Top O-Travel Picks: March 2010

In the Top O-Travel Picks-series of articles we will take a look at the most interesting events of 2010 for travelers – month by month – to guide you through the fixture list. Focus is on multiday-events and World Ranking events, as these are events which typically attract traveling orienteers.

Personal Picks

My personal picks for March: The Lipicia Open races in Slovenia have been on my wish list for several years. Also, I did a sprint training in Matera along with Øystein Kvaal Østerbø a few years ago – I would really like to run there again.

All O-Travel Picks for March 2010

Here is the list of the Top O-Travel Picks for March 2010 – based on what was in World of O Calendar at the time of writing. See below the table for more details about some of the events – and map samples at the bottom the page.

05.03	–	07.03		XXII TROFEO INTERNACIONAL COSTA CÁLIDA	Spain
06.03	–	07.03		Beograd Open	Serbia
11.03	–	13.03		MOC GP SPRINT	Italy
13.03	–	14.03		Early Spring Cup 2010	Poland
13.03	–	14.03		Lipica open 2010	Slovenia
13.03	–	14.03		Bizkaia Saria 2010	Spain
27.03	–	28.03		WRE and Middle Races	Great Britain
27.03	–	28.03		ROME MMX – Rome Orienteering Meeting 2010	Italy
27.03	–	28.03		CESOM 2010	Slovakia
27.03				Spring Cup	Denmark
27.03	–	28.03		Strazilovo Cup	Serbia

March events: Spring Cup international season opener

Historically, Spring-Cup in Denmark has been the main event on the international orienteering scene in March. The last years travelling has been getting less expensive, there are more quality maps in southern Europe, and thus many skip cold and snowy Sprint Cup in favor of events in the south. It looks like POM (see the Top O-Travel Picks for February) might have taken over as the event which attracts most of the World Elite during the winter months (the organizers have announced that Daniel Hubman, Thierry Gueorgiou, François Gonon, Emil Wingstedt, Tero Föhr, Valentin Novikov, Simone Niggli, Helena Jansson, Signe Søes and Eva Jurenikova among others will visit POM in Portugal). However, Spring Cup is still the international season opener for many runners – especially in the Nordic countries. The Spring Cup organizers did unfortunately not add any map sample to World of O Calendar, but expect that the terrain will be typical for Spring Cup (here is a map from last years event).

World Ranking Events

In addition to Spring Cup, there are two other World Ranking events in World of O Calender in March. These are XXII Trofeo Internacional Costa Calida in Spain March 5th-7th in Spain and Forth Valley Orienteers WRE-event in Scotland March 27th-28th.

The Trofeo Internacional Costa Calida is said to be a technical area with hundreds of small re-entrants spurs, hills and not many rocky details. The forest is mainly white but with areas of light green. The competition weekend consists of three events – one long distance Saturday (WRE), a sprint Saturday afternoon and a middle distance Sunday.

The terrain for the WRE-event in Scotland has some similarities with terrain in Western/Middle Norway (see map sample below), and the organizers hope that some might want to use the event as part of their preparations for the World Orienteering Championships in Trondheim.

Other events

There are several other interesting events in March 2010.

• Beograd Open: Two-day event in Serbia. According to the organizers with sand dunes terrain. First day – flat, micro orienteering, second day – hilly, route choice.
• MOC GP Sprint: Two sprint races with PWT style in Italy: Castellaneta and Matera. One middle distance race in Pineta Chiatona. I have been running a training in Matera – and must say that that is one of my top sprint experiences!
• Early Spring Cup: 2 days, 3 races in Poland. 1. long 2. night middle and 3. relay.
• Lipica open: 2 day event in Slovenia. Another one of my favorite terrain types. If the weather conditions are good, you can’t go wrong with this one! See some nice map samples below.
• Bizkaia Sari: 2 day event in Spain. Karst terrain with the typical morphology of a high plateau. Grand amount of depressions and slight re-entrants. Alternation of beech dominated forest and semi open terrain with whitethorn bushes that force the runner to adapt the orienteering technique. The open and slightly hilly terrain allows easy navigation whereas in the areas with developed karst more sophisticated techniques will be necessary.
• ROME MMX – Rome Orienteering Meeting 2010. This looks like a very nice orienteering weekend for somebody interested in sprint orienteering – and wanting to combine it with vacation in a big city. 2 days 3 races Run under the aqueduct in a suburban park (Saturday) and… in the amazing city center between Colosseo and Piazza di Spagna.
• CESOM 2010: National Ranking Competition Middle, Sprint and Long Distances in Slovakia. Plain terrain, sandy dunes, clear, runnable pine forest. Dense paths network, many contour details.
• Strazilovo Cup: Two-day event in Serbia. 2-days individual competition, middle and sprint distance. Terrain is hilly, middle slope, all cover by forest with mostly good runnability.

Map samples

Beograd Open Serbia – 2010-03-06	MOC GP SPRINT Italy – 2010-03-11	MOC GP SPRINT Italy – 2010-03-11
Early Spring Cup 2010 Poland – 2010-03-13	Lipica open 2010 Slovenia – 2010-03-13	Lipica open 2010 Slovenia – 2010-03-13
Lipica open 2010 Slovenia – 2010-03-13	Bizkaia Saria 2010 Spain – 2010-03-13	Bizkaia Saria 2010 Spain – 2010-03-13
Bizkaia Saria 2010 Spain – 2010-03-13	WRE and Middle Races Great Britain – 2010-03-27	WRE and Middle Races Great Britain – 2010-03-27
ROME MMX Italy – 2010-03-27	ROME MMX Italy – 2010-03-27	ROME MMX Italy – 2010-03-27
CESOM 2010 Slovakia – 2010-03-27	CESOM 2010 Slovakia – 2010-03-27	CESOM 2010 Slovakia – 2010-03-27
Strazilovo Cup Serbia – 2010-03-27	Strazilovo Cup Serbia – 2010-03-27

World of O Calendar

Note that only events included in World of O Calendar will be considered. If you are an organizer – please add event information as soon as possible, including map samples and a description of the event – to make sure that your event is included. You may also add event information for the month presented in the comments if your event was not picked for the current month.

Note also that I have added quite a few WRE events by going through the IOF calendar of WRE events and inserting the events missing in World of O Calendar. For these events, there is no location! If you know the location of one of the events with missing location – or have other information about the event – please modify the entry for the event in World of O Calendar!