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Learning the Skills to Deliver the Thrills

06.12.2006

Racers and race organisers have been arriving in Portugal over the past couple of days for the XPD Race, Clinic and Conference, hosted in the coastal resort of Estoril. The race is a 24 hour event with several international teams taking part, and this is preceded by 2 days of clinics on the skills required to organise an adventure race, and a conference to discuss the broader issues of the sport and the prospects for international governance.

For early arrivals into Lisbon the weather was stormy, with flooded roads and high winds, but there was a warm welcome from the event organisers, headed by Alexandre Guedes de Silva, an experienced international competitor who has organised XPD for several years, and been instrumental in setting up the structure of adventure racing in Portugal.

Few, if any, Portuguese teams compete internationally so it surprising to learn the country has had an established national race series and ranking for 6 years now. Adventure racing is more structured and organised here than anywhere else in Europe, possibly than anywhere else in the world. Other countries are only just beginning to discuss how to get AR recognised as a sport in its own right by national governing bodies, setting out guidance for best practice and establishing rankings, but Portugal has had all these in place for many years.

Here, the sport is organised under the governance of the Portuguese national orienteering federation, who have helped to host the conference and clinics. “It was hard work, very hard work to get accepted at first,� said Alexandre, “but it is worth it. Most of those who were doing well at races were already orienteers on foot and bike, and we can get more government support, plan races more easily and get better insurance. And as an organiser I have less risk and better protection if anything should go wrong.�

That may not be a view others will agree with, and the conference will discuss the ‘best’ way to structure adventure racing, if there is such a thing, or even whether it’s desirable. There are race organisers here from the Baltic (Latvia and Estonia), the USA (Paul Romero of Explore the West), Spain (Antonio de la Rosa of Bimbache Extrem), Petri Forsman is due to arrive from Finland (though better known as a racer he does organise a race too) and there are several Brazilian racers and journalists attending. The role of the media in AR is up for discussion as well.

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