Sports journal

Cika Duska 3rd day - "Short" distance
A lot of mistakes, bad weather, hard to run. Placed 5th.

From 19 Dec to 2 Jan I'm at Borovets Bulgaria in a training camp. We've been mostly cross-country skiing, but we also had time for alpine skiing, and of course running.
Today, on 31st, I decided to go for a run, longer than any other runs I had here before.
Snow has frozen up, which made it easier to run also, the weather was perfect, at around -1 degrees Celsius.

Data from the training here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/61273421

The scenery got better and better, and after 45 minutes of climbing, I got out of the woods, to an alpine plateau. The scenery from there was dazzling. I stopped for a few photos, then ran a bit more, but after 1 hour going southwards, I turned back home.
These days I practiced on cross-country skies, preparing for the ski-o nationals which will come in February.
In the meantime I got a new watch: a Garmin Forerunner 405CX, which I'll be using from now on.
This year was very great for me, with a lot of succesful competitions. I won most of the national championships, except middle and relays, I won the Balcan Championships, I won the Latin Countries Championships, I had good results at many international competitions, and I think the most important is the 17th position earned at EYOC. Sadly, this was my last EYOC, next year at JWOC will be much harder, but you may never know what the future holds for you. I might be considering to participate at M21 to get used to the hard stuff faster.

I wish all of you a succesful Happy New Year, lots happiness, good fortune, and many podium finishes!

The Zarand Cup wasthe first orienteering competition held in Romania, and it's now at its 64th edition. Back in 1947 Davidhazy Kalman organized the 1st edition in Casoaia, the same place where it was held this time.
Casoaia is a beautiful area in the Zarand mountains, an excellent place for camping (2 campings available+a 4* hotel). It features a nearby statue park, the Siria fortress is nearby, to the south in the Mures valley there's the Soimos citadel. Best way to explore this region is by bike, since walking takes up for more than 2 hours.

This year we've introduced a sprint event on a new map in the surroundings of the camps. My 1st control was in the statue park, then at the 2nd one I misjudged the distance and went around the wrong house. All in all it was an OK run, except when from control 15, I thought I was doe and startedheading for the finish, then I realized I still had 2 more controls to grab. I was surprised by how easy it was to make mistakes, even for me who knows this place literally like the palm of my hand.

Categoria M21 2,5Km/85/17
1 Barkász Daniel CS Universitatea Craiova 0:18:27
2 Georgescu Cristian PC Timişoara 0:21:49
3 Prezenszky Tamas TranSilva Cluj 0:22:59

Sprint map: http://indafoto.hu/daniori/image/9645317-1d0e3b3f/details/xl/329837

Then came the middle distance on the classical Casoaia map on which I have trained a few times before. The terrain features areas with clean very fast forests to green, hard to fight through vegetation. The valleys are very steep, very. But still, it makes for great terrain, with some technical parts too. I ran fast the whole course, except from 8 to 9 where I fell in the valley. There my GPS turned off also from the shock. I hit my knees pretty bad and torn out my o-pants, but after a few meters of climbing I could start running ok again. The 2nd day there was also participation from Hungary from the Szeged club I run for (SZVSE), from where Szabo Zsolt ran very good for his 1st time here. My win doesn't really count since I'm well aquainted with this map. Tha track layout was good, the steep climbings from the valleys were ok.

1 Barkász Daniel CS Universitatea Craiova 0:38:25
2 Szabó Zsolt SZVSE Ungaria 0:40:25
3 Rácz Sándor SZVSE Ungaria 0:47:15
4 Viczián Péter SZVSE Ungaria 0:49:20
5 Vajda Balázs SZVSE Ungaria 0:49:50

Middle map: http://indafoto.hu/daniori/image/9645319-e818f6ff/details/xl/329837

After succesfully completing all qualifications, I was selected in the national team to compete in the Balcan Orienteering Championships organized in Bulgaria. Actually, this is supposed to be the last Balcan Champs because from next year on, it will be replaced with the South-East European Orienteering Championships (SEEOC), with the participation of Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Italy, Croatia. Think I got it all, if not, tell me.

