Participants from 11 countries competed this week in the Asian Orienteering Championships in Gifu and Aichi, Japan. The Chinese women and Japanese men showed their strength by dominating all distances. Notably enough, only one competitor managed to win more than one individual distance, which indicates that the teams are not only strong, but also have several world class runners able to compete for victory.

These were the second official IOF Asian Orienteering Championships; the first championships were organised in 2008 in Korea. At the Asian Regional Meeting in Japan last weekend, China was appointed organiser of the Asian Orienteering Championships 2012. The events are going to be held 20-24 October 2012 in the city of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.

Asian Champions 2010:

Sprint
Women: Shuangyan Hao and Li Ji, China
Men: Hiroyuki Kato, Japan

Middle distance
Women: Fei Li, China
Men: Koji Kashimada, Japan

Long distance
Women: Li Ji, China
Men: Shigeyuki Koizumi, Japan

Relay
Women: China (Mingyue Zhu, Li Ji, Shuangyan Hao)
Men: Japan (Shigeyuki Koizumi, Toshiyuki Matsuzawa, Daisuke Yamaguchi)