Per Frost: "We made my idea of the IOF Studio becoming reality"

Ongoing process that has seen great improvement in recent years, the television broadcasting of Orienteering events knew another important chapter at Ylläs, Finland, in the Ski Orienteering World Cup 2015/2016's opening round. Today, on Portuguese Orienteering Blog's tribune, Per Frost, one of the masterminds of the initiative, presents the SkiO Studio, lists the challenges and points out goals for the future.

Could you present the IOF Studio, at Ylläs? What resources – human and material - did you have and what about the working conditions?

Per Frost (P. F.) - The IOF Studio was an idea I had been thinking of over a long time, especially since I was responsible for creating the daily highlight editions from WOC in Scotland. What was done there was that the live-broadcast is edited down to around 10 minutes with the most interesting of the race. Some TV-networks prefer to broadcast that version instead of the whole race since it is easier to schedule. My idea for this live broadcasts was to take the most exciting out of the live production and make it more easy-accessible to the viewers who did not have the time to watch it live. By creating this concept with the studio, we had a good establishment of the venue and also a natural way to introduce the commentators (in this case me, as the “host” and Hans-Jörgen Kvåle, as the “expert”.

Since it is not live, we do also have much better possibilities to bring into more cameras as they can be a normal camcorder and does not have to rely on live technique. The big difference if you compare Ski-O World Cup with WOC, for example, is that we could then use the action cameras in the live production. Every camera that has to have live wireless transmission is quite expensive, so that is why we wanted to use them “off-line”. There is however quite many work-hours that needs to be put in, in order to prepare the highlights. The race footage from the live production is mixed with improved GPS-analysis that Hans-Jörgen had chosen and extra video material from the forest, for example from the start and from the skiing camera-operators. The studio show itself was actually broadcasted live every day with the same live equipment as on the races, so we commented on the video in the same time as it was playing for the viewers. John, our technical manager, took the role as director on switching cameras, playing out highlights and overlook streaming.

Tell me about the homework, the days before. How did you prepare the work and share responsibilities?

P. F. - We where two people from Sweden, me and John Kumlin, who served as the technical manager. We are both orienteers so the sport knowledge was already there. He did the same task on last year´s ESOC and was the project manager for live productions at O-ringen this summer, so we divided the productions based on the tasks that needs more technical knowledge and the ones that needs content experience. I was responsible for the content part. What was most important on beforehand was to prepare what could be prepared in terms of the intro animation and such content and also getting information and sending instructions to the students we were cooperating with. There was a team consisting of eight students and two teachers from a tv-education in Tornio, one of the closest cities which helped us with lending out a lot of equipment and the students got to do some “sharp” practice in the live productions. Luckily, the organizers had done a great job in planning the arena as well as getting us good internet connections, something that is crucial for this kind of streaming.

Your task was to follow the event, having in mind to broadcast it in the best way (in this case by internet). What were the biggest challenges? Did you have to improve a lot?

P. F. - The main challenge is, of course, that it is more difficult the less budget you have. It is certainly easier to create a good production if you have a big team of experts around you, but until then my ideology is to focus on a few certain tasks and make them as good as possible. That is something I have learned after being into this business of both TV and orienteering for the last years. For example, if we do not have the resources for having live cameras out in the forest, then it might be a better idea to put camcorders there and make it look good in the post production rather than doing something in between with poor quality.

Me and John are normally working with TV, so the biggest challenge for us was to manage the students and tell them what to do. The Ski-O Marketing manager Hans-Jörgen Kvåle, was also in our team and got responsibility for knowing what was interesting in the race at the moment, who to follow and what to show on GPS-tracking.

We could see your cameraman following downhill some athletes, and it was scary (!). Tell me about the technical (and physical) challenges you have to face in order to offer a transmission as best as possible?

P. F. - Yes! It was in fact two very ski-orienteering talented persons from the local organization that helped us with the filming and they did a great job! They waited at one control for a good athlete to come and then followed as long as they could manage. I think we captured some really decisive moments there. For example, when you can see how fast Tove Alexandersson, Tatiana Oborina and Mariya Kechkina are skiing on the tiny tracks whilst still reading their maps and also when we got a crash between two athletes in the sprint relay on tape, something that was decisive for the outcome of the race. In this production, we chose to not use that camera on live transmission, but only for recording for post-production such as the live studio. The reason for that is simply economical. In Scotland WOC, we used one action camera live, but that requires a lot more of expensive equipment and can only be used in a limited area. A similar setup has been used on 10mila.

