Sweden’s Helena Jansson took an expected win in the women’s first qualification heat with a 30 seconds’ gap to Ines Brodman, Switzerland. Ines’ compatriot Judith Wyder was the fastest in heat B with Denmark’s Maja Alm finishing second. Simone Niggli, Switzerland, again won her heat, this time by 55 seconds to Denmark’s Emma Klingenberg on second place.

For complete results from the Sprint qualification, please visit the event website. The Sprint final will also take place in Falun on Saturday starting at 13:30 local time.

Hanna was born on 25 May 2011. Now she is present when her mother is running in the forests in Dalarna. On the long qualification Vendula took a good eight place in her heat and is safe to the final. On the middle distance she just got to the final with a 17^th place. The 17 best from each group go to the final.

“I ran well on the long qualification and it’s fun to take part”, Vendula says.

“I started up with training again in November. My goal is to do well and be better than ever before at the World Championships”, she continues. Before this year her best results are an eight place as the best individual from EOC and a 17^th place as best from WOC.

The Czech has for some years now been living in Halden in Norway and a short time ago she won Tiomila with her club. The same did husband Mats Haldin.  “My next goal is Jukola”, says Haldin, who for years was among the best in world. “Now I am training four – five times a week only. It’s much less than half of what I did before”, he continues.

At the European Championships he’s cheering for Vendula with Hanna. 

The whole family is present, little Hanna and the parents Vendula Klechova and Mats Haldin.
Photo: Erik Borg

The Finn has previously been training over 1000 hours per year, but this year he has taken it easier: “I am only training a couple of times per day now”, he smiles.  It looks like it will be 800 – 900 training hours for him this year.

It was last autumn that the young senior decided to start training less. Just on his own, as he has no coach who tells him what to do. “To develop I had to change, and it has been positive for the hard trainings to train less. Now I have more power in the tough excercises”, he says.

Next year he will concentrate on foot orienteering only, despite his excellent results in ski orienteering.  “The World Orienteering Championships 2013 are in Vuokatti, Finland. That’s why I’ll for a while go for orienteering only”, he says. On home ground he wants to fight for medals.

Nice to be back

Just about 20 kilometers from the place where the middle and long distance finals at the European Championships take place is the terrain where Olli-Markus had his most successful Junior World Ski Orienteering Championships. He got four out of four golds there. “It’s nice to be here again and I like terrrain a lot. It’s very similar to what we have in Pello where I am from in Northern Finland”, he smiles.

The same year, 2009, when he got four junior gold medals in ski orienteering, he also won gold among the seniors in World Ski Orienteering Championships – and among the junior foot orienteers in Junior World Orienteering Championships. He was incredible as junior – and is now intending to be as incredible in the senior class. It’s hard to believe he wouldn’t succeed!

Two successful Finns – Pasi Ikonen (left) and Olli-Markus Taivainen.
Photo: Erik Borg

“My goal is gold in the finals – and sooner or later I of course want to repeat Gothenburg”, he smiles.

The incredible success in Gothenburg came on in his second last year as a junior. He was just a second from four gold medals.

“In senior class it is of course harder to make such a thing”, Johan admits.  This year he is only running middle and long of the individual distances. 

Just like the qualification on the middle distance yesterday the long distance qualification took place 15 kilometer north west of Mora in Sweden.  The finals for long and middle will be held north east of Mora and the last two finals in the week, sprint and relay, will be at Lugnet, the ski stadium in Falun. Also the sprint qualification on Wednesday will be in Falun.

“I like the terrain and I am well prepared. My training for this season has gone well and I have got self-confidence. Last year I had problems with injuries and I lost my self-confidence, which is very important for the results in the end”, Johan says.

In the first qualification race Johan impressed by being faster than Thierry Gueorgiou. On the long qualification he was third fastest in his heat, just 17 seconds after the heat winner Olli-Markus Taivainen. Between the young seniors was Gueorgiou on second place.

The first chance for a medal for the Swede is on Thursday with the middle final.

When Runesson became the junior world champion he lived in Örebro, but he lives since June 2011 in Gothenburg. He is concentrating on orienteering on his way to the world elite. “I only have some small jobs besides training”, he says.    

Johan Runesson from Sweden is one of the medal candidates for middle and long distance.
Photo: Erik Borg

The winners of the other two women’s heats were Tatiana Ryabkina, Russia, who was 41 seconds faster than home athlete Lena Eliasson, and Merja Rantanen, Finland, 26 seconds ahead of Norway’s Tone Wigemyr. Swiss runner Rahel Friederich in this heat was the most unlucky participant of the day, failing by just 1 second to make the qualifying 17^th place.

