WOC 2024: All You Need To Know

Fast-paced urban orienteering with challenging route choices is expected when the 2024 World Orienteering Championships (WOC) starts in Edinburgh, Scotland on Friday July 12th with the Sprint Qualification and Final. The championship – which is a sprint-only WOC – continues with the Sprint Relay on Sunday July 14th, and finally rounds off with the Knock-Out Sprint on Tuesday July 16th.

WOC 2024 is a compact championship, with all races taking place in and around Edinburgh. But a compact WOC doesn’t mean the athletes won’t meet different terrain types – the competition areas vary from the flat but intricate streets of Leith for the Sprint Qualification, to the hilly Old Town with its narrow alleys and steep steps for the Sprint Final and Knock-Out Sprint Finals. The Sprint Relay at Heriot-Watt University’s Riccarton Campus offers a mix of modern university buildings and parkland. The Sprint Final map includes some special symbols, like a modified version of ISSprOM 2019-2 symbol 501.1 used in conjunction with 522 to show a “spiral staircase” – adding extra complexity to the runners’ route choices.

Most of the top sprint orienteers are at the start, with 333 athletes from 45 countries competing. With the challenges of navigating through one of Europe’s busiest tourist destinations, WOC 2024 should give exciting competitions. All competitions can be followed on TV and webTV broadcasts – including the new addition “Eurovision Sport” that will come with French, German and English commentary in selected countries. See more about how to follow the races live in the “Links & Live” section below the detailed program.

Program

Three medal races are included in this year’s WOC – which is a sprint only WOC. The full program is shown below.

• Sprint, Friday July 12th
  • Qualification (Leith)
    • Start Men: 10:01 – 10:39 – winning time 13 minutes
    • Start Women: 10:46 – 11:21 – winning time 13 minutes
  • Final (Central Edinburgh)
    • Start Men: 16:12:30 – 17:18:30 – winning time 15 minutes
    • Start Women: 17:29:00 – 18:35:00 – winning time 15 minutes
• Sprint Relay, Sunday July 14th (Riccarton Campus)
  • Mass start: 13:45
  • Winning time: 59 minutes
• Knock-Out Sprint, Tuesday July 16th
  • Qualification (Wester Hailes)
    • Start Women: 10:01 – 10:35 – winning time 9 minutes
    • Start Men: 10:41 – 11:19 – winning time 9 minutes
  • Finals (Central Edinburgh)
    • Quarter-finals Women: from 15:25 – winning time 7-8 minutes
    • Quarter-finals Men: from 16:01 – winning time 7 minutes
    • Semi-finals Women: from 17:12 – winning time 7-8 minutes
    • Semi-finals Men: from 17:53 – winning time 7 minutes
    • Final Women: 18:31:30 – winning time 8 minutes
    • Final Men: 18:52:00 – winning time 7 minutes

All times are in CET. Local times are one hour earlier.

Links & Live: How to follow the races

Use these links to follow the championships:

• Orienteering.sports live page – here you get live results, GPS tracking, official results, split times and maps after the competitions.
• IOF Web TV – here you can buy a live pass for EUR 25 for all competitions to follow the competitions live on WebTV with English, German or French commentary.
• Eurovision Sport will broadcast the races for free in selected countries (see details on which countries below)
• The TV-production is also broadcast in several countries – the national television stations in Sweden (SVT), Norway (NRK), Finland (YLE), Czechia (CzTV) and Austria (ORF) have acquired the TV rights.
• WOC webpage & WOC Eventor page
• WOC Bulletin 4 – detailed information
• WoO results archive which includes both EOC and WOC (via WorldofO.com results archive)

• All Live Events during the Championships:
  • Belgium
  • France
  • Germany
  • Ireland
  • United Kingdom
• Knock-out Quarter Finals
  • Worldwide

Commentaries on IOF Web TV and Eurovision Sports will be done by the following:

• French commentary by Robin Devrieux and Matthieu Puech
• German commentary by Jonas Merz and Philipp Sauter
• English commentary by Katherine Bett and James Ackland

