The 2011 World Masters Orienteering Championships is a major event with approximately 3 times as many competitors as Australia hosted in 2009. Finland has 639 competitors and there are 47 Australians, 17 of which are from NSW. M60 is the largest class with 374 runners and M65 the second largest with 344. In the women’s classes the largest group is also W60 with 236 and W55 comes in second with 210.
The Sprint Qualification race on 2 July was held in the old section of the host city of Pecs, providing both an orienteering challenge and a tourist delight in the form of narrow streets, courtyards and castle walls. Small route choice errors were costly. Pride of place for the Australians went to Victoria's Jim Russell who finished first in his M50-1 heat, with NSW’s Debbie and Alex Davey, Ross Barr, Julia Prudhoe, and Val Hodson all getting a place in the A finals of their age groups.
The Sprint finals moved to Komlo, a mining town around 22km north of Pecs. Whilst being less complex and detailed than Pecs there were still enough steps and grassy banks to cause competitors problems. The finals started at 10am, with the B and C finals taking place first, then followed by the A finals. The late start meant that the A finalists started in the warmest part of the day, with temperatures in the mid to high 20's.
Of the Australian competitors it was the younger end of the age groups who fared best with Susanne and Jenny Casanova finishing 5th and 12 in their A final, Blair Trewin finished 17th and Paul Liggins finished 26th in the M40 final. Unfortunately Jim Russell missed out on a place due to a mistake near the end of his course. He ended up in 13th position, just 1min 2secs behind the winner. The ACT's Anne Ingwesen also had a good race in W65, finishing 9th. For the NSW contingent there were too many small mistakes which pushed them down the leader board.
