The World TrailO Championships 2025 took place from 27-31 August 2025. Here is the event round-up from this year's competition!
PreO Competition
On Day 1, 20 Open Class competitors achieved the maximum score of 36 meaning that the time controls were key to separating them. Included in these top 20 was GBR’s Ben Kyd (MDOC). However, with results being based on the sum of correct controls and time taken at all the time controls over the two days, there was still a chance much could change!
Image below: The full GBR TrailO Team with Team Manager Liz Urquhart on the left.
Day 1 had competitors mainly on top of cliffs looking down into a former quarry. On Day 2, by contrast, for the first set of controls, competitors were looking up at cliffs which formed the hill on which Sumeg Castle is built. The second half was back to closer controls in similar grassy areas to Day 1 but with significantly more vegetation.
Images below: Sumeg Castle. A few kites can be seen on the crags below the castle wall, and an extract from the Day 2 showing Sumeg Castle and the controls which had to be identified by competitors.
On Day 2, there were 13 Open Class competitors with all 33 controls correct with Charles Bromley Gardner (BAOC) and Ben Kyd in the chasing group with 32 correct. With a better performance at the Time Controls, Charles finished in 22nd position with Ben in 24th.
Over the two days there were 6 competitors gaining the maximum score of 69. The top performer and World Champion, based on the total times at the four Time Controls, was Anders Höije from Sweden who beat Tommi Hakuli of Finland by just 12 seconds. Top performer for GBR was Ben Kyd in 16th with 68 correct. 3 other GBR team members all finished with 64 correct with Charles Bromley Gardner (51st) just beating Tom Dobra (TVOC) (53rd) by 11 seconds. John Kewley (MDOC) finished in 61st position.
Images: Ben Kyd, Charles Bromley Gardner, Tom Dobra and John Kewley at Day 1 of the PreO competition.
With teams being invited to include up to two extra Junior team members, James Curtis (SO) had been selected for the GBR team this year. James has been performing well in the UK but this was his first international event. Being faced with some very technical terrain at a World Championship was a challenge but James, who finished in 93rd position overall, successfully identified 58 controls correctly. A very encouraging result showing significant future potential.
The GBR Team had a single competitor in the P Class – Colin Duckworth (HALO). Although faced with the same controls, the more limited mobility of P Class competitors made the events harder and, on Day 1, no competitor got all the controls correct. Colin finished Day 1 in 20th position but improved to 12th position today. Overall he finished in 16th position.
TempO Championships
Having started on Tuesday in Hungary, the 2025 World TrailO Championships (WTOC) were completed yesterday with the TempO Championships staged in Slovakia. And we are delighted to report that Ben Kyd achieved the highest ever placing for a GBR competitor in a WTOC TempO Final. A great way to finish the week!
The day began with heavy rain and a cold wind which briefly delayed the schedule for the morning’s qualification event. This consisted of two heats, A and B. Ben Kyd (MDOC) and Charles Bromley Gardner (BAOC) were in the A. With 5 challenges at each of 6 stations, there were 30 problems to be solved. In TempO, both speed and accuracy are critical – but each error adds 30 seconds to the time taken. Ben answered all 30 in just 238 seconds – not the fastest and, with 3 errors, not the most accurate, but the combination put him in 4th position in the heat. This equalled the previous highest GBR TempO qualifying position. With 18 competitors to qualify for the afternoon Final, this was a very strong start. Charles was in 25th position, missing the cut by just 26 seconds.
Images: Charles Bromley Gardner (BAOC) walking between stations in his TempO Qualification heat and Ben Kyd (MDOC) being shown the kites at one of the Final TempO stations.
Tom Dobra (TVOC) and John Kewley (MDOC) were in the B heat. Unfortunately both missed the cut, Tom being closest in 23rd place, just 21 seconds from qualifying. John finished in 29th place – slightly faster than Tom overall but with 2 more errors.
The afternoon final consisted of another 10 stations making 50 additional problems to solve – a major test of mental stamina and concentration. In addition, the final 3 stations could be viewed by the public giving added pressure. At the end, the top competitor and World Champion was Marcello Lambertini (ITA) who completed the course in 354 seconds with only 3 errors. Second was Anders Hoije (SWE) with Anders Haugskott (NOR) in third. Ben’s total time (356 seconds) was almost as fast as Marcello but his 7 errors pushed him down into 11th place.
This was our best TempO placing improving on the previous best result – which was Ben's own result at WTOC 2023 when he finished in 16th place. Congratulations to him!
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