City Race European Tour 2015: Antwerp hosts the circuit's first round

Next 5th and 6th September starts the second edition of City Race European Tour. The Belgian city of Antwerp held the opening round of an event joining six cities in five different countries and that will end in Seville, Spain, on 15th November.

There it is, the City Race European Tour 2015, a circuit whose identity is founding on the sportive tourism and in the promotion of Orienteering on the populations of large cities. After having involved the cities of London, Edinburgh, Porto and Barcelona in the first edition, carried out in 2014, the event grows this year in size and ambition. Edinburgh - with the flagship "Race the Castles" - will not be part of this issue, but come to its place the cities of Krakow (Poland), Seville and Antwerp, allowing to extend to six the number of events spread over five different nations. To achieve the global sum of 5.000 participants seems plausible for a circuit that reached three thousand in 2014, with 1447 scoring for the circuit's ranking in 12 competition classes.

Will be in Antwerp that the City Race European Tour 2015 will give the "kick-off", integrating the first edition of ASOM 2015 - Antwerp Sprint Orienteering Meeting. Three urban races in two days of competition - 5th and 6th of September -, such is the proposal of the Belgian organization, with two Sprint stages (with a time of 15 minutes allotted for the winner) in the afternoon of the first day and one stage more “fat” to fill the final day of competition, with times for the winners situated between the 35 and the 45 minutes. This will be a good way to explore the city of Antwerp, taking the opportunity to learn or improve the practice of an exciting sport and whose challenge has been accepted by more than 300 athletes so far, some of them world-class. This applies to the Russian Galina Vinogradova, bronze medallist in the final of Sprint of the recent World Championships, the Belgian Yannick Michiels, ranked fifth in the final od Sprint of the same competition, the British Christopher Smithard, the Spanish Antonio Martinez and the Norwegian Øystein Kvaal Østerbø and Elise Egseth, among others. More information about this event can be found on the official website, at http://www.asom.be/en/home.

After Antwerp, London will receive on 12th and 13th September the second stage of the circuit, followed by Porto (25th/27th September), Krakow (10th/11th October) and Barcelona (31st October and 1st November). Everything will end in Seville, on 14th and 15th November, with the Sevilla O-Meeting. For more information, see the webpage of the City Race European Tour at http://cityracetour.org/.

Joaquim Margarido