The Lookback: 1979 World Orienteering Championships

US Team for the 1979 World Orienteering Championships in Tampere, Finland. From left to right: Pat Dunleavy, Peter Gagarin, Steve Tarry, Linda Taylor, Jim Pugh, Virginia Lehman, Mikell Platt, Sharon Crawford, Eric Weyman, Beth Skelton, Betty Anderson, Gail Gagarin.

Shortly after sending out the December, 2024 OUSA Newsletter I received an email from Jim Pugh with the 1979 WOC team photo you see above, and the suggestion to include it in an upcoming newsletter. This seemed like a great idea. With a few more photos from Jim, plus some stories and maps from Peter Gagarin, this little look back into the past was born. Enjoy this peak into the US team’s past!

–Cristina

Map of the Individual courses for WOC 1979, annotated with routes for the top men and women.

Some memories from Peter Gagarin from the World Orienteering Championships in Tampere, Finland, in 1979 –

The team was selected at Team Trials in May at Quabbin (days 1 and 3) and Mount Hermon School (day 2) in Massachusetts. Women: Sharon Crawford, Beth Skelton, Betty Andersen, Linda Taylor, Virginia Lehman. Men: Eric Weyman, Mikell Platt, Steve Tarry, Jim Pugh, Peter Gagarin. Many of us lived in the Northeast and we got together on several weekends for training before heading to Finland in late August.

It was really hard orienteering. The forests were hilly with lots of thick vegetation; the ground was very soft and hard to run on. There were just two events, individual and relay, with the maps for both drawn at 1:20,000. And yet we had some excellent results, especially from our women. Sharon Crawford was 32nd out of 69 in the individual, certainly one of our best results ever, and the women finished 10th out 17 in the relay, which I think is our best ever. Eric Weyman was our best in the men’s individual, 53rd of 78, and the men finished 14th out of 19 in the relay. [Link to results on the IOF webpage.]

The women’s relay team was really something. Beth Skelton ran the opening leg, a good run for her, and then Sharon on the second leg had her usual good run. Third leg went to Betty Andersen, though that was in doubt until the last moment – she had taken a fall in the individual, landing on a stump someplace on her ribs, and was really hurting. But she wanted to run. I put her through some sort of test that morning to see if she really could run and she passed, and so when Sharon came in, off went Betty on the anchor leg.

There was no GPS in those days, no TV from the forest. I think there were a couple of radio controls, but at the finish you just wait, as the better teams keep coming in. And then there she was, 10th, first of the English-speaking countries, ahead of Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain, plus France and Poland for good measure. It was really amazing.

I ran just the relay, first leg, not perfect but a good run. It was raining. My map case wasn’t sealed, and the map got wet, and the ink for the courses wasn’t waterproof and it started to run, but it held up just well enough to tell where my controls were. The ink kept running for quite a while after I had stopped running, so it looks almost impossible to read now. It wasn’t that bad.

Map from the men’s relay at the 1979 World Orienteering Championships.

The map for the individual shows the routes of the medalists and my map for the relay is shown. Also, just for comparison, the next map I went orienteering on back home, Estabrook Woods in Concord, Mass. Quite the difference.

Map from a local event at Estabrook Woods in Concord, MA later the same month as WOC.

2025 Desert Orienteering Festival Event Recap

Jan 18-20, 2025

Events:

  • The Adventure Trek (2 hour score-O)
  • The Maze Middle
  • The Night Goat
  • The Classic

HostSan Diego Orienteering
Venue: Anza-Borrego State Park, Borrego Springs CA
Event Director: Mark Prior
Event Website

Results, Maps and Photos

Crowdsourced photos by Sasha Savine, John Crowther, and Amy Winston in the Orienteering USA Facebook page album.

If you have photos from this event and are willing to share them with the wider OUSA community please reach out!

Georgia Navigator Cup/Masters Nationals Event Recap

Jan 17-20, 2025

  • Friday: Middle Distance NRE
  • Saturday/Sunday: 2-Day Classic (including 2025 Masters Nationals)
  • Monday: Mal Harding Extreme-O
  • Host: Georgia Orienteering Club
  • Venues:
    • Fri: Red Top Mountain State Park
    • Sat-Mon: Sweetwater Creek State Park
  • Event Directors: Fred Zendt (Fri-Sun), Daryl Remick (Mon Extreme-O)
  • Course Designers:
    • Fri: Ron Hojnowski
    • Sat/Sun: Austin Fowler, Fred Zendt (Sat), Siargey Pisarchyk (Sun)
  • Event Website

All photos by Evalin Brautigam for OUSA.

