# 2023 Orienteering World Cup

The 2023 Orienteering World Cup is the 28th edition of the Orienteering World Cup. The 2023 Orienteering World Cup consists of seven individual events and three relay events. The events are located in Norway, the Czech Republic, and Italy. The 2023 World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland are not included in the World Cup, but the European Orienteering Championships in Italy are part of the World Cup program. Non-European Orienteers can hence participate in the European Championships as well. Russian and Belarusian competitors are still banned, but this season saw Natalia Gemperle returning to the world cup, now competing for Switzerland.
The season started in Østfold, Norway, with a long distance race won by reigning champions Tove Alexandersson and Kasper Harlem Fosser. Fosser also won the middle distance but Alexandersson finished in second place, ten seconds behind teammate Sara Hagström. Both the relays were won by Swedish teams.
When the season continued in Česká Lípa all individual women's races were won by Tove Alexandersson, giving her a 130 point lead ahead of Sara Hagström in the world cup, almost securing her ninth total world cup win. On the men's side the races were won by Ralph Street, Jannis Bonek and Kasper Fosser. The relay was won by the Swiss team before the Czech and Swedish teams.
The World Cup Finals included the European Orienteering Championships and competitions were held in northern Italy. In the Sprint, Matthias Kyburz won with 4 seconds ahead of Kasper Fosser, putting Kyburz only 23 points behind Fosser in the World Cup standings heading into the Knock Out Sprint. In the Women's class, Hagström was the winner ahead of Alexandersson, but Alexandersson's 80 points for finishing second place was still enough to guarantee her the overall world cup victory with one round still to go, her score of 560 points now being impossible to reach for second placed Hagström even if Alexandersson did not finish and Hagström won the final round. By winning the overall world cup, Tove Alexandersson tied with Simone Niggli with 9 overall wins and one overall second place.
In the Knock Out Sprint, Alexandersson won the final round to end her season with 5 victories from 7 races. In the Men's class, a quarter final collision between current world cup leader Kasper Fosser and Swiss runner Joey Hadorn lead to both runners being unable to finish, leaving the World Cup open to Kyburz to overtake Fosser and win the World Cup if he finished in 4th place or better in his semi-final. In the end, Kyburz easily surpassed this, winning the Knock Out Sprint outright to take his 6th World Cup overall victory and his first since 2018.

## Events
### Men

| No. | Venue | Distance | Date | Winner | Second | Third |
| Round 1 – Norway ||||||||
| 1 | Østfold, Norway | Long | 27 April | Kasper Harlem Fosser (NOR) | Emil Svensk (SWE) | Martin Regborn (SWE) |
| 2 | Østfold, Norway | Middle | 29 April | Kasper Harlem Fosser (NOR) | Matthias Kyburz (SUI) | Gustav Bergman (SWE) |
| Round 2 – Czech Republic ||||||||
| 3 | Česká Lípa, Czech Republic | Sprint | 2 August | Ralph Street (GBR) | Gustav Bergman (SWE) | Yannick Michiels (BEL) |
| 4 | Česká Lípa, Czech Republic | Middle | 5 August | Jannis Bonek (AUT) | Albin Ridefelt (SWE) | Matthias Kyburz (SUI) |
| 5 | Česká Lípa, Czech Republic | Long | 6 August | Kasper Fosser (NOR) | Matthias Kyburz (SUI) | Gustav Bergman (SWE) |
| Round 3 – Italy ||||||||
| 6 | Verona, Italy | Sprint | 4 October | Matthias Kyburz (SUI) | Kasper Fosser (NOR) | Tuomas Heikkila (FIN) |
| 7 | Verona, Italy | Knock-Out sprint | 8 October | Matthias Kyburz (SUI) | Jonatan Gustafsson (SWE) | Emil Svensk (SWE) |

