The European Orienteering Championships, incorporating the first round of the 2010 World Cup, gets under way this weekend in Bulgaria. 244 athletes from 31 nations will be competing for medals in all three individual formats and a relay. The three individual finals count for World Cup points.

The Event Centre is the Black Sea coastal town of Primorsko, in the South East corner of Bulgaria. Here the sprint qualification and final races will be held on Sunday. Long and middle distance qualification races and the European Championships relay follow on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and the middle and long distance finals are on Friday and Saturday, 4th and 5th June.

The sprint races will take place in parkland, coastal sand dunes and streets in and around Primorsko. Thereafter, tough and challenging competition will undoubtedly be provided in the often hilly and stony deciduous forests in that part of Bulgaria. Competitors based in Europe have had plenty of opportunity to get into top form in a string of elite individual races and relays in recent weeks.

The current leaders in the IOF World Rankings are Simone Niggli (SUI), Marianne Andersen (NOR) and Minna Kauppi (FIN) in the women’s list and Daniel Hubmann (SUI), Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) and Andrey Khramov (RUS) in the men’s. They will of course be favourites for European Championships medal placings, but they will face fierce competition as almost all the top world elite will be taking part. Two notable absentees are Anne Margrethe Hausken (NOR), 4th in the rankings, and Martin Johansson (SWE), ranked number 7; both have withdrawn because of knee injuries.

Reports and leading results will appear on this website shortly after each race. Further information can be found on the EOC website http://eoc2010.bgorienteering.com.