The vote has been decided by the big international readership of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – more than 3500 unique votes from 52 different countries have been delivered, making these results very representative for the worldwide orienteering community. Read on below the results to find interviews with Minna Kauppi and Daniel Hubmann.

Results – Orienteering Achievement of 2008

Interview: Minna Kauppi – Orienteering Achievement of 2008

Congratulations on being awarded “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″! You won a clear victory ahead of the comeback of the year – Vroni Salmi-König.
Thanks! So this was basically the same situation as in WOCs middle distance this year;)

You had a fantastic World Orienteering Championships in Czech Republic which the orienteering community appreciated as the best achievement of the year – what are your best memories of the week in Olomouc when looking back at it now?
Of course everything culminates on my work during the middle distance. I knew what I was doing, and pushed all the way till the end. On the other hand, the city of Olomouc was really beautiful too, and i enjoyed being there as well.

Anne Margrethe Hausken took all the attention after the World Orienteering Champs with her O-Ringen victory and her Overall World Cup victory. But you performed best when it really counted the most – at the World Orienteering Champs. What is your secret to perform well at the big happenings in 2008?
I knew I couldn’t be in my best shape in all the competitions this year due to all the problems I had, so I was forced to concentrate on the WOC only. This was maybe my weapon this year, as I didn’t really care of the rest of the competitions. On the other hand, when it comes to O-Ringen, I was too satisfied already, so it didn’t really matter anymore. For me it’s always about the mood which takes the good results!

Next year Simone will be back – and Hausken is surely hungry to perform well in the World Orienteering Champs in Hungary. What are you doing this winter to improve even more in 2009?
I’ll try to do everything better than before, but at the same time, I want to keep the training and all the fun, so that I won’t take it too seriously in the WOC either.

How are your preparations for 2009 going? Just fun & partying – or has the serious training started?
I’ve started training already, but unfortunately I’ve been forced to make the trainings according to other events. It’s been too big a fuss in these special media events lately, so it’s been really hard with all the interviews and all the big parties. But I really hope that the media leaves me alone now as I won’t answer my phone anymore;) So, from now on I’ll be training like crazy, and enjoying the winter sports in Finland!

Any final word to all your fans out there?
Thank you all! This is a big honor to me, and I hope we’ll keep on making big NOISE in the competitions!

Interview:Daniel Hubmann – Orienteering Achievement of 2008

Congratulations with a fantastic season – and the award “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″! The orienteering community really appreciates your achievements this year. Can you find a special reason why you took the final step up on the podium this year?
Thank you! Of course it’s a great honor to me to be awarded. My season went really good, I had no problems during the last year. I guess that was really important to built up the self confidence. And of course the luck was on my side this year. in 2006 i just missed the woc gold by one second…

You actually got more than 50% of the votes – the next two – Thierry Gueorgiou and Michal Smola – both have around 10%. A very clear winner you are!
Wow, I’m surprised to see to this clear result! Thierry is still very famous in the orienteering world, and had a good season too. Of course it’s nice to feel many people think you deserved the gold medal.

We admired the way you kept being very satisfied with all your silver medals – at least that is what you said when asked. I guess there was some disappointment anyway – and a big relief when you got your WOC gold medal?
With the first silver medals in my career, I was very pleased. But of course, after 2-3 times, there was always a small disappointment, too. I just tried not to put too much pressure on my shoulders, and with every silver medal more, i realized the gold medal was coming closer…

What do your days look now, in the middle of winter?
The plan was to start the serious winter training in beginning of December. Unfortunately I have some problem with a small knee injury right now, so I can’t train to much at the moment.

How are your plans for the rest of your preparations for next year. Have you made any big changes compared to this year?
I have made no big changes. The last years I had always the same style of training, and it worked. So there is no reason for a big change…

Have you got any final words to all your fans out there?
It’s really nice to have such support from all the orienteering people. Thank you very much for all this votes!

About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – are organizing a poll to name “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″. The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented. The poll is sponsored by Trimtex. See all nominees in the initial press release.

… got nearly to the top in the “Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ – both getting the second place in the women and men category, respectively. Vroni König Salmi had the comeback of 2008 in international orienteering with her silver medal in the WOC 2008 Middle Distance – an achievement valued highly by the orienteering community, giving her 23.7 % of the votes in the womens class. In the mens class, Thierry Gueorgiou shared the second position with 9.9 % of the votes for taking his 5th WOC Middle distance gold medal in six years – defending his title “The King of Middle Distance” yet again.

