INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION On-line Newsletter Issue 2 • April 2012

In this issue

Xxx .................................... 1

The O-zine is published by the IOF four times a year. You can receive an email notifi cation whenever a new issue of O-zine is released: www.orienteering.org/o-zine. For current news, reports and interviews from IOF Events, please visit the IOF web-site: www.orienteering.org.

Season’s Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Orienteering Year 2012!

Anna Zeelig, Editor-in-chief

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INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION On-line Newsletter Issue 2 • April 2012

In this issue

“It’s fun and rewarding to be an organiser” .....................2

Behind the Scenes:David Rosen ......................4

North South East West: Spain ..................................6

Orienteering and the Environment survey ..........8

Paralympic class in IOF Trail Orienteering events..........10

Tove Alexandersson – Justan occasional day off!......12

News in brief.....................13

Inside Orienteering is pub-lished by the IOF six times a year. You can receive an email notifi cation whenever a new issue of Inside Ori-enteering is released: www.orienteering.org/InsideOri-enteering. For current news, reports and interviews from IOF Events, please visit the IOF website: www.orienteering.org.

Good reading!

Anna ZeeligEditor-in-chief

World MTBO Championships 2012 –“the riders will not be disappointed”!

Photo: Swiss Orienteering

32 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING INSIDE ORIENTEERING |www.orienteering.orgwww.orienteering.org

BY ERIK BORG

“There is still a lot of new thinking in organising MTBO competitions. Events are far less ‘standardised’ than in foot orienteering, so much more experimentation goes on”, Sándor Tálas says. “This makes these events more fun. Some of the best World Cup events have been or-ganised in vineyards or abandoned military barracks. You also feel that you are directly contributing to the development of the sport. You are much closer to the athletes, and you get very direct feedback when

“It’s fun and rewarding to be an organiser”Hungarian Sándor Tálas likes orienteering at high speed and therefore enjoys Mountain Bike Orienteering (MTBO), but he uses far more energy on developing and organising the sport than taking part in competitions.

something works – and of course even more direct, when something goes wrong. One has to understand that these are still early years for MTBO. This year we are organising the 10th World Championships. In foot orienteering that landmark was in 1983, interestingly also in Hungary”.

The 46-year-old is a Vice President in the organising team for the com-ing World Mountain Bike Orienteer-ing Championships in Hungary this summer, and he is also a member of the IOF’s MTB Orienteering Com-mission.

From training to events

The Hungarian got seriously involved in MTBO in 2005. After 15 years abroad he returned to his home coun-try. In his club OSC in Budapest were the best Hungarian riders - Anna Füzy, a medal candidate in WOC later this year, and Dániel Marossfy, the current coach of the Hungarian Team. Sándor was soon given the task of organis-ing the open training sessions every Thursday.

“Over a period of four years we man-aged to transform recreational train-ing sessions into an annual series of

15 events, with up to 60 participants from absolute beginners to national team riders”, he tells.

Fast and fun

Why are you so enthusiastic about MTBO?

“The short answer is that I need a bike these days to enjoy going at the same speed that I enjoyed on foot 20 years ago. More seriously, I very much enjoy the friendly atmosphere of in-ternational MTBO events. There is a nice balance between serious compe-tition and serious fun. Riders come to World Championships to have a good time, and not for a ‘day in the office’, Sándor says.

Forty experienced people

To organise a good competition, the key is to have a good organising team, says Sándor. “One of my Austrian friends commented that it is easy to organise good events when you have a team of 40 experienced people who need only two-sentence instructions to do a perfect job. You also have to ride in events and talk to elite riders to un-derstand how they feel about things. They are always willing to share their opinions. It’s both fun and rewarding to be an organiser”.

“It will be fun to organise the World Championships in August, both on and off the courses. This will be a rare occasion, when the Elite, Junior and Masters World Championships are all organised together. We will have an ‘Olympic village’ style of accom-modation in university halls of resi-dence; that enables all teams to stay close to each other. We are also map-ping terrain never used for orienteer-ing before. There are lots of creative ideas floating around to make the event both challenging and specta-tor-friendly. The organising team is working hard, and the riders will not be disappointed”.

The challenges

Nowadays a World Championships and a World Cup are organised every year. There are a lot of big competi-tions and many good organisers, but there are challenges for the still-young sport in finding even more keen or-

ganisers. “It is difficult to find the right team: there are only a few com-mitted people, and they are usually keen competitors”, says Sándor. “That comes from the young age of the dis-cipline, and eventually will get solved by time”.

“It is also challenging to negotiate with local authorities. In some coun-tries they have massive concerns ei-ther on environmental or on safety grounds, mainly due to lack of experi-ence with the sport. This will also get resolved as they learn more about bik-ing in the forest, though it may take some time”.

“Last, but not least, it is difficult to balance the books. In the current eco-nomic climate it is a challenge to cover all the costs”.

Expanding across the world

MTBO is growing fast, and there is huge potential for future development. Sándor, who works as a management consultant in daily life, hopes more European nations will now become interested in organising IOF events. “There are numerous countries in Eu-rope, from Switzerland to Sweden and France to Finland, that have great ter-rain and all the experience within the orienteering community to stage big

Hungary has organised several major MTB orienteering events. This year they organise the World MTB Orienteering Championships.Photos: Márton Mets.

races. They just need the right con-stellation of a few enthusiastic people to go for it”.

There are really great opportunities in countries outside Europe too; also in places where the terrain is not very suitable for foot orienteering. “It just takes time to get the sport developed in those countries”, says the enthusi-astic MTBO man from Hungary.

Sandor Talas fi nds it important to hear the riders’ feedback at the events.

4 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING

Behind the scenes is a regular feature in Inside Orienteering. In every issue, we will write about someone working for the IOF. In this issue you meet:

Behind the Scenes

www.orienteering.org 5INSIDE ORIENTEERING |

BY CLIVE ALLEN

David, who lives in Lancaster in the north of England, joined the IOF Tech-nical Committee about 15 years ago and has been Chair of the IOF Rules Commission for the last 7 years. The other members are Barry McCrae, Aus-

David Rosen – ‘Keeper of the Rules’It needs a special kind of person to be ’Keeper of the Rules’. A structured and logical thinker, a sense of what needs formalising and what doesn’t, a feel for a level of order that is uncompromising yet retains some room for manoeuvre and takes in new innovation, and a good decision-maker and communicator when it comes to the key task of interpretation. Amongst other attributes! That person in IOF is David Rosen.

tralia and one representative from each of the four discipline commissions, and they meet up twice a year and also do a lot of work by e-mail.

“I think the rules are in pretty good shape now, and the Rules Commis-sion tries to ‘harmonise’ the rules of the four disciplines as far as possible”,

says David. There are inevitably some differences between the rules but for some sections (e.g. juries, complaints and protests) the rules should be iden-tical. “One of the on-going discussions is about what should be in the Rules and what should be in the Guidelines. We try to keep the Rules as short and clear as possible, whereas advice about best practice should be in the Guide-lines”.

Orienteering all-rounder

The fact that David has personal ex-perience of all four IOF disciplines – foot, ski, mountain bike and trail ori-enteering – has been useful to him in his work in the Commission. He started orienteering at the age of 15, in the 1970’s was selected for the British foot orienteering team (but never ran in a World Championships), and was a British team member at two World Ski Orienteering Championships in the 1980’s. He now regularly competes in MTB orienteering events as well as foot orienteering, and is a very active competitor despite increasingly dodgy knees – in the past 12 months he has completed 70 FootO races, 10 MTBO races and one SkiO race. With his wife Miriam he has orienteered in much of Europe and in Asia, North America and Australia and New Zealand. “One of my most pleasing results was win-

ning the M40 class at the Asia-Pacific Championships in New Zealand in 1994”, says David.

“I think it is important that most orienteering officials are themselves competitors so that they remain in touch with developments in the sport. In Britain, sprint and urban races are very popular and the fact that I com-pete regularly in such events means that as a controller, I am well aware of issues with uncrossable features and multiple levels”, he says.

Professional career in IT

Work-wise, David began as a second-ary school mathematics teacher, then moved into IT and recently retired from his professional career as an IT Manager in Birkbeck College, Univer-sity of London. His IT background has served him well in a number of ways in IOF, not least in the complex area of Start Draws for Qualification Races. The rules here are quite complicated. “The heats must be equally strong, and the runners from each federa-tion must be spread across the heats”, says David.

“The federation specifies the start block for each runner, and runners from the same federation must not start sequentially in the same heat. It is quite difficult to get this correct and for many years, organisers have been saying “Why can’t the IOF is-sue a computer program to do this?” After several instances when the start draw was incorrect, I decided I had better do something. So I have writ-ten a sophisticated Excel macro which is simple for any organiser to down-load and use”.

The Rules Commission is responsi-ble for the education of IOF Event Ad-visers, and works with National Feder-ations to hold a number of Event Ad-visers Clinics each year, with a good geographical spread. “Last year I led a FootO clinic in Sweden and another in Hungary. We’ve developed a com-prehensive set of Powerpoint presen-tations which each Clinic leader can easily use and adapt”, tells David. Re-cently the Rules Commission has de-veloped and published guidance notes about how a jury should operate and when it might be necessary to void a competition, and has also published guidance for Event Advisers on the use

of the SportIdent and Emit punching systems.

Rule changes

The Rules have to change over time to respond to new technology and new orienteering formats. “I work very closely with the discipline commis-sions and we jointly present a proposal to IOF Council

when rule changes are required”, says David. “We now try to keep the Rules as stable as possible, normally making changes just once a year”.

And rules are not the answer to eve-rything. As an example, David cites the vexed question of following: “Every so often, people propose rules to ban fol-lowing. But if runners are close to each other in the forest, they will inevitably use each other and often it is difficult to tell who is leading and who is fol-lowing. To a certain extent, it is an in-evitable part of the sport, but it can be minimised by using appropriate start intervals with good course planning”.

Wide-ranging organising skills

David brings his organising skills to quite a wide range of different events connected with orienteering. He and Miriam organise the Lake District Mountain Trial, a famous long dis-tance fell race run on orienteering

lines which has been held every year since 1952. They also always manage to compete in it – David has completed the race 33 times. David has organised, controlled and planned many major orienteering events in the UK, and was Co-ordinator of the 1998 World Cup races in the Lake District, the first Brit-ish event ever to use SportIdent.

This year his major responsibility is as Senior Event Adviser for the World Championships in Switzerland. “As an Event Adviser, you have to accept that if the event goes well, then the organisers and planners get (and de-serve) the praise, whereas if there are problems, the Event Adviser tends to get the blame! I’ve had very good co-operation from the Swiss organisers and of course they have a lot of expe-rience”, says David. “I’m sure they will put on a great event. The preparations are on schedule, and I spent four days last October visiting all the proposed control sites. I’m making a final visit to Lausanne in early May”.

Active retirement

Now that David and Miriam are both retired, they plan to spend even more time in the English Lake District where there are beautiful mountains and some great orienteering terrain. And there will be plenty of time for yet more work for the IOF, that’s for sure.

David was in the British team in his prime as a competitor. Here he is on the run-in to the fi nish at the Jan Kjellström Trophy individual event in Wharncliffe Woods near Sheffi eld, England in 1978; he fi nished in 5th place in M21E. Photo: Tom Astbury

David Rosen (front row, third from the left) led the IOF Foot Orienteering Event Advisers’ clinic in Sweden in 2011.

Behind the scenes is a regular feature in Inside Orienteering. In every issue, we will write about someone working for the IOF.

It needs a special kind of person to be ’Keeper of the Rules’. A structured and logical thinker, a sense of what needs formalising and what doesn’t, a feel for a level of order that is uncompromising yet retains some room for manoeuvre and takes in new innovation, and a good decision-maker and communicator when it comes to

says David. There are inevitably some differences between the rules but for some sections (e.g. juries, complaints and protests) the rules should be iden-tical. “One of the on-going discussions is about what should be in the Rules is about what should be in the Rules and what should be in the Guidelines. We try to keep the Rules as short and clear as possible, whereas advice about best practice should be in the Guide-

The fact that David has personal ex-perience of all four IOF disciplines – foot, ski, mountain bike and trail ori-enteering – has been useful to him in his work in the Commission. He started orienteering at the age of 15, in the 1970’s was selected for the British foot orienteering team (but never ran in a World Championships), and was a British team member at two World Ski Orienteering Championships in the 1980’s. He now regularly competes in MTB orienteering events as well as foot orienteering, and is a very active competitor despite increasingly dodgy knees – in the past 12 months he has completed 70 FootO races, 10 MTBO races and one SkiO race. With his wife Miriam he has orienteered in much of Europe and in Asia, North America and Australia and New Zealand. “One of my most pleasing results was win-

David was in the British team in his prime as a competitor. Here he is on the run-in to the fi nish at the Jan Kjellström Trophy individual event in Wharncliffe Woods near Sheffi eld, England in 1978; he fi nished in 5th place in

www.orienteering.org

ning the M40 class at the Asia-Pacific Championships in New Zealand in 1994”, says David.

“I think it is important that most orienteering officials are themselves competitors so that they remain in touch with developments in the sport. In Britain, sprint and urban races are very popular and the fact that I com-pete regularly in such events means that as a controller, I am well aware of issues with uncrossable features and multiple levels”, he says.

Professional career in IT

Work-wise, David began as a second-ary school mathematics teacher, then moved into IT and recently retired from his professional career as an IT Manager in Birkbeck College, Univer-sity of London. His IT background has served him well in a number of ways in IOF, not least in the complex area of Start Draws for Qualification Races. The rules here are quite complicated. “The heats must be equally strong, and the runners from each federa-tion must be spread across the heats”, says David.

“The federation specifies the start block for each runner, and runners from the same federation must not start sequentially in the same heat. It is quite difficult to get this correct and for many years, organisers have been saying “Why can’t the IOF is-sue a computer program to do this?” After several instances when the start draw was incorrect, I decided I had better do something. So I have writ-ten a sophisticated Excel macro which is simple for any organiser to down-load and use”.

The Rules Commission is responsi-ble for the education of IOF Event Ad-visers, and works with National Feder-ations to hold a number of Event Ad-visers Clinics each year, with a good geographical spread. “Last year I led a FootO clinic in Sweden and another in Hungary. We’ve developed a com-prehensive set of Powerpoint presen-tations which each Clinic leader can easily use and adapt”, tells David. Re-cently the Rules Commission has de-veloped and published guidance notes about how a jury should operate and when it might be necessary to void a competition, and has also published guidance for Event Advisers on the use

7INSIDE ORIENTEERING |www.orienteering.orgwww.orienteering.org6 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING

North South East West is a regu-lar feature in Inside Orienteering.In every issue, we focus on one of the IOF’s 73 member nations. In this issue we showcase:

North South East West

BY CLIVE ALLEN

Orienteering is a relatively new sport in Spain. It started there in the 1960’s on two fronts: as a sport for the armed forces, and through the enthusiasm of the Swedish-born Professor Martin Kronlund, a specialist trainer in fencing at the School of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences of the Technical Univer-sity of Madrid, who used orienteering as physical training for his students. He made a map of part of Casa de Campo, a big recreation area on the outskirts of Madrid, in 1971 and started to interest local athletes. One of the biggest events throughout the early years of the Span-ish Orienteering Federation (FEDO) has been the Martin Kronlund Trophy, al-ways staged in the Madrid region. Mar-tin Kronlund was made Hon. President of FEDO; he died aged 91 in 2008.

Momentum in the 80’s

Spain became an Associate Member of IOF in 1982, but it was in the late eighties that the proper establishment of FEDO’s structure and some sustained

SpainA base for winter training camps for the European elite; well-known international events early in the year; a national Sprint league recently established; almost 150 clubs spread around the country; a resource base for development both in the Mediterranean area and in South America. A lot goes on in Spanish orienteering!

development on a national level actu-ally gained momentum. An IOF Devel-opment and Mapping Clinic was held in Madrid in March 1988 with repre-sentatives from both Spain and Portu-gal, and it was at about that time that orienteers from European countries with snow cover in winter began to visit these countries for winter train-ing camps. Some new multi-day events, held during the first three months of the year, came into existence, such as the Trofeo Costa Cálida in the Mur-cia region in 1989. And the presence of Scandinavian elite orienteers in the winter months helped to raise the standard and number of o-maps. Spain became a full IOF member in 1990.

