News

The 27th World Orienteering Championships and 7th World Trail Orienteering Championships take place 8-15 August in Trondheim, Norway. Altogether 42 nations have entered athletes to the events – equalling the record number of nations from 2007 and 2009.

The World Masters Orienteering Championships kick off in Pays de Neuchâtel, Switzerland on Saturday. The event will be huge: more than 4100 participants run in the championships classes, and some 400 in open classes. For example, anyone aiming to win M60 will first have to beat 445 competitors! But the competitions are not only attracting a big number of participants, they are also introducing a new class: M95. Erkki Luntamo, Finland, will turn 96 in November and is looking forward to winning his 13th gold medal at the World Masters Orienteering Championships before that.

17th World University Orienteering Championships kicked off in Borlänge, Sweden yesterday. Altogether 309 participants from 31 countries representing four continents will compete for World University Champion's title in sprint, middle distance and long distance. The competitions end with relay on Saturday.

The IOF Map Commission welcomes you to the 14th International Conference on Orienteering Mapping that will take place in conjunction with the World Orienteering Championships in Trondheim, Norway.The programme for the conference has now been published.

Denmark was strong in the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships relay in Portugal on Saturday, fighting for gold in both classes. At the end, Anton Foliforov was able to secure men's victory to Russia, with Lasse Brun Pedersen from Denmark finishing a half a minute later, but in the women's class Denmark won the relay title before Finland on the second place.

Christine Schaffner, Switzerland, and Anton Foliforov, Russia, were the strongest at the tough long distance event at the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships in Portugal. The courses were long, the hills steep and the weather hot. In addition, the course setter had planned long legs with difficult route choices. In these challenging conditions Schaffner and Foliforov really showed their strength by taking convincing victories, both with a winning margin of more than two minutes.

Olga Vinogradova, Russia and Pekka Niemi, Finland are the new junior world champions at middle distance, after the race was re-run today on a new course on the World Championships long distance qualification map.

The Swiss Orienteering Federation is pleased to invite you to the IOF Event Advisers Clinic to be held in Geneva, 8–10 October 2010.

This Event Advisers Clinic is organised for the education and recruitment of new IOF licensed Event Advisers in the disciplines FootO and MTBO. The national orienteering federations are kindly asked to identify and enter suitable candidates.

The very experienced Austrian rider Michaela Gigon failed to win an individual gold medal at last year’s MTBO World Championships, her best being a silver medal at middle distance, but she went one better in today’s middle distance final with victory by 31 seconds over Rikke Kornvig, Denmark. Bronze medallist was last year’s middle distance champion Marika Hara, Finland. Anna Kaminska, Poland, gold medallist in sprint on Sunday, was placed fourth today.

The first race in the 8th World Championships in Mountain Bike Orienteering, being held at Montalegre, Portugal this week, was the sprint where the new World Champions are Anna Kaminska, Poland and Adrian Jackson, Australia.