Clare Durand: "I'm the only serious Trail Orienteer within a three hour drive"

To talk about Clare Durand is to talk about resilience. It’s in Lancaster, in the desert north of Los Angeles, in the United States, that we’re going to find her. Clare studied Geography and Computer Science, worked for the government making military maps, worked on movies and television as an assistant director and taught Mathematics. She’s now directing local musical theatre productions, is an active volunteer with the Girl Scouts and is writing a series of children’s spy novels. Enough? It seems not. She’s also building a small business, organizing local orienteering races and training. In the midst of this whole bustle, Clare doesn’t neglect her own preparation, as she’s one of the most prominent and committed North American Trail Orienteers.

How did Orienteering came to your life? Why Orienteering and why not Gymnastics, for example?

C. D. - As a child, I was a competitive swimmer. But I stopped swimming at the age of 15 to have more free time. I did a single trail-based orienteering event during college with a colleague but didn't pursue it. A few years later, I had moved to the East Coast and attended a beginner's event that I read about in the newspaper and was hooked. I've always really enjoyed maps, navigation, and hiking, so it's no doubt this was the sport for me.

Do you remember when you first did TrailO? Was it love at first sight?

C. D. - I first did TrailO at a demonstration event in Wyoming, around 2000. I did very well. This was exciting to me, because I am not a naturally talented runner, which makes it more difficult for me to have high placings in Foot Orienteering. But TrailO was something I could really excel in.

What do you see in TrailO that makes it so special?

C. D. - What makes TrailO special is it's availability to people of all mobility challenges and it's purity as a map reading challenge. But I think it does make it difficult to get people practicing TrailO. Most outdoor enthusiasts want to be more active, and I'm sure it must be difficult for someone who cannot enter the terrain to understand the map in the same way that those of us who also do FootO can.

We are used to see you representing the US team in the World Trail Orienteering Championships. How do you assess your results so far? Would you expect something better?

C. D. - I've been disappointed to not have some higher placings, especially in PreO. I have had a few really excellent single day performances, but have not accomplished this for two days in a row when it counts. I've been encouraged by my continued improvement in TempO. Last year I came close to making the final, which is a big jump from being near the bottom of the standings in Italy. It's hard to keep up with the amount of TrailO that goes on in Europe. My competitors are getting much more practice. I also have never won the U.S. Championships in TrailO. That's a big target for me.

What is the most difficult part of being Trail orienteer in the United States?

C. D. - Lack of events and training opportunities. The U.S. is a very large place with very few Trail Orienteers. I'm the only serious Trail Orienteer within a three hour drive, so there is no one to help me train near home. Any local events are put on by me, but since I am also putting on most of the local Foot Orienteering, it leaves little time for TrailO. Similar conditions exist for most of our team members.

Please, complete the sentence: For having a strong TrailO team, the United States would...

C. D. - (…) Commit to having many more TrailO events throughout the country and have Trail Orienteering training camps. Our team is not attracting new people. We need to attract more new orienteers and especially figure out how to bring Trail Orienteering to the Paralympic population who might be interested in our sport.

You were the course setter of the 2017 US TrailO Championships, recently said held in Camp Sherman, California. Are you happy with your work and with the overall event?

C. D. - I was very happy with the course. The competitors had high praise and really enjoyed it. I did have to throw out one control, but this was fine, since I agreed with the complaint once I looked at the situation. I wish we had a better turnout. Less than 20 people competed in the Trail Orienteering events. The last time I set the U.S. Champs (2009), we had over 50 people compete. So this shows how Trail Orienteering is on the decline in the U.S.

What are your goals for the season?

C. D. - I am hoping to go to Lithuania, but am having difficulty fitting it in my budget, so I'm still working on that. A trip from California to Europe is very expensive. If I can go, my goals would be to have two excellent PreO days, possibly reaching the awards level, and to make the TempO final.

Would you like to share your biggest dream with us?

C. D. - I have many big dreams related to my different pursuits. I dream that orienteering would become popular enough in the U.S. that we would have events every weekend in every city. In TrailO my biggest dream would be to achieve the gold medal in PreO at the World Champs.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

C. D. - I think that it is difficult to attract people to TrailO because orienteering is an inherently active sport and TrailO is not. I sometimes wonder if we should develop some sort of Paralympic wheelchair sprint event to bring more athleticism to the Paralympic format.

Joaquim Margarido

Thermenland Open 2017: Jan Furucz wins TrailO competition

The Thermenland Open 2017 took place last weekend in Hungary, with some really interesting FootO and TrailO competitions. Susy De Pieri and Jan Furucz were the main figures in the PreO and TempO stages, respectively.

Organized on a basis of a cross-border cooperation between the orienteering clubs of Zalaegerszeg in Hungary, Fürstenfeld in Austria, Medimurje in Croatia and Slovenia, the Thermenland Open returned to Hungary after 2010, 2011 and 2014, for a two-day competition of FootO and TrailO.

Attended by 26 athletes from Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy and Hungary, the TrailO competition was arranged by Zoltán Miháczi, with a PreO stage in Zalakaros Park, and a TempO stage, in Nagykanizsa, a beautiful place near a boating lake. Susy de Pieri (Eridano Adventure), Italy, achieved the victory in the PreO stage, after a tight fight with the Slovakian Jan Furucz (Farmaceut Bratislava) and the Slovenian Emil Kacin (OK Azimut). All three competitors finished the course with 22 out of 23 possible points. The two timed stations, with three tasks each, were decisive regarding the winner, with De Pieri being one-second faster than Furucz.

Jan Furucz took his revenge on the next day, performing amazingly in the TempO competition were

he was not only the fastest - with 215 seconds spent in the six timed stations, with five tasks each, and an average of seven seconds of answering time per task -, but also the most accurate, with three incorrect answers. Jan Furucz's total time was 305 seconds, 266 seconds less than the Hungarian Fruzsina Biró (BEA), second placed. Suzy De Pieri and Emil Kacin finished in the third position with the same time, just one second after Biró. Jan Furucz was Thermenland Open's overall winner, Suzy De Pieri finished second and Emil Kacin got the third place.

