WOC 2017: All You Need To Know

The World Orienteering Championships starts on Friday June 30th at 12:00 CET (13:00 local time, see time conversion here) with sprint qualification in Tartu, the second largest city in Estonia. The first medals are fought for in the Sprint final on Saturday (from 13:30 CET) and the Sprint Relay Sunday afternoon (from 15:55). The 15 best in each qualification heat go to the final in the sprint qualification on Friday.

After a rest day on Monday, the championships moves into the forest on Tuesday with Long distance in Rouge, from 10:00 CET. After another rest day on Wednesday, the Middle distance is on the program on Thursday from Vitipalu from 09:30 CET. The forest Relay rounds off the championships on Friday, again in Vitipalu, with start from 11:45 CET. Note that there are again no qualification races in long and middle.

Check out the Team overview for WOC 2017 and the overview of top results in the three individual disciplines by the top athletes the last years to get to know the athletes starting at WOC 2017.

– I think it will be the greenest WOC so far, but it will be technical and interesting courses. (Markus Puusepp, WOC Event Director)

Live services: How to follow the competitions

There are again excellent live services from the World Orienteering Championships – everything from web TV (20 EUR for the whole week or 6 EUR per race) to GPS tracking, Live Blog and Live Results.  WorldofO.com will follow the championships on the Twitter account WorldofO (and partly also on WorldofOLive) and on WorldofO at Facebook.

Follow WOC 2017 live using the following links:

• The organizer’s LIVE Center – see also the organizer’s webpage
• WebTV at liveorienteering.org – to buy access to all of the championship for EUR 20 instead of paying for one event at a time, click the blue banner at the top of the page at liveorienteering.org
• Live results
• IOF Eventor – including start lists, official results, etc. (should also be available from the LIVE Center)
• WorldofO and WorldofOLive at Twitter

WOC 2017 Detailed program

All times are given in CET.

• Friday June 30th. Sprint Qualification. 12:00-14:00 CET. From the sprint qualification, 15 runners go on to the finals in each heat..
• Saturday July 1st. Sprint Final. 13:41-15:50 CET. 
• Sunday July 2nd. Sprint Relay. 16:05-17:05 CET.
• Tuesday July 4th. Long. 10:00 – 15:50 CET (no qualification, straight to final)
• Thursday July 6th. Middle. 09:30 – 15:50 CET (no qualification, straight to final)
• Friday July 7th. Relay. 12:00 – 15:45 CET

Startlists are typically available after the teamleader meeting the evening before each event.

Useful links

• Team overview WOC 2017 – with updated profile data
• Overview: Top results in the three individual disciplines by the top athletes the last years
• WOC 2017 webpage
• WOC 2017 Bulletin 4 – all updated information about the competition
• Results from earlier WOCs and WOC history by country
• All embargoed areas
• Old maps:
  • Sprint and Sprint Relay: Tartu, Viljandi
  • Middle Distance and Relay: Vitipalu, Küka
  • Long Distance: Map 1 (Haanja), map 2 (Rõuge), map 3 (Vällamäe, PDF), map 4 (Kääraku, PDF)

WOC Teams – sorted by country

Note that athletes are encouraged to update athlete information for cases where the information is outdated using their Eventor credentials via this link, as athlete profile information will be published in extended start lists. All team leaders have been sent an e-mail with information about how to update the data.

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

Terrain and old maps

Sprint: Qual Friday June 30th, Final Saturday July 1st

Terrain and old maps

Sprint Qualification will be held in the centre of the University town Tartu. The terrain is a mix of old town and modern parts of the town with mostly paved ground and a hilly park with soft ground and numerous paths. The courses will get into old town, modern town and hilly parkland.  This is partly the same area as used for EOC Sprint in 2006 (see Øystein Kvål Østerbø’s map from 2006).

Course details Qualification

Course details Final

Reigning champions

Reigning champions are Jerker Lysell and Maja Alm. See full results 2016 and article at WorldofO. See also analysis article for the men’s race at WorldofO.com and corresponding article for the women.

Sprint Relay: Sunday July 2nd

Terrain and old maps

Sprint Relay terrain in Viljandi has two distinctive areas. Firstly the Castle hills – a park area with steep slopes, long valleys, a forested area and old castle ruins. The other part of the map is the picturesque old town with irregular street network.

• Old map Sprint Relay: Viljandi

Course details

Reigning champions

Reigning champions are Denmark with Maja Alm, Cecilie Friberg Klysner, Tue Lassen, Søren Bobach. See full results 2016 and analysis article at WorldofO.

Long distance: Tuesday July 4th

Terrain and old maps

The Long Distance terrain is stretching over an area between the highest hill and the deepest lake of Estonia. The terrain is very green – and you have to fight all the way until the finish. Athletes have not enjoyed every minute of training in this type of terrain… Runnability varies from good in the coniferous forests to poor in the deciduous forests and there are only a few tracks. Many marshes with varying sizes can be found in the terrain. There are some rather new deforested areas that are up to 2 years old. The contours form two distinct areas. Firstly a hilly part with some minor terrain features. Secondly an area with large valleys with some smaller valleys flowing into it. The long distance race is not far from the terrain at Haanja, used for the EOC Middle Distance 2006 (see also Thierry Gueorgiou’s map; note that Gueorgiou’s old site does no longer work, so you can not click on to see it larger) .

• Old map Long Distance: Map 1 (Haanja), map 2 (Rõuge), map 3 (Vällamäe, PDF), map 4 (Kääraku, PDF)

Course details

Reigning champions

Reigning champions are Olav Lundanes and Tove Alexandersson. See full results 2016 and article at WorldofO. See also the full analysis articles at WorldofO for the men and the women, respectively.

Middle distance: Thursday July 6th

Terrain and old maps

Middle Distance terrain offers very detailed contours with many depressions and ridges between them. Runnability and visibility vary from very good to poor and there are almost no open areas on the terrain and only a handful of marshes. Tartu Ski Marathon track is passing through the area and there are also some smaller paths and tracks.

• Old map Middle Distance and Relay: Vitipalu, Küka

Course details

Reigning champions

Reigning champions are Matthias Kyburz and Tove Alexandersson. See full results 2016 and article at WorldofO. See also the analysis article for the men’s race and the analysis article for the women’s race.

Relay: Friday July 7th

Terrain and old maps

Relay terrain offers very detailed contours with many depressions and ridges between them. Runnability and visibility vary from very good to poor and there are almost no open areas on the terrain and only a handful of marshes. Tartu Ski Marathon track is passing through the area and there are also some smaller paths and tracks.

• Old map Middle Distance and Relay: Vitipalu, Küka

Course details

Reigning champions

Reigning champions are Norway and Russia. See full results 2015 and article at WorldofO.