Presentation: Thierry Gueorgiou

Gueorgiou’s silver medal on the WOC long distance was even more impressive

The King of Middle did it again! After several big disappointments in the spring season, Thierry Gueorgiou came back 100% prepared for the World Orienteering Champs in Hungary, and took his 6th WOC Gold medal over the middle distance – and his 7th individual WOC Gold medal overall.

This in itself would probably have been enough to be nominated for the Orienteering Achievement of 2009. However, Gueorgiou’s silver medal on the WOC long distance was even more impressive. Only two days after getting his big dream of a WOC Relay Gold medal for France broken in a dramatic way for the second year in a row, the French runner took the silver medal over the Long distance – only beaten by Daniel Hubmann.

With WOC Gold medals in Middle and Sprint from earlier on, the flying Frenchman has now truly shown his potential in all disciplines.

Nominated for:

Coming back and taking the silver medal in the WOC Long distance after the traumatic relay incident. Also: Winning despite the pressure ; The King of Middle took another WOC Middle Gold medal this year – now arrived at 6 WOC Middle Gold medals.

Force: Orienteering Technique

Thierry Gueorgiou is a remarkable orienteer. His force is surely his orienteering technique – and he is known to train more with a map than any other top orienteer.

He had his breakthrough in WOC 2003 winning the WOC middle distance with almost three minutes (see map from WOC 2003 short distance final and qualification). He continued to win the next four middle championships in a row (WOC 2004, WOC 2005, EOC 2004 and EOC 2006) – and then failed at WOC 2006 (map here).

2007: Back on Track – Ready for another Triple

He was back on track in 2007 with Gold in both Sprint (map) and Middle (map) in Ukraine, and he was unbeaten in international events the whole season. During 2008 he got competition for the position as the biggest star among the men at the moment when Daniel Hubmann won the World Cup in impressing style. Still – he again took care of the Gold medal at the WOC middle distance in 2008 (map). And repeated it again in 2009 – for the 6th time (map).

With the silver medal at the WOC 2009 Long distance – and the Relay silver medal in Japan in 2005 – there is now only the Relay and Long gold medals missing in Gueorgiou’s medal collection… And these are clearly Thierry’s goals in the years to come.

Event sponsor: Nordvestgaloppen

Nordvestgaloppen is a popular event in Western Norway. The event is known for its mix of interesting orienteering with wonderful nature between fjords and mountains. Nordvestgaloppen 2010 is organized from July 14th until July 18th – this year it can provide a good stop ahead of WOC 2010 in Trondheim for many of the competitors.

• Among the Lucky voters, 2 transferable starts for the complete Nordvestgaloppen 2010 will be drawn.
• See Nordvestgaloppen webpage for more information about the event