Steven Hale on orienteering

In the saddle

2006-04-18T11:28:00.000+02:00

The venues for this year's Jan Kjellström might not have been the sexiest of British orienteering terrain - but after a long Scandinavian winter it was enough to arouse my orienteering hormones.

Most British orienteers will have had a long term relationship with at least one of the competition areas - Ilkley Moor, Keldy and Bramham Park. But while there were no surprises for the more experienced, there was plenty of variety to add a little spice.

Top marks to the planners who managed to produce some shapely courses and nice legs, despite the limitations and constraints of the venues. A special mention too for the speakers - knowledgeable and informative with just the right balance between coverage of the elite classes and the rest.

But whilst some things change, other things remain the same. The labyrinth of tapes at the starts and the mildly chaotic relay map issue (and exchange) are just two examples of the idiosyncracies of British orienteering.

Strangest of all was the Costa del Sol of club tents that formed a wall along the run-ins. You have to put your towel on the beach early if you want to catch a glimpse of the fun ...

Snaps

2006-03-20T07:59:00.000+01:00

It's not often you see a really good orienteering photo. Let's face it, it's not often you see a quite good one. Which is a shame, because pictures are an excellent way to promote the sport.

I spent a couple of seasons submitting o-photos to our local paper - some of them even got published. When they did, an article which would normally be hidden in the depths of the sports section could quite easily be promoted to the back page by the sports editor.

But action snaps are hard to take - orienteering ones more so. You need to be in the right place at the right time. Plus you need to be equipped with little bit more advanced than your Sony Ericsson - unless you spot a tall bearded Saudi, with a hunted look in his eyes, running M45.

Tiggers don't like haycorns

2006-03-08T20:18:00.000+01:00

Anybody who's run a mountain marathon knows about that never-again-feeling you get when reaching the finish. Usually it goes over after a few hours when you find yourself subconciously planning for next year's race.

I felt the the first never-again-twinges after just half of Sunday's Vasalopp. They still haven't gone over. What I really wanted was lightning fast icy trails and not soft, slow new snow. Tiggers don't like haycorns.

But no point in brooding. Time to start looking forward to the orienteering season - if there's going to be one. Just for a change it's snowing again here and the spring season is starting to look threatened.

Nevertheless Easter and the JK is looming so I'd better look out my orienteering shoes. Last seen November - I wonder where I put them.

Snow again

2006-03-01T20:24:00.000+01:00

It just keeps snowing. Over the last two days we've had a foot of the stuff. And that's on top of the foot we've had since the start of February. It's been hard work just keeping the drive clear - tomorrow I'm facing the prospect of going up onto the roof to do some shoveling.

No complaints though. This Sunday is Vasalopp's Sunday. 90km of skiing between Sälen and Mora. New snow tips the balance in favour of fitness rather than technique. Good news for me.

Last weekend saw the women's variant of Vasaloppet - Tjejvasan. I put myself on the line then as well - metaphorically. My Better Half was taking part for the first time and I was given ski-waxing responsibility. Nothing like a bit of pressure to bring out your best. Annika's already announced her intention to compete next year - and her waxing team has also been retained.

Olympic arithmetic

2006-02-10T22:01:00.000+01:00

Another Olympic Games has opened - another Games without orienteering.

Some say that orienteering will never become a full member of the Olympic movement. They are, of course, wrong. An understanding of simple mathematics is all that's required to show this.

True, orienteering will never feature at either the Winter or Summer games. But there are four seasons in a year and

4 - 2 = 2.

Once the IOC see this logic and deduce that there a two totally unexploited seasons, orienteering's chance will come.

Roll on the Spring Olympics.

Introverts in lycra

2006-02-03T21:52:00.000+01:00

Unlikely as it might seem, I've discovered a sport that's more introverted than orienteering.

One of the things I look forward to when work takes me to Stockholm is the chance to skate round the ice track at Östermalms IP. It beats sitting in a hotel watching cable TV anyway. On Wednesday evening I found the local speed skaters were holding a competition. It took me half an hour to find somebody prepared to look me in the eyes and tell me a little about their sport.

