First World Cup round in Finland

This year’s Orienteering World Cup kicks off in Finland with three competitions: a Middle Distance, a Long Distance pursuit (chase start) and a Sprint Relay.

Most of the world’s top stars will be there, gauging their form as they move forward towards the pinnacle of the season, the World Championships in Norway in mid-August. For the first two races in this round, Finland promises high-quality forest terrain in the Nuuksio National Park, centred at Vihti. The Sprint Relay, for teams of 4 with at least 2 women, will be in the very centre of Helsinki. All the competitions are being shown live on Finnish TV (YLE TV2), and of course through IOF’s LIVE Orienteering/orienteering.sport here.

The first competition is the Middle Distance on Saturday 8 June, the women’s competition being in the late morning and the men’s in mid-afternoon, local time. The start order is the order of competitors in the IOF World Rankings, the highest ranked starting last, with a start interval of 90 seconds.

Day 2, the Long Distance on 9 June, is a pursuit format with a chase start. Start times are based upon the runners’ elapsed times in the Middle competition, for all those finishing the Middle less than 20 minutes behind the winner; slower runners start in order after that, at 15-second intervals.

The terrain for both competitions is mainly spruce forest with some open hilltops, and marshy lower areas with reduced runnability. The terrain is undulating but with some steeper slopes, including some very rocky slopes with fallen trees. There are quite a few paths and tracks.

The heart of Helsinki city is the venue for the Sprint Relay, scheduled to start at 17.55 local time on Tuesday 11 June. Nations can enter up to 4 teams. This is the first of three competitions comprising the 2019 Team World Cup; the others are the forest Relays at the World Championships and a Sprint Relay in the final round.

Follow the races on IOF LIVE Orienteering! The programme is:

Saturday 8 June, Middle Distance: women 11.30 – 13.00, men 14.30 – 16.00 local time

Sunday 9 June, Long Distance pursuit: 10.00 – 12.55

Tuesday 11 June, Sprint Relay: 17.55 – 18.55

Web-TV, start lists, live results, social media feed etc on orienteering.sport