«Far from guessing what is hidden in the heart of the land of cork oak trees, the Agolada’s Water Dam appears to the eyes of the unprepared visitor as a true oasis. The mirrored water of the lagoon catches our attention and, as for magic, we breathe that peace, that tranquility. In the warm afternoon, a flock of herons tears the sky, while a scared rabbit “goes off” in high speed.

As in a pray, a cork oak tree extends the lean branches to the sky and a mare spoils its three colts, which soon start running happily as children. This is nature in pure state that is offered to us and that, admittedly, we drink in each of its own delicate details.»

It was in this environment that, in the weekend of November 8th and 9th, one more event occurred to score for the Ranking of the National Cup of Pedestrian Orientation for 2008/2009, this time in the Agolada’s Water Dam.

The Pedestrian Orientation is a sport in which the contestants, only provided with map and a compass, go through predefined distances passing by specific points of control properly identified in the map, represented by an electronic station (and / or a small marker). By introducing its identifier (or marking its control card), the participant proves that he has passed in each point. There are contests in different difficulty levels, depending on the participants’ age.

The event was organized by the Club of Orientation and Adventure, under the supervision of the Portuguese Federation of Orientation, and counted with two proofs, one in Saturday (Long Distance) and other one in Sunday (Middle Distance), with a total of 800 athletes registered in the two days.

The Long Distance trial (13,3 Km for the level of Elite Men) was drawn in the North zone of the Agolada’s Water Dam, in a not much technically demanding distance and appealing, especially, to the physical capacity of the athletes, given the characteristics of the land (lightly waved with some vegetation, not much limitative to the progression) which allowed relatively high averages for the first classifieds.

The Middle Distance trial (5,8 Km for the level of Elite Men) was drawn in the South zone of the Agolada’s Water Dam, in a distance technically more demanding and in a land appellative to the practice of the orientation sport, allowing high averages for the first classified in all levels.

The weather conditions, in both days, were excellent for the practice of this sport, with great sun and pleasant temperatures.

Several Clubs of Orientation were present, like COA (Club of Orientation and Adventure), COC (Club of Orientation of the Center), CPOC (Portuguese Club of Orientation and Race), Ori-Estarreja, Orientovar, among others.

In terms of collective punctuations, in a set of 57 Teams, COC was classified in 1st. place, following the CPOC, which was classified in 2nd. place, and Ori-Estarreja, which was classified in 3rd. place.

For more information consult (in Portuguese):
http://www.fpo.pt
http://www.coc.pt/2008/11/12/clube-de-orientacao-do-centro-coc-participou-em-mais-um-evento-do-ranking-nacional-de-orientacao-pedestre/
http://orientovar.blogspot.com/2008/11/trofu-coa-tiago-aires-e-raquel-costa.html
http://eskape.blogs.sapo.pt/2008/11/