2024-04-23 07:56:29
In all groups, 128 teams and 64 individual runners and bicycle orienteers took part in the “Rogaining of the Southern Forts of Liepāja”, which was the second stage of the Baltic’s largest rogaining competition series “City Legends”, thus the total number of participants reached four hundred. The competition center was located in Jurmala Park near the monument to the fallen sailors and fishermen. If last year the competition was held in the northern part of the city, then this year the distances were planned more in the southern part of Liepāja, focusing more attention on the surroundings of the Southern Fort, which is a former military fortress that has not been used for military purposes.
Therefore, this time the competition area included the part of Liepāja, starting from the Trade Canal, including Vecliepāja, Ezerkrasti and Diyniuritemu micro-districts, and extended to the south even beyond the city border as far as Grīnvalti, Cenkone and Pērkone, as well as touching the banks of the Liepāja lake and the lake dam system. During the competition, the weather was clear and sunny, which did not cause any problems for the participants, but at the time of the awards, the snow whirlwinds provided a special show.
In the longest “Garmin” 6h distance, where there was the largest representation – 54 teams, the most intense battle for victory took place, as the best two teams were separated by a mere one point. In six hours, almost all 200 points were collected by the winners of the first stage, “Riga Adventure Team”, which had 197 points and whose team started with Jānis Ķemers and last season’s overall winner Albert Jasāns, who replaced Jānis’ usual partner Valdi Chunka. Making maximum use of the allowed time limit, only the winners conceded a point and spent ten minutes more in the distance “Brunavies” Guntars and Rihards Žilinski, who improved their result by several positions, as they ranked 7th in Imanta on the first day of the month.
This time, “Citādie” was not behind the top three, as Gatis Chirka together with Ugis Inka showed the third result in this stage with the accumulated 188 points, three points ahead of the best mixed or Mix team “Bebri nesnauž” with Sandi Pētersona and Zani Gruberti. A round sum of 180 points and the status of the best ladies’ team for the second stage in a row for Madara Apsalone and Aleksandra Fyodorova (Ampēriņš),
In the four-hour “Kokmuiža” distance, despite the slightly overused time and the deduction of three points, the best result with 157 points was shown by “Klyudu kaskade”, which missed the first stage, in which Sandis Zukulis and Elina Petrovska started, the next best team “Don’t Pig in the Forest” (Walter Weiss and Artur Kancs) beating by eight points. The winners of the first stage Eduards Pākis and Sniedze Brakovska from “Đaži city” finished the top three with 142 points, but once again the best MIX team. In the absence of Godiņa and Kalniņa, last season’s 2h leader team “Milk is in the fridge” with Ilzi and Ines Vilcinias won the women’s competition with 124 points.
The victory of “Isostar” in the 2-hour distance went to the country of the southern neighbor, because Vladas Kutiavinas and Mantas Pocevičius, who were only fourth in Riga three weeks ago, collected the most convincing harvest – 83 points. The second stage in a row was won by Tomas Reinis Tees and Tomas Neus-Lutz from “Mirage”. If three weeks ago they were separated from the winners by a mere point, this time Thomas was 18 points short of the first place. However, “Mirāža” was ahead of the closest followers by a point. In this very similar duel for the third place, the winners of the first stage, Kristaps Gādmanis and Jānis Dūka (Gold miners), with the smallest advantage, overtook LV Bārdas (Uldis Pormeistars, Gunārs Ozoliņš), who had earned 65 points, but arrived at the finish line 40 seconds after the end of the time limit and separated from the point.
Lāsma Ozola, who was successful in the triathlon, collected 57 points with Gati Osvaldas (Logo), and this gave them the victory for the mixed teams, while Zane Krūmiņa and Paula Ozoliņa (Are we done yet?) with 39 points were enough for the first place in the women’s competition.
“Dzintarlapsas” (Ilze Krämer, Richard Krämer, Ieva Simsone) won the family competition in the 6h, the sporty Borovikov family from Madonia (Beciņas) achieved the best result in the 4h, while Reinis and Marta Rozīši won the first place in the 2h.
Mārtiņš Linde, the winner of the 19th place of the European Championship, won the three-hour cycling race with 182 points and a big margin, who missed the first stage because he was in a training camp, preparing for the European Championship, which will start in Poland at the end of May. Meanwhile, the other strong MTB orienteer and the winner of the first stage Andris Sarksnia did not participate in Liepāja, because on Sunday he started in Ķegum in the opening stage of the Vivus MTB season. In a very similar fight for second place, Edgars Spruuds beat Raiti Muižniekus by one point. For women, again the first two were the Lithuanians riding together, but this time the best of ours was Dina Zobena with the third place.
On the other hand, in the individual two-hour race, Jānis Užulis collected the most points (65), but in the women’s competition, the usual leader and “unbeatable” Anita Užulis, who collected the most points, but wasted seven and a half minutes, reducing the number of points by eight, was overtaken by Anete Dārta Rožkalne. celebrating the first individual victory.
Each participant received a specially designed medal at the finish line, and also participated in a lottery with valuable prizes from the sponsors of the competition – Intervals.lv, Isostar, Garmin, Magnesia and Kokmuiža.
The goal of the Rogaining competition is to collect as many points as possible within a given control time. Checkpoints have different values and the task of each participant is to plan the route to be followed in order to be able to visit as many and more valuable checkpoints as possible.
The next round of the competition will take place on May 18 in Baloži.
2024-04-23 07:56:29