Two grandsons of Weyburn residents left Tuesday for Europe to take part in world-level orienteering competitions, including the World Junior Championships in July.

Darius Konotopetz, 18, and Patrick Goeres, 20, both of Winnipeg, left for a competition in northern Italy on Tuesday, to be followed by the world championships at Ticino, Switzerland on July 10-17.

Konotopetz is the son of Larry and Jennifer Konotopetz, and the grandson of Mary Konotopetz of Weyburn.

Goeres is the son of Michael Goeres, and grandson of Andy and Isabel Goeres of Weyburn.

Both Larry Konotopetz and Michael Goeres grew up and were educated in Weyburn, and both now reside in Winnipeg.

After two are done in Switzerland, they will head to O-ringen, Sweden, for the biggest orienteering competition in the world, and finally to a six-day event at Moray, Scotland.

Goeres is currently Canada's junior national short-distance champion in orienteering, while Konotopetz has won the Western and Canadian championships in 2000 and 2001, and placed second in both events in 1998 and 2003.

Mary Konotopetz said Darius's parents are into orienteering, and got Darius involved in the sport as soon as he could walk.

Andy Goeres said of Patrick that he is a second-year premed student, and both boys attend the University of Manitoba.

"This is a sport we know very little about, and they are at the world level," said Goeres.

He added the funny thing is the two young men weren't aware of their mutual Weyburn connection until they had been friends for a while.

The orienteering competition is a timed event, in which competitors must use a map and a compass and travel a route, usually over very rugged terrain (such as the mountains of northern Italy and Switzerland), and the fastest person to make the route wins.