The 2024 World Orienteering Champs are in Edinburgh

In July 2024 (very probably 12th-16th) the World Championship Orienteering Races in Individual Sprint, Sprint Relay, and Knockout Sprint will be decided. They're in Edinburgh. Although that is a long way away for many people it is not so far for prospective competitors, so it may be fun to look at possible stepping stones for GB athletes. They will surely have done this already.

Let's name the recent World Cup Races in Czechia as the first stone. There there were both forest and sprint races; the sprints being the first at this level since last year's World Champs, whilst the forest races were the last ones at that level until after Edinburgh.

One of this year's trophies, from the World Championships Bulletin-4

On Wednesday 12th July the racing in the 2023 World Champs (WOC) begins. The Champs are at Flims-Laax in the mountain canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. The competition will be top-notch and the scenery will be stunning.

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!

Part of the terrain for this year's JK Middle Race (mapper squad member Ben Mitchell)

Internationally, in 2020 almost none of the races that On The Red Line tend to follow took place, but in 2021 they almost all did.

Domestically, the British NIghts took place in early 2020, and then there weren't big events until the second half of 2021.

The outlook for 2022 is however promising, with full programmes internationally and domestically

from the Idre Fjäll Event Bulletin-3

After a really good World Champs in Czechia in July 2021, what's next for the internationals programme, COVID permitting?

World Champs Summary from a British point-of-view.

There are two more World Cup rounds scheduled in 2021:

• World Cup Round 2 is in Idre Fjäll, Sweden, 12-15 August, 3 x forest races.
• World Cup Round 3 is in Cansiglio, Italy, 30 Sept - 3rd Oct, 2 x forest races and a sprint relay.

And on 23-24 October, Billund, Denmark, hosts individual and knockout sprints as part of WOC2022 buildup.

The domestic sprint weekend is 21st-22nd August (same as the re-scheduled Arctic Circle Jukola)

• British Sprint Champs (22nd August)
• British Sprint Relay Champs (21st August)

photo from Competition Bulletin 3

The Nokian Tyres World Orienteering Championships 2021 take place from Saturday 3rd to Friday 9th July. The host town is Doksy, a summer vacation resort in the Liberec region of the Czech Republic / Czechia. The Sprint Relay is in Doksy. The individual sprint is in/around an internationally known eighteenth century fortress. The forest races are in two types of distinctive terrain: the middle on steep bouldery slopes with plenty of thick vegetation, the long and relay in the sandstone where the best route can often be a long way from the straight line.

The previous championships, in 2019, were in Norway and were in the forest disciplines. The last time the sprint disciplines were contested in a World Championship was in Latvia in 2018.

The first entry in the competition programme is that there is no O-training on Thursday July 1st - because it's the main COVID testing for entry to the "WOC Bubble". These are the times we live in, and our first thought is gratitude to the Czech organisers, for running the World Champs, a huge task of itself, but even more this year in the significant shadow of a storm of COVID regulations. Thanks to them too for adding Sprint and Sprint Relay races to the original forest championships.

All finals will be televised. In Britain the broadcasts will as usual be a paid-for service on the internet (6 Euro per broadcast or 20 Euro for all five.) IOF Web TV Broadcast Schedule.

As Lockdown began there were eight GB athletes in the top 50s of the Sprint World Rankings

The pandemic has made clear there are important things bigger than any sport. Health, wellbeing, work, travel, weddings, family visits. Gosh, it even stopped professional football and reduced how much it was in the news.

Those for whom orienteering is a big recreational interest felt quite a sense of loss, as planned outings and trips were cancelled, and events didn't happen.

And so midsummer 2020 passes with no Jukola. There were no events in the spring. The 2020 international orienteering programme has been lost to the pandemic.

The cancellation of the international programme was particularly hard on the top international sprint-focused orienteers, as they had "waited" through 2019, a year with no World or European Champs in the sprint disciplines. And with the pandemic, with another cancellation for 2021, none were scheduled for 2020 or 2021 either.

Several GB squad athletes were in this position. They are mainly focused on the format and they were on track to be at the top of their game this year.

The recent news about next year's international programme, namely that (fingers crossed) there will be major international sprint orienteering at European and World level, is therefore very good.

Fiona Bunn is one of five newcomers to the GB Senior Squad. Credit: JWOC2019 Denmark.

