Sweden’s Freja Hjerne successfully defended her JWOC long distance title on Wednesday, while Switzerland’s Matthieu Bührer completed a remarkable hat-trick of gold medals with another dominant victory as the 2026 Junior World Orienteering Championships continued in the forests outside Karlskrona.
The challenging long distance courses tested both the technical and physical abilities of the athletes in the challenging terrain, where only a few – if any – competitors escaped without mistakes.
Hjerne, who also won the sprint title earlier this week, added a second individual gold despite not producing a perfect race. She led from third control and built up such a big lead that she had time for a few smaller time losses on the second part of the course and still win by more than thr mistakes towards the end and still win by more than three and a half minutes.
Freja Hjerne on the final meters on the Long distance. Photo: Filip Andersson
She won ahead of Hungary’s Janka Mikes, while France’s Fanny Delahaye secured the bronze medal another 25 seconds behind.
In the men’s race, Matthieu Bührer once again demonstrated why he has been the standout athlete of this year’s championships. After winning both the sprint and sprint relay with his team earlier in the week, the Swiss athlete delivered another composed performance to take his third gold medal of JWOC 2026.
Although Bührer also experienced small time losses, he managed them better than his rivals and finished 2:03 ahead of Czechia’s Vladimir Srb, while Hungary’s Márton Csoboth completed the podium, 4:02 behind the winner.
Men’s podium after Wednesday’s Long distance race. Photo: Filip Andersson
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Following Thursday’s rest day, the championships continue on Friday with the middle distance before concluding with the relay races on Saturday.
Leading results
Women
1 Freja Hjerne, SWE 1:11:11
2 Janka Mikes, HUN +3:32
3 Fanny Delahaye, FRA +3:57
4 Viktorie Škáchová, CZE +4:22
5 Leonie Mathis, SUI +9:16
6 Felicia Persson, SWE +9:27
Men
1 Matthieu Bührer, SUI 1:14:20
2 Vladimir Srb, CZE +2:03
3 Márton Csoboth, HUN +4:02
4 Tomáš Kučera, CZE +5:36
5 Rasmus Toyryla, FIN +6:08
6 Joona Hirvilahti, FIN +6:36