World Trail Orienteering Championships 2006 Joensuu,Finland

[kedge]

Gross noted in the MTBO thread that GBR had won a Gold medal in the Trail-O World Championships.

Unfortunately, the splendid accommodation we were housed in at Kaprakka near Joensuu didn't appear to have public internet access so I've been unable to post a report until I got home last night.

This year's WTOC was the best and most competitive so far ( WTOC didn't start until 2004), with more nations competing, and with full teams from more countries, including most of the Nordic countries, excellent maps and very difficult courses, superbly planned by a 20 year old, who is/was also a member of the Finnish Junior O-Squad.

The event was splendidly organised by the Kalevan Rasti club and its helpers. I'm told there were over 300 volunteers officiating at the combined WTBO/WTOC/Finn5 events.

The GB team failed to hang on to the paralympic team title, which we had won in Sweden and again in Japan, coming 5th behind Sweden, Norway, Finland & Russia. But here the competition was altogether far stronger than in previous events and the results were close.

However, Dave Gittus' Gold in the Paralympic class is a very significant performance, which shows that in Trail-O, as with the other orienteering disciplines, Great Britain can compete with the Nordic countries on their home ground.

The name Dave Gittus may not mean much to many of today's younger orienteers, but in the early days of the sport in the UK, he was an Elite foot-o competitor, a high-class planner and later a Grade 1 controller. He was also a surveyor for the Ordnance Survey and all this experience means that he is a formidable Trail-Orienteer.

Dave is also a senior IOF advisor for Trail-O. Indeed he was the event advisor at last year's WTOC in Japan, and I know that many IOF officials are delighted that one of their number has shown that they still have what it takes to become a World Champion.

Full results, maps & solution sheets can be downloaded from the WTOC site at
http://mtbwoc2006.orienteering.org/sf/b ... bdir=1kilp

[Gnitworp]

The name Dave Gittus may not mean much to many of today's younger orienteers, but in the early days of the sport in the UK, he was an Elite foot-o competitor, a high-class planner and later a Grade 1 controller. He was also a surveyor for the Ordnance Survey and all this experience means that he is a formidable Trail-Orienteer.

He made a few good O maps as well, I seem to remember.

[HOCOLITE]

Dave is a superb speaker great to have at your events. He talks about life at the ordanace survey and early O mapping or about trail O and is always very amusing.