Bringing Orienteering to Georgia

The Caucasian country of Georgia has in recent years established itself as an up-and-coming destination for trail runners, delivering an impressive variety of trail and mountain races against a guaranteed backdrop of jaw-dropping scenery and (nearly always) sunny skies. Be it an ultra-marathon on the high slopes of Mount Kazbek, which stands at over 5000 metres, or a trail race snaking through the scrub-covered hills surrounding the capital, Tbilisi, there are many reasons why trail running enthusiasts from all over Europe are starting to pay attention to one of the fastest developing trail scenes in the world.

Having moved to Tbilisi in August 2022 for a study placement, I enjoyed competing in various road, trail and mountain races around a country whose sunny and warm autumn weather would be the envy of any race organiser in the UK. Having regularly run with other runners from the flourishing Tbilisi Running Club during that autumn, I was contacted by the organisers of the club’s events following my return from the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Portugal. They had followed some of the coverage of the Championships and asked if I might like to give a talk to members about orienteering. Naturally, I was delighted to have the opportunity but felt that a talk might be rather forgettable. If I was indeed going to introduce people to orienteering, why not organise an actual orienteering race?

Images below: Peter Molloy during his time in Tbilisi, Georgia. Credit: Peter Molloy.

Upon reflection, I said this in a flush of community-spirited thinking and did not really think they would be keen for this, let alone wholeheartedly encourage such an idea. It was at this moment that I realised that since the only orienteering maps in Georgia were a decade old, I was going to have to make a new map from scratch, armed only with a phone and some base maps from the internet. It was therefore with considerable trepidation that I embarked on this rather unexpected project, choosing to map a regenerated section of forested parkland and recreational area nestled next to a large lake on the west side of the city. With some help from other club members, in the space of three weeks I organised a training session on the new map, with participants hunting the red and white tapes recognisable to any orienteer. The event was attended by over 40 trail runners and, despite the all-too-real threat of Tbilisi’s burdening stray dog population making off with all the tapes, ran smoothly. The positive feedback was frankly a little overwhelming and as it turned out, a few participants were themselves orienteers who had previously competed in other countries. And so, I soon found myself managing a small, mighty and extraordinarily keen team of volunteers desperate to support this fledgling project.

We set our sights on a second event on Christmas Day 2022, undertaking the challenge of making another new map in the woods and hillside (already familiar to local trail runners) above my original map. The deadline was tight, but the team outdid themselves and our collective hard work meant that we successfully executed a proper orienteering race on a crisp, sunny Christmas morning, replete with digital timing systems, intermediate time checks and sponsored prizes from an outdoor clothing brand and a massage clinic!

Images below of how the club has evolved: Open SOC Championship 2025 in Tbilisi Urban Night Sprint, Maze orienteering, and the  BATUMI O-CUP 2025 Prize-giving Ceremony in May 2025. Image credits: Sakartvelo Orienteering.

By this point, the rebirth of orienteering in Georgia was gaining some serious momentum, proving itself not to be a one-hit wonder. I reassembled my troops for a third event in February of this year, this time opting for a ‘score’ format (familiar to those who have competed in mountain marathons) in a picturesque park and forest near the centre of Tbilisi. We pulled out all the stops, drawing a new map in record time and attracting over 100 entries. Whilst even the most sunnily disposed outdoor event organiser will struggle to say that they truly enjoy the on-the-day stress it involves, I will say that it was brilliant to watch over 100 participants panicking blindly as I set them off in a typically chaotic mass start. Apart from my fingers being too numb to write down some of the results, and a considerable proportion of competitors ploughing through a frankly impressive array of out-of-bounds areas, this event formed a wonderful ending to my fantastic six months in Georgia. However, this was most certainly not the end of the Georgian orienteering adventure…

After a final bit of mapping before my departure in early March, I stepped back from coordinating our team’s efforts and handed over the reins to Yan Sundqvist, another orienteer who was an enormous help to me in all things mapping and organisation and has proven a brilliant driver of new endeavours, since organising many orienteering races and delivering an exciting and ambitious calendar of quality events in 2023 and 2024. This recently culminated in the organising of an international multi-day orienteering competition held in and around Tbilisi on newly drawn maps, which I had the pleasure of attending and which was attended by orienteers and trail runners from over 15 countries. You can watch a reel post-event via this link on Instagram. 

I never in a million years would have predicted that a single message would lead to such a fantastic adventure. I am proud that we succeeded in introducing orienteering to a brand-new and diverse international audience of trail runners and sport enthusiasts, putting smiles on faces in the process. It is a fantastic example of how trail running and orienteering can combine to bring new opportunities to participants of both sports. The sports aren’t so different when you think about it: one just requires slightly more navigation! I cannot wait to see what the future of orienteering and trail running in Georgia holds.

Instagram handles of Georgian Orienteering, Tbilisi Running Club and Traillab (the main organiser of trail races in Georgia) are as follows: @sakartvelo_orienteering

The next big orienteering event in the UK is taking place July 2025 in Deeside, Scotland. The Scottish Six Days is a biennial multi-day orienteering event and this year is the 25^th edition. Deeside boasts stunning scenery, amazing local attractions and varied terrain for orienteering. Find out more on the Six Days website: https://scottish6days.com/.