Results

PreO

1. Susy De Pieri (Eridano Adventure, ITA) 22 points / 38 seconds

2. Jan Furucz (Farmaceut Bratislava, SVK) 22 points / 39 seconds

3. Emil Kacin (OK Azimut, SLO) 22 points / 194 seconds

4. Renato Bettin (Or Swallows, ITA) 21 points / 79 seconds

5. Ferenc Fehér (ZTC, HUN) 21 points / 91 seconds

6. Krešo Keresteš (OK Trzin, SLO) 20 points / 86 seconds

7. Fruzsina Biró (BEA, HUN) 19 points / 133 seconds

8. Alessandro Casarin (Or Swallows, ITA) 17 points / 114 seconds

9. (1. Junior) András Csertán (ZTC, HUN) 17 points / 161 seconds

10. Edit Palumbi (VHS, HUN) 17 points / 212 seconds

(…)

15. (1. Paralympic) Miksa Laáber (BEA, HUN) 15 points / 156 seconds

TempO

1. Jan Furucz (Farmaceut Bratislava, SVK) 305 seconds

2. Fruzsina Biró (BEA, HUN) 571 seconds

3. Susy De Pieri (Eridano Adventure, ITA) 572 seconds

3. Emil Kacin (OK Azimut, SLO) 572 seconds

5. (1. Junior) Barnabás Hargitai (ASK, HUN) 683 seconds

6. Krešo Keresteš (OK Trzin, SLO) 687 seconds

7. (2. Junior) Vid Keresteš (OK Trzin, SLO) 725 seconds

8. Ferenc Fehér (ZTC, HUN) 729 seconds

9. (3. Junior) Bertalan Kiss (SZT, HUN) 732 seconds

10. Renato Bettin (Or Swallows, ITA) 735 seconds

(…)

17. (1. Paralympic) Miksa Laáber (BEA, HUN) 900 seconds

Complete results, all maps and further information at http://adatbank.mtfsz.hu/esemeny/show/esemeny_id/6564.

Joaquim Margarido

Javier Oramas: "There are lots of things to do"

Javier Perez Oramas is from Colombia. Passionate about Orienteering, he's a keen contributor to the revitalization of the sport in his country. But the task ahead is anything but easy, as we can see in another great Interview in the Portuguese Orienteering Blog.

I would start by asking who is Javier Perez Oramas?

Javier Oramas (J. O.) - I was born in 1981, in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, and currently live in Barcelona (temporarily because I am getting a master's degree in Big Data). I am passionate about the Biomechanics of sport and my professional formation is in Sports' Sciences.

How were you introduced to orienteering and what makes it such a special sport?

J. O. - I was introduced to Orienteering in the University, as part of a discipline's content, and since then (2006) I've been very interested in it. The most interesting part is the requirement of developing strategies during the course, which make it very fun and also encourages the competitiveness from start to finish because, since you don't know if you are leading, it forces you to push it to the limit.

Would you like to tell us about your career so far?

J. O. - I have practised a wide range of sports, but mostly BMX and Artistic Gymnastics. In 2006 I took part in my first Orienteering race and in an Adventure Race (with maps in black and white), which motivated me to follow the Outdoor sports' line. However, the only offer I found in my country was Adventure Racing (I participated in everything I could) and it was only in 2012 that I ran my first orienteering race under the IOF regulations. Although the Colombian Federation must have had about 10 years at that time, we had very few events and athletes, and it was very difficult to keep a competitive orienteering calendar. So, I started with Trail Running to do my physical preparation while waiting for the next National event. In 2015, thanks to the support of the IOF, which provided two spots to Colombia, I had the opportunity to attend the IOF Clinic and the WOC in Scotland, as a representative of my country.

Is there any truly remarkable situation that you would like to highlight along ten years of Orienteering?

J. O. - The WOC 2015 is, undoubtedly, the moment when my sports and professional career took a new direction. Being my first Orienteering experience outside Colombia, everything was new, but what made it more valuable and enriching was that, before the Championships, we had - and I mean in the plural because we were people from several countries there – an Orienteering Clinic in which they strengthened us as athletes and gave us tools to contribute to the development of this sport in our countries. In addition to this, we were exceptionally accompanied by the IOF throughout the WOC and the 6 Days of Scotland, which made it possible to successfully meet the participation targets.

It was a great pleasure to have you among the participants in the Trail Orienteering Seminar promoted, last December, by the University of Valencia, Spain. Why Trail Orienteering?

J. O. - In addition to being a very interesting discipline for FootO competitors, the Colombian Federation shows a great interest in its development because of its characteristics of inclusiveness.

What memories do you keep from the Seminar?

J. O. - The structure and the topics covered seemed very well addressed, in my opinion, and I now feel able to organize a small TrailO event. I intend to pass this knowledge on to the Federation of my country, which is really interested in organizing some TrailO events in Colombia.

In 2013, Colombia hosted The World Games, gathering some of the best orienteers in the world. This would suggest Orienteering could reap the benefits of such important event but, unfortunately, it seems that things had the opposite effect and Colombia is among the countries that have just been suspended from members of the IOF. I would ask you for a comment.

J. O. - It's very discouraging as an athlete to learn that your country has been suspended, making you reevaluate the international goals. I was surprised by the suspension and tried to get a reaction from the Colombian Federation. They feel that “IOF doesn't provide enough support". I think that IOF didn't evaluate the situation correctly, as The World Games could represent an impulse for this sport in Colombia. The Colombian Federation has had administrative ups and downs and, for that year, was emerging again, with very few athletes. The event didn't have a significant impact on Orienteering's development because of the lack of experience and resources, so I think that, if the IOF really wants the Federations of emerging countries to consolidate, they must adapt their cooperation policies and strategies to the socio-economic and technological realities. And I say it because we are not the only ones with difficulties to make this sport sustainable in the region.

