Peo (Per-Olof) Bengtsson, born 18 August 1933 near Kristianstad,[1] is a Swedish orienteer and promotor of orienteering.
Bengtsson worked as an officer, ending as a major at the Wendes Artillery Regiment (A 3).[2]
Bengtsson got a bronze medal in the Swedish Championships in night orienteering both in 1961 and 1964.He was part of the Swedish team in 1964 and 1965.[3] [4] Bengtsson has competed several times in the World Championships for veterans. He won a gold medal in sprint in 2015 and a gold medal in long distance in 2019.[5] [6]
Bengtsson started to promote orienteering in the world in the 1960s. [7] He took contacts with Sven Thofelt in order to make orienteering an olympic sport. [8]
Bengtsson and Sivar Nordström started the first O-Ringen in 1965.[9] Bengtsson lead together with Nils-Gunnar Albinsson the arrangements for O-Ringen in 1970 in Kristianstad.[10]
Bengtsson has orienteered in 110 countries. He started arranging orienteering travels in 1961 by bringing 15 orienteers to Switzerland. During the travels he has promoted orienteering. In 1967 he organised a journey in Germany, France, Great Britain and Denmark during 16 days.[11] In 1971 he got a hundred runners to a journey across Europe during 21 days in July and August.[12]
He arranged a journey with orienteering in Denmark, Singapore, Australia and Brazil for 58 runners in December 1977 and January 1978.[13] In 1980 there was an orienteering in Venice. Kjell Lauri, Jörgen Mårtensson and Arja Hannus were among the runners on that trip. [14] Bengtsson went with a group of Swedish runners to the open competitions at the World Championships in Victoria, Australia in 1985.[15]
The main travel is called Höst Öst, where the name indicates a travel to the East in autumn. One of the frequent competitions was the so called 7th November pokal somewhere around Budapest.[16] In 2017 the 50th HöstÖst was arranged. [17] In 2020 the 53rd Höst Öst was organised, however only in Sweden due to the Covid-19 pandemic, from Gothenburg to Västervik passing by Idre, with 11 competitions and 37 participants. Some of terrains are judged by Mats Troeng to be the best ones in Sweden.[18]