Poll: Orienteering Achievement of 2015 - Men

» Runner profile Daniel Hubmann

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Story
Swiss Daniel Hubmann has been one of the best orienteers in the World every year since his first two World Championships medals in Japan in 2005. WOC long distance gold medals came in 2008 and 2009 and the WOC sprint gold medal came in 2011. The WOC gold medal from 2009 did not taste like a full victory with several top teams stopping to help an injured athlete on the last leg. Come 2015 - 10 years after his first WOC medal: 2015 has been one of Hubmann’s best seasons ever. After fighting hard for it for many years, finally the WOC middle gold medal is part of Hubmann’s WOC medal collection - along with the first "real" WOC relay gold medal. Daniel Hubmann also took silver at WOC long only - 25 seconds behind the winner - and was actually only 34(!) seconds away from 3 individual gold medals at the world championships. Since the sprint distance was introduced in 2001, no male orienteer ever did better. Add to that his 6th overall World Cup victory and the dominating performance in the World Cup final in Arosa

» Runner profile Lucas Basset

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Lucas Basset has been known as the future of French orienteering since he took France’s first Junior World Championships gold medal at the JWOC sprint in Poland in 2011. The same season he also got his first top 10 result in the World Cup, and has since then slowly worked his way towards a stable position in the Top 10 in the World. Ahead of the World Championships in Scotland, he was still not there, with only two Top 10 World Cup results in numerous tries since 2010. But the World Championships in Scotland was Basset’s championships. As one of the few athletes who started in all disciplines, he finished 2nd in middle, 3rd in relay, 9th in long, 7th in Sprint Relay after a great 3rd leg and 23rd in sprint.

» Runner profile Thierry Gueorgiou

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Story
12 years after his first WOC gold medal in Switzerland in 2003 Gueorgiou took his 13th WOC gold medal in Scotland in 2015. The man formerly known as "The King of Middle" has now won three WOC long distance gold medals in a row - adding to that the WOC long distance gold in 2011 makes it four WOC long gold medals in five years. And that in very different terrains: Extremely technical in France in 2011, fast but nordic in Finland in 2013, hilly with fast ground in Italy in 2014 and physically tough and slow in Scotland in 2015. Gueorgiou earlier talked about the long distance as "boring" - now he has made it his own discipline.

» Runner profile Olli Ojanaho

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Story
Olli Ojanaho is an incredible orienteering talent, part of the new Finnish generation of orienteers who are expected to rise Finnish orienteering back to the very top again. Ojanaho has dominated EYOC (European Junior Orienteering Cup, unofficial European Championships for youth orienteers) by taking medals at every start at EYOC the three last years - 9 medals in total. At JWOC in Bulgaria last year at a first year junior he took bronze at the middle distance and finished in the Top 10 in all three individual disciplines. This year he took a big leap and took JWOC gold in all the three forest disciplines. A man for the future!

» Runner profile Jonas Leandersson

    Vote for Jonas Leandersson

Story
Jonas Leandersson came from nowhere when he won the European Championships sprint in Falun, Sweden in 2012. Since then the Swede has stabilized in the world sprint orienteering elite, but although he has some top 3 results in the World Cup, his ability to deliver his very best in the big championships is one of his main strengths. With gold at the European Championships sprint in 2012, bronze at the World Championships sprint in 2013, gold at the European Championships sprint in 2014 and another gold at the World Championships sprint in 2015 Leandersson has taken a sprint medal in the big championships the last 4 years in a row. Nobody else has managed that - Leandersson is going in the steps of another great Swedish sprinter, Emil Wingstedt.

» Runner profile Olle Boström

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Story
Olle Boström was very strong as a junior, and followed up with an amazingly strong first senior season in 2011 where he finished 6th at the long distance at WOC 2011 and also got a bronze medal with the Swedish relay team. From there and on it was all about injuries and rehabilitation for Boström - many would have given up on the way. Boström did his comeback at international level in 2015 with starts at WOC middle and long. Just after arriving at the finish after his WOC middle race, Boström looked the most unhappy man of all, thinking he had lost his medal chance at a mistake at the very end of the race. A few minutes later, the world was turned upside down for Boström - nobody smiled wider than the comback Swede.

» Runner profile Olav Lundanes

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Story
Olav Lundanes has been one of the absolute top athletes on the long distance since his WOC gold medal in Trondheim in 2010. After struggling on and off with injuries some years, the WOC long distance in Scotland in 2015 was supposed to be Lundanes’ race - fitting his abilities as an orienteer perfectly. The preparations for WOC did however not go as Lundanes had planned, and his physical shape when arriving at the start in Scotland was far below his usual standards. Lundanes did however get out his absolute maximum in the tough Scottish terrain, probably being the only one doing a perfect technical race on the day it counted the most.

» Runner profile Tim Robertson

    Vote for Tim Robertson

Story
Taking a medal at the Junior World Championships sprint is no easy feat - with more than 150 athletes at the start without qualification - up to six from each nation - you really need to have a close to perfect race to win a medal. And even more so to win the gold medal. With his JWOC sprint win in Rauland, Norway in 2015 Tim Robertson was the first man to take two wins in a row - and with the bronze medal from Czech Republic in 2013 that makes it three medals in a row. Robertson’s 20th place at the World Championships in Scotland a month later shows yet again that he has the capability to get top results when it counts the most. Being from New Zealand, Robertson does not have the environment around him which many juniors from the top orienteering countries have.