Hobart local Will Whittington leaves for Poland this Wednesday to compete in the World MTB Orienteering Championships. WMTBOC runs from 11-17 August and includes a gruelling schedule of five race disciplines (with only one rest day) - Sprint, Middle, Mass Start, Long, and Relay.

This will be Will's fourth year representing Australia at MTBO. Also in the national team are two Victorians, James Robertson (M21) and Maya Bennette (W20).

In a move which will be interesting for fans of Queen Mary (and all things Danish), the Australians have joined forces with some of Denmark's elite riders to form two (unofficial) relay teams - a Men's elite team and a Junior Women's team. There are 3 riders in a relay team.

The races are all being held on the edge of Warsaw in terrain described as having "picturesque forests, crossed by a dense network of paths, with very little climb". In the Sprint the Men have only 20m of climb over 6.6km (fast!), and in the Long, the straight-line race distance is 37.5km with only 400m of climb. The flat terrain is in stark contrast to the mountain bike riding around Hobart's Mount Wellington on the eastern shore. All the race details are in Bulletin 3.

Adding to the navigation challenge at this World Champs (as if racing at top speed while reading a map isn't enough), it is open to riders to ride off tracks. Indeed, some of the controls will even be placed off track. This makes deciding optimal route choices even trickier - and controls easier to ride by.

To follow Will: Keep an eye on the Orienteering Australia Facebook Page
Official Results will be in Eventor: WMTBOC & World Cup and JWMTBOC
Other news can be found on the J/WMTBOC 2025 Website.