A number of Maltese athletes took part in the OCR European Championships held between the 8th and 11th June in the Tata Olympic Centre in Hungary.
In the mixed team relay race, Malta ranked 13th out of 18 teams, surpassing Germany, Spain, Portugal, Georgia, and the local Hungarian team. Malta obtained a sub-50 second result in the exciting 100-meter race. In the 3 kilometer race, Malta ranked 196th from 582 athletes.
OCR stands for Obstacle Course Racing and involves competing in many physical challenges including climbing over walls, carrying heavy objects and crawling under barbed wire, amongst other obstacles and is pretty similar to military training.
The Malta OCR national team was composed of Kyle Darmanin, Yasmine McGahern and Rosalie Borg, who topped the 2022 Grid League. They competed in the individual 100M event, the 3K short course, as well as the national team relay event.
The Maltese national team was supported by The Grid Events, which has provided invaluable support to both local OCR athletes and the Malta Modern Pentathlon Association.
The Grid Events have been instrumental with respect to the development and promotion of obstacle course racing in Malta and the Grid League is the official means of qualification for the European OCR European Championships.
A number of Maltese athletes who placed in the top 20 positions of the league also competed in age group categories for the 3k short course and the 12k standard course. These athletes are Louise Pisani and Marko Nikolic.
The European Obstacle Sports Federation is designated as the sole competent authority – authorized and delegated by World Obstacle, the Fédération Internationale de Sports d’Obstacles – for the promotion, supervision, and directing of all men’s and women’s official obstacle sporting events from Europe. Each year one of the member countries is designated by EOSF to organize the OCR European Championships, and this year it was the Hungarian OCR Sport Federation who organised the championships.
The OCR athletes are a part of the Malta Modern Pentathlon Association, the official Governing body in Malta for Modern Pentathlon, Parkour, OCR and O-Sports. The MMPA is a no profit organization, created on a democratic basis and develops at national level all the above mentioned sports. It is also a full member of UIPM, ECMP, FISO, EOSF, and IPF.