From June 18–22, the first Orienteering World Cup of 2025 took place at Idre Fjäll. Here is a quick wrap-up with comments from the Kiwi athletes.
Qualifier event
The top 20 in each heat qualified for the Long and Middle A-finals. Both Tim and Joseph are in the A-final.
Mens’ A-final finishers
Joseph Lynch finished 17th (43:29 +4:10) in Heat 1
Tim Robertson finished in 15th place (43:41 +3:44) in Heat 2.
Toby found the terrain very fun and fast in the qualification. He said the contours were quite easy to read and he was taking some safe routes in the beginning of the course which helped him to get into the map. Placing 23rd and only 12 seconds off qualification (top 20) was slightly bittersweet, but he was pleasantly surprised that his form was so good. Toby is looking forward to the B-final long distance, and feels that qualifying for the A-final middle distance (top 10 from the B-final) is more possible than originally thought.
Kieran had lots of mixed emotions for his senior debut. He made a couple of significant mistakes early on but once he found his groove it was quite enjoyable. He appreciated arriving a couple of days earlier so he didn’t feel rushed squeezing training. However, he had hoped this would convert to a more solid first race. Overall he was reasonably happy and is looking forward to redemption in the B-final long distance.OWC1 LONG RESULTS +
Long distance + feed back from Joe & Briana
It was a big day out for the Kiwis in today’s long distance. A technical start was a common issue across the field today, including Joseph in the A-final. After a lengthy relocation on his way to control 2 he got back into his stride and enjoyed the incredible terrain. However he wasn’t quite in the fight anymore.
Briana was happy with her run in the B-final and even though it was a shorter course felt she still got the proper long distance experience. She recognised the technical difficulty of her second leg and although she didn’t have full contact was able to reach it safely. She found the forest difficult to run in, much stonier than the qualification but was pleased with her physical form which reflects her strong training over the past months.
Mens’ A
49th Joseph Lynch 1:57:17 +29:04
54th Tim Robertson 2:10:03 +41:50
Full men’s A final results
Men’s B final
20th Toby Scott 1:34:57 +11:11
25th Zefa Faavae 1:36:57 +13:11
71st Oliver Egan 1:57:33 +33:47
72nd Fergus ONeill 1:57:54 +34:08
94th Scott Smith 2:30:54 +1:07:08
97th Kieran Woods 2:39:03 +1:15:17
Full men’s B final results :
Women’s B final
24th Briana Steven 1:49:02 +29:36
27th Kaia Joergensen 1:54:53 +35:27
28th Renee Beveridge 1:55:24 +35:58
37th Heidi Stolberger 2:10:05 +50:39
39th Lara Molloy 2:11:06 +51:40
Full women’s B final results
Middle results + feedback from Ollie & Fergus
Incredible to see both Joe & Tim in the finish chute on the broadcast. The running was on very uneven rocky bouldery terrain with low viz in places and undergrowth that made it hard to see features.
Fergus is enjoying his first world cup in the unique Idre terrain. In today’s middle distance (B-final) he had some early mistakes but was pleased with the second half of his course, only losing a minute to the winner. The terrain was quite physically challenging so Fergus is looking forward to tomorrow’s relay which is likely to have more fast-running sections.
Also at his first world cup, Ollie has been loving orienteering in new terrain and being part of the world cup team environment. His middle distance was ‘a mission’ due to a large mistake early on. However he got his momentum back and enjoyed running near some some other runners later in the course. He too is excited for the relay and hopefully a break from the stoney ground which makes it difficult to read your map, and watch your feet all at once.
Middle results
Men’s A- final
41st Joseph Lynch 43:02 +7:46
64th Tim Robertson 53:06 +17:50
Men’s B- final
26th Zefa Fa’avae 40:11 +5:42
28th Toby Scott 40:22 +5:53
68th Fergus O’Neill 48:42 +14:13
80th Oliver Egan 55:47 +21:18
86th Scott Smith 58:01 +23:32
Women’s B- final
18th Kaia Joergensen 48:02 +14:41
20th Heidi Stolberger 49:37 +16:16
25th Renee Beveridge 52:33 +19:12
29th Lara Molloy 55:35 +22:14
Full results:
Shining moments & big performances in the relay
The NZ team have reached for the stars in the NZ relay records for a World Cup event – which is very appropriate since Kiwis were celebrating Matariki at home. The men’s 9th best country is right up there with our best world cup relay result, as well as the women’s 13th nation. An amazing run by Zefa who brought the men’s NZ 2 team into 16th place with the first strong leg run and probably didn’t think it was very ‘green’. The women’s team ran well, often very close to the Australian team. Idre Fjäll was extremely tough terrain to run in, which can hinder the navigation, and forking with people coming from all directions, put many top athletes off their own control. For Joe, and quite a few members of our team, it was the first chance to run at an international senior forest relay, so we can be proud of the strong finishes and solid results.
Lara (who is a self proclaimed relay specialist) was much happier with today than her previous races. She had heard the commentary and live results from quarantine so knew earlier legs runners were making large mistakes and was extra determined to avoid them after some big time losses in her individual races. A solid technical run helped her to overtake a few countries, adding to the good work already done by Kaia and Renee. Other than a few controls she found it quite runnable with a mix of very intricate as well as very vague contour details.
It is time for some to recharge for only a couple of weeks before Woc2025 in Finland. And although Sweden hasn’t been particularly warm, our juniors have been training for JWOC, so the heat is on in Italy.
Men’s relay
New Zealand 1: Joseph,Toby, Tim 1:51:53.40
New Zealand 2 : Zefa, Fergus, Oliver 2:20:41.00
Australia / New Zealand 3: Scott Smith & Toby Wilson (AUS) result is MP (as no third team member in team)
Women’s relay
New Zealand 1: Kaia, Renee, Lara 2:13:39.00
Ireland / Australia / New Zealand 2: Heidi Stolberger, Mary Fleming (AUS), Rosalind Heron (IRE) 2:41:55.40
Official results here:
https://orienteering.sport/…/orienteering-world…/relay/ Summary & recap comments from Renee, Heidi & Zefa
Summary: Super tricky with a lot of terrain and vegetation (run-ability and visibility) variation that wasn’t reflected in the map.
“It was easy to veer off your compass bearing, especially on a slope with not a lot of other features to catch you if you did. Overall I really loved the experience as it challenged and taught me a lot, al though I was frustrated and annoyed with my mistakes. I was feeling physically ok, but as soon as you lost concentration, you wasted a lot of time trying to relocate. I’m just happy to be representing NZ again at the international level after a 10 year hiatus. I would definitely run there again, and try to do better!” Renee
“Going into these world cup races I was quite nervous particularly as it was my first proper international senior level race and it was going to be on such difficult terrain.
After a week of training, I felt much better about race week. The forests were beautiful. The qualification race didn’t go too well, I didn’t have the speed to keep up with everyone and made a few silly errors. However my tactics of slow and steady turned in my favour and I pulled out a couple of good races, as the long and middle finals proved to be a lot more technical and tricky with even the best making mistakes. Overall I was satisfied and surprised with my efforts and thoroughly enjoyed the week! Heidi
“The Terrain was some of the best I’ve ever run in. On the relay I felt like I have had lots of mass start practice so was felt somewhat comfortable the race went well only losing small margins and was able to push hard after the week ” Zefa
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