Maybe he hasn't the
projection or the media attention of the top athletes in the
international Orienteering scene but he is, on his way, a distinct
personality in the small world of Trail Orienteering. Dedicated
athlete and passionate blogger, Marco Giovannini is one of the big
names in the promotion of this as interesting as challenging
discipline and he is our guest today.
I hesitate between
you and your blog for the first question, but let's leave the
'creature' for later and take a look now on the 'creator'. Who is
Marco Giovannini?
Marco Giovannini (M.
G.) - Joaquim, the first words are for you: your guests are
usually great orienteers or personalities of Orienteering’s
World, whereas I’m one of the many people who lives orienteering
like an entertainment. I was born 45 years ago in Trento (among the
mountains) and I have been living in Milan since 1990 (among the
buildings). I discovered orienteering 23 years ago and during this
time I often travelled in Europe to take part in many competitions
(O-Ringen, WMOC in Portugal, 5 Days of France,…).
How was your passion
for Trail Orienteering born?
M. G. - In 2008,
during a multidays of Orienteering in Asiago, I entered in a
competition of Trail Orienteering (TrailO for friends); immediately I
liked it because my brain often needs new challenges. TrailO was the
perfect discipline because I walked alone in the forest with my
thoughts, listening to the birds’ sound and the nature’s aroma.
The result of my first competition was DISQ because I didn’t wait
for my turn at time controls (I remembered a long queue of
competitors in the middle of competition).
Have you ever
organized or planned a competition?
M. G.
- Yes, here (http://www.trailo.it/Gare.asp?ID_MANIFESTAZIONE=20)
you can find all the news. I remember that, one year before the
competition, I went on terrain in the same week of the year to study
vegetation and natural light and, I thought, the controls; I was the
last one to use four different time control places! I have explained
it in a separate document for competitors, how you could solve every
control; this was not appreciated and after that experience I lost my
passion due to not competent people. Sometimes I wouldn’t find the
same diligence in other competitions and this has created discontent
in the movement. In 2013 I’ll help my team to organize OOCup of
TrailO (Slovenia); I can say the terrain is very suitable for my
style of planning and my friends are waiting for this competition to
solve my controls.
And what about your
results?
M. G. - Only
this season I begun to train my Trail Orienteering skills; in the
past years, I used the competitions to improve my experience. Despite
that, sometimes I have got on the podium; I had the bronze medal at
ITOC 2010 (in 2012, I was 4th but I couldn’t win the title because
my club is Slovenian), sometimes I won Italy cup rounds….. but the
result is not all! After a competition and before to see the
classification, I ask to myself: “Are you happy? Have you done your
best?”. My personal philosophy is to enjoy myself after a week of
work, to challenge the planner’s problems, to find new stimulus, to
meet the TrailO friends. I hope that some of your readers, after this
interview, will spend some time to taste Trail Orienteering.
What do you see that
is so appealing in Trail Orienteering?
M. G. - I
believe that you make a big mistake if you think that Foot Orienteers
are attracted to TrailO; usually, a runner likes the fatigue, the
strain, he trains his body to run faster and faster. TrailO is a
discipline for people who want to use their brain, to overtake their
mental limit, to win a match without physical skills; I compare it to
chess, cards or puzzles. When I stay two hours in a park or in a
forest, I come back very happy, relaxed, until I see the solutions:
in that moment, my answers find the official decisions and sometimes
I don't agree with them.
In March 2010 you've
create the 'trail-O', a blog that appeared immediately as "a
meeting point for all those who see themselves on this discipline."
Can you tell me something about this adventure?
M. G. -
In 2007 I created a blog (http://mary-marco.blogspot.it)
where I wrote my adventures after every competition; I closed it when
my dog Rusky died (Rusky is my nickname too). When I began to play
with TrailO, I searched for news, rules, experiences but all material
was scattered in internet’s world. So I thought to create a web
site where I would have put all news. Unfortunately, like in a small
family, somebody in Italy didn’t like it because they saw this site
like a competitor and not like an useful vehicle to expand this
discipline.
Do you want to make
us a 'guided tour' through your blog?
M. G. -
Before I explain how my site works, I want to tell you that my next
task is to restyle some pages of www.trailo.it.
Here, I want to thank two friends of mine: the webmaster and my
teacher (Giuseppe Russo) and the interviewer (Stefano Galletti). The
site was born to help the Italian newcomers in the TrailO world.
After some years I have to admit that my readers are more foreigner
than Italian people; so, since last year, I decided to write in
English rather than in Italian. I have a “News” page where I
write some news about competitions or other interesting events;
“Rules” is a page dedicated to the rules about ISSOM, guidelines,
ranking formula, symbols. “Competition” is a box where I put the
results of Italian competitions (in 2012 I stopped this work because
it’s not appreciated);”Ranking” is similar to previous page but
the results are Italian ranking or Italy cup final classification.
