Valentin Jurjewitsch Novikow ( Russian Валентин Юрьевич Новиков ; born October 1, 1974 in Belgorod ) is a Russian orienteer . Nowikow is three times world and four times European champion.
Nowikow participated between 1992 and 1994 in the three Junior World Championships in Finland, Italy and Poland. In 1994 in Gdansk he won the gold medal with the Russian Junior Relay. From 1996 he was also used in the men's World Cup. The following year he competed in his first World Cup in Grimstad, Norway , and came fourth with the Russian relay. After he was not nominated for the World Cup in 1999, he traveled to the Ukraine in 2000 for the first European Championship since 1964. The 25-year-old Novikov secured victory in both the middle and long distance. However, he was unable to confirm this performance in the next few years. It was not until the 2004 World Cup in Sweden that he ran in the middle distance to second place behind Frenchman Thierry Gueorgiou . He also won a silver medal with the relay. In 2006 he won bronze at the European Championships in Otepää, Estonia, behind Thierry Gueorgiou and Mārtiņš Sirmais from Latvia. At the world championships in the same year he won relay gold with Roman Efimow and Andrei Chramow that the Russians could defend in Kiev in 2007 with the same line-up. In addition, Nowikow won bronze in the middle distance in Kiev, once again behind Thierry Gueorgiou and the Finn Tero Föhr . Also in 2008 he won the middle distance bronze, this time behind Thierry Gueorgiou and Michal Smola from the Czech Republic. At the European Championships in the same year he had also won relay gold with Dimitri Zwetkow and Andrei Chramow. In 2010, Valentin Nowikow was European champion in the middle distance and with Andrei Chramow and Dimitri Zwetkow world champion in the relay. At the European and World Championships in 2012, he won the silver medal in the middle distance. On the long distance he was third at the European Championships. With the Russian season he became world champion for the fourth time in 2013.
In 2004 he was the first O-ring winner in Sweden who was not from Scandinavia. In 2008 he won the Jukola relay with the Finnish team Delta . With Delta he also won the Finnish relay championship in 2003. In the same year Nowikow was also Finnish sprint champion.
He is married to the orienteer Julia Nowikowa (née Sedina ). Leonid Nowikow - 2013 world champion in the middle distance - is his younger brother.
