Frederic Tranchand

Fredo Looks Back on His Unique Year

WORDS FREDO PHOTOS PETER HODKINSON

In orienteering, each season, each race, and ever control is very different and always full of great experiences. This is what makes our sport so special. For me, 2019 was especially unique for four main reasons: The first one: I spent 6 months down under, a big part of my training preparation, based in Canberra and enjoying a brand new environment with very mild weather for the time of the year. After 7 years juggling between heavy engineering studies and solid serious training in France, followed by almost 5 years in Finland working part time and training even harder on challenging terrains, this opportunity was a perfect time to make some changes. Stability is essential; but I really believe that training environment changes are very positive, especially in orienteering. It’s a good way to put ourselves out of our comfort zone, and the adaptation makes us stronger! It can also enhance motivation, nice after many years of significant commitment in an activity. Anyway, I had so much fun down under, super welcomed by the warm hearted orienteering community, I enjoyed every single moment in this beautiful place. I really enjoyed my time in Canberra and all the coaching-teaching-organizing tasks we did for Orienteering ACT, so I can only be positive about this move, whatever the consequences were for the coming season and sport career. Althhough I wanted to do well in the new season, and I was eager to see how it went! The second peculiarity of 2019 was the beginning of the split WOC era. That meant for me an exclusive Nordic forest preparation during the second part of the spring and summer, to have my chance to play a prime role at WOC in August, knowing that the Scandinavian runners would have a certain advantage on this challenging terrain. I admit that I had some

hard times to start with in April, noticing how far behind others I was. However, I stayed confident in my preparation and kept focused on the main goals. The first real test was Tiomila, where I was running the last leg for my Finnish club Paimion Rasti, and my run was pretty solid with the second best time of the last leg. The result probably was unnoticed and irrelevant because our team didn’t have the best day, just in the top 20. However, it was a perfect milestone to prove to myself that I was going in the right direction. The next big tests were the World Cup round in Finland in June, and it was a big success for me. With a second place at the Middle Distance, I achieved my best result in forest orienteering at this level of competition. Very pleased to do it in the Nordics, on quite tricky terrain, where I was probably not among the big favorites! The next day was the chasing start, and thanks to some bonus seconds, and a very solid beginning of the race, I was able to keep my second position despite adding some spice with some mistakes towards the end of the

course, letting the chasing group get threateningly close, just for the spectacle... This gave a lot of precious confidence and motivation to train hard towards WOC during the summer. The third special thing of my 2019 season was a serious eye infection that happened exactly at the wrong time, during WOC. I could barely open my eye on the morning of the Middle final; it didn't feel good at all. That affected my sleeping and recovery and felt really bad during the whole quarantine time. Although I have had some eyes injuries before, I just tried my best and still performed pretty well (finishing 6th). I ran the Relay the next day, even if it was probably not the best for recovering from the infection… At the end, despite a catastrophic start to my second leg, we responded well, and we were super happy to grab another Bronze medal at the Relay. The reverse of the medal came the next day, on the way back home to Finland. I felt terrible and went straight to hospital from the airport to check the infection, and they kept me there for a few days, followed by several weeks with 3 hospital visits per day for antibiotic injection. This kind of experience makes you think a lot about how much is it worth to push the body and put it on the edge, when it can threaten our health. Passing from an elite sportsman close to the top at the main event of the season for the activity, to a sick person lying in a hospital bed, surely open the eyes! Where is the limit between pushing ourselves to reach a higher level, and crossing the health line? Somehow it's hard to keep perspective when we are narrowly focused and committed to our goal. However, taking care of our body should always be the priority because we have only one, and we keep it all our life! It seems very evident; though we manage to forget it sometimes. We can be very thankful to be able to exercise and to do what we like when we can. Life can reserve us some surprises and what seems obvious today might be complicated one day! The 4th important factor of my season 2019 was the Chinese experience in the autumn. With one month there including the Military World Games in Wuhan, the World Cup final in Canton and some Park World Tour races, it could be another full article… However, the Chinese cheating at the Military Games showed how easy it is to do, if people don’t respect the fairness on which our sport is based. It also highlights the direction our sport could take if it became more important and influenced by politics or money. Anyway, after all this experience, I was very happy to come to Victoria and start a new coaching in residence here. I must say that the organization and tasks have been a bit different than in Canberra, mostly due to a very different environment, but it has been a lot of fun to be here where I have been very well welcomed again, especially by the Key family who have been amazing! I had never lived in such a big city with so much traffic as Melbourne before, and I admit it could be scary for a farmer boy like me. However it went pretty well and I almost started to feel like home here. The orienteering training has been more urban-sprint oriented, because of the proximity of the maps. Isn’t it perfect to prepare for a sprint-WOC season? The few trips to the very interesting tricky areas near Bright, Ballarat and Bendigo were also very worthwhile. I will, for sure, keep a very nice memory of my stay, thank you all for your warm welcome and moments here! To conclude: A few things that I would remember and would like to share: - Changes can help improvement, especially if with a positive mindset and when taking advantage of the new environment

Having clear goals gives us the direction to follow and what to focus on. It’s good to remember these goals whatever the situation and keep following our way towards them. Seeing small successes along the way gives significant confidence, motivation and solid milestones to lean on. Our health is and should always be the number 1 priority. Let's enjoy what we are doing every day, smile to each new person met and appreciate what we’ve got