WOC 2025 Long: Maps, Results and Analysis

[Including comparisons for all legs] Reigning World Champions Simona Aebersold (Switzerland) and Kasper Fosser (Norway) both defended their titles from Switzerland in 2023 over the long distance at the 2025 World Orienteering Championships (WOC) in Kuopio, Finland. For Aebersold the margin was only 9 seconds after a thriller finish – while Fosser’s margin increased meter by meter up to nearly 3 minutes in the end.

In  the women’s class Aebersold had a very tight battle with Wednesday’s Middle distance winner Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) towards the end of the race, with Alexandersson making a 2 minute mistake at the 21st control followed by another 30 second mistake at the 22nd control that cost here the gold medal – which it looked like she already had in her pocket. The gap down to Andrine Benjaminsen (Norway) in third was more than two minutes, with Natalia Gemperle (Switzerland), Sanna Fast (Sweden) and Venla Harju (Finland) finishing in the next places.

For Fosser this was the third WOC Long gold medal in a row – coming just at the back of Norways’ Olav Lundanes’ dominant period where he took four WOC Long gold medals in a row. Fosser went clear of the competition early – the biggest challenge seemed to come from Wednesday’s Middle distance winner Eirik Langedal Breivik who took a 20 second lead on the first TV control. Breivik had, however, started much too fast, and was empty after only 40 minutes of running and abandoned the race early. In the end Martin Regborn (Sweden) was closest to Fosser at 2:57, with Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland) taking bronze at 3:40. The Svensk brothers Emil and Viktor (both Sweden) finished 4th and 5th, with Finland’s Miika Kirmula in 6th.

Analysis Women: Tight finish after mistakes towards the end

See below for a graphical representation of the battle for the victory between Aebersold (red) and Alexandersson (green). Here the runners lose time to the best split time when the curve goes downwards, and have the fastest split time when it is flat.

As you can see, Aebersold has a very strong start, running best split times on nearly all legs until the 5th control – but then she gets a big mistake on the first TV-control, the 6th control (all legs with routes of top runners are shown at the bottom of the article, only selected legs are shown here).

Alexandersson on the other hand has a worse start, doing small mistakes and not choosing the fastest route choice on the leg to the second control – see the 6th leg below.

Aebersold continues to struggle and lose some time to control 8 and 9.

But on the next long leg to control 12 Aebersold runs the best route choice to the left, while Alexandersson runs straight and loses nearly a minute.

Both lose time to control 14 – but Alexandersson more.

Then Alexandersson wins 4 legs while Aebersold makes small mistakes – at this point in the course Alexandersson has a lead of 1:43 with only a few controls left to run, and everything points towards a second gold medal for the Swede.

However, at the 19th leg they both struggle, but Alexandersson more with a 2 minute mistake while Aebersold only loses half a minute due to uncertainty into the control.

With another mistake at control 20, this seals the day for Alexandersson – now the Swede is 19 seconds behind, and even with a strong finish it is not enough to beat Aebersold (the red route to the right below is Alexandersson’s route)

For a look at the battle for the bronze medal, see the graphical split time representation below. You can clearly see that the other runners have not got the speed of the two first women on most of the course – but Benjaminsen has a very strong period from control  12 to control 19 where she matches the speed of the top women and runs two fastest legs and several legs where she is very close to the fastest split time (and not due to running with Aebersold or Alexandersson – luckily the top contenters spent most of the race on their own this time). Even with a mistake at the first control and some losses towards the end, this is enough to secure her the bronze medal.

Analysis Men: One man above all others

See below for a graphical representation of the battle for the medals in the men’s class. Here again the runners lose time to the best split time when the curve goes downwards, and have the fastest split time when it is flat.

As you can see, Fosser has a very strong period until the 12 control where he steadily builds up the lead to his competitors to 1:42. Then he loses 42 seconds to Matthias Kyburz on the leg to control 13 on a slower route choice (straight instead of around on the path). From here on Fosser does very few mistakes, and builds out his lead to 2:57 in the end, running best split time or very close to the best split time all the way. In the battle for the other medals, the long leg to control 11 proved very decisive: Here Emil Svensk ran the slower route to the right and lost the silver medal. Kyburz’s did several small mistakes, including to the 5th control and the routes to the 16th and 18th control, but it was still enough to secure the bronze medal.

 

GPS-tracking

Routechoices for all legs: Women

Routechoices for all legs: Men

Maps

Results

Women

1	Simona Aebersold	SUI	1:34:51		7:07
2	Tove Alexandersson	SWE	1:35:00	+0:09	7:08
3	Andrine Benjaminsen	NOR	1:37:16	+2:25	7:18
4	Natalia Gemperle	SUI	1:38:22	+3:31	7:23
5	Sanna Fast	SWE	1:39:11	+4:20	7:27
6	Venla Harju	FIN	1:41:27	+6:36	7:37
7	Sara Hagstrom	SWE	1:44:21	+9:30	7:50
8	Ida Haapala	FIN	1:45:21	+10:30	7:55
9	Hanna Lundberg	SWE	1:46:24	+11:33	8:00
10	Marie Olaussen	NOR	1:48:17	+13:26	8:08
11	Aleksandra Hornik	POL	1:49:19	+14:28	8:13
12	Kamilla Steiwer	NOR	1:49:35	+14:44	8:14
13	Malin Agervig Kristiansson	DEN	1:49:59	+15:08	8:16
14	Grace Molloy	GBR	1:50:12	+15:21	8:17
15	Evely Kaasiku	EST	1:50:40	+15:49	8:19
16	Tereza Rauturier	CZE	1:51:56	+17:05	8:24
17	Sanna Hotz	SUI	1:52:57	+18:06	8:29
18	Denisa Kralova	CZE	1:54:18	+19:27	8:35
19	Eef van Dongen	NED	1:55:19	+20:28	8:40
20	Viktoria Mag	HUN	1:57:25	+22:34	8:49

Men

1	Kasper Harlem Fosser	NOR	1:37:50		6:06
2	Martin Regborn	SWE	1:40:47	+2:57	6:17
3	Matthias Kyburz	SUI	1:41:30	+3:40	6:20
4	Emil Svensk	SWE	1:41:41	+3:51	6:21
5	Viktor Svensk	SWE	1:43:10	+5:20	6:26
6	Miika Kirmula	FIN	1:43:33	+5:43	6:28
7	Martin Hubmann	SUI	1:44:44	+6:54	6:32
8	Lukas Liland	NOR	1:44:51	+7:01	6:33
9	Akseli Ruohola	FIN	1:46:00	+8:10	6:37
10	Jannis Bonek	AUT	1:49:48	+11:58	6:51
11	Jonas Egger	SUI	1:50:42	+12:52	6:55
12	Quentin Moulet	FRA	1:50:45	+12:55	6:55
13	Jurgen Joonas	EST	1:51:01	+13:11	6:56
14	Isak Jonsson	NOR	1:51:32	+13:42	6:58
15	Linus Agervig Kristiansson	DEN	1:53:43	+15:53	7:06
16	Vegard Jarvis Westergard	CAN	1:56:43	+18:53	7:17
17	Timo Sild	EST	1:57:06	+19:16	7:19
18	Boyan Ivandjikov	BUL	1:58:00	+20:10	7:22
19	Mathias Blaise	BEL	1:59:12	+21:22	7:27
20	Eetu Savolainen	FIN	1:59:37	+21:47	7:28

All results