Project Introducing Orienteering in Albania

Transcription

1 Project Introducing Orienteering in Albania Project Description Proposal for a project to Ministry of Education and Science Ministry of Culture, Tourism, Youth and Sports Ministry of Defence Project Applicant Inge Bosina Rruga Milan Shuflaj Lagjia Mark Lula Rajoni nr Shkoder Albania Phone orienteering-al@outlook.com Shkoder, 12 th November 2013 Page 1/19

2 1. Introduction Orienteering is a sport performed in many countries around the world, which has many benefits for both the individual and society. Orienteering can be performed by all age groups and also by less active people. The mind and body are trained while running, walking, biking or skiing through different terrains with the help of a map. This increases the health of the participants and, therefore, these sporting activities also benefit society. Compared to other sports, orienteering does not need a lot of equipment and infrastructure, since the races can take place in public spaces. Thus, the environmental impact and financial effort is rather low. Due to the fact that orienteering events, especially international multi-day events, often take place in remote areas, the participants spend money in economically weaker areas. Until now, Orienteering (as a sport) is unknown in Albania. As in Albania the population is very young, this sport would enrich the possibilities of sporting activities for young people and improve their health and wellbeing. The different types of terrain, cities, flat and open areas and mountain regions, offer a lot of challenges and possibilities for orienteering. People who are active in orienteering often like to travel to perform races in different, terrains in various countries. Consequently when multi-day orienteering events take place in Albania, runners from around the world are to be expected to participate. On the one hand they spend money in the country, but they can also act as multiplier to enhance the Albanian tourism back in their home country. As a result, this project aims at introducing Orienteering in Albania. We want to encourage people from Albania to perform sporting activities and to organize races to invite foreign runners to the country. Page 2/19

3 2. About Orienteering Sport In the beginning, orienteering was used in the military to teach soldiers to navigate the terrain. Now it has become a sport which is practised in many countries and by people of all ages. The original sport is called Foot-Orienteering ( Foot-O ) and means that the participants walk or run. Participants are given a special map at the start, on which the start, the finish and control points are marked. The goal of the race is to find these checkpoints with the help of the map and a compass. The winner is the competitor with the fastest time, who marked all controls correctly. found the correct control. To prove the passage at the control points they are equipped with either punches to mark a control card or an electronic device. There are also control flags to make these points visible, as well as a number for the runner to make sure he has really There are various forms of Foot-Orienteering from short to extremely long distance. A special form that has been introduced in recent years is Sprint Orienteering. Sprint Orienteering is practised in urban areas to make orienteering visible, in order to attract spectators to watch the event. These are high speed short distance races. The winning time of these races should be less than 15 minutes. Thus, quite different abilities are required compared to running in a forest or mountain terrain. Page 3/19

4 At each event there are different courses for different ages in bigger events one class for every 5 year increment of age, and in the junior classes for every 2 year increment. There are also open classes for beginners or not so experienced runners. Due to the different courses available for various ages and level of skill, the whole family can participate. Thus, Orienteering is an ideal sport for the whole family. There are different types depending on the kind of activity. Apart from Foot Orienteering there is Ski-O (Ski-Orienteering) MBT-O (Mountain bike Orienteering), and a special form Trail-O. This was considered to make Orienteering possible for handicapped people, but now it is for everybody and even Elite runners of Foot-O use it for training purposes. Instead of going to each control the participants have to look at the controls from a fixed point and decide which of the controls is on the place marked on the map. At first the project will focus on Foot-Orienteering, with the possibility to use the structures later to form other types of Orienteering. Page 4/19

5 3. Project Team Project Leader: Kristian Gashi, Orienteering Club Prishtina, Kosovo Project organiser in Albania: Inge Bosina, Shkodra Representative of Orienteering in Albania: Arlind Subashi International Support: Zoran Milovanovic, President of SEEOWG, Belgrade IOF International Orienteering Federation Kristian Gashi is developing Orienteering in Kosovo. Inge Bosina is a high school teacher from Vienna, Austria, living in Shkodra since one year. She is a member of Naturfreunde Wien, one of the largest Orienteering clubs in Austria. She has many years of experience in Orienteering, as well as in organising events and training pupils in a school group with an instructor licence. Arlind is a student in Tirana keen on promoting Orienteering in Albania. This year he was at O-Ringen Academy on invitation of Peo Bengtsson from Sweden. Page 5/19