The GB 2020 Senior Squad was announced at the end of January, news somewhat buried by the departure of the UK from the European Union on the same day.

On The Red Line We add our congratulations to the newcomers, and we thank those leaving for their contribution in previous years.

There are 24 athletes. 18 are based in the UK and six in Scandinavia. 15 of them have run at a World Championships. Coincidentally, 24 was also the size of the initial squads announced for 2018 and 2019.

It is an achievement to be invited to join. It brings cachet. It doesn't of itself bring any financial benefit though; there is no official squad training, and it is not referenced in the selection policy. Membership may help provide evidence on the policy's additional criteria, such as commitment to a positive team environment, but it is not the only way to do that. The GB international teams can and often do select non-squad athletes. Graham Gristwood ran the long at last year's World Championships.

New to the squad this year are Adam Potter (Bristol O.K.), Ben Mitchell (Swansea Bay O.C.), Cecilie Andersen (Bristol O.K.) and Sarah Jones (Edinburgh Southern O.C.), all relatively young runners who ran in the later rounds of last year's World Cup. Another newcomer is first year senior Fiona Bunn (Thames Valley O.C.), who won two medals at last year's Junior World Championships (JWOC).

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.

Graham Gristwood, in the WOC2019 Relay. credit: Rob Lines.

The Finishing Line (credit: Philip Gristwood)

Graham Gristwood starts the WOC long distance (credit: Philip Gristwood)

Peter Hodkinson, credit IOF/WOC2019

It was a qualification only day at the World Championships today - the first one since 2013. There were no medals won, no cameras in the forest, no big screen and it was all over in quite short time. So there was not the high sustained drama we look forward to for the three finals days coming up. There was however plenty of interest and good orienteering, there were nervous athletes, and there were of course individual dramas, triumphs and sadness. As Peter Hodkinson says in his interview (see below) "You can't win but you can lose". So it was perhaps more of a necessary day rather than a hugely memorable day for most of those present.

The nine athletes of the Great Britain Team for the 2019 World Champs. Credits: Matt Speake by Karl Orud, Jo Shepherd by WOC2018 Latvia, Charlotte Watson and Megan Carter-Davies by South London Orienteers (from the "Get up to Speed" videos), others by On The Red Line

The "Test Races" for the World Orienteering Championship (WOC) are Friday 5th and Sunday 7th July. WOC is in South-East Norway in mid-August and the test races are also, in similar terrain and with offset printed maps. Many countries use the races as part of the selection process. There are over 250 entries each day with countries split between parallel D21 and H21 races. There will be GPS tracking after the last runner starts - please see the bulletin.

Round 3 of the 2018 World Cup takes place in Østfold, Norway on 31st August and the 1st and 2nd September. It is "pre-WOC" as the 2019 World Orienteering Championships are in the same south-eastern part of Norway. 2019 is a year for a forest championships.

Description of how to follow the races live

The round includes a shortened long distance race, a prologue + pursuit, and a relay.

More detail in World Cup Round 3, Bulletin-3.

Photo: Megan Carter-Davies, WOC2018 Middle Race, courtesy of Janis Ligats / WOC2018 Latvia

The 2018 World Championships took place in Latvia (celebrating 100 years) from 4th - 11th August. The event was based in Riga and Sigulda. The Championships were supported by Nokian Tyres.

This was the last all-disciplines World Championships. Next year it will be the Forest races (Norway), in 2020 the Sprint races (Denmark.)

Britain sent a team of 14 athletes. They achieved one podium place, in the men's relay.

Full results are in IOF Eventor - WOC2018 and results and photographs are also at the Latvia World Champs site. An index of our news reports and a summary of British results follows below.

See also the virtual arena (with links to many GB photos) at Maprunner WOC 2018

After a World Champs the tables that decide how many runners a country gets in the forest races next year are calculated.

This year the tables determined the number of runners for a country in the middle and long races. Next year it only applies to the long, as there are qualification races in the middle and so every country can have three runners. There are also individual places for regional (e.g. European) champions.

