World Trail Orienteering Championships In this issue. In this issue. INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION On-line Newsletter Issue 3 June 2012

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1 INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION On-line Newsletter Issue 3 June 2012 In this issue Xxx... 1 In this issue Kiril Nikolov....2 WTOC Double success for Sweden...4 Q&A on trail orienteering..5 Behind the Scenes: Finn Arildsen...6 North South East West: Belgium...8 News in brief...10 World Trail Orienteering Championships 2012 Photo: Nick Barrable Inside Orienteering is published by the IOF six times a The year. O-zine You is can published receive by the an IOF four times a year. You can notifi cation whenever receive an notifi cation a new issue of Inside Orienteering is released: www. whenever a new issue of O-zine is released: orienteering.org/insideorienteering. reports and For interviews current from news, IOF org/o-zine. For current news, reports Events, please and interviews visit the IOF from website: Events, please visit the IOF IOF website: Season s Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Orienteering Good Year 2012! reading! Anna Zeelig, Editor-in-chief Anna Zeelig Editor-in-chief

2 From high jumping to high-level orienteering Kiril Nikolov, 29 years old, is tall and slim, and the Bulgarian s first sport was high jumping. Injury forced a stop, and he started a new sports career as an orienteer. Now he has won his first international medal. BY ERIK BORG In the Sprint at the recent European Orienteering Championships, Kiril took the step up to the top three for the first time in an international championship, winning a silver medal, just five seconds slower than race winner Jonas Leandersson. How is it to be a medallist? It s great. I ve been waiting for this moment for a very long time, and I can say that it has been worth the wait. The most important thing for me in all these years of waiting is that I never gave up believing. I should also say that behind this belief there is a very special person for me: a woman who has kept faith in me even when I simply did not believe this could ever happen. How does the medal help you, and is it positive for orienteering in Bulgaria? Resulting from the medal I will get a financial bonus from the government and one year s salary. Because of this result and also the results in ski orienteering from Stanimir Belomazhev (he won a medal at the European Ski Orienteering Championships last winter), the federation will get a better budget for Comes from central Bulgaria Kiril was born in Rouse, but lived in Sliven in central Bulgaria until he was 18 years old. He started orienteering at the age of 16, in When I was a teenager I was doing athletics and especially high jumping. Then an ankle injury put me out of sport for about a year. After that I heard about orienteering and decided to try it. Two years as a full-timer Now he lives in the Bulgarian capital Sofia and he has been a professional orienteer for two years. I ll probably start studying again in the autumn. But I don t think that will harm my training programme. Kiril Nikolov aimed to win a medal in the Sprint in Falun, Sweden and he succeeded PHOTO: ERIK BORG 2 INSIDE ORIENTEERING

3 Silver medallist Kiril Nikolov PHOTO: ERIK BORG How is it to be a professional orienteer in Bulgaria? It s difficult but not impossible. I m really happy to have friends who have helped me and stood behind me for all this years. Now with a medal it will be a bit easier. How are you improving your skills? Repetition and analysis - and learning from the best. In 2009 when I moved to Halden SK from Stora Tuna, the reason was to learn something new and improve my orienteering. That was one of the reasons I changed club again in 2011 to learn something new again and to hear a different point of view. In Kalevan Rasti, his latest club, one of Kiril s team-mates is Thierry Gueorgiou. I have known Thierry for a long time. But the first time I had the possibility to get to know him better was in 2010, on a training camp in France with him and Anders Nordberg. Thierry is a person from whom you can learn a lot about orienteering, the point is to know exactly what you want to learn. He showed me what it is to be a perfect orienteer, and how you can learn to be that. He is the main driving force amongst the runners in Kalevan Rasti. How have you managed to get so good? Through learning from my failings! For example, in 2004 at the student World Championship Sprint I forgot to clear my SI card. That cost me the gold medal. I have many stories like this in orienteering, but I believe that things happen for a reason in this life. The Bulgarian has his own blog. The address is Big ambitions Now he is looking forward to the World Championships in