Now I will reveal a secret: My team was actually first with using the live action camera for orienteering live streaming :) Already in Ski-O WOC in 2011, which was my first live production whatsoever, we got to borrow some equipment for live transmission, the one that was later developed for 10mila [HERE]. The challenge, however, is that the image quality of such live pictures is very uncertain compared to cable-connectors, so one does rather want to use cable connected cameras to be safe with those pictures.

Have you thought in a certain number of hits for each transmission? The overall result was as expected?

P. F. - We have had between 700 and 1300 viewers on the live events, which I would consider as OK for this event. Not very much advertisement was made on beforehand and we also wanted to first try out the studio concept before advertise it more. To compare, 10mila use to have some 3000-4000 online viewers, so I would say this was OK.

In your opinion, this kind of very particular projects are something that interest only experienced orienteers or it can be a good way to reach more people and attract more participants to our sport? How?

P. F. - Something that I always want to keep in mind in working with this projects is that the result will end up in more visibility for the sport. The productions are only a tool for making that happen. Therefore, we use the strategy of try to think how we can get most out of each race. There might be a few hundred or over one thousand orienteers watching the event, and we want of course to make them satisfied. However, when we have this production in place, we can use the same footage to send to various TV networks like the national broadcasters of the winning athletes for use in the evening news. Normally, we cut out the footage of that athlete racing and then we record an interview in their native language. This is something we have been doing for quite many years now, and I would say that it have resulted in a gain of public knowledge about our sport. If just some 30 seconds of orienteering is shown in the evening news, we can instantly reach out to millions of viewers in the national sport news. This concept has been proven over and over again in the nordic countries as well as countries like Russia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Romania and Switzerland. We can also send footage to Eurovision, which is the organization of almost all European national broadcasters.

I'm sure you're already thinking in a similar situation for next events, which will be in Germany and Austria. Is there anything that you're thinking to change or improve? Will you have Emily Benham still in the team (she is great, although she talks too fast, but this is surely my fault)?

P. F. - In Germany and Austria there will be different challenges compared to Finland, as usually most economical ones to get the resources on place to be able to transmit the atmosphere and excitement of ski orienteering to the audience, but I think we took a good step towards creating something new and interesting with the studio, so I hope that part will be more developed. Emily was great as a commentator, especially since she had not prepared for doing this here in Finland on beforehand Being a native English speaker with such extensive knowledge of the sport and how to explain it to others is really a great asset and important for creating a good show. I hope she will be involved also in the future (and in a few years also in commenting MTBO of course).

How important can be this kind of work towards the Olympic project?

P. F. - Absolutely crucial. What we do now is what Biathlon understood and did 20 years ago: “If the media doesn't come to us, maybe we will have to get to them and show our sport?”. I do also think that ski orienteering is a very good arena for testing ideas that later can be transferred into foot orienteering. For example, we were first with touch free punching as well as sprint and sprint relay.

And what about you, Per. How important was the experience for you? Will you be more confident the next time?

P. F. - I can say that Ski orienteering is basically half of my education in media work, which is nowadays also my profession. Back in 2009, my club was organising the Junior World Championships in Ski-O. There I got the chance to do something of this completely new thing “Youtube” and from that and on, I have done something in ski orienteering on IOF major level each year. However, I have also studied media production at university and my student mates have always got some strange explanation why I have missed some weeks each winter, like “Per is in Kazakhstan, or Per is in Siberia...”, so I will try to finalise my examina now before the next World Cup round. I would despite that say that it has been a school just as important as the official one to really have some on-hands work by promoting Ski orienteering and a great bonus to also see all this places and get to know amazing people.

What I will bring from now is for sure the knowledge of that we made my idea of the IOF Studio becoming reality and also the great feedback we have got from it! I think the future looks bright since the Finnish organizers, both in Lapland which held this round and the one for next season's ESOC have shown interest in really making their events more visible by this kind of actions. There might as well be some really good things coming out of the fact that ski-O will be included in the Universiade in Krasnoyarsk 2019, the second biggest winter sports event worldwide after the Olympic Games. Those preparations are already going and the way towards that will mean a lot for the development! I do also hope I will be able to find my place in this journey, since I really believe that our sport has some exciting years to come!

