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1 INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION On-line Newsletter Issue 2 April 2012 In this issue It s In this fun and issue rewarding to be an organiser...2 Xxx... 1 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 Just an occasional day off!...12 News in brief...13 World Lorem MTBO ipsum Championships dolor sit amet 2012 the riders will not be disappointed! Photo: Swiss Orienteering 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 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 international MTBO events. There is a nice balance between serious competition 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 Hungary has organised several major MTB orienteering events. This year they organise the World MTB Orienteering Championships. Photos: Márton Mets. 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. 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 organised 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 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 coming World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships in Hungary this summer, and he is also a member of the IOF s MTB Orienteering Commission. From training to events The Hungarian got seriously involved in MTBO in After 15 years abroad he returned to his home country. 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 organising the open training sessions every Thursday. Over a period of four years we managed to transform recreational training sessions into an annual series of 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 understand 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 accommodation in university halls of residence; that enables all teams to stay close to each other. We are also mapping terrain never used for orienteering before. There are lots of creative ideas floating around to make the event both challenging and spectator-friendly. The organising team is working hard, and the riders will not be disappointed. The challenges Sandor Talas fi nds it important to hear the riders feedback at the events. Nowadays a World Championships and a World Cup are organised every year. There are a lot of big competitions and many good organisers, but there are challenges for the still-young sport in finding even more keen organisers. It is difficult to find the right team: there are only a few committed people, and they are usually keen competitors, says Sándor. That comes from the young age of the discipline, and eventually will get solved by time. It is also challenging to negotiate with local authorities. In some countries they have massive concerns either on environmental or on safety grounds, mainly due to lack of experience with the sport. This will also get resolved as they learn more about biking in the forest, though it may take some time. Last, but not least, it is difficult to balance the books. In the current economic 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 Europe, from Switzerland to Sweden and France to Finland, that have great terrain and all the experience within the orienteering community to stage big races. They just need the right constellation 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 enthusiastic MTBO man from Hungary. 2 INSIDE ORIENTEERING 3

3 Behind the Scenes BY CLIVE ALLEN David, who lives in Lancaster in the north of England, joined the IOF Technical 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- 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: 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 om 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 . I think the rules are in pretty good shape now, and the Rules Commission 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 identical. 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 Guidelines. Orienteering all-rounder 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 dual event in Wharncliffe Woods near Sheffi eld, England in 1978; he fi nished in 5th place in M21E. Photo: Tom Astbury The fact that David has personal perience of all four IOF disciplines s ex- foot, ski, mountain bike and trail enteering has been useful to him ori- in his work in the Commission. He started orienteering at the age of 15, in the 1970 s was selected for the British ish 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 l as foot orienteering, and is a very active competitor despite increasingly dodgy dgy 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 winning 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 compete 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 federation 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 download and use. The Rules Commission is responsi- ble for the education of IOF Event Advisers, and works with National Federations to hold a number of Event Advisers 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 comprehensive set of Powerpoint presentations which each Clinic leader can easily use and adapt, tells David. Recently the Rules Commission has developed 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 David Rosen (front row, third from the left) led the IOF Foot Orienteering Event Advisers clinic in Sweden in 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 commissions 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 everything. As an example, David cites the vexed question of following: Every so often, people propose rules to ban following. 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 following. To a certain extent, it is an inevitable 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 distance fell race run on orienteering lines which has been held every year since 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 British 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 deserve) the praise, whereas if there are problems, the Event Adviser tends to get the blame! I ve had very good cooperation from the Swiss organisers and of course they have a lot of experience, 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. 4 INSIDE ORIENTEERING 5