Switzerland in the first part of July. My ambitions for Lausanne are high! But I don t want to speculate on those. The programme at WOC is very well planned. I ll run Sprint, Long and Relay. I can focus really sharply on the Sprint and after that there is enough time to focus on the Long. Have you a long-term ambition? I have learnt that the most important thing is what is happening now and I am doing the utmost I can to do my best. This approach to life makes me happy and I try to live that way. Some years ago I was always planning something, what I would do next, what was coming up etc. and I was never concentrating enough on what was happening at the time! World Ranking, Top 10 (as of 11 June 2012) Foot Orienteering Women: 1) Annika Billstam (SWE) 6011, 2) Helena Jansson (SWE) 5987, 3) Dana Brožková (CZE) 5919, 4) Minna Kauppi (FIN) 5846, 5) Signe Søes (DEN) 5805, 6) Lena Eliasson (SWE) 5765, 7) Linnea Gustafsson (SWE) 5758, 8) Tove Alexandersson (SWE) 5747, 9) Merja Rantanen (FIN) 5719, 10) Simone Nig- gli (SUI) Men: 1) Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) 6064, 2) Dan- iel 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) Olav Lundanes (NOR) 5742, 9) Oleksandr Kratov (UKR) 5734, 10) Francois Gonon (FRA) 5692, 10) Valentin Novikov (RUS) Federation League (for leading 20 athletes) Women: 1) Sweden points, 2) Switzerland 96611, 3) Finland 95859, 4) Norway 88128, 5) Czech Republic 79894, 6) Russia 76982, 7) Great Britain 71566, 8) Australia 70455, 9) Denmark 59574, 10) Latvia Men: 1) Sweden , 2) Switzerland , 3) Norway 99048, 4) Finland 98627, 5) Great Britain 86700, 6) Czech Republic 83278, 7) Denmark 78089, 8) Australia 76439, 9) Russia 74050, 10) Spain MTB Orienteering Women: 1) Ingrid Stengård (FIN) 7102, 2) Marika Hara (FIN) 7030, 3) Rikke Kornvig (DEN) 6988, 4) Michaela Gigon (AUT) 6949, 5) Christine Schaffner-Räber (SUI) 6938, 6) Anna Kamińska (POL) 6888, 7) Ksenia Chernykh (RUS) 6864, 8) Maja Rothweiler (SUI) 6856, 9) Susanna Laurila (FIN) 6841, 10) Hana Bajtošová, (SVK) Men: 1) Samuli Saarela (FIN) 7402, 2) Erik Skovgaard Knudsen (DEN) 7257, 3) Jiři Hradil (CZE) 7181, 4) Ruslan Gritsan (RUS) 7111, 5) Anton Foliforov (RUS) 7108, 6) František Bogar (CZE) 7064, 7) Beat Schaffner (SUI) 7051, 8) Valeriy Gluhov (RUS) 7039, 9) Marek Pospíšek (CZE) 7001, 10) Jussi Laurila (FIN) Ski Orienteering Women: 1) Tove Alexandersson (SWE) 1270, 1) Josefine Engström (SWE) 1270, 3) Marte Reenaas (NOR) 1257, 4) Polina Malchikova (RUS) 1227, 5) Natalya Tomilova (RUS) 1219, 6) Olga Novikova (KAZ) 1208, 7) Yuliya Tarasenko (RUS) 1197, 8) Kajsa Richardsson (SWE) 1181, 9) Anastasia Kravchenko (RUS) 1171, 10) Sonja Mörsky (FIN) Men: 1) Staffan Tunis (FIN) 1299, 2) Andrey Grigoriev (RUS) 1289, 3) Stanimir Belomazhev (BUL) 1283, 3) Erik Rost (SWE) 1283, 5) Peter Arnesson (SWE) 1281, 6) Hans Jørgen Kvåle (NOR) 1272, 7) Lars Hol Moholdt (NOR) 1254, 8) Kiril Veselov (RUS) 1240, 9) Eduard Khrennikov (RUS) 1233, 10) Martin Hammarberg (SWE) INSIDE ORIENTEERING 3

4 World Trail Orienteering Championships Double success for Sweden BY CLIVE ALLEN Sweden s Ola Jansson and Stig Gerdtman have been crowned 2012 World TrailO Champions in the Paralympic and Open classes respectively at the end of a technically very challenging competition in Tentsmuir Forest, near Dundee, Scotland. Both have been at the top before Jansson in the Paralympic class in 2010 and in the Open class back in 2004, and Gerdtman also in They have been two of the most consistent performers at international level ever since the World Trail Orienteering Championships started in Jans- son is the current European Champion in the Paralympic class, which he also won in For the second year in succession the team competition was won by the Finnish team of Lauri Kontkanen, Antti Rusanen and Pekka Seppä. Sweden came second, and for the third year in a row Croatia took the bronze team medals. Very complex terrain Tentsmuir Forest provided coastal sand dunes of high complexity not a rock in sight. The course planner, Brian Parker, ably supported by IOF Senior Event Adviser Jari Turto (Finland) and national controller Anne Straube, produced courses which often required very precise assessment of the varied problems to find the correct answers. The quality of the view could be a distraction, especially on Day 2 where two of the controls were on dunes viewed across an expanse of flat sand towards the sea. The very best competitors coped well both with the severity of the challenge and with the distractions; Stig Gertman and Open silver medallist Vitaliy Kyrychenko, Ukraine lost only 2 points over the two days, whilst Ola Jansson lost just 4. TempO in parkland The World TempO Trophy was staged on a very wet day in Camperdown Park in Dundee. Competitors had to make 3 decisions at each of 8 stations on the course, all against