[Photo: Jyrki Kola / facebook.com/jyrki.kola]

Joaquim Margarido

Leoš Bogar: "I wanted to set a really tough course"

Father of two great champions – František Bogar and Kryštof Bogar - Leoš Bogar was responsible for setting the M21 Long Distance course of the World MTB Orienteering Championship 2015. But what's so special he does? In the recent World of O's "Course of the Year 2015", Leoš' course setting was “only” the 5th ranked. A reason of fulfilment to its author and a triumph for MTB Orienteering. And it's precisely Leoš Bogar that we have today with us, on the Portuguese Orienteering Blog's tribune.

I would start by congratulating you and appreciate your availability for answering my questions. See your WMTBOC 2015 Long Distance course setting [HERE] being among the nominees to the “Course of the Year 2015” and then know the result and realize that you reached the 5th position what comment deserves? How valuable is this result, from a personal point of view?

Leoš Bogar (L. B.) - It is satisfying. Like a nice bonus at the end of this year. But, most of all, pleases me that both the race and the whole Championships were such a success.

Have you an idea how many time did you spend on planning and setting the course?

L. B. - I started to focus on this task exactly the year before the date of the race. First, it was the date when I was appointed to be a course setter of the long. And mainly, I started to be visiting the terrain of the competition to ensure that the paths are suitable in respective time of the year, having in mind mainly vegetation. So, one could say that I actually enjoyed the whole year with the course setting. The level of stress was obviously increasing as the dates of the competition were getting closer, but at the end I felt satisfaction. More or less, it all ended well.

By designing the WMTBOC 2015 Long Distance course, in which way did you want to challenge the competitors? Do you think you get succeed?

L. B. - Given terrain that I was supposed to use for Long was technically more demanding than it’s usual for MTBO terrains. I wanted to set a really tough course – but what could we expect from one of the most prestigious categories at the most important event of the season? If I recall well, I didn’t have any negative feedback from competitors after the competition. Only positive comments.

Until the D Day, have you felt some kind of embarrassment?

L. B. - I didn’t feel nervous before the D day, not more than any other time. Operations, coordination with advisors, logistics, media, all of that was sorted continuously and I didn’t notice any more significant trouble. Organizers are more concerned about the things they can’t affect: we will not face extreme weather conditions; there will not appear any unexpected complication in the forest, all competitors will make it to the final unharmed… But these things are everywhere the same.

Among the many legs of the course, can you point your favorite? Why?

L. B. - The courses are obviously spiced up with long legs offering many different route choices. It was also the main concept of my suggestion. The core of the setting was to pick the most demanding long legs which were enabled by the terrain. Topped by interesting outlining. Men’s long actually started with the most demanding leg right after the start. I was curious how competitors will manage. My personal estimate came in the very end true, confirmed by GPS tracking.

Do you consider that this is the best course you've ever set? Why?

L. B. - I can’t really judge if this course setting of the Long at World Champs was my best ever, however it was for sure one of the most important events I was participating at. Main aim of each course setter is usually to set a course which competitors will enjoy in the first place.

When we talk about the differences between a really good Foot Orienteering course and a really good MTB Orienteering course, what are we talking about? In which of the two disciplines the terrain plays a more important role?

L. B. - I can’t really and competently comment on this – I never did foot orienteering in the past and so I don’t really understand its nuances. My sports history includes cycling only. So, obviously, I proclaim that terrain diversity is more important for MTBO.

The recent changes to the Competition Rules, with the possibility to ride off tracks, for example, represents a new challenge to the competitors. In which way, this challenge also extends to the course setter?

L. B. - The course setter is considering all conditions that he is facing – natural and terrain conditions of the competition area and then respective rules, which may vary depending on location of the competition. It’s a combination of different issues which should result into an interesting competition. Riding off-road is sometimes good in some locations, sometimes it’s exactly the opposite. I don’t overrate legislation, I think that individual creativity is more important.

There are very few MTB Orienteering courses nominated to the “Course of the Year” (I could count only five in the last six years). How do you see this fact?

L. B. - It’s obviously affected by the situation and importance that MTBO is having in the overall structure of all orienteering disciplines. I think and hope that this trend is growing. Let’s hope that this year’s WMTBOC helped a bit to this improvement.

You are mainly a course setter or do you see yourself more like a competitor, a coach, a cartographer or something else?

L. B. - I can’t say positively. I’m all in one: competitor, organizer, coach, and cartographer. I’m not a pro, I like the sport and that’s the most important, I believe.

Looking to all courses that you attended so far and where you competed, which one impressed you the most, the one you would like to have been the course setter? Why?