Photo: Alice Leake in the current leader's chair at World Champs Sprint Final, Riga 2018, by Maprunner

On The Red Line editorial. On Saturday 4th August, after qualification races earlier in the day, the World Champs (WOC) Sprint Final took place in Old Town Riga, Latvia, and Alice Leake, the current British Women's Sprint Champion, came eighth. Alice made her WOC debut three years ago, and in previous years was 35th, 22nd and 22nd. She said on Twitter "8th in the world. What is even happening." It was the highest position by an individual British athlete at the 2018 World Champs. It's the fifth best British Women's sprint result at WOC ever. Like many of her fellow athletes Alice combines full-time work with her orienteering and time and money are precious. The Riga race was rightly hailed as "a breakthrough performance".

Alice explains what happened.

Photo: Alan Cherry finishes in the Long Race WOC2018, credit Janis Ligats / WOC2018 Latvia

Photo: Hector Haines running in last year's World Cup Long Race in Switzerland

The World Champs Long races are on Saturday 11th. These are the final races of WOC2018 Latvia. They are in the Gauja river valley "and side ravines". It is hilly, and the runnability varies from very good to hard. The visibility is mostly poor due to the dense vegetation.

GB has three women and two men running. Good luck to them. The women's race is first; and a two minute start interval is used.

Photo: Kris Jones starts leg 2 for the GB men's team, WOC Relay 9th August 2018, by On The Red Line.

The races took place in very hot weather in the forest next to the Turaida fortress in Latvia. Both were decided right at the end.

In the women's the favourite teams pulled away. On the last leg it was Sweden and Switzerland together at the last difficult control after a climb to the wall of the fortress. The race was decided in the short parkland section right at the end.

In the men's there were nine teams almost together at the run-through on the last leg, and at the end here were eight teams within a minute. But after all the drama it was the favourite teams who took the medals. It was the long leg up to the fortress that had decided it.

Photo: Ralph Street, on the runthrough, WOC Middle 7th August 2018, by On The Red Line.

World Of O's Preview

Neither of the GB teams are amongst the favourites, but both have the status of outsiders who can do well on a good day.

Kris Jones asked Ralph a few questions after the race.

It was the #WOC2018 middle races today. @Thekrisjones asks @Ralph_Street about his race. pic.twitter.com/0o8BAhKxGY

— On The Red Line (@OnTheRedLineO) 7 August 2018

Photo: The five GB athletes who will run the Middle races

The World Champs Middle races are on Tuesday 7th.

GB has three women and two men running. Good luck to them. The women's race is first; and a two minute start interval is used.

• First starter 9:56 UK-time

• 11:14 Charlotte Wat...

Photo: Kris Jones, WOC Sprint Relay, Riga, Latvia August 2018.

Great Britain, helped by a great run from Kris Jones on second leg, were seventh in the World Champs Sprint Relay in Riga, Latvia. The medals were won by the same countries as in 2017, and 2016, although as last year there was some swapping of positions.

The race, held in Riga but across the Daugava River from the Old Town, was an experience far removed from that of yesterday's individual sprint finals. And indeed from the experience of the vast majority of British orienteers.

Photo: Alice Leake running the arena passage in Riga Old Town Square, World Champs Sprint Final.

Alice Leake had the best run of the British athletes in this year's World Champs Sprints: she was eighth.

The fact that both the men's and women's titles were retained by last year's champions, Daniel Hubmann and Maja Alm, is to disguise a great deal of drama.

Photo:Maprunner - of the opening ceremony WOC 2017 Tartu Estonia

The World Champs (WOC) first races are early on Saturday.

We are fortunate that once again Jan Kocbach has written a comprehensive and entertaining reference to the competition:

WOC 2018: All You Need to Know

and, although described as "Technical - for Teams", orienteers may also like:

WOC 2018 Bulletin-4

Photo: WOC Latvia

Today team officials and many of the sprint orienteers arrived in a very warm Latvia. For example Kris Jones training blog. They continue to taper their training: Peter Hodkinson wrote about tapering - "not as easy as it looks" this time last year.

Jonas Merz gives his expectations for WOC for the IOF's Live Orienteering site. Jonas will be commentating for the international broadcasts, alongside Katherine Bett.

Will Gardner tells the readers of Athletics Weekly about WOC.

Lillomarka's guide to WOC (in Norwegian, but with many pictures) features their seven athletes taking part.

What happened last time:

Photo: WOC Latvia (of Sandra Grosberga)

Update 2nd Aug 10am: Timings updated from Bulletin-4.