### Women

| No. | Venue | Distance | Date | Winner | Second | Third |
| Round 1 – Norway ||||||||
| 1 | Østfold, Norway | Long | 26 April | Tove Alexandersson (SWE) | Sara Hagström (SWE) | Marie Olaussen (NOR) |
| 2 | Østfold, Norway | Middle | 28 April | Sara Hagström (SWE) | Tove Alexandersson (SWE) | Natalia Gemperle (SUI) |
| Round 2 – Czech Republic ||||||||
| 3 | Česká Lípa, Czech Republic | Sprint | 2 August | Tove Alexandersson (SWE) | Natalia Gemperle (SUI) | Sara Hagström (SWE) |
| 4 | Česká Lípa, Czech Republic | Middle | 5 August | Tove Alexandersson (SWE) | Simona Aebersold (SUI) | Sanna Fast (SWE) |
| 5 | Česká Lípa, Czech Republic | Long | 6 August | Tove Alexandersson (SWE) | Simona Aebersold (SUI) | Sara Hagström (SWE) |
| Round 3 – Finals ||||||||
| 6 | Verona, Italy | Sprint | 4 October | Sara Hagström (SWE) | Tove Alexandersson (SWE) | Simona Aebersold (SUI) |
| 7 | Vicenza, Italy | Knock-Out sprint | 8 October | Tove Alexandersson (SWE) | Elena Roos (SUI) | Natalia Gemperle (SUI) |

### Relay

| No. | Venue | Distance | Date | Winner | Second | Third |
| 1 | Østfold, Norway | Men's relay | 30 April | Sweden 1 Martin Regborn Emil Svensk Gustav Bergman | Finland 1 Topi Syrjalainen Olli Ojanaho Miika Kirmula | Norway 2 Gaute Steiwer Eirik Langedal Breivik Havard Sandstad Eidsmo |
| 2 | Østfold, Norway | Women's relay | 30 April | Sweden 2 Karolin Ohlsson Elin Månsson Lisa Risby | Switzerland 1 Elena Roos Natalia Gemperle Simona Aebersold | Norway 1 Marianne Andersen Tone Bergerud Lye Andrine Benjaminsen |
| 3 | Česká Lípa, Czech Republic | Sprint relay | 3 August | Switzerland 1Simona Aebersold Joey Hadorn Matthias Kyburz Elena Roos | Czech Republic 1Denisa Kosová Jakub Glonek Tomáš Křivda Tereza Janošíková | Sweden 1Sara Hagström Jonatan Gustafsson Gustav Bergman Emma Bjessmo |
| 4 | Soave, Italy | Sprint relay | 6 October | Sweden Tove Alexandersson Jonatan Gustafsson Martin Regborn Sara Hagstrom | Switzerland Simona Aebersold Joey Hadorn Matthias Kyburz Elena Roos | Finland Inka Nurminen Teemu Oksanen Tuomas Heikkila Venla Harju |

## Points distribution

The 40 best runners in each event are awarded points. The winner is awarded 100 points. In WC events 1 to 7, the six best results count in the overall classification. In the finals (WC 8 and WC 9), both results count.
| Rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| Points | 100 | 80 | 60 | 50 | 45 | 40 | 37 | 35 | 33 | 31 | 30 | 29 | 28 | 27 | 26 | 25 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |

## Overall standings

This section shows the standings after the events in Italy.

### Men

| Rank | Athlete | Points |
| 1 | Matthias Kyburz (SUI) | 520 |
| 2 | Kasper Harlem Fosser (NOR) | 461 |
| 3 | Gustav Bergman (SWE) | 290 |
| 4 | Emil Svensk (SWE) | 260 |
| 5 | Ralph Street (GBR) | 243 |
| 6 | Martin Regborn (SWE) | 237 |
| 7 | Jannis Bonek (AUT) | 220 |
| 8 | Tomas Krivda (CZE) | 184 |
| 9 | Joey Hadorn (SUI) | 182 |
| 10 | Jonatan Gustafsson (SWE) | 157 |

### Women

| Rank | Athlete | Points |
| 1 | Tove Alexandersson (SWE) | 660 |
| 2 | Sara Hagström (SWE) | 495 |
| 3 | Simona Aebersold (SUI) | 367 |
| 4 | Natalia Gemperle (SUI) | 365 |
| 5 | Elena Roos (SUI) | 246 |
| 6 | Marie Olaussen (NOR) | 191 |
| 7 | Aleksandra Hornik (POL) | 166 |
| 8 | Hanna Lundberg (SWE) | 160 |
| 9 | Andrea Svensson (SWE) | 149 |
| 10 | Elin Månsson (SWE) | 143 |

### Team

The table shows the standings after the final stage in Italy.
| Rank | Nation | Points |
| 1 | Sweden | 8135 |
| 2 | Switzerland | 7510 |
| 3 | Norway | 4715 |
| 4 | Finland | 4104 |
| 5 | Czech Republic | 3806 |
| 6 | France | 3021 |
| 7 | Denmark | 2549 |
| 8 | Great Britain | 2365 |
| 9 | Poland | 2123 |
| 10 | Spain | 2120 |