L. B. - I was the most enthusiastic about the competition I was attending this year in Portugal, WMMTBO 2015. There were a lot different environment, nature, conditions. I don’t know if I would be able to handle such area as a course setter. It’s a theoretical question. Anyway, those sports experience from Portugal will warm me up the whole winter time, which I actually don’t like at all.

Are you already working in your next big challenge?

L. B. - My club OK Jiskra Novy Bor and I are organizing last round of the Czech Cup in MTBO including the Team Champs, next year. So I’m again riding in the forests with a map and think about interesting courses.

Would you like to share your biggest wish for the next season, now that 2015 is close to the end?

L. B. - I wish to all health and optimistic mind.

[I sincerely wish to thank you Jana Kosťová for all her kindness and professionalism with the translation work]

Joaquim Margarido

  

Galina Vinogradova: "It’s time to continue the training work"

Despite not having achieved all the planned goals, Galina Vinogradova doesn't deny that 2015 was, from a personal point of view, an important season.

In the end of a season full of emotions and great results, what's the first word that come to your mind?

Galina Vinogradova (G. V.) – It’s time to continue the training work.

Did you achieve all the goals you've planned for the season?

G. V. - No. But I’m satisfied with the season 2015.

I have to ask you about the WOC and your two bronze. Did you expect a medal?

G. V. - In the Sprint Relay, after the changeover, I came to the last leg in 10th position and I was far away from thoughts about medals. I just made my job, step by step. After a successful Sprint Relay, I got additional self-confidence for the Sprint final. And yes, I expected a medal in the Sprint.

Physical, technical, mental. Which of those parts were most important for the final result? Do you feel the need to improve even more on these aspects?

G. V. - Everything was important. There are no unnecessary details at top-level.

Was 2015 the most important season in your career so far?

G. V. - The season 2015 was important because of individual WOC medal. But, in the previous years, I also won medals in Relays (silver WOC 2008, gold World Games 2009, bronze WOC 2014). The victory in the World Cup event 2011 (Sweden, knock-out sprint) is still important to me.

If I ask you to elect the Orienteering Achievement of 2015, what would it be?

G. V. - Maja Alm.

You can hardly wait for starting a new season. Is it true?

G. V. - Sure. My main goal is to do my best in the main competitions.

Have you already planned the preparation period? Are we going to see you in Portugal next winter?

G. V. – I’m still thinking about different training opportunities for this period.

Would you share with us your biggest wish?

G. V. - Happiness and health to all children of the Earth.

[Photo courtesy of Galina Vinogradova]

Joaquim Margarido

  

"Is Facebook killing Blogger?": Lizzie Ingham's opinion

“Is Facebook killing Blogger?” During the last years, I've been worried about this subject and decided now to explore it with your help. Let my give you an example, a kind of starting point: We have in Portugal a webpage lodged in the Portuguese Orienteering Federation's site, which is called OriOasis. It's kind of a “mini-World of O” site, where 23 Portuguese Blogs and Sites are represented. More than a half of them are completely dead and only six blogs have articles published in 2015. Five of them have 25 articles overall published along this year. The other one, Orientovar –www.orientovar.blogspot.com –, has 390 articles published so far. Orientovar is my personal blog and I know what I'm talking about; but I also have to say that I have now around 80 visitors each day, while that number, three years ago, was higher than 400 visitors each day. At the same time, I can see that the “dead blogs” administrators, are still quite active on Facebook, which mean, probably, they moved their attentions from Blogger to Facebook in an almost definitive way. So, I tried to listen some top bloggers about this subject, having their feedback about five questions (the same for everyone). Emily Benham, Catherine Taylor, Mikhail Vinogradov, Lizzie Ingham, Hans Jörgen Kvale or Jan Kocbach are some of the bloggers that, during the next days, will leave here their opinions. Of course, you're also free to participate, leaving your contribution on the Portuguese Orienteering Blog's commentary corner. We'll certainly appreciate that!

Looking for the Portuguese example above, do you feel the same with your blog and blogs around you? Is this a problem for you?

Lizzie Ingham (L. I.) - I don't have a very big readership of my blog, and haven't really noticed a change in numbers to be honest. But I can appreciate that less people may be reading blogs now - it takes an investment of time to read, compared to a quick appreciation of a nice photo and caption that is possible with Facebook / Twitter / Instagram.

Do you have an Orienteering Facebook page? Could you tell us about your experience in having both a Facebook page and Blog?

L. I. - I don't have an athlete Facebook page, but do have twitter; although I mainly use that for making bad jokes and to share when I've written a blog post. So, I can't personally compare.

