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World Masters Orienteering Championships: Six double gold medallists
Three women and three men became double world masters champions, winning both the sprint and the long distance finals in this year’s WMOC, held in conjunction with the World Masters Games in Sydney, Australia. Four of them were Australians - Natasha Key in W35 (long distance champion in 2008 too), Jennifer Bourne in W55, Warren Key in M50 and Hermann Wehner in M85. Birgitta Thunell, Sweden won both titles in W70 and Michael Thierolf, Germany did the same in M45.
Rune Rådeström, Sweden, M65 long distance champion, won last year too in both sprint and long distance.
Long distance champion in M35 this year is ex-Danish elite runner Carsten Jørgensen, who gained a relay gold medal at the World Championships in Norway in 1997 and now lives in New Zealand. He won by 52 seconds ahead of home runner Grant Bluett.
The long distance final was held on quite special terrain - a series of deep valleys with many impassable cliffs, with numerous boulders, narrow passages and other rock detail, and few paths or other line features - appropriately named Carwell’s Labyrinth. It provided a technical and physical challenge worthy of the Championships, in warm and sunny conditions.
WMOC Long Distance Champions 2009
W35 Natasha Key AUS
W40 Cath Chalmers AUS
W45 Pavlina Brautigam USA
W50 Natalia Deconescu USA
W55 Jennifer Bourne AUS
W60 Patricia Aspin NZL
W65 Sharon Crawford USA
W70 Birgitta Thunell SWE
W75 Nesta Leduc CAN
W80 PellaRye GBR
M35 Carsten Jørgensen NZL
M40 Alexey Morozov RUS
M45 Michael Thierolf GER
M50 Warren Key AUS
M55 Paul Pacque AUS
M60 Andy Hemsted GBR
M65 Rune Rådeström SWE
M70 Rodrigo Slavins LAT
M75 Sveinung Bleikvin NOR
M80 Helmer Ekberg SWE
M85 Hermann Wehner AUS
