THIERRY GUEORGIOU RACES AND TRAINS IN ONTARIO FORESTS

Text and photos by Mike Waddington and Barb Campbell (Golden Horseshoe Orienteering)

Seven-time (and reigning) World Orienteering Champion and the King of International middle distance orienteering, Thierry (Tero) Gueorgiou, recently toured Ontario (or is that onTEROio?) with three countrymen including Francois Ganon (a former WOC bronze medalist). The one week visit to Ontario was part of a three week visit to North America for the Frenchmen with stops in New York City, Niagara Falls, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Lake Placid. The Flying Frenchman's visit is the first of several upcoming events where international orienteers will come to Ontario to race. In January, the Stars will host the Canadian Ski Orienteering Champs. The 2010 Canadian Orienteering Champs will be held near Ottawa in August, and GHO is hosting a World Ranking Event as part of the Golden Leaf Orienteering Fest in the Dundas Valley in October 2010.

Thierry, Francois Gonon, Matthieu Puech, and Jean-Baptiste Bourrin started their week in Hamilton with Golden Horseshoe Orienteering (GHO) as their hosts. Hamilton's close access to Niagara Falls, Toronto and numerous maps made for several days of good orienteering and tourism opportunities in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe region.

With less than 24 hours of rest following a grueling 26km race near New York City, Thierry and friends joined Canadian National team and Stars Orienteering (Waterloo) member Nick Duca for a re-running of last year's World Ranking middle distance race at Puslinch Lake. This terrain is typical Ontario 'moraine terrain' with mature forests and lots of small hills and in places intricate contour detail. The training was followed by a visit to Crawford Lake and the Hamilton Tiger Cats football game.

7-time World Orienteering Champion training at Puslinch Lake (maps above) near Waterloo

On Tuesday, the Frenchmen spent a day of training at Rocky Ridge near Milton Ontario. Rocky Ridge was the site of the 2006 North American Orienteering Championships and is typical Ontario limestone terrain. Flat terrain, with small features and plenty of rock. Thierry re-ran both the 2006 middle distance and long distance races. His comment to GHO members after the training was that the style of orienteering at Rocky Ridge is similar to that which will be tested at the 2011 World Orienteering Championships in France.

Rocky Ridge (Golden Horseshoe Orienteering). 2006 NAOC middle distance course.

Following the orienteering at Rocky Ridge, Thierry joined members of Golden Horseshoe Orienteering for running intervals as part of the club's weekly Tuesday Night Training (TNT). Despite a day in which the World Champ logged an impressive 4.5 hours of training he was still in a league of his own on the fast running along the Niagara Escarpment in Hamilton. Later that evening the French team members discussed at great length how their top elite racers 'made the geography smaller' by forming an elite training group in St. Etienne. Here the top orienteers train and race together throughout the year providing inspiration, motivation and support. Either  Hamilton or Ottawa would be excellent choices for a similar experiment if Canadian orienteering were to take this route.

L) Golden Horseshoe Orienteering training group with the World Champion (in middle) following Tuesday night intervals.

R) Jean-Baptiste (France)

In the middle of the week the French orienteers visited Niagara Falls and took in some training close to Hamilton including a re-run of the 2006 North American Sprint Orienteering Champs at McMaster University. Having already run the race before, Golden Horseshoe Orienteering members took the top four places with junior Serghei Logvin leading the way.

L) McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario) 2006 North American Champs sprint course. R) Limestone terrain near Hamilton, Ontario.

Route Gadget links to 2006 North American Orienteering Champs maps: Long, Middle, Sprint

Niagara Falls, Ontario

Thursday was a day for the World Champion and friends to tour Toronto (Canada's largest city).  After a visit to the CN-Tower, Gueorgiou led a presentation at a French college in downtown Toronto. Here he spoke to school children about the sport of orienteering. Several of Gueorgiou's team mates mentioned later in the day that Thierry takes his role of idol and ambassador of the sport very seriously. The children were treated to a great presentation with many asking for his autograph afterwards.

Thierry Gueorgiou leads a presentation at a French college in Toronto

A quick ferry ride to the Toronto Islands and a long easy run with vistas of the Toronto waterfront and some sprint orienteering training were in store for the group.The Toronto Islands map  was surveyed earlier this year for the Toronto Orienteering Club Urban orienteering series - Why Just Run?  The World Champion mentioned the importance of urban maps for racing at a fast pace and for training for the country's elite racers. The day finished with a visit to the Air Canada Centre and a Toronto Raptors pre-season NBA game.

