Featuring reports on the Jukola Relay; news from the archives, JWOC Report ...
Jukola Relay, Kuopio, Finland: Land of the Midnight Run
Any of you who have heard of the Jukola will know that it is a 7-person overnight relay competition in Finland each June, this year on the 14th/15th. The race, which starts at about 11 pm, is preceded by the Venla relay, a four-person women's race in the afternoon. This year there were more than 1600 teams in Jukola and more than 1200 teams in the Venla, and the organisers estimated
that, with families and spectators, there would be an attendance of
about 30,000!
Kuopio is an hour's flight or about 6 hours drive north of Helsinki and the competition area was on Finland's biggest inland island. I flew from Dublin to Helsinki via Stockholm, and after a couple of hours, an onward flight to Kuopio, where we arrived at about 1 a.m., and it was still bright enough to see clearly. We picked up the hired cars and drove another hour and a half or so to our home for the weekend, a wooden cottage by a lake in the forest. Arriving at 02.30, it was almost broad daylight again, just time for bed!
After a few hours sleep and a leisurely breakfast, we drove to the competition area, following the line of cars and camper vans on the same route. Big fields of cars, muddy after a few days rain before the event, and a huge array of circular green army tents for the teams filled the assembly area, with big white tents housing sports supermarkets and all the other ancillary services needed by a competition of this scale.
I was running on a London Orienteering Klubb team and there were also teams from Trinity College in both the Venla and Jukola.
I was to run leg 5, a 7.6 km leg, theoretically at about 7 am if all went well on the first four legs, so I wouldn't need my headlight - just as well, as I hadn't brought one. The evening was spent in the tent, estimating running time (worst and best case scenarios) and gauging when to eat and sleep. The ground underfoot was like a ploughed field due to heavy rain beforehand, and the wellies were out in force.The crowds assembled to see the mass start at 11 pm, with the warning that the start signal would be from an army field-gun but also with a fly-past from a Finnish air force jet fighter which came in right on cue, skimming the treetops and rocketing vertically into the sky with a heart-stopping roar, disappearing in seconds into a tiny spot in the distance: very dramatic! See a video of the start
here ... and
here's another for good measure - less professional but capturing the feeling!
Just time for a doughnut and a hot chocolate, then into the sleeping bag, ready to get up for a 7 am run. It was so cold during the night that socks, hats and even towels were needed to keep warm. I woke suddenly at 7 am, alarmed that I might have missed my incoming runner, David Rosen. The plan had been for each incoming runner to go back to the tent and waken the second-next one while the intervening runner was in the forest. Due to some bad runs during the night, we were running behind schedule, so I was in plenty of time. Dressed, out into the early sunlight. A quick "Happy Father's Day!" from Eoin, who I met accidentally on the road, and off to the changeover area to wait.
The sun rose higher and still we waited. The clock crept inexorably on and then it was time for the mass starts for the remaining runners: one for the 13.9 km leg 7 (including Eoin) and then one for the others, including myself and Ronan on Leg 6. The last mass start would actually be bigger than the first leg one. They removed the barriers and the runners lined up, two successive stampedes to the start control, 970 metres and 8 minutes from the start for me. Then the orienteering started ...
Control 1, across the flat forest with drains and undergrowth, over the hill, across the marsh, up onto the second hill. What's that crag doing there? I must be further right than I thought. Over the hill and follow the flat forest and up to the small re-entrant - not quite what I planned but OK. Control 2 - along the hill to the right, through the band of young trees and down the hill: slightly too low - climb up to the right - there it is! Leg 3 - short leg: around the hill and down to the spur - fine. Legs 4, 5, 6 ... all fine. The area was quite hilly by Finnish standards, but not by Irish: the 7.6 km course had 285 metres climb and 17 controls. Runners going every direction, some on my course, some not.
