Lakanen does the trick!21 Years of Waiting are Over.Page 4

WOC DENMARK1.-5. august 2006

Friday 4th August - No. 4

Denmark’s not so good day Pages 3 – 4

Expert’s ColumnI still remember the World Cup race in 1990 which I ran at Gjern Bak-ker: in the morning we started with a prologue, which was followed by a chasing start in the afternoon. I remember that what I had to be most careful about there were parallel mistakes, because many of the contour features look very similar, in shape and direction. What I also think will be a very decisive factor this time in the Middle distance, is the ability to understand the terrain, have feel for it and be able to find the fastest route through. No so much in terms of major route options, but what I expect is that this Middle distance will be rather about the ability to find the finest ‘micro’ route choices than about attacking the controls. I expect that on most of the legs it will not be possible just to run straight on towards the next control

and follow a compass... you will have to find your route through the terrain. So I think that only true masters will handle it. Personally I think this kind of race will suit Thierry Gueorgiou very well and he may win again in the men’s. But of course there are many other strong runners who will surely try to beat him and can do it – his team mate Francois Gonon, Emil Wingstedt, Pasi Ikonen, Jarkko Huovila or even Matthias Merz or Daniel Hubmann.Among the women I am very curious to see if Simone Niggli will be able to go for the top, in what I see as her most fragile discipline. She will have to run well technically, as she knows now that her speed wins her almost no advantage on the Middle distance courses these days. And this can play into the hands of Minna Kauppi, who I see as the favourite for the race. But we can see that Marianne Andersen from Norway is here in top shape as well and Heli Jukkola or Kajsa Nilsson can get close too.

Brigitte Wolf, Journalist and long-time Swiss national team runner (3rd in WOC Long distance 2003 and Relay World Champion in 2003)

The One-man Band Page 6

WOC Around the Clock

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A beautiful women who is married to a tall, handsome guy Mat-thias and lives in a small Swiss town Münsingen, spending a few months a year in another small Swedish town Ulricehamns, is wit-hout doubt the greatest orienteering star ever. Only 28 years old she has already won everything imaginable in the orienteering World. 11 times World champion, 5 times European champion, double win-ner of the World games in Duisburg 2005, 4 times overall winner of the World Cup with 24 stage victories, the winner of the overall Park World Tour, Swiss and Swedish champion, several times winner of the biggest relays Tiomila and Jukola, twice she has been named Sportswoman of the Year in Switzerland. Her achievements list is incredible, it seems something out of this world, but it s true, it s unbelievable reality, it is Simone. After being beaten in the sprint race by the young Australian talent Hanny Allston the uncrowned queen of orienteering Simone Niggli managed to pull back, and with a great performance of clear orien-teering she won her 11 th gold medal and the World champion title.

“Of course I was a little bit disappointed after the Sprint race, but still satisfied with a second place - all in all it was my first silver medal in the World Championships”, says ever smiling Simone. “I had a very hard programme over recent days, and a day after the first final it was very tough mentally for me to come into the race of the Long distance. However I managed it very well, which I am really proud about”. She was in third position after the first radio 38 seconds behind the leader at that moment Marianne Andersen, and at the first TV control she was already second, just 18 seconds separating her here from the best time set by Norwegian girl. After a while she took the spectator control going in to the lead by 16 seconds. Then only a little more than 10 minutes passed before she spurted into the finish, winning another gold medal in her favourite discipline.

Never on the course could she feel secure and she had to fight hard until crossing the finish line. “I didn t make any big mistakes, just a few small ones and I am not sure if I took the best route choices on the long legs. I tried to push as hard as possible all the way and then, at the spectator control, when I heard that I was just 16 seconds ahead of Marianne I got quite nervous, but continued doing my job. By the end of the course I caught up Swiss girls, which gave me a special motivation for the last controls. Crossing the finish line I was really, really happy that I had run a good race and won another gold medal”. It was a very tough victory for Simone and nothing was given for free on a very well planned course with an extremely long leg, where the wrong route choice could cost a medal. But a fews days ago she also won her heat in the Middle qualification, which means she will start as the last in the final on Friday morning to run for another great point in her personal list of best achievements.

Simone s 11th Gold

Fine races from the Danish women againAnne Konring Olesen and Signe Søes both performed well in the Long distance. Anne was best finishing 13th. After the race Anne was pleased. “My legs were a bit heavy, but I fought all the way through. Fysically there was nothing more I could do. I made some small errors but the decisive would have been if I made the right route choices.”She had nothing but com-pliment for Flemming Jørgensen for the course: “It was a crazy course. There were many difficult route choices.” Signe Søes adds: “There were many difficult route choices in the beginning when you hadn’t really had the time to think forward. At the end of the course, when you were tired, there was a lot of short legs and changes of direction all the time, so it was certainly a challenging course.” Signe Søes finished 23rd. As Anne she was pleased with her performance. “I didn’t miss that much – but I don’t know if I made the right route choices,”and she finishes with a smile: “I’m just glad to be back in the finish having completed the whole course.”

