The recent 25manna 2nd place finisher and Jukola 2017 winner IFK Göteborg arrived last week directly from the 25manna to the rainy Hollola and its depression terrains. The program included altogether four trainings and one of them was a mass start training with Tampereen Pyrintö runners.
There were four runners from this summer’s winning team and a total of 12 from which two were women. The group also included one of their brightest stars – Eskil Kinneberg. In addition to the Jukola victory, the Norwegian was also part of the winning team in WOC relay in Estonia.
It felt like he knew he’s way in the depression terrain as well, as he was clearly the fastest in Santaveräjä’s mass start training. It took 44 minutes for him to pass the dark and rainy 6.5 km course. From this rather high level group, only three men beat 50 minute marker.
According to Eskil, depressions are not very familiar to Swedish or Norwegian orienteers, but one can find some terrains for training also closer to home. The desire to win 2nd Jukola in a row is hard and that’s why they will probably come for a training camp in the spring too.
But latest the Jukola week, those familiar blue-and-white colors are to be seen training next to the Jukola terrain Hälvälä. There will be some extra excitement this time when defending the title from Eno. According to Eskil, that victory came somewhat as a surprise, as the original plan was to win earliest in Hollola. This all says that in June, a team from West Gothland will be ready to retake the title.
Juha Hirvonen, text
Kimmo Hirvonen, photo & translation from Finnish