Rostrup and Heiskanen: golden memories about JWOC 1997

Jörgen Rostrup and Hanna Heiskanen (Hanna Lonka nowadays) have one thing in common. Both of them won JWOC gold in 1997 (Belgium) during the short distance race at 'De Weyervlakte'. In 2014 another important race will take place on the same map/terrain. JEC 2014 long distance is the perfect excuse to have an interview with both former top athletes in orienteering.

Delaatstepost: It's been a long time ago since your victories at JWOC 1997 at 'De Weyervlakte'. What do you still remember about the qualification and final (both organised on this map)? Did you experience any difficulties or was it a perfect race?

Jörgen Rostrup: I remember JWOC in 1997 very well! After a disappointing result in JWOC 1996 (Romania) and difficulties with the national team me, Hans Gunnar Omdal and Jostein Moe decided to do our own preparations for JWOC in Belgium. Among other things this meant participating in Sylvester 5-daagse, which was my first experience with the flat and sandy Belgian landscape. After this I did a lot of special trainigs in flat areas, focusing on using the compass in a much better way than before. We travelled to Belgium a week before the junior world championships in July. I performed really bad in all the trainings, except during the model event (this model event took place on the map Sahara, which will be used for the relay competition during JEC 2014). Here I finally felt that I could cope with the terrain! The qualification race was early in the morning (I started at 9:00). I got through the whole course without any big problems, but still with some nervous running. I finished 4th in my heat.

Jörgen Rostrup representing Norway on the podium

The next thing I remember from the day, was the lunch - it was terrible! It looked like a huge and raw meatball. It was just what I needed.... To the start of the final I brought a cartoon book and a mini-disc(!) with Simon and Garfunkel. While the other runners got more and more nervous as the start got closer, I got calmer and calmer. When I started the race, my head was completely empty and I knew that I was ready to go. I've never been a very fast runner, so I focused on the orienteering instead of the speed. The start was ok, but not among the fastest, and I only had one small mistake before passing the spectators control. At the spectators control I even punched a wrong control at first instance..... I can't remember if I was leading at that time or not, but since I was not among the latest starters that didn't matter. While passing the spectators control I began to feel tired. This feeling combined with the changes between running in the pine forest and the sand dunes, made me do two small mistakes before crossing the finish line. Still I was quite happy with the race, though waiting time untill all the opponents had finished took quite long.

Hanna Lonka: I don´t have those competition maps within reach at the moment (they could have helped me to remember more) so I have to answer purely relying on my memories. The qualification race went very badly for me, I hardly got into the final. I remember that I was among the very first to start during the final. There was no pressure, just the joy about being in the final. At that moment I was able to concentrate on orienteering itself and did what it was all about. The final itself went very well. I remember that I didn´t make any mistakes and running was as good as it used to be in those days.

Pargas IF (and Hanna Lonka) winning tiomila 1999

DLP: Did you like the map and terrain? Did it suit you?

Jörgen Rostrup: De Weyervlakte was by far the best terrain I've experienced in Belgium! The participants in JEC 2014 can really look forward to the competitions!

Hanna Lonka: Orienteeringskill has always been more like my thing. I mean that my succes during my junior period was based more on technical skills than on physical condition (allthough I also had to be fit ofcourse). So, I remember that I didn´t expect great results in Belgium, because I thought the terrain would require strenght to run more than anything. But as the wellknown truth is, it was concentration on orienteering which mattered. "Fast terrain" and good visibility made it especially important to orienteer without any mistakes. During those JWOC races in Belgium I did really enjoy orienteering. I then also understood something very important about championships and about the state of mind which makes you to be able to hit succes.

DLP: maybe you've some advice for the junior runners who will participate there in 2014?

Hanna Lonka: I think the key to perform well is the state of your mind and your thoughts. Ofcourse you have to work hard on forehand and make the physical condition as good as possible, but in the end the real strength is in your mind. It's all about to can handle the pressure and to concentrate yourself only on those things which really matter during your course.

JEC 2014 the last goal of the season for many junior athletes

DLP: after JWOC in 1997, you were both successful at JWOC 1998. Hanna Lonka won 2 gold medals in Reims (France): long and relay. Jörgen Rostrup took a 2nd gold in a row in the short distance at JWOC in France. One year later he even won the short distance gold at WOC in Scotland. In 2001 (Finland) he won the gold medal in long distance and later he gained 2 more world champion titles as last leg runner in relay (2004 and 2005). What happened afterwards and what about orienteering nowadays? 

Jörgen Rostrup: I stopped running on a international level after WOC in 2005 (Japan). In 2006 I ran some competitions in Norway and then I just quit. Then I worked as a coach in Kristiansand Orienteringsklubb a couple of years and for the Norwegian Orienteering Federation in 2008-2009. In 2010 I started as Leader of the Medical Department in IK Start (football club in Norway's highest division: Tippeligaen) and that is what I do today.

