World Cup 2009 - Round 2

 Norway

The second round of the Orienteering World Cup gets under way at the Norwegian O-Festival in Oslo today. Competitors from 24 Nations including New Zealand will participate in the racing this afternoon. Greg Flynn (North West) and Todd Oates (Wellington) start early on in the proceedings of the Middle Distance race. Times from this afternoon's race will determine the start order in tomorrow's chasing start Long Distance event.

Hot favorites for the weekend include, the "Middle Distance king" and current World Champion Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA), World Long Distance champ Daniel Hubmann (SUI), and NOC Champ Peter Öberg (SWE). In the women's races there is set to be a tight battle between Norwegian Marianne Andersen, NOC champ Helena Jansson (SWE), Current World number 1 Minna Kauppi (FIN) and Multiple World Champ Simone Niggli (SUI).

This event will be extensively covered on Norwegian web-TV with 7 cameras and GPS-Tracking of 50 runners. A direct web-TV Broadcast is available for international viewers, as well as live online results and tracking at: http://app.o-festivalen.com/dp6/en/live

Middle Distance, individual starts from: 13:30(Norway), 23:30(New Zealand)
Men: Dist: 6.00 km, Climb: 275m, EWT: 33 min
Women: Dist: 5.08 km, Climb: 235m, EWT: 33 min