Poll 2006: Number 3 is …

Jani Lakanen – the WOC 2006 champion over the Long distance and Søren Bobach – the big Danish surprise in this years JWOC with his gold on the middle distance. Congratulations to both of them! Jani Lakanen was nominated in the “Achievement of the year 2006″ category for his gold over the Long distance in both WOC and EOC this year – winning the “classic orienteering distance” in the two most important races in 2006.

He also was part of Finlands silver team in the WOC relay. Back in 2000, Lakanen was the overall World Cup winner. For a long time he had been known as one of the World’s best runners in Long distance. He won countless national champion titles in the discipline on the home ground, but until Denmark, the most precious of the medals in this discipline from the World Championships had been missing in his collection – with the silver from 2001 in Tampere being his maximum. At the age of 30, Lakanen still has a few years of competing on the elite level ahead of him.

Minna Kauppi, Emil Wingstedt, Simone Luder, Hanny Allston or Kajsa Nilsson? These are the 5 world class runners not being named yet in the “Achievement of the year” category – and there are only two spots left on the podium! On tuesday you will all now who the orienteering community named for the “Orienteering achievement of the year 2006″ and the “Junior of the year 2006″!