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| National newspaper coverage for Jukola |
The map has the three-digit control code printed beside the control number ( 1-283, 2-280 etc) so there isn't too much opening and folding of the big map to see what's coming up next. Missed No 8 by a few metres and had to come back up to it, a 1.6 metre crag in an area of crags. Back on track again- no heroics, just a jog with a map! Control 12 - easy, boulder, looking forward to a drink on the road just after it. take a bearing, take a drink, run into the forest on the elephant track - but where is the control? 200 metres from the track, on a hill, NE-foot, # 159? No sign of it. Back towards the drinks station and try again ... same result. Is the drinks station in the right place? Run along the track but it's vague in every direction. Go to the crest of the track and take another bearing ... still no control. OK - get outta here. Head south, maybe see the shooting platform; if not, hit the small track. Suddenly, a little orange and white flash in the corner of my eye - I live to fight another day. 12 mins 30 seconds to do less than 300 metres - 1458th out of 1477 on that leg! Across the flat forest, up over the hill with the bare rock and crags, look down the big cliffs and know I have to go left a bit for No. 14, then follow the ridge down towards the final controls, the PA getting louder with every step. See the car parks and the tapes - nearly there. Make sure to get the last control right, not like last year when I only got the right one after three attempts: into the finish, over the footbridge and under the gantry. Manage to raise the pace a bit for the 220 metre run in - 589th out of 1476 runners on that leg. At least I picked up 44 places despite my problems with unlucky control 13. When Ronan and Eoin finished we had come in 1,220th place, slightly behind our race number 1201: not bad considering the catastrophic night leg 2 where we dropped more than 500 places! Anyway, it's not all about winning, is it? Most of the teams obviously have no hope of coming even in the to 100, and they are made up of families, friends, workmates and occasional orienteers.
 |
| Leg 1: 11 pm. |
The event facilities include a beer tent and a sauna, plus hot showers and all the O-gear you could ever want, so there's plenty to do. There's even a forest church and (sometimes) a betting office where you can bet on the Jukola results. After our runs it was a spot of shopping (no end-of-day bargains this year though) and back to the cottage for a swim, sauna, dinner and mosquito hunt.
The weekend is a fantastic orienteering experience, and looking at the age range of runners taking part, there are plenty of old dogs with life in them still!
One suggestion, though, to avoid the huge numbers in the Sunday morning mass-starts, is to start the Jukola earlier, maybe at 10 instead of 11 pm: it will be equally dark during the night but it will give more runners a chance to come through before the 08.45 mass-start cutoff time. Still, I don't imagine that many of the Jukola organisers read TIO?
Next year's Jukola is at Turku, in SW Finland, quite easy to reach by road from Helsinki and by ferry from Sweden. - and I believe the post-Jukola ferry trip back to Sweden is a party experience not to be missed!
Course Planning
Here's a great description of the course planning process from Meghan Rance in
Orienteering Canada:
"In my experience, good orienteering course planning is like good
writing. First, consider your audience. Who are you doing this for and
what are their needs? Second, create a structure. Have a beginning, a
middle and an end. Have fast, exciting bits, long, twisty bits and a few
surprises out of the blue. You are trying to keep your audience on
their toes not falling asleep from boredom. Last, edit the heck out of
it. Your first attempt is not the final version. It is a draft. Make
sure each part serves a purpose and that you keep repetition to a
minimum. Keep editing until you have just the right pace and tone.
Good course planning takes time, thought and theory. With that in mind,
and a focus on creating good legs rather than good controls, anyone can
plan fantastic courses."
See the full "Course Planning" issue of
Orienteering Canada here. (Thanks to Nick Barrable of the excellent
CompassSport magazine for the tip-off).
Inside Orienteering
Read the latest issue of the International o-Federation's magazine "Inside Orienteering"
here.
Two Great Initiatives
I came across two great initiatives on the British Orienteering web site recently, both aimed at getting people orienteering without them noticing. The first,
"Xplorer", is aimed at primary and pre-school kids and their families, doing a kind of map-based treasure hunt in local parks and finding pictures of animals and things to complete the course (see
here).
The second,
Run Challenge, is aimed at adults who are interested in outdoor exercise (joggers, running clubs, triathletes, sports clubs) who do a 45 minute treasure hunt type event using a modified OS map to find as many clues as they can. See
here.
