Brian Porteous takes over as IOF President

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Issue 4 •3 August
• June 2012
INTERNATIONAL ORIENTEERING FEDERATION
In this issue
In this issue
Brian Porteous .................. 2
Xxx .................................... 1
IOF XXVI Ordinary General Assembly................................ 4
Hurray, hurray for USA....... 5
Behind the Scenes:
Clive Allen .......................... 6
Development Clinic at
the World Orienteering Championships ........................... 8
Olympic Village setting for
World Masters in Italy .....10
North South East West:
New Zealand....................12
News in brief.....................14
Brian Porteous takes
over as IOF President
Photo: Pirjo Valjanen
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Good
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Anna Zeelig, Editor-in-chief
Anna Jacobson
Editor-in-chief
Brian Porteous wants orienteering to stop
being sport’s best-kept secret.
Photo: Pirjo Valjanen
Inside Orienteering Profile:
Brian Porteous, the new IOF President
Brian Porteous, a Scot, has been
elected as President of the IOF for
the new 2-year Congress period. He
has an extensive orienteering background and clear ideas on how he
believes the IOF should prioritise
its work.
by Clive Allen
“Now is the time for orienteering to
stop being sport’s best-kept secret.”
Brian Porteous had this straightforward message to the delegates at the
General Assembly in Lausanne, in his
first speech as President. It is what Brian sees as both the biggest challenge
and the biggest opportunity in the
next couple of years. “I am convinced
that the big breakthrough in making
the sport better-known to the world at
large is just ahead,” he says.
One of the ways in which this will
be achieved is through getting much
2 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
more widespread TV coverage of orienteering. “The IOF multi-media action plan, covering technology, production, distribution and commercialisation for the IOF’s highest-profile
races, is at an exciting point of development,” says Brian. In this project,
the IOF is working closely with those
federations directly involved with TV
production. Very soon, Brian believes,
orienteering will have a consistently
high quality TV product that we can
sell with confidence to a world market.
Gaining more visibility
Also, the sport is gaining more and
more visibility with the increasing interest in urban Sprints. “If you look
at the Olympics, many sports have
adapted their formats and rules so that
they can be included, and orienteering needs to be flexible and forwardlooking in this respect too,” says Brian.
He is concerned that there are not
too many countries where orienteering
as a sport is properly known and understood. “People in my country say,
‘that’s nice, you go for walks in the
countryside’, so there’s a total lack of
understanding because the top guys
are among the fittest in the world in
any sport,” he says.
“Having sufficient financial resources for these visibility projects is one of
the major challenges,” Brian continues. “The present IOF budget comes
mainly from our member federations
in the form of event sanction and
membership fees and in total we have
funds that are less than the budgets
of some major clubs in the sport.” Acquiring a commercial partner for the
World Orienteering Championships
and the World Cup is one of the key
outcomes for 2014 in the Activity Plan
for the new Congress period.
Upping the pace of regional
development
As Vice President of IOF, Brian’s main
responsibility has been for Regional
Development, and he is committed to
strengthening working relationships
with regional working groups in setting up development plans appropriate to the needs and potential of each
region. “One can only hope to lead
an international body effectively if
one understands the interests, hopes
and aspirations of the member federations, and I believe I can claim considerable knowledge of where the sport is
around the world;” says Brian.
“Because my professional career has
been in sport and I have worked extensively with many national and international federations advising them on
strategic and structural development
and organising major events, I also
bring that wider perspective to orienteering,” he continues.
“The most important dimension of
regional development has to be about
partnership working between our established federations and new or developing countries,” says Brian. “This concept is working well between, for instance, Norway and Iceland, Spain and
South America, and Canada and Barbados.” He also recognises the increasing amount of developmental activity
being led by sub-regional groups such
as the South East European Working
Group and the Confederation of the
Mediterranean Orienteering Federations: “I look forward to working closely with the regional working groups,
the sub-regional groups and our individual federations to do everything
possible to grow both the breadth and
depth of activity around the world.”
ficer of the British Orienteering Federation in 1976, at a time when the publicity from WOC 76 (staged in Scotland) was yielding dividends in terms
of a big spurt in club membership. He
held this post for three years, during
which time he was a prime mover in
founding the Scottish Six Day Event,
held every two years since 1977 and
now one of the most popular events
of its kind in the world.
A career in sports management
Fifteen years working for the Scottish Sports Council was followed by a
seven-year period with Glasgow City
Council, during which time he helped
to launch the city’s marathon and
took a key role in developing the city’s
sporting provision. In 2001 he moved
into consultancy work, first as a director of a major management consultancy working in sport and culture, and
more recently with his own company, Porteous Leisure. Current projects
include Scottish Golf’s Facilities Plan
and advising the Irish rugby team on
a performance plan for winning the
2015 World Cup.
Brian, now 61, is beginning to reduce his commitments in one or two
of his other activities to concentrate
more on his work in IOF. His first role
in IOF was as a member of the Development & Promotion Committee back
in the 1970’s. “My main involvement
started when I was appointed Chairman of the FootO Commission in
2002. I was then elected as a Council
member in 2004 and as Vice President
in 2008, so I do now have a depth of
experience of what the IOF is and crucially, how it works. I see that as being
especially important at this time when
we are ready to make a step change in
our world visibility,” says Brian.
