Dear orienteering friends,
I would like invite all competitors, officials and guests on behalf of the organizing committee and orienteering club Slávia Farmaceut Bratislava to the European Trail Orienteering Championships 2018 in Slovakia.
The Slovak orienteering association has great experiences with organizing some important events in past like Junior World Orienteering Championships 2012 in Kosice, World University Orienteering Championships 2006 in Kosice, Orienteering World Cup in years 1988 (Silická planina) and 1998 (Tatranská Lomnica), European Youth Orienteering Championships 2003 in Pezinok, Junior World Ski Orienteering Championships 2000 in Banská Bystrica, Junior World Ski Orienteering Championships 1996 in Banská Bystrica and World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships 2005 in Banská Bystrica. The next European Youth Orienteering Championship 2017 will be held in Banská Bystrica. You can meet some people from these events in year 2018 too.
Trail Orienteering is relatively new discipline in Slovakia but has quickly acquired importance like other orienteering disciplines. The first competition on Slovak territory took place during the Slovak championships in Sprint (organized by our club) on 13 September 2008 and it was prepared by the Hungarian federation. We had to wait a long time for the next TrailO competition. The first competition organized by Slovak club on Slovak territory was a local competition with 47 participants organized by our club on 25 January 2014. We started very close cooperation with the Czech federation and our skills and experience widely grew. The club TJ Slávia Farmaceut Bratislava has organized 9 national TrailO competitions (7 with international participants) and two ECTO competitions in Slovakia during last three years. We organized three TrailO competitions in the Czech Republic last year too.
Our goal is to prepare fair and nice competition with the possibility to explore beauty and interesting places in Slovakia. I would like to apologize that you may face a little bit higher requirements for traveling, but each competition will be held in different type of terrain with great demands on TrailO skills. You will meet flat, hilly and steep slopes, different vegetation mostly in non-urban areas. We will pay special attention to Paralympic competitors by selecting asphalt or another firm surface on majority competitions and paths.
The European Trail Orienteering Championships 2018 will be held in the beautiful capital of Slovakia, a small town named Bratislava, and its neighbourhood. Bratislava is famous for unique architecture, culture, history tradition, art, drinks, food and nightlife.
I wish all of you a lot of success and good preparations for our event in year 2018. I assure that we will prepare this event on the highest possible level.
Dušan Furucz
Event Director