From his second presence in a row on
the international Trail Orienteering scene, Tom Dobra gets a good
experience and a handful of important lessons for the future. With
his sights set on Strömstad, the young British athlete shares today
the most relevant moments of the recent European Championships, in
the Czech Republic.
I would start by asking you about
yourself. Who is Tom Dobra?
Tom Dobra (T. D.) - I’m a PhD
student in engineering at Bristol, born in London and then moved to
Tunbridge Wells aged 10. Obviously, I am an orienteer (a mudblood to
use Harry Potter terminology), still mainly FootO, with my biggest
successes in urban races, but also a cross-country runner and
occasional hillwalker with a bit of scrambling for good measure. In
addition, alpine skiing is a must-do every winter, especially
off-piste, and I play the trumpet socially. If there’s time to do
something, I will; if there isn’t, I’ll often do it anyway!
How did Orienteering come to your
life? Was it love at first sight?
T. D. - I was a cross-country
runner at school, normally at the back of a very good team, so
logically went along to a training camp just before starting at
Cambridge in September 2010. There I met an orienteer and thought
“that sounds interesting”, especially since when hillwalking I
was nearly always the one with the map. Unfortunately, it took me a
week or two to find the orienteering club (they were hiding at the
freshers’ fair), but when I went along one Sunday to Mildenhall
North, I ran the long orange course (as hard as an M12A course but
double the length), won it by over 10 minutes, then went straight out
again on the light green and found it much harder. Nonetheless, it
was one of the best days of my year and I was hooked – that was the
end of my Sundays! Planners take note: long orange courses are
essential for attracting adult novices, but are sadly few and far
between.
And what about Trail Orienteering?
Was there a particular moment, a “click”, when you said to
yourself: “That's it, Trail Orienteering is my sport!”?
T. D. - When faced with a choice
of sit in the car waiting for two hours or try something new, I tried
something new. This was the 2013 British Championships at Newlands
Corner, that year only a PreO. I zipped round the first half of the
course getting many wrong, before I realised the point, then got most
right in the second half. Afterwards, I thought it was a good
training exercise but still didn’t really appreciate TrailO as a
sport. Over the next year, Anne Braggins had somehow made me plan two
short TrailO exercises (IntrO) and put on some herself. Still I was
finding TrailO interesting but didn’t really have the buzz.
Eventually, I sent a throwaway email in January 2015 saying please
consider me for WTOC (probably Anne’s bullying again!). After all,
what could I lose? I competed in four UK ranking events that spring,
had almost forgotten I sent that email, then received the selection
email out of the blue in late April. Suddenly, everything had got
very serious with a trip to Croatia (top work by Vihor club last
summer!), 53rd in the TempO but then winner of the public PreO.
Things only went up from there and I’ve never looked back. Never
say no and who knows what might happen!
You left the Great Britain towards
the Czech Republic and the European Trail Orienteering Championships
ETOC 2016 with some goals in your head, I believe. Would you like to
share them with us?
T. D. - With a selection for
TempO last summer and then again for WTOC 2016, naturally I wanted to
justify my place in the team by qualifying for the final. Deep inside
though, I felt I was better at PreO, having won the public
competition in Croatia last summer with a result that could have had
me on the WTOC podium, so I was dreaming of an ETOC podium, knowing
the chances were very slim – I simply wanted to see what I could do
without a firm target in mind for the PreO.
What you've found during the
competition matches with your expectations?
T. D. - These were the hardest
courses I’ve ever come across in my limited experience, but with
the exception of a few map-reading eyesight tests in the relay, I
thought everything was very fair. Tomáš and the team did a
fantastic job, even though they could have done with a little more
manpower. One thing I would have liked is for model 1 to have been
harder so that I could learn Tomáš’ style, which I feel took me
until PreO day 2 to sort out properly.