Strange really since all those well developed, lycra clad quadriceps and gluteus maximi aren't something you need to be shy about. But like orienteering, speed skating in Sweden has suffered a haemorrhage in participant numbers. Being an Olympic sport hasn't offered any immunity to this ailment either.

Just as I was leaving the arena I finally managed to engage a friendly 'skrinnare' in conversation. Having observed that their next meet was in a couple of weeks I wondered if I might give it a try if I was in town. "You need to be a club member" was his reply.

Identity crisis

2006-01-27T08:50:00.000+01:00

Football, cricket, rugby and tennis all have two. Golf has one. Syllables. Popular sports have short catchy names, preferably two or fewer syllables.

Orienteering, meanwhile, has a polysyllabic handicap. Worse still, the International Orienteering Federation persists in calling it 'foot orienteering'. Two words, six syllables, and just a hint of Monty Python.

And don't even think of suggesting 'foot-o'. It sounds like a treatment for an irritating fungal infection rather than a sport.

Yes I know it's politically correct not to favour any of the four branches of orienteering (cycle, ski and trail are of course the other three) - but by doing so we’ve shot ourselves in the you-know-what.

I guess we're stuck with our five syllables but let's agree to amputate that prefix.

Ups and downs

2006-01-15T16:20:00.000+01:00

What a difference a few degrees makes. The temperature over the last week has climbed to the wrong side of zero and now the snow's gone. From a winter paradise to a wet and icy nightmare in one fell swoop.

Fortunately our local club has a loop of artificial snow which resists a thaw - though distance sessions around a 1.8km trail are soon going to get very monotonous.

Today's training alternative was Karlstad's downhill slope, which also has the benefit of snow cannons. While the kids took the button lift I skated up on cross country skis. It's not a slope of alpine proportions but quite enough to produce a lactic acid overdose - and an adrenalin ditto on the way down.

Good start

2006-01-06T13:18:00.000+01:00

I'd just like welcome all those born in 1966 into M40. Shorter courses maybe, but the competitions just as tough, if not tougher than M35. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Håkan Eriksson will continue to choose to run M21.

The new year's begun well with just enough snow to be able to ski from the doorstep. As usual when there's a limited supply of the white stuff the best place to ski is not on the forest trails but on the near by fields - they use them for playing golf in the summer.

The snow came just before new year - but not before I made my winter night orienteering debut. It may be my last outing too - once again I proved that night orienteering isn't my strong suite.

After a couple of tentative tours on the ice my långfärdsskridskor career has also taken a back seat to XC skiing. Hopefully I'll get a chance later on for some more serious tours. Until then, the priority is Vasalopp training. Bettering last years placing is the winter's main target.

Equipment problems

2005-12-18T14:45:00.000+01:00

Equipment problems are rarely a deciding factor in orienteering. A smashed compass is about the worst that can happen. For an experienced orienteer this is usually just a minor setback. On one occasion it proved to be an advantage.

When running the 2000 World Cup final in a forested sanddune area north of Lisbon, I somehow managed to smash my Silva Jet. Post race analysis showed that my splits improved after this incident.

The explanation was revealed a year later on a training camp in the same area. It soon became clear that something was seriously amiss. The map's meridian lines were 10-15 degrees out. Curiously, despite racing twice on this map, none of the world's leading orienteers had noticed.

Equipment problems in cross country skiing are another matter. There's so much that can go wrong - and it's usually catastrophic when it happens. My particular speciality is pole problems. Misfortune struck again yesterday. This time it was my daughter who suffered a pole strap failure - though I was undoubtably to blame having spent the previous evening waxing skis and "fixing" poles.

She seems to have forgiven me now - but I won't be making that mistake again. Things went better for me. Admittedly I came last, but only 90 secs off-the-back over a hilly 15km of skating, which counts as success in my book.

Adapt or die

2005-12-13T10:39:00.000+01:00

All sports must change over time. Those that don't adapt quickly enough, or make the wrong route choices, risk losing the competition for survival. Take for instance race walking, olympic wrestling and, well, orienteering.

