Sports journal

This was one of my most anticipated competitions, that's because the terrain is really unique! It's made up of sand hills, scattered with old tank pit's and other military terrain formations. What's most interesting is the vast juniper maze, a plant that reaches up to 2.5m, stings, slows you down, and they make good drinks out of it.

I already seen the map of the terrain, and was a bit nervous about that large juniper covered area, which covered almost half the map.
Considering the fact that this year's season was over, I was thinking: why not enjoy this wonderful terrain, as much as possible, so I decided to race in 21A, the hardest.

First day the weather was quite foggy, cold, and everything was wet. I put on 2 layers of clothes (didn't consider having long sleeves, that was bad). 1st day I had some 8km's, so I was confident for a good run. A bit too confident perhaps... At the start, wrapping the map seemed an impossible task for my frozen hands, so I went out without any protection for the map, which held out to the end, but I don't think it would've lasted on a longer distance.

I had a few mistakes here and there (5,10), but the biggest problem were the juniper bushes. It seemed as if they were put in your path on purpose. Any way you'd go, your path was blocked. I ended up having some real fights in the green, especially from 12 to 13, where I just couldn't find the yellow and white spots I intended to go through. Other funny thing this day was that at control 4 I caught up another guy from my category, and from then on, we kept going different ways each time, but we always ended up finding the control at the same moment.

First day was won by whom I foreseen to be the winner: Zsebehazy Istvan ; and I finished 3rd. It was up to next day's race to determine the final result.

2nd day we had 11km's (in a straight line), this being the 3rd longest distance to run in an orienteering race this year. The weather was like yesterday, but it was much more dryer. Somehow, the organizers managed to put me and my father to start in the same moment.


As soon as I started, right before the 1st control, I got ran over by a deer, seriosly. No problem, I did not stop. I somehow managed to keep track of the map much better than the previous day, even though now we had 1:10000 (not 1:7500). I found each and every clearing and hole my path was following. I didn't rush it, not to be tired and loose my focus. With almost no mistakes, I finished this day 2nd.

I was surprised that yesterday's winner, Isti, which was supposed to run the 2nd day was missing, since he would have won the gold by far. I didn't expect this at all. All in all, the 2 mediocre runs put me on 1st overall, therefore I won the big prize: the drink .

2009. 10. 23-25.
The time for the year's last nationals have come.
And in the form of a club relay, and a team competition.
I waited a long time for these competitions.

Friday, the relay didn't went as supposed to. The fact that I've trained a lot on carstic terrain, with 1:15000 scale maps, really messed me up. I was not used to this kind of terrain, so I ended up making 7 minutes of mistake at the firstcontrol! After that I've kept my head cool, and managed to make no more mistakes, but nevertheless, a mistake's a mistake.


We could have been in a strong battle with our main rivals, PVSK, but we earned 2nd place. I think that's good also, but I keep thinking... what IF...

Saturday, I just had to do a good run, to restore my rep after yesterday's fault. The winning team was the one with the lowest cumulative time from the 3 members of the team. I had a very good run, my 2nd teammate also. As we were waiting our 3rd mate at the video-point, we were told by a rival that he thinks our teammate picked up the wrong map! We thought he was just kidding, but it turned out to be true. We would have won by 10 minutes, but we got disqualified.


After the race we went to seek a geo-cache with Balasz, a guy from my club. Finding the cache was easy, but getting to it proved a bit difficult. What happened was a real adventure, but I'll let the pictures do the talking.


Sunday, was no more a national competition, just a local one. "Kalocsa Cup" it was called. After 2 days of running on the same terrain, the 3rd time I knew it will be more than easy. As it turned out to be, with almost no mistakes at all(just a few small misses at holes), I secured the first place, and therefore managed to get a gold medal in the week-end.


After that, we went to find another geo-cache, a bit further away this time, what we found was unique scenery. A small hill, made out only of sand. It was very interesting!

I enjoyed a lot this week-end, a lot of things have happened. Next up, Eger cup, back to the mountains!
See ya there!

place: Arad, Ceala forest - flat floodplain forest, mainly hard to run through vegetation
small local competition with friends from school, tourist club

Finished the thriathlon competition placing first overall in the hardest cathegory, winning all 3 stages.
Our luck, the forecast was lying, so it didn't rain as it said so.
At night I started out last, passed a few runners on track.
Next day I was not so lucky, having to go first out in the woods, I had to cut through all, ALL the spider-webs I could find. There was also some thick vegetation in some areas, but I added more to my lead in front, just to arrive at the finish, and hop directly on my bike. I was considered a favorite at the bike stage, I had a few mistakes, but I easily recuperated going fast. Anyone that had seen me on my bike, knows I'm a demon with it.(last year I had a spinal bone fracture)
Important thing is, we all had fun, nobody got hurt, lost, eaten. It was great!

Tonight I'm packing, cause tomorrow I'm headin' out for Miskolc to view the WOC.
See ya there!

I started a new blog on Facebook, but I'll keep posting here also.
The link is: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=765809196&ref=name

So, finally, the most important competition in this year was knocking at my door.

The first thing I noticed in Serbia was that it's a very, very beautiful country, with lots of turistic attractions and possibilities. Another beauty of it is its untouched wilderness. The terrain at Kopaonik consisted of pine-woods, full with marshes(it rained every day), maze of rocks, steep hillsides.
We had 4 trainings, in wich 3 were on 1:10000 maps, and 1 training for sprint.
Wednesday, at the first training, passing the stream between control 1 and 2, and respectively 5 and 6 was pretty tricky. It seemed like liquid chocolate rushing down the valley. I managed to found a fallen log over it, and manage to reach the other side. We were given just 1 suit for competing and I only had 1 pair of running shoes.

Thursday, the second training was again, in the same area, this time we didn't have to pass the stream wich got even bigger after the night. But I managed to get confused at section 9 to 10. I found an unmapped path, and I actually couldn't found the one on the ridge, so I ended up a bit left than I should have. I knew where I was, I drifted to left only because of the vegetation.

Later that day were the model events (A.K.A. Training 3,4) with a sprint map near our hotel. At my first attempt on it, I overpassed one of the controls, probably because I wasn't used to the small scale, but after I finished the track, I went an imaginary track, a bit slower, focusing on how fast I'm passing objects to get aquainted to the scale.

After finishing the sprint, we headed down to the long distance model event, situated about 2-3km from our hotel. On the road there it started to rain, we had troubles keeping the maps dry(no wrapping). The map was AMAZING. Everything sssoo detailed, it was a real pleasure running with it. Hats off! Really!

Afther this 4th training, I felt confident, was in a good mood, ready for next day's race.

1st DAY: LONG
Long distance event: 1:10 000, 5m contours, stand June 2009, according to ISOM
Long: Terrain located at 1500m altitude, 15min drive from the Event centre. Fir forest, generally well runnable,
a lot of details like marshes, stones and boulders and a few places with rich contour detail, varied vegetation.
Area is moderately hilly with some steep slopes.

*I'm open for any suggestion on path-choosing!*

It went pretty well, with 2 major and 2 minor mistakes. The main difference, and setback, between me and the winner was my fizical condition, since I only started serious fizical training last year's September(after I had a pelvic bone fracture=almost 1 month of inactivity). But I'm very pleased with my 34th position out of 93, knowing that I've positioned myself in front of my collegues from Romania, and 3 collegues from Hungary. The 4th Hungarian did it!!!!!!! He placed second!!!! Congratulations to Baumholczer Máté and továbbra is hajrá magyarok!!!!!!
1. Robert Merl - Austria 60:25
2. Máté Baumholczer - Hungary 62:52
3. Felix Haller - Switzerland 62:53
34. Daniel Barkasz - Romania 71:52 (+11:27)

2nd DAY: RELAY
Relay event: 1:10 000, 5m contours, stand June 2009, according to ISOM
Relay: Competition area is located close to the Event centre, at 1700m altitude. Fir forest, of different
runnability, a lot of details like marshes, stones and boulders, generally hilly.


I blew it, not as much as my teammates, but still. Mistake at segment 8-9, mistake at segment 12-13.
I switched our team on 16th place, the next guy at 18th, and the next one finished on 20th.
1. Czech Republic -Jiri Necas; Jiri Valenta; Daniel Wolf - 119:28
2. Russia -Dmitry Danil'chenkov; Gleb Tikhonov; Aurel Pleshkan - 120:09
3. Estonia -Raido Mitt; Tauno Tiirats; Kenny Kivikas - 122:25
20. Romania -Barkasz Daniel; Gyorgy Szabolcs; Ghiuzan Eduard - 165:47:eyes:
Not as I expected, but oh well..

3rd DAY: SPRINT
Sprint event: 1:4 000, 2,5m contours, stand June 2009, according to ISSOM.
Sprint: Downhill sprint area, located in the vicinity of the Event centre at 1800m altitude. Terrain is combined:
urban part as well as slope covered by fir forest and (semi)open areas.
Last race, give it all.

I went fairly good, got caught up on the logs after control 4, lost about 8secs at control 6. The problems started after the 8th control, I was getting tired, and started to lose focus. A minor disorientation at control 10, and a major mistake at control 10.... I noticed at the end that, even if I kept looking constantly at the map while running, I couldn't memorize it in mye head, as if I lost my ability of orienteering. I finished the course on 36th position. I expected myself around 30, but 36 is fine. For my first EYOC.
1. Antonio Martinez Pérez - Spain 10:49
2. Andreas Boesen - Denmark 10:59
3. Jiri Necas - Czech 11:15
36.Daniel Barkasz - Romania 13:20

This year's EYOC turned out very well for the Czech's, congratulations to all, everyone out there running through the forests with a compass and a map's a winner. Greets to all!

Next race: Kunfehértó Kupa (no mountains, flat:happy: )