JROS Stockholm 2023

JROS Stockholm 2023

Tour report by Dan Heppell

This year I was selected for the JROS tour for M/W17s which runs in Stockholm, Sweden for 10 days. It was a great experience and offered top quality training and experience in some beautiful Swedish forest. Throughout the tour, we ran 14 different trainings, and 5 races. Of those 14 trainings, 13 were orienteering, 12 were forest, 1 was sprint in Stockholm city centre, and 1 was a forest intervals session. In total, I covered 112 miles with 12,500 feet of elevation gain. Most of this distance was acquired bashing through bilberry bushed, heather, or the odd very tangled plant that is found in most Swedish marshes. Throughout the week, my technique slowly improved as I got used to the terrain and the style of mapping. I did however make multiple very large mistakes over the course of the tour, resulting in some amusing GPS traces showing my unsuccessful attempts to find a specific little knoll in a marsh full of little knolls. The tour was reasonably intense, with trainings scheduled once or twice a day, but as I am predominantly a runner not a navigator, I found the technical side much harder as Swedish terrain is often vague and all looks very similar. I learnt some new techniques during my time there, which proved to be very useful and I am looking forward to implementing in races over the next year. We were based out of the OK Ravinen club hut, sleeping in a rather cramped and damp basement but we just about all squashed in. The hut was surrounded by technical forest, and a few days we trained from the hut. It was also only a short bus journey from the city of Stockholm, and we made extensive use of the Swedish public transport system throughout the tour, including buses, trains, trams and ferries. As a born and bred Cumbrian, I was very surprised at the speed and efficiency of the transport system which was very useful and well used by the locals. Probably my favourite training was the first Thursday evening training, which was short o- intervals of 2-4 controls in a forest near the club hut. We ran all 8 of these as a mass start, and it was really fun to race the others head to head as well as a certain Ralph Street who joined in. I was happy with my performance on this training as I finished in the top 3 consistently except for 1 rep where I made a medium mistake and got dropped by the train. I lead 2 loops from the front and came back first on 3. On the second Friday of the tour we visited Swedish theme park Gröna Lund, where I braved the least excited rides that kept me closest to the floor, but some of the juniors less fond of having their feet below their heads did the larger faster rollercoasters. It was a great outing however as there was plenty to do there, and we ended up acquiring 2 soft toy sharks now named Bread Martin and Salt (it’s a long story). All the coaches were very helpful for the duration of the tour, in planning courses, hanging kites, managing 19 teenagers, cooking, and so much more. I would also like to thank all the sponsors and funders of the tour for various grants that made it possible. I would thoroughly recommend the tour to any juniors aspiring to be selected for it, but I would also warn that for any athletes who do little physical training they are likely to pick up injuries or to overtrain on the tour. It’s a great chance to gain international experience in some of the best terrain in the world, and to essentially spend 2 weeks living with your friends.

01st Sep 23