do if it is clearly advantageous to make a gentle touch? And what should a coach advise?
And come the racing, Simona, the best woman all round orienteer in the World this year and the home favourite, the clear leader at that late point in her semi-final, dislodged a fence on the very slippy area.
Image from IOF TV
The Individual Sprint
Results of Uster World Cup Sprint at IOF Eventor.
World of O Summary, Race Analysis and Maps.
There were no map flips or exchanges.
Men
It was Tomáš Křivda's first World Cup win, secured with a "near flawlesss" performance in the words of World of O! He finished four seconds ahead of the home favourite Matthias Kyburz. Matthias had announced the weekend was his last international orienteering. He is 35. Amongst other achievements Matthias won the World Cup six times and a World Champs gold eight times.
But he is doing more marathon running which he has taken up the last two years. He was 30th in the Paris Olympics, and has the second best ever time by a Swiss runner. He plans to runs the New York City Marathon on 2nd November.
(update 3rd November- Matthias was 5th in a time of 2:09:55.)
Third was Yannick Michiels, five seconds behind Kyburz. Fourth was Tuomas Heikkila.
For GB, Freddie Carcas was 25th at +0.57, and Eddie Narbett was 48th at +1.21. Both got World Cup points and Freddie qualified for the Knockout Sprint.
Jim Bailey and Nathan Lawson were both 59th, Ralph Street was 65th, Charlie Rennie and Euan Tryner both 69th.
Freddie Carcas, photo: Rob Lines
Women
In the women's race Simona Aebersold won by 30 seconds. Second was Natalia Gemperle, four seconds ahead of third placed Pia Young Vik, who was just two seconds ahead of Hanna Lundberg.
For GB, it was similar to the men. Grace Molloy was 21st for World Cup points and a go in the knockout. Cecilie Andersen was 48th, taking some World Cup Points. Imogen Pieters was 58th, Chloe Potter 71st, Emily Gibbins 75th, Mairi Eades 83rd and Rachel Duckworth 85th.
Grace Molloy, photo: Rob Lines
World Cup Implications
The scoring scale for each race this year declines more gently and for longer than in previous years. 100-90-80-75-70-66 and so on down to 1 for 50th.
Simona's 100 points wrapped up the World Cup for her.
On the men's side Martin Regborn was the one whose chances of the overall slipped, as he needed better than 12th in the sprint. Tomas Krivda was fourth before the race but by taking the win, the overall could realistically now be his, but it could also go to Kasper Fosser (5th=) or Max Peter Bejmer (16th). it would be decided in the knockout.
The Knockout Sprint
The rules are knockout races can be:
> a) "straight" - all runners run the same legs in the same order, or
> b) they can include loops, so runners run the same legs but in different orders, or
> c) they can include "runner's choice" where just before the race each runner independently chooses (in limited time) one of three options for part of the course.
Different mechanisms can be used in quarter-final, semi-final and final.
In the World Champs in Denmark in 2022, and the World Champs in Scotland in 2024 all the finals were straight. In Denmark the view was this was fairer. It is also the easiest for spectators to follow the race progress, and part of the point of knockout is to bring the orienteering to the audience.
In the European Champs in Geel in Belgium the previous month the courses had again been straight. Most seemed to feel the races were not as exciting as they used to be, because it was very common that for most of the time everyone jogged, somebody did the map reading and five followed, with many determinedly not going a different route. The "sit and kick" tactic was predominant. Unless athletes go different routes there is no need to go fast until near the end, they just need to stay in contact. And indeed there is little need to mapread - keep with the group and plan the last couple of legs which invariably include key route choices.
Mechanism in Uster
It was certainly time for something different and the Swiss planners delivered.
There were no straight races, and the mechanisms chosen meant all races went quickly almost from the start. The quarters and the final used loops, and the semi-finals used runner's choice.
On The Red Line The suggestion is this is less fair, but in our view it is fair enough and better. It makes navigation more important and produces more interesting races.
