2021 Is a Big Year For Adventure Racing in Uruguay

Mario Gonzalez - AUCA / 02.02.2021

Since its foundation in 2014, the Uruguayan Association of Adventure Runners (AUCA) has been organizing its annual championship, in which more than 1500 km are travelled throughout the country by racers every year.

It’s important to note that with the COVID-19 issue, the 2020 championship was seriously affected, only running 5 races out of a total of 10 that were scheduled, so the AUCA board made the decision to join the dates of 2020 with those of 2021 and in this way a Championship with 16 races was established.  Five of these were run in 2020 and for this year there are another 10 until December; with distances from 60 km for people just starting out, up to 350 km for the more experienced.

It is noteworthy that on March 13, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was known in Uruguay and from that moment all sports and social activities were suspended, and at that time only two championship races had been run.  Seeing the situation, the AUCA Board of Directors began to work on a safety protocol in order for it to be approved by the corresponding body here called the National Secretary of Sports.  After intense months of work and with the support of runners, especially Dr. Sergio Morillo and Nurse Fiorella Ocampo, this was finalized and approved on September 11, 2020.  To date Adventure Racing is one of the few sports that has been able to return to official competition in our country.

After the approval of the Safety Protocol, the Championship was resumed with 3 dates that closed 2020; and in 2021 we will have our first race on January 31st on the Costa de Oro in the Department of Canelones, very close to the capital of the country Montevideo.

Working Towards Recognition of our Sport in Uruguay

In more great news for Adventure Sports here in Uruguay, since the end of 2019 AUCA has worked towards our sport becoming federated in 2021.  In March the creation of the Uruguayan Adventure Federation (FUDAVE) is scheduled, joining the Brazilian Confederation of Adventure Racing (CBCA) as one of the few that exist worldwide.

This milestone for adventure sports encourages us to continue and in the month of August we will be welcoming runners from the whole region of S. America, when the "Desafío de Campeones" race takes place.  This will be a fixture on the ARWS - South America Region calendar, and looking a little more into the future hopes to host a full ARWS race or a World Championship.

ARWS Races - South America Region

You can find out more about AUCA at www.auca.org.uy and on Facebook @AUCAventura

With all this movement at a global, regional and national level, we hope to see more Uruguayan teams that dare to go out and represent us in the world of adventure racing, and also to see more international teams visiting us in this very hospitable land, where so many places have yet to be discovered.