Svetlana Mironova | Elite Orienteering Technique

The first day of MOC championships in Italy – analysis

The sprint orienteering season of 2026 officially kicks off today with the traditional two-day competition of the Mediterranean Open Championships (MOC). Now in its 21st edition, PWT Italy once again gathers athletes from around the world for an early-season test in the beautiful surroundings of Lake Garda in Italy.

Today we meet in Garda, where a brand-new sprint map has been prepared specifically for the opening stage. The terrain offers a rich and varied challenge, combining three distinct environments.

Three zones of Garda town makes the orienteering different even during the short sprint course. You can enjoy running through the old town — a maze of intricate streets, narrow passages, and lively squares filled with the vibrant atmosphere of touristic life. The second section brings you into the more modern part of the city, where runners meet wider streets, small park zones, and opportunities to increase speed while maintaining precise navigation. At a full speed you return again into the old town and try to not disconnect from your navigation before the course leads you into a pleasant park area with good visibility towards the last controls.

The course design features plenty of controls, sharp turns, and narrow route choices, constantly testing runners’ orienteering technique, running speed, and perhaps most importantly their ability to make quick decisions under pressure.

My honor to make a course setting for the MOC this year and beginning the planning I had a clear goal in mind. With the World Orienteering Championships 2026 approaching later this season, the courses were designed to reflect the type of urban challenges athletes may face at the world level, making the first stage of MOC a valuable opportunity for those preparing for the biggest event of the year.

But MOC is not only about preparation to the World Champs. Just a chance to escape the lingering winter of northern Europe, snowy forests and rainy training days and enjoy flowing sprint races under the Italian sun, surrounded by magnificent old architecture and the atmosphere of the Mediterranean and welcoming people where everyone feels as at home. PWT Italy always guarantee a cozy event where you are surrounded by caring people and a lot of smiles.

Courses

A very tight battle today! Only some seconds divided the winners at the first stage of MOC Championships.
Congratuations to the winners:

MEN Elite
1. Yannick Michiels Turun Metsänkävijät 12:22
2. Valter Pettersson OK Tisaren 12:54
3. Oskar Andrén OK Tisaren 12:57

Women Elite
1. Caterina Dallera PARK WORLD TOUR ITALIA S.S.D. S.R.L. 13:12
2. Vilma von Krusenstierna OK Kåre 13:36
3. Jessica Lucchetta PARK WORLD TOUR ITALIA S.S.D. S.R.L. 14:19

Live results HERE

MEN Elite class analysis

From the start the course offers a “shock” first control just inside the first small park just less than 100m from the start triangle.

But the second leg is longer and even though it more served for the exiting from the start area, it requires the route choice and precise navigating through the streets. When it comes to finding your chosen street among many, it is always are risk of overspeeding and taking the wrong street leading to timeloss.

During the next tree legs the course offers a intense navigation block with small route choices an opportunity to gain seconds with smooth running at shortest options

Longer leg 7 brings you to the another side of the main road to the quaters with regular buildings

Despite of absence of climbing, the right route choice is around 40m longer and not faster.

Leg 8 give you a good opportunity to get advantage of a shorter route on the left side

The longest leg 10 of the course has many options and it caused some hesitation

The difference between the shortest option (Green – 595m) and the longest (right Violet – 639) is just 40m, so long hesitations can bring you timeloss. The green option gets some climbing, so probably Red could be even faster due to that and also having less turns. But no one in mens class takes the red option.

After the map flip we come back to the town center and its tricky navigation

In this part Yannick get extra 5″ of advantage while it is only Oskar Andren who takes all short routes here.

Legs 18 and 19 give you some opportunity for gaining seconds in a small route choices

Many options are available for the leg to the control 20

The blue option is around 15m shorter due to the exit from the 19th control is to the right side that moves balance towards the right route choice. Also Blue option goes through the wide streets with less turns. Here is where Valter Petterson gets advantage of 5″

Towards the end, control 22 offers another route choice but also it is where Yannick Michiels had a mistake and lost some seconds due to missing the entrance. His advantage shortens here from 41 to 27 seconds. Still a enough gap to take the very confident victory at the DAY 1 at Garda!

The 1 day of MOC offered a course that keeps you in tension from the beginning to the end and only smooth run gives you the opportunity to be in top. Doing a smart choices leg by leg you gain seconds and increase your advantage but every mistake can drop you down. Even though some route choices give you big advantages, hesitating about route choice is not good thing to do: sometimes the difference between options is small and only fast and correct decisions bring you forward in the result list.

Look Livelox HERE

Thanks everyone who participated MOC championships today and see you tomorrow in Torri del Benaco!