Large number of participants expected

Posted by Eike Bruns on December 13, 2011

This fact surprised even the organizers: the World Masters Orienteering Championships (WMOC) in the Harz Mountains in summer 2012 is set to become a highly successful event with a large number of participants.

The organising committee is hoping for 4000 participants. This dream might become true as the first wave of entries until December 2011 has so far led to 3100 participants for the Championships from July 1 – 8 2012. A simple comparison shows: the WMOC 2006 in Wiener Neustadt was a successful event with 4089 participants. Back then the organising committee reported 2500 entries up to December 2005.

After this excellent start the organising committee (OK) even hopes to reach the magic number of 4200 participants, comparable to the WMOC 2007 in Finland or 2010 in Switzerland, both best-attented. The president of the OK, AndrĂ© Kwiatkowski says self-confident: “We can reach the threshold of 4000 participants.”

Entries have so far been submitted by participants from 39 countries from New Zealand to Brazil and Russia, with most participants coming from Finland where to date 500 people have signed up. The best-attented category is M65 with 350 entries so far. The oldest participant will turn 91 next year. It already looks like the WMOC 2012 will be a large and successful event.

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Photo: The organising committee is hoping for a large number of participants for the WMOC 2012 in the Harz Mountains. The pre-WMOC (German Championships) in 2011 was well attended.