Defending champions Tove Alexandersson, Sweden, and Matthias Kyburz, Switzerland, are finalising their preparations for repeating the feat of winning the Orienteering World Cup – the first round of the 2019 competition starts Saturday the 8th of June. This year’s Orienteering World Cup features four rounds and comprises nine individual races and three team races.
Finland hosts the first round with two individual forest competitions (Middle Distance and Long Distance) and one team competition, an Sprint Relay in central Helsinki. Round 2 is the World Championships, so Long Distance and Middle Distance individual competitions and the forest Relay will be included from there. The third round is the traditional autumn weekend in Switzerland, where a Middle Distance competition is followed by a Knock-Out Sprint and Sprint competitions.
Finally the World Cup moves to virgin territory, taking place in China for the very first time at the end of October. Here there will be Middle Distance and Sprint individual races and a Sprint Relay.
So the nine individual competitions comprise a Knock-Out Sprint, two Sprint races, four at Middle Distance and two Long Distance: an extensive and varied programme that will test navigation and physical skills to the full. The Team World Cup this year is made up of two Sprint Relays and one forest Relay. The first six men and women in the individual standings at the end of the season receive money prizes, the winners’ prizes being 2500€. There is a trophy for the winning country in the team competition.
All 12 World Cup competitions will be produced and broadcast live: http://dev.orienteering.sport/live/
On the live pages you will find live results, GPS-tracking, official results, social media feed etc.
Current World Cup standings can be found here
Program
Round 1, Helsinki Finland
June 8 Middle Distance
June 9 Long Distance (pursuit)
June 11 Sprint Relay
Round 2, World Orienteering Championships, Oestfold Norway
August 14 Long Distance
August 16 Middle Distance
August 17 Relay
Round 3, Laufen Switzerland
September 27 Middle Distance
September 28 Knock-out sprint
September 29 Sprint
Round 4, Final, Guangdong China
October 26 Middle Distance
October 27 Sprint Relay
October 27 Sprint