TRAILO.IT - http://portugueseorienteeringblog.blogspot.it: ZDENKO HORJAN
Zdenko Horjan,
41 years old, lives in Zagreb,
Croatia and is a programmer. There you are, in
brief, the ID card of someone who claims that
will
be in Trail-O “as long as I can see good enough and
move or someone can push me in a wheelchair”.
I would like to start asking you for some good
memories that you keep until now.
Zdenko Horjan (Z. H.) - The best memory is my
first silver medal which I won at WTOC in Olomouc,
Czech Republic. That was my first WTOC and nobody
expected anything, so it was a big surprise. Then
again, at WTOC in Trondheim, Norway, it was very
exciting when we realised that our team could win a
bronze medal. We didn't really expect to win a medal
in Norway with all the Scandinavian teams present,
but we did it. :-)
Can we talk about "evolution", when we look at the
past ten years of Trail-O?
Z. H. - Yes, of course. Many things have
changed: some rules, control settings... And some
new interesting things came up, like TempO. In my
opinion, most changes were good and some were not,
but that is how evolution works. And I think this
process is still going on, because TrailO is young
enough and there is plenty of room for further
development.
What impressions do you keep from these World
Championships?
Z. H. - I think it was pretty hard,
especially because the map wasn’t so perfect in some
parts, but it was very interesting and nice tasks.
The best and the worse of WTOC 2012 was…
Z. H. - The worse thing in Trail Orienteering
is when you have some complaints and you have to
cancel a control point which affects the results. I
don't like when that happens, but I know it is very
difficult to make a perfect map with which everyone
will be happy. And the best is to be here and meet
so many nice people. And also the accommodation,
where all the teams stayed at the same place and
competitors were able to meet, share experiences or
just hang out together after the competitions, was
perfect!
How is it, to do Trail Orienteering in Croatia?
Z. H. - We are still a small group of people
and therefore we have problems with organizing more
TrailO events, but we cooperate and compete a lot
with Slovenia and also with Italy, so this way we
are improving and that is how we managed to get some
good results at international level. We’re growing
slowly, but we’re on the good way.
How can we get more people doing Trail
Orienteering?
Z. H. - I think that for those who know
Orienteering already - and I’m talking mainly about
Foot Orienteering -, they think that Trail
Orienteering is a little bit boring, there is not
enough adrenalin. Maybe TempO is good for them. And
for people from outside Orienteering, it’s a little
bit hard to explain them the rules, how to read
maps, all the details and the tricks of Trail-O. So
it can be really difficult to start to enjoy the
sport and to have their attention, but we should
keep trying and not making too difficult tasks for
the beginners at the competitions.
And you, how did you start?
Z. H. - I was in Foot Orienteering since I
was 19 years old, but I was always more interested
in maps and less in running, so when I saw the first
TrailO demonstration in Croatia in 2004, I
immediately liked it a lot and I am in TrailO ever
since then.
In July we'll have a new President at IOF. Would you
like to leave him a message?
Z. H. - Well, I know FootO has much longer
history, but it would be very nice if IOF (at all
levels, from President down to all national
federations) would treat all four disciplines at
least equally, and even nicer if you could give
younger orienteering disciplines a little bit of
extra care and help them to develop, instead of
treating them as unwanted child.
What would you say to the people to come and try
Trail Orienteering?
Z. H. - Come and try. At the beginning it
could be a little bit hard to get to know the sport,
but later I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
Joaquim Margarido
