World Masters Orienteering Championships: Canada hosts veteran elite
Posted on | August 1, 2005 | Category: News
The World Masters Games, this year being held in Edmonton, Canada, has again incorporated the World Masters Orienteering Championships. A sizeable entry from all over the world competed in two qualifying races and a final, in classes ranging from W35 to W80 and M35 to M85. Technical and physical competence was tested severely in terrain consisting of pine-covered sand hills with marsh-land and some deeper valleys.
The W35 class was won by the German former international runner Cornelia Eckardt by a margin of over 6 minutes. M35 provided a tighter result with the Finn Esko Ylikangas winning by 11 seconds over the more well-known Finnish elite runner Janne Salmi.
The most impressive result was in the women’s classes where another well-known name, Alida Abola from Latvia, won W50 by more than 10 minutes. The only home victory was achieved by Ted de St. Croix in M45, who was quicker than Jörgen Mårtensson by 50 seconds, with Australia’s Warren Key third. Closest finishes were in M70 and M75 where the winning margins were 4 and 3 seconds respectively.
Six gold medals go home to Finland and another six to Sweden. Russians took 3, Norwegians 2, and there was one each for Canada, Latvia and Switzerland. Two of the gold medallists were also winners at last year’s WMOC in Italy: Alida Abola in W50 and Galina Vershinina (Russia), this year’s champion in W60, who last year won the W55 class.
WMOC Champions 2005
| W35 | Cornelia Eckardt | GER | M35 | Esko Ylikangas | FIN | |
| W40 | Svetlana Berezina | RUS | M40 | Alexander Afonyushkin | RUS | |
| W45 | Jane Johansson | SWE | M45 | Ted de St. Croix | CAN | |
| W50 | Alida Abola | LAT | M50 | Svein S. Jacobsen | NOR | |
| W55 | Kyllikki Kauppinen | FIN | M55 | Matti Railimo | FIN | |
| W60 | Galina Vershinina | RUS | M60 | Juhani Jokinen | FIN | |
| W65 | Eivor Steen-Olsson | SWE | M65 | Erik Engebråten | NOR | |
| W70 | Anne Jalava | FIN | M70 | Kjell Persson | SWE | |
| W75 | Alice Stålfors | SWE | M75 | Peritti Pelkonen | FIN | |
| W80 | Elvi Fredin | SWE | M80 | Rune Isaksson | SWE | |
| M85 | René Piguet | SUI | ||||
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