Competition Lipica open is two days competition organized every year in the beginning of March somewhere around Lipica on beautiful Slovenian Karst. 

Lipica open is one of the oldest  and the biggest orienteering competition in Slovenia (orienteering in Slovenia starts around 1985). First time it was held on 14^th and 15^th of March 1992. There were 138 competitors from Italy, Austria, Yugoslavia and Slovenia.

At the beginning it was organized to promote Lipica as winter training camp. In few years Lipica open became one of the biggest and most popular competition in region. Every second weekend in March more than 700 competitors are coming now to Lipica to take part on one of the first spring competition without snow. Owing to the Mediterranean climate and proximity of Adriatic Sea hardly any snow falls in Lipica during winter. The temperature in early spring (February, March) is usually as high as 15 or more degrees centigrade, which makes competition even more attractive.

If you are looking for a big competition with a lot of splendor and pomp, Lipica open is not the right one. Lipica open is not a big, fancy competition with rich awards. It is simple, modest competition, where we want to offer good and correct organization and friendly atmosphere. Technically difficult karst terrain is giving a lot of opportunity for very interesting and challenging courses.

First years there were mostly runners from Austria, Italy, Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia. In the last few years runners from far distant countries started to come too. In this 15 years there were runners from Italy, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, Denmark, France, Israel, Slovakia, Sweden, Finland, Great Britain, Australia, Belgium, Estonia and Slovenia. Some of them are coming back every year. This is the confirmation that we are doing well.

Roman Volcic