Glebov of Turun Metsänkävijät Beats Kirmula in the Third Stage – Teini and Kirmula Lead Going Into the Pursuit Race
Published: 02.07.2026
Glebov of Turun Metsänkävijät Beats Kirmula in the Third Stage – Teini and Kirmula Lead Going Into the Pursuit Race
Ruslan Glebov in action in the Säynäjä KOW26 terrain (Photo: Touho Häkkinen)
National team orienteers Marika Teini and Miika Kirmula, both representing Kalevan Rasti, hold a strong lead heading into Friday’s pursuit start.
In the men’s elite category, however, Ruslan Glebov of Turun Metsänkävijät overtook Kirmula on Thursday to win the stage. Glebov left Kirmula—who had dominated the first two days of the Kainuu Orienteering Week—19 seconds behind on the 7.3-kilometer course.
The middle-distance races on the third day of Kainuu O Week were run in the wilderness and hill terrain of Säynäjä. Glebov praised the demanding course, which required constant focus on navigation and bearings. Glebov will start Friday's pursuit race three minutes behind Kirmula.
"I'm setting off with fairly realistic expectations, as Miika's orienteering is in a league of its own," Glebov commented on his positioning for the pursuit.
Marika Teini, who secured her third consecutive stage victory, completed her 5.1-kilometer course in a time of 37:31. On Friday, Teini will head into the forest 9 minutes and 14 seconds ahead of Mira Kaskinen (Rastikarhut), who starts in second place. Johanna Kriikkula of Lapuan Virkiä will start the pursuit in third, 15 minutes and 39 seconds behind Teini.
Course Setting Team Designs Around 200 Courses for Kainuu O Week
The Kainuu Orienteering Week 2026 course setting team (Photo: Milla Mäkinen / Kainuu Orienteering Week 2026)
In recent years, the course setting and mapping duties for Kainuu Orienteering Week have become the responsibility of an established team consisting of Joni Korhonen, Annastiina Vanhala, and Joona and Niklas Hirvilahti.
This year, Joakim Savinainen of Rasti-Kurikka joined the team for the final touches. Savinainen recently won relay gold at the European Youth Orienteering Championships in Slovenia at the end of June.
The competition terrain in Säynäjä brought fresh dynamics to the team's work. The courses could be designed completely from scratch, as no prior orienteering map or older course templates existed for the area, explains Joni Korhonen, head of the course planning team.
"At the start of the course design, the field was wide open. We tested various options, which we then began to refine more precisely during the winter," Korhonen describes.
Over the winter, about three different versions were made of each course before the final ones were locked in March. For each day of Kainuu O Week, 49 different courses were planned. Additionally, the team was responsible for the children's "rastiralli" (orienteering fun track) at the competition center, as well as training maps for rest days and sprint orienteering events.
The team's work did not end with mapping and course design; during the competition days, they checked around 180 control points every morning, helped set up the guide strings for the children's string courses (RR courses), and made final adjustments to the controls.
"So, we end up covering a lot of ground in the terrain," Korhonen says.