“Stories” explain, in Italian language, a typical competition of
PreO for beginners; on the right side there are some interviews to
great European athletes. The last page contains some links to others
PreO blogs or websites. After the restyling, I think of inserting the
“TempO Game” and a database of international competitions (World
Champs, European Champs).
You've mentioned
'TempO Game'. What is it, precisely?
M. G. -
During these years, my passion about my site has decreased because my
efforts weren’t appreciated; The “TempO Game” is a new idea for
my free time: to study computer language and to create a game for my
friends. I remembered Libor’s site
(http://www.yq.cz/trail-o/TempO/):
the problem was to find real tasks, maps, competitions. I have
decided to create new games: if I find a good place, I use it to
build a new task… I draw a map using the photo; I don’t use the
real scale because the picture is too small for a scaled map. TempO
is a discipline where the mental speed is the primary skill; for this
reason I'd rather highlight the objects visible in the photo. The
tasks are a mixture of TrailO situations: I don’t want to create
too difficult tasks because the stress of the clock (near the image)
is enough to make a mistake. When I begin the game’s creation, I
didn’t suppose how many people would have played and their level of
tempO’s knowledge. The first step was to create only four games to
test this idea; now my passion has grown and I put on 20 games. I
invite everybody to try the game – at
http://www.trailo.it/Presentazione.asp
- and to send me their opinions; after this “beta
test” version, I work on the final game. My idea is to organize
some competitions on line. You have asked me “what is it?”: to
solve some tasks as fast as possible without mistakes….and then to
compare your score to the best elite Trail Orienteers! I’m very
happy because the Norwegian Federation has linked the game on its
site: more than 300 Norwegian people have played in the first week of
the year!
I must ask you,
based on your personal experience: TempO or TrailO?
M. G. - I
compare these disciplines with Foot Orienteering: TempO is like the
Sprint, TrailO is like Long Distance. I like TrailO because, after a
week of my job (in office), I need to walk and to relax in the
nature; TrailO is a myriad of thoughts, solutions, hypothesis: your
brain has to choose the right answers using the sight, geometry. I
like tempO because it’s intuition, adrenaline, mental training to
decide fast; it’s just the reverse of TrailO! TempO is the real
discipline where everybody (elite, paralympic) plays starting on the
same level. In my opinion, younger Trail Orienteers like the TempO
discipline because they love exciting games and their brain seems to
help them. The limit of TrailO is the leveling of competitors: often,
the final result is decided after time controls!
How do you see the
current moment of the Trail Orienteering all over the world?
M. G. - I
believe that Trail Orienteering is a young discipline and it’ll
continue to change every year; it was born for Paralympic people but
year after year the Open Class became larger; some years ago, the
Trail Orienteering movement was only a large family. Now, new
countries have discovered this discipline and the old rules are
obsolete because terrains, local rules, different type of planning
have created new situations. I hope the new generation of Trail
Orienteers (Marit, Lauri, Antii, Martin, etc…) is able to bring new
ideas to attract other young athletes. I know that a Commission is
working on technical rules: this work is very important because old
rules are not clear for the same situations (for example: I have
never understood why single contour line excludes some kites in the
real reentrance or spur). Otherwise, it’s not easy to involve new
paralympic people: in Italy we only have three paralympic people: I
have spoken with some disabled people but the equation “Disable =
TrailO” is wrong! These people think like the common people and
it’s difficult to find somebody who wants to travel for a TrailO
competition…
Italy, Croatia and
Slovenia formed a very interesting and dynamic regional block. Is
this an attempt in order to create an alternative to the Nordic
hegemony?
M. G. - I think
this cooperation was born spontaneously because North-East Italy’s
Regions, Slovenia and Croatia are close on the map: instead of
creating three micro TrailO’s schedules, these Countries have
organized an interesting Trophy. In the last period, I have often
travelled to Slovenia and now my Club is Ok Trzin (Slovenia). Be
careful: behind the words “Slovenia” and “Croatia” there
isn’t a large movement, but some small clubs. The number of
competitions is not yet adequate to create an interesting activity. I wait for the multidays competitions: in the past summer, I stayed in Czech
Republic for 5 days and then a week later in Slovenia, for 3 days!
After these competitions my feeling about TrailO’s practice has
improved.
Italy will receive,
in 2014, the World Trail Orienteering Championships but, before that,
in Portugal, we'll have the European Championships. To finish this
Interview, I ask you a preview of the two events.
M. G. - The
approval of competitors is often the key of success; for this reason
is very important to choose the right planners and to draw good maps.
In 2008 I stayed in Portugal to run WMOC; it has been a good
experience to run in beautiful forests and to visit the Country. I
think you and your Federation could show your quality. In Italy I
don't have news about planners or terrains where the competition will
be. I believe that the Italian movement has good individuality to
manage the WTOC but often political interest ruins these
opportunities. My favorite planner is Guido Michelotti but I don’t
know if he’s the planner of PreO; I call some of his controls
“Upper level” because nobody is able to teach this type of
controls.
[Photo by Marco Giovannini]
Joaquim Margarido
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