Wide contribution to world programme

The practice of holding high quality multi-day events in the European win-ter period has continued: “Spain has organised three World Ranking events every year for the past few years, and four this year”, says Vice President of FEDO José Ángel Nieto Poblete. “These

events along with a similar programme in Portugal attract high international participation. Spain has also contrib-uted at a higher level to the IOF inter-national event programme, staging the Veteran World Cup (now the World Masters Championships) in Murcia in 1996 and the Junior World Orien-teering Championships in Alicante in 2002”, he continues. The Latin Cup has been held in Spain three times (1999, 2005 and 2011), and Spain and Por-tugal alternate in hosting the Iberian Championships, which for 20 years now has been one of the highest-status events in the region and has helped ad-vance orienteering in both countries.

More than 16,000 orienteers

The Spanish Orienteering League pro-vides open competition throughout the year. The League is at the top of a pyramid competition structure em-bracing regional and many local com-petitions. Some League events have more than 1,000 participants, drawn

from the 146 clubs with over 16,000 members that are within FEDO. “Ma-drid, Comunidad Valenciana, Murcia, Andalucia, Castilla-La Mancha and Catalonia are the areas with the great-est numbers of clubs and runners”, tells José. Participation is increasing slowly but steadily, with spring the most active season at all levels, and there are almost as many women par-ticipants as men. With an eye to in-creasing marketing and awareness of the sport in Spain, the President of FEDO, Victor García Berenguer, has worked hard on introducing Sprint competitions, and a Spanish Sprint league has recently been established.

Andreu Blanes – best Spanish result ever

A lot of effort has been put into de-veloping the elite level of the sport in recent years, with far more structured technical and physical training for the best orienteers. For some years, the most successful Spanish orienteer has been Esther Gil Brotons, who has com-peted in several World Championships with a best performance of 16th in the Long distance final in Hungary in 2009.

Now there are two fine young ath-letes poised to make their mark on the international scene. A very excit-ing prospect for the future is 20-year-old Andreu Blanes, silver medallist in Sprint at last year’s Junior World Championships (JWOC), the best Spanish result ever at World Champi-onship level, and member of the 4th-placed Spanish relay team at JWOC, Spain’s best-ever relay result.

And Anna Serrallonga, 22 years old, is another fine prospect: she qualified for the Long Distance Final at the World Championships in France last year and finished 26th, a fine achievement.

Other disciplines

Mountain Bike Orienteering has also become popular in Spain, and World Cup races have been held in Zaragoza in 1996 and Barcelona in 1999. “And this year for the first time there will be Trail Orienteering at the Spanish Championships”, says José Ángel Ni-eto. There is also one discipline that FEDO promotes very enthusiastically but which is not in the IOF portfolio: adventure racing, also known as RAID.

Working beyond Spain’s borders

As with many national orienteering federations, resources for development are very limited, but Spain has an im-portant role in developing orienteer-ing beyond its borders as well as with-in. This year, the first Cup event of the Confederation of Mediterranean Orienteering Federations (COMOF) was held in Spain. COMOF is working hard, with two Spanish representatives on its Board, to try to get orienteering into the Mediterranean Games.

The other main object of Spain’s de-velopment work – on behalf of IOF – is the Spanish-speaking nations in South

America. In recent times José Ángel Ni-eto has been a very busy ambassador for the sport in that part of the world. “I have been to Argentina, Costa Rica, Paraguay and Uruguay within the last 15 months, and I will shortly be vis-iting Costa Rica and Paraguay again, plus Bolivia and Guatemala”, says José. Peru is also in José’s sights as a country where orienteering might be introduced.

Spanish orienteering has a rosy fu-ture – and Spain will become an in-creasingly important source of resourc-es as activity in the Mediterranean and Spanish-speaking South America broadens to more and more lands.

Andreu Blanes won the Sprint silver medal at last year’s Junior World Championships. Here he is competing in the senior World Championships in France. Photo: Erik Borg

Martin Kronlund pioneered orienteering in Spain. His work was recognised by being appointed Hon. President of the Spanish Orienteering Federation and having a major international event carrying his name.

North South East West is a regu-lar feature in Inside Orienteering.In every issue, we focus on one of the IOF’s 73 member nations. In

a national Sprint league recently established; almost 150 clubs spread around the country; a resource base for development both in the Mediterranean area and in South America. A lot goes on in Spanish orienteering!

events along with a similar programme in Portugal attract high international participation. Spain has also contrib-uted at a higher level to the IOF inter-national event programme, staging the Veteran World Cup (now the World Masters Championships) in Murcia in 1996 and the Junior World Orien-teering Championships in Alicante in 2002”, he continues. The Latin Cup has been held in Spain three times (1999, 2005 and 2011), and Spain and Por-tugal alternate in hosting the Iberian Championships, which for 20 years now has been one of the highest-status events in the region and has helped ad-vance orienteering in both countries.

