Top O-Travel Picks: April 2010

Prague Easter with technical orienteering in sandstone terrain, Postas Cup with technical sand dune terrain, the traditional JK Trophy in Great Britain, and several other interesting World Ranking events. Those are some of the highlights of the international fixtures list for April 2010. Read on to see a list of the top April events.

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.

Map samples

A map says more than 1000 words – at least to an orienteer. Fortunately several of the event organizers have added map samples in World of O Calendar – take a look below to see map samples for some of the Top Picks of April 2010.

Prague Easter 2010 Czech Republic – 2010-04-03	Prague Easter 2010 Czech Republic – 2010-04-03	Postás Cup Hungary – 2010-04-17
FinnSpring2010 Finland – 2010-04-24	FinnSpring2010 Finland – 2010-04-24	FinnSpring2010 Finland – 2010-04-24
«Cupa Variant 5», 2010 (WRE) Bulgaria – 2010-04-29	«Cupa Variant 5», 2010 (WRE) Bulgaria – 2010-04-29	«Cupa Variant 5», 2010 (WRE) Bulgaria – 2010-04-29

All O-Travel Picks for April 2010

Here is the list of the Top O-Travel Picks for April 2010 – based on what was in World of O Calendar at the time of writing.

02.04	–	11.04		Easter twenty10	Australia
02.04	–	05.04		New Zealand Orienteering Championships 2010	New Zealand
03.04	–	04.04		Easter 2010 in GARGANO -PUGLIA -ITALY	Italy
03.04				Kurzemes pavasaris	Latvia
03.04	–	05.04		Prague Easter 2010	Czech Republic
03.04	–	05.04		Les 3 jours du SUD OUEST 2010	France
04.04				JK Trophy	Great Britain
11.04				Brown Cup	Bulgaria
17.04	–	18.04		Postás Cup	Hungary
24.04	–	25.04		FinnSpring2010	Finland
24.04	–	25.04		29. Memorija \”Cika Dusko Jovanovic\”	Serbia
25.04				Nationale Sud Est	France
29.04	–	02.05		«Cupa Variant 5», 2010 (WRE)	Bulgaria
30.04				Elitserien	Sweden

Personal Picks

My personal picks for April:

• Prague Easter in Czech Republic has been a personal favorite of mine for years – I’ve been participating there three times, and would love to go back!
• Postas Cup in Hungary looks very interesting – being one of the largest events in Hungary. After being in Hungary at the World Orienteering Champs last year, I would really like to travel there again – and this terrain looks very nice. The organizers say “The terrain of the first day has never been used for orienteering before, it is partly open and is rich in contour details. The terrain of the second day will be the same technically complex sand dune terrain that we used in 2008. The vegetation in the whole area is very varied: juniper, pine, oak and acacia forest is mixed with the occasional large clearing and semi-open areas of mixed cover.”
• JK Trophy is usually a very nice event in Great Britain – this year in the South West. I found no map samples, but the terrain description says “Forestry Commission coniferous plantation of different ages and runnability, with some patches of older deciduous woodland.”
• Easter Twenty 10 in Australia looks like a great event. Take a look at the old map for the WRE event at Day 1 – the terrain is a mixture of complex granite with fire regrowth, providing for sections of extremely technical orienteering. A part of the map is open grassland with some scattered granite.
• I ran Kurzemes pavasaris in Latvia a few years ago – and it was a great event in very interesting terrain – I’m sure it will be a nice event this year again. Finnspring and Les 3 jours du SUD OUEST also look like interesting events.

Your favorite?

Are there important events missing in this overview? What is your personal favorite orienteering event in April 2010? Have you got map samples for some of the events? Please use the comments to give additional information to the readers.