Poll: Orienteering Achievement of 2012 - Men

» Runner profile Olav Lundanes

    Vote for Olav Lundanes

Story
2011 was in many ways a disappointing season for Olav Lundanes - even if he returned from WOC in France with a bronze medal. After being awarded "The Orienteering Achievement of the Year" in 2010 for his WOC long distance victory in Trondheim, Lundanes had prepared thoroughly to repeat this feat on the long distance in France in 2011. The WOC 2011 long distance was by many expected to become a duel between the Norwegian and the "impossible" Gueorgiou - but in the end Lundanes finished down in 10th place. Lundanes trained even harder and more dedicated ahead of the 2012-season - and showed the world that the hard work had paid off when he won both EOC middle and long in Sweden in May. The real test was the World Orienteering Championships in continental terrain in Switzerland in July - a test which Lundanes passed with the highest marks! Lundanes has never been a sprinter - but towards the end of the 2012-season he showed that there is hope even there - winning a sprint World Cup race during the Nordic Orienteering Tour. 100% dedicated to orienteering!

» Runner profile Edgars Bertuks

    Vote for Edgars Bertuks

Story
- Although there are bigger events waiting to be won, for a moment it really felt like conquering the very top, Edgards Bertuks wrote on his blog in a post titled "The WILDest dream" after coming back to the finish first and alone after the first leg in the Jukola relay this spring. But Jukola was only the start for the Latvian in a year where he got even more than his wildest dreams fulfilled. Going into the 2012-season, Bertuks had had no WOC, EOC or World Cup results within the Top 15 since his great 2008 seasons where he finished 7th in EOC on homeground in Latvia and 9th in WOC Middle in Czech Republic. At WOC in Switzerland in 2012 Bertuks was not even among the outsiders before the qualification races. Great qualification races made him an outsider, but who would have believed that he would get the gold in the middle distance and a bronze medal in the long distance?

» Runner profile Matthias Kyburz

    Vote for Matthias Kyburz

Story
In 2011 Matthias Kyburz was the big name in International orienteering in the spring. As first year senior, Kyburz’s victory in the first World Cup race in the 2011-season came out of the blue - although the Swiss runner had a gold medal from JWOC sprint 2009! Kyburz continued with a very successful spring season, but did not handle the pressue when it really counted at the World Orienteering Championships. In 2012 Kyburz was far better prepared to handle the pressure - and he also improved a lot in the forest disciplines - even in Nordic terrain. Kuburz row of victories in 2012 are truly impressive: The World Championships Sprint, the overall World Cup, the overall Nordic Orienteering Tour, the EOC relay, and three more World Cup races (sprint and middle). Add to that another four podium places in the World Cup - this is a man who has learned how to handle the pressure!

    Vote for Czech WOC Relay Team

Story
After several times being in a good position on the last leg in WOC and EOC relays, but then failing the medals, the Czech men did an amazing performance in Switzerland this summer. - Outsiders in the WOC relay are [...] and Czech Republic. All these teams can win gold on the perfect day - with these short legs anything can happen, was the wording in the preview article at World of O ahead of the WOC relay. And the perfect day it was for the Czech team consisting of Tomas Dlabaja, Jan Sedivy and Jan Prochazka. Dlabaja and Sedivy again made excellent ground work sending Prochazka out first on the last leg. And last leg runner Prochazka won the race by running very offensively - keeping newly crowned World Champion on Long distance Olav Lundanes behind in large parts of the race - and then finally crushing him and the Swede Anders Holmberg on the way to the last control.

» Runner profile Matt Ogden

    Vote for Matt Ogden

Story
- It was New Zealand’s first ever medal and the first even non-European male medal. Those two historical facts alone convinced me that a gold medal was close to impossible. I did dream of being a World Champion though but that was buried deep within my thoughts and only ever surfaced when training got tough and I needed a source of motivation. So when I crossed that finish line, it was a pretty surreal feeling, Matt Ogden explained in an interview at the Portuguese Orienteering Blog this autumn. Add to that that all the preparations were done in New Zealand - without the possibilities to fight and learn from each other that many of the European juniors have - and you can see that this Kiwi did a truly outstanding achievement by taking the JWOC middle gold medal.

» Runner profile Fabian Hertner

    Vote for Fabian Hertner

Story
Sprint has always been the best discipline for Fabian Hertner on international level - giving him two WOC silver medals and an EOC gold medal. However, his knee injury this February put the defending European Champion in sprint out of training for one and a half months. It was not until April that he could start training again - and with the exceptionally strong Swiss sprint team, Hertner did not manage to perform well enough to qualify for the World Championships on home ground in his favourite discipline. Instead middle, long and relay stood on the menu for the Swiss. Middle being the worst discipline for Hertner - he managed to win a medal against expectations.

» Runner profile Kiril Nikolov

    Vote for Kiril Nikolov

Story
When he was young he tried all kinds of sport - his major being highjumping but in 1998 at the age of 16 he finally found his love, orienteering. The Bulgarian with the nickname Disl had big success already in his first World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland in 2003 with a 12th place on the sprint. Since then Nikolov has been working his way slowly, slowly up on the results lists. He had big hopes for the EOC on home ground in Bulgaria, and finished 6th on the long distance although his hopes were higher. Finally in 2012 the Bulgarian found his way up to the medals with his silver medal at the EOC sprint - the first ever WOC or WOC medal for Bulgaria. A great achievement for a runner from Balkan- good to see how hard work pays off!

» Runner profile Valentin Novikov

    Vote for Valentin Novikov

Story
Valentin Novikov has been a part of the world orienteering elite since he won two EOC gold medals at EOC in Ukraine in 2000 - long and middle. The Russian has been part of the strong Russian relay team - taking 3 gold medals and 4 silver medals between 2004 and 2010 - and also winning gold in EOC middle in Bulgaria in 2010. For this achievement Novikiov was nominated for "Orienteering Achievement of the Year 2010". But despite many successes, the Russian has struggled on very long courses. The Russian has been "infamous" for very often being in the lead early in the race in long distance championships - and then "hitting the wall" towards the end of the race. At EOC long distance in Sweden Novikov again did a great start of the race - but this time the strong Russian kept the speed all the way to the finish. Novikov also took two medals on his favourite middle distance in 2012 - bringing home a silver medal from EOC middle and from WOC middle. This brought him to the top of the World of O Middle distance ranking at the end of 2012 - pushing Thierry Gueorgiou down from the top.

» Runner profile Jonas Leandersson

    Vote for Jonas Leandersson

Story
With everybody talking about Jerker Lysell as the big Swedish favourite ahead of the EOC sprint in Sweden this May, another Swede took responsibility when Lysell didn’t manage to perform at his best. Leandersson had his World Cup debut in his first senior season in 2011 - but only managed results around place number 30. For 2012 the goal of this young Swede on the international arena was to qualify for the European Championships and maybe also the World Championships. Who would have thought that it would bring him all the way to the top - winning the gold medal at the European Championships in Falun? A great achievement! Leandersson was also on the silver medal team at EOC and the bronze medal team at WOC - and by winning the last World Cup sprint race of the year in Finland in the autumn he proved that the EOC gold medal was no coincidence...