The Spanish Orienteering League pro-vides open competition throughout the year. The League is at the top of a pyramid competition structure em-bracing regional and many local com-petitions. Some League events have more than 1,000 participants, drawn

Martin Kronlund pioneered orienteering in Spain. His work was recognised by being appointed Hon. President of the Spanish Orienteering Federation and having a major

98 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING INSIDE ORIENTEERING |www.orienteering.orgwww.orienteering.org

BY RIIKKA TOLKKI

The IOF Environment Commission conducted a survey last spring with the primary purpose of gaining more information about the state of en-vironmental issues in IOF member federations and the measures that have been taken to date to manage these issues in different countries. The results will be used as a basis for a charter and guidelines for environ-ment-friendly conduct of orienteer-ing events. A total of 19 member fed-erations, representing four out of six IOF regions, submitted their respons-es to the survey, and a report by the Commission has recently been pub-lished on the IOF website.

On the basis of the results, it is evi-

Results of Orienteering and the Environment survey published

What issues stated in your national environment related legislation have to be taken into account when organising orienteering competitions in your country?

What kind of measures has your national federation taken for the management of environmental issues?

Legislation regarding safe-ty, nature conservation and access to land needs to be taken into account in over 80 % of countries that took part in the sur-vey. Legislation require-ments seem to vary quite a lot between different countries, however.

The graph to the left shows that national guidelines exist in on-ly slightly over half of the countries. Also, very few federations seem to have instruc-tion material availa-ble for youth and rec-reational sectors.Photos: Paula Lehtomäki

How would you assess the importance of the following environmental aspects of orienteering in your country (i.e., what aspects are important from the viewpoint of the public conception of orienteering)?

Disturbance of mammals and waste seem to be regarded as the most impor-tant environmental aspects related to orienteering even if traffic has the biggest environmental impact.

Mean 3,1 3,1 2,8 2,7 2,6 2,5 2,3 1,9 1,9

dent that there is great variety in the importance of different environmen-tal aspects, legislation requirements and permission required for con-ducting orienteering. Also the need for and forms of cooperation with different stakeholders varies widely. Significant conflicts with stakehold-ers seem to be rare in general, and the conflicts that were reported have mainly occurred with landowners re-garding access to land and with en-vironmental authorities on the use of conservation areas.

Green image should be used for marketing

The results also suggest that a strate-gy on environmental issues has been

adopted in two-thirds of the federa-tions that responded, but measures for implementing this strategy seem to be lacking in most cases. There would seem to be room for improve-ment especially with regard to course setter and event organiser training and the availability of national guide-lines.

The report by the Environment Commission concludes that the green image of orienteering should be used more efficiently for market-ing and PR purposes in the future. The Commission also suggests that even though the environmental im-pacts of orienteering are small, a wise strategy for our sport is to take a pro-active approach in the management of environmental issues.

How would you assess the importance of the following environmental aspects of orienteering in your country (i.e., what aspects are important

Disturbance of mammals and waste seem to be regarded as the most impor-tant environmental aspects related to orienteering even if traffic has the biggest

adopted in two-thirds of the federa-tions that responded, but measures for implementing this strategy seem to be lacking in most cases. There would seem to be room for improve-ment especially with regard to course setter and event organiser training and the availability of national guide-

The report by the Environment Commission concludes that the green image of orienteering should be used more efficiently for market-ing and PR purposes in the future. The Commission also suggests that even though the environmental im-pacts of orienteering are small, a wise strategy for our sport is to take a pro-active approach in the management

1110 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING INSIDE ORIENTEERING |www.orienteering.org

World Ranking, Top 10 (as of 18 April 2012)

Foot OrienteeringWomen: 1) Annika Billstam (SWE) 6007, 2) Helena Jansson (SWE) 5986, 3) Dana Brožková (CZE) 5919, 4) Minna Kauppi (FIN) 5846, 5) Signe Søes (DEN) 5801, 6) Lena Eliasson (SWE) 5764, 7) Linnea Gustafsson (SWE) 5757, 8) Tove Alexandersson (SWE) 5753, 9) Merja Rantanen (FIN) 5718, 10) Maja Alm (DEN) 5636.

Men: 1) Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) 6064, 2) Daniel Hubmann (SUI) 5881, 3) Peter Öberg (SWE) 5835, 4) Baptiste Rollier (SUI) 5788, 5) Philippe Adamski (FRA) 5776, 6) Pasi Ikonen (FIN) 5771, 7) Matthias Müller (SUI) 5765, 8) Francois Gonon (FRA) 5749, 9) Olav Lundanes (NOR) 5745, 10) Oleksandr Kratov (UKR) 5734.

Federation League (for leading 20 athletes)Women:1) Sweden 103337 points, 2) Fin-land 91456, 3) Switzerland 88482, 4) Nor-

way 83512, 5) Great Britain 82448, 6) Czech Republic 80203, 7) Australia 73988, 8) Rus-sia 61735, 9) Denmark 60527, 10) New Zealand 49567.

Men: 1) Sweden 104026, 2) Norway 96607, 3) Switzerland 94601, 4) Great Britain 88190, 5) Finland 84488, 6) Czech Repub-lic 81941, 7) Denmark 80256, 8) New Zea-land 76941, 9) Australia 76488, 10) Belarus 69481.

MTB OrienteeringWomen: 1) Ingrid Stengård (FIN) 7035, 2) Rikke Kornvig (DEN) 6990, 3) Michaela Gigon (AUT) 6949, 4) Marika Hara (FIN) 6914, 5) Christine Schaffner-Raeber (SUI) 6834, 6) Laura Scaravonati (ITA) 6787, 7) Susanna Laurila (FIN) 6757, 8) Maja Roth-weiler (SUI) 6732, 9) Ksenia Chernykh (RUS) 6725, 10) Hana Bajtošová (SVK) 6712.

Men: 1) Samuli Saarela (FIN) 7324, 2) Erik Skovgaard Knudsen (DEN) 7257, 3) Jiři Hradil (CZE) 7119, 4) Anton Foliforov (RUS)

7068, 4) Ruslan Gritsan (RUS) 7068, 6) Valeriy Gluhov (RUS) 7039, 7) Tobias Bre-itschädel (AUT) 6934, 8) Jussi Laurila (FIN) 6930, 9) Beat Schaffner (SUI) 6928, 10) Marek Pospíšek (CZE) 6902.

Ski OrienteeringWomen: 1) Tove Alexandersson (SWE) 1270, 1) Josefi ne Engström (SWE) 1270, 3) Marte Reenaas (NOR) 1257, 4) Polina Malchikova (RUS) 1227, 5) Natalya Tomilova (RUS) 1219, 6) Olga Novikova (KAZ) 1208, 7) Yuli-ya Tarasenko (RUS) 1197, 8) Kajsa Richards-son (SWE) 1181, 9) Anastasia Kravchenko (RUS) 1171, 10) Sonja Mörsky (FIN) 1169.

Men: 1) Staffan Tunis (FIN) 1299, 2) Andrey Grigoriev (RUS) 1289, 3) Stanimir Belomaz-hev (BUL) 1283, 3) Erik Rost (SWE) 1283, 5) Peter Arnesson (SWE) 1281, 6) Hans Jør-gen Kvåle (NOR) 1272, 7) Lars Hol Moholdt (NOR) 1254, 8) Kiril Veselov (RUS) 1240, 9) Eduard Khrennikov (RUS) 1233, 10) Martin Hammarberg (SWE) 1228.

There are two classes in Trail Orienteer-ing: open and paralympic. In the World Championships open class, any three athletes selected by their country can participate. Athletes with a significant disadvantage in trail orienteering com-petitions, because of a permanent dis-ability that reduces their mobility, can apply for eligibility for the paralympic class. Each Federation has the right to enter three competitors who hold a val-id eligibility certificate in the paralym-pic class at the World Championships.

The rules for eligibility for the para-lympic class were reviewed and updated by the IOF Trail Orienteering Commis-sion and the IOF Medical Commission at the beginning of 2011. The new rules have raised several questions, some of which we answer here below. If you have further questions on the topic, please send them to the IOF Secretariat.

How do I apply for eligibility for the paralympic class in IOF Trail Orienteering events?

Q&A on the paralympic class in IOF Trail Orienteering events

Competitors for the paralympic class shall submit to the IOF, at least eight weeks before the competition, an eli-gibility form (available at http://orien-teering.org/trail-orienteering/eligibili-ty-for-paralympic-class/) completed by a doctor and signed by their national federation. If approved, a certificate authenticating their paralympic status will be issued. The eligibility certificate must be sent to the event organiser with the final entry form.

I cannot run because of a perma-nent disability, and I have not been able to (foot) orienteer since my injury. Does that make me el-igible for the paralympic class?

Athletes competing in trail orienteer-ing are not compared to athletes com-peting in foot orienteering. Therefore, the athletes do not need to be able to run. The athletes competing in the paralympic class in trail orienteering need to have a significant disadvan-

tage in trail orienteering because of their condition.

I am not sure if my condition/disability will qualify me for the paralympic class, and I would not like to spend money on a doc-tor’s appointment in vain. What should I do?

If you contact the IOF Secretariat before starting the process, describing the na-ture and extent of your condition/dis-ability, we’ll do our best to give guid-ance. Please note that you should con-tact us in good time before the applica-tion deadline, which is 8 weeks prior to planned participation in an IOF Event.

Some participants in the para-lympic class look healthier than me. Why am I not granted eligi-bility?

It is not always possible to determine the condition of other athletes based

on just looking at them. When imple-menting the new criteria, some ath-letes with invisible disabilities have been granted eligibility for the par-alympic class, while some athletes with a visible disability have not been granted eligibility. This you can also see when looking at the participants in the open class. The IOF feels that what counts in trail orienteering is – besides the obvious disadvantages the wheel-chair users have – the time the athlete has to spend in properly completing the course. Therefore we feel that the criteria need to include a ‘speed limit’ - which means that even athletes with invisible disabili-ties may be eligible for the paralym-pic class, should their disability/con-dition make them slower than the criteria. Invisible disabilities include, for example, certain central nervous diseases.

There are competitors in the Par-alympic Games / in paralympic rowing/boxing/[insert a sport] that would not be granted eli-gibility for the paralympic class in trail orienteering. How is this possible?

According to the International Par-alympic Committee, IPC, different

sports should not be compared with each other. The IPC Handbook says: “The criteria detailing how an Athlete may be considered Eligible to Com-pete shall be defined for each sport by the respective IF [International Fed-eration]. Each IF shall have eligibility criteria based on the specific tasks re-quired to compete in each sport. As a consequence, an Athlete may meet eli-gibility criteria in one sport, but may not be Eligible to Compete in another sport. Eligibility to Compete should be assessed in accordance with the Code and the International Standard for Athlete Evaluation.”