This year I've been a few times to Bulgaria: Borovets at winter(skiing), there was the Brown Cup, Variant 5, a training camp in Primorsko, after that the Bulgaria cup at Primorsko, together with the EOC.

Competing on these previous competitions I concluded that Bulgarian terrain is mostly the same to what we have in Romania. Well, it turned out to be a false statement as we reached Belogradchik, the city that hosted the BOC, and as you can see from the photo, the scene was breath-taking.



I just couldn't wait to go out and explore this rocky maze. Still, we had to wait until after the sprint to race in this woody grand canyon which hosted the long, middle and relay events. A bit of consolation was the training map, which was very small, but it still gave you some idea of what's in store for the next days.



After the model's the race was on! First up, the sprint was held on the streets of Belogradchik, and a small bit in the woods and some cliffs. I was too eager to run fast, and so I've got myself into some stupid mistakes which cost me the 1st place. I was still able to catch 2nd place.

Sprint M18 2.8km 80m 15C !!FOR MAP CLICK HERE!!
1 Valentin Paskalev Bulgaria 18:26
2 Daniel Barkasz Romania 19:05
3 Andrei Bezdiga Moldova 19:11


Long distance sure seemed long whilst running. It was a tough course, and it had plenty of rocks, but also, very dense vegetation in the forests. I had to get used to navigate through the cliffs, they proved to be quite tricky, having to know exactly which wall you were facing, to know if the control is under or over the wall, or inside a small gorge(almost like a cave). I can say this terrain was really extreme. On a few occasions I decided to climb the walls, or crawl down on them, they're height varied from 2-3 to even 6-8 meters high. I managed to have a constant run with not too much time lost and I came in 1st, just as I planned.

Long Distance M18 7.5km 380m 20C !!FOR MAP CLICK HERE!!
1 Daniel Barkasz Romania 1:16:41
2 Valentin Paskalev Bulgaria 1:30:46
3 Dorin Mercar Romania 1:30:58



On middle distance I had to do exactly what on long, just much faster. On some routechoices I went around on paths sprinting, instead of toying with the elements. After the long, I got used with navigating in this specific terrain, and I was able to simplify the features I had to read from the map. I felt very good fizically, and I was once again able to seize 1st place.

Middle Distance M18 3.0km 160m 13C !!FOR MAP CLICK HERE!!
1 Daniel Barkasz Romania 31:29
2 Valentin Paskalev Bulgaria 34:08
3 Andrei Bezdiga Moldova 38:57

Later that day we went visiting a fortress we've heard of which was built using the rock formations. It was very interesting, but the view was much more beautiful. This place is worth visiting anytime. It's incredible.



Last day was the relay, on which the track was another middle distance. So I had to perform just like the day before. We finished 2nd, after the Bulgarians had a very strong team which ran good on all 3 legs. I had an excellent time also, so I was more satisfied. Even considering that I'm going home with 4 medals(last year I only got 2gold,1silver; now it's 2gold,2silver).

Relay M18 !!FOR MAP CLICK HERE!!
1 Bulgaria Bulgaria 1:51:30 Dimitar Mihailov37:58; Slav Vamporow37:06; Valentin Paskalev36:26
2 Romania Romania 1:58:07 Teodor Molnar 40:55; Alex Mercar 46:05; Daniel Barkasz 31:07
3 Moldova Moldova 2:11:16 Serghei Postolatii 51:25; Dimitru Antohi 43:13; Andrei Bezdiga 36:38

I won't forget this place, and I think I will be seeing more from it. Thank you Bulgaria for having me there, amazing place, good competition, great fun, see ya next time!