Six priorities
Brian’s overarching goal is to have the
IOF working in a much closer partnership with all the member federations.
In addition, he lists six areas of potential achievement that are important to
him personally in the coming Congress period:
- to have all Council and Commission
members actively involved in taking
the sport forward
- to have a growing dialogue and
sense of partnership with our federations
- to have continued development
around the world by working closely with our federations, regions and
sub-regional groups
- to have world-wide television coverage of our major events
- to make a significant difference in
the finance available to the sport
from external sources
- to maintain the values of our sport
All these are challenges, and all are
also opportunities for orienteering and
the IOF on the world’s continually
changing sporting scene.
Started in 1968
Brian started orienteering at the age of
16. “I was asked by a schoolteacher to
help get together a team for the Scottish Schools Championships in 1968,
on the grounds that I ran cross-country, was in the Scouts and wasn’t good
enough at rugby football,” he recalls.
Two years later he had founded an orienteering club at St. Andrews University, where he studied physics.
After a short stint as a physics teacher he was appointed Professional Of-
Brian Porteous lead the Development Clinic
at the World Orienteering Championships
2011 in France. Photo: Laszlo Zentai
www.orienteering.org
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |
3
IOF XXVI Ordinary General Assembly
The IOF General Assembly 2012 was
held in Lausanne, Switzerland on 20th
July. Several important decisions for
the future of the IOF, and orienteering, were taken at the assembly. 41
nations in all were represented at the
General Assembly and most of them
also in the Pre-General Assembly Seminar the day before.
WOC in the Future
A big part of the General Assembly
was taken up with discussion of the future model for the World Orienteering
Championships (WOC). Four proposals
had been put forward, three of them
based upon the current model with certain variations (Italy, Switzerland and
the IOF Council), the fourth proposing
a ‘forest’ WOC and an ‘urban’ WOC in
alternate years (the Nordic countries).
The model that carried favour at
the end of the long and lively debate
and a series of votes was that proposed
by the IOF Council. Therefore, this is
how the World Orienteering Championships programme will look like
in the future:
The exact rules for qualification
were not decided at the General Assembly and will now be worked on.
The new programme will at the
latest take effect from 2017, but the
World Orienteering Championships
organisers in earlier years have the
opportunity to amend their contract
with the IOF to incorporate all or parts
of this programme. This will be discussed with the organisers very shortly
and then communicated on the IOF
website.
General Assembly Montenegro and
Cyprus were accepted as new members of the IOF. The 2016 World
Orienteering Championships were
awarded to Sweden, and Sweden will
also hold the World Trail Orienteering
Championships as an integral part of
the WOC. Norway will organise the
2015 World Ski Orienteering Championships.
The IOF’s Strategic Directions 2012–
2018 and the Activity Plan for the next
Congress period (2012–2014) were
both accepted with minor amendments. These will be published on the
IOF website. Delegates also agreed to
the membership fees and budget proposed by the Council for the Congress
period 2013–2014.
A proposal to introduce adventure
racing as a new official IOF discipline
failed to get the three-quarters majority for the necessary change to the IOF
Statutes. However, the General Assembly gave the task to the IOF Council
to investigate the matter further, in
collaboration with nations that have
adventure racing as part of their programmes.
Further decisions
IOF Council elections
The IOF now has 73 members. At the
In the IOF Council elections Brian Por-
Sprint
interval start, qualification
and final
mixed teams
Sprint
relay
Middle interval start,
distance participation according to
nation’s strength.
Long
interval start,
distance participation according to
nation’s strength.
Relay
as now
4 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
teous, Great Britain was elected IOF
President for the coming 2-year Congress period. Porteous, previously Vice
President, takes the place of Åke Jacobson, Sweden who retired from the post
after being in the Council since 1988
and as President since 2004. The three
Vice Presidents elected are Michael
Dowling, Australia, Leho Haldna, Estonia and Astrid Waaler Kaas, Norway.
Leho Haldna was later appointed Senior Vice President.
The following were elected to the
IOF Council: Owe Fredholm, Sweden (new); Tatiana Kalenderoglu, Turkey (new); Timo Ritakallio, Finland;
Niklaus Suter, Switzerland (new); Maria Silvia Viti, Italy; Ting-wang ‘Dominic’ Yue, Hong Kong (new); Laszlo
Zentai, Hungary.
In recognition of his service to
the IOF in many capacities over the
years, Åke Jacobson was proposed
as an IOF Honorary President and
this was accepted by the meeting
by acclaim. Only Sue Harvey, Great
Britain, has previously received this
honour.
The next IOF Ordinary General Assembly will be held in Italy in 2014. In
the meanwhile, the IOF Council will
lead the IOF with the directions given
to it by the General Assembly.
Hurray, hurray for USA!
by Clive Allen
Prominent in all the arenas at the
World Championships was a big Team
USA ’feather’ banner surrounded by a
vociferous group of team supporters.
And they had plenty to cheer, with
ever-improving performances from in
particular Alison Crocker.
“There are about 25 of us including team members here,” says Linda
Kohn, present as Chief Executive of
the Steering Committee for the USA
team. Those not in the team were taking part in the public races, when not
standing by the run-ins exhorting their
team members to make every last effort. “We are very up-beat just now,”
says Linda. “Orienteering is growing
in the States. We are getting more support from the Federation – more money for elite development, more promotion and more sponsorship.” She
is very complimentary about OUSA’s
Executive Director, Glen Schorr, who
has been in post for 3 years (see Inside
Orienteering 2012/1).
Alison Crocker ran an impressive first leg at the World Orienteering Championships relay in
Lausanne. Photo: Erik Borg
“USA is considering a new junior
development programme with specific clubs offering elite training,” says
Linda. But as always in the USA, distance is a problem, even though USA
orienteers are accustomed to driving
huge distances to events. A beneficial
influence in US orienteering’s development, Linda says, is the magazine Orienteering North America which covers
both USA and Canada. ONA, which is
distributed to all federation members,
is edited and published by Donna Fluegel and has 6 paper issues plus one
electronic issue per year.
Alison Crocker’s Relay
achievement
Emily Kemp was the first ever Canadian
to take a medal at orienteering world
championships. Photo: Erik Borg
www.orienteering.org
Alison Crocker, 27, grows stronger and
stronger, in footO and skiO. At the
World Championships in Lausanne
she finished third in her Sprint qualification heat and 20th in the Final.
She failed to qualify in Long distance:
“I got into too much green,” she says.
But her greatest achievement, one
which had USA supporters’ lungs
working to bursting point, was her
third place finish at the end of the first
leg of the women’s Relay. Here she was
just 5 seconds down on the lead, with
only Sweden and Switzerland ahead of
her, and had been amongst the leaders for almost the whole course. This
will surely go down as one of the best
ever performances on the international
stage by a USA orienteer.
“I have done more winter foot orienteering training than usual because
of the mild winter and lack of snow
at home,” says Alison, whose enthusiasm for orienteering shines through
as soon as you start a conversation.
She achieved 2 podium placings (4th
and 5th) in the American round of the
Ski Orienteering World Cup early this
year, and feels she has a greater chance
of good results in ski orienteering than
foot orienteering. After her Relay performance in Lausanne, she might be
revising that outlook a little…
For more about Alison Crocker, read
January 2012’s ‘Athlete of the Month’
on the IOF website.
Success for Canada too
USA and Canadian orienteering have
strong links with each other and there
is a lot of co-operation. Canada too is
enjoying elite success; Emily Kemp was
bronze medallist in Long distance at
the Junior World Orienteering Championships this year and only 28 seconds from getting silver.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |
5
Behind the Scenes
Behind the scenes is a regular feature in
Inside Orienteering. In every issue, we will
write about someone working for the IOF.
In this issue you meet:
Clive Allen
– the committed volunteer
Most of the texts in Inside Orienteering, Orienteering World, and on the
IOF website are looked over by him before they are published. He has
edited the IOF WOC Guidelines. He has chaired the IOF Development &
Promotion Committee, has been the editor of Orienteering World, speaker and text commentator at several World Championships, and recently
the IOF Media Officer at two World Orienteering Championships. Still, he
is rarely on centre stage: he mostly works Behind the Scenes. Meet Clive
Allen, who was awarded an IOF Silver Pin at the IOF General Assembly in
Lausanne for his dedicated work for the IOF during the past few decades.
By Anna Jacobson
Found his sport in 1970s
Clive started orienteering in 1971
when he worked as a teacher: “I did
some coaching for the school crosscountry team and I helped run a
mountain walking club – I have always been keen on rugged countryside
and map-reading. A student teacher
who was an orienteer picked up on
this combination and suggested I try
orienteering – there was a Regional
Event nearby the following Sunday.
In my unfit state, unused to o-maps, I
entered a fairly easy course and halfway round, I met an old school friend
coming the other way whom I hadn’t
seen for about 10 years! We met again
after the run, and he invited me to another event a week later. And so I became hooked…”
“I had done some cross-country
running at school but was never very
good. I found that having a map to
look at whilst running made the whole
exercise so much more enjoyable! I’ve
never been a brilliant orienteer, partly because I have a strong aversion to
structured training – always have had!
But I’ve won a couple of British Night
Championships in my age class.”
Working in many roles
From early on, Clive has worked for
orienteering in many different roles
and on all levels. “I helped found
South Yorkshire Orienteers, and represented the club on the regional board.
After being an officer at regional level,
I was Hon. Secretary of British Orienteering Federation (BOF) before I became Chairman in 1981. I was Chairman of BOF twice, the second time
at short notice – a co-option – when
IOF Media Officer Clive Allen on coffee break
at the IOF General Assembly 2012.
Photo: Pirjo Valjanen
6 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
Roger Lott was sent to work in the USA
by his firm. I was also a major event
controller in the UK and was co-ordinator of JK ’78.”
Clive says he was fortunate to be
Chairman of BOF during a period of
steady growth with not too many really contentious issues around: “We had
good sponsors at that time, so there
was no great shortage of finance. Two
big issues in the early 80s are ones that
are still high on the agenda in the UK
today: having a management structure
for British orienteering that properly
reflects the different sizes, funding and
attitudes of the hugely differing components of BOF, and devising a membership structure and event levy system which fairly provides for, and gets
income from, all from the most active
elite to the occasional near-novice according to their level of commitment.
We didn’t really get these issues right
then, and things aren’t any better now.”
Clive and the IOF
Clive had some contact with IOF as
BOF Chairman, attending IOF Congresses in that capacity. Then he became a member of the IOF Development & Promotion Committee (DPC),
and later the Chairman of DPC: “This
sort of thing seems to happen to me –
I just get too involved!”, Clive laughs,
and continues: “The DPC ran quite a
few development clinics in the 80s,
in individual nations, e.g. Spain and
Israel, and it is nice that IOF development clinics are now back in fashion.”
Alongside being a Committee Chair,
Clive was head-hunted by the then
IOF Secretary General, Lennart Levin, to be English Speaker at the World
Championships (WOC) in Sweden in
1989. Clive was then speaker in CZE
(1991), USA (1993), and GBR (1999),
after which he started doing text commentary for WOC websites, plus being
‘announcer’ at WOC 2006 and more
recently the speaker at a number of
World Trail Orienteering Championships.
Doing commentary has, according
to Clive, been a most interesting job,
but also a big challenge. “It is challenging to tell a really interesting and absorbing tale as the race proceeds, trying to pick out and focus on the decisive moments of a race, and to cope
when the computers go down and the
www.orienteering.org
radio links to the forest controls fail
to work, not uncommon situations in
the past!”
Editor of Orienteering World
English became the only official IOF
language in 1992, and therefore the
Orienteering World (OW) ceased to
be bilingual. “I had written quite a
number of articles on IOF development topics for OW and then, when
Council was considering changing
the style and frequency of issue, I put
a proposal to Lennart Levin on how it
might be published in the future. And
so I was offered the task of producing
a subscription magazine to a balanced
budget, 6 times a year”, Clive says.
Clive accepted the challenge, and
became the editor of Orienteering
World in 1993. “There was an extremely steep learning curve, and many fundamental decisions made, in the three
months I had to my first issue being
published. I had complete control –
and all the work – of setting the style,
getting people to write articles and
send photos, creating the layout and
sending everything to the (new) printer, all to strict deadlines. I produced 36
issues in 6 years and not one was late!
A network of subscription agents all
over the world helped to get a steadily
increasing subscription level.”
“Punchy but positive”
“In my first editorial I wrote: “To me,
OW should be ‘punchy but positive’,
not afraid to air the issues of the day
and doing so in a well-informed and
open manner.” The news items, articles, reports, features and not least
the editorials reflected that ethos
throughout my period as editor – and
perhaps on occasions the magazine
content got a shade too ‘political’ for
Council’s liking”, Clive says, and continues: “I retired when Council again
had a review and, in the light of the
development of the internet as a communication medium, changed OW to
the style it is today. I regarded OW,
in the style I produced it, as a very
important organ for 2-way communication between the IOF and active
orienteers with opinions and ideas
around the world, a function which
I feel IOF has never adequately replaced.”
Map-making as main occupation
Clive started his working life as a
teacher of Chemistry and became Deputy Head of a large secondary school in
the north of England. He has lived in
Denmark since 1991, and his main occupation there has been map-making,
but from 1997 to 2003 he also worked
in England in the summer half of the
year as manager of a youth hostel. “I
have mapped / re-mapped more or less
all of my club’s areas in the 21 years
I have lived in Denmark”, Clive says.
Other than orienteering and work,
Clive’s main interests are folk, jazz and
orchestral music, mountain walking,
vintage railways and playing table-tennis. He is also still active in the youth
hostel movement, and works at least
one week a year as a volunteer manager of one of England’s small hostels.
Trail Orienteering
Clive is not only a recreational orienteer and a committed volunteer; he
has a bronze medal from the European Trail Orienteering Championships!
He was introduced to the discipline
some years ago, and he says it suits
him very well: “Making maps – including looking at contours drawn on base
material, relating them to the actual
ground shape and then ‘improving’
them for the o-map – is perfect training for TrailO.
I have learnt the special techniques
and conventions associated with TrailO, and the rest is down to experience
of competitions in different kinds of
terrain, a degree of serious application
and attempting to concentrate keenly and for long enough at a time. The
mental part is often the hardest in toplevel TrailO.”
So we may very well see Clive on the
podium in the future too. Until that,
we get to benefit from what he does
Behind the Scenes: the news articles
on the IOF website from WOC in Lausanne were written by him, as will be
the articles from the World MTB Orienteering Championships in Hungary.
At the same time, he is finalising new
guidelines for IOF event organisers.