 Russia and Finland both had two heat winners today; Russia’s Dmitry Tsvetkov won men’s heat 1 by 59 seconds over Swiss runner Matthias Müller, whilst Olli-Markus Taivainen for Finland was 15 seconds faster than Thierry Gueorgiou, France. Home athlete Johan Runesson, a heat winner yesterday, came in with another impressive performance today in this heat, finishing third, 17 seconds slower than the winner.  Anders Nordberg, Norway had an impressive win by 1:07 over Anders Holmberg, Sweden in the other heat.

Nineteen nations have one or more athletes in the Long Distance final on Friday – 17 nations will be represented in the men’s final and 15 in the women’s. After Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Finland have the next highest total of runners with 11, Norway and Sweden both have 10 and Russia has 9. Germany and Hungary have qualifiers for a final for the first time today, whereas Bulgaria had a qualifier yesterday but not today.

Today’s event was affected by a traffic accident which closed one of the main routes leading to the race site, resulting in a worrying delay for some runners. But it was not found necessary to delay the starts, and in the end everyone was able to start on time.

Full results along with course maps and a mass of other detail can be found on the very informative event website www.eoc2012.se. During the races, this site carries a live results service together with live video, GPS tracking and a blog.

“It looks as though it will be very tough this year”, says Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg, and is thinking that the big stars of recent years – except for long-time injured Marianne Andersen – are all present and doing very well.   

The 36-year-old Norwegian is back again after giving birth to Tarjei last year. Just over a week ago she was in the Halden team that won Tiomila.

“It’s looking good”, she says.

– You’re better than ever?

“2008 has been my best year so far. I hope I can be up to the same form I had that year, on good days this year”. In 2008 she won the Sprint at the World Championships, and won all the World Cup races at O-Ringen in Sälen, just about an hour’s drive from Falun. “That was the best week of my sporting life. It went so well”, the Norwegian smiles.

Helena Jansson has been ill prior to the Championships, but she won her heat in the Middle qualification. Neither she nor Nordberg will run the Long distance. Simone Niggli was just 13 seconds after Nordberg in qualification group two.

Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg had a successful run in the first qualification race in Sweden.
Photo: Erik Borg

 “I will be satisfied with being among the ten best”, he says. In the qualification he was fourth in his heat, 50 seconds after Johan Runesson. “It’s said that the terrain is very similar to terrain in the Baltic, and that’s a plus, but there are other factors to consider too”, he says.

The experienced Latvian had the Championships on home ground when he was second to Thierry Gueorgiou in the Middle distance four years ago. Two years ago the European Championships were in Bulgaria.

Martins Sirmais from Latvia has a goal to be amongst the best, but is not thinking about medals
Photo: Erik Borg

The ‘middle distance phantom’ was second today in his heat. “The victory doesn’t mean anything for me, but for Thierry it can’t feel so good”, Johan Runesson said. The Swede won by 15 seconds ahead of the Frenchman.

Guergiou has been in Sweden for training for a month now. He feels he has got a good flow, but the terrain isn’t his favourite. “I like it more technical”, he says.

In Dalarna in Sweden there is a lot of open pine forest and not so much technical detail. Gueorgiou likes a lot of detail and tricky route choices.

– How is your motivation, Thierry, after your great success at the World Championships (WOC) last year with three golds?

“It’s good, and I am looking forward to WOC; that is the number one goal this year, and especially the middle distance”.

Johan Runesson won one of the three heats; he and team captain Håkan Carlsson are very satisfied with the first results of the week.
Photo: Erik Borg

“And I felt as though I could run without using power. I haven’t had such a feeling for a couple of years”, the Finnish star said. Kauppi was much faster that any other woman in the qualification races. Her margin to Ines Brodmann, the second best in heat one, was 1.59 minutes. “I have gained progress much faster than I had expected”, Kauppi says.

In the mostly open pine forest in Dalarna in Sweden it was difficult to believe that Minna had big health problems just a few months ago. “For three months I didn’t train at all. I had no energy for that, and there was no clear reason why my pulse was very high, but probably it was some kind of heart inflammation”.

At the end of January she started training again, and it has been fast progress even though she didn’t push hard at all at the beginning. She was just running slowly – for her.

- What’s the goal now?

 “I want to fight for gold medals!”

 - Are you still feeling restless now?

 “No, not any more”. 

Minna Kauppi impressed a lot in her first race in Sweden. The first three competitions are qualifications, and the first final is on Thursday.
Photos: Erik Borg