Nowhere is the word "orienteering" mentioned in these sports, but the transition from either of these activities to "real" orienteering should be pretty seamless.
These are the kinds of things we need to adopt before orienteering dies of old age. We absolutely must get more young people into the sport - this is not just an Irish problem, but we have to deal with it ourselves, for our situation.
At the risk of flogging a dead horse, there are populations of people out there who need to discover orienteering - the problem is that they don't realise it. The whole scouting organisation is ripe for orienteering but we don't have any contact with them; the National Scouting Centre at Larch Hill doesn't even have a current O-map.
The production of several university campus sprint maps is a great development: we need to bring the maps to the people, not the other say around.
Our sport
"Do you guys even realise that kids nowadays
are growing up with knowing the forests only from TV-documentaries or
excursions in school who never leave the paths. Can you imagine that
there are people who never had the sensational feelings of
running through a river, dangerous downhills , climbing uphill so steep
you have to use your hands not to fall, swimming through a marsh, running
into a spiderweb, running to green forest where you smile because you
know only few persons in history have ever been there before! That,
ladies and gentlemen, is why we have the best sport in the world and
people from other sports will never understand " - from the "Orienteering memes" Facebook page.
History Pages ...
It's really interesting to go back in time to see what was happening years ago in orienteering: for old timers it brings back happy memories, for newcomers it shows the development of the sport and what has gone before.
Read the Autumn 2004 issue of The Irish Orienteer here.
Read the September 1994 issue here.
Read the July-August 1984 issue here.
Back issues can be found on the IOA web site under "Archive" here.
Team Leader Ivan Millar's Report
The 2014 Irish JWOC
team were all set for their Bulgarian challenge - by recent standards
it was a small team of three final year juniors. The team consisted
of two LVO juniors, Mark Stephens and Jack Millar, and 3ROC's Eoin
McCullough, their coach and leader for the week was Ivan Millar. The
LVO contingent flew out from Dublin early on a Wednesday morning
about a week before the competition began. The team were heading for
the popular Bulgarian ski resort of Borovets which would be the main
base for the national teams and the competition event centre.
Borovets is located about an hour's drive south of the capital city,
Sofia - unfortunately there are no direct flights from Ireland into
Sofia so the best option was to fly into the Romanian capital,
Bucharest, and drive south to Bulgaria from there. The plan was to
drive to Borovets via Sofia airport were we would pick up our third
team member Eoin who had just spent a week orienteering with the
Irish World Champs team/supporters in Italy. It turned into a bit of
an epic journey though as we battled massive traffic jams that had
built up on Bucharest's questionable ring road and officialdom at the
border. Eventually a few hours later than planned we collected Eoin
and made our way to our accommodation for the training phase.
We had already had the
benefit of a Bulgarian JWOC training and preparation camp in the
spring. It was vital to have this experience both for the competitors
to get a taste of the various terrains and also for the team
officials to find their way around, get a feel for the location, the
locals and how they operate. It is also important to find out where
the closest shops are for purchasing massive amounts of chocolate
biscuits, bananas and bottles of water! The first JWOC race (the
sprint) was to start the following Tuesday, so that gave us five days
of training. Before leaving Ireland I had arranged 6 or 7 specific
training exercises for the team on the areas provided. We had PDF
quality maps from the organisers and using OCAD I plotted the courses
and exercises - many thanks to LVO for letting us print off a few
copies of each of the exercises.
The training phase.
The competition
terrains to be used for JWOC were going to be challenging and varied
so it was important to experience all of the areas. Our first
training day was in Samokov town. Samokov is the closest real town to
the Borovets resort and would be the venue for the sprint race. There
was a small mapped area provided for sprint training, taking in a
town park and some residential streets. To break us in gently we had
some sprint sessions around this area. We then headed to a mapped
forest overlooking Samokov town for some relay type exercises in some
uncomplicated forest terrain which had many paths and would be very
similar to the area being used for the relay competition.
The JWOC competition
programme comprises 5 orienteering races, three of these races
could be considered middle distance (middle qualifier, middle final,
relay) so I had focussed much of our training with this in mind.
