Event Report by Sally & Clive Wilkinson
For a while now in February we have coordinated a holiday on the Iberian Peninsula with the half term holidays and some orienteering thrown in. Quite often it has been the Portugal O Meeting (POM) in which we have competed. POM, however, is always on the weekend at the start of Lent straight after Carnival. This year that was after half term so we looked on the World of O website for other events and found ABOM.
ABOM had first been held in 2023 and had been a huge success. It consisted of two races over a weekend with a long distance on the Saturday and a Middle Distance on the Sunday. These were preceded by a prologue on the Friday. The area of Agular de Beira has very distinctive terrain which covers a large area so the local club is able to hold regular events without running on the same map each time.
In the weeks prior to the event it had been announced that the European Orienteering Championships in 2028 would be held on this area. This showed the quality of the terrain we would be running on. There were hundreds of young elite runners from all over Europe on the entry list. Whether they were aware that this area was going to be announced or just lucky is not known! They definitely proved how amazingly fast you could orienteer on this terrain.
Although very wet, the prologue on the Friday, provided an excellent opportunity to both experience terrain very similar to the competition area and also understand how it was mapped. We found the latter really clear, particularly considering how the landscape was littered with potential features. The undulating terrain meant that firstly the contours were a reliable guide. These, coupled with the large areas of exposed flat rock, significant craggy outcrops and impenetrable dark green scrub meant that navigating was easier than we had anticipated on this technical area.
The long distance, the next day, was on similar terrain with the longer legs on the course needing careful analysis of the best routes across the map to avoid the dark green areas which were definitely not passable.
Middle Event – Sally’s W60 course
Going into the second event in fourth place put me really out of my comfort zone. Although I tried to forget about it, I think it provoked my only error on this short course (it was 2.2km straight line) straight off the start on the easy first leg. I had decided to take what was meant to be a very safe route to control 1 going down the track, along the road and attacking the point from the open area at the path junction. However, adrenalin must have kicked in as I ran past the open, up a slight incline and then turned down the re-entrant on a bearing that I thought would take me to control 1! Luckily, I spotted runners going to a control and on investigating found it was not the one I had hoped. I had the presence of mind to look down the control descriptions and quickly realised it was my second control so from here it was a run to control 1 and back again!
I concentrated much better from control 2 to 3, using a rough bearing out to the north- south track then heading south round the edge of the green followed by heading west to the next path and attacking off its north end. The next challenge came when approaching the green near control 5. I tried to avoid losing height by going over the small hill to the south of the pink line. On reaching the gap in the north-south wall I then had to go north beside it to find a gap in the green. On the map it looked like there were easier pathways through to the control, however in practice it was a bit of a fight through low visibility vegetation. I reached the re-entrant and was standing a metre to the east of the control – if an elite runner hadn’t appeared and spiked it with much swearing I might have taken longer to spot it!
Having taken 30 minutes on the first five controls, the last four were much more straight forward, taking 11 minutes in total. On leg 7 – 8 I managed to keep on a bearing close to the pink line and entered the control circle from in between the exposed rock areas on the north-west edge. The vegetation was really well mapped so I could clearly see a way through the scrub and trees to the boulders.
I was really pleased to finish in fourth place again and very surprised when the two runs together meant I was third overall. My first podium position ever and my first award outside East Anglia. The ladies in first and second place were both from Switzerland so for someone from the flatlands to take third place in W60 felt amazing!
It was an extremely well run event and was organised by the Estarreja Orienteering Club. We would recommend it to anyone who wants an orienteering adventure during the cold winter months. The next one will be in 2027.