Austria hosted this year’s World Masters Orienteering Championships, with more than 4,200 participants competing in classes from M and W35 up to M90 and W80.

The oldest competitor was in class M90: Erkki Luntamo of Finland, who is 92 this year. His time on the 2.8 km course in this year’s final would have won him M85, doing the same course, by 40 seconds! He was the winner in M90 in 2004 and in M85 in 2003.

The narrowest victory was achieved by Eero Liski, who won M75 by 1 second from Mauri Rantala. Maja-Lisa Bergström of Sweden enjoyed the biggest winning margin, taking the W70 gold medal 3 minutes and 42 seconds ahead of her nearest rival. She also won in 2004.

None of last year’s champions succeeded in taking the gold medal again this year, but in addition to the two mentioned above, Tapio Peippo won M55 in 2004 as well as this year.

As usual, the start lists featured a good number of well-known names from World Championships in the past. One of the most well-known, Jörgen Mårtensson of Sweden, came second in M45 behind the Czech runner Petr Henych. Peo Bengtsson from Sweden, the inimitable orienteering ambassador, was this year’s winner in M70.

Story: Clive Allen