International Orienteering Federation
On-line Newsletter
Issue 1 – March 2008
Everything has fallen into place
BY ERIK BORG
Erik Rost, who won this year’s World Cup
in ski orienteering by a good margin, is
still only 22 years old. His ambition now
is to be among the world's best in foot
orienteering.
PHOTO: ERIK BORG
It has been a great winter for the young
Swede. Only three years ago he won three
individual gold medals at the Junior World
Ski Orienteering Championships in Switzerland. Since then he has quickly become
one of the best in the world amongst the
senior elite. He won 5 of the 14 races in
this year’s World Cup and finished at the
top of the standings with a 61 point margin
over his team-mate Peter Arnesson.
A Swedish triple at the long distance in Switzerland: Peter Arnesson (left); Erik Rost and Tomas Löfgren.
Peter and Erik did very well in the World Cup overall standings, with victory to Erik and second place to
Peter.
– When everything falls into place and
goes according to plan, my performance
gets much better and that is what has happened to me. I have trained hard for many
years, and in the last six months I haven’t
been ill or injured, so I have been able to
stick to my plans without any compromises. I very much like Borlänge where
I currently study, I have good training
mates, the training conditions are good,
my equipment has worked perfectly, our
waxing team has done an outstanding job
and I have had better skis than anyone else
in almost all the competitions, Erik says.
In this issue: Erik Rost: Everything has fallen into place; “Great to beat stars like Keskinarkaus and Khrennikov”, says Ondrej
Vodrážka; The door is open for a new female star; A year off for Hanny; Martins Sirmais – going for the podium; Successful
Event Adviser seminar in Copenhagen; World Championships and World Cup 2008: More TV and more races.
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Good reading!
BARBRO RÖNNBERG
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Running all winter
The young Swede also has big ambitions in foot orienteering. His goals for
the coming season are to come closer
to the best in the world and to represent
Sweden in the World Cup. Ahead of
the season, the number one in the world
in ski orienteering is 155th in the IOF
ranking for foot orienteering. During
the winter he has been both skiing and
running every day. He has done so much
running training that he hopes he doesn't
need too much time to get in good shape
for the foot orienteering season. He has
done more running during winter-time
than in any winter before, and it has
included a lot of orienteering with a map
in the forest.
– But I don't think I will be able to do my
best in the early competitions. I will train
hard to reach my best level in the competitions I have given priority to, he says.
“Impossible to describe”
Even though it has been a long winter with
a lot of tough races, he is not at all thinking
about rest. – It's no problem at all to concentrate on a new season. I am so motivated
for orienteering, he says.
Like all good sportsmen he always goes for
a win, and he says it feels very satisfying
to get such good results as he has achieved
this last winter.
– The results have shown that I have
done things right both in my training
and my preparation before the competitions. During the winter I have felt
stronger than ever both mentally and
physically, and it's impossible to describe one’s feelings when everything
is going well and you are flying. This
feeling in combination with the results
makes me very motivated for the future,
he says.
PHOTO: PIRJO VALJANEN
PHOTO: ERIK BORG
In the women’s class it was a hard battle for victory in the World Cup between Tatiana Vlasova,
Russia, and Liisa Anttila, Finland, with first place
going to Tatiana in the end.
Erik Rost took his first victory in the World Cup when he won the long distance in Switzerland just ahead
of his team mates Peter Arnesson and Tomas Löfgren. This victory also brought Erik his first senior international title because the race was also the European Championship.
www.orienteering.org
PHOTO: ERIK BORG
“Great to beat stars like
Keskinarkaus and Khrennikov”
Ondrej Vodrážka from the Czech Republic has had his best year
ever in ski orienteering. He won the silver medal in the middle
distance race in the European Championships, and finished sixth
overall in the World Cup standings.
BY ERIK BORG
Ondrej Vodrážka has had his best year ever
in ski orienteering. He has won his first
international medal and was sixth overall
in the World Cup.
good skiers in middle Europe or anywhere
else who learn how to orienteer, there could
be more strong ski orienteering athletes.
Only the Russians are ‘professionals’; the
best from Sweden, Finland and Norway are
also studying or working, Ondrej says.
