Last year Olav Lundanes performed outstanding at Junior World Orienteering Championships 2007 in Dubbo, Australia. Lundanes gathered 2 golden medals (middle distance, long distance) and two silver medals (sprint, relay) in his final year as a junior participating the Junior World Orienteering Championships. This year he will be part of the Norwegian senior elite team.

Ultimate Orienteering spoke with him about his goals for the coming season.

We wondered how he combined orienteering on high level with study we asked him some questions about that first.

Ulimate Orienteering – Can you tell us something about your study and how you mange to combine study with orienteering on high level? Did you made arrangements with your university to train in optimal conditions?
Olav Lundanes – Last autumn I moved to Oslo to improve my trainings conditions. I started to study Maths at the University, at 33% of normal speed. So I can do what I want when I want. I only need to be present during the exams. But for the spring, I have some trouble with the examination period so I will take one other subject instead. Of course I will not get at good education when I do it like this, but for me is orienteering the most important. I want to focus on my training; i can always finish my education in a later stadium.

U O – What are your goals, as a member of the Norwegian senior elite team, for the 2008 season?
O L – My goals for the 2008 season is to gain a top-10 place at the World Orienteering Championships in Czech Republic. I also need to run good in European Orienteering Championships and in the World Cup to get qualified for the World Orienteering Championships. For the autumn my goal is to win a medal at the Norwegian championships.

U O – What discipline(s) (middle distance, long distance, sprint, relay) will you focus on the 2008 season?
O L – I will try to focus on all four distances also next year, because I believe that it is good for me to run many disciplines. But I believe the long distance suits me best, so I will focus a bit more on the long distance next year.

U O – You have participated the 1st trainings camp of the Norwegian senior elite team in Beito (Norway). Could you tell us something about the activities during the trainings camp?
O L – We had a nice weekend with a lot of skiing and some running. The focus for the week was to get some good winter training, with high and low intensity trainings, and to meet each other after some time. Every morning we went out skiing for 2-3 hours. At Thursday evening we run a 6,5 km up-hill test. At Friday evening we run a 30 min long o-course. But it was a lot of snow, so we only ran at the roads. Some kind of routechoise training. At Saturday evening we had intervals inside the sports hall with some map training during the rests. At Sunday we went for 3-4 hours of skiing. And of course we had a lot of meetings about World Orienteering Championships, maps and next trainings.

U O – You also will participate the 2nd trainings camp of the Norwegian senior elite team in Portugal during the POM 2008. Have you been in Portugal before and what are you expectations of POM 2008?
O L – I have never been in Portugal before, this will be my first time at POM. I do not have big expectations of POM, because it is still very early in the season. I am not sure if I will run all four days at full speed, but I hope to run some good technical races.