World of O News
After 14 Silver and Bronze medals in World Champs, European Champs and Nordic Champs, the Gold medal was finally there
– Thanks to an intense fear for ruining this possibility for a World Championships Gold medal, I managed to get a 4-5 seconds lead to Helena Jansson on the way out of the third last control. That is Marianne Andersen’s description of the dramatic final part of the WOC Relay in Hungary this year. And that was enough: Andersen kept the lead all the way to the finish, where she was met by extremely happy team-mates.
After 14 Silver and Bronze medals in World Champs, European Champs and Nordic Champs – the last silver medal on the Middle distance just a few days ahead of the Relay – the Gold medal was finally there for the Norwegian runner! Andersen has been among the top three female orienteers in the world for years – but has not been able to take that last and difficult step up on the podium until now.
This Gold medal tasted lovely for Andersen after all the Silver and Bronze medals!
Nominated for:
After 14 Silver and Bronze medals in major championships, finally winning a gold medal in the World Champs thanks to a fantastic last leg on the WOC Relay. Also: Winning Silver medals in WOC Long and Middle.
Better with 900 hours
Marianne Andersen is famous for putting in the largest amount of training hours of all orienteering women, more than 900 hours a year!
– After two seasons with about 100 hours less training, I have now gone back to the 2006-scheme. And I have noticed that it suits my body better with 900 hours than 800 hours, Marianne Andersen told NTB in an interview this autumn.
900 hours is also more than almost all of the men. If you want to take a look for yourself, you can find a summary of Marianne Andersens training for 2006 – and a sample training week – here (Norwegian text). Andersen is also one of those who do orienteering technical training in form of map training while brushing her teeth. All details count.
– Last winter I had several 5-6 hours trainings in Nordmarka. The longest one was 7 hours. And I enjoy every second of it.
All disciplines
Still long distance is probably her best discipline, but she has collected Silver medals in WOC or WOC in all individual disciplines – so she has possibilities for a Gold medal every time she is on the start in a championship. Here are the maps from her medal races in the World Championships in Hungary this year:
In her 10 individual Silver and Bronze competitions, Marianne Andersen has lost her Gold medal to four different women Minna Kauppi, Simone Niggli, Dana Brozkova and Helena Jansson. Is Andersen ready for the individual Gold medal on home ground in Trondheim in 2011?
Timetable: Starting November 25th, nominees for the Orienteering Achievement of 2009 will be presented on a a day-by-day basis at World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. The winner is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented between Monday November 30th and Friday December 4th. The winners will be announced December 8th. The last nominees will not be chosen until November 27th – it is still possible to suggest your favourite here.
Event sponsor: Highlands Open
Highlands Open is a popular event in Northern Italy. The terrain is know to be very varied – from detailed with rocky features to really fast with open forest, some karstic areas, and some full of trenches of the 1° World War. Highlands Open 2010 is organized from August 22nd until August 29th.
- Among the Lucky voters, 2 transferable starts for the complete Highlands Open 2010 will be drawn.
- See Highlands Open webpage for more information about the event
