BAJĀRU ROGAINING
Relentless heat, huge horseflies, impassable thickets, special swims in ditches, unique and interesting twists—200 rogainers take part in the new organizers’ first rogaining.
Bajāru rogaining also stood out with two unusual overall rankings. To attract more beginners to orienteering/rogaining, the Riga Neighborhoods Cup and the Ropaži Cup were created.🏆 The fight for the cups took place between teams in the 3h distance. The condition for the Ropaži Cup was that at least 1 team member is declared in Ropaži Municipality, while for the Riga Neighborhoods Cup, during registration it had to be indicated that you would participate and the team name had to include the represented Riga neighborhood. In these overall rankings, the prizes were won by the teams “LEGS MISERABLES MO” and “Zasulauka neighborhood Double-plates”.
3-hour distance participants, as the organizers had planned, made greater use of the eastern part of the map, where there were more cultivated fields, deep ditches, and a wide network of roads and paths. An undisputed victory in the overall standings with 73 points was won by the team “Lat Met”. In the V3 group, as the second best they “left behind” the team “Ādaži City” with 60 points, while 3rd place went to the team “Rs apšu kundziņi”, trailing the second-place team by only 2 points. In addition, both junior teams “Imantas Baronēni” and “Slidenās” definitely deserve praise—they weren’t afraid of the heat and started for the first time!
Interesting twists could also be observed in the family group, where the absolute leaders, team “Zaķeri”, managed to score 52 (!) points; however, a penalty for being late—15 points—made the final result 37 points. Second place was taken by the team “Trīs no Dārziņiem”, and on the 3rd step of the podium stood the team “Haizivis Ēģiptē”, who participated in rogaining competitions for the first time.
In the youth groups, 2 teams demonstrated their skills— in the XJ6 group the team “Rs mušmires” with 44 points and in the MJ6 group “Latvju dēlu noriets” with 85 points scored. Ultra-veteran teams also did not lag behind the young. In the MUV6 group, 1st place was won by the team with 97 points “UZMANĪGI, AP MUMS IR DABA”, 2nd place went to the team “Asie pipari”, with 78 points, and 3rd place was taken by the team “KALNIEŠI” with 40 points. In the women’s ultra-veteran group, “Bebrenes Bajāros” was represented, while in the mixed group—“Lielie Putni” and “KĀPA VR”.
The teams representing the super-veteran groups managed to surpass the 80-point mark and also showed very respectable results, especially in 33-degree heat! Team “Mežmalas” in the MSV6 group scored 73 points; in the women’s group, team “Kā lai šonakt…” with 86 points took 1st place, leaving “KĀ2” in second. In the mixed group, the competition was a bit tougher—1st place team “MONA - X” with 66 points, 2nd place team “Durbes bizoņi” with 55 points, and the honorable 3rd position was taken by team “Āpši”, whose collected points would have been enough for the 2nd step of the podium, but the 6 minutes late and -7 points forced them to drop a bit lower.
The open mixed-gender group did not require such high results to reach the awards podium. 1st place went to the team “DIVI PLUS DIVI” with 87 points; 2nd place to “Divas lakstīgalas” with an identical number of points, however their finish time was 8 seconds later (!); 3rd place with 73 points was taken by the Estonians, the only foreign team—Maksim Ovtsinnikov and Aire Vaher.
In the men’s veterans group, the team “Laid mums tur laimē diet” had already announced itself very strongly beforehand, and they did so again this time, scoring 160 points! In the MV6 group, 2nd place went to the team “Pitagora slapjās bikses” with 103 points, and 3rd place to the team “Tad jau redzēs!” with 99 points.
In the women’s veterans group, the competition and fierce battles were no less serious—teams in 1st and 2nd place, as well as the winners of 3rd and 4th place, had identical point totals, with the difference measurable only in minutes! 1st place went to the team “B3 un Purva Karma”, 2nd place to the team “Vidzemnieces”; both teams had 105 points, and everything was decided by 7 minutes. 3rd place went to the team “Kaķu tantes meklē Ziemeļus” and 4th place to the team “5. elements”; both teams had 78 points and a 15-minute difference.
In the 6-hour distance, the strength of families should also be highlighted! This time, with 88 points, the team “Klinšu ērgļi” took the top step of the podium; second was the team “Rs kukainīši” with 64 points, while the honorable 3rd place went to the team “Purva bridēji” with 55 points.
