WOC 2013: All you need to know!

[Update: Direct link to live services] The World Orienteering Championships starts on Sunday July 7th at 08:30 CET (09:30 local Finnish time) with Long distance qualification east of Vuokatti, Finland. The first medals are handed out Monday evening in sprint – after a busy day with sprint qualification in the morning and sprint final in the evening.

Updates:

• 8/7 10:00: Links to live services: Online results, GPS-tracking, Live TV payment. See also WOC 2013 webpage
• 6/7 18:00: Startlist long available (along with other startlists here). See also Instructions about purchasing Live services (10 Euro)

The championships continue with Long final on Tuesday, Middle qualification on Thursday, Middle final on Friday and relay on Saturday. The tough start of the championships with the Sprint squeezed in between Long qualification and final makes it difficult for athletes to combine these two disciplines – and thus several of the top all-rounders will have to choose one of the disciplines.

Finnish events have a history of excellent live services, so expect all services to work as advertised

Live services: How to follow the competitions

For spectators – either in the arena or at home through the Internet – the World Championships in Finland should be excellent. Live TV (Finnish YLE channel), live GPS tracking (all races except women’s long distance qualification), organizers video production and live results. Note that GPS-tracking and the organizers video production is a paid service (10 Euro for the whole week). Finnish events have a history of excellent live services, so expect all services to work as advertised.  Read all about how to follow the competitions here – and see info about WOC on TV here (YLE broadcasts: sprint final, long final, middle final, relay – probably not available worldwide? Please leave a comment if you know more). In addition to YLE broadcasts in Finland, WOC will also be broadcast live in some other countries like e.g. Norway (NRK).

WOC 2013 Detailed program

All times are given in CET. Finnish time is one hour later.

• Sunday July 7th 08:30: Long qualification
• Monday July 8th 08:00: Sprint qualification / 16:54: Sprint final women / 18:21: Sprint final men
• Tuesday July 9th 10:55: Long final women / 12:45 Long final men
• Thursday July 11th 08:00: Middle qualification women / 09:15: Middle qualification men
• Friday July 12th 12:10: Middle final men / 14:05: Middle final women
• Saturday July 13th 12:55: Relay men / 15:00 Relay women

Startlists are typically available after the teamleader meeting the evening before the event – expect to see them around 20:00 CET. For finals where qualification is several days earlier, startlists will usually be available earlier. From the qualifications, 15 runners go on to the finals in each heat.

Useful links

• Team overview WOC 2013 – with updated profile data.
• WOC 2013 webpage
• WOC Program
• Information about WOC on TV
• WOC 2013 Bulletin 4 – all updated information about the competition
• Results from earlier WOCs and WOC history by country

WOC Teams – sorted by country

Note that all teams have received login information to update the athlete data / profile miniature picture. If you are a competitor and have not received a link, please contact your team leader.

Argentina	Australia	Austria
Azerbaijan	Belgium	Belarus
Bulgaria	Canada	China
Croatia	Czech Republic	Denmark
Spain	Estonia	Finland
France	Great Britain	Germany
Hong Kong	Hungary	Ireland
Israel	Italy	Japan
Latvia	Lithuania	Moldova
MNE	Norway	New Zealand
Poland	Portugal	DPR Korea
Romania	South Africa	Russia
Serbia	Switzerland	Slovakia
Sweden	Chinese Taipei	Turkey
Ukraine	Uruguay	United States

Terrain

Two different terrain types will be featured in WOC 2013. The long distance terrain is flat, fast and open – with the longest WOC long distance course ever. The middle/relay terrain is mostly hilly, partly dense and though – a perfect terrain for a middle distance race. In addition there is the sprint which is partly fast forest – partly urban area. See below for old maps and more details about each discipline.

WOC Long

Reigning champions are Olav Lundanes and Simone Niggli.

WOC Sprint

Reigning champions are Matthias Kyburz and Simone Niggli.

WOC Middle

Reigning champions are Edgars Bertuks and Minna Kauppi.

WOC Relay

Reigning champions are Czech Republic and Switzerland.

The terrain for the relay is the same as for the middle distance. The lower slopes which are faster might very well be used more for the relay than for the middle distance, but no information is given about this.

[This article will be updated with more information about each event]