Hanna Lonka: After junior-years I haven´t run for the national team anymore. I still orienteer, I have never stopped, but not at that level (Hanna Lonka won Tiomila in 1999 and is still competing every year at jukola with Pargas IF).

If you also want to experience orienteering on 'De Weyervlakte' and cheer for the best junior athletes, you're welcome in the north of Belgium during the first weekend of October. The spectatorraces will include 3 stages: sprint, long and middle. The cheapest entries are still opened untill the 31st of August: orienteeringonline.

Results JWOC 1997
JEC 2014 Website (twitter / facebook)

JEC 2014: all you need to know

Since JWOC 2014 is over, the next goal for the national juniorteams will be JEC 2014 in the north of Belgium. The Junior European Cup will take place the 3rd to 5th of October in Lommel. The event will include a sprint, long and relay competition.

Formerly the Six Nations competition, JEC is essentially a team competition consisting of a long and relay (since 2002 the sprint distance was added), with each nation's top runners scoring points towards the Nations Cup. The original six nations (Great Britain, Suisse, France, Belgium, Austria and Germany) always attend, and the organisers can invite any other European nations. This year there are 14 nations competing with several strong teams as Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark. Since the competition has an M/W18 class (besides M/W20), unlike JWOC, it is often a starting point for many international careers.

JEC2014 will take place in Lommel, situated in the Kempen region. This region is one of the most interesting orienteering terrains in Flanders and will give the coursesetters the possibility to offer some challenging competitions. The courses will be set up by a group of Belgian elite runners. It's guaranteed that the athletes who want to fight for the victory need to be physically strong, but also need to use their technical capacities to have a stable performance.

The accommodation and the event centre are all located in the “Sunparks Kempense Meren”, near the city of Mol and within short driving distance from the competition areas in the vicinity of Lommel. All athletes will have free access to the subtropical swimming pool to relax after their competitions.

Sprint distance:
The sprint distance will take place in Lommel city centre. The map has been used once for the Belgian sprint champs in 2008 (report BK sprint 2008). The coursesetter for JEC will be Belgian sprint specialist Yannick Michiels. This year he became 7th at WOC sprint in Venice and explains why the JEC sprint competition will be interesting: The participants can expect a fast mix between city and parc areas, some challenging and technical controls and several interesting routechoices because of extra fences.

Next season we'll see Fabien Pasquasy competing in the black-yellow colours from Lynx, but first he gave his opinion about the JEC2014 maps (read his words below).

Long distance:
The long distance race will take place at 'De Weyervlakte'. This map is known for its sand dunes and open pine forests. The coursesetters Benjamin Anciaux and Desmond Franssen focused on a challenging coursesetting which will be fun and demanding from the beginning untill the very end.  

In 1997 the JWOC short distance race took place on the map 'De Weyervlakte' and Jorgen Rostrup became the junior world champion. He completed the 5.0km course with 18 controls in 23.31 (results). We asked the 4 times gold WOC champion about his experiences at JWOC 1997: I remember JWOC in 97 very well! After a disappointing result in JWOC 96 (Romania) and difficulties with the national team me, Hans Gunnar Omdal and Jostein Moe decided to do our own preparations for JWOC in Belgium. Among other things this meant participating in Sylvester 5-daagse, which was my first experience with the flat and sandy Belgian landscape. After this I did a lot of special trainigs in flat areas, focusing on using the compass in a much better way than before. These preparations were important in his road towards his first JWOC gold. Later we'll publish the whole interview and his view on the race itself on this website. But we still want to publish his thoughts about the map: De Weyervlakte was by far the best terrain I've experienced in Belgium. The participants in JEC can really look forward to the competitions!

Jorgen Rostrup won JWOC middle in 1997 and 1998. As elite athlete he won 4 gold medals at WOC. 

In women's class Hanna Heiskanen won the race in 24.17 (4.2km and 14 controls) ahead of Katerina Miksova, Heli Jukola, Simone Luder, Eva Jurenikova and several other topathletes. We also asked Hanna Heiskanen about her experiences at JWOC 1997 and below you can read a fragment of her reaction: "Orienteeringskill has always been more like my thing. I mean that my succes during my junior period was based more on technical skills than on physical condition (allthough I also had to be fit ofcourse). So, I remember that I didn´t expect great results in Belgium, because I thought the terrain would require strenght to run more than anything. But as the wellknown truth is, it was concentration on orienteering which mattered. "Fast terrain" and good visibility made it especially important to orienteer without any mistakes. During those JWOC races in Belgium I did really enjoy orienteering."

Hanna Heiskanen celebrating the victory at tiomila 1999 with her Pargas IF teammates

Also Fabien Pasquasy (one of the best Belgian orienteers ever) has an interesting opinion about 'De Weyervlakte': I ran for the first time there in JWOC 1997 and it was a great challenge to combine speed and detailed terrain/map. It's probably one of the best sand dunes terrain in Belgium and runners will meet great challenges to keep direction, high speed and in the same time avoid mistakes. I missed in the last part of the race... and missed a top 12... in final A. Last time I ran in that area, I did 4'29"/km by selecting right features far ahead of me. This could be an advice for the JEC participants (race report from the victory from Pasquasy in 2007).

