Relay obstacle racing is coming to Europe with the Shardana Challenge in Olbia, California this weekend. In addition to the race, The FIOCR (Italian OCR Federation) will be hosting a European OCR Alliance Summit with several countries in attendance. There they will be working on rules for European OCR racing and to further develop obstacle racing in Europe.

For more information see the press release below.

The Shardana Challenge 2017 is the first and only European OCR relay race organized, the event is scheduled in Olbia, Italy for April 9, 2017, on Pittulongu beach. Not only Shardana Challenge, as the city of Gallura is going to became the real European Capital of the obstacle course racing.

Prior to the international race, Olbia will host the European OCR Alliance Summit, at the Archaeological Museum, on Saturday, April 8, 2017, an event which is going to call to Sardinia the top personalities of this discipline.

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The future of the obstacle races, which just in Italy have doubled the number of competitors at the races in 2016, reaching over 34 thousand enthusiasts at the starting lines, will be the subject at the centre of this first European OCR Alliance Summit, announced and strongly wanted by the Italian OCR Federation in partnership with Shardana Events.

At the table, there will be the delegations of the National OCR associations part of the European Alliance, born in 2015, which currently represents 14 countries of the European Community and which organizes the European OCR Championships planned in The Netherlands from the 30th June to de 2nd July. The goal of the technical table, at which Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, United Kingdom, Poland, Ireland, and Slovakia have already taken part, is to start a shared path for a functional activity of growth and promotion of a rising sport, but already rooted and popular by the creation of a European Manifesto. Other topics will be the development of a common European rulebook, current trends and developments and the organization of the 2019 OCR European Championships. These physical meetings are of crucial importance to improve cooperation among the different obstacle sports governing bodies.

 

“For the Italian OCR Federation, as for the entire national movement – declare the president Mauro Leoni – the year 2017 will be an evolution one, which needs strong basis. Beyond the important work that we are pursuing at the Italian level, we believe that the time is ripe for an organized discussion with the OCR associations of the European Alliance, to put into a system the experiences of the member countries, clubbing on the developments of the obstacle course race. We will start from some very important topics, as the constant education of qualified specialists, both trainers and referees, the introduction of European guidelines about regulations and the organization of a connected action to give recognition for this kind of discipline. But the most important issue the Alliance will discuss is the possible formation of a European Obstacle Sports Federation”.

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