Capri, the World Champs 2023 Mascot, on stage at the World Champs 2022

World Champs 2024 Selection (Test) Races, 3rd, 4th, 6th June.

Flims Laax, best known as a ski resort, hosts the Orienteering World Champs in July. The Champs are being held in conjunction with the Swiss-O Week.

Switzerland has a well-earned reputation for organising orienteering. This encompasses major international competitions of the sort we report, but also mass participation festivals. This year the 6-day Swiss-O week starts the same day as the WOC Relay on July 16th and runs to the 22nd. It has already hit the day 3 capacity of 4000 runners: the capacity of the Mountain Railway!

Picture: Last year's GB World Cup Team

COVID-19 As you can imagine this was written before the introduction of the extensive social distancing measures introduced as a response to the spread of the virus causing COVID-19. Many of the events described will be cancelled.

In 2020 it is the first Sprint Orienteering World Championships, with Sprint Relay, Individual Sprint and the new Knockout Sprint. Denmark host, from 6th - 11th July, with the racing in Kolding, Fredericia and Vejle.

The European Championships are hosted by Estonia centred on Rakvere, and are the week of 6th - 23rd August. They include Middle, Long and Forest Relay.

The World Champs are not included in this year's World Cup, the European Champs are (as Round 2). There are two other rounds: Switzerland 20th - 24th May is Round 1, and Italy 1st - 6th October is the World Cup Final.

The Junior World Champs are in Turkey from 28th June - 5th July.

All are accompanied by open races, providing an opportunity for spectating orienteers to take a full-on experience of running and following the international racing.

Photo: The Belgian runner Yannick Michiels (right of photo, in TuMe's white) is at the front of the 2019 TioMila start (credit: TioMila Facebook)

The TioMila overnight relay in Skåne, the southern tip of Sweden. took place in almost continuous rain this weekend 27-28th April. The Damkavlen was won by Tampereen Pyrintö. The overnight TioMila race was again won by IFK Göteborg with an extremely impressive all round performance.

Many British runners took part for the teams of their Scandinavian clubs. The best placed was Graham Gristwood, who ran in Kalevan Rasti's team who came fourth.

The TioMila relay, dreaming of which has helped sustain Scandinavian orienteers through their winter, has arrived. It takes place in Skåne, the southern tip of Sweden this weekend 27-28th April. (As in Britain it is forest fire that seems the main risk). As usual many British athletes are running for their Scandinavian clubs. We have made a summary of those who are in the top 100 teams - based on the team numbers i.e. finishing order from last year.

Do checkout the World-of-O All You Need to Know.

Last year two British runners, Jo Shepherd and Hollie Orr, were in the third-placed team in the Damkavlen, and Charlotte Watson was in the seventh placed Lillomarka team. Sasha Chepelin was in the 10th placed team in TioMila relay; as with Jo and Hollie it was Halden SK. Halden have the world numbers 3 (Sabine Hauswirth) and 4 (Marika Teini) in their Women's Team this year, neither ran for them last year - they might do well.

Kjempefornøyde med 3. plass. Optimalt løpt av alle! pic.twitter.com/7TeVWLQ3JB

— Halden SK (@halden_sk) 28 April 2018

Fourteeen GB squad members ran for Scandinavian clubs in TioMila this weekend. There were many very good individual performances,. Pride of place in terms of team results was Halden SK's third place for Jo Shepherd and Hollie Orr running with Kine Hallan Steiwer, Eva Jurenikova and Elena Roos.

It is all broadcast online. GPS tracking and many cameras (both setup in close co-operation with the planners) allow the broadcasters to show the story well, often with great drama as the races unfold. This year there's again an English language commentary option, with Boris Granovskiy and Graham Gristwood. It costs 150SEK. Order the broadcast at www.10mila.se.

As with watching all sport knowing a bit more about the teams and the athletes helps the appreciation.

This article is a summary of the timings and colours of some of the clubs who may well feature. There being more than 300 teams in each race suggests someone important is left out. I wonder who.

Photo: Tove Alexandersson wins for Stora Tuna in 2017, overtaking 11 other teams on the last leg - SVT sport.

One of the highlights of the orienteering calendar, TioMila, takes place near Stockholm next weekend. A lot of the GB Squad will take part, and they have written several articles. This item is a quick summary and an index to the articles.

For a taste of the TV pictures and a bit more on last year please see the SVT 2 minute video (It's in Swedish.)

A video view over the arena is recently available.

Photo: Sasha Chepelin at the World Cup Final Meeting 2017

Like Hector, my excitement for the upcoming TioMila relay is building. Having recently moved club and location to Halden, this feeling is ever more noticeable. I'm now part of a club which has quite the record of orienteering relay success. Simply glancing into the Halden SK's central clubhut reveals a trove of mementos earned from consistent success at the big orienteering relays across their entire histories. But with these big overnight relays comes a very different style of orienteering.

Halden's news item welcoming Sasha.

Photo: Ralph Street in the colours of Södertälje-Nykvarn Orientering, JK Long race 2017, by Robert Lines.

TioMila2018, one of the best weekends of the year. is in commuting distance of Stockholm next weekend.

As you know participation in orienteering is much more club based in Scandinavia than it is here. There are many relays, and this one is arguably the most important. It is the one that Swedish orienteers all talk about through the winter. It's the one they all remember years afterwards.

Photo: Jess Tullie in Domnarvets GOIF colours

This year's TiomIla Women's race is in the afternoon of Saturday 28th April. It starts at 12:15 UK-time and the winning team will finish about a quarter to five. You can watch it on the internet, with English commentary from Boris Granovskiy and Graham Gristwood. There will be several hundred teams. Apart from the sprint specialists, most of the GB Squad women will be running, and they are looking forward to it.

Video showing the start of the 2016 race There wasn't English commentary in 2016 but you can see Jess lead off for the lowest numbered team.

Photo: Hector Haines in IFK Lidingö colours

To many, the name TioMila is very well-known. And those that have experienced it understand the excitement and the grandeur of the competition. But it takes living it to really get to the essence of the race.

For Team GB it is the several rounds of the World Cup that defines the competitions. The rounds are hosted in different countries, and the programme is different each year. This year there are four rounds in all. The first round is the European Championships (EOC). The second round is the annual World Championships (WOC).

The European Championships are every two years. 2018 is a year for them - they are in Switzerland, in May.

This is the last year that the World Championships includes all disciplines. From 2019 forest and sprint will alternate. This year WOC is in Latvia in August.

The combination of an all disciplines World Championships and a European Championships makes 2018 the best year to further develop the interest of supporters and spectators in international orienteering.