The international season draws to a close with three forest races in Switzerland on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It's Round 3, the final one, of the World Cup for 2022. Saturday is forest relays, Sunday is middle distance races, and Monday is the long races. The venue is Davos Klosters, best known for World Economic Forum Conference, near the Austrian border. The terrain is Alpine, high up with plenty of climb (of course) and it might snow.
Next year's World Championships will be held a little to the west, in Flims Laxx, in July 2023.
The main effect of it being "the World Cup Final" on the races is that the starting order for the long race is not based solely on World Ranking position:
The starting order is determined by the order of the World Cup standings after the middle race with best placed starting last.
Runners with no World Cup points (which at the moment includes 11 of the 15 British athletes) start in World Ranking order (best starting last) before all runners with points.
Full briefing
World of O - All You Need To Know World Cup Final 2022
IOF Eventor: Final Details (Bulletin-4)
IOF Eventor - All the athletes
Following the Races
There will be live TV with English commentary from the races in the Live Center of the IOF (and on national TV, but not with English commentary, in SUI, SWE, NOR, FIN, FRA.) The cost is €6 per race, or €15 for all three.
Online results are free.
Please check at Live Orienteering for details of timings and when GPS tracking is available.
Before, during and after the races the On The Red Line Twitter feed will chip in from a GB point of view. If you do not currently use Twitter and want to try this either a) use Twitter search for @OnTheRedLineO, or b) install the app and follow @OnTheRedLineO. In both cases we recommend setting "latest" from the default "recommended" (the equivalent of choosing your own route), and if b) not turning on notifications (the equivalent of looking at the map when you want.) We will also produce reports on this website, but they will not be as timely.
British Team
The British team is 15 strong. It is expected everyone will run in the relays. The women will all run both middle and long, as will three of the men. The other six men will run either middle or long.
Women
- Cecilie Andersen - Bristol
- Chloe Potter - Bristol
- Fiona Bunn - Edinburgh University
- Jo Shepherd - Inverness / Halden SK
- Laura King - Edinburgh University
- Megan Carter-Davies - Swansea Bay
Cecilie, Chloe, Fiona and Laura were all in the British Team for the World Universities Championships in Switzerland in August. They all ran the long race then.
All but Laura ran in the British Team at the European Champs in Estonia this year.
Megan is currently 7th in the World Cup points table. That's not enough for a realistic chance for a top position but there are six podium places. There are several runners close behind who are likely to score well in this terrain. World Cup Points so far.
Laura King 2021, credit: Fred Härtelt
Men
- Ben Mitchell - Swansea Bay
- Graham Gristwood - Forth Valley
- Hector Haines - AROS / IFK Lidingö
- Jonathan Crickmore - South Yorkshire
- Joshua Dudley - IFK Gothenburg
- Nathan Lawson - Octavian Droobers
- Peter Taylor-Bray - Manchester & District
- Sasha Chepelin - Interlopers
- Will Gardner - Octavian Droobers
Ben, Joshua, Peter and Sasha ran the European Championships in Estonia this year.
Many of the team have not done a lot of forest world ranking events recently. For example Graham and Jonathan, both of whom have in the past run World Champs long races (Graham four times, with positions 9, 18, 20 and 21) do not have the five ranking results in the last 39 months which can be counted towards World Ranking position.
Joshua Dudley 2021 (credit: IOF)
Races
Relays - Saturday
Alpine terrain with steep slopes at the tree line at 1700-2000m above sea level.
MEN (11:00 UK-time): 4.7—4.9km, 280m climb, 18 controls, 32 minutes per leg.
WOMEN (13:00 UK-time): 4.0—4.2km, 260m, 15-16 controls, 34-35 minutes per leg.
"Due to an archery parcours, you might meet life-size, artificial animals."
Middle - Sunday
Alpine terrain with a lot of contour details, stones and cliffs at 1500-1800 m above sea level
First start approx 8:20 UK-time; Women's Race will finish first.
WOMEN: 4.3km/265m, 17 controls, winning time 34 minutes.
MEN: 5.4km, 300m climb, 24 controls, winning time 35 minutes.
Long - Monday
Alpine terrain with steep slopes varying with a lot of contour details, stones and cliffs at 1500-1900 m above sea level.
First start approx 8:15 UK-time; Women's race will finish first.
WOMEN: 10.4km/480m, 29 controls, winning time 80 minutes.
MEN: 14.4km, 635m climb, 36 controls, winning time 90 minutes. .