Pdf version of Inside Orienteering 1-2012

INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION
On-line Newsletter Issue
1 • February 2012
In this issue
Ski Orienteering World Cup
rescued by a snowstorm ... 2
Hey, Look at us! –
Orienteering in the USA ...... 4
North South East West:
Moldova ............................. 5
World Masters 2012 ......... 8
Behind the Scenes:
Edmond Széchényi ..........10
Council Elections
coming up ........................12
A busy year for trail
orienteers ........................14
News in brief....................16
Inside Orienteering is published by the IOF six times
a year. You can receive an
email notification whenever
a new issue of Inside Orienteering is released: www.
orienteering.org/InsideOrienteering. For current news,
reports and interviews from
IOF Events, please visit the
IOF website:
www.orienteering.org.
The SkiO World
Cup is under way!
Good reading!
Anna Zeelig
Editor-in-chief
The best ski orienteers in the world met up in the USA at the end of January. Here is the mass start of the World Cup long distance race.
Photo: Eddie Bergeron, Orienteering USA.
Ski Orienteering World Cup
rescued by a snowstorm
Weather-wise it didn’t look good for the first round of the Ski
Orienteering World Cup this winter, but suddenly the conditions changed.
BY ERIK BORG
“Our biggest regret is that this was the
worst year for snow for many years for
us, and we nearly had to cancel the
events because of a complete lack of
snow. But we were saved at the last
minute – we had a sizeable snowstorm
just one week before the event”, Tony
Pinkham says.
Tony was the Event Director for the
first World Cup races in ski orienteering ever organised in the USA. In the
end it was a great success and hugely
enjoyable for everyone. “For us athletes, this World Cup round was an
adventure that we will never forget”,
2 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
the Norwegian athlete Lars Hol Moholdt says.
The organisers of the World Cup
were quite experienced in hosting
big events – they have organised
a week-long tour each year for the
past 5-6 years. “We finally got the
motivation to make our events truly international in calibre. This is
something we have always wanted.
It has been a tremendous experience to host this World Cup round”,
Pinkham says.
Had to make changes
Even though the snowstorm brought
a lot of snow, it wasn’t enough to enable all the original plans to be fulfilled.
The races planned in Bear Valley had
to be moved.
“The ski resorts that we used were
especially supportive in making their
trail networks as ready as possible for
our courses. In Bear Valley, a minimum of two metres of snow is required for grooming trails over their
boulder fields, and we had less than a
half metre. That loss hurt us personally, because the Bear Valley manager
had gone to extreme lengths to prepare his area by clearing a lot of felled
trees, to make it easy for us to make
our smaller trails. He’s a tremendous
person to work with and we had hoped
very much to bring the World Cup to
his venue.”
Great co-operation from
the Event Advisers
The Director’s best memories of the
World Cup round were from working with his organising team and the
Event Advisers, to prepare the host
organisation and the venues for a
competition that exceeded anything
that they had ever done before. He
describes the Event Advisers, Markku Vauhkonen and Antti Myllärinen,
as ‘terrific’, and says they were enormously helpful in realising the goals
and were on hand at all times, day or
night, with answers to all questions.
“They double-checked everything
we did to be sure that all turned out as
well as possible. Greg Walker and his
father Ken Walker Sr. were incredible
with their course designs and had to
work nearly 24/7 setting up courses,
day after day. Ed Despard was incredible too, with all his tireless efforts to
design our arenas and to provide technical support for our events. I am also
appreciative of our e-punch people led
by Rosemary Johnson. Without electronic punching our events could not
happen in the areas that we use, and
we are enormously grateful that they
endure the often difficult exposed conditions to take results by the finish
line”, Pinkham says.
Course setter Greg Walker (to the left) and Event Director Tony Pinkham got a lot of praise
from the athletes afterwards. Photo: Markku Vauhkonen.
“Wonderful meeting the athletes
and their coaches”
His memories of the athletes and their
coaches are also very good. Pinkham
says it was wonderful meeting all
of them and interacting with their
coaches. “Many came a week before
the competitions to acclimatise to
the high elevation. We enjoyed hearing from the Swedes training at Bear
Valley, the Russians at Royal Gorge,
and the Finns, Swiss, and Norwegians
at other places including Kirkwood.
Hearing about them preparing for
the events got us all the more excited
during our preparations. The difficult
part was saying good-bye to them after just a week getting to know them. I
look forward to meeting them again”,
he says.
Can sleep at night again
The athletes found
the races in California exciting and
technically demanding. Photo: Markku
Vauhkonen.
www.orienteering.org
Even though it was a huge challenge
to get everything working as it should,
it was also disappointing to have the
events end. The organisers very quickly
got into the mode of doing one event
after another and in some ways wanted to keep going.
“We couldn’t have lasted much
longer, but we sure wished that we
could. It is this way each year when
we do this ski-O tour. Personally I
love being able to provide a week of
events for these orienteers. It’s a great
community of people and I love giving them the best possible competition that we can provide for their continued training. On the other hand, I
also love getting a full night of sleep
each night and being with my family
again”, Pinkham says.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |
3
“Hey! Look at us!”
Orienteering is growing in the USA, both in participation and visibility,
and after a successful Ski Orienteering World Cup round they will now be
concentrating on national development.
BY ERIK BORG
”From a national perspective it was
an honour and a privilege to host our
first Ski Orienteering World Cup races. We thank the IOF for having confidence in us. Special credit goes to
Orienteering USA’s Event Organisers
and the Bay Area Orienteering Club,
it’s leadership and volunteers. 100%
of the success of this event is due to
their hard work and determination”,
says Glen Schorr, Executive Director
of Orienteering USA.
It was at the end of January that
the first round of this winter’s World
Cup was held in California, with great
races and high-quality organisation.
“Hosting international events like
this can help the sport to grow in
the United States. As elsewhere in
the world, our sport suffers from an
awareness problem. We pale in comparison to sports like soccer (football),
basketball and the like. Any opportunity to say “Hey! Look at us!” is a
plus for the awareness of orienteering
in the USA”.
USA’s big star –
Alison Crocker
Orienteering’s biggest profile in the
USA is Alison Crocker. She was among
the very best at the start of the Ski Orienteering World Cup, is now sixth
overall in the World Cup standings,
and is also doing very well internationally in foot orienteering. Last
year she was profiled in the big wellknown magazine Sports Illustrated.
Glen Schorr was responsible for getting
this arranged.
”Like many Federations we don’t
have a lot of money, so we have to be
smart and creative, and hope to get a
bit of luck now and then as well. We
also have to have an attitude that we
are willing to try pretty much anything. That is kind of what happened
with Alison Crocker. The combination
of a sport not everyone is aware of, plus
Ali’s 2011 results in ski and foot orien-
4 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
teering, plus her overall story, made for
interesting reading. So we took a shot
and got lucky”.
Four per cent growth
In 2011 the runners in the 56 orienteering clubs in the USA generated about 50,000 starts throughout
the country. The number of starts increased by approximately four per cent
nationwide. That continues the trend
from the past year or so. ”We are growing, and growth is good!” says Glen.
“What are the biggest challenges
nationally?”
“The challenges we have in the USA
are really not that different from those
of other orienteering nations around
the globe. We are small. We want to
get bigger. We want to get noticed.
One particular issue in the USA, and
in countries like Canada, is the geographic size of our country. For most,
if not all, of our nationally sanctioned
meets and championships, many of
our athletes have to fly to the event.
While orienteering is a fairly inexpensive sport to compete in, it can be expensive to get there”.
Started at scout camp
Schorr has been Executive Director for
Orienteering USA for three years. He
began his career working in the marketing and marketing communication industries. For about 20 years he
worked for both advertising agencies
and for Black & Decker – the maker of
power tools. In all of his jobs throughout his career his focus has been on
marketing and marketing communications.
The 52-year-old is married to Isabelle, and they have three sons: Jack
(18), Harry (15) and Sam (12). The family lives in Baltimore, Maryland, in the
eastern part of the USA.
“Why and when did you start orienteering?”
“I first tried orienteering in 1975 as
a boy scout at the World Jamboree in
Glen Schorr is the energetic Executive Director of Orienteering USA. The sport is growing
steadily in this big country.
Lillehammer, Norway. I still have very
fond memories of that trip and the
Scandinavian people. It was a great
event. Also throughout my school and
university years I was active in track,
cross-country and road running. In
2009 I come back to the sport when I
joined Orienteering USA. Now I get to
practise it about once a month, which
isn’t enough. I’m getting better, but
slowly”.
The Executive Director is the only
full-time paid employee, but there
are also people on part-time contract.
“However we have a passionate and
dedicated Board of Directors and a
volunteer base that enables us to accomplish what we want to do. The
true strength of Orienteering USA is
its volunteers. Take for example the
members of Bay Area OC; without
them, plus other key individuals, we
would not have had success in this
event”.
Focus on growth in the USA
“In our current strategic plan, which
lasts through 2014, our focus is to grow
the sport in the USA. That is where our
limited resources are focused today
and for the next few years.”
In their future development work,
USA’s orienteers can look back and get
their motivation from a great and very
well organised week of international
ski orienteering.
North South East West
North South East West is a regular feature in Inside Orienteering.
In every issue, we focus on one of
the IOF’s 73 member nations. In
this issue we showcase:
Moldova
Big success story! No fewer than 23 medals were won by Moldova athletes in the inaugural South East
European Orienteering Championships (SEEOC) in Macedonia last September. After a period with little activity
in the 1990’s, Moldavian orienteering is back on the way up.
BY CLIVE ALLEN
M18 gold medallist
Highlight of the Championships, seen
with Moldavian eyes, was the performance of 17-year-old Ivan Fomiciov.
His was the only gold medal of the 23,
won in the M18 long distance race,
and it was backed up by bronze in
both the sprint and middle distance
races and silver in the relay. Here he
ran last leg for the Moldova M18 team,
and with the fastest leg of all he finished just 1.54 down on the Bulgarian winner.
Many of his team-mates also put
in sparkling performances: Moldova’s
teams won silver medals in 5 of the
8 relay races, and there were 5 more
individual medals – silver for Ivan’s
brother Vasilii in M16 (middle distance) and bronze for Galina Ribediuc
(W21E, middle), Ana Grib (W18, long),
Andrei Bezdiga (M20, middle) and Roman Ciobanu (M20, long).
Six from Moldova in France
Moldova was one of the countries represented at the IOF Development Clinic
held along with the World Champion-
Moldavian M18 silver-medal team on relay run-in. The team finished just 1.54 down on Bulgaria. Ivan Fomiciov finishing, Oleg Cotofana and Antohu Dumitru with flag behind. Ivan Fomiciov ran the fastest leg of all participants in this SEEOC relay. Photo: Antonina Voitenko
ships in France in August. Three leaders and three athletes (one being Ivan
Fomiciov) took part. “It was a very good
experience for us”, says Pavel Cerescu,
one of the Moldavian leaders at the
Moldova is a former Soviet republic with about
4½ million inhabitants,
bordered by Romania to
the west and Ukraine to
the east and south.
www.orienteering.org
Clinic. “It is the ‘big school’ where we
not only improved our orienteering
skills but also got a huge mental stimulus too. For trainers and team managers it was an opportunity to meet new
people, get good advice on organising
events and learn new techniques”.
“We are very grateful to the IOF
and the France Sports Ministry; without their help, the Moldavian delegation could not have taken part. And
we feel that being in France was one
contributory reason for our successes
in Macedonia.”
Like many other small nations, Moldavian orienteering has little income,
far from enough to fund teams to participate in the World Championships.
There is almost no State support (just
INSIDE ORIENTEERING | 5
Moldova sent a big team to the first South East European Championships. Photo: Antonina Voitenko
600 Euros in 2011) or sponsorship, and
there is limited income from events.
