TRAILO.IT - http://portugueseorienteeringblog.blogspot.it: OLE JOHAN WAALER
The Portuguese Orienteering Blog invited Ole-Johan
Waaler today to say something about his experience and
feelings in trail orienteering. Born in 1942 and living
in Porsgrunn, he shared with us his ideas about our
sport.
When we take a look at the history of the participation
of Norway in the World Trail Orienteering Championships,
we can see that, since 2004, the name Waaler is on it.
Ole-Johan, Lars Jakob, Kjetil... Please, tell me what
does it mean to the Waaler family, to belong to the
Trail Orienteering family?
Ole-Johan Waaler (O.-J. W.) -
Being involved in the trail-o-family
means a lot to us from Waaler family. We participate in
all competitions in Norway and we're also frequent
guests at competitions in Sweden. This has given us many
good friends in both countries. And we have been
fortunate enough to be participants or team leaders in
all international championships.
How did you start in Trail Orienteering?
O.-J. W. - I tried trail-o for the first
time at a Come-and-try at the O-ringen in 1990. I did
quite well and thought it was very fun. But we were very
active in the foot-o at that time. Next attempt was in
Norwegian O-festival in 2002. This year I participated
in another competition too. In 2003, I tried myself in
several competitions and Lars also tried. The following
year we participated full time and also Kjetil was with
us.
Four participations until now, a third place in 2007, in
Ukraine (Open Class) and – I'm sure – a bunch of
beautiful stories to tell. Can you mention a couple of
impressive notes about your presences in the WTOC until
now?
O.-J. W. - WTOC 2007 is,
of course, the best memory I save from these
championships. I was in 7th place after the first day
and when I saw the list of those that lay before me and
behind, the goal was to keep that place. And it was very
exciting, most of the best ones had missed a lot. But
even worse was that the scoreboard was picked down, they
had used the wrong
program.
But after a very long wait, it was clear, it was bronze.
Another great memory is when Kjetil, Lars and I took a
silver medal in the team competition in the ETOC in
Latvia in 2008. On the same year was organized Trail-o
for teams in the
Tiomila. There, we won with the same team. And
since it was only held once, we are the only winners of
the Tiomila Trail
Orienteering.
Talking about WTOC 2012, I can see that Norway was away,
for the first time, from the podiums. How did you see
your results?
O.-J. W. - There are many
countries with many good players so you must be skilled
and lucky in both
days. I see that our athletes missed the records
where there were several flags placed in the same
detail. In Scandinavia, we have moved completely away
from such items, one of the reasons may be that we have
little training on these tasks.
The best and the worst of WTOC 2012?
O.-J. W. - On the good
side, I will mention
the accommodation,
organization and terrain. Besides, TempO was good and
TrailO on the second day was good too. But, on the first
day, TrailO could almost be done without map reading and
it was a shame as it was a great terrain that should
have been better used. And also the Guidelines: trail
orienteering competitions demand skills of map reading
and terrain interpretation at all levels.
How do you see the present moment of Trail Orienteering
in general? How can we get more people to practice Trail
Orienteering?
O.-J. W. - TrailO will
never be a great sport, but it is quite clear that we
should be many more. There are many good map readers
that finished with foot-o still very young and that
could be good in Trail Orienteering. We must make an
effort to get more of these. This is the Elite Level.
For anyone who does not have this background and must
start at the very bottom when it comes to map reading,
we have several classes at the simpler level. Here it
might work better with different organizations that have
a disability.
In July, we'll have a new President in the International
Orienteering Federation. Would you like to leave a
message for him?
O.-J. W. - The British
candidate was an assistant under WTOC and spoke warmly
of TrailO. To him I say: Keep it up. The Danish
candidate must make a greater effort if he is elected.
The Danes would, in fact, not have the TrailO in the
union. TrailO in Denmark is organized by the Danish
handicap league. To him, I would say: Make sure the
TrailO will be treated in par with FootO, MTBO and SkiO.
TrailO or TempO?
O.-J. W. - Both. I think
both are equally fun, even if there are different
challenges. In the long run, I believe that countries
can have different layers in TrailO and TempO. Even now,
I see that some have better talent for TempO. But do not
make the tasks of the TempO too difficult, TempO should
be done at full speed.
Portugal, ETOC 2014. What kind of event can we expect,
knowing that Portugal, at the moment, has no experience
in Trail Orienteering? Are you curious?
O.-J. W. - I have been at
the Portugal O' Meeting six times, in different parts of
Portugal. And every time I come home and I said to the
others: “It would be fun to have TrailO there”. I have
only good experiences at the Portugal O' Meeting, good
organizations, good terrains and good maps. I'm sure
this ETOC 2014 will be a positive experience for the
participants. I will do my best to be one of the six
from Norway, but age does not play on my side. Hopefully
I can be a team leader, or just a supporter.
Joaquim Margarido