The JWOC middle race
was to be held on an area called Zheleznica which provides an area of
terrain with specific challenges. The forest has good visibility but
the challenge is to understand the shape of the ground which is quite
steep and complicated with many re-entrants and erosion gullies
running down the slopes. It can be very difficult to judge distance
when running across the slopes with a high risk of parallel errors
and to compound things further relocating after a mistake is very
difficult. It promised to be a real challenge so time spent on the
Zheleznica relevant terrains was essential. Luckily part of the
Zheleznica area was opened for training and on the Friday we headed
there for some training. I had three courses planned, each focussing
on a different element of the map (rocks, rivers, and contouring the
slopes). In the afternoon we headed to our favourite forest Relyovo
for a control pick exercise.
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| Typical Relyovo terrain with numerous erosion gullies |
After breakfast on
Saturday we headed to a forest called Shiroki Dol for some training
that focused on downhill navigation, as the long distance race
promised lots of downhill running. The training course was
planned in five downhill sections, with an uphill walk/jog between
each section. Shiroki Dol offered a few different technical
challenges and each of our downhill sections focussed on one of
these. Satisfied with our mornings training, we headed back to the car
for some lunch and in the afternoon travelled into Sofia to pick
up the latest addition to the team, Harry (Millar), who had taken time out of
his European rail trip to be assistant coach and supporter for the
team.
Sunday morning started
bright and warm and, as this was the last day before we moved to
Borovets for the start of the competition, we decided to have an easy
morning and train in the afternoon. That afternoon we went to the
relay training area in Borovets, we focussed more on compass and
identifying useful attackpoints to guide us into controls. Overall
our training so far in the build-up had been pretty easy going,
however it was important for the team to get a taste of race pressure
before the real competition started so in the early evening we headed
back to our favourite forest, Relyovo, for a middle distance
simulation race. It was all serious as we walked to the start - no
messing around with sticks or throwing pine cones - we had start
boxes, start intervals and thanks to Harry we even had authentic
start beeps! The course was set to exact length, climb and there were
the same number of controls, we even had a spectator run through and
final loop planned. Unfortunately the spectators couldn't make it
from the start in time to shout encouragement, we made it to the
finish though and the race times were good - the training was paying
off.
We spent our last night
in our training accommodation where our host, Mrs Christo, provided a
lovely meal for a hungry team. We then packed up and got ready for
the next day's transfer to the competition hotel in Borovets and the
next phase of the trip - the JWOC races.
 |
| Jack, Eoin & Mark after a hard training session. |
Following accreditation
we moved into our new rooms, unpacked, got lunch with the other
teams, picked up the model event maps and planned our day. We were
surprised at the newly updated maps (especially Zheleznica) - it looked
a lot different; contours and forms had changed, knolls had appeared,
there was now even more detail on an already complicated map! We
would need to revisit before Fridays middle qualification race,
however that afternoon we visited the long and then the sprint middle
events for some casual training. It was great to have controls out in
the forest at last, no more hunting for little red tags hanging from
branches, this small improvement seemed to lift the teams confidence.
That evening was hot and humid and at the first of the weeks team
leaders meetings we were told of all the arrangements for the next
day's sprint race and also that the forecast was for the weather to
break in the morning.
The JWOC races
begin.
It was an early start
the following morning as the team and assistant coach Harry got their
first taste of what was to be the regular quarantine procedure
consisting of an early bus to an athlete's holding area (usually a
weather proof building) where there was a complete ban on electronic
equipment and even escorts to the toilet.
Jack was first Irish
starter for the sprint and probably got the best of the weather
because shortly after the first starters headed off the heavens
opened and by the time Eoin set off on his run the deluge was in full
flow. Perhaps the thunder and rain helped Eoin focus more on the race
as he finished with a great time for the 3km course, finishing an
excellent 44th place Eoin's time of 15 mins 58 secs was just over 1
minute behind the winner from New Zealand, Tim Robertson. Jack and
Mark had steady, error-free runs and were surprised to finish with
the same time of 17 minutes 50 seconds along with two other runners!