Is it clear that Facebook is a quick way to talk about Orienteering, but is it also the best way to promote our sport? Is the Blogger condemned to be extinguished?

L. I. - I think that Blogs and Facebook, etc., hold different purposes, and there's a use for both. Facebook is a great platform for quickly reaching a large audience, which is ideal for an athlete that has sponsors or a large personal following. Blogs, on the other hand, allow fuller details and reports - which is good for sharing race analysis or stories. Most blogs will have much smaller audiences as they require more time to read, so maybe they're only reaching those that are a bit more of an orienteering geek ;-)

Have you ever felt like stopping writing? Are you loosing the interest in writing and reading – and sharing! - about Orienteering?

L. I. - Of course! I go through periods where I don't want to write at all, and other times when I'm far more motivated. For me though, my blog started as a way of sharing with the global orienteering community what orienteering life was like Down Under. Now it's a way of sharing my European experiences with those that are back home. In that context, it doesn't matter so much if I go through lulls in writing, or if my posts are delayed from the events they talk about. I like to take my time and carefully craft my posts before publishing them, that way I can try and make them entertaining enough that the reader will actually reach the end of the post! And I can fit more puns in.

Have you any general ideas about Communication in our sport that you would like to share?

L. I. - I think really my answer for that question is much the same as for the third. There's a place for both blogs and shorter format social-media in orienteering, and it's awesome that there's people like you and Jan committed to running sites like Portuguese Orienteering Blog and World of O. It makes it far easier for people to find and access orienteering blogs and information. Communication in Orienteering in general? There's hurdles to be overcome regarding communication between federations and their members. It's great that athletes and coaches can voice their opinions and concerns via social media, and I believe it's helping open up the communication lines. But, it's important to remember that it's only a small minority that post publicly online, and the opinions of those that don't also have to be taken into account in any decision making process.

Joaquim Margarido

Simona Aebersold: "Once an orienteer always an orienteer!"

The Portuguese Orienteering Blog bets on plurality as its hallmark. Follows with the same interest all Orienteering disciplines, feels the same taste in writing about a World Cup stage or an event in a Saharawi refugee camp and don't choose the interviewees depending on their gender or age. Hence some may wonder seeing lately so many youngsters sharing their experiences here on the blog - and I'm talking about Sara Hagström, Veronika Kubinova, Olli Ojanaho or Angus Robinson, to mention only the most recent. Today, on the Portuguese Orienteering Blog's tribune, we welcome again a young athlete. Simona Aebersold is only 17 years old, having been born in Bern on 13 April 1998. She lives currently in Brügg and studied, during the last year, Grammar School. And she is “only” the current Junior World Orienteering Champion in Sprint!

I'm sure you'll understand that we have to start our interview talking about your gold in Norway, last July. Can you remember that glorious Sprint course?

Simona Aebersold (S. A.) - Well, I remember that it was a very beautiful day with a lot of sun. I was already quite nervous the day before but when I woke up the nervousness was even bigger. I knew that it was my first time at JWOC and therefore I hadn't expected so much of the first race. I saw it as an establishment and my aim was a top 15 place.

At the start this nervousness went away and I could concentrate myself on the race. I didn't know that my speed was so high, so I couldn't believe that, in the finish, the speaker said that it could be a medal or even the golden one. I guess that a big part of my success was also thanks to my preparation. I hadn't especially focused on this Sprint race but rather on the whole week. For the Sprint I put a lot of effort in looking at the maps and drawing several courses. When I saw where the quarantine was located, I knew approximately where the start had to be. That was a big relief which took a lot of pressure away. I think during the time after my finish, until knowing that I won, it was like being in another world. I just remember that I was running next to the arena and was listening to the speaker in the background. I also have to say that was great to see so much swiss people and also people from my Finnish club, Tampereen Pyrintö, in Norway.

How important is that medal for you?

S. A. - This medal means so much to me. Especially because I was only dreaming about winning a medal at JWOC once. I didn't even think that I could win a medal already this year, not to mention a gold one. But I think it is a matter of team spirit that helps us to have such success. If you're having a nice time with your team mates it is much easier to do a good race at those competitions. I'm really happy that I managed the step to the best juniors in the world. This gives me the confidence that I'm on the right way.

How did you start in Orienteering? Was it a “family matter” or something related with friends or school?

S. A. - I grew up in an Orienteering family, with my father as a former competitor at World Championships. So I was taken to all the competitions already as a little child. Later on, with about 8 years, I started to compete in national orienteering events. As the whole family was competing at the national events, it was easy for me to get there. So, at the age of 14, I got into the regional squad and since this Autumn I'm a member of the national junior team.

