World Masters Orienteering Championships 2025
When?
The competition will take place from 8th to 15th August 2025.
Where?
The headquarters will be the city of Girona, capital of the Costa Brava, in Catalonia (Spain). The city and its medieval historic center will be the protagonists of the Sprint races. The pine forests of Pals, on the Mediterranean coast, and the beech tree mountain forest of Rupit will be the settings for the forest competitions. Other towns of great tourist and cultural interest such as Besalú or Banyoles will host the model events. Everything is just 30 minutes from Barcelona thanks to several high-speed trains a day.
Who?
Any orienteerer can take part in this event. Participants only need to be 35 years or older during 2025. The competition categories are divided into women and men and split in five-year age groups. From 35 to 100 years old, with a total of 28 classes. It is compulsory to run within your age group.
Accreditations at the Event Center (Pavelló de Fontajau de Girona)
Sprint Model Event in Banyoles and Besalú
Sprint Qualification in Girona/ Opening Ceremony (Pavelló de Fontajau de Girona)
Sprint Final in Girona / Gala dinner for participants (Pavelló de Fontajau de Girona)
Forest Model Event
Forest Qualification in Pals
Middle Distance Final in Pals
Forest Model Event
Long Distance Final in Cassà de la Selva / Closing Ceremony
The old town of Girona makes Sprint Orienteering attractive even for us Finns who prefer technical orienteering in beautiful forests. Why not combine culture and gastronomy with orientation and exploration of the Costa Brava? And after the race and the heat in the pine forests of Pals it will be time to cool off in the Mediterranean.
I encourage you to run through the streets of the old town of Girona and thus get to know a city that will surprise you. It is charming, for its corners and its people.
And take the opportunity to run through Mediterranean pine forests and enjoy the Costa Brava.
From my experience in sprints in various WMOC, I can assure you that the City of Girona, The Immortal, has great appeal for urban competitions. In addition, the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean is spectacular. The Girona region is very attractive for organizing international competitions.
The forests in Catalonia have a bit of everything: some lovely runnable parts with tricky rock features, as well as areas of tough vegetation and physical terrain. However together these can be used to create some very challenging and enjoyable courses in a very unique type of terrain.
To me, almost all the small and historic towns around Girona and Costa Brava seem to have been designed and built specifically to be some of the most entertaining and tricky sprint areas I have run on. The complex, and often very picturesque, street networks are often complimented with some elevation, allowing for some very complicated routechoice decisions and navigation.
Catalonia is a small country where orienteering landed a little over 35 years ago. Due to the idiosyncrasy of our climate, the terrain is often densely vegetated and unattractive for our sport. However, there are small corners that hide spectacular maps of a considerable technical difficulty and a unique landscape and forest charm, such as the maps of the Costa Brava. Having an international competition of the level of a WMOC will undoubtedly be a historic milestone for our country and our orientation.
Anyone over 35 years of age. It is necessary to have previous experience in orienteering races, because although the routes are adapted to the physical characteristics of each age group, the circuits require good technical skills.
No federation licence of any country or sporting discipline is required. All participants will have accident insurance when registering in order to comply with current regulations in Catalonia.
There are only two types of registrations. The one that includes all races (2 sprint and 3 forest) and the one that includes only the qualification and the two forest finals.
It is not necessary to be classified or to have a minimum ranking to be able to register. It is necessary to have previous experience in orienteering races, because although the routes are adapted to the physical characteristics of each age group, the circuits require good technical skills.
Organizers:
In collaboration with:
WMOC2025© 2023
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