Twenty years of orienteering to promote and enhance precious corners of southern Italy, sometimes less known but capable of bringing orienteers into contact with new territories of unique beauty and technicality. For this important anniversary, the Mediterranean Open Championships 2025 comes to Basilicata, where from 21 to 23 March 500 athletes with map and compass, from 12 countries, will compete for the title of Mediterranean champions.
After the 2008 edition in Policoro and the 2013 edition in Matera, a great return to the region for the Championship, conceived and organised by SSD PWT Italia, with the collaboration of FISO Basilicata and the patronage of FISO – Federazione Italiana Sport Orientamento together with the municipalities of Francavilla in Sinni, Nova Siri, Montalbano Jonico, Policoro, Bernalda, Scanzano Jonico, Pisticci, Rotondella and Matera.
For the eagerly awaited 20th anniversary, also celebrated with a special jersey for all participants, the labyrinthine historical centres of Pisticci, Rotondella and Matera will be the natural maps of the Sprint competitions valid as World Ranking Event, awarding fundamental points for the World Cup ranking, and to be crowned the best orienteers in the Mediterranean. The races, free-running and individual time trial, will engage them with map and compass on tracks of about 4 km in search of 20 checkpoints, located throughout the territory, to be identified in the correct sequence.
Among the top runners in the men’s field are Belgium’s Michiels Yannick, the best over the distance in his home country, Switzerland’s Riccardo Rancan, the reigning KO Sprint World Champion, and Sweden’s Isac von Krusenstierna, the 2021 Sprint World Champion, and Jonatan Gustafsson, the 2024 KO Sprint World Vice Champion. In the women’s field, the winner of last year’s MOC, Olena Babych of Ukraine, will have to contend with Italy’s Jessica Lucchetta, winner of the Italian Sprint 2024 title, and Annarita Scalzotto, holder of the Sprint Relay 2023 title, who will be challenged by Sweden’s Elsa Sonesson, the strongest Junior in the World 2022, and Vilma von Krusenstierna, national champion.
18-20 MARCH: MOC CAMPS, SPECIAL TRAINING SESSIONS
The weekend’s competitions will be preceded by a calendar of itinerant training days, between Francavilla in Sinni, Nova Siri, Montalbano Jonico, Policoro, Bernalda and Scanzano Jonico, during which the runners, always on the lookout for challenging settings in which to test their preparation, will put themselves to the test on typical Italian village trails, particularly popular abroad. The training days will be enriched by seminars of analysis and comparison with exceptional testimonials.
“Welcoming the MOC“, says the mayor of the Municipality of Rotondella Pasquale Dimatteo, “is the result of a path of collaboration with PWT Italy that began with the realisation in Rotondella of the Code Hunter project, which has provided our territory with a stable map system through which to experiment with running orienteering, including walking. Now with the Mediterranean Championship, this important synergy continues, thanks to which the Metapontino coast, together with the inland areas, intends to create a system to stimulate a deseasonalised sports tourism, especially of Scandinavian origin, the area where the discipline was born and among the main ones for diffusion“.
“As FISO president” says Alfio Giomi, “I can only welcome the MOC, which, with its innovative formula, combines the spectacle of the challenge between high-level champions with the promotion of the territory. However, FISO is not just about competition, but I would define it as a true educational agency. Within it lurk many values such as inclusion, the promotion of healthy lifestyles and the discovery of new areas through sport. I wish everyone a successful event“.
“With this world-class event, valid as a World Ranking Event, we are resuming an appointment scheduled in 2020 and suspended due to the health emergency“, says Gabriele Viale, Event Manager PWT Italy. “The goal is to create in Basilicata a high-level facility system for orienteering, consisting of the map maps created for the occasion, to encourage the presence in the future of fans from all over the world, especially in off-season periods. The prestigious athletes will also become ambassadors in their own countries of Lucania’s tourist, food and wine and landscape excellence“.