6 4. The Purpose of this Project As until now Orienteering as a sport is completely unknown in Albania, this project has started to introduce Orienteering in Albania in many ways with the goal of increasing the knowledge about this sport, creating the first structures and involving as many institutions as possible to make the project sustainable. The project aims to involve everybody, regardless of age, religion, gender, nationality or social strata. Orienteering should become a popular sport all over Albania. A. Orienteering- sport for schools As described above, Orienteering is a sport that trains body and mind. Therefore, it is an ideal sport for schools. It can be started in classrooms with orientation exercises and training of map reading. Depending on the age of the pupils, there are many possibilities for activities. The next step could be the school yard, small parks or terrains around the school. At the beginning even simple sketches of these terrains could be used. A good exercise can be to invite pupils to draw little maps of the surrounding terrains on their own. By that they can gradually familiarise themselves with the special signs of the original orienteering maps, thus, improving their knowledge of map reading. They will then be more motivated to organise races with their own maps. With the help of a special program, OCAD, which also has a small free version available, older pupils or interested persons could create their own maps. From a more professional point of view, this project wants to create structures, such as clubs and a national federation to assist schools in integrating Orienteering in their school activities, organising competitions on a local and regional level between schools and training for talented and interested pupils to a higher level. Page 6/19

7 One role model could be the Wiener Schulcup, held in Vienna, Austria with 6 competitions throughout the year, the last being the school championships. This event has grown steadily and this year up to 500 pupils participated. See Another role model on a much larger scale is the scool project in Switzerland. See (available in German, Italian and French). This project was started about ten years ago to bring orienteering to schools. The main activities offered are scool Tour de Suisse, where orienteering days or half days are organised in different parts of the country, to get in contact with orienteering scool@school, where orienteering is taught in course modules together with subjects like sport, geography, physics, drawing,... scool-camps, where every year the focus is on different regions, to permit as many young Swiss to get in contact with orienteering scool-cups as events to compete It s scool provides materials for teaching orienteering combined with different subjects. With this project thousands of Swiss pupils got in contact with orienteering and nowadays Switzerland is one of the top nations in elite sport. A further goal could be to integrate Orienteering in the curriculum of sport, but this would need another project plan worked out together with the Ministry of Education and Sport. B. Orienteering sport for everybody Orienteering is a sport that needs little equipment. Even if there are special shoes and clothes available, it is possible to do it with any equipment that is good for running. A compass is also not always necessary and can be provided by the clubs or the organisers of the events. Orienteering also has a health aspect. People are motivated to move in nature. Those who don't like to run can always walk and have the goal of finding the controls without looking for them too much. Page 7/19

8 As Orienteering originated from the military and is in the program of the World Championships of the CISM (CONSEIL INTERNATIONAL DU SPORT MILITAIRE) it is another goal of this project to contact the Albanian Military and interest them in this sport. Next year the CISM World Championships will be held in Austria in August and as Albania is already member of CISM it would be an option for them to participate. C. Orienteering and tourism Other than the purpose of introducing Orienteering as a sporting activity, there is another aspect why this sport is helpful for Albania: There is a growing number of Orienteers all over the world who likes to do Orienteering in new countries. One example is the WWOP Tour (World Wide Orienteering promotion), which has been travelling for 50 years with this purpose in mind and came to Shkodra on 6 th November with about 60 participants. Not only they spend money with this travel, but they also invest the profit of these travels, e.g. for drawing maps or the invitation to O-Ringen- Academy (see Milestones ) As this sport is dependent on the map and the terrain, one goal of experienced Orienteers is to improve map reading by going to different countries and different terrains. Albania offers a lot of different landscapes, very detailed in many parts and ideal for Orienteering. The organisation of Orienteering events can attract a lot of people and thus bring them to Albania. Most of the regions have a sufficiently warm climate throughout the year for Orienteering. Most of the international events take place in summer, so Albania could choose other seasons in the time table so as not to be in competition with the existing events. As there are already competitions in the surrounding countries like Montenegro or Macedonia, collaboration would be helpful, especially at the beginning. If there is a well organised and attractive multi-day event, it is possible to get up to 1000 participants. The biggest Orienteering event O-Ringen in Sweden attracts up to participants every year for 50 years. Page 8/19

