The Divina Pastora Chair for Adapted Sports of the UV (CDPDAUV) organised last weekend (26/27 February) the second edition of the event and initiation workshop to organising sports orientation events: O-Precision
The workshop, which took place on the morning of 26 February, counted with the participation of over 130 students linked to the promotion or enjoyment of sports activities which take place in the natural environment as well as directors, professors, technical staff, specialists and people interested in this training which took place thnaks to the Chair. The Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Philology of the Universitat de València hosted the students and José Campos, director of the CDPDAUV, who launched the sessions. Subsequently, Joaquim Margarido, Niclas Gil, José Antonio Tamarit and Ana Belén Calvo exposed the pronciples and basic objectives of the preparation and development of the event and, once the theoretical session was over, they went to Viveros to carry out a practical session.
Differently form the workshop, the events were addressed to sports activities professors, professors of physical education, sports technicians in sports linked to the natural environment, specialists and people interested in this training and, more specifically, to orientation technicians. The CDPDAUV aimed not only at giving light to the orientation discipline (as it happened during Friday’s workshop) but also at training technical staff in the design, planning and organisation of O-Precision events. The sessions took place at the Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Physical Activity and Sports sciences and, just as in the workshop, it started with a launching act by José Campos and a theoretical session by Joaquim Margarido (member of the Technical Committee of Precision Orientation of the Portuguese Federation of Orientation), Niclas Gil (responsible of the orientation section of the Universitat de València), José Antonio Tamarit and Ana Belén Calvo (level-2 Sports Technicians of Orientation) and then, the students went out to do the practical session. The session ended with an afternoon theoretical class; the closing of the sessions and the certificate award.
Once the sessions were over, Margarido was “excited to work in favour of the growth of precision orientation. The Universitat de València and the CDPDAUV are developing an amazing job in this sense, so for me it is a pleasure and fills me of pride to come to this event”.
Regarding the workshop, Margarido considers “it has been an excellent experience to check the great interest on this discipline and the perception of its inclusive value for the students. As I stated during the theoretical session, it can be a future tool for people with disabilities to have the chance to be integrated and value as full citizens”.
On the sessions, the lecturer considered that the students were “pretty heterogeneous in terms of knowledge on the sport of orientation, but they were very interested, participative and conscious of the inclusive value provided by precision orientation. The sum of the theoretical knowledge along with the practical exercise in a room and in the Viveros park has been very useful. In the end, we have achieved a full integration of those who knew less about orientation and I believe everyone has been able to enjoy these sessions”.
