The orientation wants to spread internationally and aims to become an Olympic branch. But after the cheating in China, Mats Troeng, who was SVT's expert at the World Cup in Norway in August, got a bad taste in his mouth.

- This is a serious setback for the international orientation association's broadening plans. I personally find it a little wrong way to go. Orientation is a sport that is very much based on sportsmanship and fair play and where there is a lot to keep secret before a competition, says Troeng.

He develops his reasoning:

- If money comes in and fame and the opportunity to support themselves in sports, it becomes inevitable that less-favored countries will try to gain benefits and cheat. The orientation as a sport is quite exposed to it. I don't think Olympic membership is the right way to go.

At the closing sprint on Tuesday, Shuangyan Hao won the women's class and Li Zhuo Ye was five seconds from the men's class win as third.

- It is not confirmed cheating during the World Cup as at the military competitions. It's sad, like doping. It contradicts the basic legal idea. These are astonishing results and given the military games with cheating a week before, it is easy to draw those conclusions. The difference here is that there is no concrete evidence that someone has cheated. But if I look back on international results, we have not seen any rattles such as he who finished third in the sprint.

What do you know about the status of Chinese orientation?

- You don't know that much and it makes it difficult to draw any general conclusions. But the women's winner has been to the World Cup and reached ten and although she was a surprise there was no huge bark. But he who finished third finished 58th in the B-finals of the World Cup in Switzerland, the only result I have seen from him and overall he was barely among the top 100 and had barely a few behind him.

As Troeng takes a closer look at Li Zhuo Yes's race, he sees a pattern:

- If you break down the race, Li Zhuo Ye led for a long time but lost a lot of time at the end when it became more run-stressed. That is proof that he is not strong. It gives rise to a suspicion that he may have had to run the track before or wander in the area. It was difficult to get started in the beginning and in that party they had to slow down. It's something I've looked at in this case. It may be so anyway and there is no evidence but the pattern raises suspicions.

The events in China have been widely discussed.

- Everyone I have talked to thinks it is suspicious and it has never happened before that the International Alliance launched an investigation into cheating at this level. Then there are strong suspicions but again there is no evidence and there are no protests from any other teams.

The final World Cup winner Gustav Bergman was critical of the competition being placed in the dictatorship of China. Troeng sees the sporting consequence:

- Dictatorships and sports often end in this way unfortunately.

Tove Alexandersson noticed the event on his Instagram:

“I hope and believe that everyone respected the rules and the justice that exists in our sport. It was a reminder of how important our fairplay culture is and that we have to make sure that both organizers and activists follow it, ”Alexandersson writes.

Bergman was already critical of China arranging the World Cup before - see report here (22/10/2019):

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