Having claimed three Jukola relay victories in a row, Kalevan Rasti has a chance to become the lone number one in the statistics of consecutive wins on Sunday morning. At the moment, Tampereen Pyrintö shares the first place with its triple in the beginning of 1960’s.
At least the starting point for rewriting Jukola history is excellent. Even though one of their stars, Fabian Hertner, runs in Jukola for the OLV Baselland team – gathered out of mostly Swiss runners – and the Finnish national team member Aaro Asikainen is only recovering from a knee operation, KR can still set pretty “big guns” on every leg. One factor leaning the situation in favour of KR are the rivals’ setbacks – Olav Lundanes of Halden and, possibly, Fredrik Johansson of IFK Lidingö not able to run in Jukola.
Kalevan Rasti took a third consecutive Jukola victory last year in Kuopio. Photo: Valtteri Vallittu.
Coach Antti Harju predicts an even race, as the terrain is quite impartial for everyone and the top teams are pretty well-matched on paper.
– The terrain probably isn’t any of the most extremely difficult one on the area, though there will certainly be challenging control legs in detailed areas and slopes. The map will be good, as it’s made by Jussi Silvennoinen. The mapping style is familiar to us but also foreigners who mostly train on Jussi’s maps in Finland, says Harju.
KR held its actual Jukola camp in mid-May, and single athletes have held their own camps either alone or in small groups. They’ll arrive in the spot a couple of days prior to Jukola to make the last trainings in relevant terrains. Nevertheless, more significant than actual trainings are psychological things.
– We examine old maps and speculate about the courses. Usually we’ve succeeded well with this and haven’t faced any surprises in the race itself. However, most important in preparation in the mental side. Naturally, we have on our side the fact that we know what it takes to win Jukola relay, Harju reflects.
– Our aim is to make a solid team performance, where every man carries his responsibility and orienteers on his own level. After that, the result depends on other teams. And often the result has been excellent.
– Tavoitteena on tehdä ehjä joukkuesuoritus, jossa jokainen mies kantaa vastuunsa ja suunnistaa omalla tasollaan. Se on sitten muista joukkueista kiinni mihin riittää. Aika usein on riittänyt.
Unlike many rivals, Harju does not consider Kalevan Rasti as a clear favourite but one of several teams capable of winning.
– At least Halden, Lidingö, IFK Göteborg and Malung belong to that group, although the two first mentioned may not have the best guys in the team. Turun Metsänkävijät could be a dark horse, Harju concludes.
