okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
Y is for young
Orienteering isn't usually a young person's sport. Experience counts for a lot in orienteering. It isn't unusual for orienteers to be at their best in their 30s.
There are some notable exceptions. Oyvin Thon won a world champs when he was 22 (I think) in 1979. Jorgen Rostrup won a WOC at the age of 20. Pasi Ikonen won a gold at the age of 21.
When I lived in Stockholm, they briefly experimented with a M30 age group. The M30 age group was clearly tougher than M21.
I think the youngest US men's champ was 23 (me in 1987). When will a younger orienteer win the US Champs?
I haven't compared orienteering to other running sports, but I suspect that orienteering champions tend to be older than running champs (even if Carlos Lopes was 38 when he won the Olympic marathon).
posted by Michael |
9:34 PM