the world – Orienteering Schwaben

Trail-O Season

Taking Paul to his first Trail-O last year in the Bavarian Forest he was actual that good that he made it into Germany’s junior national team. This changes my priorities in orienteering more to Trail-O. There are not so many Trail-O competitions in central Europe, so gaining experience means a lot of travel.
Our first competition was the Slovak TrailO Sprint weekend. Around 8 h drive for us. The weekend consists of two Trail-O sprints, one Tempo-O and two foot-O training’s. All Trail-O count for the world ranking. One sprint and the Temp-O also counts for the European Cup in Trail-O. The sprints taking place at the map from last years WTOC relay. A super technical semi open quarry area. First sprint went well for me, at the second sprint I didn’t understood anything and had a quite bad result. The Temp-O at Sunday was in some dune area. I still didn’t understood much, but was able to place better than in the second sprint. In the overall ranking I was 31st, earning my first Trail-O world ranking and European Cup points. Paul finished 3rd in he Junior class, which earned him a mention at the IOF homepage.
Next competition was the Aeterna Roma Trail Orienteering Weekend. Two Temp-O and one Sprint, all park based. Like in Slovakia three WRE and two European Cups. The first Temp-O was in a quite park in the outskirts of Rome. I was quite satisfied with my result. The second Temp-O and the sprint were in a more central and busy park. Both competitions were’t that good for me, as I got distracted by the people and the noise.
Already one weekend later I went to Poland for the Bukowa-Cup. This time I was traveling alone, as Paul had some family festivity. The competition was relevant for this years ETOC, so I went there to geek a little. The competition offers three Trail-Os and five foot-Os in three days. I take part in all Trail-Os and four of the five foot-Os. Trail-O was sprint, Temp-O and Pre-O, all WREs. The sprint takes place in a detailed forest, Temp-O in a semi open area and the Pre-O partly in a open a park are and partly in forest with some fine details. The sprint and Temp-O didn’t work very well for me (I don’t think I’ll become a fan of Temp-O). In the Pre-O I had one of my best performances in my Trail-O history and finished in 20th place a second best German.
Finally we made a trip to Finland for the Fin TrailO. For preparation, we also went to a local Trail-O in Turku. And we competed at the Finish Sprit Champs, a 5 k road race ans went to some fixed orienteering courses on the trip. For Paul it was the first time he competed in Pre-O and the first time in Finland. This gives me the chance to beat Paul in Trail-O for the first time. In Turku there was a Pre-O and a Temp-O, both tricky and I made to many mistakes. At the Fin TrailO there were two Pre-Os and one Temp-O. I had some trouble with the small details at the Pre-O but enjoyed the competition. At the Temp-O I tried a new tactic and take time to really understand the map. I still made to many mistakes so this tactic didn’t work for me. At the second Pre-O I had the feeling the I understood the terrain better. but didn’t improve in ranking. Paul was now more in Pre-O and beats me again. Paul’s next Trail-O will be the ETOC in Poland. I will be at the Bavarian Forest 5 days and will not be at ETOC. I´m German national coach for Trail-O now, so for sure I’ll be at WTOC in California next year. If you like to try Trail-O the Temp-O simulator will be a great place to try it at home. If you looking for events the homepage of the Trail Open Project will be a great place to check for events.

Me at at the Slovak TrailO Sprint weekend

2026 Abu Dhabi Open Masters Games

While searching the IOF calendar for some Trail-O WREs, I found the orienteering event at the Abu Dhabi Open Maters Games. As this was a good chance to experience a new orienteering country, I checked if had time and start planing. As the starting fee didn’t depend on the number of competitions I checked for other sports as well. Road races and obstacle course races were scheduled one week after the orienteering competitions and outside my vacation time. So I decided to enter the 5000 m track race.
First event was the orienteering middle distance at Saturday. The event takes places at a beach resort on Hudayriyat Island. The map consist of some open sandy area and the beach resort. All courses started in the open area and went then to the beach resort. Coming from German winter I was not used to run in the sun,s o it was hard to keep the speed in the more easy open part. The beach resort part was more tricky but I could finish it without big mistakes. I finished the race on 4th place but with a huge gap to the medals.
Sprint race take place the next day at the same place. Course went mainly through the beach resort were you had to look to find the right passage. It definitely helped if you run the middle distance before. Again I finished at 4th place with a huge gap to the medals.
The athletics organization was a little more chaotic, but I managed to pick my bibs and find a schedule ahead. My 5000 m race was scheduled for Monday evening. For some time I was quite sure that after 2 days of orienteering and a tourist day I wont start. But at the day itself I give it a go. Short before my start they decided to merge to classes, so my race was earlier than expected. This gives me a little hurry and not really time for warmup. The race was OK and I enjoyed my first track race. I managed to finish 6th place in my class.
It was interesting to meet not only people from different countries but also from different sports. This makes it a different experience from orienteering only events.

