Augusta Cup and Bulgaria Cup

Augusta Cup

On 4 and 5 June 2025, the Hisarya area hosted the orienteering competition for the Augusta Cup. The event attracted competitors from various clubs from several countries and served as excellent preparation for the upcoming Bulgarian Cup. The athletes faced technical and interesting courses through terrain typical of the region, as well as through the old part of the town. As well as good navigation, the courses also tested the competitors' stamina in the hot June days. The Augusta Cup gave orienteers the chance to get to know the features of the area and get into the right frame of mind for the big event ahead.

Our team competed with 9 athletes, who achieved many podium places. In the overall standings, 🥇 first in women under 16 was Mariya Dikova, who won both races. In men under 16, Rosen Hristov was third after the first day and fastest in the second race, and eventually finished 🥈second overall. Apostol Atanasov took 🥈second place in the men's elite class M21E, also with the 3rd- and 1st-fastest times in the respective stages. In women under 18, SKO Trapezitsa-1954 filled the podium – 🥇first place went to Vihra Ruseva, who won both stages, 🥈second place went to her older sister, Marta Ruseva, who was just seconds behind Vihra, and 🥉third place went to Yoana Atanasova.

🏆Thanks to our consistent performances, we also won the cup in the overall team standings.

Bulgarian Cup

Straight after the Augusta Cup, from 6 to 8 June 2025, the area around the village of Matenitsa and the town of Hisarya hosted the 49th edition of the Bulgarian Cup. The event brought together more than 800 orienteers from 14 countries, including Turkey, Belgium, Macedonia, Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, France, Switzerland and New Zealand. It is the largest and one of the most important events in the Bulgarian Orienteering Federation's calendar. As is traditional, the competition featured two individual forest races and a chasing start, which added extra drama and excitement for the competitors. The organisers had prepared extremely challenging courses, making full use of the varied and technical terrain, testing the abilities of experienced athletes and younger orienteers alike.

 🥇W16 Vihra Ruseva convincingly won both individual races and secured a comfortable lead for the chasing start. After a number of mistakes, her rivals managed to cut the gap to a minimum, but Vihra pulled herself together in the final part of the race and won the title in this class. In the same class, Mariya Dikova finished 7th after posting the 8th-best time on all three days, and Sofiya Petrova finished 18th.

🥈W18 Marta Ruseva posted the 3rd-best time on the first day, but then was nearly 5 minutes faster than everyone else on the second day of competition. This gave her a start in 2nd place, 5 min 40 sec behind. In the chasing start Marta could not repeat her run from the previous day, but did everything needed to hold on to second place overall. In the same class, Yoana Atanasova started the third day in 6th place, but after a huge mistake she finished 7th at the end of the competition.

🥉M14 Mihail Kovachev started the final day in 2nd place, but after a mistake in the chasing start he finished 3rd overall. Misho was just 10 seconds away from winning the 2nd day. Our other athlete in this class, Borislav Karaboev, finished 12th after also making big mistakes on the final day.

🥉M16 Rosen Hristov started the chasing start in 5th place and, after his strongest run on the final day, managed to climb onto the podium. In the same class, Georgi Mitsov started the final day in 9th place, but for the second year running he went to the wrong penultimate control and was disqualified. Our other athletes in this class also struggled with the extremely demanding courses and terrain and did not make the results.

In one of the most hotly contested classes, M12, our team was on course to place 3 athletes in the top 10. Martin Yordanov was 5th after the first day, but made a mistake in the second race. This meant he started the chasing start in 7th place, but in the end Marti climbed to 6th place overall. Nikolay Danchev and Yavor Kolev got better with each passing day. They started in 11th and 12th place and kept climbing the standings on the final day, but a problem with Niki's chip took him out of the results, so in the end Yavor rose to 9th place. Emil Dimitrov finished 16th after the second day also proved extremely challenging for him.

In W12B Meriem Shmid made her debut with a map and was 9th after 2 days. On the 3rd day she picked up a map for another class, but she didn't give up – she went back to the start and ran the correct course. This delay left her in 12th place overall.

In W20 Yana Petrova was the fastest in the 2nd stage, but she had lost too much time on the first day, which meant she started from 5th place, a position she held throughout the chasing start. In M20, Anton Hristov posted the 3rd-fastest time in the final stage and fourth in the first. However, Toni did not complete the 2nd day after missing a control.

In M21E Apostol Atanasov finished 4th, just 20 seconds off the podium, after an exceptionally strong 3rd day in which he started from 5th place and made up nearly 7 minutes. The team's coach posted the 2nd-fastest time of the day, but mistakes on the first two days kept him off the podium.

In the second tier of women's orienteering, W21A, Elitsa Atanasova posted the 3rd-best time on the second day and started the chasing start in third place. On the course, she made up her deficit of nearly 9 minutes and was in contact with all the athletes in the top 4. After a close battle on the course, Elitsa had the second-fastest time of the day, but this was only enough to hold on to 3rd place overall.

In the third tier of men's orienteering, M21B, Svetoslav Blagoev finished 8th. Svetlyo started the chase in 6th place but couldn't hold on to it in a head-to-head battle to the very end. 

In the veterans' classes, Mariyana Atanasova finished 3rd in W45: after posting the 3rd-fastest time on day 2, she started the chase in 3rd place and held it to the end. Aleksandar Atanasov also took 3rd place in M55, having won the first day of racing. On the Open Easy course, Radoslav Petkov climbed from 7th to 3rd on the final day and also made it onto the podium. In the same class, Kaloyana Genovska finished 10th.