March 5, 2020 - The Vihor orienteering club from Zagreb would like to invite you to join their orienteering course.

The introductory lesson of the course will take place on March the 12th, 2020, starting at 18:00 at the following address: Ribnjak 2 in central Zagreb.

One of the things Croatia can be proud of is that the nature here is mostly not ruined, that there are wonderful outdoor destinations, forests and mountains worth visiting and spending time in. A group of people who regularly get to enjoy the lesser-known parts of Croatia are the orienteers, who get together almost every weekend in different parts of Croatia for races.

Orienteering is a sport in which the contestants go around terrain they don't know well, using nothing more than a map (prepared by the organiser) and a compass, trying to find all the checkpoints which are drawn on the map. The sport is ideal for many groups of people: those who already run or jog, but want a change to their surroundings and a bit more green in their routine, those who love mountains and the woods but would like to try something new there, the families who want to find a sport which will welcome the entire family, and those who want to work out their bodies and their minds at the same time.

The OK Vihor orienteering course welcomes everybody interested, no matter their age and current physical abilities. Children under the age of fourteen need to have a parent attend the course with them. The course will consist of lectures on Thursdays during March and April, as well as guided workouts and training on weekends in and around Zagreb. Additionally, the participants will get to try what it's like to run the actual official races, along with the experienced members of the club.

Find out more about the course in Croatian on the club's website, and you can apply here.

Two other Zagreb-based orienteering clubs in Croatia, OK Kapela and OK Maksimir, have also organised courses for novices this year, so it promises to be a very interesting season for orienteering in Croatia this year, with many new-comers to the sport. If you want to be one of them, this is your opportunity!

This weekend, Zagreb hosted the European City Race Tour orienteering race for the first time!

As we've already reported, it's a competition held throughout the year in major European cities, and this year, in addition to Zagreb, the hosts were Rome, Barcelona, Liverpool, Porto, Graz, and others. The organizers of the competition, Orienteering Club Vihor, planned the event to take place during European Mobility Week in Zagreb. There were over 250 participants, arriving from 50 clubs and 22 countries (mostly European, but there was a Canadian racer as well). 

And it was not just one race that was held in Zagreb. First, on Friday afternoon, there was a training competition, a fun relay that got some of the participants introduced to Jarun lake. On Saturday, there were two races, one held near the never-finished hospital in Blato, and the other one held at Jarun lake. Fun fact: the locations of those two races are around 500 meters apart, as the crow flies, just across the Sava river, but it's almost 10 kilometers to get from one to the other by car. 

On Sunday, the big race was held with the start at the Ribnjak park, and the finish line at European Square (Europski trg) in the center of the city. The participants needed to find check-points all over the center, mostly in Upper town (Gornji grad), near the Cathedral, on Dolac market, in Tuškanac woods, etc.

The elite category of racers saw the victory of a Croatian competitor, Matjaž Štanfel from OK Sova (Beli Manastir), second place was won by Luka Filetin of OK Kapela (Zagreb), and Dmitry Vorobyov won the last place on the podium. The female elite category had a somewhat similar result, Vinka Vukmanović from OK Kapela won, Antonija Orlić from OK Bjelovar was second, and Bulgarian Siliya Gincheva was third. 

The junior categories were mostly won by Croatian competitors, while the veteran categories saw more international competitors and international podium-placements. 

The organizers from OK Vihor are delighted with the feedback they've received from the participants regarding the preparation of the races and other organizational details. Next year Zagreb will host a five-day-long competition, South East European Orienteering Championship, and organization of a European City Race Tour event was an excellent intro for the preparation of that competition. 

The European City Race Tour is an international orienteering competition, taking place in various European cities, and for the first time this year, it will be organized in Zagreb as well!

The event will take place on the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of September in Zagreb, joining other numerous activities planned in Zagreb during European Mobility Week. In addition to Zagreb, this year's European City Race Tour races will be held in Rome, Barcelona, Liverpool, Porto, Graz...). The organisers, the Vihor Orienteering Club from Zagreb,  have reported that over a hundred international participants have already applied for the race, from 47 clubs coming from 19 countries - Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and Great Britain. 

The events of the weekend will start on Saturday, with two races: one in the morning, held in a park near the never-finished hospital in Blato, and the one in the afternoon at the Trešnjevka islet on the Jarun lake. On Sunday, the European City Race Tour race will be held in the centre of the city, with the finish at Europski trg (European square). 

We've already written about orienteering, but let us remind you that it's a sport in which the competitor is moving around in unknown terrain, using just the map provided by the organiser and a compass.

The goal is to get to the control points, marked on the map, in as little time as possible, and in the order by which they're numbered on the map. You must confirm that you've found the control, in this day and age mostly using an electronic chip. You compete with the other competitors in your own age group, and the male and female categories are separate. The length of the trail depends on the format, type of the terrain, etc. For the races in Zagreb, on Saturday the winners are expected to finish their races within 12-15 minutes, and on Sunday, times of 40-45 minutes are to be expected.

The detailed schedule of the events, as well as additional info (including how to apply), can be found on the competition website:https://vihor.hr/en/zgcityrace/. You can apply until September 14th, and possibly before the race starts, if any vacancies remain in the starting lists. 

Until this weekend, an orienteering race was never held on a Dalmatian island.

Want to run 'round a park in Zagreb with a map and a compass?