9 This June there was the Montenegro Adriatic Open held in Montenegro, in and around Cetinje and there where more than 250 participants of 20 different countries. Next year it will take place from 29 th to 31 st of May and I am sure there will be still more people participating. Together with the non-running family members, such an event may attract a large number of people, who would stay in the area for several days, spending their money on accommodation and meals. Once a reputation has been established, runners will return and encourage others to join. Often the ideal terrain is in rather remote areas, so this can bring guests to regions in Albania where other tourists wouldn't go. This is also different from those tourists touring through Albania, going from one place to the next, staying only one night in a place. Many of the Orienteers come from countries like Scandinavia and Switzerland, and would thus be looking for accommodation of a certain standard. Clearly, there are a lot of good reasons to introduce Orienteering in Albania. Page 9/19

10 5. Objectives This project aims to provide the basic structures and equipment and to start with orienteering activities. Orienteering shall be organised in clubs and a national federation. These structures shall provide regular training and events for everybody interested in joining. In addition, it is necessary to offer special training so that one can achieve the top sporting level. Later, regional and national teams shall be chosen to participate in international events. Contrary to other sports with time measuring, participating in competitions on an elite level without special experience does not only run the risk of being slower, but it may be impossible to finish the race, not finding the controls. It will thus be necessary to involve experienced trainers in the project to make it possible that Albanian top athletes participate in international events such as EYOC (European Youth Orienteering Championships), JEC (Junior European Cup), JWOC (Junior World Orienteering Championships), WOC (World Orienteering Championships) or CISM for the military. The project plan has already the approval of the IOF, they will support us, most of all with knowledge and courses, for instance for organising events. For people interested in drawing maps, the project will look into possibilities in order to participate in respective courses. There is already contact to the OCAD Company, either to attend courses in Switzerland or to organise a course in Albania, if we can get the funds to finance it. As this project marks the very beginning of Orienteering activities in Albania, a lot of equipment is required. Therefore, sponsors should be found for financial support of the activities. All these activities will help finding different areas where good maps are made that will allow events on an international level. A long term objective will be the organisation of an international multi-day event, which would also boost tourism. Page 10/19

11 6. Approach A. Create structures: This project wants to enlarge the range of sporting activities in the field of education as well as for people of all ages. Just like in any other sports, orienteering needs structures on a local, national and international level. For this purpose, clubs shall be founded in different parts of Albania at the very beginning of the project. Another possibility is to find sport clubs which want to create an orienteering section to enlarge their program. People interested in Orienteering will join these clubs, which will ensure professional training, especially for those who want to participate in international events on an elite level. A national federation should then be created to coordinate the activities and work together with international organisations. This Federation will be presented on a website, which will provide information on the basics of orienteering, the clubs and all the activities on a local and international level. Using social media, such as Facebook, we want to help facilitate and easy access to information for interested people. On an international level, we are working together with the SEEOWG (South East European Orienteering Working Group) which will create the SEEOA in November. The Albanian national federation will apply to be member of this South East European Association as well as of IOF. Besides these structures, technical equipment will be needed to develop this sport, as well as maps for training and for events. Page 11/19