One irony is that elite competitors are often those that resist change most vehemently. They may be at the forefront when it comes to practising their sport, but are the most conservative when it comes to change. Change brings insecurity and elite competitors, with thousands of hours invested in training, often have the most to lose.

Two elite orienteers in Sweden recently started an internet petition to resist the movement towards more short distance racing - I think. In fact the petition was put together so hastily that it is unclear exactly what the target is. Which has not prevented the rapid accumulation of several hundred names. Including, it's reported, most of the national team.

Are they right? The evidence doesn't support them - middle distance races often attract more entries than long distance. Adapt or die!

Curtains

2005-12-04T17:00:00.000+01:00

Whilst the curtain may have come down for this year's orienteering season, other curtains are going up all over Sweden.

This is the season, as any Swedish male knows, when it's vital to memorize what curtains you have when leaving home in the morning. Woe betide the fellow who comes home and doesn't notice that the Christmas curtains have been put up.

Swedes, or at least the female half of the population, are obsessed with curtains. Red ones up for Christmas, yellow for Easter.

The strange thing is that Swedish curtains can't be drawn. Like the appendix they serve no practical purpose - they are an evolutionary remnant.

After nightfall (and that's most of the time just now) it's like living in an aquarium. It does mean you know exactly what the neighbours are getting up to - and vice versa. After over a decade here I still can't get used to it. A peeping tom's paradise!

Destination Kiruna

2005-11-29T20:17:00.000+01:00

No snow in Karlstad so we headed north - over a thousand kilometers north - to Kiruna. Another world.

Situated 145 km north of the Artic Circle Kiruna is a pretty safe bet at this time of the year if you're itching to get out into the ski trails. And we were.

Stark highrises dominate the skyline of this remote mining town. The view from these tower blocks must be one of the best in Sweden - mile upon mile of unspoilt countryside. In the distance a glimpse of Sweden's highest mountains. The slag heaps which dwarf Kiruna provide a contrast that merely enhances the striking beauty of the landscape.

The cross-country skiing here isn't for wimps either. The trails wind up and down a hillside on the edge of town. Over the weekend they were thronging with Norwegian youngsters.

Now it's just us and the Korean team who remain. The Koreans have been here for a month preparing for the Olympics - we're heading home tomorrow.

Brass monkeys

2005-11-20T19:41:00.000+01:00

Sub zero temperatures over the last few days have signalled the end of an unusually warm, wet and windy autumn. Which means it's time to get out those two essential items of equipment for anybody who wants to train through a winter at these latitudes - an halogen headlamp, and thermal underpants.

I forgot the latter on this afternoon's roller ski excursion - not a mistake I intend to repeat when the mercury sinks even lower.

Since moving to Sweden one of the things I've learned to really appreciate is living somewhere with distinct seasons. Over the next few months it'll be too dark and, hopefully, too snowy to do any serious orienteering. An enforced break means that orienteers can turn their attention to other activities - then return refreshed and recharged to orienteering in the spring.

Though the temperature has dropped here there's no snow yet on the meteorological horizon. Cross country skiing cold turkey symptoms are starting to kick in. But just as with Mohammed and his mountain, there is a solution. More about this in next week's blog ...

Inaccessibility

2005-11-13T08:58:00.000+01:00

Several weeks ago I blogged about cryptic results. Since then, in the odd spare moment, I've knocked together a Result Clarifier for UK races.

In the process of doing this I realised that it isn't just club abbreviations that are confusing, even class names present quite a hurdle for the uninitiated. It took me a good bit of effort to work out what JM5M meant. And I still haven't worked out what M21V is.

If there's a good description of the UK age class and colour coded system on the BOF web site then I haven't found it. Nor for, that matter, anywhere on the web - even if some clubs have made valiant efforts.

And it's not just in the UK that orienteering is unnecessarily inaccessible. Try entering a Swedish race. This is what I had to do (freely translated):

From my club's web page, follow the "entry on the net" link; Select menu "Competitions"; Select submenu "Competition calendar"; Select the race to enter; Click button "To entry"; Choose role "Member" in drop down box; Enter password; Click "log in" button; Choose my name in list box; Press button "enter me"; Select age class; Click button "Save entry".

