Coming up: World Military Orienteering Championships 2016

Coming up: World Military Orienteering Championships 2016

For the second time in five years, the World Military Orienteering Championships (WMOC) will take place in Brazil. From 19-22 November military personnel from 25 different countries compete in three distances; Middle, Long and Relay.

The model event map for Middle and Long. Clearly shows the two types of terrain the runners will meet.

The event takes place a few hours east of this summer’s host city of the Olympics, Rio de Janeiro. The championships open with a Middle distance on Saturday 19 November, followed by a Long distance on Sunday 20 November. Both races will be decided close to Região dos Lagos in an area with a mixture of very fast open forest and thick forest with slow runnability. The relay on Tuesday 22 November is located in the coastal city Búzios on a sprint map with a runnability considered very fast. Specifications for the events:

Well-known names

Usually WMOC experiences elite runners attending and this year is no exception. The start list is first published shortly before tomorrow’s start, but among other top runners Austrian Gernot Kerschbaumer has made his way to Brazil. He has good memories from Brazil as he won the WMOC Long distance when Brazil organized same event back in 2011.
Last year’s WMOC took place in the Republic of Korea with unique terrain and challenging courses. The terrain suited the Russians very well with victory in all individual competitions except the men’s Long distance and a relay victory for the women. The Swiss men challenged the Russians in the medal statistics with a gold medal for Matthias Kyburz on the Long distance and a narrow victory of 10 seconds in the relay. Russian Tatiana Ryabkina made a clean sweep in the women’s class with victory in both individual races and was a part of the winning Russian relay team.
Follow if the Russians are as dominant as last year and find more information about WMOC 2016 here.

An impression of the Brazilian terrain from Gernot Kerschbaumer’s point of view: