The Kootenay Orienteering Festival was held in Kimberley and Cranbrook on Saturday, Sept. 7 and Sunday, Sept 8, 2019.
154 Orienteers participated, competing in the BC and Western Canadian Championships.
The Kootenay Orienteering Club, which is the local club, is well represented with over 20 competitors in a range of age classes from 10 and under to 80 and over.
READ MORE: Still time to sign up for Kootenay Orienteering Festival
The Bulletin spoke with former club president John Rance who was in town for the race from New Westminster. He says that he has participated in thousands of orienteering events across Canada, the U.S., Sweeden, Norway, Poland, Austrailia and the UK. He says that Orienteering is a fantastic sport for people of all ages all across the globe.
“Orienteering is an international community, so you just go anywhere where there’s an orienteering club and you go to the meet and you will be welcome. That’s one of the wonderful things about it, it’s a competition but it’s a friendly competition,” said Rance. “The other thing about it of course is that it’s for every age. I’m far from the oldest person here [72].
“In fact, at the meet that I was at in Sweeden this summer, there was an entrant who was 100 years old. Pretty amazing. Now, unfortunately he died about three weeks before the event but – he paid his money and he was going to go. I think, you know, what could be better than that? You’re 99 years old and you’re looking forward to going and having a run in the forest.”
Photos by Corey Bullock and Dave White
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