Vienna
Three sprint stages in Austria’s capital, with international athletes and city atmosphere.
Welcome to four sprint days in Vienna: training event, 3 sprint events and one sprint relay in a relaxed international atmosphere. Austria’s most fun orienteering weekend is open for all.
Registration is now open for the 7th Vienna Orienteering Challenge, taking place from 3 to 6 September 2026. Welcome to sign up for orienteering in beautiful Vienna!
Follow us on Instagram .
Sprint orienteering in Vienna
The Vienna O Challenge combines high-quality sprint orienteering with easy logistics, public transport friendly venues and enough time to enjoy the city.
Three sprint stages in Austria’s capital, with international athletes and city atmosphere.
Courses are planned by experienced organisers and elite orienteers for real sprint fun.
Choose your level: elite, youth, masters, open classes, newcomers or team formats.
Follow @viennaochallenge on Instagram and Facebook · Deutschsprachige Website
Program
Plan a long weekend in Vienna. The schedule leaves room for sightseeing and recovery.
Secure your start and join the sprint orienteering weekend in Vienna.
Register now for the Vienna Orienteering Challenge Sprint Weekend 2026!
Entry dates 15 July 25 August
Quality
High-quality sprint orienteering maps and challenging courses in attractive areas — created by experienced organisers and elite orienteers.
Participant satisfaction: 93/100
Recommended by participants
Destination
Vienna has been ranked first 11 times as the most liveable city.
There is enough time before and after the races for sightseeing, coffee, museums or a relaxed walk through the city. Check wien.info and follow @viennatouristboard for inspiration.
Logistics
All venues are within Vienna and the event concept is built around public transport.
The mobility concept is based on the use of public transport services.
Travel by train, night train or bus services to Vienna.
Train tickets: ÖBB, Westbahn, Regiojet, ČD
Public transport tickets: Single ticket, 48 hours travel card, 7 days travel card
Atmosphere
Sprint orienteering in a positive, relaxed and international atmosphere.
World Championship medalists and upcoming sprint stars have used the VOC Sprint Weekend to test their sprint skills.
Vienna is Austria’s sprint-O capital and offers a wide variety of sprint areas. To ensure fair competition, event areas will be announced just in time, about two weeks before the event starts. Expect professional sprint mapping in different parts of the city. For inspiration, see below for some map and route excerpts from previous editions.
The Vienna O Challenge launched in 2019 with the idea of creating an international event that is open to everyone, held in challenging areas, and fun to be part of. Thank you to everyone who has participated in the first five editions. In 2025, the event welcomed 400 participants from more than 20 countries. See you at the next Vienna O Challenge!
Event Director
Do you want to be part of our team and help create an international sports event? Join the team of volunteers :)
| Newcomers | all ages | unisex |
|---|---|---|
| Team Challenge | all ages | unisex |
| Experience non-competitive | all ages | unisex |
| Direct (stage start) | all ages | unisex |
| Kids non-competitive | -12 years | unisex |
| Youth | 10-14 years | M | W |
| Open | 15+ years | M | W |
| Elite | 15+ years | M | W |
| 40+ | 40-49 years | M | W |
| 50+ | 50-59 years | M | W |
| 60+ | 60-69 years | M | W |
| 70+ | 70-79 years | M | W |
| 80+ | 80-100 years | M | W |
For orienteers
Open to all orienteers from age 15. Separate women’s and men’s classes.
Team up with friends
Teams of 2-3 people orienteer together on one course. Each team member gets a map and bib number; the team uses 1 chip and receives 1 result.
For orienteering newcomers
A unisex class for beginners who want to try sprint orienteering in a friendly setting.
Orienteering GuideOrienteering without time pressure
A unisex class without ranking. Your goal is to enjoy orienteering: you receive your personal splits, but there is no results list with times.
Sprint relay teams consist of 2 runners. Each person runs twice, making 4 legs in total. The length of each relay leg is 5-7 min.
| Open Relay | open for all ages |
|---|---|
| Youth Relay | maximum age 16 years (born 2010) |
| Masters Relay | minimum age 45 years (born 1981) |
Only the top 3 mixed teams and, where applicable, female-only teams are awarded at the prize-giving ceremony. All teams are listed in the results. The running order is open.
Useful information
The aim of the Vienna Orienteering Challenge (VOC) is to offer a high-quality orienteering event that is attractive to newcomers, recreational athletes, young athletes, and competitive runners. VOC is a multi-day event with 3 stages in Vienna. The sprint orienteering format attracts international participants, world-class athletes, and Austrian orienteers.
Das Ziel der Vienna Orienteering Challenge (VOC) ist es, eine hochqualitative OL-Veranstaltung anzubieten, die für Neulinge, Jugendliche, Breiten- und Leistungssportler*innen attraktiv ist. Die VOC ist ein Mehrtagebewerb mit 3 Etappen in Wien. Die Wettkampfform Sprint-OL zieht internationale Teilnehmer*innen, Weltklasseathlet*innen und österreichische Orientierungsläufer*innen an.
Preliminary times, small changes possible:
Friday 18:00 - 19:10
Saturday 10:15 - 11:30
Sunday 10:00 - 11:10
Sprint Relay 12:45
Scale 1:4000. Scale 1:3000 for age classes 50+. Maps are drawn according to the latest sprint map standard, IOF ISSprOM 2019-2.
Sprint orienteering courses, max. 4 km.
5-7 min per leg. 2 legs per person.
The final details with event locations and instructions will be published a few days before the event.
