53rd Kainuu Orienteering Week and the 1st Kainuu Trail Hossa National Park (Finland) trail running event will tried to be organized in the beginning of July 2021

Published: 31.08.2023

The world's second oldest orienteering week 53rd Kainuu Orienteering Week will be organized with exceptional arrangements in accordance with the coronavirus situation at the beginning of July on July 4-9, 2021 in Suomussalmi. The competition centre is the Haverinen ski centre area. Competition areas are around the Haverinen ski centre and the terrain consists of fine and fast-moving pine forest terrains.

The 1st Kainuu Trail Hossa National Park 3.7.2021, which will be held for the first time, will also be organized with special arrangements in accordance with the coronavirus situation on Saturday, 3 July 2021 in Hossa National Park. The competition centre is the Hossa Visitor Centre and trail runners will come to enjoy Hossa's finest trail trails and attractions.

- We have been closely monitoring the situation with the coronavirus for the past year, and at the same time, have been considering a wide range of options for the safe organization of competitions. We have also been concretely preparing a health safety plan for the competitions since the autumn of last year, says Jukka Liuha, Secretary General of Kainuu O-Week and Event Manager of the Kainuu Trail.

- The possibility of organizing competitions has been explored many times over the past spring, but only now in the last month has the general epidemic situation started to ease and organizing events like our competitions in early July would seem safe, Liuha explains. We are also prepared for the fact that we will not be able to organize events if the coronavirus situation gets worse and national restrictions are tightened again, but at the moment the situation looks quite good.

- After discussing the possibility of organizing the competitions last week with the Kainuu region's health authorities and key partners in Suomussalmi, we are now continuing to prepare for the competitions as planned, Kainuu O-Week's competition director Pirjo Neuvonen opens. We have already planned strong restrictions and different actions for the arrangements of competitions in order to ensure the health of the participants, the volunteers and the local residents as good as possible.

- We will inform the special actions for the safe arrangement of the competitions during May-June in our bulletins, website, social media and newsletters, as well as in the preliminary instructions sent to all participants by email, Neuvonen and Liuha summarize.

Secretary General Liuha specifies the practical arrangements from the participants' point of view as follows:

- The Kainuu Orienteering Week competition categories will be organized in accordance with the (Finnish Orienteering Federation's) licensed sports restrictions, which currently allow for fairly normal competition arrangements, taking into account the normal hygiene, safety interval and face mask recommendations and official recommendations and regulations. The race time start time window will be extended from normal from about 3 hours to 6 hours.

- The aim is to organize the Kainuu Orienteering Week open courses in accordance with the current national restrictions and official recommendations and regulations, which currently means (in our case) extending the starting times of the competition day to approximately 6 hours and dividing the participants into starting groups of 50 people.

- For the Kainuu Trail, the competition will be organized in accordance with the current national restrictions and official recommendations and regulations, which currently means that we will divide the participants into starting groups of 50 people.

More information:
www.rastiviikko.fi
www.kainuutrail.fi

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