This was good enough for 114th place out of 160 runners. The course
was maybe not as technical as most had expected, it was more of a
runners' course. Jack was slightly disappointed for having a cautious
start to his race but overall the team were very happy with this
start to JWOC and knew that tougher challenges lay ahead
 |
| Mens sprint final map |
Wednesday was the day of
the long distance final which was to be held in an area called
Maliovitsa. The area is based on the lower, forested slopes of a ski
resort 20km from Borovets. The courses were planned by Bulgaria's top
elite orienteer Kiril Nikilov and promised to be challenging with at
least one long leg, with route choice option, and a runner separation
system (butterfly loop). Spectators and coaches had the benefit of a
competitor run through, so as the runners pass through the arena we
could gauge their progress and offer a word or two of encouragement.
Eoin was first of the
Irish to pass and was making good progress. After the pass through
there was a final loop in the forest and the runners returned 20 to
30 minutes later to thunder up the run in. Eoin continued his
excellent form to finish the 10.2km course in 1 hour 32:55. Jack was
the last of the Irish runners to start and was running well until the
leg to the butterfly loop where he had trouble locating a control in
a steep area of green forest, the remainder of the butterfly loop was
also costly and he finished disappointed with a time of 1 hour 54:31.
Mark was also disappointed with his run - finding the running
conditions difficult in parts, the forest had very low visibility and
the terrain included some tricky areas of rock and scree. Mark's time
of 2 hours 16:35 was a lot slower than what he had hoped for. The
long legged Swede Anton Johansson made the mens course look easy, he
was fastest in a time of 1 hour 15:17. Eoin just missed out on
a second top 50 by finishing an excellent 52nd, Jack was ranked 113th
and Mark finished the long in 140th place
 |
| Eoin finishing the Long race |
The next day offered a
rest day and an excursion for the competitors to some ancient ruins.
For the rest day we opted to skip the tour of the ruins, get some
rest in the morning then have one last visit to Zheleznica before the
middle races began.
Our last training on
Zheleznica was on the new model maps and the improvement in map
detail and quality was amazing. It gave us more confidence going into
the middle distance races, knowing that the tricky terrain would test
our map reading skills to the limit.
With 5 races during
JWOC and only 2 down I reminded the team that we weren't even half
way yet and even if some were disappointed there was still time to
improve results.
The next morning was an
early start for the team, they boarded the buses for the hour long
trip to the Middle qualification races. Harry again did a great job
at the quarantine with the team, keeping them in good spirits
pre-race. The middle qualifying race is split into three heats of
similar length, the top 20 finishers from each heat progress to the A
final, the next 20 make the B final and the remaining 20 or so will
run the C final races the next day. The team had all trained well for
these races and we hoped for good results and were very pleased when
Eoin and Jack both made the B final, even though made some mistakes
along the way. Mark struggled to keep contact on a few legs and lost
some time but was looking forward to a tough task on the C final.
 |
| Mark in action - Middle Qualification |
The Middle final was
held on the remaining (southern) part of the Zheleznica map. The
area was similar in nature but with more rock detail to further
complicate navigation. Eoin and Jack again made a few mistakes, Eoin
finished in 37.40 in 33rd place, whilst Jack was 44th
finishing in a time of 41.29.
It was worth noting
that the A and B finals were similar courses with the same length of
3.7 km. Both finals had strong fields with similar winning times and
Eoin and Jack can take heart from running faster than many on the A
final. Mark had his best run of the competition so far with an
excellent result of 13th in the C final, finishing only 6 minutes
behind the winner, Corentin Roux of France.
The night before the
relay at our last team meeting we reflected on how things had gone
for the team over the previous week or so. We had all had some highs
and lows, and enjoyed some good racing and training. We also
reflected on the journey the team had taken as Irish juniors and how
we had encountered similar ups and downs along the way. For the team
it would be their last major relay race as juniors, they had raced
many times together before and all had good speed and with a bit of
luck and three clean runs, I knew we were capable of a good result.
 |
Testing terrain -
Zheleznica middle B final
|
Relay day dawned
overcast with the threat of rain. The relay area was in the
surrounding forest of the Borovets resort with the arena situated in
front of the resorts main hotel and at the foot of ski run. The
spectators would have a great view of all the action as the teams
passed by, ran a final lop of controls and then sprinted across the
slope to the final control and run in. The women's race started first
at 10:00am and at 10:15am Jack lined up along with 53 other starting
teams in the men's race.
