World of TrailO

1. Cold, heavy and dark, the winter settled in the Nordic countries, but life goes on. That's why 34 competitors met last 06th January in the resort of Golf Vousaari, on the surroundings of Helsinki, for the Aurora Borealis PreO Event, the first TrailO competition of the season in Finland. In which is already considered “the far coolest PreO event ever” - the competitors faced temperatures of - 24 C and icy winds of around 6 m/s - the winner was Anna Jacobson (OK 77), with a clean race in the 25 controls of the course. With a total of 9 seconds, the athlete was also the fastest in the three timed challenges, achieving a performance bordering the perfection. Speaking of competition, Anna left the highest praise to the organization: "Even without the win, I praise the map, the course and the arrangements! It's not often that the entry fee (0 eur) includes a brand new map, a great course, lunch afterwards and a warm place to stay - also for the last 10 controls, which could have been solved from inside.” See map, solutions and results at http://www.trailo.fi/tulokset/2016/loppiais-preo-6-1/.

2. It is so since 2010. The Portugal O 'Meeting is getting closer and brings with it, in addition to the FootO competition, the traditional TrailO stage. This year's competition will open the Portuguese TrailO Cup Invacare 2016 and is scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday, 07th February, at Abelheira, Penamacor, in the Eastern Centre of Portugal. The brothers Edgar and Inês Domingues are the course setters, Rui Antunes is responsible for Cartography and Nuno Pires is the National Controller. In a list that is constantly increasing, are in number of 47 the competitors entered so far, with the curiosity of being Brazil the country with more representatives, precisely 15, against 10 from Portugal, 6 from Spain, 4 from Hungary and 3 from Ukraine. Competitors from German, Belgium, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Japan and Poland close the updated entry list. Among the most significant names already registered for this year's competition we can see the Japanese Koji Chino, Hungarian Zoltan Mihaczi and the Spanish Paralympic athlete, Carlos Riu Noguerol. Available information can be found at http://pom.pt/2016/dia-2-preo/.

3. There are people who are ashamed of their condition to be in a wheelchair. Other really discourage the idea of strolling in the forest. Still other get sick when they have to be guided with the help of a map. But there are people for whom wheelchairs, forests and maps are lateral faces of a triangle called TrailO, a sport for everyone. This is the general idea of an extensive article published in the 05.2015 edition of magazine Vozickar, which can be found at http://vozickar.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Voz05_2015_web.pdf. In a year when the Czech Republic will receive, from 21st to 28th May, the European Trail Orienteering Championships, Vozickar magazine opens its sports section with an interesting approach to TrailO, supplementing it with three challenges prepared by Bohuslav Hulka, a well-known Paralympic athlete in this discipline. Bohuslav is indeed the author of a more “robust” article, a few pages later, which recalls the key moments of the previous season, from the stages of the Czech Cup to the international competitions, holding up particularly in the PreO's first day of the World Trail Orienteering Championships 2015 and the adventures lived in the “muddy trails” of Sesvete and highlighting the sixth place of Jana Kosťová on this competition. We should also say that the articles are superbly illustrated but have a "little problem": are written in Czech!

Joaquim Margarido