Open Training takes place on Thursday from 19:00 to 20:00 at Türkenschanzpark. No registration is required.
Sportident electronic timekeeping will be used with mixed punching. Competitors with a classic Sportident card will punch in the ordinary way. SIAC users can use touch-free punching. You can purchase a new SIAC touch-free card at OL-Shop .
Rental SI cards for classic punching are available at no additional cost for participants without their own chip. The charge for a lost Sportident card is €75.
Live results will be available online. Overall results will be published on the website after the final stage. Split times will be available on Winsplits Online after each stage.
The event is a 3-stage sprint orienteering competition with an overall ranking based on total time. In competitive classes, the start list for stage 3 is based on the overall ranking after 2 stages: reverse order, with class leaders starting last and a 1-minute start interval. Early start times on stage 3 are available on request.
For the overall ranking, mispunched runners will receive either the time of the last ranked runner plus a penalty, or their own time plus 3 minutes if this is slower than the time of the last ranked runner.
The non-competitive classes Direct and Experience have no overall ranking.
The prize-giving ceremony is for the overall ranking. VOC medals and prizes will be awarded to the top 3 in each class. In the Experience class, prizes will be drawn randomly among participants. All Kids class participants receive a small prize. There are no prizes for Direct starters. Participants must be present at the award ceremony to collect a prize.
All venues are outdoors and accessible by wheelchair. Participants who need a wheelchair during the course should contact us at [email protected] before the event so that we can plan a suitable course according to their needs. We are happy to make participation possible.
No childcare is provided. Playgrounds are located close to or directly at the arenas. Separate start times for parents are available on request.
Participants are not insured by the organiser. By taking part, competitors accept the hazards associated with the event and participate at their own risk. Each participant is responsible for their own safety.
Event officials do not accept liability for injury, accident, loss, or damage to competitors or their property that may arise before, during, or after the event as a consequence of participation.
Please note that there will be no road closures during the event and that streets with traffic may need to be crossed.
For safety reasons, the minimum age for competition classes is 10 years. Younger athletes may only participate when accompanied by a person aged 18 or older in the Newcomers, Team Challenge, or Open class.
For the Kids class, we will try to avoid road crossings. However, we ask parents and guardians to instruct their children about possible hazards before the start of each event.
Entries and payment are handled through the online entry platform OL-Sport Alpha ( booking terms ).
The entry fee applies to the VOC 3 Days competition. Open Training is free of charge. The Sprint Relay must be booked separately.
One-day and two-day entries are possible in all classes except Elite. Individual stage starts cannot be transferred to another competitor.
Entries after the deadline and entries at the event centre are only possible if the participant limit has not been reached and subject to the organiser’s possibilities.
Entry fees increase by €5 at each entry deadline. Last-minute entries cost an additional €10. Sprint Relay entries are possible until the day before the relay at the same price.
Amendments affecting the entered class or name may be made free of charge until the final entry deadline. It is possible to transfer an entry to another person until 29 August 2026.
Other amendments that do not affect the entry fee or class are free of charge at all times.
To request an amendment, please email [email protected].
After registration, withdrawal from the event is not possible in accordance with § 18 (1) 10 FAGG, the Austrian Act on Distance Contracts and Off-Premises Contracts. There is no right of withdrawal for leisure activities and events.
If a registered person does not take part in the competition for reasons for which the organiser is not responsible, or due to neutral reasons, or if the person informs the organiser in advance that they will not participate, the registered person is not entitled to a refund of the entry fee.
Each participant is solely responsible for having suitable insurance if they wish to claim a refund from their insurance provider.
The event follows the IOF competition rules and VOC special rules, which will be announced in the final details.
We reserve the right to disqualify runners in case of violations of fair play.
There will be no quarantine areas, and maps will not be collected after finishing. To ensure fair competition, we expect runners not to share information with runners starting later. We believe this makes for a better challenge.
When you enter we will ask you for the following personal information:
We need to collect your personal information so that we can enable you to participate in the event. If you do not provide us with all of the personal information that we need to collect then this may affect our ability to manage your entry.
We also process participants’ personal information in pursuit of our legitimate interest to:
Promote and encourage participation in orienteering by sending participants communications and entry information for upcoming events. Our events may be filmed or photographed and your personal information may also be used in images captured from our events, which we use for promotional and development purposes. Provide competition in orienteering by accepting and managing entries for our events and checking your personal information to ensure you are entered into the correct category. Where we process your personal information in pursuit of our legitimate interest, you have the right to object to us using your personal information for the above purposes. If you wish to object to any of the above processing, please contact us.
If your personal information is included in any images or videos taken by us at our events, we may share this with our event partners for promotional and/or journalistic purposes.
We publish the results of our events on our website. This includes competitors’ name, club, age class and result.
You can exercise any of the following rights by writing to us. Your rights in relation to your personal information are:
Any requests received by us will be considered under applicable data protection legislation.
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. The browsers of most computers, smartphones and other web–enabled devices are typically set up to accept cookies. If you wish to change your cookie preferences for this website or any other websites, you can do so using your browser settings. Your browser’s ‘help’ function will show you how to do this.
The table below explains the cookies we use and what they do.
| Cookie Name | Purpose |
|---|---|
| _utma _utmb _utmc _utmz |
Set by Google analytics. These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. Read more about how Google safeguards your data here |
[email protected]
+43 664 2254915
Facebook
Presented in cooperation with Orientierungslaufclub Wienerwald (ZVR-Zahl: 461999384)