4 North South East West Spain 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 University 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 Spanish Orienteering Federation (FEDO) has been the Martin Kronlund Trophy, always staged in the Madrid region. Martin Kronlund was made Hon. President of FEDO; he died aged 91 in 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 A 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! ng! development on a national level actually gained momentum. An IOF Development and Mapping Clinic was held in Madrid in March 1988 with representatives from both Spain and Portugal, and it was at about that time that orienteers from European countries with snow cover in winter began to visit these countries for winter training 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 Murcia region in 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 Wide contribution to world programme The practice of holding high quality multi-day events in the European winter 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 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 regunglar feature in Inside Orienteering. In every issue, we focus on one of the IOF s 73 member nations. In this issue we showcase: events along with a similar programme me in Portugal attract high international nal participation. Spain has also contributed at a higher level to the IOF interthnational event programme, staging Veteran World Cup (now the World Masters Championships) in Murcia in 1996 and the Junior World Orieniteering Championships in Alicante 2002, he continues. The Latin Cup has been held in Spain three times (1999, 99, 2005 and 2011), and Spain and Portugal alternate in hosting the Iberian Championships, which for 20 years now has been one of the highest-status tus events in the region and has helped vance orienteering in both countries. ad- More than 16,000 orienteers The Spanish Orienteering League proouvides open competition throughout the year. The League is at the top of a pyramid competition structure embracing regional and many local competitions. Some League events have more than 1,000 participants, drawn from the 146 clubs with over 16,000 members that are within FEDO. Madrid, Comunidad Valenciana, Murcia, Andalucia, Castilla-La Mancha and Catalonia are the areas with the greatest 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 participants as men. With an eye to increasing 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 developing 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 competed in several World Championships with a best performance of 16th in the Long distance final in Hungary in Now there are two fine young athletes poised to make their mark on the international scene. A very exciting prospect for the future is 20-yearold Andreu Blanes, silver medallist in Sprint at last year s Junior World Championships (JWOC), the best Spanish result ever at World Championship level, and member of the 4thplaced 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 And this year for the first time there will be Trail Orienteering at the Spanish Championships, says José Ángel Nieto. There is also one discipline that FEDO promotes very enthusiastically but which is not in the IOF portfolio: adventure racing, also known as RAID. 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 Working beyond Spain s borders As with many national orienteering federations, resources for development are very limited, but Spain has an important role in developing orienteering beyond its borders as well as within. 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 development work on behalf of IOF is the Spanish-speaking nations in South America. In recent times José Ángel Nieto 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 visiting 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 future and Spain will become an increasingly important source of resources as activity in the Mediterranean and Spanish-speaking South America broadens to more and more lands. 6 INSIDE ORIENTEERING 7

5 Results of Orienteering and the Environment survey published BY RIIKKA TOLKKI The IOF Environment Commission conducted a survey last spring with the primary purpose of gaining more information about the state of environmental 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 environment-friendly conduct of orienteering events. A total of 19 member federations, representing four out of six IOF regions, submitted their responses to the survey, and a report by the Commission has recently been published on the IOF website. On the basis of the results, it is evi- dent that there is great variety in the importance of different environmental aspects, legislation requirements and permission required for conducting orienteering. Also the need for and forms of cooperation with different stakeholders varies widely. Significant conflicts with stakeholders seem to be rare in general, and the conflicts that were reported have mainly occurred with landowners regarding access to land and with environmental authorities on the use of conservation areas. Green image should be used for marketing The results also suggest that a strategy on environmental issues has been adopted in two-thirds of the federations that responded, but measures for implementing this strategy seem em to be lacking in most cases. There would seem to be room for improvement especially with regard to course setter and event organiser training ing and the availability of national guidelines. The report by the Environment Commission concludes that the green image of orienteering should be used more efficiently for marketureing and PR purposes in the future. The Commission also suggests that even though the environmental impacts of orienteering are small, a wise strategy for our sport is to take a proenactive approach in the management of environmental issues. How would you assess the importance of the following environmental ntal aspects of orienteering in your country (i.e., what aspects are important from the viewpoint of the public conception of orienteering)? What issues stated in your national environment related legislation have to be taken into account when organising orienteering competitions in your country? Mean 3,1 3,1 2,8 2,7 2,6 2,5 2,3 1,9 1,9 Legislation regarding safety, nature conservation and access to land needs to be taken into account in over 80 % of countries that took part in the survey. Legislation requirements seem to vary quite a lot between different countries, however. What kind of measures has your national federation taken for the management of environmental issues? Photos: Paula Lehtomäki Disturbance of mammals and waste seem to be regarded as the most important environmental aspects related to orienteering even if traffic has the biggest environmental impact. The graph to the left shows that national guidelines exist in only slightly over half of the countries. Also, very few federations seem to have instruction material available for youth and recreational sectors. 8 INSIDE ORIENTEERING 9