the clock, and unlike at standard timed controls, Z (zero, no kite at the location of the circle on the map) situations were permissible. At one station, all three correct answers were Z! The terrain was a mixture of rolling open parkland with well-spread mature trees and a lake surrounded by gloriously-coloured rhododendrons, and small pieces of forest with intricate contour features. Here the winner was recently-crowned European Open Champion Marit Wiksell, Sweden. All competitors stayed in a conference centre in Dundee which was fully equipped for wheelchair-bound people, so opportunities for inter-nation socialising were at a maximum. The Championships ended with a banquet and ceilidh, where those in wheelchairs also had their time on the dance floor. Next year the World Trail Orienteering Championships will be held in Finland, where for the first time TempO will be a medal competition and an integral part of the championships. Open class winner Stig Gerdtman won his second individual World Champion title. PHOTO: NICK BARRABLE / 4 INSIDE ORIENTEERING

5 TrailO competitor uses the compass to estimate distance between two objects in the terrain. KUVA: PIRJO VALJANEN Q&A on trail orienteering Trail orienteering is one of the four orienteering disciplines governed by the IOF. Though not the youngest, trailo is still the least known of the disciplines. Here we answer some of the most frequently asked questions about trailo. Should you have more questions on the topic, please send them to the IOF Secretariat. Why is the discipline called trail orienteering? In trail orienteering competitors are only allowed to move on trails; it is forbidden to enter the terrain off the tracks and paths. What do you do in trail orienteering? In essence, you follow a course marked on the map (1:4000 or 1:5000). At each control site there are 1-5 flags, of which one, or none, is at the exact control point your control circle on the map and your control description shows. You have to work out which flag if any is correctly placed. You look at the flags in the terrain from the path. The flags are called A, B, C, D and E starting from the left and if none of them is correct, the answer is Z (zero). In addition to the normal controls, of which there are on the course, there are 1-3 timed controls. At a timed control the competitors see the terrain and the map when the time starts and have 60 seconds in which to answer which flag they think is right. If the answer is wrong, they get a 60-second penalty. Competitors get 1 point for each correct answer. If two or more competitors end up with the same points, the time taken at the timed controls decides who wins. What s the use of maximum time in TrailO? Maximum time is the time the competitor has to complete the course. Exceeding the maximum time results in penalty points. Although trailo competition is not testing the walking/ running speed of the competitors, the Competitors at a control site in Scotland. PHOTO: NICK BARRABLE maximum time adds a stress moment to the controls, as you cannot use as much time as you might want to when trying to solve the problems. How do I read TrailO results? In results of trail orienteering events both points and time are given. The points total is the number of correct answers the competitor has given (including timed controls). Could any skilled foot orienteer win a TrailO event, if they wanted to? Foot orienteers certainly have an advantage over non-orienteers when learning to trail orienteer, and they can do well with quite little training, but for more lasting success disciplinespecific training is needed. I ve seen a trailo control with the control description hill, southwest part. ALL the flags were on the southwest part of the hill! Are they all correct? No. In trailo the correct flag is the one that is in the middle of the control circle and matches the control description. Even though all the flags you saw were on the southwest part of the hill, only one of them was in the middle of the control circle. Why do competitors sometimes stand in front of the control point and hold their compasses at eye level? The competitors are using the compass to estimate distance between two objects in the terrain. INSIDE ORIENTEERING 5

