Norway live up to expectations

Norway has developed into arguably the biggest favorite team when the international orienteering elite meet for the Sprint Relays.

And the Norwegian athletes lived up to that in the best possible way on Sunday afternoon, when the Orienteering World Cup round in Sweden concluded with the Sprint Relay in Skara.

From the sun-drenched arena around the cathedral, the athletes in the 58 teams were sent off on richly forked courses in both park and city terrain, where barriers, like the other days, created difficult route choice challenges.

Sweden set the pace from the beginning on their home turf, where the Swedish first team with Sanna Fasth went in front of field on first leg and also passed the arena in the lead.

But on the last loop Hedvig Valbjørn Gydesen of Denmark showed sharpness again and took over the lead and was thus able to enter the exchange first – just as she was also the fastest on the first leg of the sprint relay in Locarno in April. Seven seconds later Briton Grace Molloy followed, while Karolin Ohlssonof Sweden 2 came in third. Victoria Hæstad Bjørnstad from the Norwegian winning team was in fourth position.

Back in front
On the second leg, Sweden’s first team took over the baton again and Isac von Krusenstierna quickly moved back to the lead of the relay – now with Denmark 2’s Elias Hinge Krogsgaard, Czech Jakub Glonek and Norwegian Eirik Langedal Brevik on his heels in the closest places.

But on the third leg, the picture changed again. Jonatan Gustafsson of Sweden 1 made a mistake and lost crucial time, while Kasper Fosser of Norway and Czech Tomáš Křivda blew through in an effective pair race and made a decisive gap to the rest of the field. Behind them, Tuomas Heikkilä was running strongly and brought the Finns from eighth to third place.

Vik-tory for Norway
A predicted close duel between Norway’s Pia Young Vik and Czechia’s Lucie Dittrichova did not materialise. Young Vik hammered away and had already made a 23-second gap at the first split time. From there she didn’t look back and safely drove the Norwegian victory home. Norway has thus won three of the last four international Sprint Relays.

Behind her, young Dittrichova held on to second place, which she defended all the way home, while Maija Sianoja ran the Finns into third place shortly after.

Simona Aebersold started in seventh position and set a high pace and had third place within reach, but had to settle for fourth place to Switzerland, ahead of Denmark and Sweden.

With this year’s second round of the Orienteering World Cup completed, the athletes now have five weeks to polish their form before the 2026 World Orienteering Championships are held in Genoa, Italy from 6-11 July.

Leading results
1 Norway 1 (Bjørnstad, Breivik, Fosser, Vik) 57:01 minutes
2 Czechia 1 (Rauturier, Glonek, Křivda, Dittrichova) +0:25
3 Finland 1 (Klemettinen, Ruohola, Heikkilä, Sianoja) +0:27
4 Switzerland 1 (N. Gemperle, Suter, F. Aebersold, S. Aebersold) + 0:32
5 Denmark 1 (Gydesen, Dalgaard, Bjørnsen, M. Kristiansson) +0:50
6 Sweden 2 ( Ohlsson, Granqvist, Runefors, A. Sonesson) +0:59