Six club members went to Catalunya, Spain this month representing Harlequins at the 2025 World Master Orienteering Championships. The annual event is open to any orienteer aged 35 and over, with competition spread over a week, and separate Championship events in
Sprint (held this year in the spectacular host city of Girona), Forest Middle and Forest Long.

The leading HOC performance came from Andy Hemsted who placed 4th in the M75 Forest Long Final (Andy has ‘previous’ in this event having bagged gold as an M60 in the Long at the 2009 championships in Melbourne, Australia.) Andy feels that a mistake at control 9 cost him about four minutes, along with a possible silver medal finish.

Kin Wai Lee placed 13th in the Sprint Final, with 18th and 12th in Forest Middle and Long respectively, while Mick Sadler’s solid effort in the Sprint got him into the ‘A’ final.

The HOC contingent was completed by Penny Hemsted, Rew Francis and Ka Man Leung, who as an under-35 competed in the parallel event for ‘youngsters’, the Costa Brava Cup.

With daily maximum temperatures in the 34-36 Celsius range, the organisers came up with various measures to mitigate the heat, including huge industrial-strength fans to cool competitors in arena and download areas, plentiful water stations in the forest events (which also acted as additional navigation aids for those of us who might need them!), and early morning competition times (the start window for Forest Long Final day was 7.30-10.00 a.m).

Full results and media at www.wmoc2025.com

Photos: Andy and Mick in Forest Qualification, Kin in Sprint Final with map extract including a tough and steep leg from 2 to 3 climbing up through the historic city.

Photo Credit: WMOC 2025 Girona Official Photographers: Paula Padilla @paula_pdlfdz, Romy Wendy @rwvisuals.es, Joana Berruezo @joanaberruezophoto