“We’re used to careful navigating and rough terrain”
Posted on | July 4, 2013 | Category: Arena
All the medallists from Sweden in the men’s class have been pupils at orienteering high schools, and they think that a big reason for the incredible Swedish day in the men’s class on the Middle distance is, that this race was in conditions they are used to.
“We are used to fighting”, smiles Emil. “At home there is a lot of tough terrain”.
– Isn’t it mostly pine forest in Sweden?
“Not at all”, the winner says. His plan was to do his own race and all the time know where he was. “And I almost knew where I was all the time, but sometimes it wasn’t that easy in the final metres to the control”.
In the Middle final there were places where it was a real battle to make progress, but a big part of the race had a white map, but with a lot of boulders. It was very demanding, but a normal day for all the three Swedes includes a lot of orienteering training and good coaching. Emil, who is from the club Stora Tuna like the former JWOC star Tove Alexandersson, has been in Sandviken High School and the two others in the top three, Anton Johansson and Jens Wängdahl, have been in Eksjö.
“It can seem that it is not so good to just be the third Swede, but when it is also number three overall and I’m getting a medal, it is something else and so here it is good to be the third best Swede”, smiles Wängdahl. All the three medallists are 19 years old and in their last season as juniors.
Even though it’s common to be a pupil at an orienteering high school in Sweden, not everybody takes that route choice. Lisa Risby, who won gold on the Long distance and silver on the Middle, has taken a different choice – living at home in Falun and being a pupil at a normal high school.
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