Quarter Finals
This used "a butterfly with three wings" (maybe a shamrock?) with a common control visited before and after each loop (i.e four times), followed by a long route choice. With three loops each athlete had a unique combination. On the first loop a runner was with one other runner, and if they ran it well that could be quite a help. Also with climb differing on the loops it may be a marginal advantage to have the climb earlier. And of course the central control got very busy, with in one case a race reaching it for the first time before all the runners from the previous race had gone through it for the last time.
Freddie went out at this stage, Grace went through from the same quarter as Hanna Lundberg and Pia Young Vik, some way behind them (but some way ahead of 4th.)
On the men's side the most notable runner eliminated was new European Champion August Mollen.
Semi Finals
This used runner's choice. The choice was a section with three common controls, with alternatives from the first to the second, and the second to the third. When it came to the race it was the second common control that runners reached first. From there they went their chosen way to the third common control, took an unforked section to the first common control, and then ran the other part of their choice back to the second common control.
It is never easy to get through with only the first two doing so. This mechanism certainly seemed to give more chance to runners going fast from early in the race, compared to those favouring a "sit and sprint" approach.
The Final
The map for the Final, showing a loop from the start
This race used a forking at control 1, which was also control 8, with the same control as 2 and 9. The runners split to different routes and that means they have to run or risk falling behind. They also used a lot of indoor running. Both finals were very exciting from the start with the field splitting three and three for the first control, and runners may not have realised initially that it was forked.
The women's final had seven runners, Hanna Lunberg and Pia Young Vik from SF1, Tereza Rauturier and Cecile Calandry from SF2, Simon Aebersold and Vilma von Krusenstierna from SF3, plus Grace Molloy 1 second off qualifying in SF1. She was placed in the final as a qualified runner had used a barrier for support at a place where Grace had slipped to the ground by not touching the barrier.
Grace Molloy, photo: Rob Lines
No runner had a perfect run and there was a lot of change in positions in the seven and a half minutes. The closed gaps and somewhat intricate indoor spaces made for several different possible routes. Grace made a good choice on the long leg to control 9 where she was in the lead but it was a close race and Simona got past just before control 11 and ran strongly to the line.
The knockout sprint medallists, Grace Molloy (2nd), Simona aebersold (1st), Tereza Rauturier (3rd), photo: Rob Lines
The Men's final start the decisive leg 11-12, a still from the IOF TV broadcast
The men's final had the regular six runners, Tuomas Heikkila and Matthias Kyburz from SF1, Tino Polsini and Max Peter Bejmer from SF2, Kasper Fosser and Fabian Aebersold from SF3. Tomas Krivda had lost out in SF3, and that meant that as well as the Knockout Sprint medals, Fosser and Bejmer were contesting the World Cup. Bejmer had a 9 point advantage,, but if he was behind Fosser, unless he was right behind him and Fosser wasn't first or second, the World Cup would go to Fosser.
As with the women's race there were a lot of changes of position and several different routes chosen at various points. As they reached control 11 of 13 Fabian Aebersold was first to punch. He was followed by Fosser, Kyburz, Polsini, Heikkila and then in sixth Bejmer. There was a choice of routes from here to control 12, they look rather similar in time, but the western route although slightly longer will be a few seconds quicker than the eastern one which involves more corners. And with so much going on before this point how much had runners been able to prepare their choice?
Amyway Aebersold went east and Fosser followed. You can imagine his aim is to hold his position in the field compared to Bejmer. Kyburz also follows. But Polsini is aware of the other route and takes it. Maybe he suspected it would be quicker, but he certainly knew he must do something different to gain position. Heikkila followed Kyburz, Bejmer went a different way to Fosser and follows Polsini. And at control 12 the order was Polsini, Bejmer, Aebersold and that was it at the finish. Polsini won gold. Bejmer won silver and the World Cup. And if Aebersold had gone east there seems every chance Fosser woud have gone that way too and taken the World Cup.