6 Behind the Scenes 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: Finn Arildsen: I feel like I m part of a global family Finn Arildsen, a member of the IOF IT Commission, has played a big part in developing the electronic technology used in orienteering. The Dane has been involved in IOF work ever since BY ERIK BORG If something unexpected happens to the IOF website, requiring an expert to put it right, an is often sent to Finn Arildsen, a person who is well practised in getting everything perfect again in a very short time. The 52-yearold is brilliant with computers and, fortunately for IOF, orienteering is his chosen sport. It all started in the mid-1970 s in the small city of Hjørring in the northern part of Denmark, where he joined the sport as a teenager. The entire family was drawn into the sport when a local orienteering club was formed, called Vendelboerne. Even before that, though, I enjoyed maps and navigation, so it felt as a natural step to join the sport when introduced to it, Finn says. Lives on a map Now he lives in a village outside Aarhus on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula. He is a member of a very active orienteering club, Pan Aarhus, and also lives close to a forest. I m privileged to have my house on the edge of an o-mapped forest. Within a further kilometre there is a larger, very nice beech forest that stretches along the coast. He studied Electronic Engineering, and his professional career is in telecommunications. Currently he is working on the design of future systems for mobile telephone networks for the Swedish company Ericsson. The pre-internet era Finn s first contact with the IOF was when he submitted an early version of his Condes software to an IOF software competition in 1986, a time when the IOF wanted to encourage the use of technology to ease the burden of organising events. Through the competition, the IOF collected a selection of software for the member federations to use. In 1988, the IOF High Tech Group was formed, and Arildsen was invited to join. The HTG acted as the IOF s focal point for information on technology. This was in the pre-internet era, says Finn, so information was not readily available as it is now. The HTG actively collected information and published a newsletter that provided information about new initiatives, and also held open meetings during world championships. This was around the time when we started using computers for drawing orienteering maps, and a few years later, electronic punching was introduced. The HTG had a very hands-on approach and also developed software. For example they created an application that kept track of World Cup scores. The program and the data were kept on a diskette which was physically handed over from organiser to organiser. In the mid-90 s, the HTG was also actively involved in convincing the IOF that it needed to launch its own website, tells Finn. The first version was very low key, and we created and maintained a minimalistic set of pages. However we secured the domain name orienteering.org which is still used for the IOF website. A lot has happened since then, and the IOF now has a very comprehensive website which is maintained by the IOF Secretariat. Chairman for six years In 1997 the High Tech Group turned into the Technology Development Commission (TDC), where Finn was Chairman for 6 years, and later into the IT Commission, where he is still a member. The TDC published an IOF Data Standard. This is a format description that allows all the various systems involved in organising an event to exchange data without having to type it all in again. The data standard has recently been revised and brought up-to-date and the new version is about to be published. What is the main work in the IT Commission now? The fundamental work hasn t changed: keeping track of the use of new technology, and facilitating its use. The ITC is a so-called support commission, which means that it gets involved whenever questions regarding technology come up in one of the other commissions. We have been involved in many discussions on electronic punching systems and timing systems and how to ensure the reliable use of such systems. As many orienteers have a keen interest in technology, many new initiatives are taken, and a lot of experimentation with new technology takes place. Interestingly, this means that occasionally we find ourselves in a conservative role, where we favour fairness over innovation, and discourage the use of technology when it is not yet mature enough for use at high-level events. 6 INSIDE ORIENTEERING

7 An active orienteer There is so much he wants to do. The limit is the time he has available and also that of others doing voluntary work. It s sometimes difficult to get as much done as we would like to, says Finn. He is of course also an active orienteer. I m a relatively slow runner, so even though I usually don t make many mistakes, I find myself in the middle of the result list. Writes his own programs Arildsen has also written his own programs that make it easier to organise events, the most well-known being Condes. I wrote the first version of Condes (CONtrol DEScriptions) in the 1980 s. It helped produce control description sheets and it stayed the same for more than 10 years. When Microsoft Windows became common and orienteering maps became digital, there was an opportunity to create an on-screen course