12 B. Activities The project aims to motivate as many Albanians as possible to practise this sport. This will be started with contacting schools and inviting them to try this sport on existing sprint maps. In Shkodra there is a map of the city centre and one of the Zmejani Sport centre. In Tirana there is the updated map of Tirana Park. Model events will show how Orienteering works to promote and develop the knowledge of Orienteering as a sport in Albania. The first of that kind was held in Shkodra on 6th of November, where people could look at Scandinavian Orienteers traveling through South Eastern Europe for the purpose of running in different countries. It can be considered as the first success that a group of pupils from the neighbouring school participated in this race and also some orienteers from Tirana and Kosovo. Other events will be held in Tirana later in November. For the interested pupils training possibilities will be established. Interested teachers shall get support to introduce orienteering in their school sport program. For this we will need the assistance from the Albanian school authorities. All activities need publicity and the possibility to get information about what is going on. So we plan to create a homepage of the national federation and the local clubs. This homepage should introduce orienteering, inform about the latest news, contain a calendar of the upcoming events and results of the past events as well as links to the clubs and international organisations. Also social media like Facebook shall be used. To support this project as many public authorities as possible should be contacted and involved in this project, as well as the IOF (International Orienteering Federation) and other organisations asked for support. Page 12/19

13 7. Milestones A. First steps: July 2013: As the start of the project we can consider the invitation to O-Ringen- Academy of Peo Bengtsson from WWOP for Arlind Subashi, Inge Bosina and Adnan Namani from Kosovo. This unique occasion permitted us to get in contact with Orienteers from all over the world, to learn a lot about training, event organising, map drawing and to participate in the world s biggest orienteering event. 12th October 2013: park race in Tirana Park: We organised the first event in Tirana Park. This was a first test of organisation. Due to administrative problems, time for information was very short. But as many people were interested in this sport, without having the courage to participate at once, we plan to do another event in the end of November. 6th November 2013: Shkodra: On their travel organised by WWOP a group of Swedish orienteers came to Shkodra to perform orienteering in Albania. Together with them we organised a park race in which everybody who was interested could compete with experienced orienteers, among them Peo Bengtsson the senior world champion of this year. A group of pupils from the Gjimnazi 28 Nentori participated in this race with big enthusiasm and we will propose more orienteering activities to them. We also plan to do other events in Shkodra soon. B. The next steps: November 2013: Present the project plan to the National Olympic committee. Contact the ministries concerned with this project and inform them about the project plan. 17 th to 19 th November 2013: Participation at the Foundation Congress of SOUTH EAST EUROPEAN ORIENTEERING ASSOCIATION- SEEOA as observer and at the developing seminar Page 13/19

14 Until December 2013: Foundation of at least one orienteering club in Tirana and one in Shkodra and of the Albanian National Orienteering Federation. Applying for membership in SEEOA and IOF look for sponsors to be able to get the basic equipment for training and events October/November: contact schools in Shkodra and Tirana February 2014: Participation at the Orienteering: Running for Common Future project in Turkey, organised by KADAK SPOR CLUP from Turkey with one team of Albania 2014: Participation with a national Team at international events as EYOC (European Youth Championships) in Strumica, Macedonia, JWOC (Junior World Championships) in Bulgaria, CISM (Military World championships) and others (latest 2015): Organisation of an international multi days event 2015: Participation at the ISF School World Championships. Page 14/19

15 8. Some Estimates of Costs for Implementation and Technical Equipment (all prices in Euro) A. Equipment Of course a project like this requires financial support. In Orienteering most of the organisation is done by volunteers. But especially in the beginning of such a project, certain equipment is needed for training and also for organising events. For that purpose sponsors are needed to help. The following list shall help to estimate the costs: Hardware: Computer 500 Printer 150 Time-printer (including everything for time keeping) 1000 Software OCAD (program for mapmaking, can also be used for topographical maps, city plans and other) reductions for more licences (2 licences 10%, 3 licences 15%, 4 licences 20%, 5 and more licences 25% 500 for 1 licence Event Software 300 Trainings- and competition material Compasses Control flags Punches /pp. 6 /pp. 4 /pp. Stopwatch 50 SI-Stations SI-Chips (old version) 130 /pp 50 /pp Page 15/19