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Disappointing day for the Danish malesRené Rokkjær finished 20th as the best of the Danes. Carsten Jørgensen was 28th and Chris Terkelsen pulled out. “Today we simply didn’t com-pete at the level required to finish where it counts,” this was the simple realisation of the Head Coach Jakob Ødum. René Rokkjær ran a technically fine race, but he had to realise that the form wasn’t quite there. He started well, but was caught by Russian Andrey Khramov, who eventually took the bronze. He tried to be ahead of the orienteering, but after some stretches he was left behind solely based on the pace. It was a tough blow to him. He kept fighting, but had to realise that it was only good enough for 20th. Carsten Jørgensen had a poor start to his race. He was disappointed that this wasn’t his day. However, his preparation has been very unfor-tunate, as he has had a cold during the test races and, furthermore, had some problems with a muscle following the test races. “The first two controls went well, but then I was done. The whole course I felt like, I was lacking pace. I tried to increase the pace, but I wasn’t able to.” Chris Terkelsen had a really poor day. He felt he made the right choi-ces, but had to see competitors pass him in the forest, without being able to reply. When he got to the crowd control, he and the Head Coach agreed that it was best he dropped out of the race. There was no point in torturing the body any further. Now he has to master the discipline of recovering before the Middle distance on Friday.

Justification for Khramov and LauensteinLast year Adrei Khramov and Marc Lauenstein took gold and silver in the Long distance at the World Championships in Japan, but much of the glamor and happiness was certainly taken away from them by the protest, which was handed in by the Swedish team, who protested against Khramov and Lauenstein running together for a significant time on the course and thus possibly gaining advantage ahead of the others. And even if the jury dismissed the protest, certainly it took away something from the emotions for both of the runners. But after a year, we could see Lauenstein and Khramov on the po-dium again. And this time, after each of them ran a race of his own. They could have hardly sent a better response to those who were questioning their achievements last year. It certainly must have been great justification.

WOC Around the Clock

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Gjern Bakker: The best possible choice

Finland had to wait 21 long years till they could celebrate again the World Champion title in the Long distance in the men’s class, since the WOC 1985 in Australia. But as the saying goes, constant drip wears away the stone. And it was nobody else than the great Long distance runner Jani Lakanen, who was this drop, who finally wore away the stone. Already in 2001 Lakanen learned what it feels like to be a World Champion, but that was in Relay. He had to wait five more years to win this title in an individual discipline. “I knew very well this race was my great chance for this so much desired title, but I also knew nothing on this course would be given to me for free. All the way I had my orienteering under control and also also physically I felt strong and ready,” said Lakanen in the finish. Lakanen was among the leaders right from the beginning of the course, but it was on the longest leg of the course, towards the 16th control where he gained two minutes on his nearest rivals. There were several possible route choices and Lakanen took a southerly route way out from the straight line but with fewer hills and some good tracks. When he came to the first TV control, he had a solid lead and from there on he followed the win-ning track all the way into the finish. This victory surely is the most precious trophy in the collection of this nice Finn, who trains in the elite club Vaajakosken Terä in the town of Jyveskilä in central Fin-land. However, already before this race, Lakanen has been a couple of times at the top in a Long distance recently. In 2003 he took a silver medal in the discipline at the Nordic Championships in Sweden, in 2005 he won the World Cup Long di-stance in Great Britain last May, and, fi-nally, he became the European Champion in the discipline this May in Estonia, where he again dominated with a style.

However, there is no doubt what the biggest achievement in his sports career so far was: “This is something I have dreamed about since I started doing this sport. And to win this race, it feels almost like a dream. But I am aware that it is a dream come true, which makes feel it even better,” smiled the newly crowned World Cham-pion at the press conference.

That’s It!Jani Lakanen is the new Long distance World Champion

Marc Lauenstein congratulates Jani Lakanen to victory.

Two quality areas, Gjern Bakker and Hjortsballe Krat, neither much used for open competition in the past, have been chosen for the WOC 2006 middle distance races. Both areas are quite hilly with a lot of contour detail, providing a high-level technical challenge. The terrain is generally very runnable with areas of both deciduous and coniferous trees with good visi-bility, and there are also some open heather areas. Course planners for the middle distance races are Erik Bobach and Dorthe Hansen, both former Danish elite runners and very experien-ced planners; Erik has already planned many of the courses used by teams visiting for training in the past few months. ”The best possible choice”, said Erik when asked about the terrain chosen for the WOC middle distance races. We can be sure that Erik and Dorthe, now unhindered by the need to include MicrO, will set challenges well worthy of a world championship.

World Cup venue 16 years agoThe final will be held at Gjern Bakker, which was last in the inter-national limelight on 30th May 1990 when the second event of that

year’s World Cup was staged there. This consisted of two short- distance races, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with a chasing start for the final. The winning times were 32.22 (men) and 29.08 (women) for the first race and 19.44/22.47 for the second. The winners at the end of the day on that occasion were, for the record, Niklas Löwegren, SWE and Ragnhild Bente Andersen, NOR. The event was held in close collaboration with an adjacent holiday centre which nowadays is a favourite accommodation venue for teams coming to the area for training. The finish of the morning race was sited just outside the chalet bedrooms, so there wasn’t far to go to rest and prepare for the afternoon’s action.