Good work ethic and ability to cooperate must be the reasons to why Clive,
as he put it, “just gets too involved”. Or
as others might say it: becomes highly
important for the whole IOF.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING | 7
Development Clinic at
the World Orienteering
Championships
Austrian Karin Leonhardt helping a clinic
participant before a training.
Photo: Laszlo Zentai
Following the great success of the
Development Clinic for newer orienteering nations at the World Championships in France last year, a similar clinic was held this year, supported by the Swiss Orienteering
Federation and Swiss clubs.
Porteous on IOF, country and club
organisation. Time was also spent in
giving participants ‘survival skills’ for
the competitions ahead; everyone was
taking part in one or more qualification races.
Colourful costume
by Clive Allen
Leaders of this year’s clinic were IOF
Vice President (now President) Brian
Porteous, Great Britain and IOF Council member (now Vice President) Astrid
Waaler Kaas, Norway. More than 20
participants from 9 nations attended. The nations represented were Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Korea, Kenya,
Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldavia and
Serbia.
Big range in standard
The clinic ran over 2 days, with a
8 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
blend of outdoor and indoor sessions.
The orienteering included a standardstyle course, line orienteering and map
memory. “The last of these, on Day
2 when everyone had settled in and
got used to the maps, was particularly
good”, said Astrid Waaler Kaas, who
added that the range of orienteering
standard of the participants was quite
considerable. “A couple had started
with orienteering only 6 months ago,
and others were good runners but
weak on navigation”, she said.
Indoor sessions included Astrid on
course planning, IOF Council member
Laszlo Zentai on mapping and Brian
Of the participants, the one who stood
out most was Peter Djuguna from
Kenya who ran in red, blue and white
tartan-style top and shorts, and had a
similar training suit. This, he said, was
his club dress – and he had photos of
many of his club companions, dressed
similarly, to prove it. Needless to say,
coming from Kenya he was a very good
runner, but was finding the maps and
terrain very different from what he was
used to at home.
This was one of the big challenges
for the leaders of the clinic – coping
with the diverse range of backgrounds
of the participants. “The orienteers
from Kyrgyzstan have no forests to run
in”, said Astrid. Lack of good maps,
Photo: Laszlo Zentai
and national and club organisation only in its early stages, were more widespread situations.
“They can share what they learn”
All those taking part were very grateful
for the clinic and the efforts being put
in to help them. “The biggest thing for
them is that they can share together
what they learn”, says Astrid, “and one
common factor is the great enthusiasm they come with. It has been great
fun for me to be part of the clinic and
to be close to the participants”. They
all used the same accommodation, a
youth hotel on the outskirts of Lausanne which many of the more well
known national teams were also using.
Funding for the clinic came from
the IOF, the Swiss orienteering federation and voluntary contributions from
Swiss orienteering clubs. A similar
clinic is being planned for next year’s
World Championships in Finland.
Help throughout
the Championships
When the two-day clinic was over,
Austrian Karin Leonhardt and Swiss
Ursula Häusermann took over the job
of guiding and supporting the clinic
participants through the tricky procedures of preparation for their qualification races. They clearly enjoyed
themselves – “even more so when the
athletes complete little feats which
make them feel on cloud nine, even
though they might go unnoticed by
the public. During the Sprint qualification, a Serbian runner (Sladjana Jovanovic) finished only about 3 minutes behind the winner of her heat,
Swede Helena Jansson. She was just
so happy and incredibly proud. And
I was happy for her too!” said Karin.
Some of those taking part were due
to be at the O-Ringen Academy the following week, building up their orienteering skills even further. Next year
they will be able to come to the World
Championships with far more self-confidence in their ability to compete – just
as runners from Macedonia and Turkey,
amongst other nations who attended
last year, have found in Switzerland.
Photo: Blandine Astrade.
www.orienteering.org
INSIDE ORIENTEERING | 9
The World Masters accommodation is organised in the beautiful alpine village Sestriere. Photo: Ezio Romano
Olympic Village setting for
World Masters in Italy
By Anna Jacobson
The World Masters Orienteering
Championships is the biggest IOF
event of the year. This year close to
4,000 Masters competed against each
other in Bad Harzburg, Germany. Next
year the Italian Orienteering Federation is also planning for a large number of participants when the World
Masters Championships returns to Italy and is held in the beautiful alpine
village Sestriere, in conjunction with
the World Masters Games.
orienteering skills are required, and the
courses will for sure be interesting.”
The Sprint qualifications will most
likely be held in Turin, and that way
the World Masters participants can
visit the main site of the World Masters Games, one of the biggest sports
events in the world. The Sydney 2009
World Masters Games, for example,
attracted a record 28,676 competitors.
Orienteering is also an official part of
the Games even though most of the
events, including the Sprint final, will
be held in Sestriere.
Event Centre in the Olympic Village
The question of altitude
Sestriere is a famous resort, especially well known for alpine skiing. Its
mountains are known as ‘Olympic
mountains’ as all the men’s alpine
skiing competitions in the 2006 Winter Olympic Games took place there,
and one of the three Olympic Villages was located there. Sestriere is also a
famous start and finish point in the
Giro d’Italia, and even in the Tour de
France.
