And the winner is...

... IFK Lidingö SOK. They won the big orienteering event at Rudan today and are now the best team in the world. Around 9 000 athletes took part in the event called 25manna (relay and middle distance). It is one of the biggest relays in the world. The teams consists of 25 mixed runners. Young and old, men and women. Elite and beginner. The youngest will run a three km race, the older a nine km course through the forest in the nature reserve. Some more facts in English here: www.25manna.nu/en/

The Finnish Connection

Orienteering is a big sport in the Nordic countries. You have already seen the winners of the 25manna race, Halden from Norway. Today I will show you three photos with a Finnish connection. First up is Anni-Maija Fincke from the Finnish team Tampereen Pyrintö. Anni-Maija ran the last leg for her team, and they finished in second place. Pyrintö is the girl in the background. The girl in the foreground is Erica Andersson from Lunds OK. Second photo shows members of the Tampereen Pyrintö club celebrating and posing for the media . On the third photo you can see Juha from another Finnish club, Turun Suunnistajat, or if it is Turun Metsänkävijät. I met him as he was making his way back to his teams tent after he had finished his leg. Juha was very tired and had a bad hangover, not a good combination for an athlete I think!

Athletes of different age

The sport of Orienteering has been around since 1897. A good thing about the sport and especially the 25manna race is that athletes and runners of different age and gender can compete side by side. As proven on these three photos from the competition at the Fields of Nytorp in Västerhaninge on Saturday. On the first photo you can see a very tired runner from IFK Göteborg. His team finished in 33th position. Not bad considering that there were more than 300 teams involved this year. On the second photo you can see the sisters Emma and Hanna Björklund. They are members of the club OK Kåre in Falun. I met them after they had finished their leg. And as you can see they were not all smiles. It was a tough race and they made a few mistakes. I haven't been able to identify the runner on the third photo, but he represents OK Klyftamo from Götene, and they finished just outside the top 100.

For a look at all the results from the race press here.

We Are All The Winners!

This weekend more than 9000 runners competed in the annual orienteering race known as the 25manna. The name means that every team has to have 25 runners, and all teams have to consist of both men and women. This years race took place at Nytorps Ängar in Västerhaninge. It's the second time that Haninge has welcomed the elite runners. I have tried the sport as a teenager, in school, but quickly realised that running around in a forest with a map an compass is not for me. The weather was perfect on Saturday with sunshine and around 10 Celsius. I live only 5 kilometres away so I jumped on my bike and headed for the Fields of Nytopr. Elite teams from Sweden, Norway, Finland and a few other countries competed and believe it or not, but the first portrait I took was of four guys from the Norwegian team Halden. And a couple of hours after I met them they won the event! Seen here on the first photo are Pekka Itavuo, Søren Bobach, Marius Bjugan and Erik Axelsson but not necessarily in that order. On the second photo you can see the smiling Anne Margrethe Hausken who ran the last leg for the Norwegian club. Their combined winning time was 5 hours, 13 minutes and 34 seconds. On the third photo some of the winners are posing for the media. Over the next few days you can expect to see many more photos from this big event. Including a few portraits of the organizers, the many volunteers and of course a few portraits of the runners.