planning tool. I probably never would have started, had I known how much time it would take, and that the job would never be finished. But I m glad I didn t know, because the result of all the hard work has given so much positive feedback from a lot of nice people worldwide. At times I have had to act quickly to solve problems, due to my own programming mistakes or to users using the program in unintended ways. Why do you use so much time on non paid work for orienteering? Doing IOF work is like being part of a global family. It is wonderful to meet with very competent people from all over the world who share a common interest, and to contribute to producing something that is of benefit to the global orienteering community. It is good to see how the sport and the events develop as a result. Orienteering must be visible and accessible Finn Arildsen thinks that the way to get more growth in orienteering is to be visible and accessible. If we look at other sports that are successful in attracting (young) people, these are two Finn Arildsen uses a lot of his spare time on technological development in orienteering. Here he is at the World Orienteering Championships 2007 in Ukraine. PHOTO: KELL SØNNICHSEN important properties that characterise them. We need to tell people what orienteering is, so we need to continue the on-going process of making the sport more visible. Technology plays an important role in visualising our high-profile events, and GPS tracking is just one element. Getting more people attracted also means spreading the sport to more countries, and I think the IOF is already very active in this field, securing orienteering a foothold in many new lands and sowing the seeds for growth. A lot of work is done in many countries to make orienteering more accessible, bringing orienteering closer to people. I think we ll see technology drawn in as a component think of the ubiquitous smart phones maybe there is already an orienteering App?, he asks. If there isn t one yet, you can be sure that Arildsen will be the one to create it... INSIDE ORIENTEERING 7

8 North South East West North South East West is a regunglar feature in Inside Orienteering. In every issue, we focus on one of the IOF s 73 member nations. In this issue we showcase: Belgium: one nation two regions In Belgium there is one national federation, and within that there are two regional federations responsible for all orienteering activity in their part of the country. ERIK BORG asked the national federation s President, Mark Van Bruggen, to explain. There are 6 clubs in the (northern) Flemish federation (V.V.O.), and 13 in the French-speaking (southern) federation (F.R.S.O.). Altogether there are about 2,000 active orienteers in Belgium, about 1,000 in each federation, and we have slightly more than 400 maps. But particularly in the north, quite a lot of them are smaller forests, parks and city maps, since there are not so many big forests and access permissions are hard to get. According to Mark Van Bruggen, it is compulsory to have two federations because of Belgian regulations. Having only one federation would be easier for some issues, but more difficult in other circumstances, he says. He became interim President in October 2007 and was officially elected in February Both federations work in their own languages, so we only have a language problem when treating national items, like regulations, calendar and national team matters. Then the trick is to make sure that everyone thoroughly understands the different opinions. Each of the two federations has three full-time employees, mainly paid by the respective regional Ministries of Sports. 72 races in a year Mark Van Bruggen started orienteering in the late nineteen-seventies. I started along with some car rally drivers and navigators like myself who needed to improve their physical condition. Being very careful and not so fast, I avoid injuries. Since we can orienteer in Belgium all year round, I do about 60 races a year. Now that I have retired (M65), I have even more time for orienteering, and last year I broke my record with 72 races. Miek Fabré is one of the most interesting upcoming names in Belgian orienteering. PHOTO: ROGER AERTS 8 INSIDE ORIENTEERING

