Maze Orienteering is a fantastic tool to develop orienteering world-wide. Andrei Golovei has taken Maze O to a new level and when WOD asked him to tell something what he is doing to develop orienteering in Moldova he got very surprised that his work is also known in other countries. Our request was one of a kind – win a Jack Pot. But from our point of view, it’s a pleasure to tell the world what has been done so far in action by Andrei Golovei.
Some short facts: Andrei was 17 years old when he started to practice orienteering (he is now 25). He loves this sport for two reasons: first – because it is the best sport, the second – it is a really healthy sport. By the age of 17 he did martial fights – about 6 years, but he had to give up because knee problems started to appear. For one year he could not get down the stairs. One day at school he was asked if he wanted to attend the Indoor Labyrinth. He tried and without any training he ranked third position. “It was a sensational moment, extremely high adrenaline already from the start – it was a kind of shock”, Andrei tells. “Thus my first encounter with orienteering was the Atypical Form of Orienteering. Maybe from this background now I am focusing more on organising these types of races.” After the competition, Ms. Elena Maruşceac proposed him to train. Elena was his first coach and due of her knowledge and guidance he became healthy from his knee problems. Thanks to her he is now much more attached to guidance and organisation. Regarding organising events, he thinks he is “drugged” to this. Every organised event becomes more and more dependent. And every time he wants something better and bigger in size. Until now this trend has been respected as follows: 2014; the Championship of the Capital, 2015-2016; the National Championship, 2017; an event for Moldova and Romania and 2018; the Moldavian Masters Orienteering Cup International Event with athletes from 12 countries He tells us that he didn’t learn management in the classroom, listening. Basically everything he knows at the moment was learned from his own experience, from his own mistakes. As a matter of course, he would like to attend international seminar organising seminars or be part of the organising team of an international event to develop his management skills.
Typical events by Andrei Golovei
What is a typical event? What kind of ideas does he have? Andrei says: “Starting from the premise: orienteering is the sport that gives you an extraordinary dose of adrenaline over a short period of time as you cross the route (who does not like adrenaline?). Every time I propose the following problem: How do the participants get a dose of adrenaline in a shorter time. The higher the ratio is, the more spectacular. Not in vain and in the IOF have thought about how to make sport more attractive to spectators: they have introduced sprint distances and sprint knockout – which are shorter in time, but with higher adrenaline. If we order the adrenaline volume per minute, then the minimum distance is the ultralong, then the long, the middle, the sprint and the most spectacular sprint knockout.” Well, behaving on this set of ideas, he analyzed how he could do it even more speculatively and in what format:
1 – Indoor Maze O
The idea that already exists with us was the Indoor Labyrinth. It has developed from a small map of the sports hall to the labyrinth throughout the building, including several floors, and more to the labyrinth mix – which includes indoor and outdoor. Photos from mix-maze: https://www.facebook.com/pg/csgalata/photos/?tab=album&album_id=781967101950584
Maps: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8YYfcuA7mPyA1wYJA
This type of competition is organized during the winter. The event in the park with about 100 participants, at a labyrinth they have about 300 particpants. During the winter they are organising 2-3 labyrinths. Each stage consists of 2 routes and the sum of time is calculated.
2 – Underground Race
Moldova is famous for wine cellars with extraordinary underground tunnels. Here is another type of orienteering between the classic sprint and the labyrinth is an underground race. He heard from his coach that 2012 was such an event for a group of 40 people. No more has been heard. He also knew they were afraid to allow children to get into the wine cellars (the reason: not to damage wine barrels). In 2017, he took this idea forward. They started an international event – Moldavian Masters Orienteering Cup (www.masters.orienteering.md). The first edition was attended by 80 participants, at the second edition – around 200 out of 13 countries
Maps > https://photos.app.goo.gl/RTyXStPzgEMbsmgJ6Photos > https://www.facebook.com/pg/csgalata/photos/?tab=album&album_id=929727557174537Video > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k242PyOkIcsVideo > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0dYT51-xvU
3 – 3D-Maze Orienteering
Earlier on the orienteering was a section of sports tourism. In school he practiced tourism. They were climbing on ropes, trees, cliffs. He came up with the idea that from the classic orienteering – 2D, try the 3D orienteering. With the slogan: 3D-Maze | Get the 3rd Dimension of Orienteering. It’s a classic route: only two-color control posts. Purple – The classic color means that it is a control point on the ground, and the blue circles mean that there are control points hung on the bridge, the wall, the trees, etc.
Photos: https://www.facebook.com/tatiana.baculina/posts/2193121107377687
At this link you will find the rules, special signs and tasks for each control point http://www.fts.md/wp-content/uploads/2019-02-16_WinterCup4_Buletin2.pdf
For example:
3PC – The point is hung up. To mark it you have to pull the weight, with the weight coming to you and the control point
5PC – Pendulum: The point is embedded by the mark. To jump the mark, you must use the pendulum. After marking to get out of the marked field, use the pendulum.
8PC – To mark the checkpoint you are climbing and crossing. After marking, continue moving on traversers, then lowering.
9PC – The point is down on a fenced chair. The territory has a passageway passing in one direction. Read in the legend above the green arrow symbol. To mark the point, you have two choices: Climb the gym, lower the suspended rope down, make a descent, and mark your point on the gym, walk on the parallel ropes, beam, down and mark the point.
10PC – The control point is right in the unique moving corridor.
11PC – Climb the gym, walk on the traversers and mark the point. After marking, continue moving on the traverses, and then descend the gym. The point can be reached in two parts.
12PC – Basketball: The point is stuck to a bucket hanging from the basketball basket. You have to hit the ball in the basket to lower the boiler. The number of throws is unlimited until you hit the basket. Be careful, you can only drop out of the marked territory.
19PC – Cross the parallel ropes angled upwards. After marking, continue moving on parallel ropes. There will be two stages of parallel ropes.
21PC – Climb the gym, follow the parallel ropes and mark the point. Continue on the beam and downhill.
22PC – The control point is right in the single-way travel corridor.
The route is technically thought as an environment, so that it can also be parachuted by an orienteer who has never practiced the escalations.
Video presentation – > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLSgoe9yXew (first edition)
4 – Labyrinth Battle
Andrei says: “I think this is the most spectacular type of fun guide. Again I cannot say it’s my idea. I happened to see this video” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q7jxLwdbfg “and I loved it enormously. I think I developed the idea. I’m describing how the competition took place this year on 06.04.2019.The competition covered 6 stages: Qualifications, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, Semifinals and Finals.”
Andrei Golovei as an organiser: “Two years after my first orienteering meeting, I was chosen as a course planner to an orienteering event. In 2014 I was delegated by the then president Victor Litvinov as the event director at the National Championship and the Masters. In 2016 I was declared the best event director of the year. From February 2018 I was elected as president of the Moldavian Orienteering Federation. “