We are genuinely happy to welcome the participants of IBU Junior Open European Championships 2023!

Madona is a green and blooming town in the Eastern part of Latvia, just couple of tens of kilometres from the highest hill in Latvia—Hill Gaiziņš. This is the reason for our motto: “We are higher!”Madona is one of the most popular regions for active winter sport and leisure, thanks to stable snow cover and hilly terrain, and infrastructure well-suited
for both competitions and active leisure. Our sport and recreation centre “Smeceres Pinewood” can be proud of its capacity to organize World, European, and Scandinavian level championships in summer and winter sport, like cross-country and roller skiing, biathlon, winter orienteering, and enduro.
For achievements to follow training, athletes need good infrastructure and national and local support. This has been among the priorities of Madona Municipality already for the last tens of years, and local entrepreneurs are among active supporters. Sport is close to me also personally, and I am pleased to see that perseverance of our athletes
brings us so many moments of joy. So, I invite you to enjoy your stay in Madona! Feel the competition and improve your
personal bests, but also find some free time to indulge in what we have to offer you. I am convinced that this will be an exciting competition for not only athletes, but also sports fans. See you at IBU Junior Open European Championships 2023! See you in Latvia and Madona!

Agris Lungevics

Mayor of Madona Municipality