The final events of the 2002 Foot Orienteering World Cup were held in Hungary from the 23rd-30th September and in the Czech Republic from the 1st-5th October. The events in Hungary, which took place near the shores of Lake Balaton, were also the European Championships, which ensured a large entry to the competition. The Irish team consisted of four men, Alan Barry, Darren Burke and Marcus Pinker, all members of CORKO, and the fourth member of the team was Colm Rothery from AJAX.

The opening ceremony in Hungary was held in the tourist resort of Heviz. The weather was cold and wet, and it was the same the next day for the Middle distance race. The Qualification and Finals were held in runnable forests, which had a lot of contour detail. None of the Irish qualified for the A final which in the men's was won by Michael Mamleev from Russia, and the women's race was won by Gunilla Svard from Sweden. In the B final, Marcus had the best Irish run, finishing 37th, Colm was 62nd, Alan was 65th, and Darren didn't run due to being over the max qualifying time in the qualification race.

The Relay was held the next day and the finish from the Middle Distance Race was used as the Start/Finish for the relay. Colm Rothery, Marcus Pinker, and Alan Barry made up the Irish relay team but the team was disqualified due to a mispunch on one of the legs. The men's relay was won by Finland, and Norway won the women's race.

The next day was a model event for the Short distance race on a mainly grass area with patches of scrub. One thing unusual about the model event was that we were given 1:15000 scale maps to train with even though we were going to be using 1:5000 scale maps for the actual Short races themselves.

Luckily the weather had improved somewhat for the Short Races but it was still cold and windy. None of the Irish qualified for the A final. The Men's A final was won by Emil Wingstedt from Sweden and the Women's A final was won by Vroni Koenig-Salmi from Switzerland. In the B final, Colm finished 27th, Darren was 31st, Marcus was 47th, and Alan was 48th. This race also saw the start of Marcus's knee problem, which was to affect him for the rest of the events.

The Long Qualification took place the following day in runnable conifer forest but there was a large amount of climb on the courses. Qualification didn't go well for the Irish. Colm and Alan were in Heat 1 and finished 53rd and 64th. That meant Marcus and Darren were in Heat 2 and they finished in 47th and 65th position meaning that they qualified for the B final.

Alan Barry on his run-in

The Long Final races were held the following day on the opposite side of a main road to the qualification but the same finish from the qualification was used. The Men's A final was won by Thomas Buhrer from Switzerland and the Women's race was won by Simone Luder, also from Switzerland. Colm and Marcus chose not to run in the B final, as there still were the races in the Czech Republic to think about. Alan finished 52nd and Darren finished 55th in the B final. On our way to Brno in the Czech Republic for the final World Cup Events we stopped off at the Hotel where the British team were staying to admire one of their rented cars which had its wheels removed during the night and was left propped up on a couple of small stones.

Brno, the second city in the Czech Republic hosted the final three World Cup events. Due to the fact that there was no Sprint B final and that only the top 40 in the World Cup overall standings were allowed take part in the Long A final, there was a smaller number of countries and competitors competing in these World Cup races.

The first event that took place was the Sprint races. The qualification in the morning took place in a city park, which was on the side of a hill. The area was forested and it was runnable in most places but there were areas of slower run. None of the Irish qualified for the A final so that meant we got to spectate at the afternoons final which was held in a park surrounding Spilberk Castle in the centre of Brno. The Men's A final was held first and it was won surprisingly by Damien Renard of France who beat second placed Michael Mamleev by 0.9 of a second. Simone Luder from Switzerland won the Women's final.

The Long Finals took place on typical Central European Terrain, which was hilly in parts of the map. This map was situated very close to the Brno Grand Prix Motor-Racing Circuit, which was located on the Southern part of the map. The Men's A final was won by Mats Haldin of Finland, and the women's race was won by Vroni-Koenig Salmi from Switzerland. In the B final, Colm finished 34th, Marcus was 36th, Alan was 38th and Darren was 39th.

After a rest day the final event of the 2002 Orienteering World Cup was a relay held in a very runnable forest in a Karstic area. The men's race turned out to be very exciting with Finland coming first, closely followed by Denmark, with Sweden finishing third. There was a very close finish for 4th, 5th and 6th with Britain finishing ahead of the Czech Republic and Switzerland. In the women's race, Norway won, followed home by Switzerland and Sweden. The Irish team of Colm Rothery, Darren Burke and Alan Barry was 26th.

That evening saw the prize giving for the overall World Cup. The men's winner was Bjornar Valstad from Norway and the Simone Luder from Switzerland won the women's. It was a very enjoyable two weeks even though some of the results didn't go the way we wanted. But nonetheless it was good preparation for next summers World Championships in Switzerland who will be looking forward to hosting the event after the performances of its runners in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Prize-giving's were held in a jousting arena and in a castle in Hungary so a cultural feel was given to the events. As usual the World Cup concluded with a banquet and disco, which was enjoyed by all!!!