If you like this coming weekend, in the morning you can run, and in the afternoon you can watch World Champs sprint orienteering - perhaps with some fellow members of your club.

Here are timings for the World Champs races in Latvia.

You can choose between paid-for Internet TV (it is €20 for the week, there'll be an individual race option too) and free-of-charge online results and social media.

Most interesting:

Photo Composition: GB WOC Team 2018 by On The Red Line

The World Championships are in Latvia with races from 4th - 11th August. They are also Round 2 of the 2018 World Cup.

WOC Bulletin-3.

An IOF article in January is entitled

A very special WOC on a very special year for Latvia

The championships in Latvia will be 35th WOC and the last one in modern history of orienteering with both sprint and forest races on the programme.

The British team is quite large, with seven women and seven men, all members of the senior squad.

Of the fourteen athletes, three are selected for sprint only, three for sprint and forest, and eight for forest only. We noted in our 'one race' article how half the team, seven athletes, are concentrating on a single race.

Image: Training Map Extract: 2018 Latvia

On The Red Line editorial - Charlotte wrote about other team members making a trip to join her in Latvia and run the test races organised by WOC. Several of the nations who will win medals use these as selection races so they re high quality. Jess wrote this article on Friday morning before the Sprint Test. Yesterday was the Middle test race. Today Sunday is the long test. There are live results and GPS.

Training Trip Latvia

Some of the team have travelled to Latvia for a pre-camp to suss out the terrain and prepare for the World Championships in less than a month’s time. There’s no point being in your best shape if you don’t know the faster lines to run, the best ways to attack the controls or what constitutes a good route choice.

Image: Map Extract: 2017 World Cup Latvia Middle Race

Learning in Latvia - Preparing for the WOC Middle Race

At the beginning of the year I applied to the athlete support fund for a grant to spend an extended period of time training in Latvia prior to the World Championships. We already knew that the terrain would be similar to the World Championships 2017 in Estonia. Having raced the Long there I felt I could have done much better if I had gone and spent some time learning about the terrain beforehand. Looking to other members of the team who had got better results than me, and other top athletes, it became clear that all those winning medals at WOC spend considerable time training in relevant terrain. The athlete support fund very kindly gave me a grant and I was selected for WOC middle so I was all set to go. I must also thank the North West Orienteering Association for their support on this training camp as well.

Photo Composition: GB WOC Team 2018 by On The Red Line

The team, or for British Orienteers "your team", for the 2018 World Championships in early August, has 14 runners. You know by now this is the last World Champs to be all discipline, i.e. sprint and forest races. So, in future years the team will almost certainly have fewer runners. It does mean for teams as a whole, for the support staff, and for spectators, there are many races to think about and look forward to: sprint, middle and long, plus the sprint and forest relays.

But that's not necessarily the individual athlete view. For seven of the GB athletes, half the team, there is a single race that is their's (counting the sprint qualification and final, which are on the same day, as one race.)

Photo Composition: GB WOC Team 2018 by On The Red Line

A campaign is launched inviting members of the British orienteering community to contribute towards the cost of the GB team attending the 2018 World Championships (WOC.) The fundraising campaign is, as last year, via the BT MyDonate site and the charity The Orienteering Foundation

The campaign page provides more explanation and provides the way to make a donation.

The success of last year's campaign really helped the athletes, easing financial pressure and being boosted by the support shown by the orienteering community.

The On The Red Line Team Announcement News Item.

Photo: Megan Carter-Davies, in University of Bristol colours, at the JK, Easter 2018, by Robert Lines.

British Orienteering has published the GB team for the World Championships (WOC).

On The Red Line congratulates the fourteen athletes and wishes them well for the next two months of training and for the racing in Latvia in early August.

All have previously represented Great Britain at World Championships. In fact, only the youngest member of the team, Megan Carter-Davies, who debuted last year, has not done so more than once.

The Sprint Relay team is the team that won the sprint relay at the World Universities Orienteering Championships in Miskolc, Hungary two years ago.

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.

The 2017 World Championships took place in Estonia from 1st - 7th July. The event was based in Tartu. The Championships were supported by Nokian Tyres.

Britain sent a team of 16 athletes. They achieved one podium place, in the sprint relay.

Full results are at the Estonian World Champs site. A summary of British results follows below.