300 athletes from 32 nations have come together for the last World Cup this year on similar terrain for WOC 2025. These forested areas presented real challenges with sparse features and dense undergrowth. 

Long distance – Thursday 26 September 2024

After numerous sprint and urban events, the team were happy to transition to Nordic forest terrain. All runners in this event exceeded their projected times with the Scandinavian athletes in their element and undeterred by the greenery. Many opted to use paths for route choices to gain speed, but direct forest routes with demanding running could be just as fast due to the high visibility. Relevant terrain experience helped with planning, and our kiwi orienteers exceeded by keeping strategies as straightforward as possible to secure connection. Toby had a smooth run, Tim did well with recent knee niggles. We thought it was Zefa’s sort of terrain, but it did require different navigation tactics. Rachel has shown some confident orienteering in a competitive field in her first run in a world cup. Unfortunately Kaia mispunched at a drink control .  

Long distance results:

Men

60th Toby Scott   NZL 1:39:29 +19:19 

88th Tim Robertson  NZL 1:47:24 +27:14

106th Zefa Fa’avae  NZL 1:54:52 +34:42

Women

70th Rachel Baker NZL 1:47:08 +33:23

MP Kaia Joergensen  

Full long distance results here

Middle Distance – Saturday 28 September 2024

The courses had much more runnability than expected, and they were shorter courses in the rock fields and swampy areas of the Finnish forest today.. The increased speed left little room for error, especially in the technical sections and areas with low visibility. Several route options were available for navigating over and around the hill which was the main large feature on the map. 

Tim’s navigation and sprint groundwork gained a good finish the middle event only 4.5 minutes behind the winner Eirik Langedal Breivik from Norway. Zefa was well up to the match with the challenging terrain & navigation finishing in 55th place.  

In the women’s middle distance, Kaia and Rachel ran with similar strength and finished not very far apart. They will run with Emily Sorensen from Australia in the relay. 

Middle distance results:

Men

34th Tim Robertson 33:47 +4:30

55th Zefa Fa’avae 36:01 +6:44

96th Toby Scott 40:12 +10:55 

Women

70th Kaia Joergensen 40:28 +11:57

76th Rachel Baker 41:15 +12:44 

Official results here 

Relay – Sunday 29 September 2024

Exciting to watch, especially to see the competitive racing strategies in large Scandinavian teams.

Sweden aimed for a strong start leg, which proved a successful technique for the Swedish women’s team 1, with Lindberg, Fast, and Tove consistent throughout, finishing with gold. The first Swedish men’s team had a fast start, but Bergman surged in the last leg to bring the Swedish team2 into first place.

For the last Orienteering World Cup of 2024, New Zealand was pleased to have athletes execute races successfully, and become attuned to the fine Finnish features in this terrain in advance of the 2025 World Orienteering Cup.  

Relay results:

Men

30th team overall 

Leg 1 – 26th Zefa  

Leg 2 – 30th Toby 

Leg 3 – 30th Tim

Full relay team results here

Women

Mixed no.6 team 28th overall

Leg 1 – 36th Emily Sorensen (Australia)  

Leg 2 – 31st Rachel 

Leg 3 – 28th Kaia

Full relay team results here: