The European Ski Orienteering Championships, also serving as the World Cup Finals, take place in Khanty-Mansiysk in central Russia with the first event, the Sprint, this coming Tuesday, 10th March. 110 athletes from 17 nations are registered to take part. There are three individual and two relay races.
Home nation Russia achieved four individual wins out of six in the recent World Cup round in Sweden, plus winning both relay classes, and must be favourites for ending as best nation overall here. Alena Trapeznikova, Tatyana Oborina, Andrey Lamov, Vladislav Kiselev and not least the veteran Eduard Khrennikov all showed good form in Sweden. But several young athletes, from Finland, Norway and Sweden in particular, proved in the recent World Cup round that they are capable of taking on the best and achieving podium placings. And Daisy Kudre from Estonia won the Long distance there by a good margin; she will be striving hard get a repeat result in Russia – especially with Tove Alexandersson again absent from the event!
Current leaders in the World Cup standings are Magdalena Olsson, Sweden and the Russian Andrey Lamov. In the women’s list, Daisy Kudre EST and Linda Lindkvist SWE are second and third whilst Marjut Turunen, Finland holds fourth place just six points down on Lindkvist. Russians take the first three places in the men’s list with Vladislav Kiselev and Eduard Khrennikov behind Lamov. Here, Sweden’s Markus Ludholm is the closest contender. Full lists: https://ranking.orienteering.org/WorldCup/WorldCup?wcup=skio&target=wrs_frame
The Alexander Filipenko Winter Sports Centre, used for many major skiing events over the years but most well-known as the venue for the Biathlon World Championships in 2011, will be used as the base for all the races. It has first-class race facilities and excellent views for spectators. The nearby competition area is largely a ‘nature park’, coniferous forest with mainly cedar trees, consisting of three types of terrain: slightly undulating areas on hilltops, areas with spurs and gullies with some slopes, and areas with deep valleys and steep slopes with a maximum height difference of 85 m.
Full details of the competitions can be found at https://esoc2020.ugrasport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/byulleten-3-18.02.2020-dlya-interneta.pdf.
Race Programme for the Championships
Tuesday 10 March, 1400-1530 local time, Sprint
Wednesday 11 March, 1400-1700, Middle distance
Thursday 12 March, 1400-1600, Sprint Relay (teams of 2, 1 woman + 1 man)
Friday 13 March, Rest Day
Saturday 14 March, 1400-1700, Long distance
Sunday 15 March, 1400-1700, Relay (Women’s and Men’s, teams of 3)
Note: when it is 1400 in Khanty-Mansiysk, it is 1000 CET.