Athletes and officials mainly pay their
own way to compete for their country,
and so the new SEEOC – which will
never be organised too far from home
– is a very welcome addition to the
competition opportunities available.
Activity-stop in the 90’s
Orienteering started in Moldova in
1963, and under the auspices of the
Centre of Youth Tourism (part of the
Ministry of Education) developed steadily until the fall of the USSR in 1991.
State funding then almost ceased, leading to breakdown of the coaching structure and a virtual stop to new mapping.
A programme of 2-3 annual events for
children became the only activity.
Changes for the better occurred in
1998 when, with new leaders in the
Federation and some sponsorship, several new events were organised and
the training system restored. Moldova
Moldova – good for winter training
Moldova is a former Soviet republic with about 4½ million inhabitants, bordered by Romania to the
west and Ukraine to the east and
south. About 65% of the population
is Moldavian – the rest are mainly Ukrainians (14%) and Russians
(13%). The climate is pleasant and
winters are mild and short, so there
is no ski orienteering in Moldova.
The lack of snow attracts runners
from Nordic and other northern
European lands for winter training.
There are no ‘proper’ mountains
in Moldova – the highest point, Bal-
6 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
aneshti Mountain, is only 429 metres above sea level. There is a shortage of good terrain for orienteering,
especially in the south; 10% of the
country is forest, mainly deciduous
(oak and acacia) and there is plenty
of moderately hilly land with wooded ravines and gorges, but a lack of
terrain with sharp contour detail.
About 70 sq. km. of Moldavian
terrain is mapped for orienteering,
with 1–2 new maps being made
each year and 2–3 old maps updated. Mappers from Ukraine and
Russia are doing much of this work.
Eugeniu Borsci finished 10th in the SEEOC
sprint. Photo: Antonina Voitenko
became an associate member of IOF
in 1998, and converted to full membership in 2007. A team of 11 runners
competed in the World Championships in Ukraine that year and one of
them, Alexandr Perstniov, ran in the
Long distance final.
700 active orienteers
Orienteering has always had most participants amongst the youth classes,
and the country’s coaches work with
quite large groups of 12- to 18-yearolds, more boys than girls. “There are
around 700 active orienteers in Moldova, with 3 well established clubs
based in the 3 big cities Kishinev, Tiraspol and Beltsy, plus clubs in 8 other
regional towns”, tells Victor Litvinov,
the President of the Moldavian Orienteering Federation. “One of Moldova’s
development priorities is to increase
activity in the regional areas. Another
is to increase the amount of orienteering in the country’s sports schools, and
especially to establish an orienteering
section in the sports school in Kishinev - these exist already in the sports
www.orienteering.org
schools in Kausheni and Beltsy”.
In 2011 there were 38 open events
held around Kishinev and in the
northern and Transnistria regions,
with from 60 up to 300 participants
in each. The base for senior elite orienteering is still small, especially for
women; there were 80 competitors in
M/W21 in the national Sprint championships last year, with slightly fewer in the other formats. This year it is
planned to hold open events for children in many city parks.
2012 – even more medals!
Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe and is going through
difficult political and economic times.
The State properly finances only 3-4
Olympic sports, and especially in an
Olympic year there will be almost
nothing for orienteering. Despite this
there are plenty of new plans for Moldavian orienteering – and the big aim
this year is of course to win even more
medals at SEEOC.
South East European Orienteering
Championships in Turkey this year
SEEOC has replaced the annual Balkan Championships. The first SEEOC
in Macedonia last September had 8
classes: M/W16, 18, 20 and 21. Its
inauguration is part of the very active development programme of the
South-East European Orienteering
Working Group, SEEOWG, which has
11 nations represented as members:
Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece,
Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.
The second SEEOC will take place
at Bursa, Turkey from 5th to 9th
September this year and will include Masters age classes this time.
Find more information on www.seeoc2012bursa.com.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |
7
World Masters Orienteering Championships 2012 – Navigating through history
The planning for the World
Masters Orienteering Championships 2012 in Bad Harzburg,
Germany, is almost complete. This
year’s edition will be the first one
organised in Germany, and at the
same time the largest orienteering
event ever to have taken place on
German terrain.
BY RIIKKA TOLKKI
The hard work put in by the organisers will soon become apparent: the
World Masters Championships 2012
kick off in Bad Harzburg on 1st July.
The enthusiasm of those involved
can best be described by the fact that
the Championships will be organised
on a completely voluntary basis. The
Vice President of the Organising Committee, Eike Bruns, who is also the PR
responsible for the event, here highlights some of the specific characteristics of World Masters 2012 and gives
us some insight into what it has been
like to organise the largest IOF Event
of the year.
Discovering local history
The World Masters Championships
will be held on both sides of the former border between East and West
Germany, the so-called Green Line.
“All participants will be able to imagine what has happened in the last two
decades to a country that was separated for more than 40 years and then
came together again. You will still find
some interesting distinctions, even in
the forest”, says Eike.
The World Masters participants will
also get to compete on two UNESCO World Heritage sites, Goslar and
Clausthal-Zellerfeld. The history of
these two towns dates right back to
the Middle Ages. The beautiful halftimbered houses and narrow roads of
Goslar create a scene typical only of
Germany. “The assembly area is situated right in front of the old emperor’s hall, which has significant historic value,” Eike reveals. The terrain
8 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
A foretaste of the charming settings for the World Masters Orienteering Championships 2012.
Photo: Eike Bruns.
in Clausthal-Zellerfeld is characterised
by plenty of ditches, moats and depressions resulting from old mining
activities.
In the heart of the Harz Mountains
Two of the Long distance races will
take place in the beautiful countryside
of the Harz Mountains where the most
prominent features are steep-sided valleys. Eike describes this terrain as quite
demanding for orienteering by central
European standards, with plenty of
rocks and stones in the terrain. Nevertheless the coniferous forest has good
runnability, and Eike promises some
interesting route choices especially for
the younger classes.