– It gives a good feeling to be sixth and
to beat stars like Matti Keskinarkaus and
Eduard Khrennikov, Ondrej says.
He believes it is really important to get
strong athletes into ski orienteering from
more nations than there are today.
The star from the Czech Republic is the
only athlete among the ten best in the overall World Cup standings who isn't from
Sweden, Russia, Finland or Norway.
– The most important thing for the future
of ski orienteering is to get more interesting results with more athletes from the
Czech Republic, Switzerland, Bulgaria,
Estonia and other countries in the top ten,
he says.
How can athletes from nations other than the
big ones get to be among the very best?
– Hard training is the answer, and it's not
impossible for runners from a lot of nations.
First you have to be a strong skier; crosscountry skiing is hard work. If there are more
www.orienteering.org
Ondrej is 30 years old and lives in Pilsen.
He's working full-time as a sports assistant at the University of West Bohemia. In
June he and his wife Katarina are expecting
their first child.
– This season has only just finished, so
I haven’t made any decisions about next
year. My life will change with the child.
I expect less time for training, but I really
like this sport and the people and athletes
around it. I also feel that my results can
get even better. This year I have got on to
the podium, but I have not yet stood on the
top. That is my goal.
How is it that you have had your best
year as a sportsman now, when you are
30 years old?
– I don't exactly know why, because I
haven't done anything special or any extra training during the season. Maybe the
reason is avoiding injury during summer
training and having no health problems.
My good results in the first World Cup
round in Sweden probably also had an
influence. They gave me more self confidence, he says.
BY ERIK BORG
The door is open for
a new female star
Who will be the new female star this season, with Simone Niggli taking a year off
to start a family? And in the men's class,
can Thierry Gueorgiou continue to reign
supreme?
Minna Kauppi FIN, Heli Jukkola FIN,
Anne Margrethe Hausken NOR, Helena
Jansson SWE, Tanja Ryabkina RUS, Lena
Eliasson SWE, Kajsa Nilsson SWE, Dana
Brozkova CZE and Marianne Andersen
NOR are all potential candidates to be the
new queen. All of them have demonstrated
their strengths in the past, but some have
better skills than others in the type of terrain where the most prestigious races will
be held, and some have also been able
to prepare for the season better than the
others.
The Finnish girls Minna and Heli shared
the gold in the long distance at the World
Championships (WOC) in Ukraine in Au-
gust last year and were the only individual
gold medal winners except for Simone.
The Finnish girls have a lot of experience
and a lot of good results behind them.
Minna was the most successful woman
orienteer at the European Championships
in Estonia two years ago; she was better
than Simone on that occasion. And Heli
has been on the podium many times. Can
it be her big year now?
The Norwegian Anne Margrethe Hausken
has had her best training winter ever. She
hasn't been injured at all, which is unusual for her. She got a silver medal in the
sprint at WOC 2005, and that has been
her best individual performance before
this season.
Several promising Swedes
Helena Jansson from Sweden is studying
to be a doctor and one can question if she's
getting enough time for rest. Her teammate Lena Eliasson, who took bronze in
the sprint at WOC, has like Minna Kauppi
had setbacks with injuries. A third good
Swede is Kajsa Nilsson. She lost last season completely because of injury but now
she is back again. Marianne Andersen has
had problems with injury for quite a long
time, but the Norwegian has still managed
to win three individual WOC medals in the
last two years.
quite incredible last year. He won all the
World Cup races he took part in. He won
both sprint and middle distance at WOC
in Ukraine, but didn't start in the long distance. In this race Matthias Merz showed
great strength, and the Swiss runner was
also next after Thierry in the sprint; the
difference between them was only ninetenths of a second.
I believe Thierry will be at the top again,
but maybe he will get tougher competition
this year. There are a lot of strong runners
around. And among the men it looks as
though there haven’t been as many injury
problems as there have been among the
best women.
The Swiss runners Matthias Merz, Daniel
Hubmann and Marc Lauenstein (the last
two both had stomach problems at the last
WOC) showed that they have fast feet in
the Swiss Cross-country Championships.
All three were among the ten best. The
Russians Andrey Khramov and Valentin
Novikov are also very strong. If they get
to be in their best form in the Czech Republic it could be really good for them.