Could you tell us how difficult, or easy, it can be to combine your passion for Orienteering with living in Colombia?

J. O. - No one can expect it to be easy. There are lots of things to do, but there's also a great opportunity of work here. That's why I decided to come to Europe with the aim of preparing myself personally and professionally in Orienteering, and I shall carry all my knowledge to my country.

How can you help Colombia return to Orienteering's map?

J. O. - The scene is somewhat complex to analyze because we have two situations to deal with: a reality of sports development and another purely administrative. In the sporting context, we find that the country's international sporting goals are still unclear, and although the IOF had extended its support in the previous years, I think that an additional support plan towards the WOC is necessary, because the participation in such an event represents a huge sport and administrative effort for small federations, which threatens the continuity of their participation (as it's clear now). On the other hand, the internal situation of the Colombian Federation, with an administration weakened and far from the international framework, requires the dialogue to be resumed. In my opinion, the initiative has to start from the IOF, getting our leaders to react to the call of the International community. Although there are athletes and people in Colombia who are interested in developing the sport, it has not been possible to articulate with the National Federation; and if we add the recent suspension of the IOF, the will will increasingly be less, making it a lot more difficult to return to the international scene.

Would you like to share your goals for 2017 with us?

J. O. - I have planned to prepare this season in Europe, aiming to participate in one World Cup, at least, and if possible, although the panorama has changed, go to the WOC in Estonia.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

J. O. - Developing this sport, in any country, has special conditions that makes the whole process more complex and, therefore, requires a more solid assistance and monitoring model from the IOF than the current one.

Joaquim Margarido

Dušan Furucz: "We need to simplify the rules"

Dušan Furucz isn’t "just" the World Champion of TrailO Relay. He is also the Director of the European Trail Orienteering Championships ETOC 2018 and one of the IOF Trail Orienteering Commissioners. Versatile, pushy and highly committed to TrailO, inside and outside his home country, Slovakia, he is the guest of the Portuguese Orienteering Blog for another great interview.

Some time ago, I had the chance to interview, separately, your brothers Ján and Peter. It's now your turn to be on the Portuguese Orienteering Blog's tribune and the first question is about Orienteering as a family sport. How important were your brothers (and, maybe, your parents too) in choosing your career?

Dušan Furucz (D. F.) - I think family is always very important in everybody's career. My father was a very good 800 metres runner but ended his career soon after he moved to the adult category. When I started orienteering, at the age of 10 and was coached by Pavol Mesiar, my father supported me enthusiastically. My brother Jan and my sister Ivona followed me shortly and, soon after, my father had taken over our training group, focusing on the Athletics' training method, balanced with a large amount of training with map. I can't forget about my mother, as well. Can you imagine a group of 20-30 children in our small flat before and after trainings? (laughs) My youngest brother Peter joined us about 10 years later. He was considerably younger. I can confirm that my best results were reached when my family directly supported me on the competitions.

Would you like to remember one or two decisive moments that made you adopt TrailO as your favourite sport?

D. F. - I wouldn't say that TrailO is my favourite sport. I'm still feeling more comfortable as a Foot orienteer (I like longer distances, as Long and Rogaining), but the reason for choosing TrailO is my family, of course. My brother Jan is very committed to developing TrailO in Slovakia and “blood is thicker than water”, so I'm helping him. After my first TrailO competition, in the Czech Republic, I was a little confused because it was too strange for me, but my opinion changed with the TempO. Now, I feel like balancing on the edge of TrailO. Nordic style competitions move me up and TrailO ones move me down. I have to say that we are very competitive, me and my brother, and we can't accept to be worse in any discipline. This is the main reason to improve my results in TrailO.

When you first appeared competing at the highest level – WTOC 2014, Italy -, the results achieved were totally surprising for many. We now know that your performances weren't a fluke and the world title in the TrailO Relay, achieved last year, is here to confirm it. Where is the secret of your success?

D. F. - I've always been a better mapper than runner and I'm able to read the terrain very quickly. I created a lot of maps for my club Farmaceut Bratislava and TrailO is a kind of competition for map makers or orienteering university for mapping techniques. As for success? I don't think that I'm a successful competitor. There have been some great results that may have caught me off guard (usually a podium on the first days or when my chances of achieving a good final result are gone), but all the time I had the possibility of getting a medal, I failed. I need to improve on my skills, specially those regarding focus. We get medals on the relay competitions because both Marian [Mikluš] and I are team players and we usually serve responsibly and perform greatly for the team in any orienteering discipline.

What are the most important skills for being a good trail orienteer?

D. F. - Good map reading and visualization are the two most important skills. But there are two other skills which provide a significant difference between average and excellent results. The first one is to stay calm when it counts and the second one is to understand what the course setter means on two or three control points which make the difference. This is the reason why my brother is better than me in the big competitions.

Please, complete the sentence: To be a Trail orienteer in Slovakia means...

D. F. - To be a Trail orienteer in Slovakia means to be a scout or pioneer. We are discovering this sport. Orienteering is a small sport in Slovakia but I think people know it historically, even from the time of Czechoslovakia. For example, the name Jozef Polák is still well-known and I could keep going with some other names. The TrailO is new and totally unknown for the Slovak public. We are presenting it as an integration orienteering discipline and we have to explain what TrailO is, but the awareness is improving. The main difficulty is the number of organizers. We need to improve it.

You're in charge of organizing the European Trail Orienteering Championships next year. How is the event's preparation going? Is everything under control?

D. F. - I hope that we are in time with the preparation's schedule. We would like to end all mapping work before summer. I finished the maps for the Relay and PreO day 1 and I'm working on spare terrains now. I'm expecting that the most courses will be done and checked by advisor Ari Tertsunen this month. My brother is preparing maps for TempO and we asked our well-known Slovak mapper Robert Miček to help us with the map for PreO day 2, to save time for other activities. I have to say that I'm also struggling a little with bureaucratic activities as Event Director because it's a totally new experience for me.

