The international orienteering season will come to an intense end, when the European Orienteering Championships and World Cup Round 3 are decided over three sprint races in northern Italy in the coming days.
Verona, Soave and Vicenza in Italy’s Veneto region host a Sprint, a Sprint Relay and a Knock-Out Sprint respectively.
All three terrains offer flat and fast orienteering – primarily on hard surface in the historic cities with some park and open areas along the way.
Swiss and Swedish title defenders
286 athletes from 35 different nations have entered the championships races, which also serves as the last round of the Orienteering World Cup this season.
In both individual races the reigning European champions have registered to defend their titles.
Tove Alexandersson and Emil Svensk (both SWE) won the sprint in Neuchâtel, Switzerland at EOC 2021 two years ago. The day before, Alexandersson and Matthias Kyburz (SUI) had secured the first ever Knock-Out Sprint championship titles.
Switzerland’s team with Simona Aebersold, Joey Hadorn, Matthias Kyburz and Elena Roos won the sprint relay in Neuchâtel by nearly a minute.
Alexandersson can tie title record
In the overall World Cup standings, Kasper Fosser (NOR) has a clear lead and is favorite to take his third title in a row in the men’s class. After the rounds in Norway and Czechia, Fosser leads by 53 points to Matthias Kyburz, with Gustav Bergman (SWE) in third position, 50 points further behind.
Tove Alexandersson has set the course for her ninth consecutive World Cup-title by leading the women’s class by 130 points to compatriot Sara Hagström and with Simona Aebersold (SUI) more than 200 points behind in third place. If Alexandersson claims the title, she will tie with Simone Niggli-Luders record of nine World Cup titles.
Sweden won last year’s Team World Cup, but will have to fight Switzerland hard to defend the title as only 36 points separate them in the top, with Norway in third position.
If you are not travelling to Italy to follow races at the arenas, there will be a high quality TV-production on IOF TV from all finals at EOC.
IOF’s experienced commentators Katherine Bett and Jonas Merz will guide you through the races in English.
The tickets are available at IOF TV for 9/25 EUR for one/three races.
The races will be broadcasted live in Sweden (SVT), Norway (NRK), Finland (YLE), France (TV8 Mont Blanc), Czechia (CzTV) and Austria (ORF).
Find start lists, results, maps and GPS-tracking at IOF LIVE
EOC and World Cup Round 3 Program
All times CEST (UTC +2)
Wednesday, October 4
Sprint, Verona
08.45 Sprint Qualification first start
14.30 Sprint Final First start
14.30 – 17.00 IOF TV Broadcast
Friday, October 6
Sprint Relay, Soave
15.30 – 17.00 IOF TV Broadcast
15.45 Sprint Relay start
Sunday, October 8
Knock-Out Sprint, Vicenza
8.30 KO资格fi冲刺rst start
12.25 KO Sprint Quarterfinals start
14.00 – 16.00 IOF TV Broadcast
Links
EOC 2023 Homepage–EOC 2023 Facebook–EOC 2023 Instagram
Photo: William Hollowell