Sprint Cup, National Knockout Championships, "With a Map Around Tarnovgrad" Cup and "Three Hills" Cup

Races with a tradition

SKO Trapezitsa-1954 has organised the international Three Hills Cup since 2012. The "With a Map Around Tarnovgrad" Cup is the modern successor to the first orienteering race in Bulgaria, held on the city's holiday – 22 March 1954. The club was also the first in the country to organise and stage races in the Knockout discipline, in 2021. For 4 years, the knockout was a fixture in the programme of races organised by SKO Trapezitsa-1954, and in 2024 it also became the first national championship in this discipline. This year our club once again hosted this spectacular sprint format.

Over the three days of racing – from 20 to 22 March – our city welcomed more than 300 of the best athletes in the country, with the largest number of participants lining up for the NC Knockout and the accompanying "With a Map Around Tarnovgrad" race.

This year too, thanks to the tremendous support of all the parents, club members, volunteers and partners, we were able to offer the athletes challenging terrain, interesting courses and an experience to remember for a long time.

Sprint Cup photos

How SKO Trapezitsa-1954 athletes performed

Sprint Cup

Once again this year, the Sprint Cup was the first race on the programme. The map and courses were the work of Georgi Mitsov, and the race itself was held around the "Bacho Kiro" primary school.

NC Knockout

Most athletes were fully focused on the qualification round of the national knockout sprint championship, which also served as a selection race for the national teams for juniors under 20 as well as for men and women.

4 members of our team qualified for the semi-finals of the national championship, with Marta Ruseva posting the second-fastest time of all the women. Elitsa Atanasova, Yana Petrova and Rosen Hristov also made it through to the afternoon races after good runs in qualification. Sofia Petrova missed the semi-finals by just 7 seconds, after going to the 2nd control first early on and making another mistake midway round the course. Georgi Mitsov also had a chance of reaching the semi-finals, but made a series of mistakes in the early part of the course.

With a Map Around Tarnovgrad

This year the format of the "With a Map Around Tarnovgrad" Cup was adapted so that athletes in the MW16 classes and on the open men's and women's courses could get a taste of racing a knockout. The fastest 18 who did not make the NC Knockout finals competed in open finals that followed the knockout format. For all other classes, the race was a traditional sprint.

6 representatives of SKO Trapezitsa-1954 earned a place in the open finals, with Vihra Ruseva posting the 6th-fastest time of all – had she been eligible, she would have made the national championship semi-finals. Our other representatives who reached the open semi-finals were Anton Hristov, Georgi Mitsov, Sofia Petrova, Tsveta Ilieva and Maria Dikova.

The women's open final featured no fewer than 3 athletes from the team – Vihra, Sofia and Tsveta – and in the end Vihra and Sofia took 2nd and 3rd place.

NC Knockout and With a Map Around Tarnovgrad photos

Three Hills Cup

The 22 March holiday was rainy, making the steep slopes around the city even tougher to run on. Despite the difficult conditions, many of the club's athletes handled the demanding courses superbly.

Three Hills Cup photos

Fitness standards

The last Saturday in March was time for the fitness standards tests. Even though the wind reached 35-40 km/h during the test, 5 athletes from the team met the standards and will now compete for places in the national teams, to represent our country at international championships. They are:
W16 - Vihra Ruseva, who was just 2 seconds short of also meeting the W20 standard

W16 - Maria Dikova

W18 - Sofia Petrova

W20 - Marta Ruseva

M21E - Apostol Atanasov

The next physical fitness tests will take place at the end of April, and the selection races for the national teams will be held in May.