I have Paralympic status in my country. How can you say that I do not qualify for the paralym-pic class in trail orienteering?

We do not question your status in your country. However, even if you have a disability, it may not be deemed to give you significant disadvantage in the sport of trail orienteering. The IPC says: “If an Athlete has an Activ-ity Limitation resulting from an im-pairment that does not limit the Ath-lete’s ability to compete equitably in elite sport with Athletes without im-pairment, the Athlete should be con-sidered ineligible to compete.” and

“If an Athlete is deemed ineligible for competition under the rules of an IF, this does not question the presence of a genuine impairment. This is only a ruling on the eligibility of the Ath-lete to compete under the Sport Rules of the IF.”

I am fit and therefore do not ful-fil the criterion on slowness. Isn’t it unfair that I am punished for keeping myself fit? Should you not encourage disabled athletes to keep themselves fit?

If you do not fulfil the slowness crite-ria, i.e. you are able to walk 2.5 km in 40 minutes, you are welcome to par-ticipate in the open class, should your federation select you in the team.

We are happy if trail orienteering as a discipline helps disabled or able-bodied athletes to keep themselves fit. However, the World Champion-ships are not meant to be a support for athletes to keep themselves fit. The World Championships are an elite sports event organised to find the world’s best athletes in the disci-pline on as equal basis as possible. It is regrettable if the athletes feel it is negative that they are so fit that they qualify for the open class in trail ori-enteering.

World Ranking, Top 10 Foot OrienteeringWomen: 1) Annika Billstam (SWE) 6007, 2) Helena Jansson (SWE) 5986, 3) Dana Brožková (CZE) 5919, 4) Minna Kauppi (FIN) 5846, 5) Signe Søes (DEN) 5801, 6) Lena Eliasson (SWE) 5764, 7) Linnea Gustafsson (SWE) 5757, 8) Tove Alexandersson (SWE) 5753, 9) Merja Rantanen (FIN) 5718, 10) Maja Alm (DEN) 5636.

Men: 1) Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) 6064, 2) Daniel Hubmann (SUI) 5881, 3) Peter Öberg (SWE) 5835, 4) Baptiste Rollier (SUI) 5788, 5) Philippe Adamski (FRA) 5776, 6) Pasi Ikonen (FIN) 5771, 7) Matthias Müller (SUI) 5765, 8) Francois Gonon (FRA) 5749, 9) Olav Lundanes (NOR) 5745, 10) Oleksandr Kratov (UKR) 5734.

Federation League (for leading 20 athletes)Women:1) Sweden 103337 points, 2) Fin-land 91456, 3) Switzerland 88482, 4) Nor-

on just looking at them. When imple-menting the new criteria, some ath-letes with invisible disabilities have been granted eligibility for the par-alympic class, while some athletes with a visible disability have not been granted eligibility. This you can also see when looking at the participants in the open class. The IOF feels that what counts in trail orienteering is – besides the obvious disadvantages the wheel-chair users have – the time the athlete has to spend in properly completing the course. Therefore we feel that the criteria need to include a ‘speed limit’ - which means that even athletes with invisible disabili-ties may be eligible for the paralym-pic class, should their disability/con-dition make them slower than the criteria. Invisible disabilities include, for example, certain central nervous diseases.

There are competitors in the Par-alympic Games / in paralympic rowing/boxing/[insert a sport] that would not be granted eli-gibility for the paralympic class in trail orienteering. How is this possible?

According to the International Par-alympic Committee, IPC, different

Three best in the World Trail Orienteering Championships paralympic class 2011: 1. Dmitry Kucherenko (RUS), 2. Søren Saxtorph (DEN), 3. Inga Gunnarsson (SWE). Photo: WOC 2011.

1312 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING INSIDE ORIENTEERING |www.orienteering.org

BY ERIK BORG

Tove Alexandersson likes to put herself under pressure and is looking for a lot more success. The remarkably strong junior from Borlänge in Sweden is at the top in both foot and ski orienteering. She has just finished another marvel-lous winter, with five victories and sec-ond place overall in the Ski Orienteering World Cup - for seniors. In Ukraine she went back to being a junior for a week, and won all four individual gold med-als at the Junior World Championships.

Likes to train hard

Tove says she doesn’t have to train every day to achieve this: “In periods with important competitions I normal-ly have a day without training every week. When the competitions are less important, I have a day without train-ing about every tenth day”. She has between 6 and 12 training sessions per week, all at high speed. “About half of my training is tough training. I like to feel that I am tired and have used my body. I train a lot with others and these sessions are fun. When I train alone I have to prepare a little bit more”.

Preparing for the summer season

Before the last of the Ski Orienteering World Cup races in Boden in her home country, she was on a club camp in a warmer climate where she tested the challenges she will meet in the com-ing Junior World Championships (JWOC) in foot orienteering. She has one gold medal from each of the last three JWOCs. This year’s JWOC is in July, but two months earlier comes the first highlight of the year: the Europe-an Championships in Dalarna, where Tove lives. “I am familiar with the terrain, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make mistakes in Dalarna”, she smiles.

The World Championships in Switzer-land are of course also in her plans. Last year she won a silver medal in the relay.

Listening and learning

Tove’s training is tough, and it has led

Tove Alexandersson – just an occasional day off!

to a few injuries. “But I haven’t had any big problems”, she says. “If I feel something that could be an injury, I rest or do alternative training”.

What’s the secret of your success?