Toronto Islands sprint orienteering map (Toronto Orienteering Club).

Matthieu Puech and Thierry orienteering on the Toronto Islands with the CN Tower and Toronto's waterfront in the background.

THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION 

Following a visit and boat tour of Ontario's Thousands Islands region on the St. Lawrence River, Thierry visited the National Capital region (Ottawa and Gatineau) and along with his countrymen raced in the Ottawa Fall Orienteering Festival. The weekend marked the 40th birthday for the host Ottawa Orienteering club and an opportunity to race head-to-head with the World's best orienteer on a sprint, middle and long distance race.

Ottawa, Ontario

The weekend kicked off with the middle distance and the World Champion didn't disappoint leading a French sweep of the top four at Lac Beauchamp. The World Champion's margin of victory was a full three minutes ahead of Francois Ganon and over 6.5 minutes faster than the top Canadian, Eric Kemp from Ottawa OC.

Francois Gonon finishing the Lac Beauchamp (Ottawa OC) middle distance race near Ottawa.

Following the middle distance the sprint race was held at Carleton University. Francois Ganon was the winner of the sprint in a time of 12:10, eight seconds ahead of Thierry.  Once again the French team members took the top four places. Fifth place (and top Canadian) was Sergehi Logvin from GHO (over 1.5 minutes behind Gonon). The campus setting gave spectators a good appreciation for the running speed of the World's top elite racers. The largest cheer, however, did not go to the race winner or the multi World Champion. It went to home town heroine Emily Kemp. Emily Kemp, at the age of 17, raced in the elite men's category in all three races on the weekend. Her 24th place at the Junior World Orienteering Championships is the best ever by a North American.

Thierry negotiates the final steps in the finish of the Ottawa Fall Festival sprint race at Carleton University.

Following the sprint race  Gueorgiou made a presentation about his orienteering career. It was an inspirational presentation where he discussed his dream of being a World Champion and the steps he took to achieve that goal many, many times. His approach to map simplication was especially interesting to the audience. Some highlights of the presentation:

1) Make your training more like your racing. That way, when you're racing, it will feel as if you've already done it lots of times. In addition to physical training, that could include map study of a particular type of terrain.

2) A lot of orienteers know where they were 30 seconds ago or where they are right now. It's better to be visualizing where you're going to be in 30-60 seconds.

3) "There is one best route for each person"

Visibility plays a big part in Thierry's planning. He thinks about what he's going to be able to see from where and uses that information to help plan his routes. He had to learn to simplify maps, and now he has a philosophy of running fast and making fewer mistakes by aiming for something near the control that will be visible. He runs fast toward it right from the start of the leg, even though he won't necessarily see it until later. Many people wait until they can see something before they start running quickly toward it, but if they had confidence, they could be running quickly much of the time. Good presentation and lots of food for thought, especially for some of Canada's top  juniors at the presentation.

Thierry Gueorgiou leads an inspirational presentation at Carleton University

The final day of the World Champion's visit to Ontario was the long distance race at Lac Phillippe in the Gatineau Park near Ottawa. Once again Thierry was in a class of his own winning the race by almost 19 minutes and  over 26 minutes ahead of the top Canadian Mike Smith (Falcons). The Ottawa weekend provided Canadians not only a great opportunity to see the World Champion in action but to also preview next year's Canadian Orienteering Championships - also to be hosted in Ottawa.

Orienteering in Ontario in 2010!

Winter: Canadian Ski Orienteering Championships in Wasaga Beach (January 23-24)

Spring: Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Giant's Rib Raid in Niagara (April 10)

Summer: Canadian Championships in Ottawa (August 18-22)

Autumn 2010:  Golden Leaf Orienteering Fest and World Ranking Event in Hamilton (October 9-11)

Thierry with members of Canada's National Orienteering team.

Orienteering Ontario, Golden Horseshoe Orienteering, Toronto Orienteering Club, Stars Orienteering Club and Ottawa OC would like to thank Thierry, Francois, Jean-Baptiste and Matthieu for their visit to Ontario.