From 2-9 August, over 100 of our members attended the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Turku, Finland. It was an exciting week of orienteering that saw four of our members win Gold in the Sprints Final! Here is a round up of the event from the perspective of one of our members, Julia Preston from South Ribble Orienteering Club (SROC) and the results.
Written by Julia Preston from SROC
This was my second WMOC, the first being last year in Kosiče, Slovakia. That was my first experience of the unusual sinkhole karst terrain. I chose to try Finland this year as I had never visited the country, have very limited experience of orienteering in Scandinavia, and was due to be in Estonia just the week beforehand, so an easy trip over on the ferry. I didn't arrive in time for the sprint events but managed to catch fellow SROC John Embrey receiving his well-deserved M65 Gold Medal at the prizegiving.
Images: Scenes from WMOC. Image credits: Julia Peterson and Sarah Rollins.
The format of WMOC is a couple of 'model events', where you do self-guided training, with a forest qualification race and then the middle and long finals. I found the model events rather useful to understand that the terrain and mapping was going to be rather different to what I am accustomed to.
Image: John Embrey of South Ribble OC after winning M65 Gold in the Sprint. John won by a minute! Peter Gorvett,SYO came 1st in the M75 class. Image credit: Ilkka Metsälä
Scandinavian mapping of vegetation is apparently not as detailed as the UK, so initially I found the changes 'on the ground' confusing, as everything from scattered open to fairly green..seemed to be mapped blissfully white. The bare rock areas were not quite as distinct as how I thought they would be, again comparing to some of the northern UK limestone pavement.
Images: WMOC Sprint Final prize giving, John Embrey, SROC in 1st place winning a Gold Medal, with Alison Simmons BOK coming in third place winning a Bronze Medal, and Ursula Oxburgh, WAOC who took home a Gold Medal in the W90 age class. Credits: Ilkka Metsälä
Suffice to say, by the long final I was only just about getting the hang of the mapping, and indeed made it almost to the end before failing to relocate and requesting help from an official standing at a random control. In reality I was not too far off my control, but felt I had wandered off-line too much and was tired. Hence I didn't punch my penultimate control and so DSQ myself, but at least I made it out of the forest relatively alive!
Images: Roger Maher (M85B), Rogger Goddard (M50A), and Nick Barrable (M50A). Credit: Sarah Rollins.
I hope to participate in some future WMOCs (though probably giving Spain a miss next year for the August heat!). I enjoyed chatting with random people on the shuttle buses and at starts, visiting the city of Turku (bonus: with ample Turf zones) and experiencing some challenging and blueberry-filled forests.
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WMOC 2024 Results
We are absolutely thrilled for all those who received a medal at this year's World Master's Orienteering Championships. Well done to everyone who travelled to compete in the competition and we hope you had a wonderful week.
Special congratulations to our GOLD medallists from the WMOC Sprint Final on 4 August and to all our other medallists and those who found success at the event!
Alison Cunningham, FVO W60A
Ursula Oxburgh, WAOC W90A
John Embrey, SROC M65A
Peter Gorvett,SYO M75A
Full results can be found below.
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