With delegations from nearly 60 countries and regions, and close to 4,000 participants – including almost 3,000 young athletes – the ISF U15 Gymnasiade 2025 marks the largest edition in the event’s history.
Young athletes under 15 years of age gathered to participate in their own sport and watching other sports. The School Sports Games “Gymnasiade” is held every two years for age U15 and every second year for age U18 under the supervision of the International School Sport Federation.
Opening ceremony in Zlatibor. All photos: Damir Gobec
As competitions unfolded across 22 sports, including three para-sports, Zlatibor In Serbia became more than a host city – also a symbol of unity, learning, and youthful ambition over the ten days of events.
Besides Orienteering, sports included in the Gymnasiade were: Artistic Gymnastics, Badminton, Chess, Fencing , Tennis, Wrestling, Taekwondo, Basketball 3×3. Orienteering being part of the Gymnasiade is an important step for many countries trying to develop orienteering through their school system.
The Orienteering medals races at the Gymnasiade included three Events: Sprint distance, Middle distance and Team competition. On the last day there was a Friendship Team Event in which mixed teams from different countries participated.
The sprint race was held in the center of host town Zlatibor on April 7th 2025 with very cold weather: Around minus 4 degrees and 10 cm of fresh snow on the ground. Although the conditions for young athletes where challenging, everybody successfully finished the race in good spirit. Ukraine athletes won both races with Roman Chudinov and Anna Shyrykalova on the top of the result board
ISF U15 GYMNASIADE
Results – Sprint
M15
1 . Roman Chudinov, Ukraine 10:29 minutes
2. Yehor Zozulia, Ukraine +0:33
3. Mesea Robert Mihai, Romania +1:00
4. Roko Vukic, Croatia +1:45
5. Vince Samuel Simon, Romania +2:07
6. Peter Laping, Romania, +2:37
W15
1 . Anna Shyrykalova , Ukraine 10:1o minutes
2. Maria Tudorasku , Romania +0:20
3. Myloslava Trukhnii, Ukraine +0:24
4. Dunja Cancarevic, Serbia +0:43
5. Eszter Anna Palfy, Romania +0:56
6. Gloria Santic, Croatia +1:47
Women’s podium after the Sprint race.
On the next day, the Middle distance race took place at Tornik mountain, situated above the town Zlatibor and known as an alpine skiing resort. Conditions where the same as the previous day: Cold weater and snow in the forest. This time Romanian athletes dominated the field and won five out of six medals with Mesea Robert Mihai wining the men’s race and Myloslava Trukhnii from Ukraine Winning the women’s race.
Results – Middle
M15
1 . Mesea Robert Mihai, Romania 20:54 minutes
2. Vince Samuel Simon, Romania +1:36
3. Norbert Sandor Szocs, Romania +1:46
4. Peter Laping, Romania +1:50
5. Roman Chudinov , Ukraine +4:01
6. Roko Vukic, Croatia, +6:02
W15
1 . Myloslava Trukhnii, Ukraine 17:24 minutes
2. Maria Tudorasku , Romania +1:09
3. Gyongyver Gorog, Romania +1:23
4. Dunja Cancarevic, Serbia +2:33
5. Nera Ban, Croatia +3:28
6. Gloria Santic, Croatia +4:13
The best three results from each country from Sprint and Middle distance events counted towards the Team Event.
Team Romania won both the Team events in male and female classes in front of Croatia.
Serbia and Brazil has a fierce competition for third spots, and Brazil ended up victorious among the men, while Serbia took the women’s bronze.
TEAM COMPETITON RANKING
Women
1 . Romania 5345 points
2. Croatia. 5062 points
3. Serbia 4035 points
Men
1. Romania 5717 points
2. Croatia 4350 points
3. Brazil 3697 points
On the last competition day Friendship Team Event took place. Mixed teams from different countries participated and finally the weather improved and competitors had snow free terrain in the center of Zlatibor. Teams consisting of 3 runners all from different countries had to make the strategy how to collect all 36 controls on the terrain. Three control were mandatory to pass during the course (A, B, C).
Each runner should have visited at least eight control points plus the mandatory ones. So eleven in total. This event has been fun for everybody including coaches and team leaders so all competitors had opportunity to know runners from different teams and they had to make a good strategy for the course.
Team 11 in the Friendship Team Event.
The Serbian Orienteering Federation were the main organisers for the Orienteering events at the Gymnasiade, with president Rade Goljevic leading the organising team successfully through the week
Todor Pedev (BUL) were official delegate for ISF advising the organisers. IOF has been present through the member of IOF Global Development Commission, Damir Gobec from Croatia.
Hopefully, collaboration between ISF and IOF can bring more youngsters to our sport especially bringing orienteering on such multisport games. Many countries less developed in orienteering sport are looking for away to promote the sport through schools and alongside World Orienteering Week, this seems as a good path to reach the countries around the world through ISF and school sport.
Text: Damir Gobec and Erling Thisted