According to the IOF Assistant Senior Event Adviser Tulla Spinelli (SUI)
the orienteering terrain in Sestriere is
interesting, and new for orienteers:
“Not too many years ago all the terrain here was pasture, but now much
of it has become forest. Although the
terrain is not extremely difficult, good
The events in Sestriere will be held
1,500 to 2,200 metres above sea level.
Because of the altitude, some precautions have been taken: medical experts
have been consulted, previous events
at the same level of altitude have been
studied, and the Italian Federation will
organise a pre-event on the first day
of the week, to enable World Masters
competitors to get used to the altitude.
The chair of the IOF Medical Commission, Olli Heinonen, is of the opinion that the altitude will not be any
problem: “It should not be a problem
for healthy masters to compete at this
altitude, especially since the course
planners have taken the altitude into consideration and planned courses with not too much climbing. The
10 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
competitors should of course remember to have adequate energy stores
and have proper fluid balance (water,
sports drinks). If possible, taking part
in the pre-event organised at the same
altitude as Sestriere is a good way to acclimatise oneself. If you are in doubt
or have medical conditions needing
special care, please consult your doctor in advance”
IOF Foot Orienteering Commission
Member David May recalls that the
World Masters Orienteering Championships in 2004 was held at altitudes
between 1,000 and 2,000 metres in
Asiago in north-east Italy: “There were
no reported ill effects due to altitude
in 2004 and, a little more recently, the
2006 Swiss O Week attracted 3,000
runners to Zermatt and held some of
the races at altitudes of up to 3000 metres. Again, I know of no reports of ill
effects because of the altitude.”
The President of the Italian Orienteering Federation, Sergio Grifoni,
confirms that they are also prepared
to help the participants to become accustomed to the altitude. “We will be
organising a training competition on
the day before the Championships
actually start, in a very beautiful area
which is technically demanding and
at the same elevation as Sestriere. The
location is in sight of Sestriere. There
will be a separate entry for this competition, but I recommend everyone to
take part in it”, Grifoni says.
Many activities besides orienteering
The Sestriere area is famous for producing cheese and other local delicacies.
Therefore, the organisers are planning
to offer the World Masters participants
a chance to participate in a passeggiata
enogastronomica. It is a new and already popular tourist activity that combines the pleasure of a walk in the natural environment with tasting organic
food produced in the region. The 5-6
km walk visits some of the farmhouses
producing goat cheese, dairy cheese, salami, breads, cakes, and wine. At each
farm there will be a break and the participants will have the opportunity to
sample the farm’s products.
In addition to the passeggiata, there
are many different kinds of activities
in and around Sestriere. “The resort
is used by many Italians for summer
holidays in the mountains, and many
outdoor activities are possible in the region. There are many hiking paths and
also nice small roads for mountain bike
and downhill biking,” Tulla Spinelli
says, and continues: “Since Sestriere
is located close to the French border,
there are also fortresses built during the
world wars which can still be visited.
The most famous one has a wall longer
than 3 km (the second longest after the
Great Wall of China) and 4,000 steps
(www.fortedifenestrelle.com). This fortress is located very close to one of the
training maps and its visit can be combined with a training session. The organisers will suggest a variety of possible activities.”
It is also possible to play golf on Europe’s highest 18-hole course in Sestriere, or spend a day at the indoor
swimming pool. Turin is an hour’s
drive away and it’s only 17 km to the
French border from Sestriere.
Sestriere is getting ready
Tulla Spinelli tells that the maps for the
World Masters Orienteering Championships (WMOC) are already almost
The organisers welcome the orienteers to
the World Masters Orienteering Championships 2013. Photo: Ezio Romano
complete. “All the maps will be new
and made especially for the WMOC.
The mappers started their work two
years ago and they are working right
now to finalise the maps. The mapping
work can only be done during the summer, because from October to June the
whole area can be covered in snow”,
Spinelli says.
“All in all, the village of Sestriere is
near to perfect for hosting a competition like WMOC. The competition ar-
eas are close to the village, and within
a very small area there is enough accommodation for all the competitors.
The local inhabitants are very used to
hosting big sports competitions; they
are eager to help with what for them is
a new sport and they are ready for this
organisational challenge. Italians are
very well known for their great hospitality and I am sure they will do their best
to ensure that WMOC 2013 is a superb
event”, Spinelli concludes.
World Ranking, Top 10 (as of 6 August 2012)
Foot Orienteering
Women:
1) Helena Jansson (SWE) 5987, 2) Annika
Billstam (SWE) 5968, 3) Dana Brožková
(CZE) 5919, 4) Minna Kauppi (FIN) 5846, 5)
Signe Søes (DEN) 5741, 6) Tove Alexandersson (SWE) 5731, 7) Merja Rantanen (FIN)
5719, 8) Simone Niggli (SUI) 5717,9) Lena
Eliasson (SWE) 5709, 10) Maja Alm (DEN)
5642.
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) Olav Lundanes (NOR) 5742, 9) Oleksandr
Kratov (UKR) 5734, 10) Francois Gonon (FRA)
5692, 10) Valentin Novikov (RUS) 5692.
