O-Ringen Magazine Nr 2 - 2023.

Community, club feeling
and varied challenges
– that’s what O-Ringen is really about
I have seen many things in the world of sport, but getting
to stand on top of the podium after a stage of O-Ringen
beats most of them. The fact that this was in the
H21C class and was 42 years ago really doesn’t matter.
Orienteering is sport at its very best.
Every time I’m out in the forest walking Xavi, our wire-haired Jack
Russell terrier, the memories come flooding back. I look over at the
crag on the far side of the marsh, imagining a red and white control
kite at its foot, or on the north side of the marsh. Sometimes
I take a few quick steps in from the road or ski track, pretending I
have a map and compass in my hand, and that I’m heading straight
for a control only I can see.
For me, orienteering competitions were never that simple. I
often wandered round searching for the right control, turned the
map the wrong way, ran too quickly or too slowly and made such
huge mistakes that I’d promise myself that never again would I
venture out into an unfamiliar wilderness. Only to then find myself
at next Tuesday’s club training race, paying the token start fee,
drawing the course onto the map and throwing myself back into
the forest.
I did every sport you could think of, growing up in northern
Småland in the 1970s and 80s. Football, athletics, skiing, bandy,
table tennis, volleyball, shooting – and orienteering. There was
something special about orienteering. The feeling of fellowship in
that big orienteering family was unbeatable. I loved being close to
nature, the freedom, the suspense ahead of the competition itself
and then chatting about our races and route choices afterwards.
I still have a big box of old maps at my parents’ home in Södra
Vi, about 10km north of Vimmerby. My routes are drawn onto
Anders Lindblad, in red, discusses route choices with dad Kurt and cousin Ove
Lindblad. Photo: private.
them in blue pen. There aren’t many lines going straight to the controls.
They were mostly wiggling and circling at the side of them.
The best thing was O-Ringen each summer
The best thing about orienteering was O-Ringen each summer, or
as we called it, the Five Days. The first time my cousin Ove and I
went – we were pretty much joined at the hip in those days – was
when the competition was held in Skåne in 1974. Two years previously,
the forests of Småland had been invaded by runners, not
far from Vimmerby – I remember that one stage was held near the
farm where the Emil of Lönneberga films were shot. That competition
left a big impression on me and the Five Days was something I
wanted to be part of.
Skåne 1974 where Brösarp’s hills made for a tough stage,
Stockholm 1975 with Västerhaninge as a competition centre,
Västergötland 1978, when Ove and I were just as interested in the
girls from OK Hammaren in Sandviken as the orienteering itself
(when we arrived home we were quickly convinced to ride our
mopeds from Vimmerby to Sandviken and back just to see them
again) and then Hälsingland 1981.
My greatest sporting memory
It was there, at Stage 3, where I achieved the greatest victory of
my life. I ran in class H21C, so the class below Elite, A and B, but
competition was still tough. I remember, there were over 300 of us
runners competing for victories and podium places, and I had an
almost perfect race on Stage 3.
Winning a stage meant that my friends in Vimmerby OK made
a victory wreath that the hung round my neck at our camp, where
the VOK flag was flying high and the mood was wonderful, with
plenty of jokes, unity and camaraderie across all age and gender
boundaries. At the official prize giving I got to stand on the top of
the podium. I remember that I won a rain jacket and a wooden
Hälsinge key. I felt proud, happy and grateful. Later that evening,
all of us in Vimmerby OK got together to eat at our camp. I’ve forgotten
the stories but I’m sure that Lasse, Mats, Ove, Jerry, Roger,
Agneta, Bengt, Mats-Lennart and the rest of us discussed route
choices, maps, terrain and life in general before eventually ending
up on the dance floor.
A newspaper clipping from Vimmerby Tidning, which my
mother Kerstin has saved, describes how I hadn’t manage to get
in touch to report on my own stage win that day. I’d just started
a part-time job as a sports reporter at Vimmerby Tidning and
probably thought it was a bit embarrassing to phone in and tell
them about my win. This was in the time before mobile phones
and the internet, when journalists used old-fashioned landlines.
I can imagine that finding a telephone on a campsite in Hälsingland
probably wasn’t all that easy, either. But the article about my
victory headlined the sports pages in Vimmerby Tidning. Neither
before or since has it been the case that my achievements were seen
The wreath made by Vimmerby OK clubmates after winning a stage of H21C in
1981. Photo: private
to be the biggest event of the day.
I went out in third place in the chasing start on the final stage, a
position I held to the finish. Finishing third at O-Ringen, no matter
which class it was in, is one of my best sporting memories. This when
I’ve worked as a journalist for Svenska Dagbladet at nine Olympic
Games, lots of World Championships including football, athletics, skiing,
handball and other big adventures, like the Dakar Rally in Africa,
the Australian Open in tennis and the Masters in golf.
Among honours and international medals
I’ve even reported on the World Orienteering Championships,
when they took place in the forests outside Västerås in 2004 and
Karolina A Höjsgaard won gold in the long distance. The orienteer
who I’ve written most about, however, is Tove Alexandersson, who
in 2019 also won the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal as only the
second orienteer ever after Annichen Kringstad in 1981.
For the last ten years I’ve been part of the jury deciding on a
recipient of the annual Gold Medal. In my role as secretary – and
as a sports columnist for Svenska Dagbladet – I’m the one who
nominates candidates, is involved with most aspects of awarding
the medal and I even get to vote for the eventual winner. It is a
privilege to be part of the Swedish sports prize that’s most steeped
in tradition and, as a former orienteer, of course I have highlighted
Tove Alexandersson’s successes over the years. Annichen Kringstad
has also been part of the jury for as long as I have.
Comeback at Smålandskusten 2024
It feels very exciting and appropriate for O-Ringen to be coming
to Småland in 2024. I’m sure that every competitor will be looked
after very well and the courses will be both challenging and enjoyable.
The terrain will be varied, from detailed coastal terrain to
heavier-going Småland forest. It will be challenging, both physically
and technically.
I haven’t competed at a single orienteering event since O-Ringen
1983, when Anderstorp in Småland was the competition centre
for almost 25,000 competitors. Annichen Kringstad – who else! –
and Håkan Eriksson won the elite classes that year, while I mostly
Camping at O-Ringen. Lars-Göran Johansson, cousins Anders and Ove Lindblad
and Mats Johansson. Photo: private
drifted around with little idea what I was doing. I can’t remember
where I ended up on the results, but that isn’t really what O-Ringen
is about. It’s the camaraderie, club atmosphere, varied challenges,
post-race discussions each evening and the Spartan camping and
campervan lifestyle that really make the Five Days what it is.
When I think back on all the joy that orienteering, and above
all O-Ringen, has given me, perhaps it would be fitting to make a
comeback with a map and compass at Smålandskusten 2024. Will
there be a C class in H65?
Anders Lindblad outside the Vimmerby OK clubhouse. Photo: private.
Anders Lindblad
Sports columnist at Svenska Dagbladet, secretary
of the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal committee
and one-time member of Vimmerby OK.
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