Stockholm from a different perspective
20 Oct 2009 | Posted By: Maria Markenroth
By: Patrick Hofmeister
Last weekend I headed off to Stockholm. But instead of doing the regular stuff exchange students do while visiting the capital, namely sightseeing and partying, I participated in one of the world’s biggest orienteering races called 25manna (check wiki if you don’t know about orienteering: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orienteering). As the name already suggests, it is a team competition in which mainly Scandinavian club relays consisting of 25 runners compete against each other. Compared to regular orienteering competitions in which athletes of the same age run against each other, a 25manna club team has to include runners of every age and gender. Thus, a huge diversity is required and every club member can contribute to the overall success. This is what makes the 25manna so interesting and unique.
Me and Grete Gutmann, another JIBS student, were running for IK Hakarpspojkarna (IKHP), a club situated in Huskvarna. After only some weeks of training in the Swedish forests, we were happy with our nomination for the last two legs for the second team.
The finished area 20km south of Stockholm was still covered with frost as the mass start of the first leg runners was arranged. 7.2km on the straight line (remember: the route between the controls is up to the competitors) for the first runners, and the pace was incredible fast since the first teams changed-over already after 35min. The two IHKP teams started pretty well being both among the top 70 on the start leg. Over the course of the race, our club mates could catch up bit by bit until the first team was even leading after 22 of 25 runners. At that time, our 2nd squad was on a very good 36th place among other very strong teams. So, now it was up to the JIBS anchormen to secure the success for IKHP. I headed out into the woods on the 8,5km long course with a former Swedish national team runner from IFK Göteborg and managed to run together with him until we reached the spectator control. Afterwards, I lost some time due to some stupid mistakes where I did not read the map properly. Nevertheless, I could defend our position in the finish. Grete did a great job on the last leg too so that we could run into an amazing 36th spot being the best 2nd team of all clubs. Given that the first team came 3rd, IKHP can be considered as one of the best orienteering clubs of the world. I am proud to be part of such a fantastic squad and do already look forward to upcoming challenges!
Results can be found here: http://www.25manna.nu/
IKHP orienteering: http://www.ikhp.se/orientering/
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