SKI-O
Ski-O Champs in Lapland
Junior World Ski-O Champs
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INNISH Lapland – home of reindeer, Santa Claus, and eleventy squillion mosquitos in summer – will host the World Ski-O Championships during March 5-12 at Levi, a popular ski resort. Organizers are expecting around 1500 spectators on the first day when the Sprint race will be held. Competitors will carry a Sport Performance Recorder strapped to the back of their map holder. Weighing just 80gm it will record speed, position, distance travelled, temperature, heart-rate and elapsed time. Competitors cannot access this data during the race but it will be downloaded for later analysis. Clear favourite in the men’s events will be Russian Eduard Krennikov, who won three of the four gold medals on offer in the 2004 Championships. Finnish women will be hoping for success on their home ground and Hannele Valkonen is likely to at least repeat her success of last year when she won gold and silver. She will be strongly challenged by Norway’s Stine H. Kirkevik as well as Natalia Tomilova from Russia and Marie Lund from Sweden. Race reports and results can be found at www.kittila.fi/skio2005/
WITZERLAND’S Engadin valley was the site in January for the Junior World Ski-O Championships, held in conjunction with World Masters and European Youth Championships. The events were centred on the tiny village of S-chanf where the population of 700 speak the least-known Swiss language – Romansch. Star performer was Sweden’s Eric Rost (M20) who won all three individual gold medals but had to settle for silver in the relay. Russia won both M20 and W20 relays with Sweden taking silver in each. All in all, the Russian team won 20 of the 36 medals (juniors and youth) while the Swedes won 5 of the 10 individual gold medals. Bulgarian Stanimir Belomazhev broke the Russian/ Swedish dominance by winning the M17 Long Sweden’s Eric event but his was a lone Rost won all three achievement. individual gold Race reports and results medals at Ski-O can be found at www. JWOC skiolwm05.ch/english/ Hannele Valkonen index.php
Ski-O in Australia
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OME may find it hard to believe that Ski Orienteering events have been held in Australia each year for more than 20 years. Originally events were held in NSW and Victoria, at Perisher Valley, Mt. Hotham and Lake Mountain, but with interest waning in NSW/ACT from 2000 Perisher and Hotham have faded from the scene. The only regular event now is the annual Ski-O at Lake Mountain. 10 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2005
Snow conditions are extremely variable. 2004 was a bumper snow season, the best for years, but often conditions can be marginal. Given the very strong support of the Lake Mountain management and the continued backing of Orienteering Victoria, the attendance figures of 30-40 participants are expected to grow given that there is a strong interest from schools in the event.
Ski-O is extremely challenging physically and mentally requiring a good range of skiing techniques, as well as making split-second decisions while at speed.
Ski-O in Australia is different from the European experience in that our trail network system is nowhere as well developed, so that route choice rather than minute track reading is the major emphasis. The continuation of SkiO in Australia is largely due to members of the Bayside Kangaroos Orienteering Club in Victoria. The team includes Marg Purdham, Hughes Little, Judi Herkes, and Jenny & John Sheahan, with Ian Baker keeping us informed of international trends.
