TRAILO.IT PRESENT:
MARTIN JULLUM
(Interview
by Stegal)
Q: The first question is always the simplest: we are
interviewing you for what reason? Let me explain ... Are you a
player of football national team and at the same time a Chess
Grand Master? No, that was Simen Agdestein! Did you win an
edition of “Skal Vi Danse?” and you had some Grammy Award? No,
those were Madcon! But give me another chance... maybe are you
an orienteering champion? If so, tell us something about your
career, results... and about your life of course!
A: Yes, that's correct!. My name is Martin Jullum, I am 23 years
old and I am currently a master student at the
University of Oslo,
studying mathematical statistics. I compete in trailo for
Halden SK,
which is the club I have competed for my whole orienteering
career.
Q: Yes, I know that you are member of Halden Sk; when I has been
speaker at Andalusian O-Meeting 2011 I said that Halden SK is
like Real Madrid in football. Before you start thinking about
who can be FC Barcelona, tell us how it is to be teammates of
Olav Lundanes, Anne Margrethe Hausken, Emil Wingstedt, Galina
Vinogradova (and my friend Elena Roos too...)., and what they
say when they think being teammates of Martin Jullum!
A: I have never though of my club as the orienteering equivalent
of Real Madrid, but of course it is a "famous" club (If you may
call an orienteering club famous) with a great history and lots
of great runners. They are all great teammates, and their
achievements makes me want to improve even more, in my sport.
They also makes it more fun and interesting to watch 10-mila,
Jukola and the World champs when your friends and teammates is
in the top. I guess the runners are happy when they hear about
my performance as well. I always feel welcome and appreciated
when I come home to "Høiås", the club hut of
Halden SK.
Here there are trainings and socialization every Thursday all the
year round. Being part of this big orienteering family,
gathering the youngest children up to the absolute orienteering
elite along with the orienteering veterans of the club is really
special and gives me the extra boost I sometimes need.
By the way, I do think that Kalevan Rasti might be FC
Barcelona... (or maybe Selkien Sisu?)
Q: At the last WTOC, you won the Temp-O competition, but maybe
you were much more focused on Pre-O World Championship. Could
you tell us something about your experience at last WTOC?
A: I was of course much more focused on the actual World Champs.
I had prepared much for that competition. The way it turned out
with my individual result, especially the first day, I was
probably thinking too much. I did 3 mistakes, which I have
divided into three categories, one bad decision (Z on n. 2, day
1), one bingo control (D on n. 10, day 1) and one too quick
decision (A on n. 5, day 2). I am not happy with this result at
all, but I think my level as of August 2011 was just one more
point, (and probably quite a bit faster) - then I would have
been on the podium where I was the two previous years. With this
I mean that the current level of international trail-o is so
high that in my case, one bad decision is the difference between
a successful result and a disappointing result.
But even if my individual result was not the best,
the team competition went very well. We got the silver medal
which was way more than what we had ever hoped for. All the team
members (Lars Jakob Waaler, Arne Ask and me) did very good
performance on the second day, so it really was a team victory.
And I must say that beating
Sweden made the feeling even
better... :)
Q: Obviously, let us know something also about the Temp-O
competition and your astonishing victory with a fantastic
overall time (I did the same competition... my result has been
something more than one thousand seconds! Please don't comment
my result...)
A: Because I maybe did think too much the two previous days, my
tactics for the temp-o was to go back to the basics - to not
over-think, but make it simple. I also knew I had to speed up a
lot from the timed controls the previous days, when I used over
a minute both days. I had decided just to go for it this day. I
have learned that you can't win anything if you don't go for it,
especially when it comes to tempo. I was also much more relaxed
before this event than the world champs. Of course it was not
optimal to be sitting in a 2 hour queue before the start, but
this was the same for everybody.
I had such a great feeling through the whole course, I was
answering fast when I had made up my mind and managed to slow
down and to use the extra seconds when I was not sure at once. I
just did my thing and it went very well. After the finish I had
a feeling that this was a good competition with no idea that it
actually was as good as a winning race. Firstly, when the
results got up, I was in 3rd place, which I was really satisfied
with, but as I checked my score I could only find two mistakes,
not three which would give me the score on the result list. I
told the organizers and was of course very happy when they told
me that they made a punching mistake and I was the winner.
Q: I have to say you that I asked to the trainer Mr. Vinogradov
to became a member of
Halden SK...
he replied that I have to slim down a bit first ... This means
that all members of
Halden SK
are very strong, including the pre-o athletes as your example
shows? He is the trainer of Halden
SK: do you have a specific trainer in
Halden SK
for Pre-O? Do you collaborate together to increase your general
level? If so, what about the ability in Pre-O of Lundanes,
Hausken and so on...?
A: I do not have my own pre-o-trainer in Halden. Since I live in
Oslo
and I am not in Halden more than once or twice every second month
or so, so I don't train much together with my teammates. Of
course specific trainings arranged by someone in Halden would be
great for me, but as of know I think the knowledge of the skills
necessary to perform in pre-o is not good enough for me to gain
anything from such a simple training. Maybe we could work
something out in the future, for me to take the extra level up
to the
individual medals.
