A world championship will be held in Razna National Park.
On 18-19 August that year, the World Rogaining Championships 2017 will be held in Razna National Park. In Latvia, the championship will be held for the first time and will bring more than 950 best sports athletes from around the world.
Rowsiness is a type of terrain-oriented sport in a particularly long distance. Teams consisting of 2 or 3 participants in a 24-hour period visit checkpoints located in a wide area. The team's task is to obtain as many census points as possible, which are assigned as checkpoints at the time of the test.
The centre of the competition will be located in the municipality of Dagda municipality, Andzels parish, Mamonova, while the checkpoints - approximately 250 km2 in a wide area: Dagda municipality in the parish of Andzelis, Andrupenes and Ezernieki, as well as the municipality of Rezekne, Kaunatas and Mākoņkalna parish.
The World Championship will take place in the fifteenth time, but in Latvia such competitions will take place for the first time. In 2014, the International Rogaining Federation of several countries granted the right to organise a event for Latvia's orientation federation in collaboration with the orientation club “North Kurzeme”.
The registration for the World Championship was launched on 1 December 2016, with more than 950 participants registered. The maximum number of participants is 1000. More than 25 countries will be represented in the championship, including Latvia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ukraine, Finland, Canada, Netherlands etc.
Martin Vimba, the director of the competition, finds that “preparation for the competition started as early as the end of 2014. During this time there was a great deal of work and an active preparation for the championship. But the great adventure is just before the end of August in Latvia, we will expect the best athletes from different countries of the world in the territory of Razna National Park.
The organisers of the event recognise: “This is not only a great opportunity to organise world-wide competitions and to give Latvia the opportunity to match the sport enthusiasts to the best of the world's rogainers. As the competition takes place in Latgale, this is also an opportunity to show Latvia – unique natural values, landscapes, cultural historical heritage and traditions.”
The athletes will begin training on 16 August, so local residents are encouraged to treat strangers who are travelling and running in that area on 16-19 August, both on roads and in forest trails and marshes. The part of the championship will take place 24 hours from August 18. 12:00 to 19 August 12:00, so during the night of the day, part of the distance-time athletes are moving with forehead lamps. There shall be clearly marked volumes and private territories in the competition map, the participants of which are prohibited to cross.
The people are invited to cheer and take into account the fact that some of the participants do not manage Latvian or Russian.
In case of questions and uncertainties, citizens are invited to use one of the competitor phones: 29297104 or 29205886, or e-mail wrc2017@rogaining.lv
The information was prepared by:
Agnes Kuzmina
Email: wrc2017@rogaining.lv
Website: www.wrc2017.rogaining.lv
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wrc2017