Tiomila 2024 – an equal Tiomila

An equal Tiomila is a Tiomila were both men and women compete at night. An equal Tiomila is a Tiomila were both men and women have the same average leg time. Ett likvärdigt Tiomila är ett Tiomila som sporrar klubbarna att bredda verksamheten för både herrar och damer. An equal Tiomila is a Tiomila which encourage clubs to widen its activities for both men and women.

Tiomila from 2024 is an equal Tiomila where both men and women run at night. But at the same time, focus needs to be at turning the downward trend where fewer orienteers, both men and women, is attracted to participate in Tiomila. This has to be done without renouncing the athletic challenges in the relay.

Both possibilities and challenges arise when men and women compete during the same part of the day. To give both relays best possible attention we have, together with the team for the media production, decided that overlap between the relays should be avoided. Without overlap between the relays, both classes can be given the same focus and it gives possibilities to follow more teams than just the first ones. Since we wish that both classes run the last leg in daylight, a solution with divided relays is the best option for the whole competition schedule.

Night for women

It’s time for the women to take part of Tiomila´s biggest signature, night orienteering. One of the concerns regarding this is the low participation from women in night competitions. As owners, and organizers 2024, we take this concern seriously but can with a broader perspective also notice that also mens participation in night orienteering decreases. Tiomila with a chasing/wave start create possibilities regarding this.

We would like to keep the happening of many headlights heading out in the forest at the same time and therefore the women´s relay will start at dusk. With a start in dusk, the last teams will be at the finish when Saturday becomes Sunday. Our hope is that a soft introduction of night legs will attract more than deter.

When dawn becomes morning, a chasing start will also be held in the women´s relay. One hour behind, a wave start similar to the men´s class will be held.

The first finish is expected 2 hours after the first teams in the men´s relay have finished.

Men’s relay start in daylight

At Saturday afternoon, the men will start their relay with three legs in daylight. After a break on a couple of hours, day will be night and a chasing start will be held based on the result from the three earlier legs. One hour after the first team has started, a wave start will be held with the teams that haven´t started inside one hour behind the leaders. Around 100 teams will be in the wave start and instead of a lonely long night, they will experience the relay feeling and have company during the longest night leg. Today, the top teams use 90 minutes on the long night and almost always in company with each other. Meanwhile, teams a bit down in the result list are in the forest for 150 minutes and often alone. This is a subject that is not discussed that often and a wave start will give more teams a more joyful long night.

This change will give the best teams six night legs and will give the teams in the wave start three night legs. The last leg will always be in daylight.

Fewer teams in restart

One problem with Tiomila today is the number of teams in the restart, often up too 2/3 of all entered teams. With a chasing/wave start earlier in the competition, this number will decrease and the goal for the coming years is that no more than 1/3 of the entered teams will restart in the morning.

Continued challenge

Tiomila will continue to be a challenge for the best teams, a competition with a hight technical standard which is one of the most prestigious yearly competitions. Tiomila will also be a competition which will offer more for the teams a bit down in the result list.

The youth relay will keep its existing format, starting a bit later on the day.

Welcome to Nynäshamn and the exiting forests of Södertörn 4-5 of May 2024!