Of course some of the best elite orienteers also have good
abilities in pre-o. Emil Wingstedt won the first competition in
pre-o he entered. It was at O-ringen in Sälen 2008, when I was
more of a beginner. (I did however beat him later in the
week...); Olav Lundanes tried pre-o for his first time at
Norwegian Spring this spring, and also he did win, with all the
best Norwegians and Swedes at place. Now I just have to talk
Olav into trying pre-o again, so that he can be beaten.
Q: How do you train yourself to obtain those results in Temp-O?
Do you have a check list in your mind when you listen “Time
starts... now!”? Can you share with us your secrets?
A: I don't have any kind of list I go through for each control,
because I guess such a tactic would be too slow. I generally try
to read some of terrain before I get the map by looking at the
terrain as I enter the chair. I also check the direction of
north before I get into the chair, but I guess that tactic is
quite common. I have tried a few other techniques on time
controls/ tempo, but none of them with great success. I think
the most important is to psychologically find the "the flow".
Q: And, of course, how do you train in general for Pre-O
competitions? Do you also compete in Orienteering (intended as
traditional orienteering)?
A: My training consists mainly of competitions in
Norway and
Sweden
almost every weekend from April to October, with a little less in
the summer time. In total I compete in about 40 competitions a
year. I also plan a 2-day competition (Norwegian Spring) which
is held early in the spring. Planning this competition makes me
prepared for the season with lots of contact with the forest and
maps, even though arranging such a
competition requires a great effort and much of the work cannot
be "cashed out" in improved skills.
I used to do traditional orienteering, but I was forced to
retire five years ago, because of stomach problems making me
unable to train as I wanted to. I then discovered trailo three
and a halfs year ago, and have thus been stuck with this.
Q: Marco Giovannini, inventor of this website, is a strong
supporter of Temp-O; he believes that in the immediate or close
future, by number of participants or guarantee of spectacle,
Temp-O could or must take place of traditional Pre-O. What is
your opinion?
A: I personally like the traditional pre-o the most. Temp-O is
great fun and very demanding as well, but as the format and
course setting is not perfect for the discipline yet, I still
prefer the traditional one. The traditional pre-o-course is like
the long distance of regular orienteering, and hence the most
challenging and respected discipline, in my point of view.
I personally have a suggestion to make the format of temp-o
better: The suggestion is that the answer “Z” in temp-o needs to
be on different features, and I do not just want this to be in
some official guide line of temp-O, I want this to be a rule of
the tempo-competition that must be followed in IOF-competitions.
I think such a rule can prevent the course setters of the coming
world champs in temp-o from making marginal zeros. (say e.g. 60
degrees wrong by the side of a boulder.) zeros on the same
feature as the correct control will in most cases turn the
competition more into a guessing game than speed orienteering
competition.
Q: I don’t know if you read on www.trailo.it the interview made
by myself with Mr. Kucherenko, new World Champion in Paralympic
Class. Do you agree with the opinion of the Russian team about
the need of an Open Class or not?
A:
I don not agree with Russians. If there where no open class then
there will be none (or at least very few) that would want to
make courses and competitions. In
Scandinavia there are very few paralympic class
competitors, at least according to the new rules. If the
competitors not certified for the paralympic class had no World
champs to go to I am quite sure the whole sport would just die
out because of the lack of competitors. I honestly cannot see
one good argument for not allowing open competitors to compete
in
the World champs etc.
Q: At La Feclaz, I saw you talking with Marit Wiksell, the
younger competitor from
Sweden. I think you and Marit
are among the youngest competitors. What should be introduced in
Pre-O, or what has to become, to attract more young people?
A: Yes, Marit is actually my girlfriend, and I guess we are some
of the younger ones. Our Finnish friends Lauri and Antti is a
bit younger than the rest. To attract the young generation, I
think temp-o is the best way. Don't change anything, just get
better, more precise maps and organize tempo-competitions in the
same arena as a regular orienteering competition, and the
younger generation will come.
Actually, the 17 years old Norwegian Martin Waaler has taken
part in most competition along with his father Lars Jakob Waaler
the last few years. I think he is one of the youngest active
competitors, and he might very well qualify for the european
champs next year in
Sweden. Maybe we should ask him
why he keeps coming back all the time?
Q: Last question: in 2011 we had in Cavalese an edition of
National Championship with the swedish team. Do you think that
sooner or later you too will participate in a competition in
Italy? And what do you expect
from this?
A: I really want to compete more on the continent. I wanted to
go to Italy
this spring, but we also had a competition in
Norway
this weekend, so I choose that instead. The next year I will also
study only 66% of full time at the university, so I will have
more time to compete in other countries. If you have at least 2
competitions on a weekend with no other competition in
Norway or
Sweden I will definitively
consider going there already next year.
From Italian trail-o I would expect good maps where sighting
lines are the clue for solving quite a few of the controls.
