World Cup Opening Weekends 2024: All You Need To Know

The first two Orienteering World Cup rounds of 2024 are about to start in Olten, Switzerland and Genoa, Italy – both organized as pure sprint weekends. It all kicks off in Switzerland from Friday May 24th until Sunday May 26th with a KO-Sprint and an individual Sprint – and continues with another individual Sprint and a Sprint Relay in Italy next weekend.

With the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) being organized as a pure Sprint championships this summer, the World Cup races this spring are also organized as pure Sprint races. This will make it possible to let the athletes prepare for WOC during the World Cup opening rounds – and also use these races as selection races for WOC.

The World Cup start off easy with a KO-Sprint qualifier on Friday May 24th. The first World Cup points can be won in the final rounds of the KO-Sprint on Saturday with an individual sprint on Sunday. Note the interesting (and somewhat risky) start order of the individual sprint on Sunday, with the top 40 on the World Ranking starting first – and the TV broadcast being finished before the rest of the start field sets out.

Most of the world’s top sprinters are registered for these World Cup races – with around 250 starters in total. Notably absent is last years World Cup overall winner Matthias Kyburz who uses this sprint and summer to focus on the Olympics in Paris on the Marathon distance. The world’s best female orienteer – Tove Alexandersson – is registered for the races, but has recently been ill and fears that she will not be in her best shape this first weekend, according to an interview with the Ivarnational Orienteering Podcast (be sure to listen to the podcast for a preview of race favourites).

Program World Cup Opening Weekends 2024

• Friday, May 24th, Switzerland – KO-Sprint Qualification – no TV broadcast
  • 14:00 Knock-Out Sprint Qualification
• Saturday, May 25th, Switzerland – KO-Sprint Finals – TV from 12:00 to 14:00
  • 10:00 Knock-Out Sprint quarter finals
  • 12:09 Knock-Out Sprint semi-finals
  • 13:27 Knock-Out Sprint finals
• Sunday, May 26th, Switzerland – Individual Sprint – TV from 12:10 to 14:40
  • 12:03 Sprint, Women Top 40 WRE
  • 13:10 Sprint, Men Top 40 WRE
  • 14:25 Sprint, Women/Men outside Top 40 WRE
• Saturday June 1st, Italy – Individual Sprint – TV from around 12:40
  • 11:30 Sprint – first starts
  • 12:51 Sprint Red group women – first start
  • 14:04 Sprint Red group men – first start
• Sunday June 2nd, Italy – Sprint Relay – TV from around 15:30  
  • 15:40 Sprint Relay – start

All times are CET.

Links & Live

• Orienteering.sports live page for World Cup round 1 and round 2– here you will find links to webTV-broadcast, GPS-tracking and live results.
• IOF TV – watch the World Cup live on TV
• Bulletin 4 round 1 and Bulletin 3 round 2 – detailed information about the races
• IOF Eventor webpage for round 1 and round 2 – old maps and other info about the races
• World Cup 2024 page
• World of O results archive which includes both World Cup, EOC and WOC

Terrain and old maps of race area

World Cup round 1 – Olten

Olten offers flat and fast urban terrain, with some and park areas. The old map also includes an old town centre with narrow streets which should offer some tricky orienteering. See below for some old maps of the competition terrain.

World cup round 2, Genoa

The terrain in Genoa is described as “typical villages of the Ligurian coast, with narrowstreets, stairs,passages and city parks”, withsSome part of the terrain being quite steep. See old maps of the competition area below.