World University Championships 2026 – Vila Real, Portugal

Knock-Out Sprint Qualification

The 2026 World University Orienteering Championships got underway on Tuesday with the Knock-Out Sprint making its discipline debut at the championships. The day started with the qualification round in the morning, with the top 12 from each of the three heats to make it through into the knock-out stages. Imogen Pieters was the only qualifier for the British women, cruising through in 3rd position. Isobel Howard and Rachel Brown narrowly missed out, both finish in 14th position. For the men, Euan Tryner, Jim Bailey, Charlie Rennie, and James Hammond all qualified.

With only the top 36 athletes to qualify, none of the quarterfinals are easy. Imogen and Charlie both finished in 5th place, and James in 4th, so their day finished there. Euan and Jim finished in 2nd and 3rd respectively to move through into the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals, Jim and Euan were again in the same heat. After a strong start out of the start, Euan missed a vital route-choice early on that left him with to much of a gap to the leaders and would finish in 6th place. Jim had already worked out his strategy of pushing hard through the technical section early on to put the others under pressure. He pulled this of perfectly and was leading after this first section. However, when the terrain and course simplified in the second half he was unable to match the dead-running speed of the others and came over the line in 5th.

"It was a great experience to be running a KO semi-final. I felt strong and confident in the first section, but I then started to loose speed in the second half. A great event and I’m excited for the rest of the week." - Jim Bailey, 5th SF1

"It was great to make it to the semi-final on my first time being in the quarter final of an international knock out. I'm really pleased and hope that it is the start of a successful week" - Euan Tryner, 6th SF1

Women Heat A

1. Cécile Calandry, FRA - 9:27
2. Hanne Hilo, FIN - 9:33
3. Inari Karppinen, FIN – 9:36
4. Rachel Brown, GBR – 10:12
5. Emily Gibbins, GBR – 10:46

Women Heat B

1. Anniina Taipale, FIN - 9:50
2. Fanny Delahaye, FRA - 9:51
3. Virna Pellikka, FIN – 9:55
4. Isobel Howard, GBR – 10:37
5. Rachel Duckworth, GBR – 10:52

Women Heat C

1. Elli Punto, FIN - 10:27
2. Klara Borg, SWE - 10:29
3. Imogen Pieters, GBR – 10:39
4. Jocie Hilton, GBR – 11:46

Men Heat A

1. Guilhem Verove, FRA – 9:12
2. Gonzalo Galán, ESP – 9:20
3. Felix Hunt, NZL – 9:37
4. Jim Bailey, GBR – 9:51
5. Sam Griffin, GBR – 10:12

Men Heat B

1. Cornelius Bjørk, NOR – 9:10
2. Lukas Novak, AUT – 9:11
3. Zoltán Bujdosó, HUN – 9:12
4. Euan Tryner, GBR – 9:31
5. James Hammond, GBR – 9:51

Men Heat C

1. Francesco Mariani, ITA - 9:20
2. Pablo Galán, ESP - 9:40
3. Keegan Karkavy, USA - 9:51
4. Charlie Rennie, GBR - 10:10
5. Alex Wetherill, GBR - 10:37

Knock-Out Sprint Quarter-Finals

Women QF2

1. Fanny Delahaye, FRA - 9:42
2. Annabelle Delenne, FRA - 9:56
3. Elsa Sonesson, SWE – 9:57
4. Imogen Pieters, GBR – 10:15

Men QF1

1. Francesco Mariani, ITA - 7:55
2. Euan Tryner, GBR - 8:09
3. Jim Bailey, GBR - 8:14
4. James Hammond, GBR – 9:35

Men QF2

1. Romain Pichard, FRA - 8:01
2. Lukas Novak, AUT - 8:03
3. Isaac Pindado, ESP - 8:06
4. Charlie Rennie, GBR - 8:41

Knock-Out Sprint Semi-Finals

Men SF1

1. Francesco Mariani, ITA - 7:56
2. Lukas Novak, AUT - 7:57
3. Jim Bailey, GBR - 8:15
4. Euan Tryner, GBR - 8:22
   

Mixed Sprint Relay

Nations were allowed to enter two teams into the mixed sprint relay. We had two strong teams; Great Britain 1 lined up with Imogen Pieters, Euan Tryner, James Hammond, and Isobel Howard. For Great Britain 2 we had Rachel Duckworth, Sam Griffin, Jim Bailey, and Rachel Brown.

The courses were very tough; there were lots of tricky route choices, some sneaky dead-end traps, plenty of gaffeling and lots of stairs! Pre-race favourites France followed up on their double gold in the knock-out sprint to take an unsurprisingly dominant win. Great Britain got off to a great start with Imogen handing over in the front group, strong legs from Euan and James on the middle legs sent Isobel Howard out in a tough fight for a top 6 place, eventually finishing in 7th place. Consistent and strong racing from the second team fighting all the way to the line, saw them finish at the 5th second team.

Imogen said - "I'm really pleased with how I ran, I took the lead out of the start and was running comfortably within the pack. I made a small mistake on the way to 7 but was able to close the gap through the next few legs. There was no room to overtake up some of the small staircases, but was really pleased to hand-over with the first pack"

"Immy handed over in an ideal position. I just wanted to pick decent route choices and run hard. I was alone through the first gaffel, so was glad when I cam back together with Francesco [Mariani, ITA] later on. Then it was just a matter of running as hard as I could up the hill to the finish" - Euan Tryner

"This was a truly world class relay; there were tricky route choices, lots of stairs, and really tough competition. I'm really proud of our team's performance!" - James Hammond

After anchoring the team on last leg, Isobel Howard reflected "The sprint relay posed a really fun challenge with some sneaky route choices and high summer heat. I made some frustrating mistakes in the first half of the course but was pleased to hold in for 7th place."

Mixed Sprint Relay

1. France (Delenne, Pichard, Verove, Calandry) - 1:01:26
2. Hungary (Koren, Nagy, Bujdosó, Nag) - 1:02:24
3. Czechia (Matejkova, Hajek, Zridkavesely, Pekarova) - 1:02:26
4. Great Britain (Pieters, Tryner, Hammond, Howard) - 1:04:02
5. Great Britain 2 (Duckworth, Griffin, Bailey, Brown) - 1:06:17