Antti Rusanen: "I feel great!"

Antti Rusanen entered his name for the first time in the Book of Honour of the World Trail Orienteering Championships at the age of 20 when, in Kiev, he won the silver medal in the Open Class. Eight years later, the Finnish comes finally to the gold, winning the final of TempO of Croatia's World Championships.

When finished his performance in the last station of the final of TempO, Antti Rusanen had an explosion of joy. Was screaming and with arms in the air, that he won the distance that separated him to the spectators, as if sure that the gold medal would not escape to him. “Of course, I didn't know”, he says. "I knew that I have done a good race but, of course, I didn't know the other results”. Clearly, the Finnish answered to the “defiance” and added: “I had to take huge decisions, but I did it quite well, no big problems. I felt confident almost the whole course, not in all stations, but I always found the solutions.”

After the “disaster” in the final of TempO of the World Championships in 2014, in Italy, Antti Rusanen shown to have removed this “dark shadow” and his feelings couldn't be better: “This title is the highlight of many years of work and I feel great”, he says. On the horizon are now the World Championships 2016, in Sweden, and the athlete confesses to be “prepared for high level competitions, both in PreO and TempO.”. The last words keep a reflection on the results of his most direct rivals, particularly the second place of the Slovakian Ján Furucz and the sixth and seventh places of the Portuguese Luís Gonçalves and Inês Domingues: “It's great to see athletes from other nations in the highest places of the standings. I have to take care”.

Joaquim Margarido