Knockout Sprint National Championships and the Valdi Cup
The 2025 Knockout Sprint Orienteering National Championships were held on 29 March in Sofia. The qualification heats took place in the Mladost 2 district, while the semi-finals and finals were held at Business Park Sofia. This was the fifth edition of the knockout sprint and the second as an official national championship in this discipline. Apostol Atanasov qualified for the knockout sprint semi-finals, while Anton Hristov, Marta Ruseva, Yana Ilieva, Yoana Atanasova, Elitsa Atanasova, Tsveta Ilieva and Vihra Ruseva missed out on progressing by just seconds.
The Valdi Cup was held as a side event to the Knockout Sprint National Championships. Nikolay Danchev was first in M12 on the first day but didn't run on the second day and so isn't in the overall standings, while Vihra Ruseva and Marta Ruseva were first overall in W16 and W18.
Open Training Camp and the „Begun Spring Cup“
From 2 to 5 April 2025, an open orienteering training camp was held in Varna, organised by the local club Begun with the support of the Bulgarian Orienteering Federation. Our club was represented by 22 people, 5 of whom were coaches and parents who helped the camp run flawlessly despite the miserable conditions – rain, wind and even hail during some of the sessions. The training took place in very different areas and offered participants a wide range of challenges – from flat, open terrain to steep, rugged forest with poor runnability – and, besides the individual sessions, the organisers also included a relay session on one of the days.
After the 6 forest training sessions, the Begun Spring Cup 2025 orienteering event was held in Varna on 5 and 6 April, organised by SKO Begun. Our team came home with eight medals and finished third in the team standings. Our youngest competitor, Emo, handled the beginners' courses superbly and by the race he was already running with the much older boys in M12. Another athlete who made particularly big progress during the camp was Yavor, who in the final race posted the fourth-fastest time in the biggest class, M12, in a field of over 40 competitors, and was one of our team's 4 runners in the top 10 in that class.