Race details and reigning champions

Individual Sprint

Terrain

Qualification (Leith): Leith has an asymmetric street plan and an eclectic mix of older and newer residential properties, including some significant blocks of social housing. The waterfront area has numerous shops and cafés. Running surfaces will be mostly paved, with some cobbles. 5%–10% of courses will be on grass and other natural surfaces. The area is mostly flat with only limited gradients. Leith is a historic port area at the mouth of the Water of Leith in the north of Edinburgh. After decades of industrial decline and resultant depopulation in the post-war era, Leith has seen an upturn in fortunes in recent decades, with significant redevelopment of housing and office space and the arrival of tourist attractions such as the Royal Yacht Britannia. There is no old map available for Leith.

Final (Central Edinburgh): The area features commercial and residential areas both historical and modern, with narrow vennels (passageways) and complex housing schemes providing a variety of orienteering challenges. Running surfaces will be mostly paved, with some cobbles. 5%–10% of courses will be on grass and other natural surfaces. There is significant variation in elevation across the city centre and there are some steep slopes and narrow stairways. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland: the centre of the city hosts the Scottish Parliament, government offices, the highest law courts and many iconic buildings including cathedrals, churches, libraries and museums, as well as public gardens and parkland.

See the old map of Edinburgh Castle below. See also a version of the old map updated to new sprint norm at 2DRerun here.

Course details

Qualification rules

The top fifteen competitors in each heat will qualify for the Sprint Final.

Reigning champions

Sprint Relay

Terrain

The area features university buildings in parkland. Running surfaces will be a mix of paved surfaces, unpaved paths and natural terrain, including significant areas of grass and runnable woodland. 15%–25% of courses will be on grass and other natural surfaces. The competition area is predominantly flat with some gentle gradients. Heriot-Watt University was initially established in 1821 to provide practical knowledge of science and technology to Edinburgh’s working men. It became a university in 1966, and began the development of a new campus on the Riccarton Estate, to the south-west of the city

Course details

Reigning champions

KO Sprint

Terrain

Qualification (Wester Hailes): The terrain is a mixed residential area. Running surfaces are a mix of paved roads, paths and communal grass areas between housing. 2%–5% of courses will be on grass and other natural surfaces. The competition area is mostly flat with only limited gradients. No old map exists of the qualification. Wester Hailes is a residential area in the south-west of Edinburgh. It was largely developed in the early 1970s, which is reflected in the dominant housing styles, mainly purpose-built flats and tower blocks. Extensive redevelopment in more recent years has involved replacement of high-rise flats with newer low-rise housing.

Final rounds (Central Edinburgh): The area features commercial and residential areas both historical and modern, with narrow vennels (passageways) and complex housing schemes providing a variety of orienteering challenges. Running surfaces will be mostly paved, with some cobbles. 2%–5% of courses will be on grass and other natural surfaces in the Quarterfinals, 0%–1% in the Semi-finals and 0%–1% in the Finals. There is significant variation in elevation across the city centre and there are some steep slopes and narrow stairways.

Old map: See Sprint Final above.

Course details

Qualification

Quarter finals

Semi finals

Finals

Qualification rules

The top twelve competitors in each heat will qualify for the Knock-out Sprint Finals.

Qualified competitors will be ranked in the following order: 1st position: 1st in Heat 3 2nd position: 1st in Heat 2 3rd position: 1st in Heat 1 4th position: 2nd in Heat 3 5th position: 2nd in Heat 2 6th position: 2nd in Heat 1 … … 34th position: 12th in Heat 3 35th position: 12th in Heat 2 36th position: 12th in Heat 1 Qualified competitors will choose their Quarter-finals heat according to these rankings, in the order 6th to 1st, followed by 7th to 36th.

In the event of a tie for any qualification place, tied competitors will be ranked in the order of their Sprint World Ranking as at 12:00 BST (midday) on 11 July 2024. Competitors who are also tied on Sprint World Ranking will be separated by a random draw.

Reigning champions