“I am focused both before and during the competitions, and I am good at lis-tening and learning from others. I don’t have to experience everything myself”.

Only time for sport just now

Tove spent two years at an orienteer-ing gymnasium in Sandviken in Swe-den, finishing there almost one year

ago. Now she is at home again, and spends all her time on sport. “There wouldn’t have been time for any stud-ying this year, with all the competi-tions and camps in recent months”, she says.

What do other people think about you taking a year off from studies?

“They understand the reasons, and anyway it is not so unusual to take a year off school after finishing at the gymnasium. But it will probably me more than one year for me. There is still plenty of time in my life for stud-ying and work!

Tove Alexandersson trains very hard, but regularly takes a day off too. Photo: Erik Borg.

Recent development activities in Barbados and the United Arab Emirates

News in brief

Development activities have been un-der way in one of our newest member countries, Barbados, and also in an interesting new orienteering coun-try, the United Arab Emirates. Hav-ing joined the IOF in 2010, the Barba-dos Orienteering Federation has been very keen to develop orienteering in the country. Canadian volunteers as-sisted Barbados earlier this year in or-ganising an orienteering event, ac-companied by a development clinic and three mapping clinics. The Ca-nadians also did some mapping work with locals which yielded a total of six new school maps, an updated sprint map and a 1:10 000 base map of a new area. Further areas for mapping were also identified to guide future devel-opment efforts.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), orienteering is currently military driv-en and the country has had a team in the most recent editions of the World Military Orienteering Championships. Now there seems to be some interest in bringing the sport to the general public too. The UAE military team spent two weeks in Austria last year on a train-ing camp, after which the collabora-tion with Czech-Austrian contacts led to a further meeting in UAE in early 2012. During this trip, the Czech and Austrian volunteers helped the locals identify suitable areas for orienteering and held some meetings about map drawing and course planning. The col-laboration is expected to continue later this year with the staging of an open orienteering event in the UAE.

Live TV production at the 2012 European Orienteering ChampionshipsThe 2012 European Orienteering Championships will take place in Fa-lun-Mora, Sweden, in the period 14-20 May. The Swedish national broadcast-ing company SVT is going to transmit three of the events, Middle distance, Sprint and Relay, live with on-site com-mentary. The Swedish Orienteering

Federation is offering these three pro-ductions for possible broadcast abroad through a live feed. TV Producer for the European Championships will be Karel Jonak, known for example for last year’s praised TV production at World Cup Round 3 in Liberec, Czech Republic.

Five proposals from member federations for the General AssemblyThe IOF has received five propos-als from member federations, on three different topics, for the 2012 General Assembly.

Spain has revived the proposal it put to the 2008 General Assem-bly in Prostejov, Czech Republic, to include Adventure Racing as an official IOF discipline.

The Italian Orienteering Feder-ation FISO is proposing changes to the IOF Statutes which would ensure that there is at least one of each gender among the Vice Presidents, and furthermore at least two of each gender among the other Council members. The FISO proposes that these changes to the Statutes come into effect immediately during the General Assembly in Lausanne, i.e. before the 2012 Council elections.

After deciding that it would not itself propose changes to the cur-rent World Orienteering Cham-pionships (WOC) programme at this point, and publishing this information, the IOF has received three separate proposals on this topic. The proposals have come from Italy, Switzerland and the Nordic Countries (Denmark, Fin-land, Norway, and Sweden).

All proposals received from the member federations can be viewed on the IOF website:

IOF General Assembly 2012 in Lausanne, Switzerland

The IOF Council will discuss the proposals at its next meet-ing at the end of April, and the Council’s views on these propos-als will then be published on the IOF website.

Sarolta Monspart elected Vice President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee

Sarolta Monspart, orienteering World Champion from 1972, was re-cently elected one of the five Vice Presidents of the Hungarian Olympic Committee. Monspart was the first non-Scandinavian orienteer to win the World Champion title, and she was al-so the first European female runner to

finish the marathon in under 3 hours. After her active career she has worked actively for healthy life and sports; she is currently the Chairman of the na-tional Sport for All Association. She was a member of the IOF Council in the pe-riod 1982–1996, the last two years as a Vice President.

www.orienteering.org

Recent development activities in Barbados and the United Arab Emirates

News in brief

Development activities have been un-der way in one of our newest member countries, Barbados, and also in an interesting new orienteering coun-try, the United Arab Emirates. Hav-ing joined the IOF in 2010, the Barba-dos Orienteering Federation has been very keen to develop orienteering in the country. Canadian volunteers as-sisted Barbados earlier this year in or-ganising an orienteering event, ac-companied by a development clinic companied by a development clinic and three mapping clinics. The Ca-nadians also did some mapping work with locals which yielded a total of six new school maps, an updated sprint map and a 1:10 000 base map of a new area. Further areas for mapping were also identified to guide future devel-opment efforts.

Live TV production at the 2012 European Orienteering ChampionshipsThe 2012 European Orienteering Championships will take place in Fa-lun-Mora, Sweden, in the period 14-20 May. The Swedish national broadcast-ing company SVT is going to transmit three of the events, Middle distance, Sprint and Relay, live with on-site com-mentary. The Swedish Orienteering

Sarolta Monspart elected Vice President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee

Sarolta Monspart, orienteering World Champion from 1972, was re-cently elected one of the five Vice Presidents of the Hungarian Olympic Committee. Monspart was the first non-Scandinavian orienteer to win the World Champion title, and she was al-so the first European female runner to