5 minute read
GRANT BLUETT INTERVIEW
GrantBluett
retires
After 14 years of international competition, 7 years living and competing as an elite in Sweden, a World Games gold medal and numerous top-10 and top-20 performances the legend of Australian elite orienteering, Grant Bluett, is retiring from international competition. Grant has led the charge for Australia in international orienteering since 1991 when he finished the 1st leg of the 1991 JWOC relay in Berlin, Germany, in 3rd place. In those days for an Australian to be in the top few at any level was fairly unheard of. When Grant followed up the following year at JWOC in Finland with a 15th place he was sending a message to all back home that we were good enough. Orienteering Australia’s High Performance Manager and regular Voice of the Forest commentator Jason McCrae spoke to Grant about whether he really is finishing up now and asked for a few reflections on his wondrous career.
Jason McCrae (JMc): Well GB the whisper in the forest is that Japan WOC was your last. Is it true?
Grant Bluett (GB): Yeh that’s it Jase. Maybe if I could just do the races I’d continue on but I’m not really enjoying it anymore, I don’t enjoy the travel, and especially not enjoying training for races. I still enjoy training but I’m sick of spending all year training for a particular race – looking at what’s required for that race, focusing my training on those requirements and making sure each session is directed towards being ready for that race – I’m tired of that. I will still keep training and competing in Australia however I just want to be able to do whatever training I feel like doing and not the intense focus.
JMc: No possibility that come next year you’ll change your mind?
GB: It’s possible I guess but I don’t want to be like Hakan Eriksson (44 yo Swedish orienteer) who announces every year he is retiring and then every year comes out of retirement. In fact I was talking to Hakan at WOC in Japan and he was encouraging me to go on. He said he would coach me and set a program for me and I was getting a bit excited thinking “yeh maybe I will keep going” but then towards the end of our conversation he said “yeh you should go on – as long as you are enjoying it” and it was then that I realised, no, I wasn’t enjoying it anymore so time to call it a day.
JMc: Well, sounds like you’ve had a fair think about it. If it is the end Grant, looking back, what have been your best performances at an international level?
GB: Ahh I don’t know. I guess I look back on my World Games victory in Japan in 2001 and my long period of good results in the Park World Tour (PWT) as my best. PWT was particularly good as I had many good results over a decent period of time. It was also an exciting time for orienteering with PWT and sprint or park racing being new. It was really attracting crowds and television coverage in Sweden and it was great to be running so well in an exciting era for world orienteering.
JMc: Any time when you consider you had the perfect race?
GB: Yeh maybe in the PWT in Shanghai. I didn’t miss anything technically and I just felt so strong. I felt like I was running hard the whole way and felt strong and invincible. I won by 45secs which doesn’t sound much but in a PWT sprint race that’s heaps.
JMc: What about disappointments?
GB: I wish I’d had a good run at WOC – I never had a great run in a final. I had great run in the Swedish sprint and qualified really well but was far from perfect in the final where it all went bad. Every single final WOC race has been disappointing. Even the 8th place which was my best result - it could so easily have been 2nd place but instead a little mistake meant I came 8th instead of 2nd. A lot of the other finals I feel like I could’ve won the race but did not run well enough, whereas the time I came 8th I couldn’t have won but a little thing took me from 2nd to 8th.
JMc: Have you had a chance to reflect on your Japanese performances?
GB: Yeh that was hugely disappointing especially since it was probably the WOC where I had my best physical preparation for a long time or maybe ever. From when I moved home to Australia (January 2005) I only had a week off from my physical training and that was after hurting my back at the ACT tree-athlon and really a week is nothing in the scheme of things. I felt really good physically until the week before WOC in Japan but then I started to feel flat. I kept telling myself it was nerves but maybe I lost my shape too early. Everything else had really gone perfectly to plan in preparation.
JMc: Who were the big influences on your orienteering career?
GB: Warren Key is the obvious one. And John Porter when I started, really encouraged me a lot. And then everyone I raced against from you up mate, from that Easter in 1988, (GB and JMc were competitors in juniors) I always wanted to be like them, beat them, and I tried to learn from everyone I was competing against.
JMc: And how do you see the future of Australian elite orienteering? Who do you think are the future Grant Bluett’s and how good can they be?
GB: I think the future will be a lot better than I ever was! Julian Dent and Hanny Allston especially. Hanny is already better than I ever was. I definitely think Hanny, if she continues, then I can’t see who can stop her from being world champion. There’s always things that can happen – she’s still young and might get injured or burn out however she’s way better now than Simone Luder or Hanne Staff were at 19.
JMc: And your plans for the future if international competition isn’t going to dominate your life?
GB: I don’t know (laughing). Coaching will always be part of my life even if I just am coaching a couple of people. It will be my future in orienteering rather than myself. I have an interest in coaching at a national team level also. I don’t attach my coaching as something that makes an orienteer win but you associate with it and that gives you a high, knowing you’ve helped them a little bit.