Federation League (for leading 20 athletes)
Women:
1) Sweden102178 points, 2) Switzerland
96140, 3) Finland 93261, 4) Norway 80765,
www.orienteering.org
5) Russia 76958, 6) Czech Republic 75601,
7) Great Britain 72377, 8) Australia 71252,
9) Denmark 59809, 10) Latvia 49350.
Men:
1) Sweden 104098, 2) Switzerland 100028,
3) Norway 97642, 4) Finland 97468, 5) Great
Britain 86509, 6) Denmark 80195, 7) Australia 77987, 8) Russia 76413, 9) Czech Republic 76187, 10) Latvia 70272.
MTB Orienteering
Women:
1) Ingrid Stengård (FIN) 7102, 2) Marika Hara
(FIN) 7003, 3) Rikke Kornvig (DEN) 6933,
3) Christine Schaffner-Räber (SUI) 6933,
5) Michaela Gigon (AUT) 6929, 6) Anna
Kamińska (POL) 6888, 7) Ksenia Chernykh
(RUS) 6864, 8) Maja Rothweiler (SUI) 6856,
9) Susanna Laurila (FIN) 6841, 10) Hana
Bajtošová (SVK) 6838.
Men:
1) Samuli Saarela (FIN) 7402, 2) Erik Skovgaard Knudsen (DEN) 7257, 3) Jiři Hradil
(CZE) 7181, 4) Ruslan Gritsan (RUS) 7111,
5) Anton Foliforov (RUS) 7108, 6) František
Bogar (CZE) 7064, 7) Beat Schaffner (SUI)
7051, 8) Valeriy Gluhov (RUS) 7039, 9)
Marek Pospíšek (CZE) 7001, 10) Jussi Laurila (FIN) 6956.
Ski Orienteering
Women:
1) Josefine Engström (SWE) 1272, 2) Tove Alexandersson (SWE) 1271, 3) Marte Reenaas
(NOR) 1259, 4) Polina Malchikova (RUS)
1226, 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) 1168.
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) 1228.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |
11
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:
New Zealand
by Clive Allen
New Zealand orienteering is in sharp
focus right now for a number of good
reasons. Firstly because of some splendid results being produced by its young
elite orienteers, and an increasing presence generally on the international
orienteering scene, and secondly because of the up-coming Oceania Carnival – an orienteering extravaganza
on a scale never before organised in
Kiwi territory. Four World Cup races,
a 7-stage open multi-day event and numerous supporting races and activities
are included.
First ever Championship medal
2012 has seen the first World Championship medal ever for a Kiwi orienteer,
and it was gold! Matt Ogden ran the
race of his life to win the junior Middle Distance title in Slovakia in July.
He was 10th in the Sprint and 14th at
Long distance too, so a brilliant allround performance. Team leader for
the juniors Derek Morrison was full of
praise not only for Matt but also the
Middle distance terrain in North Island,
New Zealand. Photo: Malcolm Ingham
12 | INSIDE ORIENTEERING
team overall: “I am very proud of their
achievements – 9th in the overall team
listing – New Zealand’s best ever – and
7th in the Relay,” he says.
New Zealand had a top-ten placing
in the World Championships in Lausanne too – Lizzie Ingham, currently
world-ranked number 25, was 9th in
the Sprint final. (She will be profiled
as ‘Athlete of the Month’ on the IOF
website in September). And the women’s relay team finished 3 places ahead
of Australia – success in that bit of local rivalry! So hopes are high for local
success when many of the world’s elite
come to New Zealand for the World
Cup races in January; the one and only
time there has been a World Cup race
in New Zealand before, in 1994, the
men’s race was won by the home star
Alistair Landels.
These successes reflect a well developed national and development
squad structure which brings together the best orienteers from all of New
Zealand’s 17 orienteering clubs spread
across both North and South islands.
As well as having their own coaches,
the Kiwis get quite a bit of help from
abroad; for instance, Dieter and Ursula Wolf (Switzerland) were the Team
Managers/Coaches for the Kiwi team
at the World Championships in Lausanne. New Zealand has been a member of the IOF for more than 30 years.
World Cup races in
government grounds
The World Cup races in New Zealand, starting on 4th January, comprise a Middle distance on complex
forested and open sand-dune terrain at
Manawatu on the west coast of North
Island, followed by a Sprint Qualification and Final in the New Zealand
capital city Wellington. The qualification event will have an arena in
the grounds of the New Zealand parliament, while the Sprint Final takes
athletes into the grounds of Government House, the official residence of
the New Zealand Governor General.
The last venue to be used is at
Hawkes Bay, where a complex area
formed by ancient landslides will be
a feature of the terrain. The day’s programme features a prologue (short-
ened Middle distance, loop format, 2
athletes start at the same time) and a
Middle Distance chasing start based on
the prologue results.
In between the Sprints and the final
World Cup race at Hawkes Bay, World
Cup athletes will have the opportunity
to compete in the Oceania Long Distance and Relay Championships.
European orienteers: never a better
time for a trip ‘down under’!
