Orienteering in Argentina - Part One

Though Orienteering in our country has a definite date of emergence, it should be noted that several Physical Education Professors, who had visited or taken up continuous education courses in Sweden, Germany, France, Austria, etc., had become familiarized with this discipline but did not focus on developing it further.

1973

August
Osvaldo Bianchi received a grant to participate in a Competition in Austria. On his way back, Bianchi visited the Instituto de Educación Física in Madrid and the Ecole Interarm et des Sports. (EIS) at Fontainebleau, France, where he received a book on Orienteering (LA COURSE D'ORIENTATION) written by Lieutenant Colonel PIERRARD, which he translated to Spanish.

September

The Argentine Military Sports Federation (Federación Deportiva Militar Argentina - FDMA) and the International Military Sports Council (CISM), with the support of the National Government and the sponsorship of the Argentine Olympic Committee, organized an INTERNATIONAL SPORTS STUDY SEMINAR.

The seminar had approximately 1300 civilian and military participants, and speakers of world-class technical and scientific standing. The range of athletic sports activities that were addressed included “a new sport,” as they called it—Orienteering.
A large number of people registered in this section, which was led by lieutenant colonel ERICK KARLSSON and subject-matter expert PER OLOFF BENGTSSON (PEO), both from SWEDEN. A Physical Education Officer from the Argentine Army served as translator for both speakers.

Practical lessons took place at the former KDT Circuit (today, CLUB DE AMIGOS), and at the sites Campo de Mayo and Villa de Mayo, while theoretical aspects were taught at the San Martin Theater Complex in Buenos Aires City.
Since then, several people started working on the dissemination of this sport, both inside and outside the Armed Forces. A PE professor and an Army officer wrote articles in specialized publications.



November

PER OLOFF BENGTSSON (PEO) came back to Argentina, jointly with INGVAR LUNDSTRÖM and HARRY SÖDERBERG, and delivered the first course on Applied Cartography.
The result was the first three orienteering maps at the 1:20,000 scale.
The fourteen course participants and the three Swedish experts participated in the land survey and map design activities.

The first entity devoted to this sport was established under the name of "ASOCIACION AMIGOS DE LA ORIENTACION," similar to that existing in SPAIN at that time, following PEO’s suggestion, when he designed the map "CASA DE CAMPO", at the request of MARTIN KRONLUND (Swedish fencing professor living in Spain), considered the Father of Orienteering in SPAIN.
Unfortunately, our first entity was not able to deliver -for reasons beyond its control- on the goals it had set, and disappeared.

1974
July
Two Argentine Army Officers travelled to Sweden and participated in "The Five Days in Sweden."
August
Two officers of the Physical Education Service of the Argentine Army travelled to Pinkafeld, Austria, to participate in the World Orienteering Championship organized by CISM.

1975
The Military Institutes Command Unit of the Argentine Army, through its Infantry School, organized two courses, to promote Orienteering practices.

The maps that had been prepared in the 1973 course came from Sweden, where they were printed, and together with that of Ezeiza, they were used for the “FIRST ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE ARMED FORCES,” held on August 10-12.
The members of the Army team, which ranked first, were: Leader: O.Bianchi. Coach: R. Miranda. Athletes: E Cantoni, N Belingheri, S Lagos, D Kambic, J Balmaceda, A Gauna and A Marin.

1976

May
As from May, the military officers who were working in the civilian sphere on the dissemination of this sport were asked to discontinue their mapping activities, for safety reasons.