What kind of event can we expect?

D. F. - You can expect different terrains for each discipline, from flat in TempO to high steep slopes in PreO day2. We would like to prepare a fair competition with clear Zero tolerance and we want to be closer to Foot orienteering competitors. You cannot expect tricky tight Zero answers from us and controls with “between” description. I'm expecting that distance between the Zero answer and the closest flag will be more than 5m. You can find more information on our pages at www.etoc2018.sk.

Other particular task is the IOF TrailO Commission. How did you realize your nomination?

D. F. - I didn't expect to be nominated and it was a complete surprise. There are a lot more experienced IOF TrailO members, but I accept the position seeing a tendency for fresh air on it and acknowledgment of our effort to improve TrailO. I asked IOF for time to think about it but I finally agreed. It's a big privilege for me to help the TrailO community. To be honest, on this first year, I have to spare my time for another responsibilities, too. By the way, I would like to congratulate you on your nomination to the TrailO commission, too.

Thank you so much. Is Trail Orienteering moving in the right direction? Are there some priority subjects on which we have to work in order to have better and fair TrailO competitions?

D. F. - It's difficult to discuss the TrailO movement because I've only been doing it for a very short time. But my personal opinion is that we must make our sport more clear and transparent. It is not acceptable that other people see TrailO as a very complex and subjective sport and one day the answer is correct and the other day the same or similar answer is wrong. In brief, we need to simplify the rules, not create problems to the problems and finally, somehow, define the Zero tolerance.

Your brother Peter is developing an amazing game called Virtual-O. Did you ever think of it adapted to TrailO as an instrument for training?

D. F. - Yes, we discuss it very often during our training and consultations. I believe that TrailO courses will be part of VirtualO and we would like to use some live presentations on his program in our European Championships, too. To be honest, he needs more time for implementing all the features and new maps. Do you know that he spent his last year programming and left his job for this period? He returned to work in January and now he continues programming during his free time in the evening.

The season has already started and you were one of the attendants to Lipica TrailO 2017, for the Unofficial European Cup in Trail Orienteering's first round. Are you happy with your results?

D. F. - Yes and no. I don't like urban TempO and I knew that it would be totally different from last year's TempO in the forest, which I won. I tried to change my technique, reading all of the descriptions and finding safe answers but, in reality, I lost 60-90 seconds by reading, plus I made some stupid mistakes finding some “creative” solutions. I have to return to my old, quick style. The PreO competition was very tight and I lost my focus on two controls. It was too much for a good result.

The World Trail Orienteering Championships 2017 will take place in Lithuania. Are you looking forward to them?

D. F. - I hope to see a lot of contour lines reading during PreO and especially in the TrailO Relay. I am not so excited with the TempO, which will probably be urban again. I am expecting difficult courses where you won't see winners without mistakes.

How hard will it be to defend your TrailO Relay World title? Do you have any other goals?

D. F. - I think that big countries, such as Sweden, Norway and Finland will be fighting, as always, for the medals and we cannot forget the strong Portuguese and Italian teams. Croatia and the Czech Republic can be nice surprises, too. Yes, it will be very difficult but we will try to keep the World title. I will also try a surprise in the other disciplines.

Would you like to share your biggest wish with us?

D. F. - I have two wishes. The first one is more real forest TempO competitions than urban competitions. The second one and my biggest wish is to win over my brother in TempO on a big competition. I know and believe that I can do it.

Is there anything that you would like to add?

D. F. - I would like to wish all orienteers in each orienteering discipline fun and fair competitions in difficult terrains.

Joaquim Margarido

FinTrailO 2017: Marit Wiksell wins for the fourth year in a row

For the fourth year in a row, Marit Wiksell was the winner of FinTrailO 2017. The set of results achieved along the three stages assured her the triumph after a tight fight with Pinja Mäkinen, who would occupy the second position.

Espoo, 20 km west of Helsinki, was the venue of FinTrailO's fourth edition. Divided by three stages – one TempO and two PreO - the event scored for the Unofficial European Cup in Trail Orienteering, attracting 140 competitors from 15 different nations. Organized by OK77, directed by Anna Jacobson and having Åke Jacobson (PreO 1&2) and Roope Näsi and Alahärmän Kisa (TempO) as Course Setters, it was a very successful event, crowning a two-year work on both mapping, course setting and general organization.

According to Anna Jacobson's thoughts to the Portuguese Orienteering Blog, organizers and competitors “were rather unlucky with the weather in the PreO stages: On Saturday afternoon it rained and snowed and there was a storm where big trees fell on the route (right after the competition before the controls were taken in). One flag fell on control 6 so it had to be voided. Then it snowed (!!?) the whole evening and night and in the next morning the course setter got up at 4, changed the tires of the car back to winter tires and went on to bring the flags (93) to the terrain. No markings could be seen on the ground due to the snow, and no control flags could be seen from the road - due to the snow! So we mobilised 4-5 officials (woke them up) who started cleaning the trees of snow. Further, no motorised wheel chairs could drive up the hill (400 m, very steep) to the start, neither could our car meant for transporting wheelchairs (summer tires). Again, 4-5 men took their shovels and rakes, and cleaned the road! It was amazing. Finally, due to our helpful officials, we were able to organise the competition as planned.” And she concludes: “I'm very happy that so many competitors came to FinTrailO and the competitors were very tough when competing in such circumstances we had. I am also happy about that the two ECTO events we organised were challenging but fair. PreO 2 terrain and course were exceptionally nice for map reading.”

