The African Continent has hosted the first World Ranking Event, WRE, ever in Trail Orienteering.
World Ranking Events are widely use in Foot Orienteering, Ski Orienteering and MTB Orienteering for many years already, the idea being to distinguish the best athletes throughout the season.
In 2017 it was decided that time had come for Trail Orienteering to join the WRE family.
There is only one possibility to be the first organiser of something new. Guess, who was the fastest to apply for the first WRE in TrailO? If you do not know it is difficult to guess.
The Egyptian Orienteering Federation is a new, but fast growing and ambitious federation. From the very beginning they have shown a big interest in TrailO development. They have a good cooperation with the very experienced and enthusiastic Croatian team, Club “Vihor”, with Damir and Ivana Gobec at the head, which for the second year did all technical work, while at the same time educating local volonteers.
There were 40 participants in both the Open and Paralypic classes, from 11 different countries. The WRE in Trail Orienteering was combined with the Mediterranean Championships in orienteering, competitions which are organised since 2011 and came to Africa for the first time as well.
The winner of both days, Alessio Tenani from Italy, commented:
“I was here both for Foot Orienteering and Trail Orienteering. Both competitions were nice. The TempO was perfect. I really need to compete more in TempO and at the same time it was a perfect training for WTOC, where I want to be better. Good weather and good maps and nice conditions for both competitions. It was a great opportunity for me to have a WRE in FootO at the same place and on the same long weekend. It saved me a lot of travel time. In Italy we are also trying to do something like that. Because I think TempO is a very good training for the sprint distance in orienteering: knowing the control description, fast map reading, fast decision making. I am also a sprinter in FootO, so I was very happy for this opportunity.”