The Long Distance Stage ofthe National Foot Orienteering Championship

Today, 3 September 2011, was a lightning day for Romania's athletes, as the Long Distance stage of the National Foot Orienteering Championship was held in the commune of Rasova, Gorj County.
Athletes from all over Romania, with very good physical fitness as well as the skill of reading a map and using a compass in a technical way, make the solving of the problems increasingly difficult over the course of the competition.
They had to cover distances of between 8.31 km and 19.17 km, and the number of controls the athletes had to find with the help of compass and map varied between 30 and 57. The athletes' ages ranged from 10 to 60.
This year was a first for the Romanian Orienteering Federation, which introduced the Family category into the National Foot Orienteering Championship. What is this category? It is very simple: Mum, Dad, Child, Grandma, Grandad, etc. become competitive athletes for a few days – and why not in the future too – and, equipped with maps and compasses, they have to cover the course that the members of the Romanian Orienteering Federation designed for this category.
The National Foot Orienteering Championship comprises 4 events: Sprint, Middle Distance and Long Distance, which have already finished, and the last event, called the "Relay", will take place on 4 September 2011. The "Relay" event is completely different from the other events because the start will be a mass start, i.e. all competitors will set off at the same time.
If you would like to join the athletes, we invite you on Sunday at 10:00 to the clearing in the commune of Rasova, Gorj County; the road to the camp is marked.
The winners of day 3 (Long Distance) were: Peter Knobloch, Gergo Filep, Csis Robert (cat. M12); Emi Minoiu, Paul Tampa, Zsolt Mate (cat. M14); Stefan Copetchi, Gábor Prezensky, Vasile Aluas (cat. M16); Mercar Alex, Tamás Prezensky, Stefan Libotean (cat. M18); Daniel Barkasz, Szabolcs Győrgy, Giurgica Marcelin (cat. M20); Ionut Zinca, Bogya Tamas, Ovidiu Mutiu (cat. M21); Renata Puskas, Timea Virag, Sfetcu Catalina (cat. F12); Habina Daiana, Bianca Ciocean, Roxana Culcean (cat. F14); Bonto Diana, Laszlo Monika, Georgescu Alice (cat. F16); Andra Anghel, Horvath Madalina, Cristina Brezian (cat. F18); Patricia Carausan, Nicoleta Papara (cat. F20); Irina Maiorescu, Veronica Minoiu, Marinela Piringiu (cat. F21);
Athletes from Ukraine, Serbia, Scotland and Hungary also took part in this event.
The competition centre is at Hotel Sport in Târgu Jiu, and further details can be provided by Canavoiu Alexandru 0762.325.903 and Dionisie Rosca 0767.247.646.
We thank our partners: the Drumeții Montane Association, the National Authority for Sport and Youth, Târgu Jiu Town Hall, C.S. Pandurii Târgu Jiu, the Târgu Jiu Children's Palace, Eco Sport Club, the Students' League of the "Constantin Brâncuși" University.