The European Orienteering Championships in Belgium kicked off on Wednesday evening with a sprint relay in the city of Hasselt, where Norway took the gold medals ahead of Switzerland and Sweden after an ever-changing and nerve-wracking competition.

Teams from 27 nations were ready at the starting line at 19.00 on Wednesday when the championships began as the evening sun shone over Hasselt’s city centre.


The relay started on a pontoon built across the docks in Hasselt. By Silke van Rooy/EOC2025

And the spectators in the arena, who could follow the competition from a small slope facing a canal, were entertained from the first second.

Ever-changing relay
Norway (Victoria Hæstad Bjørnstad) and Switzerland (Natalia Gemperle) started hard on the first leg, but on the last half of the course in Hasselt’s old quarter with constant route-finding challenges, Finland’s Inka Nurminen took the lead with Sweden and Alva Sonesson close behind.

On the second leg, Norwegian middle distance world champion Eirik Langedal Breivik was the sharpest and created a gap to the closest pursuers (Sweden and Finland) of just over 10 seconds.

The opposite happened on the third leg, where Martin Regborn (Sweden) and Tuomas Heikkilä (FIN) passed Norway with Kasper Fosser, who was 26 seconds behind the leader Regborn at the exchange.

The Swiss world champions were at that point 40 seconds behind the leaders when Joey Hadorn sent Simona Aebersold out.

First title to Norway
The final leg was a rollercoaster ride in excitement, as only a few seconds separated Sweden (Hanna Lundberg), Finland (Maija Sianoja) and Norway (Andrine Benjaminsen) for most of the leg.

Towards the end, Sianoja and Benjaminsen pulled away and were heading for a sprint decision when the Finn skipped the penultimate control and unfortunately for Finland was disqualified. Thus, the gold went to Norway, while Simona Aebersold ran past Hanna Lundberg in the final meters and secured the Swiss silver ahead of Sweden.


Big Norwegian smiles on the podium. Photo: EOC 2025

Then it took close to two minutes before Czechia could run into fourth place ahead of Great Britain and Hungary.

The home team from Belgium, which drew huge cheers from the spectators during the relay, ended up in ninth place.

A number of teams skipped – like Finland – the penultimate control and therefore ended up disqualified.

Full results, GPS-tracking, maps and photos in IOF LIVE

On Thursday afternoon, the championships continue with qualification for Friday’s Knock-Out Sprint finals.

Qualification begins at 2:00 PM and can be followed on IOF LIVE

The top 12 from each of the three heats among men and women qualify for Friday’s race.