Rankings

The new year is a good opportunity to look back to last years rankings. We didn’t take any of the series to serious:

World ranking (highest rank 2025):
Sprint:
Jakob: 1757
Steffen: 1349
Forrest:
Jakob: 1413
Steffen: 1152

National ranking:
Jakob: Did not compete
Steffen: 40. (M40) (run only one ranking event)

German sprint series:
Jakob: 3. (M19)
Steffen: 17. (M19)

Rhein-Main-Ranking:
Jakob: 2. (M19)
Steffen: 5. (M19)

Regional ranking Baden-Württemberg:
Jakob: 3. (M19)
Steffen: 7. (M19) (had only 4/6 counting events)

Bavarian Forest 5 Days 2025

2025 was the 4th edition of the Bavarian Forest 5 Days, organised by Peter and his team. I missed 2023 but have been on all other editions. With nearly 900 competitors from 29 countries it has become a international event.
This year the first two stages took place in the Czech Republic. I struggled little with the map, as it was a little unusual style for me. The map wasn’t bad, I just needed some time to get along with it. Map was a nice hilly forest with less stones than the German part.
Next two days were in the same German forest than last year. More stones and a little more green makes it a different challenge.I was more used to the map maker and course setter, so I was more satisfied with my orienteering.
Final days was a sprint in Grafenau. Not my favorite discipline. I made a stupid ~1 min error that costs me two places at the stages and one at the overall ranking.
Except of day 2, I managed a top 10 at all days and in the overall ranking. You can find results and pictures at BF5D homepage and maps in Livelox. Next year the vent will happen from 1st to 5th August in a new area arround Bad Weissenstadt. Earlier that year (18th to 19th April 2026) you can have a weekend of City Races at the Munich-O-Fest organised by the same team.

World Orienteering Week

World Orienteering Week is coming. Have you already prepared your event?

Merry Christmas

Hungária Kupa

Hungária Kupa 2024 takes place in the Vértes hills around Csákbéreny. A area I already visited for the Hungária Kupa 2000 and the WMOC 2021. Both events I really enjoyed. It also acts as spectator race for the European Orienteering Championship.
The event started with an prologue in semi open former mining area. Lot of controls forced you to focus on your map all time. The day was super hot that means only 5 people finished the longest course. The other five days had 4 middle and one long distance race. We run in the middle qualification, the middle final, long distance area and two maps close to the middle qualification area. So you could have a good feeling for the EOC races. Only the relay forest were skipped as Hungária Kupa had it last event in the morning before the EOC relay. We had some of the hottest days in Hungary during the races, so running in the semi open areas was quite hard. Surprisingly I was able to finish in the top 10 of M40 in the overall result. You can find the results on the Hungária Kupa Homepage.

World Masters

WMOC in Turku were the my second World Masters. First have been in Hungary 2021. So far not the WMOC were the reason I chosen the competition. In 2021 it was just a competition that happend and this year it was because I never was in the Turku area.
The competition didn’t work super good. Already and the pre-WMOC open event at Thursday I had trouble with the fine details and vegetation. The WMOC itself starts with the Sprint-Q at Saturday. I didn’t expect much as I’m not a good sprinter but really underperformed. My running speed was to slow and I made some bad route choices and technical errors at the end. The final the next day went a little better but my speed is still to slow. In both races I had trouble with the traditional EMIT-punching as I’m used to have all races with touch free punching in Germany. My last sprint without touchfree punching was at the Fin5 two years ago but went quite well at that time. At the forest races I still had trouble with the contours and vegetation so I was far away from a A-final. Only at the long final I was happy with my technique. But this was the last race so it was to late. As side event there was a Indoor-O the Friday before WMOC. This was my first Indoor-O. I had a lot of fun but forgot to visit two controls. It was a nice event but I prefer all age events. So I only will went for another WMOC if I like the place were it will be. Japan 2027 could be a event that attract me. You can find results, Livelox and pictures at the WMOC homepage.

Bavarian Forest 5 Days or running in the stones

Ok first to say it wasn’t that stony than the previous editions but you still need to count the rocks. The 2024 edition took place in Philippsreut, Haidmühle and Waldenkirchen. South of the Bavarian Forest national park just at the border to the Czech Republic. With entries from 26 countries it has become a real international event.
Day 1 was a long distance in Haidmühle. A lot of route choices in the beginning and tricky rock controls in the end. I didn’t solve and execute the route choices very well but didn’t have much trouble with the rock controls.
In the Morning of day 2 you had the opportunity to compete in Trail-O. The Trail-O was organised by Trail-O relay world champion Ralph Körner. Very tricky controls along different rock and contour features. My performance was very poor but I learned a lot for the next competition days.
In the afternoon there was the sprint race in the city of Waldenkirchen. Sunday afternoon and not so good weather means that orienteers had the city mostly for themselves. This still means a lot of traffic at some controls.
Day 3 to 5 shared the same event center in Philippsreut. But used different parts of the forest with different characteristics.
I wasn’t in good running shape and made to many mistakes so I finished 7^th out of 11 in M40.
The 2025 edition will be from 23 – 27 July with two races in the Czech Republic. You’ll find official results, pictures and Route Gadget on the event website. You can find my maps in my map archive.

ArgeAlp 2023

Mid October was the date for the traditional ArgeAlp (Alpine countries working group) orienteering competition. Going through the member regions, Trentino was this years host region. In the nice mountains around Folgaria we had a relay race at Saturday and a individual race at Sunday. At the relay I ran last leg in the open category. I ran 3^rd best time on the leg and get our team in a final 5^th place. At Sundays individual race I ran M40 and finished in 7^th place. I made a bad route choice so probably 5^th place would have been possible.