The world’s Ski Orienteering elite are gearing up right now for the climax of the season: the World Ski Orienteering Championships (WSOC) start on Wednesday at Piteå in northern Sweden, with four days of intense and exciting competition in prospect.
European Championship (ESOC) gold medallists Tove Alexandersson, Magdalena Olsson and Erik Rost are on home ground and will be doing their utmost to make WSOC a success story for Sweden, just as it was in ESOC in February.
But several other nations also see the chance of winning gold: not least Norway with Lars Moholdt, and Russia through Mariya Kechkina, Alena Trapeznikova and Andrey Lamov. Russia with impressive strength in depth was best in the team competitions at ESOC; they will be striving very hard to produce the same form again in Piteå.
More than 80 elite ski orienteers from 13 nations will be joined in Piteå by Junior, European Youth and World Masters competitors in their respective championships, so very full competition days lie ahead.
A complete contrast to ESOC, held at high altitude in Turkey – the WTOC races will be almost at sea level and with a quite different kind of technical and physical challenge. The race terrain consists of a number of small hills, 90% covered by coniferous forest, with a good layout of ski tracks and paths.
Follow the live coverage, it’s free on orienteering.sport!
- Live Web-TV from all competitions
- Live GPS tracking
- Live results
Reports will be posted here after each race.
Wednesday: Long distance, 9.00 to 12.30 (local time)
Thursday: Sprint, 13.10 to 15.00
Saturday: Middle distance, men’s mass start at 10.00, women’s mass start at 11.10
Sunday: Relay, women’s start at 12.30, men’s start at 13.20.