Joey Hadorn (SUI) and Tove Alexandersson (SWE) took the first Orienteering World Cup wins of 2024 with their victories in Saturday’s Knock-Out Sprint in Switzerland.
Yesterday’s heavy rain was nowhere to be seen in sunny, central Olten, that hosted all of Saturday’s races from the quarter finals before noon and until the finals some hours later.
With the arena placed in Munzingerplatz, hundreds of spectators had great chance to follow the 72 athletes racing in the flat and fast urban terrain in the old town centre.
And they could see the reigning sprint world champion Kasper Fosser (NOR) being knocked out of the competition already in the fast raced quarter finals.
The semi-finals featured “runners choice”, leaving the athletes with 20 seconds before the start to decide one of three course options. Here athletes like Hanna Lundberg (SWE) and Ralph Street (GBR) missed out on the top 2 to earn a place in the final.
In the men’s final, which was run without forkings or runners choice, Joey Hadorn started out defensively and stayed at the back of the field until the arena passage. Teemu Oksanen (FIN) and Martin Regborn (SWE) had led until there, but Hadorn overtook them all at the arena and stayed in front on the last few controls, with Sweden’s Jonatan Gustafsson on his heels, less than a second behind. Finland Tuomas Heikkila was third.
Simona Aebersold (SUI) seemed determined to secure a double Swiss’ victory by setting a fast pace from start in the women’s final. At the arena passage, only Tove Alexandersson (SWE) and Natalia Gemperle (SUI) were able to keep up. And towards the second to last control, Alexandersson found an extra gear and overtook Aebersold and sprinted her way to the win.
Find all results, GPS-tracking and maps on IOF LIVE
After a night’s sleep, Olten and the 250 World Cup athletes wake up to another World Cup race – the individual sprint.
The first athlete starts at 12.03 and the broadcast on IOF TV runs from 12.10 – 14.40 CEST (UTC+2).