Portugal participated for the
very first time in a World Trail Orienteering Championships and I had
the privilege to be, along with Ricardo Pinto, one of the pioneers in
this adventure. With the Portuguese Orienteering Blog, I open now a
special page dedicated to WTOC 2012 and where, throughout these days,
I will give account of my experiences based on the news, the stories,
the interviews, the images and the data analysis. A study as
comprehensive as possible of the World Trail Orienteering
Championships WTOC 2012 that, enthusiastically, I will share with
you, hoping to catch everyone's attention to a reality as beautiful
as challenging called Trail Orienteering.
1. June the 5th. I hang up the alarm clock
before the awakening. It's 02:17 a.m. and the World Championships
starts here. In fact, they have already begun, but now I can feel
that reality with the proper measure and account. The omens - the
good ones and the bad ones - went back now, the time is not for
daydreams. Dundee is in the end of a long line, sixteen hours away
from here. Let's go!
2. Lines, bridges,
connections. All of them, suddenly interrupted when I look back. This
is a new situation for me, a totally different reality and Ricardo is
the one who makes the difference. A brutal car accident stilled the
mobility of her lower limbs. In that Valentine's Day of 1998, the
fate decreed that he found in his wheelchair a lifetime companion.
This trip is to him and for him. For him and for all those who, like
him, punching hard, found the right way to reopen doors that seemed
closed forever.
3. I can't believe this!
03:55 in the morning and here we are, me and Ricardo, in the floor -1
of the Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, waiting for an elevator in
maintenance. “Every first Tuesday of the month" - I will never
forget this! - "the elevators stop in order to do its
maintenance”, they tell us. I'm not in maintenance and I demand
that someone lead up Ricardo. Twenty minutes later, we are in the
departure area, ready to do the “check in”.
4. Plane, train, train and
... train. Travel on the road, long corridors, customs, transfers.
Oporto, London, Peterborough, Edinburgh, Dundee. The withholding of
this note is the available courtesy of all, everywhere, that assists
Ricardo. Absolutely fantastic. The rest of the trip is a green
coloured Britain, dotted here and there by little drab villages. And
sheep, many sheep, astonished, watching the passing trains.
5. West Park, Dundee. Event
Centre, the centre of the World Championships, the centre of our
world in the coming days. Clean accommodation, a staff of an
unsurpassed attention, an excellent mood. Bib number 248 to me,
number 124 for Ricardo, departure times set for the TempO World
Trophy and some doubts clarified in an uninteresting Trail-O Meeting.
Then it's the dinner, because the hunger tights and the noon sandwich
is no longer in my stomach.
6. Table 3. Me, Ricardo and
the Croatian Team. Among them I can see Zdenko Horjan, silver
medalist in 2008 and 2009 in the Paralympic Class and Ivo Tilsjar,
bronze medal in the last two editions of the World Championships in
the Open Class. We speak about Portugal and Croatia. Zdenko
“scratches” a little bit of Portuguese and takes the opportunity
to launch a couple of words with a brazilian accent. Then come an
advice to these two beginners. Lesson to remember: "Do what you
do on the first day, it doesn't matter. The important thing is that
you assure, on the second day, you'll be the last one to leave.”
7. 21:30 p.m. It was an
unusually long day and the night falls quickly. I fall asleep within
this fantastic family. I felt that I'm already one of them!
Joaquim Margarido
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