The Spa town Jelenia Góra in SW Poland is the venue for this year’s World TrailO Championships, which start on Monday with 160 competitors from 22 nations including teams from Japan and USA. The competitions take place on the lower slopes of mountain terrain, mainly forest with very many big stones and boulders. For the first time, nations can enter two Juniors in addition to the standard team entry.
Finland will be aiming to make it three wins in a row in major championships in the opening event, the Relay. In the O class the Finnish team won the Relay at the last World TrailO Championships (WTOC) in Portugal in 2019 and at the European Championships (ETOC) on home ground this May. A strong Ukraine team won the P class at ETOC and will be looking for a repeat here.
Stony terrain will challenge competitors
TempO is the second competition on the programme where the defending world champion is Marit Wiksell, Sweden. She was silver medallist at ETOC behind the Finn Petteri Hakala, world TempO champion in 2018. Finland has a fine record in international TempO, with both Pinja Mäkinen and Antti Rusanen being previous world champions. Norway has a good record too, and their team could well provide a medal-winner here. There is a qualification competition in the morning and the Final in the afternoon.
Two days of PreO conclude the championships. Pinja Mäkinen is the defending O class champion and she demonstrated her good form this year with the silver medal at ETOC. Here, Sweden’s Jens Andersson took the gold medal and the bronze was won by the young Dane Tobias Biering. In the P class, Ola Jansson, Sweden will be looking for a fourth consecutive World Championship gold – what a record! But he can expect a strong challenge from Alejandro Aguila Lara, Spain, who convincingly won both days of PreO at ETOC.
The Relay and TempO competitions are based at Siruwia Japanese Garden, but only a small part of the competition seems likely to be held in the garden itself; the surrounding forest terrain will provide challenging technical orienteering for all.
Detail from the Japanese Garden Siruwia
Leading results, reports and photos will be posted on this website at the end of each competition day. Many of the competitors are already in Poland; there is a 2-day Pre-WTOC ‘TrailO Adventure’ event over the weekend.
Competition Programme
Wednesday 20 July, Relay
Thursday 21 July, TempO – Qualification and Final
Friday 22 July, PreO Day 1
Saturday 23 July, PreO Day 2