Did you feel engaged with Orienteering since the very first experience or is it possible to point a precise moment when you said to yourself: “ - That's it, Orienteering is my sport”?

S. A. - I'm not able to point out a precise moment because I was kind of connected to orienteering since I was a little child. I was always fascinated by orienteering and my big dream was to once win a gold medal at World Championships in the Elite class. And I always said that Orienteering is more interesting than Athletics because of the map you have to read. When I'm running in Scandinavian terrain, I always think that it was the right decision to do orienteering because it is so much fun to run in the forest. Also a big moment was this year's JWOC. I realized how much fun it is to run for medals at World Championships in such beautiful terrain.

How do you manage your studies with a demanding physical activity like Orienteering?

S. A. - At the moment I'm studying at a college and I'm preparing for my final exams next summer. There is some kind of sports program which I attend. So I can adapt my school timetable to my trainings and the teachers are mostly very flexible concerning my absences. Fortunately, I'm going to have my final exams next spring, so afterwards I can focus full time on Orienteering. I'm really looking forward to pass a year out of school in Tampere!

And what about your school mates? Is Orienteering a very popular sport in your school/city?

S. A. - Orienteering is not very popular in my school. There's rather football, which everyone knows or Gymnastics because there are a lot of gymnasts studying at my school. Thinking that, ten years ago, nobody knew Orienteering, it's good to notice that today there are only a few that don't know my sport. Whereas in my village there are a lot of people knowing Orienteering.

How committed are you with Orienteering?

S. A. - Actually, I spend a certain time every day with Orienteering because of my daily training. And, as you have a lot of trainings with friends, you surely talk about orienteering. If there's only a running workout planned, there's surely either a map or a discussion about orienteering at home. As we say: Once an orienteer always an orienteer!

Have you other important moments in your career that you'd like to share?

S. A. - One big moment in my career is definitely the winning of the silver medal with Sofie [Bachmann] and Sandrine [Müller], also in Norway, this summer. It was such a great feeling when Sandrine came down the hill in silver position because of the nerve-racking course of the race.

And of course there were my two Sprint titles at EYOC last year and the year before which represented great experiences in international competitions. But there's also the experience in Scandinavian terrain in the two big Relays - Jukola and Tiomila -, which were very important to me. I gained a lot of experience in Scandinavian terrain.

What are your goals for the next season? Are you already preparing yourself for that?

S. A. - At the moment I spend a lot of time with the national junior team. We are preparing intensively for our big goal next season, the JWOC in our country. For me it's a very good opportunity to learn new things by talking to the other athletes, maybe even to some of the best in the world. I can take advantage from the training camps in foreign countries. But, for me, the most valuable thing is that we are a good team with a lot of fun. Therefore, we also have fun practicing our sport and are looking forward to all the great meetings with the whole junior team.

My main goal is definitely the JWOC in my homeland. Especially because it will take place in Switzerland, I have a lot of opportunities to prepare myself. I want to fight for the medals and confirm the good shape of last summer. We've already had one training camp last year and one this year in the region of this big event. In addition, I also spent some time in Engadin, beside the stays with the national junior team. The other goal is, of course, the JEC in Great Britain, where I can still run in my age class W18. I've never been in this country before but I'm exited how it's going to be.

Are you prepared to “jump” the most important step, joining the Elite class?

S. A. - I think I am ready and I also competed in some races of the Elite class this year. But there's still a lot of time until that step and I'm enjoying my time as a Junior. I'm now, maybe, on the right way to the Elite class, but I still have to gain a lot of experience until this big step. Next season I'll be only in my second year as a Junior so I have much time to think about and how to prepare myself for that.

Would you like to share your biggest wish?

S. A. - That's a difficult question... On the one hand I always wanted to stay in Finland for a longer time. This big wish is now coming true as I'm staying there from next summer to prepare optimally for JWOC 2017 in this area. I really like the terrain up there and also the mentality of the people living there. I'm really looking forward to running in the finnish forests. On the other hand, there's of course the wish to once winning a medal at World Championships in the Elite class. But there's, as I've said before, still a lot of time until the next big step from the Junior team to the Elite class.

Now that a new season is about to come, I ask you a wish to all orienteers all over the world.

S. A. - I wish that they can fulfil their dreams and enjoy orienteering as much as I do!

[Photo: Swiss Orienteering]

Joaquim Margarido