Riga Spring Rogaining held at Alfa shopping centre

Original publication date: 27.03.2018

Although the winter has not really retreated yet, the sunny weather a week before Easter gave an additional charge of joy to the large group of participants, which reached almost one and a half thousand. Thus, the fifth Riga Rogaining season could start on a positive note, gathering both athletes and people who simply wanted to exercise in the fresh air, among which there were many families. At t/p "Alfa" in the first half of the day, the participants of the 2h, 4h and 6h rogaining distances, participants of the 7-10km rogaining race started the competition, while the smallest participants had a walk accompanied by cartoon characters. In the eighth Rīga rogaining, the searchers of checkpoints of various values ​​(from 2-6) enjoyed the Ķīšezera, Baltezera and Lake Jugla, as well as Mežciem, Jugla, Bergģi, Teika and other neighboring areas, including the territory of the Open Air Museum, from previously unseen viewpoints. Despite the mid-day thaw, most participants finished with dry feet.

A total of 154 teams competed in the longest and most difficult Garmin 6h distance in all groups. Just like in March 2017, in honor of the winners in the men's competition, it was again "Let us have luck", only this time, instead of Bībers and Ronimois, the long-distance masters Kristaps Broks and Uldis Klepers started in this team, who spent the distance in 5:59:25 and accumulated 177 points. In intense competition, they overtook their fiercest rivals Miķeli Zumbergu and Gunti Šmauksteli from "Breast Inspection" by three points, who finished eight minutes earlier. Another team that collected more than 170 points (173) were the winners in the Mix group Jānis Kalniņš and Madara Apsalone ("Ampēriņš"), who beat the guests from Estonia by 4 points. Meanwhile, in the women's competition, in a very similar battle, the winners "Trusītis SIT" (Tatjana Ļebedeva, Ilze Buša, Sandra Buša-Kleusena) scored 133 points and were 2 points ahead of second-placed Ingu Kāpiņu and Daci Veipu from "Kažokzvēri" for the second year in a row. Petersons were unbeaten in the family competition with 103 points.

Over 130 points were collected by two teams in the Isostar 4h distance - the winners "Kaspara team #1" (139 points) with Kasparu Vīksnu and Kristapu Magoni, as well as Guntars Mankus, who earned 132 points and was successful in trail orientation at the world championship, with teammate Mārtiņu Miķelsonu from "www.lmp.lv". Both female winners Linda Katlapa and Kristīne Veita ("Siguldas Ozons") and the best in the Mix group Jānis Šnaiders with Līvu Medni (Riga adventure team/KoBalts) scored 123 points. The most diligent family team "New Era" (Aivars Belis and Roberts Belis) is also there with 117 points.

In the shortest t/p “Alfa” 2h distance for men, the trio from the interestingly named team “Biksēs pavasaris” – Ivars Rušmanis, Mārtiņš Levenšteins, Ainārs Elksnis – convincingly won with 59 points, as the closest competitors – Krišjānis and Mārtiņš Mežuļi from “Ļošas koki” – were overtaken. by 7 points. In the Tikmēr Mix group, the fight for victory turned out to be very fierce. Representatives of “Bubuči” and 2017 spring rogaining winners Kalvis Brūns and Ilze Brūna collected 56 points, but since they exceeded the time limit by 2 minutes, their final score after deducting two points for each missed minute was 54 points. However, this was enough for orienteer Kalvi and Ilzi to repeat last year's success, as another orienteer and winner of the Latvian championships in long distances Jānis Kūms with his wife Zani from “Isostar reload” was one point behind. The family group won with 47 points and one place higher than last year was father and daughter - Eduards and Lelde Pāķi from Saulkrasti, while in the women's competition Dace Slotiņa and Luīze Jansone from “Kaktuss” won a convincing first place with 43 points.

The second rogaining dedicated to Latvia's centenary - Riga autumn rogaining - will take place on November 10.

The competition is offered by Riga City Council, supported by Isostar, t/p Alfa, Garmin.