16 Package Offer from SportIdent School-kit: about 2000 This kit contains a complete set for training purposes with 10 electronic control stations, one start, one finish station and also a printout set. So this is the smallest unit which can provide training and small competitions with 10 control points and the possibility of taking the time and print them out. B. Map drawing: The basis of Orienteering is the special maps. So it will be necessary to look for terrains and draw maps to make training possible. Another important factor is to have base maps to help the drawing of orienteering maps. The first step is to have maps for training in or near every town where there are training groups. Later we will look for terrains to create maps for bigger events. It is difficult to estimate costs for map drawing. Costs depend on many factors as: will there be map makers in Albania trained or will mapmakers from other countries be needed how complex is the area (city, wood, mountain) can we get good base maps The prices for mapmakers can be estimated with 400 per km² for the work and costs for accommodation and food. Page 16/19

17 C. Courses for coaches and developing seminaries If this project shall be sustainable it will be necessary to train people for different purposes. First of all there must be trainers on different levels. The first level is instructors who can be teachers that get an introduction in orienteering. Provided with material they can organise training in schools during the sport lessons or also on project days as outdoor activities. The next level is trainers with a wider formation also in basics of sport. Every club should have at least one of them to make training plans and also help the instructors in their training. At the highest level a national trainer is needed for the youth, junior and national teams. This training can be reached by sending people on courses to other countries, by inviting trainers to Albania and in a next step by integrating orienteering in the curriculum of sport in Albania. Next it will be useful to teach Albanians to draw maps. This may be as supplementary activity or even as a profession. To give an example of costs, there is an offer from OCAD, the company of the most used map drawing program: E.g. Course proposed by OCAD to introduce in using the program for map drawing. A course for up to 12 people held in Albania would cost about 5000 (including the costs for the trainer, travel and accommodation.) The participation of some people at a course held in Switzerland would also be an option, saving money. Last but not least it is necessary that there are people attending developing seminaries to learn how to introduce orienteering, how to organise a club and how to organise events. There is the possibility to get support from the IOF and we will also cooperate with the neighbour countries to develop orienteering together. Page 17/19

18 D. Example for costs for Organizing a Competition COSTS FOR ORGANIZING THE COMPETITION in October & November WWOP Tour (2013) Nr. Shpenzimet WWOP Tour (2013) Kosovë Data Shuma Valuta 1 T-shirts Euro 2 Printing t-shirts, maps ,8 Euro 3 Printing maps, etc ,25 Euro 4 Transport with Bus to Prizren Euro 5 Lunch in Prizren Euro 6 Lunch in Prishtina Euro 7 Karburant for Prizren Euro 8 Dinner in Prizren Euro 9 Extreme Pizza Euro 10 Kaffe in Germia Park With Military Euro 11 Extreme Pizza ,5 Euro 12 Taxi & Parking Octoba- Nov 10 Euro 13 Kaffe in Prishtine ,1 Euro 13 Dinner G., Y., K Euro 15 Y Euro 16 B Euro 17 S Euro 18 D Euro 19 Other costs Octoba- Nov 60 Euro Totali: 823,65 Euro The costs where covered by selling T-shirts, savings from a former project with the Norvegian embassy and private funds. Sponsors supplied the event with water and drinks. Information: Kristian Gashi Page 18/19

19 9. Resume Until now preparing this project plan with all the contacts and research work was a full time job for at least 8 weeks. This project is supposed to end with having enough interested people to establish at least two clubs (Tirana and Shkodra) and create the National Federation, and with the acquisition of the basic equipment for training and small events. For further development we will need support, both financially and personal to move on. 10. CONTACT INFORMATION of the project: orienteering-al@outlook.com Project Leader: Kristian Gashi gashi.kristian@gmail.com Tel: Project Organizer in Albania: Inge Bosina inge_office@satlink.al Tel: International Support: Zoran Milovanovic seeowg@gmail.com IOF-International Orienteering Federation PHOTOS Special thanks I want to give to Rainer Burmann from Vienna who gave me the permission to use his photos to illustrate this project plan. They are all marked with FOTOBurmann.at on the photos. They may be used only with his permission. More photos on orienteering you can get on his website All other photos are private from Inge Bosina and can be used freely. Page 19/19