As part of the ERASMUS+ Sport project ORIENT – "Young explorers re-discover local communities through orienteering", co-financed by the European Commission and municipality Centar of the city Sarajevo, on November 19, 2022, a pilot orienteering competition for youth was held in Sarajevo with the start on the sign "SARAJEVO MEETING OF CULTURES".
This synergy of sport and culture in the form of competitions was held in the area of the municipality of Stari Grad Sarajevo and municipality Centar starting at 11.00h and gathered over 30 young competitors, most of whom attended the educational workshop "Orientation for youth through education" in October this year.
Orienteering is a sport and also a recreational activity in which participants are required to move in an unfamiliar area in nature or in urban areas with the help of a map and compass. It is a sport that combines both physical and mental activity. The goal is to find and visit the checkpoints marked on a predefined route on the map in a certain order. In other words, orienteering requires navigational skills to move quickly from point to point on different and usually unfamiliar terrains.
The goal of the competition was to promote sport orienteering, but in addition, what is most important is the promotion of teamwork and social inclusion, all through jointly crossed tasks and obstacles that we encounter in this sport, but also in society. Despite the bad weather conditions that accompanied this day with heavy rain and wind, the competitors successfully completed the race in great timing!
On this occasion, with the help of their coaches within the ORIENT workshop, young people had the opportunity to get acquainted with this new activity, and to expand their interest toward orientation in urban and wild environments.
The objectives of the ORIENT project are:
· To promote social inclusion and participation of vulnerable young people and other members of the local community using orientation running (walking).
· To raise awareness among participants in the local community through orienteering about the value of sport as a tool for inclusion to encourage solidarity and participation, as well as cohesion and inclusion policies.
All participants of the competition received medals and certificates on the premises of the “Centar za Zdravo Starenje“, and of the Municipality of Centar after the finish of the competition. We congratulate all participants once again on accepting this challenge, and we thank the Municipality of Centar for their cooperation and recognition of the importance of this project, which is being held at the same time in Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, and Cyprus.