Right on cue the
heavens opened and the thunder roared overhead as the starter sent
the teams off into the forest for the first leg. The forest around
the resort is often used for cross country skiing and has many paths,
technically it was probably the least challenging area used all week
and could be described as most similar to an Irish forest with some
dense patches of undergrowth and generally messy ground cover
effecting running speeds. Anything can happen under the pressure of a
relay and the potential for mistakes was still a real threat. Jack
ran hard on first leg staying well up in the main bunch of 30 or so
runners who were spread out over 2 or 3 minutes. Mark took over in
second leg with a few of our "target" teams just ahead and
behind him. He had another great run, handling the pressure well and
passing over to Eoin running last leg. Eoin finished off a great JWOC
week for him, with a fast run holding off the Australian team and
almost catching the German runner ahead on the final loop. We were
delighted with the end result - 20th nation and 28th team overall out
of 54 that started.
The Irish team had
stayed in contact with the major teams throughout, finishing in a
time of 1 hour 50:48, Sweden were the men's relay champions followed
closely by the Czech and Swiss teams all in a time of 1 hour 36
minutes
The relay was a great
end to a great competition in Bulgaria were we treated to challenging
and varied running terrains, pleasant running weather, excellent
event organisation and helpful, friendly hosts. There was only one
last thing to do... PARTY!
So, as the majority of
competitors let off steam at a local nightclub, I packed and loaded
the car in preparation for our 3 am departure to Bucharest. The team
turned up on time and good form and as they snored their way through
the dark Bulgarian countryside I reflected on the past few weeks we
had spent orienteering and looked forward
to the next JWOC challenge of Norway 2015.
- Ivan Millar, LVO.(Thanks to Ivan for permission to publish this).
Running Shorts
Four
MTBO events have finally got off the ground in Leinster on the Saturdays in September: Djouce, Co. Wicklow (6th), Curragh (13th), Saggart (20th) and Three Rock (27th). Two courses will be on offer each day, and the organisers are hoping to attract a mixture of orienteers and mountain bikers. Details on the IOA Fixtures page
here.
Congratulations to W18 Róisin Long (Ajax), M18 Paul Pruzina (LVO), W20 Niamh Corbett (CorkO) and M20 Eoin McCullough (3ROC) on their selection for the
Junior European Championships in Belgium at the beginning of October. See details of the competition
here.
Fermanagh Orienteers are staging the 2014
Northern Ireland Championships at Castle Saunderson, Co. Cavan, on Saturday 4th October. See details
here. The weekend will also include training for the Irish elites with GB 2013 World Championships silver medallist
Scott Fraser.
Andrius Michailovas, a Lithuanian elite orienteer working in Dublin, invites us all to the
Lithuanian Cup on October 18/19: see details
here. There's a middle distance and a long distance race, and Andrius says there's lots to see and do in the area. Ryanair fly from Dublin to Vilnius, but not every day - travel out on Thursday and back on Tuesday for less than €90 return, or out to Kaunas on Friday and back on Monday for €110. The competition is about 2 hours from Vilnius.
Congratulations to the I
rish Junior Team on beating Wales at the Junior Home International in Scotland at the end of August. Realistically, the Home Internationals are two competitiopns: England v Scotland and Ireland v Wales. Let's hope the Vets (Forest of Dean, September 13/14) and Seniors (Aberdeen area, October 18/19) can follow suit!
...and finally, here's something I found by accident: an IOF video of the
World Championships sprint finals in Venice in July. It's aimed partly at non-orienteers as the commentator, Clive Allen, explains the basics of the sport, but the GPS routes and the footage of the runners on the course are great. See if you can spot the mention of our Nick Simonin. It makes me want to go back to run in Venice again, but the London City race on September 21st will have to do for now! Watch it
here.
