Sylvester 2024: ENTRY DEADLINE and Stage previews

2024 is coming to its end and with that a new edition of the highly anticipated Sylvester 5-day orienteering competition is near. Spanning from 26-30 December, Sylvester provides 5 days of beautiful forest orienteering organised by 4 Belgian clubs and 1 Dutch club. The entry deadline however is near! 

You have until Saturday 14 December to register for this remarkable annual event !!

Not convinced? Do not fear! Read the preview of all 5 stages and decide for yourself :) 

Stages: 

Stage 1: Bosbergen West 

It all starts in a hilly forest in Herentals. The result this stage will answer the following questions:

-Who can make the correct call if a tricky and dense path network is faster than straight through the forest with limited visibility?

-Who can push him/herself to not slow down in a physical terrain while keeping top focus?

-Who is the most ferocious orienteer?

The tone will be set on a course where the fastet route will probably differ person to person depending on your orienteering style. This guarantees an exciting start of five days of orienteering!

Stage 2: Sanicole

Situated in a Military airport this map offers two kinds of orienteering. A forested part with a combination of small relief  and a gradient of open to dense vegetation will test your orienteering skill. The other part is a very open area with heather vegetation which will for sure test your physical capabilities, but make no mistakes because a moment of bad compas work can cost you important time and effort. A great mixed terrain to show both your technical and physical capabilities.

Stage 3: Kattevenia

The middle stage of the competition will return to a typical forest in Flanders characterized by a series of different vegetation densities, zones with complicated mountainbike path networks and zones with detailed relief. Get ready to go full speed no mistakes, but be careful for what was mentioned above, you have been warned ;)

Stage 4: De Winner

The fourth stage will decide who is the most versatile orienteer in the competition. Why is that? Well decide for yourself by looking at the map fragments which all belong to the same map. Be ready to adapt to new forest circumstances as soon as you enter a new area during your course. Fun guaranteed as well!!

Stage 5: Galgenberg

Sylvester 2024 will end with a stage across the Belgian border in the Netherlands. I personally think that the organisation kept the best for last. This course will be without a doubt very fast due to the general flat terrain and open forest but this does not mean that there are not a lot contours. On the contrary, you can expect very detailed map reading to be the key of succes. Do this while keeping up the pace and the race will be over before you know it! Enjoy this last day in this beautiful terrain which is heaven for orienteers.

Final remarks

Hopefully this has given you a good overview of the stages. Now only one thing is left for you to do...

Registration

    Members of the Belgian federation can register via O-Punch using this link: 

    https://www.opunch.org/in/event/2507 

    International runners can register via Orienteeringonline using this link: 

    https://www.orienteeringonline.net/CompetitionBasicInfo.aspx?CompetitionID=13195

At this moment we sit at 260 Belgian orienteers and 170 international orienteers spread accross all age classes, so don't be shy and join us at one of the largest orienteering competitions in Belgium! All info can be found on: https://orienteering.vlaanderen/sylvester/#info

See you there!