FinTrailO 2017 started with the TempO stage, in which Marit Wiksell (Rehns BK) was clearly the fastest, answering correctly to 27 out of 30 tasks (6 timed stations with 5 tasks each) and finishing with the time of 258. Ján Furucz (Farmaceut Bratislava) got the second place with 266 seconds and Erik Stålnacke (IFK Göteborg), the most accurate with just one incorrect answer, finished in the third place with 272 seconds. Marit Wiksell performed at her best in the PreO's first day, finishing in the second place with 26 points and two incorrect answers. Pinja Mäkinen got the first place with 27 points. The PreO day 2 ended the event with a 34-control course and Martin Fredholm (OK Linné) was the only competitor to do a clean race. In the immediate positions, with less one point, standed Antti Rusanen (Keravan Urheilijat) and Erik Stålnacke. Achieving the lowest scoring-time in the combined results of three stages, Marit Wiksell was the FinTrailO 2017's winner for the fourth year in a row. Pinja Mäkinen and Antti Rusanen got the second and third positions, respectively.

Results

TempO (ECTO #3)

1. Marit Wiksell (Rehns BK, SWE) 258 seconds

2. Ján Furucz (Farmaceut Bratislava, SVK) 266 seconds

3. Erik Stålnacke (IFK Göteborg, SWE) 272 seconds

4. Pinja Mäkinen (Koovee, FIN) 322 seconds

5. Lauri Mäkinen (Mäntsälän Urheilijat, FIN) 335 seconds

6. Jari Turto (Kokemäen Kova-Väki, FIN) 346 seconds

7. Lennart Wahlgren (Rehns BK, SWE) 352 seconds

8. Geir Myhr Øien (Ringsaker OK, NOR) 376 seconds

9. Antti Rusanen (Keravan Urheilijat, FIN) 388 seconds

10. Lars Jakob Waaler (Porsgrunn OL, NOR) 392 seconds

PreO 1

1. Pinja Mäkinen (Koovee, FIN) 27 points / 12 seconds

2. Marit Wiksell (Rehns BK, SWE) 26 points / 14 seconds

3. Mikko Heinonen (Kalevan Rasti, FIN) 26 points / 16 seconds

4. Michael Johansson (Vänersborgs SK, SWE) 26 points / 19 seconds

5. Robertas Stankevic (RASKK Vilniaus, LTU) 26 points / 26 seconds

6. Ján Furucz (Farmaceut Bratislava, SVK) 26 points / 73 seconds

6. Erik Lundkvist (HJS-Vansbro OK, SWE) 26 points / 73 seconds

8. Antti Rusanen (Keravan Urheilijat, FIN) 25 points / 7 seconds

9. Martin Fredholm (OK Linné, SWE) 25 points / 14 seconds

10. Jari Turto (Kokemäen Kova-Väki, FIN) 24 points / 16 seconds

PreO 2 (ECTO #4)

1. Martin Fredholm (OK Linné, SWE) 34 points / 15 seconds

2. Antti Rusanen (Keravan Urheilijat, FIN) 33 points / 16 seconds

3. Erik Stålnacke (IFK Göteborg, SWE) 33 points / 20 seconds

4. Marit Wiksell (Rehns BK, SWE) 32 points / 12 seconds

5. Lars Jakob Waaler (Porsgrunn OL, NOR) 32 points / 15 seconds

6. Geir Myhr Øien (Ringsaker OK, NOR) 32 points / 22 seconds

7. Pinja Mäkinen (Koovee, FIN) 32 points / 27 seconds

8. Aleksei Laisev (Keravan Urheilijat, FIN) 32 points / 31 seconds

9. Michael Johansson (Vänersborgs SK, SWE) 31 points / 15 seconds

9. Samy Hyvönen (RastiPielinen, FIN) 31 points / 15 seconds

FinTrailO 2017 Combined Results

1. Marit Wiksell (Rehns BK, SWE) 524 seconds

2. Pinja Mäkinen (Koovee, FIN) 541 seconds

3. Antti Rusanen (Keravan Urheilijat, FIN) 651 seconds

4. Erik Stålnacke (IFK Göteborg, SWE) 698 seconds

4. Martin Fredholm (OK Linné, SWE) 698 seconds

6. Ján Furucz (Farmaceut Bratislava, SVK) 799 seconds

7. Geir Myhr Øien (Ringsaker OK, NOR) 829 seconds

8. Lars Jakob Waaler (Porsgrunn OL, NOR) 833 seconds

9. Michael Johansson (Vänersborgs SK, SWE) 853 seconds

10. Jari Turto (Kokemäen Kova-Väki, FIN) 916 seconds

To see the complete results, maps, solutions, photos and further information, please visit the event's webpage at http://www.ok77.fi/fintrailo/.

[Photos: Jarmo Koskela / jarmokoskela.kuvat.fi]

Joaquim Margarido

Spanish Trail Orienteering Championships 2017: Søren Saxtorph and Inês Domingues were the winners

Inês Domingues and Søren Saxtorph won their classes and were the great figures of the 2017 Spanish Trail Orienteering Championships. Internally, Santiago Pérez and Miguel Ángel Garcia achieved their first TrailO Spanish titles.

As usual during the Easter season, the Spanish Orienteering Federation organized, this time with GOCAN club, the 2017 Spanish Orienteering Championships, whose program included a PreO competition. With courses set by Hector Lorenzo, the event was held in Miraflores de la Sierra (Madrid) and was attended by 126 competitors from Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Israel, the United States and South Africa. In the Paralympic Class, the Spanish Miguel Ángel Garcia (ADOL) wasn't an easy opponent for the super-favorite Søren Saxtorph (Ballerup OK), Denmark, holder of four individual medals at World Championships. Both answered correctly to 23 out of 25 tasks and both missed one of the timed controls, being the victory to the Nordic competitor because of his faster answering speed in the timed station.

In the Open Class, the Portuguese Inês Domingues (COC) showed once again all her talent, being the only competitor to answer correctly all tasks. To this immaculate performance, Inês added a "supersonic" answer time in the timed station, clearly below the average of the other competitors. One point less than the winner were classified eight competitors, with another Portuguese, Jorge Baltazar (GDU Azoia), getting the best time in the timed station and achieving the second position. In the third position were placed two competitors with equal time of answer in the timed controls: the very young Danish Karoline Saxtorph Schulz (Ballerup OK), one of the great revelations of the recent World Championships, and Santiago Pérez (COMA), thus achieving his first national title.

