State-of-the-art training opportunities - Janne Salmi
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Article by Clive Allen
Silkeborg’s forests have always been well used by orienteers, not least by Danish elite runners staying at the Team Denmark Centre linked with Silkeborg OK’s clubhouse. Now the state forests around Silkeborg – Nordskov, Sønderskov, Vesterskov and Østerskov – have been re-mapped using photogrammetric plots for the first time. The new maps have been made primarily for use by groups of elite orienteers from other countries, coming to acquaint themselves with the terrain in advance of next year’s World Championships.
One recent group was a 30-strong party mainly from Finland led by the well-known elite orienteer Janne Salmi. Many of the group competed in the Spring Cup and then travelled to Jutland for three days’ training, before continuing to Sweden for more training or to the P å ske 3-Days. Well-known names in the party included Bodil Holmström, 4th in D21E at the Spring Cup, J örgen Wickholm, 5th in H21E, and the German runner Elisa Dresen, 5 th in D21E. Two-times Czech champion Jaromir Svihovsky was also in the party.
Route Choice and Running on Slopes
Janne Salmi has retired from the Finnish team and is now coach for their B squad. I asked him what the main objectives were for this visit. “Several of the present Finnish B squad are pushing hard to get into the A squad, and we want them to get as much varied experience as possible. In the training here we are concentrating on route choice and running on slopes”, he said. Janne Salmi has been to the Silkeborg area twice before but the last time was some 10 years ago. “It is good ‘continental’ terrain, often with few details in the forest to relate to when approaching control points. It is easy to make small mistakes costing vital seconds, but the type of mistake is different from the type we make in Finnish and Swedish forests”, he continued.
Janne Salmi planned a varied three days of training, using all of the areas with training maps available. On day 1 the morning was taken up with 20 minutes of warm-up jogging and stretching followed by a 10km course in S ø nderskov which concentrated on route choice but with some shorter legs as well. By contrast, the new micro-orienteering format was used in the afternoon, with 3 loops of 1.2 – 1.4 km including some gaffling.
With the object of training in every available terrain type, day 2 concentrated on slope running and long legs in Nordskov. The final day started with circuits and ‘obstacle’ training in various types of slow-run forest, and ended in Vesterskov with the ‘camp championships’, which consisted of a qualification race of 3.6 km followed by another 3.6 km course with chasing start.
Service for National Teams
For their visit the courses were set, maps overprinted and most of the controls put out and taken in by SOK members – a service available (on payment of a fee) for all visiting national teams. “Torben Utson and Erik Bobach arranged everything as we wanted it – the facilities for training for the World Championships are excellent”, said Janne Salmi. The only drawback, he said, was the number of fallen trees in parts of the training areas, after the January storm. The group stayed at Katrinedal Vandrehjem.
Janne Salmi was pleased to hear that the terrain for the long distance final had never before been used by orienteers. But, said Janne, the ‘classic’ long distance race was not the ultimate goal for many top orienteers that it used to be. “Many now regard middle distance as their favourite discipline”, he said. “It is seen as the perfect blend of technical and physical skills, and much more intense than the long distance”. An additional training area, similar to the terrain to be used for the two WOC middle distance races, is being mapped this spring.
A group from Hungary enjoyed a few days’ training and the facilities of the Team Denmark Centre before travelling on to compete in the Spring Cup, but a Norwegian team booked a week earlier had to cancel because of the amount of snow still in the forests. September, after the 2005 WOC in Japan, will see many more teams training in the Silkeborg forests, when the undergrowth and general visibility will be similar to that they will experience at WOC. The best orienteers from Finland and Great Britain are already known to be coming then.
