This is the fulfilment of his sporting dreams! Our student Mateusz Kula participated in the World Orienteering Championships. They were organised in Finland, where the terrain for runners is challenging and unique.

Mateusz Kula has been orienteering since 2016. Two years later, he joined the National Junior Team in this discipline. He competed in the European and World Championships. Last year, he was included in the senior team, and this year, for the first time, he has been selected for the World Orienteering Championships (6-13 July 2025 in Kuopio).

– Participating in the most important event in this discipline is a dream come true for me. Last year, I managed to qualify for the senior World Cup. But that was a level lower. I mean, the sport level is equally high, but more people can get in. Only 3 men and 3 women from a given country qualify for the world championships – says Mateusz Kula, who is in his second year of Technical Computer Science.

Before competing in the World Championships, Matusz joined a senior team training camp in Finland. The goal was to prepare as well as possible for the demanding and specific Finnish terrain.

– It is a very stony, hard and uneven ground. I think it can be compared to some of the trails of the Ślęża mountain near Wrocław. It was a challenge because we had to read maps while running, and so it was tough to decide when to look at our feet and when to look at the map. Additionally, the dense vegetation makes movement and orientation difficult. There are also significant elevation differences. The championships were organised on ski-touring slopes – explains our student.

Orienteering is a sport where the athlete must navigate, in the shortest possible time, a course marked on a map, which they receive just before the start. The runners are provided with compasses. They start at intervals, and along the way, they must pass all the checkpoints in a given order. The route may range from 5 km to approximately 20 km. These types of races are most often held in forests, but they are also organised in urban areas. Scandinavia is the cradle of orienteering.

– In Finland, schoolchildren have activities related to this discipline during their PE classes. In Poland, there are about 2,000 people in our sports association. In Sweden, which has a smaller population than Poland, the association has half a million registered members – he adds.

The European University Orienteering Championships will take place in Łódź from 24th to 27th July. Five athletes will represent Wrocław University of Science and Technology, including three from our Faculty.