Results

Open class

1. Inês Domingues (COC, POR) 25 points / 12 seconds

2. Jorge Baltazar (GDU Azoia, POR) 24 points / 36 seconds

3. Santiago Pérez (COMA) 24 points / 40 seconds

3. Karoline Saxtorph Schulz (Ballerup OK, DEN) 24 points / 40 seconds

5. Arturo Garcia Dingra (Escondite-T) 24 points / 77 seconds

6. Alex Tello Lacal (Valencia-O) 24 points / 91 seconds

7. Jorge Valente Barrera (Imperdible) 24 points / 92 seconds

8. Javier Arufe (APA Liceo) 24 points / 98 seconds

9. Ana Belén Calvo (UPV-O) 24 points / 116 seconds

10. Juan Pedro Valente (Imperdible) 23 points / 43 seconds

Paralympic class

1. Søren Saxtorph (Ballerup OK, DEN) 23 points / 84 seconds

2. Miguel Ángel Garcia (ADOL) 23 points / 100 seconds

3. Carlos Riu (COMA) 18 points / 112 seconds

4. Sergio Martin (COHU) 18 points / 116 seconds

5. Alice Rouillard (Montsant Orientació) 11 points / 180 seconds

[The Portuguese Orienteering Blog thanks Miguel Ángel Garcia for his kind attention in providing all the information]

Joaquim Margarido

JK 2017: Victories of Geir Myhr Øien and Sarah-Jane Barrable in the TrailO stages

To British orienteers, Easter matches with Jan Kjellström International Festival of Orienteering. This year's competitive program included two TrailO stages, the first of the season in the UK, with victories of Geir Myhr Øien in TempO and Sarah-Jane Barrable in PreO.

JK's TrailO competition was attended by 60 competitors in the TempO stage and 42 in the PreO stage, mostly British, but also representatives from Germany, Latvia, Sweden, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Norway. And it was precisely a Norwegian who showed up at his best by winning the TempO, a stage planned by Scott Collier, with Charles Bromley Gardner in the role of Controller and played on the campus of Brunel University in London. Geir Myhr Øien (Ringsaker OK) answered in 204 seconds to the 30 tasks of the course (six timed stations, with five tasks each), getting a 150-second penalty for five wrong answers. The final 354 seconds guaranteed him a comfortable win over one of the best British specialists in TempO, the young Tom Dobra (UBOC), credited with 467 seconds overall. The fight for the bronze medal was titanic, with the German Anne Straube (OD) scoring 482 seconds and beating the Norwegian Sigurd Dæhli (Løten OL) for one second and the British Nick Barrable (SYO) for two seconds. Still a word for the British Anna Harris (DEE), the most accurate with only two wrong answers, but with an answer time of 494 seconds, which meant that her final classification was not beyond the 8th place.

Designed by Ian Ditchfield and Peter Huzan and supervised by Dick Kighley, the PreO stage took place in Owibeech and featured an 18-control course, plus a two-tasks timed station. Mark Nixon (FVO) was almost perfect over the course, but he was charged by the time pressure on the last two controls, missing both and finished with 15 points overall and the third place. Sarah-Jane Barrable (SLOW) and Kenny Leitch (SO) got 16 points overall and Sarah-Jane was faster than her direct opponent in the timed station, keeping the victory. One final word to the difficulty inherent to the control nº 4 and also to the second timed control, registering abnormally high percentages of incorrect answers (93% in the first case and 86% in the second case).

Results

TempoO

1. Geir Myhr Øien (Ringsaker OK, NOR) 354 seconds

2. Tom Dobra (UBOC) 467 seconds

3. Anne Straube (OD, GER) 482 seconds

4. Sigurd Dæhli (Løten OL, NOR) 483 seconds

5. Nick Barrable (SYO) 484 seconds

6. John Kewley (MDOC) 496 seconds

7. Alan Hickling (SAX) 507 seconds

8. Anna Harris (DEE) 554 seconds

9. Matthew Leitch (EUOC) 557 seconds

10. Sarah-Jane Barrable (SLOW) 561 seconds

PreO

1. Sarah-Jane Barrable (SLOW) 16 points / 95 seconds

2. Kenny Leitch (SO) 16 points / 110 seconds

3. Mark Nixon (FVO) 15 points / 79,5 seconds

4. Peter Suba (WSX) 15 points / 87 seconds

5. John Crosby (NATO) 15 points / 95 seconds

6. Charles Bromley Gardner (BAOC) 15 points / 99 seconds

7. Nick Barrable (SYO) 14 points / 31 seconds

8. Tom Dobra (UBOC) 14 points / 78 seconds

9. Christine Roberts (EBOR) 14 points / 145 seconds

10. Simon Greenwood (SAX) 13 points / 84 seconds

Complete results and solutions at http://www.thejk.org.uk/.

Joaquim Margarido

Two or three things I know about it...

1. The England team came first in both the overall and Junior Cup competitions at Interland 2017. The event took place on the 2nd April in the Herbeumont Forest, in the Ardennes, southern Belgium. The English Fiona Bunn and Peter Bray, got comfortable victories in the M21 classes, respectively Women and Men. Bunn finished his race with a three-minute advantage over Greet Oeyen, Belgium, while Bray's advantage over the second placed, the French Benjamin Lepoutre, was of five minutes. Overall, England got the first place with 202, Belgium was second with 158 points and France third, with 132 points. The Interland Cup is England’s only international competition outside the British Isles. England competes annually in this five-cornered match against two Belgian teams (Flemish and French speaking), the Netherlands, and the French Ligue des Hauts de France de Course d’Orientation (LHFCO) . The competition is truly a team effort spanning age groups from W and M14 to W and M60+: 42 team members in all. Complete results and further information at http://orienteeringengland.org.uk/2017/04/04/interland-2017-win-for-england-team/.

