Seven go to Portugal

Thanks to Keith Tonkin for this report and photos.

In search of a little winter orienteering in the sun 7 of us made the trip to Portugal for 2 weekends of racing. The Portugal O Meeting (POM), this year in the Algarve and attracting over 2300 entrants, was followed by a weekend of middle distance races in Cascais, just west of Lisbon.

The promise was great; warm sun, top competition, good food and wine, a bit of sightseeing around Lisbon. There were even a few night O urban sprints thrown in for good measure. However, the weather thought otherwise with plenty of rain storms and cool temperatures…. the forecasts we saw suggested the weather back home in Cumbria was better and warmer on some of the days! It was also a shame that the areas used weren’t the best I’ve experienced in Portugal. But at least the pastel de natas were good!

BL performed well in the results, especially at Cascais, the table showing our performances.

		POM	POM night	Cascais	Cascais night
Isabel	W40	5th		1st
Jeff	M45	8th		2nd	1st
Christine G	W60	5th		1st
Keith	M65	5th	3rd	4th	1st
Stella	W70			1st
Christine K	W70	9th	2nd	4th	1st
Andrew	M70	93rd		10th

For 2026, POM moves to forested sand dunes between Porto & Lisbon and sounds much better. (See here)

Full results of POM, including maps, are here. (Maps are at the bottom of the page under Livelox) and for Cascais look here