Next week, the world’s best orienteers will compete for medals and World Cup points on Belgian soil for the first time when the European Orienteering Championships take place in the towns around Hasselt in the northeastern corner of the country.
The races, which are also part of the 2025 Orienteering World Cup, feature a Sprint Relay, Knock-Out Sprint and an individual Sprint in that order from Wednesday to Sunday.
Almost 300 athletes from 32 nations will participate in the races, which take place in the towns of Hasselt, Geel and Lier.
Fast and challenging races
All three locations are characterized by their flat terrain, but otherwise each has its own unique character.
Hasselt, where the Sprint Relay takes place, has a typical Flemish city center and a park area with many schools and campuses.
The Knock-Out Sprint (both qualifications and finals) will be run in Geel, which also has many schools with big playgrounds and many small parks.
Finally, there is a sprint qualification and final in Lier, which has an old city centre with narrow, winding alleyways, wider streets, cobblestone streets and market squares. In addition, the city is surrounded by a defensive fortification.
European titles on stake
Defending champions from the European Championships in Italy two years ago are: Matthias Kyburz (SUI, Sprint and KO Sprint), Sara Hagström (SWE, Sprint), Tove Alexandersson (SWE, KO Sprint) and Sweden won their first EOC Sprint Relay title.
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Sweden’s Sprint Relay team (Jonatan Gustafsson, Tove Alexandersson, Sara Hagström, Martin Regborn) celebrate their win in Soave in 2023. Photo: Kristina Lindgren
And there will be new champions for all individual medals, since Kyburz and Alexandersson have their eyes set on other sporting achievements in the coming time, while Hagström is giving his back a rest.
On the other hand, several world champions from the WOC in Edinburgh last year are in place. Martin Regborn (SWE), who won the sprint, and Riccardo Rancan (SUI) who grabbed the KO Sprint gold in Scotland. Also the newly crowned World Games champions in sprint, Simona Aebersold (SUI) and home favourite Yannick Michiels are starting.
How to follow
You can follow all three races in high quality broadcasts at IOF TV and a number of other TV providers.
In IOF TV, Katherine Bett and Jonas Merz will guide you the races in English commentary, while Philipp Sauter and Lukas Deininger are your hosts in the German stream.
Go to IOF TV – Tickets are 9/25 EUR for one/all race day(s)
In addition, the championship races will be shown in Sweden (SVT), Norway (NRK), Finland (YLE), Czechia (CzTV) and France (TV8 Mont Blanc).
Norwegian customers can also follow the races on langrenn.com.
At the same time, viewers in Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and host nation Belgium have free access to Eurovision Sport, where the broadcasts are available.
Please note that the quarter finals of Friday’s Knock-Out Sprint will be shown exclusively on IOF TV and Eurovision Sport.
As always, IOF LIVE is your friend, when it comes to start lists, live results and GPS-tracking.
EOC 2025 programme
All times: CEST (UTC +2)
Wednesday, August 27
Sprint Relay
18:50 – 20:20 TV Broadcast
19:00 Sprint Relay start
Thursday, August 28
KO Sprint Qualification
14:00 First start M
15:00 First start W
16:30 Heat selection
Friday, August 29
KO Sprint Finals
13:20 – 14:40 QF broadcast (free and exclusively for IOF TV and Eurovision Sport)
13:25 QF first start
15:30 – 17:30 TV Broadcast
15:40 SF first start
17:00 Finals start
Sunday, August 31
Sprint
9:30 Qualification, First start Men
10:35 Qualification, First start Women
15:15 Final, First start Men
15:30 – 18:00 TV Broadcast
16:30 Final, First start Women