2. OK Vihor Zagreb organized, on 2nd April, the Vihor TempO Challenge, event that called to the beautiful Bundek Park, in Zagreb, 30 competitors from Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. Third stage of 2017 Croatia-Italy-Slovenia Trophy, the event consisted in six timed stations with five tasks each and was dominated by the Slovakian Ján Furucz (Farmaceut Bratislava), the winner of the Trophy's last edition. Furucz finished with 305 seconds, corresponding to 185 seconds of answering time and 120 seconds of penalty (four incorrect answers). Slower and less accurate than Furucz, the Croatian Ivo Tišljar (OK Orion) got the second position with 350 seconds. The Slovenian Krešo Keresteš (OK Trzin) was third with 357 seconds. Ján Furucz is now the leader of 2017 Croatia-Italy-Slovenia Trophy with 288,5 points, nine points ahead of Ivica Bertol and fifteen points ahead of Tomislav Varnica, both form OK Vihor, Croatia. The results can be seen at http://www.trailo.it/Classifiche%20internazionali/CIS.asp.

3. Would you like to know who are the top 10 most popular orienteering races in the world, open to everyone? The answer is at ALL4orienteering blog [HERE] https://www.all4o.com/orienteering-blog/top-10-orienteering-races-in-the-world. The number of participants it's, surely, an important issue, but it's not the most important. That's why Jukola / Venla Relay (Finland) cames first and O-ringen (Sweden), world's biggest orienteering festival, stands on the second place. Events like Scottish Six Days (Scotland), FIN5 orienteering week (Finland) and Jan Kjellström International Festival of Orienteering (United Kingdom) are also on the list. Probably other events, like Portugal O' Meeting (Portugal) or MTBO 5 Days Plzeň (Czech Republic), would deserve a place on the list, but the presented events can be a good starting point for knowing and living wonderful and exciting orienteering moments.

4. IOF Newsletter of April is now published and there's lots of interesting reading on it. The eyes of the orienteering world turn to Oceania for the next few weeks, to follow the action at the Oceania Orienteering Championships and the World Masters Orienteering Championships, both taking place in New Zealand. An interview with IOF FootO Athletes’ Commission member Lizzie Ingham will get you excited to follow the Oceania Champs this weekend. Excellent terrains, a great atmosphere and fierce rivalry await the Oceania orienteers who will fight for regional titles and bonus WOC spots. Of course, the newsletter also includes important news from the IOF. The IOF Council had a meeting recently, and a summary of the most notable decisions makes it easy to follow the development of orienteering. Most notable from this council meeting is perhaps the approval of the long awaited International Specification for Orienteering Maps. The IOF is also very active on the international sports scene. Make sure to read about what we got up to at this year’s SportAccord Convention. For TrailO enthusiasts, the newsletter offers interesting reading on the European Cup in TrailO. Not heard of it? Dive in and find out all about the exciting competition. Are you missing out? Find out more and subscribe here. Happy reading!

Joaquim Margarido

Damir Gobec: "WTOC must be our show room"

Damir Gobec is, surely, one of the most committed persons with Orienteering worldwide. His work at the helm of the World Trail Orienteering Championships WTOC 2015, in Croatia, remains a benchmark in terms of the highest standards of technical and logistical requirements. Already in February, this year, he was at the epicenter of another great event, this time in Egypt. The Portuguese Orienteering Blog is proud to have him on its tribune, recalling intense moments and talking passionately about the future of our sport.

Time goes by quickly and the WTOC 2015, which saw you as Event Director, in our minds, seems to have been so recently. What memories do you keep from those days in Zagreb and Karlovac?

Damir Gobec (D. G.) - WTOC 2015 is something that I’ll never forget. It was a life experience from which I learned a lot about myself, my friends, politics, marketing, transport, catering and a lot of other things, not necessarily related to sport. I also learned how we (WTOC team) work under pressure. We learned that it’s impossible to predict everything that can happen in a big organization like that. Many of us spent a few years working on this project and it still remains quite alive in our hearts. One of the big things (except for the technical part of Event) we did was a huge picture gallery with few thousands of photos and I often go there, remembering some particular moments. It's interesting, the way you see the whole organization afterwards and you’re able to enjoy every moment of it, saying that this is something we are proud of and we did it right. Even the well-known "mud day", from this perspective, looks like a special moment which made our work even more interesting and challenging.

I remember a lot of nice little moments behind the scenes, which kept us going from day to day and night to night. The whole organization team is still full of memories which will probably never fade away and we will talk about them for many years to come. I think that most of the competitors don’t even think about the amount of work which has been done. For example, we spent more than 30 days just preparing paths for the first PreO day and then we had a "millennium rain" which ruined all that work. You cannot predict something like this.

Looking back on it with almost two years of distance, how do you assess the event in a global way and how satisfied are you with the final result?

D. G. - I think the whole team can be proud of the work which has been done. We know that we made a good job, the best possible at that time, as we had to have on our minds that we stepped in much later than other countries which were organizing WTOC. We learned our weak points and we know that some things could be done better. We are also extremely proud of our report which came out more like a book or Guideline for future organizers and I hope that it helps future organizers to learn even more from our experiences and mistakes (http://www.vihor.hr/assets/iof_report_part_one.pdf).

In my opinion future organizers should make the effort to be better than WTOC 2015, so we can all enjoy good events and we should look forward to the Championships which make you proud to be part of it. We should treat our Championships with honour because, if we don’t do it, nobody else will. Something below the standards which were set would not be good. We have to show the World that we are part of sport community with developed competitions. WTOC must be our show room.

How was the break or resting period after the event? Did you think about giving up Orienteering?

D. G. - I can’t say that I had a proper rest, as we continued our work in orienteering. We are still working a lot with kids within the club, we are working on new maps, new events. World Orienteering Day is also one of the projects we accepted and we are developing it in Zagreb.

Forgetting about orienteering was something that was done in some days after WTOC, as you can feel really tired after spending few years preparing something really intense and, as Ivana and I were together in that work, it is normal that we had tough times when we also had to deal with our ordinary and professional obligations, not connected with orienteering. Our escape was spending two weeks cruising around the Greek islands and spending some time in Turkey on the coast, far away from everybody and then we restarted all over again, thinking about new projects.

