Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Monday, September 30, 2002 Some European Champs newsEmil Wingstedt (Sweden) is probably the best orienteer in the world right now. The European Champs just ended and Wingstedt finished 5th in the middle distance, second in the relay, won the sprint, and finished 2nd in the classic. I poked around the internet to learn a bit more about him. Here is what I found.Wingstedt is Swedish, but studied in Norway and lives in Norway. He runs for the Halden Ski Club -- one of the all-time great O' clubs. U.S. O' trivia buffs will know that Halden was the home club of the Hollowell family. The local newspaper in Halden published an interview with Wingstedt where he talked about moving to Norway and living in Halden, among other things... I decided to study in Norway as a change. I could have combined going to school with orienteering at home in Sweden, but I grew a lot by moving to a new country, getting into a new training environment and being able to try a new terrain. Halden seems to be a nice small town. I've got a good impression of Halden Ski Club, too. There are a lot of orienteers of international class I'll be able to train with. The leaders seem to be very good, too.... There are really three reasons I picked Halden. First, there are good possibilities to combine work and training for elite orienteering. I work 60 percent at the Institute for Energy Technology. Second, I've had an introduction to the orienteering environment from working here in the summers and studying with Tore Sandvik [Norwegian national team member] in Trondheim. And last, but not least, the terrain around here looks really good and there are a lot of good maps around here. One of the things Wingstedt did to combine studies and orienteering was take a bit longer to finish his degree. His degree normally takes someone 4.5 years, Wingstedt took 6.5. A Swedish newspaper had coverage of Wingstedt's silver medal in the classic race. Here is a bit of what he had to say: The long distance race [aka classic distance] at the European Champs has been my main goal all year. It is what I've been training for. I'm never satisfied if it doesn't go well the whole time. I had a couple of dumb mistakes today. Buhrer [the Swiss runner who won] orienteered best and he won. The paper also quoted the national team coach, Goran Andersson: Wingstedt has shown that with a good attitude and goal-oriented training you can have top results. He has had a fantastic week. If you're really interested in Wingstedt's career, take a look at a history of his orienteering (written by Wingstedt and in English). posted by Michael | 1:20 PM 
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