And Russia has won the relay at the two
last WOC's.
Emil Wingstedt failed to win an interna-
Kajsa Nilsson from Sweden lost last season completely because of injury but now she is back again.
Just ahead of the season start I am betting on Heli Jukkola, Anne Margrethe
Hausken, Tanja Ryabkina and Minna
Kauppi being the strongest candidates
to be the new queen, in this year without
Simone. The Swiss star is pregnant; for
some years now has she been number one
in the world.
PHOTO: ERIK BORG
PHOTO: PIRJO VALJANEN
Dana Brozkova, who took bronze in the
long distance at WOC in Denmark in 2006,
has WOC on home ground in the Czech
Republic this year. She is a girl really to
look out for. The Russian Tanja Ryabakina
has also been among the very best for a
long time.
Can Thierry repeat
his successes of last year?
In the men’s class Thierry Gueorgiou was
Thierry Gueorgiou had a very successful 2007 – he
will not be easy to beat in 2008 either.
www.orienteering.org
PHOTO: ERIK BORG
Dana Brozkova has WOC on home ground in the
Czech Republic this year.
tional gold medal last year, and the experienced Swede wants to be back at the top.
His team-mate David Andersson has had a
lot of injury trouble, but he had to manage
with that last year too and did well. Mikhail
Mamleev, now in the Italian team, is also
a runner to look out for. Anders Nordberg
has got better and better in the last year.
The Norwegian has now got two individual
medals from WOC, but he is still missing
gold – which is his goal.
With the championships in the Czech Republic this year, it is also easy for many
runners to prepare well, as the country is so
centrally placed in Europe. It will for sure
be an exciting year in the forest!
www.orienteering.org
PHOTO: ERIK BORG
Tero Föhr from Finland took silver in the
middle distance at WOC last year. Now
he has got more time for orienteering and
could improve further. Pasi Ikonen, Jani
Lakanen and Mats Haldin are other good
Finns. Pasi won gold at WOC without a
compass in 2001. Jani Lakanen won gold
at long distance in Denmark in 2005; his
achilles tendon was operated on before
Christmas and he hopes that he will get in
good condition before WOC. Mats Haldin
is still without an individual triumph at
WOC. Martins Sirmais from Latvia is
also a person who can fight for the medals. Overall, the competition for medals
is a bit more open amongst the men than
amongst the women.
The Finn Heli Jukkola is a strong candidate to be the new queen of orienteering.
A year off
for Hanny
BY ERIK BORG
Hanny Allston can be found back at the
swimming pool and also plans to get
stronger, faster and fitter, but the Australian world champion in sprint from 2006
is mainly focusing on her studies at the
moment. This year’s World Championships (WOC) in the Czech Republic is not
in her plans.
Hanny won the first WOC gold for a runner
from a non-European nation in her last year
as a junior. In Ukraine last year, sixth place
on the long distance was her best result. In
2005 she got the same placing on the long
distance in Japan.
A lot of big challenges
Hanny has achieved many remarkable results
both with and without a map and has talent in
a lot of sports. On her homepage www.hannyallston.com she has written out her goals;
to get a WOC gold on the long distance is
only in fourth place. Her biggest goal is to
represent Australia at an Olympic Games.
The second is to compete for Australia at the
World Cross-Country Championships. The
third is to win the World Mountain Running
Championships, and after that comes the
goal to win the long distance in orienteering.
The final two goals she has mentioned are to
complete a bachelor degree in teaching and
then teach abroad, and to still be running
when she is 90 years old.
Have you had enough of orienteering for
a while?
– I always love to compete in orienteering,
but the most important thing for me is to
complete my teaching degree. I would one
PHOTO: ERIK BORG
– I am not sure at this stage about WOC
in the Czech Republic, but I think it is
highly unlikely as I have to focus on my
studies. That is the number one priority for
me this year, says Hanny. The 22-year-old
Australian is now living in Auckland in
New Zealand. She moved there with her
boy friend Jarrod Vos in January this year.
He is an elite marathon runner and also a
physiotherapist, and has a lot of knowledge
about running and sports in general.
Hanny Allston wants to win the long distance at a World Championships one day, but the Australian sprint
champion isn't focusing on orienteering this year. Studies are most important right now for the 22-year-old,
but she also wants to improve her sporting skills.
day love to win a WOC long distance race,
like most other orienteers, but right now it
is not the main priority for me, she says.
Will train to run faster
At the moment she has no plans at all
for orienteering this year. She has found
her way back to the swimming pool; as a
young girl she showed a great talent for
swimming before an injury stopped her.
– I am doing a lot more running, and have
even got back into the swimming pool
again where I am dabbling in some competitions. It is hard to balance the travel
of orienteering and a huge workload at
university. When they fit in I hope to go
along for a run, but apart from my studies it is all about improvement this year,
she says.
The Olympics in Beijing isn't in your plans
either?
– No, Beijing came off the cards when
I suffered a few small niggling injuries
after WOC in Ukraine. For me number
one is teaching. Then I hope to also aim
for some new PB times in running events.
Maybe it can be another marathon if all
is progressing well, she says. At the beginning of October last autumn she won
the Melbourne Marathon with a time of
2:40.34. She is the second fastest female
marathon runner in Australia. The race
in Melbourne was in fact also only her
second marathon.
A lot of ideas
She will finish her studies in Auckland
in November and can then start work as
a teacher in a primary school. Earlier she
has completed a Batchelor of Medical
Research degree. – I have lots of ideas
floating around in my head about what
I might do next, but I have come to
no firm conclusions as to where I will
be and what I will be doing. I need to
consider what my goals are, where I can
get work and perhaps most importantly
what is best for both Jarrod and me,
she says.
www.orienteering.org
Martins Sirmais
- going for the podium
BY ERIK BORG
me, says Martins.
Two years ago, Martins Sirmais won the
first-ever international medal in orienteering for Latvia. This year, in the first international championships in orienteering at
senior level to be held in his home country,
he is aiming for the highest level.
The 25-year-old Latvian has had a good
winter’s training. He did a lot of running
for three months and then for almost two
months there was snow at his home.
– It's good to have big competitions in
one’s own country, says he and continues:
– Home is home! It gives me even greater
motivation to orienteer better! It is difficult
to say what is most important for me: the
European Championships (EOC) here
in Latvia or the World Championships
(WOC) in the Czech Republic, but in the
EOC there are in fact tougher races. More
runners from each nation can take part in
every discipline – but then I like to have a
bigger challenge, the Latvian says.
Martins comes from the little city Madona,
375 km away from Ventspils, where the
EOC will be held at the end of May and beginning of June. EOC is also the first round
of this year’s World Cup. Even though it's
the same country, the terrain in Madona
and that in Ventspils are not similar.
– The maps at home are totally different from those around Ventspils, so the
championship will be a big challenge for
– I had fun on skis, Martins says. In March
he went to a training camp in Marinha
Grande in Portugal.
– Everything has gone well with my preparations for the season, he says.
Good at everything
Last year Martins was fifth in the sprint
at WOC in Ukraine. Two years earlier he
was sixth in the sprint at WOC in Japan. In
2004 he was seventh on the long distance,
and his only international medal is in the
middle distance. At EOC in Estonia in
2006 he was second, just seven seconds
behind Thierry Gueorgiou.
PHOTO: PAULA LEHTOMÄKI
Everything has gone well
show everyone how interesting orienteering is, and it's good to have EOC here in
Latvia for that reason, he says.
– My goal for the coming season is to get
on the podium in both EOC and WOC,
he says.
What will the coming EOC, including the
first round of the World Cup, mean for
orienteering in Latvia?
– The popularity of orienteering is growing
higher and higher every year! We have to
The Latvian Martins Sirmais starts this year’s
World Cup on home ground. The European Orienteering Championships (EOC) is also a part of
World Cup. The skilful Latvian orienteer is one of
the candidates for medals.
Successful Event Adviser seminar in Copenhagen
BY ERIK NIELSEN
With 24 participants from 7 orienteering
federations, the IOF Event Adviser seminar held in Copenhagen on 8-9th March
2008 was a great success.
The venue for the clinic was the House
of Sports, which was decorated with
the national flags of the seven orienteering federations represented. The
seminar was organised by the Danish
Orienteering Federation on behalf of
the IOF Foot Orienteering Commission and the Rules Commission and
www.orienteering.org
it was lead by Erik Nielsen, Secretary
General for the 2006 World Orienteering Championships.
The group of participants included already licensed event advisers, some of
them even very experienced, and others
who were attending an adviser seminar
for the first time. The programme was
designed to fulfil both the experienced
advisers’ need to be updated on recent
developments within the IOF and the new
potential advisers’ need to be presented
with basic information about IOF and
the role, tasks and responsibilities of an
event adviser. The programme therefore
included subjects that are not usually
regarded as part of the programme for
a basic event adviser seminar, such as
planning and organisation, IT subjects
and arena building.
The main part of the training programme
was conducted by the IOF Sports Director Björn Persson. Erik Nielsen presented
topics on organisation and management
and Kell Sønnichsen, who was a prominent member of the IT group for WOC
2006, gave a talk on the IT requirements
at international events.
World Championships and World Cup 2008:
BY ERIK BORG
More TV and more races
This year there will be three more races
than last year in the World Cup, and the
biggest-ever TV coverage of a World
Championships.
– There will be direct coverage of all the
finals at the World Championships (WOC)
in the Czech Republic, and distribution to
other countries via the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), says Björn Persson.
He is Sports Director in IOF and in charge
of the development of the World Cup.
13 races in the World Cup
In 2008 there will be 13 races in all, compared to 10 races last year. All final races
at WOC and the European Championships
are included in this total, but only a runner’s eight best results from the first eleven
races, plus the 2 final races in Switzerland,
count for the overall World Cup standings.
There will be more than one race at each
of the venues for the World Cup: Latvia,
Norway, Czech Republic, Sweden and
Switzerland. All IOF member nations
can take part with up to six men and six
women, except in WOC. Finland, Norway,
Sweden, Switzerland, Great Britain and
Czech Republic can enter eight runners in
each class, and the host nations have four
extra places in both classes.
and chasing start and work to provide better viewing for spectators and the media
are also continuing, says Persson.
As in 2007, this year’s World Cup will be
a part of already existing big international
events. That gives good opportunities for
media coverage. And this year there will
be a big step forward in TV coverage: it is
hoped that there will be TV transmission
from WOC in a good number of nations
because the EBU will be broadcasting the
signals. The peak time for outdoor sports,
in the middle of July, is normally also a
part of the year when it is easier to get
media interest. The national federations
are being encouraged to work to obtain
TV coverage on their national channels.
At the World Cup races in Sweden and in
Switzerland it is also certain that there will
be extensive TV coverage.
The big relays Jukola and Tiomila have for
some years now had impressive coverage
with a huge screen in the arena. It is at
these huge relays and at World Championships that these screens have also helped
a lot in making orienteering into a better
sport for TV.
Better and better
During 2008 orienteering will be joining this
development when big international events
like WOC 2008, the World Cup Finals and
the Swedish relay Tiomila will be offered to
viewers world-wide on the internet.
– The big stadium sports are still dominating TV, but there is progress towards more
TV coverage of sports like biathlon and
cross country skiing. Orienteering has also
taken a big step forward as a sport for TV
and public in recent years. The creation of
new types of competition with mass start
Björn Persson is looking
forward to a new season with
more TV coverage than ever of
the big international events in
orienteering.
New platforms
Persson also points to new platforms for
live production.
– Currently in the media world there is a
strong development towards broadcasting
live on the internet as a high quality “payper-view” service, says Persson.
– I think this is a very interesting development for orienteering and I am sure more
events will follow on, the IOF Sports
Director concludes.
One of the races at O-Festivalen in Norway
may include Micr-o, a kind of orienteering
specially developed for TV.
– But if there is no proper TV coverage in
Norway it will probably not be Micr-o, and
then I think it is doubtful whether Micr-o
has a future in the international competition programme, says Persson.
Looking beyond Europe
Last year the World Cup was staged entirely in Europe. This year and next year
will be the same, but after that it will be
time for a change.
– In 2010 there should be some races
outside Europe. Orienteering is an international sport and the races cannot all be in
Europe every year. One possibility can be
that the World Cup is included in a regional
championship, says Persson.
www.orienteering.org