Presentation Timo Sild

November 11, 2008 by Niels-Peter Foppen

Timo Sild won the silver medal at the Junior World Champs long distance in Gothenburg this year. Below Sild is presented for the nomination “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″ through an interview made by World of O and Ultimate Orienteering.

Nominated for: winning the silver medal at JWOC long distance in Gothenburg this year. Also his overall victory in M-20 Elite at O-Ringen 2008.

About: Two of the major sources for international orienteering news on the Internet – World of O and Ultimate Orienteering – are organizing a poll to name “The Orienteering Achievement of 2008″ and “The Ultimate Junior Orienteer of 2008″. The winner in each category is decided in a vote amongst all the readers of World of O and Ultimate Orienteering after all nominees have been presented. Starting November 12th we present all nominees on a day-by-day basis. The poll is sponsored by Trimtex. Voting will be possible after all nominees have been presented from this page. See also all nominees in the initial press release.

Interview with Timo Sild

World of Orienteering / Ultimate Orienteering – Give a short presentation of yourself.
Timo Sild – I have been involved with orienteering all my life as both of my parents were active top-level orienteers. The first time I started to train seriously with real goals in mind was in 2001, up to then I hadn’t been doing much and had become physically very weak. With the help from the Jönsson family from OK Triangeln I’ve had the possibility to run in Scandinavia, which is an important prerequisite for having a good technical basis.

WoO / UO -What was the highlight of the 2008 season for you?
T S – I consider the 2008 season to be the most interesting season I’ve ever had. The two highlights of the season were of course the silver medal from long distance at JWOC and the overall win of O-Ringen. But furthermore, this season showed me how important mental preparedness can be in orienteering. At the JWOC relay I couldn’t handle the pressure of running together with another competitor on the last leg and lost a place on the podium. On the last day of O-Ringen after catching up with Pelle Engstrand, I started making huge mistakes. On the JWOC long distance I was so unsure of my orienteering abilities that I made a big mistake with the first control, losing hopes for a gold medal. So it is that the very same competitions that
give us the greatest achievements can also teach us the biggest lessons.

WoO / UO – What are your main goals for the future?
T S – The following are my goals for the upcoming season:

• a medal from middle and long distance Estonian Championships in the elite class
• be in top 30 on middle distance and in top 40 on long distance at WOC

WoO / UO – Where is your favourite place to orienteer – where you would advice our readers to travel?
T S – My favourite place to orienteer is Australia. It’s a pity that a plane flight to Australia takes such a long time. It wasn’t so much the 2007 JWOC that made appreciate Australian terrains, but probably the year I spent in Australia as an exhchange student in Adelaide. The local orienteers were very helpful and took me to all kinds of orienteering events around South-East Australia, as a result I saw how many interesting and demanding terrains Aussies have. And one other thing, I came to love 24h rogaining in Australia as well. All in all it was a great experience and I absolutely loved orienteering Down Under.

WoO / UO – Can you describe your thoughest training week in 2008 (day-by-day)? Did that have any specific impact for your great achievements in 2008?
T S – I love long trainings. I can quite often run 2h, swim 2h or ski 3h. I believe these trainings have helped me quite a lot in achieving my goals. The trainings that have helped me most are probably the 1h30min hilly
cross-country runs. I don’t remember what my toughest training week was like, but in my toughest month I had 60 running hours. In previous years I have not paid enough attention to strength and speed trainings, this is something to improve on in the future.

WoO / UO – Are you a professional orienteer? How many percent is your work/study that you do besides orienteering compared to a full position – and how many hours do you train each year?
T S – I study history and archaeology full time at Tartu University. Up till now I have managed to combine my studies with my trainings, although one has to make some sacrifices to make this combination work. Furthermore: studies come first, and then orienteering.

WoO / UO – In your training: Do you put priority on running in the forest or on the road/track? What is your PB in 3000m/5000m?

T S -My PB in half-marathon is 1:12:24. I haven’t run shorter distances for some years now and besides I mostly take part of cross-country running competitions. My goal is to run 10km under 30min, half-marathon with the time of 1h05min and marathon with the time of 2h20min.