9 Word of mouth Who takes part in orienteering in Belgium and why do they do it? Orienteering started in Belgium as a mainly military sport. There are still quite a lot of military people involved, and they did and do spread the sport through their families and relatives. How do new people get into the sport? Since there are not many spectators, sponsors are almost non-existent and visibility is rather low, new people get into the sport largely by word of mouth. Members often do live tens of kilometres apart, so there is almost no geographical concentration of club members. Only the bigger clubs organise some training. Club activity is often limited to organising races, but they do organise a lot up to 20 per club per year. People tend to become members after a few trial participations (the Flemish federation offers 5 all-in participations in the first year for only 10), the President says. Future of orienteering in Belgium In the Northern Flemish region, access to the forest is the main problem, and things are getting worse. Every year we lose access to some or parts of some forests. In the southern part of the country, which is much less populated and where there are many more forests, our negotiators manage to get a few new access agreements every year. Van Bruggen says the federation aims to grow, but not too fast. In spite of coming from a small coun- Johan Goubau (left), a member of the Brussels-based club Altaïr, and Bart Delobel from Leuven after fi nishing the Sprint at the European Championships in Falun, Sweden. PHOTO: ERIK BORG try, the Belgium national team has improved its performances lately. Fabien Pasquasy has been on elite level for several years now, and Miek Fabré and Yannick Michiels are the hottest upcoming names in Belgian orienteering. Miek Fabré had good races at the World Orienteering Championships last year (8th in sprint qualification and 28th in sprint final) and won the Golden Compass Award 2011 of the Belgian federation, followed by Yannick Michiels. Mark Van Bruggen has orienteered in 24 countries. This photo is taken at the annual Interland competition, held this year in the south of Belgium at the end of April. PHOTO: PRIVATE INSIDE ORIENTEERING 9

10 News in brief Tonna and Jeanneret new members of the IOF Ski Orienteering Commission The IOF Council decided in its April meeting to appoint Eivind Tonna (NOR) and Thierry Jeanneret (SUI) new members of the IOF Ski Orienteering Commission. Jeanneret replaces Daniel Sägesser, a previous Swiss member in the commission, and with Tonna s appointment the total number of members increases to nine. The composition of the commission is now the following: Markku Vauhkonen (FIN), Chairman Antti Myllärinen (FIN), Vice Chairman Aleksandr Bliznevskiy (RUS) Nicolo Corradini (ITA) Valentin Garkov (BUL) Roland Hellberg (SWE) Thierry Jeanneret (SUI) Eivind Tonna (NOR) Juraj Nemec (SVK), Corresponding Member For areas of responsibility within the commission, please visit the IOF website. The IOF Congress Binder and Biennial Report published on the IOF website For the first time, the IOF Congress Binder (for Congress in Lausanne, Switzerland) and the Biennial Report ( ) have been published as PHOTO: ERIK BORG an electronic version. The documents have been circulated to all IOF member federations and they can be found on the IOF website. Crocker to the Ski Orienteering Athletes Commission The IOF Ski Orienteering Athletes Commission has appointed Alison Crocker, USA, as a new member to the commission. Alison Crocker is a 27-year-old ski orienteer who achieved a fourth and a fifth place at this year s opening round in Ski Orienteering World Cup. These were the best ever World Cup results of a USA ski orienteer. The Ski Orienteering Athletes Commission now has six members: Johan Granath, Sweden (coordinator); Eduard Khrennikov, Russia; Olga Novikova, Kazakhstan; Christian Spoerry, Switzerland; Staffan Tunis, Finland; and Alison Crocker, USA. Evaluation on IOF MTB Orienteering Events The IOF MTB Orienteering Commission has published an online Event Evaluation Form to collect feedback on IOF MTB Orienteering World Cup and World Championships events. The purpose of the form is to get a better view of the current quality of major MTB orienteering events through assessment by participating teams. Responses from media and spectators are also welcome. The Event Evaluation Form is available on the IOF website. International Conference on Course Planning The IOF Foot Orienteering Commission will organise the traditional International Conference on Course Planning in conjunction with the World Orienteering Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland on 17 July Course planners and others with interest in the topic are invited to attend and discuss the latest philosophies of course planning in a relaxed atmosphere. The main focus this year will be on sprint orienteering. For more details regarding the conference, please view the invitation on the IOF website. IOF Rules updated The competition Rules for IOF Ski Orienteering Events have been updated, and the new version will come into effect on 1 July At the same time, two sets of Special Rules have been published: Special Rules for MTB Orienteering World Cup 2013, and Special Rules for World Masters MTB Orienteering Championships In order to view the documents, please visit the Rules section of the appropriate discipline menu on the IOF website.