Tackling the challenges
Organising the World Masters Championships in Germany has not been
The coniferous forests of the Harz Mountains will soon be taken over by thousands of World Masters competitors. Photo: Eike Bruns.
an easy ride. One of the biggest challenges has been the local environment, where forest areas are not very
large, especially when related to the
number of inhabitants, which makes
land owners very protective of their
forests. “If you say to a land owner
that you would like to enter his forest
with an orienteering event of around
4,000 participants... well, this is where
things can get a bit challenging”, Eike
comments.
The organisers have also had to
face the fact that local administrative
officials, land owners and sponsors
were totally unfamiliar with the sport,
which created some extra work when
bargaining with possible partners. The
organisers have managed to turn this
to their advantage, however. “All our
negotiating partners were afterwards
very enthusiastic”, says Eike. “They
said we are doing a good job and that
we have a good concept.” The World
Masters Championships have also provided an excellent base for further projects with schools, for example, where
the infrastructure can be utilised both
during the World Masters and afterwards.
Have you entered?
By the beginning of February, just after the second deadline for entries, the
World Masters has already reached
3,594 registrations from a total of 42
countries including New Zealand, Canada, China and Brazil. The country with
most entries so far is Finland with 591
registrations, and the Men-65 class is
currently the most popular with 399
runners entered. The organisers are very
optimistic that they can reach a total of
4,000 participants by the final deadline
on 10th May. Have you entered yet?
In and around Bad Harzburg
The Harz Mountains offer a variety
of activities, covering different tastes
and preferences for groups and families as well as for couples and people
travelling alone. Bad Harzburg itself
is a typical German spa town characterised by buildings, parks and health
establishments from the beginning
of the 20th century. In addition to
the Middle Age towns and UNESCO
World Heritage sites, there are modern university cities close by. Modern
exhibition centres like Hanover and
the so-called Autostadt in Wolfsburg
are only around a hundred kilometres away.
www.orienteering.org
The old border passed over the
summit of the highest mountain
in the Harz, Brocken, 1,142 metres
above sea level. Brocken is historically significant also as one of the
settings for Goethe’s most famous
work, Faust. As a special treat, participants get a shuttle ride on a steam
train to the Long distance Qualification 1. The railway, which operates
steam-hauled trains over several lines
in the Harz Mountains including a
spectacular route to the summit of
Brocken, will be open for everyone
during the whole duration of the
Championships.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |
9
Behind the Scenes
Behind the scenes is a new regular feature
in Inside Orienteering. In every issue, we
will write about someone working for the
IOF. In this issue you meet:
Edmond Széchényi – a highly
enthusiastic and effective all-rounder
Discovered orienteering at university
Edmond Széchényi, France – a highly influential figure in the world of orienteering.
Széchényi at the General Assembly 2006 in
Denmark. Photo: Pirjo Valjanen.
BY ERIK BORG
Edmond Széchényi discovered the
sport he came to love at the age of 26,
and from that time on he has filled
many important roles in orienteering,
from the grass roots up to the highest
international level.
After working in the IOF Technical
Committee, in the IOF Council as Vice
President responsible for economics, as
Senior Event Adviser for a World Orienteering Championships – to name
just a few posts – Edmond is now the
chairman of the IOF Mountain Bike
Orienteering Commission.
“I certainly don’t have more energy than other people. It’s not a question of energy, but of the enjoyment
of the sport and of its commitments”,
he says.
10 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
Edmond Széchényi was born in Hungary in 1942, but he spent most of his
school life in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). From there he went to study in
South Africa and later in Great Britain.
Since 1971 he has lived in France. He
had a French grandfather and so was
entitled to French nationality, and
he was offered a very interesting job
there. “When I have moved around I
have adapted fairly quickly to my new
environment,” he says. “After a few
years of living in a country I soon felt
I belonged there.” Edmond now lives
in a suburb of Paris, 25 kilometres from
the centre.
The Frenchman is married and has
four children, the oldest born in 1966
and the youngest in 1979, and he has
had an impressive career profile. He
has a Ph.D in the field of vibroacoustics – the process of hearing sound
vibrations through the body, a technique for improving health – from
Southampton University in southern
England. He is originally trained as a
mechanical engineer and he retired
four years ago. His last job was as director of a research and testing institute in aerodynamics.
Edmond first encountered orienteering when he was living in Great
Britain and his university decided to
start an orienteering club. He heard
of that through an enthusiastic friend
and he became a founding member
of the University of Southampton OC
in 1969.
Wants to give something back
Edmond had practised many sports
before he discovered orienteering, but
none had the same fun and intellectual challenge. Since starting orienteering 43 years ago he has practised virtually no other sports, putting almost
all his spare time into his various orienteering activities. “Orienteering at
the grass roots level cannot be simply
a consumer product since the sport
cannot exist without a strong volunteer force,” says Edmond. “Therefore
if one enjoys it, one must put something back into it. This is what drove
me to get elected to the Council of
the French Orienteering Federation in
1976 and join the IOF Technical Committee in 1977.”
His first non-competitive activity
in orienteering was just after he had
started in England, when he made a
small map to 1970 standards. His first
official job was in the Council of the
French Federation in 1976 where he
was responsible for international matters, which in practice meant being
the contact person with the IOF. From
1985 to 2000 he was the President of
the national federation.
Runs 20–30 races per year
Edmond takes part in all the foot orienteering events he can get to within
an easy driving distance. This means
between 20 and 30 events a year. “I
used to take part in the four or five
local MTBO events every year, but I
haven’t yet got round to replacing
my stolen bike. Locally I also do a bit
of map making, course planning and
controlling.”
Every week he runs about 25 kilometres, but he hasn’t any special competitive ambition for his active sport. “I
have always been a ‘leisure orienteer’,
therefore I cannot boast of any sporting performances.”
Sixteen years on IOF Council
When the IOF was founded, the only
official language of the organisation
was German. In 1971 the IOF became
bilingual, and all official documents,
as well as publications, were printed in
two languages. One big milestone for
the Federation was in 1992 at the Congress in Filzbach, Switzerland, when
the General Assembly voted in favour
of the French federation’s proposal
to make English the only official language of the IOF. That proposal was
presented by Edmond Széchényi.
At the same General Assembly he
was elected to the IOF Council; he was
very keen to take part in the policy
making of our sport. He became IOF
Vice President in 1996, and continued
in the Council until 2008. For many
years he was the person in Council responsible for IOF economics.
“After 16 enriching years I retired
from Council in 2008 so as to give
way to new people with new ideas”,
he says.
But when Edmond retired from the
Council, his work for the IOF was not
over. “The MTB Orienteering Commission was going through a difficult
period, and the IOF President asked
me if I would take responsibility for
the Commission. I was happy to do
so as I enjoy challenges, and also I
had a vested interest in that I was to
some extent instrumental in MTBO
becoming an IOF discipline in the
first place.”
IOF Honorary Member Hugh Cameron (IOF Senior Vice President 2004–
2010), worked together with Edmond
in the Council for 16 years. “Working
with Edmond was an incredibly enjoyable and stimulating experience.
Edmond’s enthusiasm for, and commitment to, both orienteering and
the IOF has been unbelievable”, he
says. “Edmond possesses that rare
ability to immediately identify the
essence of an issue and his response
is always motivated by what he feels
is good for the IOF and world orienteering, whether it be a technical or
political matter. His sincerity is obvious to all. Edmond’s argument is always measured and compelling, commanding respect. I have very much
admired the clarity and quality of his
well thought-through proposals and
presentations to both the IOF Council
and General Assembly. Edmond has
devoted countless hours, rather thirty-five years, of personal time, energy,
intellectual endeavour and self in the
interests of our sport. Orienteering is
the beneficiary.”
www.orienteering.org
Many enjoyable
and satisfying tasks
When asked about his ‘best job’ within
orienteering, Edmond cannot single
out any one in particular.
“There is no ‘best job’, they all have
their challenges. If we talk of enjoyment, the IOF Technical Committee
was clearly the most ‘fun’ even while
doing serious work. Characters such as
Kjell “Stakan” Staxrud, Ernst Gruhn,
Poul-Erik Birk Jacobsen, just to mention a few, give an exceptional flavour to a working environment. Jobs
that were particularly memorable for
me were my various involvements in
World Championships: leading the
1987 World Orienteering Championships and the 1992 World Ski Orienteering Championships, and being Senior Event Adviser at the 1997
World Orienteering Championships
and national Controller for last year’s
World Orienteering Championships.”
“Successes are the highlights in any
executive activity. The most memorable one for me was the first World
Championship title won by a Frenchman, Thierry Gueorgiou in 2003,
which I like to think was to some extent the result of the development
and coaching policy of the French
Federation during the 1990s while I
was its President. In the IOF successes
can never be so spectacular, but I was
particularly satisfied when MTB orienteering became a recognised discipline
with its own World Championships.”
Not afraid to say ‘no’ –
but looks for diversity
Edmond says he likes new challenges,
but also knows how to say “no” when
he does not feel capable of doing a decent job. “I love challenges that I feel
I can meet and I also deeply believe
in the obligation to fulfil my commitments. I have always looked for and
enjoyed a lot of diversity in my activities. Orienteering gives the possibility of doing many different things at
all levels. I enjoy work in the terrain,
but one cannot influence the course
of things if one doesn’t also go into
the meeting rooms to put across one’s
point of view.”
His family has never complained
about his activities, and has let him
enjoy himself: “They have all been
orienteers at some time in their lives.
Also, I must say that I have always
been tremendously helped by my unconditionally supportive wife Wendy.”
According to Edmond, his multicultural and multi-lingual background
has been an exceptional advantage for
him in life, both professionally and in
orienteering. “Not only has it helped
in communicating with people from
around the world but it has also enabled me to accept cultural differences
and to take them into consideration
in my personal relations as well as in
meetings where decisions are made,”
he says.
Positive about the future
Edmond Széchényi has followed the
development of orienteering very
closely for over 40 years now. He is
very positive about the future of our
sport: “Orienteering as a leisure activity, as it is for 95 percent of orienteers
of all ages, still maintains the specific
original character that I have always
known and which makes this sport so
attractive. I am convinced that it will
continue to be the case because it is an
answer to the needs of town dwellers
who aspire to be “at one with nature”
while enjoying a sport and interacting
with like-minded people”, he says, and
continues:
“Top level competitions have successfully evolved so as to make the
sport more spectacular and mediafriendly while conserving the intrinsic
character of orienteering. We must periodically keep re-examining what we
offer our athletes and supporters to see
if it is in step with the expectations of
all the stake holders. The changes I can
see in the foreseeable future are those
that will make orienteering interesting
to the Olympic movement. Though
much of this depends on the development and use of cutting edge technology, some new competition formats
will surely become standard at World
Championships within this decade.”
“For myself, I don’t have any plans
for the future,” says Edmond. “Sport
is for fun, so I’ll continue to enjoy the
sport and take things as they come.”
Within the IOF, yet more challenging
tasks are likely to go his way, and for
now we can be sure that MTB orienteering will continue to benefit under
his guiding hand.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |11
IOF Council 2010–2012: Timo Ritakallio, Vincent Frey, Laszlo Zentai, Mike Dowling, Vice President Leho Haldna, Eliot Lee, Maria Silvia Viti,
President Åke Jacobson, Astrid Waaler Kaas and Vice President Brian Porteous. Senior Vice President Marcel Schiess is missing from the
photo. Photo: Pirjo Valjanen.
IOF Council elections coming up
The highest decision-making body of the IOF, the General Assembly, takes place every two years. This year’s
General Assembly gathers the member federations in July to Lausanne, Switzerland to take decisions on IOF’s
future. In between the General Assemblies, it is the IOF Council that leads and governs the IOF, in accordance
with the statutes and the decisions taken by the General Assembly.
BY ANNA ZEELIG
Experiences from the past
The members of the Council are elected every second year. Every IOF member federation, apart from provisional
members, has the right to nominate
a candidate for Council and has one
vote in the elections. To know who
to nominate and who to vote for, one
should know what kind of competences are needed. For example, the Council mostly concentrates on developing
policies and determining the strategic direction for the IOF, rather than
on technical matters such as maps or
rules changes. In Council all deliberations and decisions have a political dimension, and all member federations
and all disciplines need to be considered. Therefore political sensitivity is
very much a requirement for a Council member.
A Council member should also be independent of his or her own country.
The IOF Council is working for the
best in international orienteering, and
all 73 member federations need to be
taken into consideration. The first IOF
President, Erik Tobé from Sweden, later described his work in the IOF: “[As
a president,] I tried to be as neutral as
possible and above all not to work in
my own country’s interests.” Tobé,
IOF President 1961–1975, was highly
appreciated by the orienteering world,
but he still at times met problems on
home ground: “They [the Swedish Orienteering Federation] were dissatisfied
with my efforts in the IOF, as they felt
that I should have much more strongly
pushed through their own interests”,
Tobé explained.
12 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
The need for a global view has not
decreased since Erik Tobé’s times. Sue
Harvey, IOF President 1994–2004, said
when leaving her post in 2004 that one
of the achievements of her period was
a strong Council with a firm worldwide view: “Discussions have centred
on what is best for world orienteering,
as opposed to each Council member
expressing national views. Of course
there is also an important role for national views, but as a Council we are
entrusted with the welfare of the whole
orienteering world, and that must be
our first consideration.”
Interest in all four disciplines
Åke Jacobson, IOF President since
2004, is not standing for re-election
this year. Before becoming the President he had already served in the
Council for 16 years, of which 10 years
as Senior Vice President. When asked
what he considers the most important qualities in a Council member,
Jacobson says: “The absolutely essential thing is willingness and ability to
put in a lot of work for the IOF. This
is something all Council members
should be prepared to do.”
He then continues: “Equally important is to understand that one is not a
member of the IOF Council representing one country; one is a representative for all 73 countries. It’s important
that people in the Council act in the
interest of all our member countries.”
Jacobson concludes by reminding us
of the difference between, for example,
discipline commissions and the Council: “People in Council need to have
interest in all four of our disciplines,
and they need to be able to have a
helicopter view on what is happening
on a broader perspective, rather than
concentrating on technical details.”
The new IOF Council will be elected
on 20th July 2012, and will begin its
work immediately after that.
Council member competences
and characteristics
So what else should the federations consider when nominating and
voting in Council elections? According to a list sent to all member federations together with the General Assembly invitation, the Council
members should have the following competences and characteristics:
Experience and understanding of international orienteering
The willingness to commit the time and effort required to do
the job properly
The ability to think strategically
Political sensitivity – awareness of political repercussions in
decision making
A desire to develop and strategically position the sport throughout the world
Good English language skills
Analytical and critical reasoning skills
Financial literacy skills
Open, ethical, a high level of personal integrity
Independence of thought, preparedness to accept other
opinions
Good inter-personal skills
World Ranking, Top 10 (as of 10 February 2012)
Foot Orienteering
Women: 1) Helena Jansson (SWE) 6013,
2) Annika Billstam (SWE) 6007, 3) Dana
Brožková (CZE) 5919, 4) Minna Kauppi (FIN)
5846, 5) Signe Søes (DEN) 5801, 6) Lena
Eliasson (SWE) 5764, 7) Tove Alexandersson
(SWE) 5753, 8) Merja Rantanen (FIN) 5718,
9) Linnea Gustafsson (SWE) 5708, 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) 5741.
Federation League
(for leading 20 athletes)
Women: 1) Sweden 99889 points, 2) Finland 92400, 3) Norway 80888, 4) Switzerland 79456, 5) Czech Republic 77430, 6)
www.orienteering.org
Great Britain 73863, 7) Australia 71756, 8)
Denmark 57058, 9) Russia 52405, 10) New
Zealand 42048.
Men: 1) Sweden 102438, 2) Switzerland
99492, 3) Norway 91885, 4) Finland 88532,
5) Czech Republic 81547, 6) Denmark
79251, 7) Great Britain 78201, 8) Australia
74762, 9) New Zealand 69981, 10) Italy
65188.
MTB Orienteering
Women: 1) Ingrid Stengård (FIN) 7447, 2)
Rikke Kornvig (DEN) 7407,3) Michaela Gigon
(AUT) 7369, 4) Marika Hara (FIN) 7317, 5)
Christine Schaffner-Raeber (SUI) 7264, 6)
Laura Scaravonati (ITA) 7220, 7) Susanna
Laurila (FIN) 7193, 8) Ksenia Chernykh (RUS)
7167, 9) Hana Bajtošová (SVK) 7152, 10)
Maja Rothweiler (SUI) 7128.
Men: 1) Samuli Saarela (FIN) 7751, 2) Erik
Skovgaard Knudsen (DEN) 7692, 3) Jiři
Hradil (CZE) 7565, 4) Ruslan Gritsan (RUS)
7518, 5) Anton Foliforov (RUS) 7508, 6)
Valeriy Gluhov (RUS) 7491, 7) Tobias Breitschädel (AUT) 7396, 8) Beat Schaffner
(SUI) 7388, 9) Jussi Laurila (FIN) 7381, 10)
Marek Pospíšek (CZE) 7358.
Ski Orienteering
Women: 1) Tove Alexandersson (SWE) 1254,
2) Josefine Engström (SWE) 1252, 3) Polina
Malchikova (RUS) 1225, 4) Natalya Tomilova (RUS) 1195, 5) Marte Reenaas (NOR)
1192, 6) Kajsa Richardsson (SWE) 1179,
7) Olga Novikova (KAZ) 1136, 8) Anastasia
Kravchenko (RUS) 1123, 9) Stine Olsen Kirkevik (NOR) 1121, 9) Alyona Trapeznikova
(RUS) 1121.
Men: 1) Andrey Grigoriev (RUS) 1288, 2)
Staffan Tunis (FIN) 1279, 3) Peter Arnesson
(SWE) 1272, 4) Erik Rost (SWE) 1267, 5)
Hans Jorgen Kvale (NOR) 1260, 6) Lars Hol
Moholdt (NOR) 1254, 7) Ove Saetra (NOR)
1227, 7) Johan Granath (SWE) 1227, 9) Kiril
Veselov (RUS) 1215, 10) Janne Häkkinen
(FIN) 1208.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |
13
Deep concentration at WTOC 2011: which, if any, of these 3 kites is where the circle is on the map?
A busy year for trail orienteers
BY CLIVE ALLEN
Scotland and Sweden: two proud countries with illustrious orienteering credentials. They host trail orienteering’s
two biggest events this year, the World
and the European Championships.
Both of these events will provide the
highest possible quality of competition
and also a cultural feast for the many
competitors expected from around
the world.
World Championships in
Scotland for the first time
It’s been a busy few months for Anne
Braggins, Event Director of this year’s
World Championships in Trail Orienteering (WTOC), and her team, as they
learnt only in January last year that
WTOC 2012 was theirs to arrange. And
the logistics are not easy. Anne lives
near London, the chief Planner – Brian
Parker – lives in the far south-west of
14 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
England, and the events are to be held
in the Dundee area of Scotland, north
of Edinburgh. Very many kilometres
of driving will have been logged up by
the time the competitions take place in
early June. But on the plus side, there
is huge experience and knowledge in
the organising team that is preparing
for Great Britain’s first-ever hosting of
this event.
“WTOC 2012 is going to be really
good”, says Anne Braggins. “The terrain is highly technical so the courses
will be challenging; teams will be based
at West Park in Dundee, which is also
the Event Centre, and the competitions are less than a 30-minute drive
from there.”
Anne says that the earlier than usual date for WTOC this year has caught
some people out, with some Federations getting their entries in late, but
now all the main contenders have entered and she hopes that some of the
newer nations in trail orienteering will
be represented too. “At this stage numbers are lower than hoped for, with reduced team sizes, in particular for the
paralympic class which is possibly a result of the new eligibility criteria. And
a number of officials are also competitors”, she says.
First-class areas for trailO
The two venues chosen for the competitions, Tentsmuir Forest for the 2
days of WTOC and Camperdown Park
for the TempO Trophy, are first-class
areas for trail orienteering and will
test the skills of competitors – up to
3 from each nation in open and paralympic classes – to the full. But there
is one curiosity: not a lump of rock to
be seen, anywhere! These are coastal
areas, the one consisting entirely of
complex tree-covered sand-dunes and
the other a town park. Tentsmuir has
been used by foot orienteers on very
many occasions, the last major one
being Day 4 of the Scottish 6-Days
in 2009.
Scottish culture will, it is promised,
be to the fore – not least the opportunity to sample ‘a rather famous liquid’, as the most recent race bulletin
puts it. “WTOC competitors can be
assured of a warm Scottish welcome”,
says Anne Hickling, the local Organiser. “We recommend that teams visit
the historic city of St Andrews, maybe
for a round of golf, as well as Dundee
with its Antarctic exploration connections. The Championships will conclude with a banquet with traditional Scottish food and entertainment.”
This will be the first time that WTOC
has been held independently of WOC
or any other IOF competition. “This
means that the organisers are free of
the constraints of the larger competition, and will make WTOC 2012 one
to remember for all the best reasons”,
says Anne Hickling.
For more information about the
Championships and associated public competitions, go to www.scottishorienteering.org/wtoc2012.
WTOC meets WOC: a trailO control cluster right on the edge of the main arena at the World
Championships in Chambery last year.
European Championships – twice in succession for Sweden
The European Trail Orienteering
Championships (ETOC) take place in
Falun, Dalarna in mid-May, along with
the European Orienteering Championships. This is two ETOC’s in succession
for Sweden; the 2010 edition was held
in Sweden too. Here too there are three
days of competition – the 2-day ETOC
and a TempO event. Each European nation can enter 6 competitors in each of
the open and paralympic classes.
One of the ETOC days will be in
typical Swedish forest with plenty of
rock detail, while the other is on terrain described as an ‘open mine area’.
This must surely be a part of the huge
copper mine that dominated Falun’s
life from its beginnings in the 10th
Century until it finally closed in 1992.
Known as Stora Kopparberg – the
Great Copper Mountain – it turned
into The Great Pit after a huge collapse of the underground workings in
1887. At one time the mine provided
two-thirds of Europe’s requirements
for copper. The mine and much of the
town was designated a World Heritage
Site in 2001.
‘Falu red’, the characteristic paint
www.orienteering.org
colour used throughout Sweden on cottages and barns, also – as its name suggests – originates in Falun, where it was
made from the ‘tailings’, iron oxide
and copper compounds, which were
a by-product of the mining. The town
museum records all Falun’s industrial
history and will be a worthwhile sideattraction for competitors.
The writer’s memories of Falun are
from O-Ringen 1985, where – away
from the races – the huge pit competes
in memory with watching top-class
ski jumping (on a watered artificial
surface) in mid-summer. Some near
wash-outs in torrential rain showers
on the allocated camping spot in the
middle of an all-weather pitch also
stick in the memory. The orienteering
was good, though …and we can expect
the same this time from the very well
qualified organising team. Full details
of ETOC and the European Championships as a whole are available on www.
eoc2012.se.
Subtle change to A and Z!
The technically minded will be inter-
ested to know of a subtle change in
the trail orienteering conventions this
year. For some time it has been common in elite competition to have, at
a small number of control sites, just
one kite in view, where the question
is: is the kite where the circle is on the
map (answer – A) or not (answer – Z)?
From now on there may also be sites
where several kites can be seen, either with one of them where the circle is (A) or with none there (Z). The
other kites must, if close to the circle
site, be on markedly different features.
