The two most prestigious TrailO
events in 2016, the European Championships and the World
Championships, provided both novelties and surprises. We had the
first use of an electronic validation system at the European
Championships, the first ever participation of an African country in
the World Championships and the new TrailO Relay format, which
replaced the Team Competition. Among the surprises were the
increasing number of young competitors enjoying success in this
discipline, and Slovakia and Italy taking the European and World
titles respectively in the TrailO Relay and successfully challenging
the general Scandinavian dominance.
Both of the top events, the European
Championships at Jeseník in the Czech Republic and the World
Championships at Strömstad in Sweden, caught the attention of all
TrailO addicts and brought to the forefront a new group of young
athletes who are already beginning to make their mark. Jorge Valente,
Spain, Johanne Biering and Karoline Saxtorph Schulz, both from
Denmark, Tereza Miklusova, Slovakia,
Iva Lovrec, Croatia and Daniel Locker, Czech Republic are young
athletes with great potential who are taking their first steps in
this discipline.
At the age of 19, Iva Lovrec was fourth
in the TempO Final in the World Championships, while Karoline
Saxtorph Schulz, just 15 years old, was the best Danish competitor in
PreO in the Open Class. And what about Daniel Locker? Second placed
in his TempO qualifying heat, he finished the final in twelfth place,
ahead of many of TrailO’s greatest names. And all this at the
age of 13!
New format and new technology
At the end of May in Jeseník, Czech
Republic, the European Championships brought the great novelty of an
electronic validation system, used for the first time in
international competition with the approval of the IOF. Although
there is much still to be refined, the speed of publication of the
results and the chance to follow the progress of the competition
online were great steps forward in the presentation of the event.
The other great novelty was in the
competition programme, and it had a very positive impact. Replacing
the Team Competition that has been held since 2004, the TrailO Relay
proved to be a thrilling new format. It has a fascinating strategic
component and brings fresh dynamism to this discipline. The final
results saw Remo Madella, Michele Cera and Alessio Tenani take the
European title in the Open Class for Italy, while in the Paralympic
Class the favourites Sweden were the winners, the team consisting of
Inga Gunnarsson, Michael Johansson and Ola Jansson.
In the TempO competition there was a
tight fight between the Czech Pavel Kurfürst and the Norwegian
Martin Jullum, with the penultimate task at the last station proving
fatal to Jullum’s hopes. In the end, just eight seconds separated
the two contenders, with Kurfürst achieving the first-ever gold
medal for the Czech Republic in a European TrailO Championships.
Sweden dominated the PreO competition, winning four out of the six
medals. In the Paralympic Class Ola Jansson got a clear win over
Michael Johansson, with the Ukrainian Vladislav Vovk - World Champion
in 2015 - having to settle for the bronze medal. In the Open Class
Stig Gerdtman was the winner with his team-mate Jens Andersson
finishing in third place. Second-placed Martin Jullum finished with
the same points total as the winner, but getting four of the six
timed control tasks wrong resulted in him missing his goal of the
gold medal, in the year in which he announced his farewell to top
competition.
Swedes dominated at home
The month of August was heading towards
its end when the ‘cream’ of world Trail Orienteering assembled in
Strömstad, Sweden. The Europeans were joined by competitors from
Hong Kong, Japan, the United States and, for the first time in the
history of the Championships, also an African country, Egypt. Using
the same competition plan as at the European Championships, 114
athletes fought for the world titles in PreO, TempO and TrailO Relay.
Kicking-off the Championships, the
TempO competition had as its great winner the Norwegian Lars Jakob
Waaler. After a weak performance in his qualifying heat, he was the
fastest and most accurate of the 36 finalists, reaching his first
gold medal ever in the World Championships in 13 attempts; he has
competed in every World TrailO Championships up to now. The Swede
Marit Wiksell and the Finn Pinja Mäkinen took the silver and bronze
medals respectively. Ten years after winning the world title in
Finland, Martin Fredholm managed to get a tasty home victory in the
PreO Open Class. After eight competitors had achieved a full points
score at the end of the first day, Fredholm showed his ‘nerves of
steel’ on the day of reckoning, being the only competitor in this
super-elite group to repeat a clean race. In the Paralympic Class,
Michael Johansson was able to pull back a two-point disadvantage from
the Russian Pavel Shmatov, both finishing the competition with the
same score, but with the best performance on the timed controls
earning Johansson his second world title in the last three years.
Kept for the last day, the TrailO Relay
had 18 Open and 9 Paralympic teams competing for the medals.
Repeating the excellent performance that earned them the European
title, Inga Gunnarsson, Ola Jansson and Michael Johansson were the
big winners in the Paralympic Class, beating the Ukrainians and
Finns, second and third ranked respectively. The big surprises were
in the Open Class, with the Nordic favourites well beaten by the
extraordinary performances of Marián Mikluš, Dušan Furucz and Ján
Furucz, who gave Slovakia the first gold medal in its history.
Portugal’s second place was also historic, its best ever
Orienteering result in a World Championships.
Text and photo: Joaquim Margarido
[See the original article at
http://orienteering.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/orienteering-world-webb.pdf.
Published with permission from the International Orienteering
Federation]
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