World elite foot and trail orienteers gather in Finland
Posted on | July 4, 2013 | Category: News
The final countdown has begun to the start of the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) and World Trail Orienteering Championships (WTOC), both of which take place around the Finland town of Vuokatti during the coming week.
Forty-eight nations will be represented at WOC this year, which will be the final year for the competition format with qualification races for each of the three individual disciplines – Sprint, Middle distance and Long distance. The Long qualification is the first race on the programme, on Sunday.
The Opening Ceremony is on Monday, followed by the Sprint final – the Sprint qualification is earlier the same day. The very first WOC Sprint was when Finland last hosted a WOC, at Tampere in 2001. In that race one Simone Luder – now Simone Niggli – won the bronze medal, and a few days later won the first of the 20 WOC gold medals she now possesses, at Long distance (known then as the ‘classic race’). Simone will be competing again this week, possibly her last WOC.
The big home-country hope is of course Minna Kauppi, who is the defending Middle distance World Champion. But almost all of the world’s top elite runners will be present, and no medal will be easily gained. Two notable absentees will be Helena Jansson, Sweden and Olav Lundanes, Norway, sidelined by injury.
WTOC has the usual 2-day competition format for Paralympic and Open classes, but this year the fully-timed TempO competition is an official part of WTOC for the first time. Ninety-three competitors from twenty-one nations will be competing in WTOC.
The final WOC competition, the Relay, is on Saturday 13th July.
Full details of WOC and WTOC can be found on the website www.woc2013.fi. Bulletin 4 for each event, downloadable from the website, gives information about the timings of the competitions, the terrain, the arenas and so on. The website will provide exciting live coverage of each WOC race. The IOF website will as usual carry reports, leading results and pictures throughout WOC/WTOC week.
Outline programme (WOC unless stated)
Sunday 7th July Long distance qualification
Monday 8th July Sprint qualification (a.m.), Opening Ceremony & Sprint final (p.m.)
Tuesday 9th July Long distance final
Wednesday 10th July WTOC Day 1
Thursday 11th July Middle distance qualification, WTOC Day 2
Friday 12th July Middle distance final, WTOC TempO qualification & final
Saturday 13th July Relay
There is also a full programme of spectator races throughout the week, many of them using the WOC terrain.
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