Results, Photos, and Maps

OUSA hosted a course review video online a week after the event.

Red Rock Canyon Classic NRE Event Recap

Dec 15, 2024

The final NRE of the year took place in the desert northeast of Los Angeles, at the site of the 2022 US Nationals. This event was a great example of the use of the fee-waiver (one-day) National Ranking Events available for every club in OUSA to use once each year. This single day event featured mostly high school students, who were able to pick up national ranking points for attending what would otherwise have been just another event of their local competitive series.

Host: Los Angeles Orienteering
Event Director: Clare Durand
Course setter: John Phillips

Results, Photos, and Maps

2024 OUSA Nationals Event Recap

October 11-13, 2024

  • Host: Delaware Valley Orienteering Club (DVOA)
  • Venues:
    • Nay Aug Park, Scranton, PA
    • Merli-Sarnoski County Park, PA
  • Event Director: Sandy Fillebrown
    • IOF Event Advisor (for middle and long WREs): Tac Sugiyama
    • Sprint course design: Karl Ahlswede
    • Middle course design: Greg Ahlswede
    • Long course design: Glen Tryson

Event website

Results

Media

Long Island Classic NRE Event Recap

  • Hosts: Hudson Valley Orienteering (HVO) and Long Island Orienteering Club (LIOC)& Hudson Valley Orienteering
  • Event Director(s): Glen Malings and Ching Hua Chen
  • Course Setter: Taras Kaschuk
  • Course Vetter / Map Coordinator: Stefan Slutsky
  • Registrar – Geof Connor

Results, Photos, Maps & More

44th Annual West Point NRE Event Recap

April 13-14, 2024

  • Saturday: Camp Shea
  • Sunday: Lake Frederick / Bull Pond
  • Host: USMAOC
  • Event Director: Justin McLemore
  • Course Setters:
    • Saturday: Shawn Mather
    • Sunday: Paul Bruce
  • OUSA Course Consultant: Jonathan Campbell
  • Registrar: Anthony Keppel

Results, Photos & Maps

Flying Pig XXVI Event Recap

April 5-7, 2024

  • Friday: Middle Distance at Camp Friedlander, Loveland, OH
  • Sat/Sun: Two Day Classic at Hueston Woods SP, Oxford, OH
    • 2024 OUSA Masters Nationals
    • 2024 JWOC/WUOC Team Trials
  • Host: Orienteering Cincinnati
  • Event Director: Mike Minium
  • Course Setters:
    • Friday: Shinichi Shimizu
    • Saturday: Dylan Poe
    • Sunday: Mike Minium
  • OUSA Course Consultant: Peter Goodwin
  • Registrar: Guy Olsen

Results, Photos & Maps

2024 WOC Selection Criteria Announced

The 2024 Sprint World Orienteering Championships (WOC) will be hosted in Edinburgh, Scotland, from July 12-16, 2024.

Orienteering USA’s WOC Review Panel (RP – Peggy Dickison, Tyra Christopherson, Jeff Saeger, Glen Tryson) will choose up to 3 (three) male and 3 (three) female athletes to represent the USA at WOC, in addition to the one male and one female already selected by winning the NAOC sprint in 2023. Using the same selection criteria, the WOC RP may also choose alternates who will step in, should the need arise.

There will be two official Team Trials.

  • Sprint Scotland will be held in Glenrothes, Scotland (north of Edinburgh), on May 4-5, 2024. This event consists of three sprint races, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. All three are individual start races.
  • Sprint Storrs will be held in Storrs, Connecticut (University of Connecticut) on Saturday, 11 May 2024. This event consists of two sprint races, an individual start race in the morning and a mass-start race in the afternoon.
  • Note to Petitioners: Petitioners who cannot attend either Team Trials events will be required to register for the Sprint Storrs Team Trials as Non-Compete and fill in the declaration page.

To be considered a candidate for 2024 WOC Team Selection, a WOC candidate must meet the WOC eligibility requirements and also declare their intent to seek selection to the team.

Candidates should refer to the Full WOC 2024 Selection Criteria document which can be found in the Orienteering USA Library.