Belgian orienteers at Jukola Finland

Only 3 days left untill the start of Jukola 2015 in Turku. The popular Finnish relay competition is attracting a lot of participators this edition (bigger than ever) and among them several Belgian athletes.

Belgian athletes at Jukola:

Kalevan Rasti is again the favourit, even Fabian Hertner decided to compete with his Swiss club this year. Halden SK (missing Olav Lundanes - overtrained at the moment) and Lidingo are probably the biggest opponents (an article about the favourit teams). Among the outsiders for the victory we also count on Turun Metsänkävijät with Yannick Michiels as one of their stars. At the moment their running order is still a secret.

Kalevan Rasti with Gueorgiou on the last leg is again the favourit team for the victory

The Swedish club OK Skogshjortarna is aiming for at least top100 this year and counts 4 Belgians in the first team. Thomas van der Kleij, Joost Talloen and Benjamin Anciaux will be the first 3 runners in the team and Desmond Franssen will run the anchor leg. Maybe he'll have to fight against Jeremy Genar (Järfälla OK) on the last leg, because his team is dreaming about top75 next weekend.

OK Skogshjortarna with Franssen, Anciaux, Talloen and van der Kleij at Tiomila 2015

Another team with several Belgian runners is the Finnish club SK Uusi. Since Jeremy Genar left the team, the manager looked for a Belgian replacer. At jukola Tomas Hendrickx will run the last leg with SK Uusi. It will be his first scandinavian relay competition ever. In the 2nd team Hans Talloen will run the 1st leg.
Another Finnish team which is aiming a top100 position is IF Brahe. Here Bart Delobel will run the 1st leg and Wouter Leeuws will show up at leg 6.

Tomas Hendrickx will have a good test for the WOC relay at his first Jukola

Finally also 2 real Belgian teams will be present at Jukola 2015, both from the club Hamok. Hamok decided to create 2 equal teams who can fight against each other. They already travelled to Finland today to have the perfect preparations. There are rumours that they also succeeded to convince Ken Peeters (who didn't make it into the GMOK teams) to defend the black and red colours. Besides Peeters we'll also meet Dries van der Kleij, Jeroen Hoekx, Stefaan Schutjes, Toon Melis, Jos Thijs and several others at the startline on saturday.

Yannick Michiels and Jeremy Genar ready for the real stuff at Jukola

Also some half-Belgian orienteers are looking forward to Jukola. For example Taneli Pantsar (Kol) will compete for Pellon Ponsi (leg 6), Andis Laveikis (Trol) for OK Klemmingen (leg 7) and probably also Sergey Fedatsenka (Trol) with Savedalens. Don't look for Olle Karner (Asub) on the startlist, he'll be absent from Jukola for the first time since 1995.

Belgian athletes at Venla:
In women's class SK Uusi has the most Belgian women in their team. Both Miek Fabré and Greet Oeyen will compete in the 2nd team. Fabré will run the 1st leg and Oeyen will finish the anchor leg. Also Coline Ceulemans will compete for the same club. She runs the 1st leg for the 3rd team.
Kim Geypen will compete with OK Skogshjortarna for the first time (leg 1).

We'll see many Belgian athletes in these colours at Jukola - Jannina Gustafsson (SK Uusi)

Also in Venla Hamok has a team on the startlist with Mira Scheir (1st), Marijs Vandeweyer, Elisabeth Schutjes and Sofie Herremans (last leg). It would be nice to see them finishing in top500.

In Hakarpspojkarna the Spanish Trol member Anna Serrallonga will compete in the 1st team and she'll run the anchor leg (just as Greet Oeyen).

If you want to follow the Jukola relay on saturday and sunday, watch this video: