The 1st
World Orienteering Championships were held in the village of
Fiskars, Finland, 1–2 October 1966.
Participants from eleven nations competed in the championships: Austria, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, East Germany, Finland, Great Britain, Hungary, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. The medals were distributed between Sweden (3 gold, 1 bronze), Finland (3 silver, 1 bronze), Norway (1 gold, 2 bronze) and Switzerland (1 silver medal).
The men's individual
course
Course may refer to:
Directions or navigation
* Course (navigation), the path of travel
* Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...
had 11
controls over 14.1 kilometres, while the women's individual course had 10 controls over 8.1 kilometres.
The first individual world champions in orienteering came from Norway and Sweden. Winner of the men's competition was
Ã…ge Hadler from Norway. Hadler regarded the eighth
control, which was located in thick forest, as the most difficult, where the last part of the leg required meticulous map reading and frequent checking of the compass.
Ulla Lindkvist from Sweden won the women's competition. Sweden won the men's relay, which had four legs, with a margin of nearly eight minutes. Sweden also won the women's relay, which had three legs, with a margin of 21 seconds to silver medalist Finland.
[
The championships were attended by ]President of Finland
The president of the Republic of Finland ( fi, Suomen tasavallan presidentti; sv, Republiken Finlands president) is the head of state of Finland. Under the Constitution of Finland, executive power is vested in the Finnish Government and the p ...
, Urho Kekkonen, who was present at the finishing area.[Berglia (1987): p. 228]
Medalists
Results
Men's individual
Women's individual
References
{{World Orienteering Championships
World Orienteering Championships
1966 in Finnish sport
International sports competitions hosted by Finland
October 1966 sports events in Europe
Orienteering in Finland
Raseborg