First computer-drawn mapBut the occasion will best be remembered by many because it was the first time a fully computer-drawn map was used in internatio-nal competition. The map was made by Flemming Nørgaard, Event Director for WOC 2006, and a collectors’ item commemorative T-shirt with the full map printed on the front was also produced.

Hjortsballe Krat, venue for the qualification race, is an area used only for training from when it was first mapped in the 1970’s for a Nordic international match, until a new map was produced and the Danish Short Distance Championships held there in 2001.

Gjern Bakker: The best possible choice

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WOC Around the Clock

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Former president on French visitFormer IOF President, Swedish Bengt Saltin, was on a short, ‘French visit’ at WOC 2006 Tuesday, and enjoyed very much to be back at the arena of Orienteering. “It has been many years ago, since I last were a World Orienteering World Championship. I think at least ten years has past,” the Swede admitted. Saltin, who has been both president of the Swedish orienteering fede-ration from 1971-76, and was the leading man of the International Ori-enteering Federation from 1982 to 1988, also commented on the huge development, international orienteering has been over the last 20 years.“Then we only had two races in a championship. Now there’s both the sprint and the middle distance, and the competitions has moved very much closer to the spectators. At that time it felt like the runners disap-peared into the forest, and were only reported at the very last control if any. I think the development over the years has been very good for the sport. You can say, that the sport has managed to change and develop itself without letting go of any of its core values,” Saltin said. The former president is still active in orienteering, even though it is a while since his last competition: “My last race a very little regional race in Skåne (southern Sweden, ed.) three years ago, but I do still train on a regular basis. I try to go into the woods and train on a temporary course close to my home at least once in a while. Just for keep myself a little bit in shape.”

A few years ago Saltin received the International Olympic Commit-tee’s Medal of Honour for his lifelong contributions to the world of Sports. Today he serves, according to his own word ‘as very, very se-nior-professor’ in physiology at the University of Copenhagen, where he has been the driving force in establishing the world famous Copen-hagen Muscle Research Centre (CMRC).

The One-man BandNorth Korea came to WOC 2006 with a one-man team. Orienteering is slowly gaining a foothold in Asia. But not many would have expected that North Korea would be one of the first Asiatic coun-tries to send participants to a world championships. But nevertheless 25-year-old Kyong Si Ra is the North Korean repre-sentative at these championships. And even though his achievements are limited to a placing at the back end of the qualification heats, he is well satisfied with his performance. “I had hoped for a place in the Sprint Final. But I am highly satisfied with my result today” says the North Korean, who lives in Japan and travels with the Japanese team. Kyong Si Ra has been in Europe for more than 3 months. He took part in the European Championships in estonia in May, and since then has trained in Sweden for 2 months, where amongst other things he took part in O-Ringen to prepare himself for WOC. And to help become an even better orienteer, he has now registered for the WOC Tour to get more experience in Danish terrain.

It is six years ago that Kyong Ri Sa started his orienteering career. Last year he took part in WOC in Japan, where again he did not get beyond the 3 qualification races. When WOC is over he will go back to Japan, where he will get under way with some work and the past part of his university studies. The North Korean has never lived in his home country. His grand-parents moved to Japan after the Second World War and since then the family has lived in Japan. But according to Kyong Ri Sa there is growing interest in orienteering in North Korea. About 1,500 North Koreans take part in the sport and in a few years he hopes to be part of a relay team. “I plan to be present at the next 10 WOCs”, he says with a big smile.

Proud forest ownerThe owner of Løndal forest, Peter Bruun, spent much of the day ta-king photographs of the Long Distance Final arena from all possible angles. He has been extremely co-operative in the preparations for the event, becoming more and more interested in how his forest and fields were going to be used.

If it is Wednesday, it must be orienteering!Per Forsberg, chief speaker at WOC 2006, is a very busy man. He is a professional speaker on Swedish television, with football as one of his specialities. Between the qualification races and the Sprint Final he covered a football match in Helsingfors, and before the Middle Di-stance Final on Friday he is back in Sweden covering another football match! He drives some 70,000 km per year in his job, he says.

WOC is Big News in AustraliaHanny Allston’s victory in the Sprint has become big news in Australia, and of course especially in Hobart, Tasmania, her home town. The production of plenty of TV clips and column centimetres are no doubt partly the result of her getting a kiss from Crown Prince Frederik!

Arena Production SeminarA good number of delegates to the IOF Congress attended a seminar on Wednesday concerning the presentation of orienteering to the are-na audience. The seminar, organised by former Danish Orienteering Federation Chairman Ove Gasbjerg and WOC Arena Director Frank Linde, discussed the latest thinking on the subject in the morning. In the afternoon, a select group visited various parts of the arena set-up in Løndal.

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