For European orienteers who like
to travel and want to get away from
the short winter days at home, and
for southern hemisphere orienteers,
many from nations relatively new
to orienteering, what could be better
than spending up to a month in New
Zealand – where you can compete in
as many as 20 high-quality races and
support your nation’s runners in the
four World Cup competitions.
The Carnival itself is a 7-day event
for all age groups and standards in
the period 4–13 January. It incorporates the Oceania Championships in
the three individual formats – Sprint,
Middle and Long. All the World Cup
venues will be used, and competitors
will experience the best of North Island’s dune, gully-spur and intricate
limestone terrain, both forested and
open. The closing date for entries is at
the beginning of December, but the organisers advise intending participants
to book flights and accommodation as
early as in September in order to have
a reasonable choice; January is peak
holiday time in New Zealand.
Full entry details for the Carnival are
on www.oceania2013.co.nz.
After the Carnival, Sprint the Bay!
Before and after the Carnival there
is yet more! Pre-Carnival there are 3
races in the Auckland area just before
the New Year, and just after the Carnival there is the unique Sprint series
at Hawkes Bay called ‘Sprint the Bay’.
‘Sprint the Bay’ is a spectator-friendly multi-day orienteering event run
along the lines of a cycle race. It comprises 6 Sprints, both urban and nonwww.orienteering.org
Matt Ogden won the middle distance at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Slovakia in 2012. Photo: Erik Borg
urban, over 3 days. The leaders in the
women’s and men’s elite classes after
each stage wear a yellow singlet in the
next stage. There are also special singlets for the leading junior (under 21)
in the overall standings, and for the
sprint leg leader and hill climb leader
(based on times on specially designated legs). There are classes covering the
full age range plus junior and senior
schools classes.
“Sprint the Bay, first organised as a
small fund-raising novelty event, has
grown in popularity and last year had
over 250 entrants,” says Derek Morrison, one of the organisers. The 2013
dates are 15–17 January. See www.
sprintthebay.org.
On 19th January the annual allnight relay for teams of 5 or 7 persons
called Katoa Po will be held. Then
there is time for a few days’ relaxing
holiday or sightseeing before the final
post-Carnival events – the South Island
Championships (all 3 individual formats), taking place on 25–27 January.
Event Advisers Clinic
There will of course be plenty of opportunity for socialising and visiting
tourist attractions, to make the trip
to New Zealand fully worthwhile.
Side attractions also include serious
features such as the IOF Event Advisers’ Clinic, organised on 9th January,
to educate and recruit more licensed
Foot Orienteering Event Advisers: an
important opportunity for southern
hemisphere national federations (and
others) to send suitable representatives who can afterwards be appointed Event Advisers for World Ranking
Events.
New Zealand is preparing hard for
the influx of orienteers from around
the world expected in January, and is
hoping that there will be many who
will make the trip – a life-time opportunity for a visit to this green and fertile country, with top-quality orienteering in very varied and challenging terrain.
INSIDE ORIENTEERING |
13
News in brief
JWOC and WMOC in 2015: organisers
announced
The IOF Council has decided that the
2015 Junior World Orienteering Championships will be held in Norway, and
the World Masters Orienteering Championships in the same year will be in
Sweden.
IOF President Åke Jacobson, in announcing the decisions, praised the
quality of the rival bids and said that
in both cases it had been a very difficult decision. “Both Romania, rival bidder for the junior championships, and
Latvia, short-listed rival bidder for the
Masters event, put in excellent submissions and made it a very close decision
in each case”, he said.
The Junior World Championships
is scheduled for 4–11 July 2015 in
the Porsgrunn area of Norway. It
will be combined with the multi-day
event Sörlandsgaloppen, which will
be holding its 50th anniversary that
year and where the first race is to be
planned on the same area as was used
50 years ago.
Gothenburg is the venue for the
World Masters Championships, and
it is planned to hold it in the week after O-Ringen, i.e. 26 July–2 August. ORingen will be staged in nearby Borås
and will be a good warm-up in similar
terrain. This will be the first time the
Masters event has been held in Sweden
since 1988.
New Chairman for
IOF Foot
Orienteering
Commission
The IOF Council has appointed Mikko
Salonen, Finland as new Chair of the
Foot Orienteering Commission to replace Konrad Becker, Switzerland, who
has retired from the post.
In addition Willy Mueller, Switzerland has been appointed as a member
of the commission.
Two applications to host the 2015
World MTB Orienteering
Championships
By the deadline of 30th June 2012 two applications to host the 2015 World Mountain
Bike Orienteering Championships had been
received. The IOF MTB Orienteering Commission will now evaluate the bids from Czech
Republic and Portugal and give its recommendation to the IOF Council. The decision
on the organiser will most likely be made at
the IOF Council meeting at the beginning of
October.
New logo for
IOF World Cup
The IOF is introducing new logos
for the Orienteering, MTB Orienteering and Ski Orienteering World
Cups. The logos will be used, together with the competition name
and logo, both by the IOF and by
the local organisers.
The IOF thanks the Swedish Orienteering Federation for its assistance in the logo design.