Romania is the rocket of WOD 2019

With 17 779 participants at 59 locations, Romania increased their participation with more than 1400% compared to last year. With an average of 291 participants per WOD event, and with 1437 at the biggest event, Romania is showing how effective World Orienteering Day is to promote orienteering into the target group, youngsters between 10-16 years old. 92% of participants in Romania were of this age group, compared to 72% worldwide.

One of the main reasons behind the success is Botos Ioan Sorin, a very committed orienteering leader from the city of Târgu Mureș in Transylvania in central Romania.

Botos Ioan Sorin says: “We have 20 schools in my town for classes between 5-14 years and there are a lot of kids. I followed the “KISS” principle, Keep It Short and Simple, for all school this time. My idea is to take orienteering step-by-step and to make it understandable for all kids. I used the gymnasium and implemented the orienteering activity indoors. For 5 hours in the morning I was at the school to carry out the WOD event, and during the afternoon I got help from the teacher in Physical Education. I organised the activity with 9 controls, maybe 18 and sometimes 27 for 3 relays at the same time, and the students enjoyed it very much”.

“I’m completely convinced that this model can help us next year to reach at least 25 000 participants from my club and with 20 clubs from Romania doing the same, we will have 500 000 participants from Romania”, concludes Botos Ioan Sorin enthusiastically.

The final result of World Orienteering Day 2019 is:

398 712 participants

85 countries

2216 locations