This change is to provide flexibility for
planners to use complex areas for more
than one control site, avoiding extensive taping to distinguish one set of
kites from another.
Of course there is more to the trailO
season than these two events. National
Championships, summer elite series in
Scandinavia and elsewhere, the Nordic Challenge near Oslo in September
and of course the 5-day O-Ringen trailO event, this year on the SW coast of
Sweden, will be on the programmes
of many elite trail orienteers during
the year.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |
15
News in brief
Several applications to host IOF Events
Several applications to host IOF Events
had been received by the deadline of
1st January 2012.
Sweden submitted its bid to host
the World Orienteering Championships and the World Trail Orienteering
Championships in 2016. The Swedish
Orienteering Federation would like to
organise the Championships in Strömstad region, Western Sweden, close to
the Norwegian border.
For the World Ski Orienteering
Championships in 2015 there was also one bid, from Norway.
The 2015 World Masters Orienteering Championships attracted three bidders: Czech Republic, Latvia and Sweden, and the 2015 Junior World Orienteering Championships two: Norway
and Romania.
Portugal would like to organise
the World Masters MTB Orienteering
Championships in 2013, in conjunction with the World Cup finals, and
Russia sent its bid to host the Junior
World Ski Orienteering Championships, World Masters Ski Orienteering Championships and European
Ski Orienteering Championships in
2014.
All applications will now be evaluated, and the organisers for the 2016
World Orienteering Championships,
2016 World Trail Orienteering Championships and 2015 World Ski Orienteering Championships will be appointed at the 2012 General Assembly in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOF
Council will appoint organisers for the
other events by October 31st 2012.
The 2017 World Games in Poland
The International World Games Association (IWGA) has awarded the 10th
edition of The World Games to the city
of Wroclaw, Poland.
IWGA President Ron Froelich described Wroclaw’s bid as excellent,
and said: “We are happy to present
our sports in Wroclaw in the summer
of 2017, and we are sure that we will
be offered optimal conditions for our
sportsmen and women there. All the
bids we received were of very high
quality, and it was not easy for us to
reach a decision.”
The World Games gathers 4-5000
athletes from over 90 countries to
compete every fourth year. Orienteering has been part of The World
Games since 2001. The next edition
of The World Games will take place
in Cali, Colombia in 2013, and the
orienteering events there will include
sprint, middle distance and mixed
relay.
The SkiO Tour returns in 2013
The SkiO Tour is a week (8–9 days)
with six high-standard ski orienteering
events. It was first organised in 2009
in Austria, Switzerland and Italy. In
2011 the events were held in Austria
and Slovakia, and when the SkiO Tour
returns with its third edition in 2013,
the competitions will be organised in
France, Switzerland and Italy in the pe-
16 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
riod 5–13 January 2013.
It is the ski orienteering athletes who
are behind the idea to organise the
SkiO Tour in World Championships
years, i.e. every second year, when
there is no World Cup.
More information on next year’s
Tour will be published shortly on the
IOF website.
WOC in
the Future
The WOC in the Future project
was discussed at the IOF Council meeting at the end of January. The project has come a long
way since the online survey in
2009 and the General Assembly
in Trondheim in 2010. All national federations have had several chances to give feedback to
the IOF at different stages of the
project, most recently in January 2012.
The IOF has now received
feedback at this latest stage from
19 national federations. As the
opinions of the federations varied a great deal and had changed
significantly since the last consultation, the Council concluded that even though there is
consensus on the need for evolution and development, the
federations’ views on how to
change the programme were
too diverse.
Therefore the Council will
not propose changes to the current World Championships programme at the upcoming General Assembly in Lausanne.
“There is a significant difference
of opinion between our bigger
and smaller member federations.
At this point of time it is more
important not to split the IOF
family than to make the changes
that received support in Trondheim in 2010”, IOF President Åke
Jacobson said, and continued:
“That is why we have decided to
continue with the current programme.”
The recent responses from the
19 national federations can be
viewed on the IOF website.
Successful IOF
High Level
Event Seminar
in Venice
Photo: Eike Bruns.
TrailO: updated application form
for paralympic class eligibility
All athletes wishing to compete in the
paralympic class in IOF Trail Orienteering events, but not having a valid eligibility certificate, need to apply
for eligibility for the paralympic class
no later than eight weeks before the
planned competition.
The eligibility application form has
been updated for 2012. Please only use
the new form when applying:
Paralympic class eligibility application
form 2012
Poland awarded 2014 World
MTB Orienteering Championships
At its recent meeting in Vantaa, Finland, the IOF Council appointed Poland organiser of the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships and Junior World Mountain
Bike Orienteering Championships
in 2014.
www.orienteering.org
The events will be organised in the
beautiful forests of Bialystok in northeastern Poland. The track network is
dense, and 80 % of the terrain has
never before been used for orienteering. The exact dates will be announced
shortly.
Participants from 13 nations gathered last weekend in Venice, Italy,
for the 4th IOF High Level Event
Seminar (HLES). The seminar focused on organising at the highest level, and in particular on organising World Championships.
In the two-day seminar, presentations were made by former
and future organisers, event advisers and IOF officials on subjects such as “Building a WOC
organisation”, “Experiences from
inside a WOC”, and “Arenas and
TV”. Besides lectures, there was
time set aside for networking
and experience sharing and for
meetings between organisers and
advisers.
“I was particularly pleased to
see so many appointed organisers represented here this weekend”, said IOF Sports Director
Björn Persson, who chaired the
seminar. “I believe that with
all WOC’s from 2012 to 2016
represented, as well as several
WTOC’s, JWOC’s and WMOC’s,
it was the strongest start field ever at a HLES”.
“The HLES has certainly come
to stay, and to me this year’s
seminar was the most successful
so far”, concluded Ruedi Gloor,
Event Director of WOC 2012,
who also gave a presentation on
the planning status of the main
orienteering event of this year,
the World Orienteering Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |17