It is 5 years ago that we have organised our first Trail-O event in Hungary. It followed a visit by several Hungarian orienteers to the JK in Britain where they entered the Trail-O event and had their first contact with this sport. The first event in the summer of 2004 on Margaret Island was organised with the help of Anne Braggins, Chair of the IOF Trail-O Commission. In spite of the bad weather we had 28 competitors, amongst them our first disabled athlete, Ozorák Ottó, who was an active orienteer before his illness.

Since October 2004 Trail-O in Hungary operates under the guidance of the Hungarian Orienteering Federation’s Trail-O Committee. Initially all events were organised centrally, but starting with 2006 we de-centralised and increasingly the clubs and associations have taken event organisation into their own hands. The Trail-O Committe provides the expertise, equipment (where needed) and the event advisor. Our job was not easy to start with, due to the innate conservatism of the average orienteer and the difficulty we had in accessing the disabled sports organisations. However, we are glad to say that we have managed to overcome these difficulties and have a yearly event structure of 5-7 events, entered by ever increasing numbers, including a small group of disabled competitors who attend regularly.

In the spirit of our preparations for the Trail-O World Championship of 2009 we try to promote and popularise Hungarian Trail-O, as well as prepare the future WTOC organising/planning team for the tasks ahead. This includes international experience and work as planners and event advisers internally. By 2007 we developed the sport to attract 39 disabled competitors (12% of the total) as well as putting on the second Hungarian Trail-O Championship. In 2007 we sent our first competitor to WTOC in the Ukraine, in order to gain experience and establish international links. We hope to realise our main aim by building a successful Hungarian Trail-O team to rise to the challenge in 2009 at the Trail-O World Championship in Miskolc and the Bükk Mountains in Hungary.