Lithuanians won the victory after an extremely dramatic battle. After the first two stages, the Lithuanian team was in second place, and in the last stage, I. Ambrazas, who started, had to make up more than a minute’s deficit from the leading French team. At the end of the course, the Lithuanian caught up with Antoine Lesquer, and everything was decided by the finishing sprint – the Lithuanian team overtook France by just 2 seconds. Switzerland took third place, losing to the Lithuanians by 47 seconds. A total of 25 teams from 19 countries started in the relay.
Read more Latvia closes doors to Russian books: ban takes effect, but an important exception remains
“The happiest thing is the gold medal won on the last day. Together with my teammates, we have been trying to win this title for several years, but something was always missing. This time all three of us performed very well, and I had to finish with a strong finish. I went out on the course in second place, about a minute behind.
Neither I nor the French athlete managed to avoid mistakes because the course was very difficult. In the second half of the course, I saw the competitor and managed to catch up with him before the finish. Then I chose the tactic to follow behind until the last control point and try to overtake at the finish. I’m glad the plan worked, and now we have gold medals around our necks,” said I. Ambrazas after the triumph, upon returning to Lithuania.
The world champion title was not yet in the medal collection of the 2025 European champion J. Maišelis.
“Finally, after so many years, I managed to win the world championship gold medal together with the team, which I did not have until now. I am very grateful to Ignas and Jonas. I knew that with them, one day we would have very real chances to fight for this title. We were close several times, but something was always missing, and this time we succeeded,” commented J. Maišelis on the historic performance.
The Lithuanian women’s team, consisting of Karolina Mickevičiūtė – Juodišienė, Algirda Mickuvienė, and Gabrielė Andrašiūnienė, also stepped onto the podium in the relay competitions. The Lithuanian women completed the three-stage race in 2 hours 19 minutes 22 seconds and took 6th place. The world champions were the Finnish trio, who completed the course in 2 hours 9 minutes 27 seconds. The silver medals went to the Swedes, and the bronze to the Swiss athletes.
The Lithuanian team returned home from Sweden with two world championship medals. In the long-distance race held on Thursday, I. Ambrazas won the bronze medal. The Lithuanian athlete completed the 34 km course in 1 hour 51 minutes 51 seconds and was only 2 seconds behind the silver medalist from Finland, Miika Nurmi. The gold medal went to another Finnish representative, Samuel Pokala.
“The terrain was similar for all four days, perhaps only the sprint competition was different. I managed to win a bronze medal in the long course. It’s a pity about the middle course, where I could also have fought for second place, but I made a mistake at the end of the course that ruined my chances to fight for the top places. Still, the relay gold is the most pleasing,” evaluated I. Ambrazas about his championship.
Read more Will you answer the 25 hardest questions of August?
The 2024 world champion Gabrielė Andrašiūnienė also performed impressively in the long course. The athlete, who announced her career end in the same year, returned to orienteering courses after maternity leave. She completed the 28 km course in 1 hour 59 minutes 29 seconds and took a high fifth place. The world champion was Swedish athlete Gabriella Gustafsson, the silver medal went to Italian Iris Aurora Pecocari, and the bronze to Nicoline Splittorff from Denmark.
“It’s nice to compete again with the strongest athletes in the world. I secretly hoped to get into the top ten and I am very happy that I managed to achieve that. I managed to complete all courses very steadily, which is especially pleasing knowing that this year I could put much less effort into preparation than in previous years. I missed the feeling of competition – it is fun and exciting. On the other hand, to stay at the highest level, you need to put in much more work. We’ll see in the future if I can maintain this level to continue competing,” said G. Andrašiūnienė.
Along with the world championship, the World Youth Orienteering Mountain Biking Championship was also held. This time, Lithuanian young athletes did not manage to win medals. The 2025 world youth champion Irmantė Aleliūnaitė participated in the World Youth XCO Championship at the time, but Daumantas Kiela was very close to the winners’ podium in the long course. The Lithuanian was only 38 seconds away from the bronze medal – he took fourth place.
The world championship was also the last stage of the 2026 World Cup. After the last competition, it became clear that the Lithuanian team became the winner of the World Cup in mountain bike orienteering teams.
The team classification this year consisted of three relay events: the mixed relay in Portugal and the men’s and women’s relays at the world championship in Sweden. In Portugal, the Lithuanians were second, and in Sweden, the men took first place, the women – sixth place. With 47 points, Lithuania overtook France (43 points) and Switzerland (38 points) in the final standings.
In the individual classification, J. Maišelis took fourth place. One of the leaders of the Lithuanian team scored 314 points. The winner was Austrian Hnilica Hanes (560 points).
The 2027 World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championship will be held in Latvia.