1st day, LONG distance
6,7km/410m/19controls
I expected it would be a lot easier, but I was wrong. I had a lot of problems in the beginning, especially through those small valleys. It was very hard to keep track on the map.
Middle-way in section 9-10, I encountered some very soft mud, sinking in all up to my neck. I was lucky another guy came behind me, who could pull me out of that quicksand . The forest was very humid and slippery. Had to be careful with all those fallen pine-trees which are very dangerous if you fall on them.
I finished 2nd with a ton of mistakes, Kristaps Berzins finished 1st with ~30 seconds i front, and behind me Filip Stevanovic.
Map: http://indafoto.hu/daniori/image/8634513-8fd8794a/details/xl/307491

2nd day was much better. This time I had much more control with the map, but it's very hard not to make any mistakes here, so I had some slips, but I didn't loose as much time as yesterday.
I seized 1st place overall with quite some minutes lead.
This was last year's EYOC relay terrain, but that didn't help me a lot. You just can't remember a terrain like this one, it's very wild, a lot of undergrowth, fallen pine-trees, many rocks, marshes. But that just makes things much more interesting .
Map: http://indafoto.hu/daniori/image/8639557-4e6f00a7/details/xl/307491

3rd day was the day and night sprint.
As I said before, sprint is not my specialization. I'm not that fast for that. On the course I had a big mistake right to the 1st control and to the 11th. The rest went ok, I finished 2nd behind Kristaps.
Then came the night sprint. Batteries were all fully charged, both lamp and muscles were fired up, ready to go. To my luck, it was more in the forest than in urban area, like earlyer. I went calm on the first 2 controls to get used to the feeling of night orienteering, and then I unleashed what was left in me. I only had one slip-up at control 10, but the rest was ok. Because I had an early start, I had to make my own tracks, including bush and undergrowth. There was taller vegetation than me when I was climbing from 8 to 9, I was swimming in the green. But I felt very good fizically, possibly because at home I got used to train at night, because during daylight it's unbearably hot.
Map sprint: http://indafoto.hu/daniori/image/8696875-7a986c6f/details/xl/user
Map night: http://indafoto.hu/daniori/image/8696897-7bc5742a/details/xl/user
Results for night sprint (I was running in M18-20) : http://kopaonikopen2010.org/sr/bilteni/doc_download/22-results-night-sprint.html

4th day had the longest track.
It was held on last year's EYOC long distance terrain. It had some interesting longer legs, and also some technical shorter ones. But there was a lot to climb, and I think I was a bit tired from the night sprint.
I finished 2nd after Kristaps with 1 minute, that meant that I was still leading overall with 1 and a half minutes. I didn't had the best routechoice for control 2, I got confused in the green at control 12, and I mistaken in the SAME place as last year at EYOC at control 16. Last year I went left instead of right, this year I went right instead of left and ended up lower than I wanted. But this terrain had considerably better runnability than 1st day's terrain.
Map: http://indafoto.hu/daniori/image/8696887-8a687a5b/details/xl/user

5th day - middle distance on the same terrain as the day before.
My overall lead was not too much, so me and Kristaps were head to head on this last one. Before start I tried to be relaxed, to empty my head of everything unnecesary. On course I tried to find as many distinct features as possible. Still I had a stupid mistake after control 4, when I suddenly realized I was at control 6. After that zig-zag I went a a valley to the right, than I was supposed to, but luckily I found myself with that rock fast, and I was back on track. At control 9 I climbed a bit more up than it was necessary. Until control 12 I was going with brakes turned on. After that I gave what's left in me. In the finish I was anxious to know Kristaps result, who started earlier than me, but he had lost a lot of time at control 7, exactly where I mistaken too, but I did not loose so much time there. It was good that it was technical, I tryed reading the map more accurately, but I stil had those mistakes. I won this middle distance with 8 minutes lead, so I was on 1st, Kristaps Berzins from Latvia 2nd, and Filip Stevanovic 3rd.
Map: http://indafoto.hu/daniori/image/8696893-6421ee70/details/xl/user
Results from all stages here: http://kopaonikopen2010.org/sr/bilteni/doc_download/24-overall-results.html


It was a nice competition, very well organized and a pretty nice number of competitors. But most of all, I came here for this terrain. It's very close to scandinavian difficulty, and it's very close to my home. It's also a very good place to have training camps, it's high in the mountains, and there's many good maps in the area. I'll gladly be coming back here whenewer I can.

I didn't leave yet. I'm staying here 5 more days for training camp. After that I go home and learn to drive, so if you're walking on the streets of Arad, be careful when you see a grey Opel Astra combi !