SkiO World Cup: Ulvensøen triumphs in Pursuit; Baklid wins again

The athletes at the IOF Ski Orienteering World Cup in Norway once again fought a fierce battle for victory, as Round 1 ended with a Pursuit race Sunday morning.

In the men’s event, home favourite Jørgen Baklid once again proved to be the strongest after a close fight with Jonatan Ståhl (SWE).

The two shared the win in Friday’s sprint and therefore started out at the same time on today’s 11 kilometres at 10:00.

Although they had different forkings on the first two loops, there were only three seconds between them after 5.6 kilometres of skiing.

And after a nerve-wracking finish, it was only on the way to the penultimate control that Baklid pulled away from Ståhl, who unfortunately struggled with a broken ski.


Jørgen Baklid during Saturday’s middle distance. Photo: Terje W. Pettersen

This means Baklid finishes at the top of the podium for the third time in Sjusjøen, while Ståhl ends with the shared victory and two second places.

Behind them, Niklas Ekström fought to get involved in the gold battle. But the Finn, who started eight seconds behind the two, never made contact and crossed the finish line 34 seconds behind in third position.

Vegard Gulbrandsen (NOR) was more than two minutes behind in fourth place.

The women’s pursuit race was just as nail-bitingly close afterwards and ended with another Norwegian triumph.

At first, it looked like a battle between sprint winner Daisy Kudre-Schnyder (EST) and Sweden’s Magdalena Olsson, who started just eight seconds later.

But on the final loop, the two were caught by Saturday’s winner, Anna Ulvensøen (NOR), who rode impressively fast towards the end.

UIvensøen started in eighth position, 57 seconds behind Kudre-Schnyder, but managed to catch up with the leaders on the last long leg. Eventually Olsson lost time and Ulvensøen had the better finish today against Kudre-Schnyder.

Find results and GPS-tracking from today’s race in IOF LIVE.

The SkiO World Cup continues in Germany from 15-17 February and concludes from 21-23 March at the European Ski Orienteering Championships in Finland.
But already this coming weekend there will be more international ski orienteering, when the discipline is part of the FISU World University Games Winter 2025 in Turin, Italy.

There will be a sprint on Sunday, January 19th and a sprint relay on Tuesday, January 21st.