Relay:
The last stage of JEC2014 will be the relay on the map 'Sahara'. This map has been used for a Belgian middle championships in 2010, as the last stage of the Sylvester 5-days in 2009 and it was the model event map during JWOC 1997. But the map and terrain are also perfect suitable for a thrilling relay competition. Coursesetters Jeroen Hoekx and Thomas van der Kleij will make the courses technically challenging. Also they will focus on a fair and equal forkingsystem during the relay. Hopefully we'll see a close and exciting fight for the victory untill the very end in both men and women relay.

Map sample of 'Sahara' (JEC 2014 relay map)

Fabien Pasquasy competed several times on this map and gives the juniors some interesting advice : Also being one of the best sand dunes terrain in Belgium. I had to face this typical terrain for the first time at age of 14 and it was also the Model Event for JWOC 1997. Advices are similar to Weyervlakte: select right and big features in the detailed areas to keep high speed. In case of success 4'30"/km could be reachable but still orienteering has to guide you through the terrain. Everyone will also suffer physically in some small sand areas having the feeling to be slow... but just keep focus.

Spectatorraces:
For spectators the organisation will provide an exciting show by offering live results, a speaker, spectatorcontrols, a nice arena,... There will be a nice atmosphere for cheering the best European juniors. Also the participants of the spectatorraces get the possibility to enjoy competing on the same terrain as the JEC races. Spectators will even get the opportunity to run the same courses of the JEC sprint race and will be able to compare their times with the best juniors.
The next entry date is the 1st of September, so you still have 2 weeks of time to register at the cheapest conditions.

Registration spectatorraces (for non-Belgian clubmembers)

Jeroen van der Kleij as speaker during the Flanders 3-days. He's prepared and ready to entertain the spectators during JEC2014

JEC 2014 party:
On saturday evening the athletes and coaches will have the opportunity to enjoy the Jec party. The organisor of this party is the famous o-memes founder and disco expert, Toon Melis. To DLP website he explained why everybody should join this party: "orienteers are besides opponents (during the races) also good friends. During the competitions everyone is focusing on his/her own race and there isn't time for networking. So the party is an excellent opportunity to meet and get to know athletes from other countries. Ofcourse everyone uses his/her own tactics for this ;-). And another plus is the fact that in Belgium we believe that dancing is the perfect cool down after a tough race. Good results the next day are guaranteed."

JEC 2014 party page

Registrations:
At the moment more than 200 athletes have registered for JEC 2014. The list of the registrated countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Austria, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland. Remarkable is that 1 athlete will represent Finland. We can't remember that this nation ever participated at JEC before.
If any other countries are still interested in participating, they should contact the organisation as soon as possible. Nobody wants to miss this quality event in October 2014.

JEC 2014 website
JEC 2014 facebook page
JEC 2014 twitter

Flanders 3 days: maps and results

Last weekend the Flanders 3 days took place in the north of Belgium. In men's elite class Ken Peeters took the victory ahead of Benjamin Anciaux and Desmond Franssen. In women's elite class Monika Depta was outstanding and won ahead of Greet Oeyen and Anna Kraj.

Monika Depta (D21E) and Ken Peeters (H21E)

In september the Belgian relay and long distance championships will take place, so last weekend was a perfect opportunity to have some good trainings before the national champs. The competition was announced as 3 days of quality orienteering in surprising terrain near Genk. Start orienteering through fast, varied forests with detailed sand dunes. Slow down when the visibility is reduced. Then the earth starts to rise. Climb the spoil tips rising over 100m above the surroundings, admire the landscape, master the gullies and enjoy the downhill. This description is exactly what the particpants have experienced during the whole weekend.

In H21E we could see a close fight with 3 different stage winners. In the end it was Ken Peeters (who is living in Göteborg and running for GMOK at the moment) who won the overall ranking without any stage victory. Benjamin Anciaux had a good race during the 3rd stage and showed that he's ready for the world military champs next week. Finally he finished 2nd in total, only 30 seconds behind Peeters. Desmond Franssen finished in 3rd position, 2 minutes behind the winner.

The whole podium: Greet Oeyen - Benjamin Anciaux - Monika Depta - Ken Peeters - Anna Kraj - Desmond Franssen

In D21E Monika Depta won every single stage and ofcourse also the overall ranking. Last month she was still competing at WOC in Italy, representing Germany. Also Greet Oeyen performed stable during the 3 days and finished in 2nd spot. Anna Kraj from Poland finished in 3rd position, 33 minutes down to Depta.

Total results
Map H21E stage 1
Map H21E stage 2
Map H21E stage 3