We could see you reaching the TempO
Final and being the third most accurate competitor out of 36, with
just three wrong answers. However, your overall result was far away
than one could imagine. I would like to hear your thoughts about your
race.
T. D. - I’m still trying to
find my best TempO pace, having been second most accurate (but slow!)
in my first ever TempO at BTOC 2014, then had been trying a bit
faster, got seven wrong at ECTO in Slovakia for not spending enough
time to understand the maps, leaving me well down the results, so
decided to concentrate on getting them right this time. Obviously
that worked but, down in 23rd place, now the game is to speed up
without losing the accuracy. That’s what makes TrailO in general to
engaging. In terms of the final course itself, I thought all the maps
made sense, including station 1 in the final once you thought about
it and traced out the lumps. I should have been faster on station 3,
having remembered it from the relay. The final spectator station was
a tough experience under the pressure, with an obvious zero to start,
but then I just could not work out problem 3 and guessed; at least I
got the last one in the stream right.
What about the other races –
TrailO Relay and PreO competition?
T. D. - My relay performance was
not great with three wrong in the PreO and below average in the
TempO, helping to keep up the British tradition (as I was told before
we started) of GB2 beating GB1. I had a serious shock in PreO 1 when
I spent over 8 minutes on each of the first two controls and then
more later on, to be running 20 minutes late by control 9. At that
point, panic set in, I lost concentration, guessed number 22 and was
3 seconds late, leaving me with only 16 points. A good debrief,
mental note that I must stick rigidly to 4 minutes per problem and
not to zero unless I can articulate why worked wonders on day 2,
where I scored 22 points, becoming top Brit of the day. I’m not at
all annoyed about day 1 since it was an important learning experience
– I had never faced so much time pressure before, and I think I
wouldn’t have done so well on day 2 had I not done so badly on day
1.
Talking about the TrailO Relay, do
you like this new format?
T. D. - I think the principle is
good, although a few details need ironing out. Using times as the
score is definitely the way to do it, but the PreO penalty should be
increased so that the times come 50/50 from PreO and TempO for the
top teams. The PreO time limit should not be shortened below the
normal PreO recommendation, as the relay is there to test a team’s
ability at both disciplines; otherwise, it ends up becoming a TempO
team competition.
Please, tell me about the
Championships' best moment of all.
T. D. - My best morning for
excitement was the TempO qualifier. As bib number 1, I had to wait a
long time to see how I was doing, with the rest of the team gradually
arriving. In the end, I qualified 15th in heat B just 7 seconds above
the line!
You're a “rookie” in a team of
“much older guys”. How do you feel about that?
T. D. - At WTOC last year, I was
less than half the age of the second youngest on the team, which I
felt was a brave move. The guys are lovely, but looking around at the
success of young faces from other countries, I need to persuade more
of my peers to compete. Regardless, I am honoured to have the chance
to compete for my country, among a great team who wants each other to
succeed.
The new challenge it's called WTOC
2016. Are you planning to be in Strömstad, Sweden, next August?
T. D. - Yes, I’ll be there,
competing in the TempO and aiming for a relay place.
What are your main goals? And your
main adversaries?
T. D. - My main goal will be the
same as at ETOC, to make the TempO final, with 23rd to beat. By doing
the ROC (public) PreO, I also have another opportunity to demonstrate
that the GB PreO selection was wrong! I hear that Scandinavia is the
mother land of orienteering, so I expect to be really challenged. My
biggest concern is it will be too hard (like PreO 1 at ETOC) and I
won’t get the result I want.
Are we going to see you committed
with TrailO for the next years?
T. D. - Of course! I want to
keep appearing on the international stage, but more importantly, I
intend to spread my enthusiasm around the UK.
Would you like to share with us your
biggest dream?
T. D. - A medal! The question
is: can I improve so that I only need a little bit of luck rather
than a big bit to get there?
[Photo: Iveta Malá /
kade.cz/EOC2016/tempO_im]
Joaquim Margarido
