MTBO NEWS

MTBO in Russia

Moscow, with its millions of people is not a good place for a healthy life but is excellent for the virus. But life is going on here. Despite our sports school being closed we meet with children in the park nearby and make some training exercises. Also some competitions are organized. At the end of November we had the 6‑days Russian MTBO Championships in Crimea. The COVID situation is not so bad in that region. Ruslan Gritsan (Russia’s outstanding elite MTBO’er) was the map and course maker. The mountain terrain was rather tough.

Natalia Morosanova

(a Russian coach) Ruslan Gritsan has an incredible record in MTBO. He has competed in all 17 World MTBO Championships since the first in France in 2002. In those championships he has won 7 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze medals. The years are not slowing him either as he won the Long Distance gold medal at the most recent World Championships in Denmark in 2019 at the age of 41! Added to his World Championship medal haul is 8 European MTBO Championship and 6 World Cup medals.

Ruslan Gritsan with a corridor MTBO course.

Ruslan on his way to the gold medal in Denmark 2019. Photo: Rainer Burman – fotoburmann.at

MTBO Origins

Continuing our quest for the origins of MTBO, documents show that the Swedish Orienteering Federation seems likely to be the first national federation to have actively promoted Cycle Orienteering – as early as in the year 1942. In the September 2020 magazine we published an article about Bike Orienteering, highlighting the historical find that it actually first took place in Austria in 1893 – 4 years before the first recorded Foot O event. Prior to this find, we said, the first known Bike Orienteering was in Hungary in 1954. Now we know that a project to develop Cycle Orienteering was organised with quite significant resources in Sweden in 1942, with around 5,000 participants across the whole of the country in the designated week: 31st May to 7th June. Attractive posters were produced to attract participants, and a special instruction booklet for organisers was published with rules and advice about course lengths, numbers of controls and safety features. District Leaders for the project were appointed in all of the Swedish federation’s 23 Districts, and Controllers oversaw the standards being set. A special brass badge was designed

Cycle Orienteering in Sweden, 1942.

and 10,000 of them produced, for distribution to those who successfully passed a test of cycle‑orienteering skills. This involved completing the course and then answering some questions – wrong answers incurred a small time penalty. The historical book extract shown here gives an indication of the nature and scope of the project. Poster ‘bubbles’: Woman: “I believe at least that North lies in that direction” Man: “What should I believe – you, the sun or my compass?” Even racing cyclists got involved – treating it as a fun finish to a hard season (see photo). Thanks to Bernt O. Myrvold for this important update on the history of orienteering on two wheels.