Poll: Orienteering Achievement of 2016 - Women

» Runner profile Maja Alm

    Vote for Maja Alm

Story
Maja Alm won "The Orienteering Achievement of 2015" due to her fantastic results at the World Orienteering Championships in Scotland - this year her races at the World Orienteering Championships were just as impressive . In addition the smiling Danish athlete managed to take a 5th place in the most technical orienteering discipline, the middle distance. Brilliant domination in womans orienteering - with amazing physical and mental abilities.

» Runner profile Anasatasia Denisova

    Vote for Anasatasia Denisova

Story
Already as a youth and junior Anastasia Denisova showed that she was an exceptional talent, taking sprint bronze medals both at the European Youth Championships (2011) and Junior World Championships (2013). But the step from a junior medal to a senior medal is a step which very few manage to take - especially at her first World Orienteering Championships and with a personal best in the World Cup ahead of WOC in the 20'ies. This is a story of excellent and targeted preparations, strong will and believing in the (nearly) impossible. Her 8th place at the middle and 6th place at the long distance were maybe even more impressive than the sprint medal .One of the many people nominating Denisova puts her forest orienteering achievements in some perspective: - I should note that if the sprint performance could have been predicted, then middle and long success were surprisingly high even for Anastasia herself.

» Runner profile Tove Alexandersson

    Vote for Tove Alexandersson

Story
Tove Alexandersson has been the best woman orienteer in the world for most of the season for years - but until this season she never won an individual gold medal at either the World Orienteering Championships or the European Orienteering Championships. This year she did something different: Instead of running everything like she often has done, she focused fully on the forest races in the championships - even with excellent gold medal chances in both sprint and sprint relay. This sacrifice did however give Alexandersson 4 shiny gold medals - compared to zero in her previous successful career! On top of that: Overall World Cup victory in both the foot-o and ski-o World Cup and several medals in international ski-o championships.

» Runner profile Simona Aebersold

    Vote for Simona Aebersold

Story
Simona Aebersold started JWOC on home ground with a clear sprint victory. At the long distance the next day she was on her way to another clear victory, but she forgot a control in the last half of the course and lost many minutes by running back to it. One rest day, and Aebersold managed to be on top mentally again and take another gold medal at the middle distance. On the last day she continued her impressive performances and took Switzerland to gold. Fantastic achievements by a fantastic, young athlete.

» Runner profile Emily Kemp

    Vote for Emily Kemp

Story
The story about Emily Kemp is the story about the Canadian orienteer who moved from Canada to France at young age just to become a better orienteer. A few years later she moved on from France to Finland for the same reason. Always looking to improve, and this year making her breakthrough at the very top international level with her best performances on the days when it counted the most - the WOC and EOC middle distance races. One of the readers nominating Kemp puts it like this: - Emily Kemp, for showing real passion, persistency and dedication to her sport which required her to move continents and constantly challenge herself and seek new opportunities. A tale of dedication and talent rewarded.

» Runner profile Natalia Gemperle

    Vote for Natalia Gemperle

Story
Natalia Gemperle (formerly Vinogradova) started her senior career with a very strong 5th place at the exceptionally technical WOC middle distance in France in 2011. Since then she has struggled to take the next step - until this season when she took very big steps, and proved herself as one of the biggest challengers to Tove Alexandersson. In addition her great relay runs gave her two gold medals - especially the last leg on the WOC relay was impressive. To put it in the words of on the readers nominating Gemperle: - Natalia managed to become both European and World champion with a strong Russian team in relays. I’d like to mention here especially her cool-headed execution in a last leg of exciting WOC relay.

    Vote for Russian Women Team

Story
Russia has been among the top teams in the world for years, but this year was the first time ever they managed to win the relay gold medal in the women's class. After good legs by Anastasia Rudnaya and Svetlana Mironova, Natalia Gemperle ran the last leg. The battle for victory was very close, with 6 teams in the fight for the medals at the start of the leg. Gemperle decided for Russia after an exciting battle.

    Vote for Finnish Women Team

Story
In Minna Kauppi's era, Finland was the best relay nation in the world - winning five World Championships relays in six years from 2006 to 2011. Since then the Finnish women have struggled to get back to the very top. But this year Finland was back - with Marika Teini, Merja Rantanen and Sari Anttonen taking the gold medal in an exciting European Championships relay. At the World Championships they nearly managed to do the same again, being in the lead at the arena passage on the last leg, but a bronze medal was still an excellent result for the Finnish team.

» Runner profile Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg

    Vote for Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg

Story
Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg has been part of the World Orienteering elite for many, many years, taking her first international championships medal back at the European Championships in 2002 at the sprint. Hausken Nordberg has been a good long distance runner for years, but never managed to take a World Championship medal at the long distance until in Sweden this year. Her results in the WOC Long since 2006 are 6-4-4-7-8-pregnancy-5-skipped-pregnancy-7-3. As one of the readers writes: - Inspired by Rune Haraldsson, she is herself a true inspiration to all of us who are convinced that age is only a number.