2008 WUC Orienteering: Update
July 9th, 2008
The XVIth World University Orienteering Championship will be held in Tartu, Estonia at the end of July. The Championship will bring to Tartu, a town with Estonia’s oldest university (founded in 1632), 240 young athletes from 27 countries and as far afield as Japan, New-Zealand, Australia and the United States. The Opening Ceremony will be held on Tartu Town Hall Square in the evening of July 29th. Four competitions will be held from July 30th to August 2nd: a spring in Tartu, long distance in Veskimõisa, short distance and a relay in Prangli. In the last two days of the competition, also the traditional Kobras Cup orienteering competition will be organised by OC Põlva Kobras in Prangli. Spectators are welcome to the competition centres to cheer for their favourites and to see the world’s best orienteerers in competition. The Estonian national team will include, among others, Markus Puusepp, World Junior Championship bronze medallist on short distance in 2006, Sander Vaher and Annika Rihma who both did well at the last World University Championships. These are the first World Student Championships in orienteering that are held in Estonia. “It will be an exciting competition, because of both attractive South-Estonian terrain and strong athletes” said director of the competition Nikolai Järveoja. “For example the Norwegian team includes Magne Daehl, Junior World Champion in relay from 2005 and Ivan Sirakov, 2007 World Junior Championships bronze from Bulgaria will be competing in Tartu“. The championships are organised by the Estonian Academic Sports Federation, OC Põlva Kobras and the Estonian Orienteering Federation. The official website of the Championship at www.easl.ee/wuoc2008 includes programme details, lists of the national teams, start- and finish protocols and information on event locations.