One of the projects you took up this year was the Supervision of the Egypt International Orienteering Championships and the organization of a TrailO stage as part of the event. Would you like to tell me about your experience in Sharm El Sheikh?

D. G. - The supervision of Egyptian International Orienteering Championships was more like organizing the event. First, I was just supposed to help out with the project, but, finally, seven of my club members, from OC "Vihor", ended up contributing to a big, successful orienteering event. We spent ten days in Egypt and made a three-day TrailO seminar for all interested competitors, one PreO competition and three Foot-O competitions (one WRE Event) and we also spent a lot of time adjusting the maps for FootO and specially for PreO.

Sharm El Sheikh turned out to be a big crossroad for Egyptian orienteering and, especially, for the TrailO team. Working in different environments and with people of different cultures is always challenging and we learned how time can be completely irrelevant. We found out that the Egyptian TrailO team can be very good. They are strong-willed, have some basic map reading experience and now they have some knowledge. After gaining some international experience, I believe they will be competitive even on international level. You know that Croatia came out of nowhere at WTOC in Czech Republic and there we picked up our first IOF medal so I hope that this Croatian-Egyptian work will give us some new very good results.

What does it mean to talk about Orienteering in Egypt?

D. G. - Orienteering in Egypt is taking big steps. Maybe even, steps that are too big, as they cannot follow the needs of organizing International Events and they want to make big events every year. At this moment, Egyptian orienteering is developing within universities, Military and foreign schools. There are lots of people keen on developing orienteering, but they don’t have experience and knowledge on how to do that, and nobody from the Federation can also help them as they are all new to our sport. The only solution is to get help from more developed countries. Tamer Mehana, President of the Egyptian Orienteering Federation, is trying his best and we can see progress and we can see that Egypt is already an orienteering country with national teams and International events but still lacking knowledge and experience.

IOF support, implementation and development of Orienteering in new countries should be better and more efficient . IOF should not focus just on World Championships and "big countries" which are taking medals on those events. There would be no World Championships if "smaller nations" didn't participate in such events and if they didn't get support to develop. Of course money is always a big issue and sending one or more instructors from IOF to the developing countries, with paid flights and everything, could be a good solution to it. Developing countries need everything, from basic equipment to well educated people. Sending some old orienteering flags, compasses, old organizing equipment, etc. would help out a lot.

What other projects do you have to deal with this year and in the upcoming ones?

D. G. - This year we already did one big project which was challenging, as it was in another Continent. At the moment we (I’m always saying “we”, as my wife Ivana is also working on all of these projects and, of course, without the support of club members most of those projects wouldn’t succeed) are preparing several Foot orienteering and PreO events. The main focus at the end of the month will be on our orienteering school, which we do annually and where we try to get as many people as we can to our sport.

Afterwards we will have WOD in few school locations in Zagreb. Last year we did it in three locations with over 600 participants and this year we hope to add a few more. Of course, in the meantime, we will participate on many orienteering competitions. During summer we hope to be able to send a small team to Lithuania, to help the WTOC organizing team. Developing our sport in the region is also one of the things which are on our list of priorities, so my work in the South East European Association is part of that. This year, the SEEOC and the South East European Masters Championships will be held in Montenegro and I hope that it also is a major success for their federation and for the development of orienteering within their country.

Working as an associate lecturer at the University of Kinesiology in Zagreb, where I have the chance to teach orienteering to future PE teachers, is also one of the important steps towards better understanding orienteering and involvement with orienteering within school curriculum in Croatia.

Have you already started working with the Portuguese Orienteering Federation on the WTOC 2019' Supervision?

D. G. - Just a few days ago, I had a first contact with organizers of WTOC 2019. There were some issues with venues and dates and they are still working on it, but I hope this will be settled very soon, so we can start working properly. Two years and few months until the Event seems like a lot of time to prepare the WTOC but it is actually a very short time and we can say that we are a little behind schedule. I hope the first visit of SEA will be soon and we will then approve all the proposed terrains and accommodation facilities, so we can publish Bulletin 1 two years before the event and just before WTOC 2017.

The next visit, the Assistant Event Adviser (hopefully Ivana) will join me and we will check all the courses and maps and this should be exactly one year before the Event. So, in 2018, the organizers should be done with most of the technical stuff. Some final technical adjustments, additional advertising, promotion of Event and all other issues will be taken care of in the last year of preparations. I know how much help my team had from our Advisers Vibeke Vogelius and Lauri Kontkanen so I hope I can be useful to the organizing team, even on the days when we will push them to work better, harder, more accurately, more precisely and more in advance.

How do you assess the TrailO in Croatia currently?

D. G. - Unfortunately, TrailO in Croatia didn’t develop much after WTOC 2015 as I hoped for. The Croatian team is still very competitive and good but we are missing a major step towards the development of this discipline within the clubs. In my opinion there are too many discussions about how to participate in ETOC, WTOC or some major Event, rather than how to develop the sport and how to attract more people and foot orienteers to try this discipline. Only a few are willing to spend some extra time teaching others or organizing training and events in the country. We are still the only club working hard to get more people to try our sport and specially to TrailO. It’s somehow easier for others to sit in the car and to go to the Event which is organized by somebody else in the country nearby.

Would you like to add something else?

D. G. - Orienteering is a great sport and we all are like one big family. Wherever you go, if you find a local orienteering club, you’ll get a warm welcome and the help you need. This is really great. Most of those people are local enthusiasts which are spending most of their free time setting courses, putting controls in the forest, printing, drawing maps, giving lectures and doing a lot of different things for orienteering and for others.

In my opinion, we are still missing support to all those people within the local community and within national Federations and worldwide. If just every national elite runner after his carreer gives back some small part of the experience and knowledge he gained on the work of those enthusiasts, we would all have more help and energy to move on developing our sport.

Joaquim Margarido