6 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 Q&A on the paralympic class in IOF Trail Orienteering events There are two classes in Trail Orienteering: 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 competitions, because of a permanent disability that reduces their mobility, can apply for eligibility for the paralympic class. Each Federation has the right to enter three competitors who hold a valid eligibility certificate in the paralympic class at the World Championships. The rules for eligibility for the paralympic class were reviewed and updated by the IOF Trail Orienteering Commission and the IOF Medical Commission at the beginning of 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? Competitors for the paralympic class shall submit to the IOF, at least eight weeks before the competition, an eligibility form (available at 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 permanent disability, and I have not been able to (foot) orienteer since my injury. Does that make me eligible for the paralympic class? Athletes competing in trail orienteering are not compared to athletes competing 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 disadvantage 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 doctor s appointment in vain. What should I do? If you contact the IOF Secretariat before starting the process, describing the nature and extent of your condition/disability, we ll do our best to give guidance. Please note that you should contact us in good time before the application deadline, which is 8 weeks prior to planned participation in an IOF Event. Some participants in the paralympic class look healthier than me. Why am I not granted eligibility? It is not always possible to determine the condition of other athletes based on just looking at them. When implementing the new criteria, some athletes with invisible disabilities have been granted eligibility for the paralympic 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/condition make them slower than the criteria. Invisible disabilities include, for example, certain central nervous diseases. There are competitors in the Paralympic Games / in paralympic rowing/boxing/[insert a sport] that would not be granted eligibility for the paralympic class in trail orienteering. How is this possible? According to the International Paralympic Committee, IPC, different World Ranking, Top 10 (as of 18 April 2012) Foot Orienteering Women: 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) 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) sports should not be compared with each other. The IPC Handbook says: The criteria detailing how an Athlete may be considered Eligible to Compete shall be defined for each sport by the respective IF [International Federation]. Each IF shall have eligibility criteria based on the specific tasks required to compete in each sport. As a consequence, an Athlete may meet eligibility 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 paralympic 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 Activity Limitation resulting from an impairment that does not limit the Athlete s ability to compete equitably in elite sport with Athletes without impairment, the Athlete should be considered ineligible to compete. and Federation League (for leading 20 athletes) Women:1) Sweden points, 2) Fin- land 91456, 3) Switzerland 88482, 4) Norway 83512, 5) Great Britain 82448, 6) Czech Republic 80203, 7) Australia 73988, 8) Russia 61735, 9) Denmark 60527, 10) New Zealand Men: 1) Sweden , 2) Norway 96607, 3) Switzerland 94601, 4) Great Britain 88190, 5) Finland 84488, 6) Czech Republic 81941, 7) Denmark 80256, 8) New Zealand 76941, 9) Australia 76488, 10) Belarus MTB Orienteering Women: 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 Rothweiler (SUI) 6732, 9) Ksenia Chernykh (RUS) 6725, 10) Hana Bajtošová (SVK) Men: 1) Samuli Saarela (FIN) 7324, 2) Erik Skovgaard Knudsen (DEN) 7257, 3) Jiři Hradil (CZE) 7119, 4) Anton Foliforov (RUS) 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 Athlete to compete under the Sport Rules of the IF. I am fit and therefore do not fulfil 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 criteria, i.e. you are able to walk 2.5 km in 40 minutes, you are welcome to participate in the open class, should your federation select you in the team. We are happy if trail orienteering as a discipline helps disabled or ablebodied athletes to keep themselves fit. However, the World Championships 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 discipline 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 orienteering. 7068, 4) Ruslan Gritsan (RUS) 7068, 6) Valeriy Gluhov (RUS) 7039, 7) Tobias Breitschädel (AUT) 6934, 8) Jussi Laurila (FIN) 6930, 9) Beat Schaffner (SUI) 6928, 10) Marek Pospíšek (CZE) 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 11

7 Tove Alexandersson just an occasional day off! 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 marvellous winter, with five victories and second 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 medals 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 normally have a day without training every week. When the competitions are less important, I have a day without training 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 coming 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 European 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 Switzerland 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 trains very hard, but regularly takes a day off too. Photo: Erik Borg. 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 listening and learning from others. I don t have to experience everything myself. Only time for sport just now Tove spent two years at an orienteering gymnasium in Sandviken in Sweden, 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 studying this year, with all the competitions 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 studying and work! News in brief Recent development activities in Barbados and the United Arab Emirates Development activities have been un- der way in one of our newest member countries, Barbados, and also in an interesting new orienteering country, 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 assisted Barbados earlier this year in organising an orienteering event, accompanied by a development clinic and three mapping clinics. The Canadians also did some mapping work with locals which yielded a total of six new school maps, an updated sprint map and a 1: base map of a new area. Further areas for mapping were also identified to guide future development efforts. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), orienteering is currently military driven 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 training camp, after which the collaboration with Czech-Austrian contacts led to a further meeting in UAE in early 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 collaboration 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 Championships The 2012 European Orienteering Championships will take place in Falun-Mora, Sweden, in the period 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 commentary. The Swedish Orienteering Federation is offering these three productions 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. Sarolta Monspart elected Vice President of the Hungarian Olympic Committee Sarolta Monspart, orienteering World Champion from 1972, was recently 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 national Sport for All Association. She was a member of the IOF Council in the period , the last two years as a Vice President. Five proposals from member federations for the General Assembly The IOF has received five proposals from member federations, on three different topics, for the 2012 General Assembly. Spain has revived the proposal it put to the 2008 General Assembly in Prostejov, Czech Republic, to include Adventure Racing as an official IOF discipline. The Italian Orienteering Federation 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 current World Orienteering Championships (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, Finland, 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 meeting at the end of April, and the Council s views on these proposals will then be published on the IOF website. 12 INSIDE ORIENTEERING 13