In the messages of orienteering’s Jukola and Venloje, top athletes and fitness athletes are put in the same competition, which can lead to strange encounters, writes sports reporter Paavo Forsberg.
Paavo Forsberg sports journalist
Jukola’s night is full of stories and coincidences. This is what happened to me the night before Sunday in the forests of Kauhava.
On the second part of the panel, I think I was setting a pretty good pace – somewhere on the weaker side of one thousandth place – when a somehow familiar-looking figure in an orange and white shirt whizzed by.
A couple of minutes later, I was stamping with my own crosshairs, when the same man appeared from somewhere and asked:
– Can you show me where we are?
– Uh, here, I answered and pointed to a tick on my map.
The guy thanked and went on his way. I looked at the number plate on the receding back. Team number nine, section three.
The result service reveals that it was OL Norskan Daniel Hubmann. The nine-time world champion brought his team to the exchange in third place.
Did I save the star navigator from the decisive big bomb? Hard to say. In any case, the situation encapsulates the special nature of the Jukola weekend.
When elites and fitness people are put in the same competition, strange encounters can arise. I’m sure I’m not the only fitness person who has dealt with a top athlete.
Soon after the Hubmann situation, the top of the third part started to pass properly. The speed of the peaks on rocks, bushes and swamps was unbelievably hard for a basic cyclist, and you don’t get a decent idea of it from television pictures.
So I got to watch the elite of the sport at work from the field during my own performance vacation.
Jukola’s and Venloje’s messages can be said to be unique sporting events.
Where else can an ordinary enthusiast measure his level against the best in the world, see the top fight from a close distance and maybe even influence the course of the race in some way?
Doesn’t immediately come to mind.