And here's the fun bit: when I try to enter another race I'm right back at the "Select menu Competitions" step again.

No wonder race entry numbers are also decreasing in Sweden.

Autumn break

2005-11-05T17:20:00.000+01:00

Early November doesn't just mean celebrating a (foiled) act of 17th century terrorism, but also a time when I often make a trip to visit the Roots. Taking the kids on an annual autumn break to County Durham has become a family tradition.

One of the things that I've noticed the last couple years is a transformation which has brought the North East closer to Scandinavia. The weather, for instance, seems to be converging - wet and windy on both sides of the North Sea this year.

Clean streets and law abiding conformity are almost synonymous with Scandinavia. It's difficult to believe, but the Geordies are even catching up the Swedes in this area.

The pavements of north east England are no longer the minefield of canine deposits I recall from my youth. Dog owners can now be seen carrying small bags of recycled Pedigree Pal. Sweden's poop scooping dominance is definitely threatened.

Graffiti too is difficult to spot in post industrial Co. Durham. Where has it all gone? Meanwhile in Karlstad our rubbish bin has recently been replaced after been tagged by the local youth.

A bit of reforestation and the transformation will be complete - preferably preceded by a decent ice age to create a some interesting contour features.

Orienteering economy

2005-10-30T19:15:00.000+01:00

Orienteers are in general pleasant, well balanced, honest people. They do however tend to suffer from one particular handicap - short arms, deep pockets.

Not that orienteers are financially challenged - take a look around the car park at any O-race and you'll notice they are not short of the readies. I'm sure too that orienteers are right up there with any other group when it comes to charitable donations.

But when it comes to getting us to spend money on our sport of choice, it's like squeezing blood out of a stone.

Fortunately professional mapmakers are now accepted but there are are many other areas of the sport which would benefit from an injection of professionalism - marketing, publicity, race organisation ...

To develop the sport we must be prepared to pay a little more. And if more individuals and companies can make a living from orienteering then they too will have a vested interest in promoting it.

One of orienteering's charms is that it has not become overly commercialized - but even good things can be taken too far. So stretch down into those murky nether regions, fish out a few extra pounds, kronors or euros, and help kick start the orienteering economy!

First snow

2005-10-23T18:06:00.000+02:00

The first snow of the winter fell this morning in Karlstad. Whilst it was very British-ish snow - gone by lunch - it did come as a reminder that the orienteering season here is nearing its end.

The final major race of the Swedish season is next weekend - a relay in Småland. Here in Karlstad we have a chilly finale in November to look forward to.

Notwithstanding these final flurries of orienteering activity, thoughts are already turning to winter sports. This year I've ventured onto the bandy rink for the first time. Bandy is a cross between ice hockey (clubs, ice skates) and football (large pitch, round ball), but nevertheless has a great deal in common with orienteering.

Enthusiasts talk about bandy being a way of life. Participants do it for the love of the sport rather than prestige or financial rewards. Ninety minutes on the edge of a windswept pitch requires true devotion from spectators. And as a tv sport it's rubbish.

Now I'm off to put studded tyres on my bike in order to avoid any embarrasing spills when pedaling to work.

Danger in the forests

2005-10-17T20:59:00.000+02:00

Once again I've survived the most dangerous week of the year for orienteers in Sweden. I'm not talking about the past weekend in Dalarna with two bus loads of the district's juniors. This was the week when half of Sweden's male population headed for the woods with high powered rifles. The elk hunting premiér.

Fortunately, like most things in Sweden, hunting is well organised and well regulated. I have a suspicion that a significant number of the hunters are just out for a couple of days of peace and quiet away from her indoors and the weeuns.

True, there have already been two fatalities but these were fellow hunters rather than innocent orienteers. Angry elk pose more of a risk to orienteers than stray bullets.

On the other hand - what the hunters fear most is wolves. Not because the wolves pose a threat to people - only storybook wolves do that. The problem is that the hounds worry the wolves - so the wolves eat the hounds. Seems fair enough to me.

Too clever for our own good

2005-10-09T19:18:00.000+02:00

Orienteering seems to attract the sort of person who enjoys solving crossword puzzles.

Take a look at the results list from any race in the UK - say this year's British Championships:

M21E
  1  Oliver Johnson           SYO     81:54   
  2  Mark Nixon               EUOC    84:18 
  3  Julian Simpson           OD      86:24 
  4  Alastair Buckley         SYO     86:47 
  5  Duncan Archer            CLOK    86:59 
  6  Clive Parry              EPOC    87:57 
  7  Stewart Fishwick         LOC     90:01 
  8  Andrew Middleditch       SHUOC   90:13 
  9  Chris Sellens            SOS     91:07 
 10  Neil Northrop            WAOC    91:26

If you're not acquainted with British orienteering club names, those acronyms will certainly have you stumped.

A minor detail maybe, but this is the sort of thing that makes orienteering seem cliquey to the outsider. Which newspaper would publish these results? How many of their readers would understand them?

Writing ...

M21E
  1  Oliver Johnson           South Yorks         81:54   
  2  Mark Nixon               Edinburgh Uni       84:18   
  3  Julian Simpson           Coventry            86:24   
  4  Alastair Buckley         South Yorks         86:47   
  5  Duncan Archer            Cleveland           86:59   
  6  Clive Parry              East Pennine        87:57   
  7  Stewart Fishwick         Lakeland            90:01   
  8  Andrew Middleditch       Sheffield Uni       90:13   
  9  Chris Sellens            Essex               91:07   
 10  Neil Northrop            West Anglia         91:26

... would mean a small loss of brevity but a giant leap in clarity.

I know this would spoil the fun for the crossword solvers amongst us (I'm one myself) who are amused that a competitor from Coventry runs for OD, or an Essex runner represents SOS.

But presenting orienteering to the uninitiated is hard enough as it is, without making it unnecessarily cryptic.

Workarounds

2005-10-04T22:25:00.000+02:00

As a Briton in Sweden, I occasionally get asked what I miss most from "home". It's easy naming the things I'm pleased to have left behind, but listing what I miss is harder. Or rather I've found workarounds: private imports of Marmite, The Guardian Weekly, Radio 4 on the internet, Ruddles from the local alcohol monopoly. Swedish TV even does a pretty good job of broadcasting some of the better UK programs, without importing the dross.

A more recent workaround has been the inauguration of a regular night-out-with-the-lads in the local pub. It's not been so easy selling the idea to the indigenous orienteers, but slowly and surely it's catching on.

So if you're in Karlstad on the first Monday of the month, call in to the Bishops Arms. Somewhere in the corner of the (no longer smoke filled) bar you'll find a small group of enthusiasts reminiscing on past exploits in the woods, comparing their latest injury status or offering Colin useful ideas for improving his stereo.

Quite a decent pint of London Pride is served too.

Gubbvad

2005-09-29T21:08:00.000+02:00

Gubbvad is one of those Swedish words that doesn't have a succinct English translation. It means chronic calf muscle problems, common amongst older male orienteers and runners - "codger's calf" perhaps.

After being struck down last year I had a pain free spring and was starting to hope that I'd put gubbvad behind me. But I was being overly optimistic - my period of remission came to an end in July.

All my running pals, of a certain age, seem to have been afflicted and each has their own patent cure. Drink more, massage, eat bananas, stretch more, stretch less, wear long socks - I've tried them all.

After a summer of rollerskiing I've finally managed to string together a couple of weeks' of running. It's too soon to sell the bear skin - but just perhaps the current regime of magnesium suppliments and eccentric exercises is doing the trick. And even if my luck doesn't last I'll be well prepared for the coming cross-country skiing season.

Tero

2005-09-21T21:41:00.000+02:00

I happened across this film clip last week featuring Thierry. It certainly made me want get out into the forest.

Tero also keeps a (bilingual) blog on his stylish website. World class!

Continental Drift

2005-09-17T12:36:00.000+02:00

At the 1979, 1981 and 1983 world championships the Norwegian men completed an incredible hattrick of hattricks. They took all the individual medals at three consecutive championships. Thon, Berglia, Sagvolden, Johansen, Dähli were gods.

These days the nordic runners are looking more mortal. At this year's world championships long distance, the continental teams came as close as they ever have to freezing out the nordic nations. Russia and Switzerland took the top two places and if Holger hadn't squeezed out a second Swiss a continental whitewash would have been a factum.

Reading the comments on Scandinavian websites, there was just a hint of snobbery. Some suggested that Khramov only won because the race was held in continental type terrain. Such details didn't concern Thon, Berglia et alla - they made a clean sweep of the medals not just in Finland but in Hungary and Switzerland too.

The Scandinavians still win hands down when it comes to strength-in-depth. Yesterday's Swedish champs middle distance qualifiers were as tight as they always are. For the men, a result around two minutes behind the heat winner meant no final.

A couple of decades ago, top orienteers from other European nations started to move to Scandinavia to learn their trade. And learn they have - winning championships not only around the world but also in the Nordic forests. Perhaps its time for the vikings to reverse this trend and start marauding more regularly outside the Nordic homelands.

Who-followed-who

2005-08-27T11:51:00.000+02:00

We all do it. You do it. I do it. But nobody likes to admit it. We've all been helped by other competitors at some time or another.

The who-followed-who discussion is an annual post world championships event. Fuel was poured on this year's controversy by the Swedes. They made an official complaint accusing Andrey Khramov (long distance gold), Marc Lauenstein (silver) and Michele Tavernaro (6th) of working together. The motive for complaining was almost certainly to create a debate, as the risk of anybody being disqualified was microscopic.

If you read the IOF competition rules there isn't actually a rule to break:

26.2 In an individual interval start race, competitors are expected to navigate and run through the terrain independently.

Not "must", not "shall", but "expected". Try enforcing that one. And that's the problem - even if the rule is worded more precisely it's still unenforceable.

The Swedish domestic competition rules, for instance, contain lots of "must nots" (see rules 7.4.3 ... 7.4.6 if your Swedish is up to it) but in modern orienteering history I know of only two instances where there have been disqualifications: one competitor owned up; the other came second in the Swedish night championships after smashing his headlamp and then following the eventual winner to the finish. Bang to rights in both cases - but these are the exceptions.

So lets stop the hypocrisy and take these rules out of the rule book. The onus for creating a fair race will then be placed squarely on the race organiser.

Wot WOC?

2005-08-10T22:46:00.000+02:00

The World Orienteering Championships are the showcase for the sport. Once a year - we have a chance to make a modest splash in the world's media. Now any ripples of publicity from Japan are being lost in the media tsunami of the World Athletics Championships. How have we allowed this to happen?

It is impossible to totally avoid clashes - there's always some major sporting event happening somewhere. But choosing to clash with the Olympics, Soccer World Cup or World Athletics is simply kamikaze.

Selection Season

2005-07-03T18:06:00.001+02:00

With the World Championships just over a month away it's high season for national team selections.

Great Britain's team is chosen and the Swedish and Norwegian selectors are probably locked up in smoke filled rooms at this very moment.

For all those that make the team there's at least as many other runners who are convinced they should have been selected, but have been overlooked.

Even amongst the chosen, few will have been selected for all the distances they had hoped for. The result being a mixture of satisfaction and disappointment - with the selectors being often blamed.

Of course selectors do make strange decisions and get it very wrong on occasions. But it's a dirty job and somebody's got to do it. I don't envy them one bit.

Catching features

2005-07-01T09:41:00.000+02:00

Everybody else has probably been playing Catching Features for years. I discovered it yesterday and I'm hooked already.

O-blogs

2005-06-29T21:26:00.000+02:00

Orienteering has always been an early adopter of Internet technology. Every self respecting o-club has its own website. There are some real horrors out there on the web - but compared to other sports we're streets ahead.

So why are there so few orienteering blogs? Politicians, journalist, nerds - everybody's doing it. But where are all the o-blogs?

National team members, federation chairpersons, Sunday morning enthusiasts - tell the online world about your orienteering experiences, frustrations and visions. And if you're already o-blogging, send me your link.

Two I've found so far:

Michael Eglinski's daily thoughts about orienteering
Ollie O'Briens yep sport orienteering weblog

and another:

Mapsurfer's O-log