The World Orienteering Championships 2018 (#WOC2018) starts on Saturday August 4th at 08:00 CET (09:00 local time) with sprint qualification in Riga, the capital of Latvia. The first medals are fought for in the Sprint final the same day from (from 13:50 CET) and the Sprint Relay Sunday afternoon (from 15:50 CET).

After a rest day on Monday, the championships moves into the forest along the Gauja River west of the town Sigulda on Tuesday with a the Middle distance from 10:50 CET. After another rest day on Wednesday, the forest Relay is on the program on Thursday from 13:20 CET. The Long distance rounds off the championships on Saturday with start from 10:00 CET.

Note that there are again no qualification races in long and middle, and thus it takes some time from the first start until the real action starts among the medal candidates. A full program and detailed information on each discipline is included below. See time conversion between local time and CET here.

Terrain: Old city and tricky, green forest

The three sprint races will be organized in Riga, with the sprint final in the old town and the sprint qualification and sprint relay in terrain which is a mix of urban terrain with larger buildings/streets and parks. The narrow alleys in the sprint final should give the athletes both challenging orienteering and interesting routechoices. The area chosen for the sprint relay should give good possibilities for the course setter to make some interesting routechoice legs along with good forking.

The forest races offers rather hilly terrain with many valleys and rivers, large parts of the terrain should have quite poor runnability and visibility, making the orienteering more challenging than you can read from the map. The combination of up to 50-60 meter deep valleys and variable runnability should make it possible for the course setter to make some interesting routechoice legs – especially for the long distance (map from expected long-area below). Note that the embargo has been extended due to access permission issues late in the process, which may have influenced the courses for Long and Relay somewhat.

The middle distance terrain (old map from west of the arena below) will be somewhat different from the long and relay terrain, with a different arena further to the south and flat areas close to the river – expect a middle distance with different terrain types making it necessary for the athletes to adapt to different types of challenges – from high speed to technical orienteering.

Live services: How to follow the competitions

The organizers and the International Orienteering Federation promise excellent live services from the World Orienteering Championships with everything from web TV (20 EUR for the whole week or 6 EUR per race) to GPS tracking and Live Results. WorldofO.com will follow the championships on the Twitter account WorldofO and on WorldofO at Facebook.

Follow WOC 2018 live using the following links:

The organizer’s webpage which includes the LIVE centre at the front page with a separate section for each race day.

WebTV at liveorienteering.org with English or Russian commentary – there is a PDF-document several pages long explaining the live services and including a disclaimer in case of trouble (we will do our best to provide good quality, fun and exciting WOC competitions at your home). If you are situated in Sweden, Finland or Estonia you can follow the championships on live TV.

IOF Eventor – including start lists, official results, etc. (should also be available from the WOC 2018 webpage)

WorldofO at Twitter

WOC 2018 Detailed program

All times are given in CET.

Saturday August 4th. Sprint Qualification. 08:00-10:40 CET. From the sprint qualification, 15 runners go on to the finals in each heat..

08:00-10:40 CET. From the sprint qualification, 15 runners go on to the finals in each heat.. Saturday August 4th. Sprint Final. 13:50-16:00 CET – women from 13:56, men from 14:56

13:50-16:00 CET – women from 13:56, men from 14:56 Sunday August 5th. Sprint Relay. 15:50-17:00 CET.

15:50-17:00 CET. Tuesday August 7th. Middle. 10:50 – 16:20 CET (no qualification, straight to final) – women from 10:52, men from 13:42. Web-TV from 11:30.

10:50 – 16:20 CET (no qualification, straight to final) – women from 10:52, men from 13:42. Web-TV from 11:30. Thursday August 9th. Relay. 13:20 – 17:00 CET – women start 13:20, men 15:20. Web-TV from 13:15.

13:20 – 17:00 CET – women start 13:20, men 15:20. Web-TV from 13:15. Saturday August 10th. Long. 10:00 – 17:00 CET (no qualification, straight to final) – women from 10:08, men from 12:38. Web-TV from 10:30.

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

Useful links

WOC Teams – sorted by country

See the WOC 2018 Team overview sorted by country here.

Note that this is an unofficial team overview. An update with some missing athletes will follow before the start of the first competition. Note also that biographies of athletes will not be updated for this years championships.

Race details for each discipline

Sprint

Course details Qualification

Course details Final

Reigning champions

See full results, maps and story of WOC Sprint 2017. Also: Analysis Men – Analysis Women – Maps & Results Qual – Qual Course Quick Look – Preview article

Sprint Relay

Course details

Reigning champions

Note that the running order in the above graphic is not correct. See full results, maps and story of WOC Sprint Relay 2017. Also: Analysis Article – Preview article

Middle distance

Course details

Reigning champions

See full results, maps and story of WOC Middle 2017. Also: Analysis Men – Analysis Women – Course First Look article – Preview article

Relay

Course details

Reigning champions

Note that running order is not correct in the above graphic. See full results, maps and story of WOC Relay 2017. See also: Analysis article – Preview article

Long distance

Course details

Reigning champions

See full results, maps and story of WOC Long 2017. See also: Analysis Men – Analysis Women – Course First Look article – Preview article