Tomorrow the winners of the “Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ will be presented, along with their comments to the results. For now, you can reread the interviews with König-Salmi and Gueorgiou here:

• Interview Vroni König-Salmi. Nominated for comeback of the year with her silver medal in the WOC 2008 Middle Distance – 19 years after her debut in Sweden in 1989.
• Interview Thierry Guergiou.Nominated for taking his 5th WOC Middle distance gold medal in six years: The King of Middle Distance managed to defend his throne again!

Results – Orienteering Achievement of 2008

Lucky Linkers

At least 29 different web-pages have linked to the poll – spreading it to all of the international orienteering community. The 5 websites winning sponsored ads at World of O and Ultimate Orienteering are presented in an article at Ultimate Orienteering. Thank you to everybody helping to spread the news!

Nominees “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″

An interesting observation regarding the shared second position of Michal Smola: Voting closed December 9th at 24.00 CET. The last vote came in at 23.55 CET – only 5 minutes before the poll closed – going to Michal Smola, and bringing him up on shared second position!

The next two days the other athletes on the podium in the “Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ will be presented. You can reread the interviews with these two fine athletes – Hausken and Smola – here:

• Interview Anne Margrethe Hausken. Nominated for dominating the Sprint distance in International Orienteering in 2008 with victories in all International Sprint races this year – including the World Orienteering Champs and the European Champs. Also a clear overall World Cup victory, after a total dominance at O-Ringen in Sälen – winning the World Cup already months before the World Cup Finals.
• Interview Michal Smola.Nominated for managing the big pressure at home ground – with his Silver medal on the WOC Middle distance becoming the first Czech man to take an individual WOC medal since the Gold Medals of Petr Kozák in 1991.

Results – Orienteering Achievement of 2008

Lucky Voters – Prizes from Trimtex

More than 5300 votes have been given in “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″ – with voters coming from 52 different countries! Thus, the winners are really named by the international orienteering community! Among all people voting, 10 prizes (Trimtex Extreme shirts and Trimtex Extreme pants) have been drawn. The “Lucky Voters” are presented in this article at Ultimate Orienteering – and will be emailed today. We would also like to thank Trimtex for making available the prizes.

Nominees “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″

Lucky Linkers

At least 29 different web-pages have linked to the poll – spreading it to all of the international orienteering community. We would like to thank the following sites for helping spreading the news:

• http://www.nivut.org.il/
• http://myopera.com/mathe.fanni
• http://morient.org.ua/golosov.html
• http://www.rsp.lv/okrsp/
• http://orientovar.blogspot.com/
• http://www.suunnistus.net/
• http://www.orient.r52.ru/
• http://www.emilianocorona.it/
• http://www.erikholmberg.nu/
• http://orientovar.blogspot.com/
• http://www.swiss-orienteering.ch/
• http://www.orientacnibeh.cz/
• http://kondis.no/index.php?akt=orientering
• http://www.opn.no
• http://kolmardencats.wordpress.com/
• http://amhausken.com/
• http://my.opera.com/tiagor/blog/
• http://www.kart-bosse.se/idrefjall/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=8&Itemid=33
• http://www.orientering.dk/
• http://my.opera.com/chissick/blog/2008/12/01/world-of-o-poll
• http://www.myopera.com/emakrai
• http://www.simoneniggli.ch/
• http://moscowcompass.ru/
• http://lpu.cz/
• http://morient.org.ua/
• http://www.o-news.net/
• http://britishorienteering.org.uk
• http://huhsara.blogspot.com/
• http://okansas.blogspot.com/

Tomorrow the 5 websites winning sponsored ads at World of O and Ultimate Orienteering will be presented.

• Follow this link to go to the voting page
• 10 prizes from Trimtex will be drawn among all voting

Nominees “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″

Rules and prizes for “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″

The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering. Prizes will be drawn among the voters:

1. A person can only vote once in each of the categories (if several people share one internet connection, only one can vote, as the IP address is used to identify the voter along with the email-address of the voter).
2. Among all people voting, 10 prizes (Trimtex Extreme shirts and Trimtex Extreme pants) will be drawn. We would like to thank Trimtex for making available the prizes.
3. The winners will be made public after the poll closes at World of O and Ultimate Orienteering.

Spread the news

Help making the poll as representative for the international orienteering community as possible! Spread the news about the poll, by publishing an article about the election on your website, and encourage people participating. Please use this link:

• http://poll.worldofo.com/poll2008.html (voting will be opened from here)

Of all websites with on average more than 50 visitors/day who link to the poll after it has been opened for voting, five websites will be drawn who will get a free “Sponsored Link” at either World of O or Ultimate Orienteering. Websites with on average more than 200 visitors/day will count triple when linking to the poll. Send an email to Jan@Kocbach.net with the sites address if you want to be part of this draw for free sponsored links. Sponsored links may be to any orienteering related page or product – must necessarily by the website drawn. Please use one of the following images when linking to the poll: