Presentation Venla Niemi
November 14, 2008 by Niels-Peter Foppen
Venla Niemi surprised herself winning the gold medal at JWOC middle distance in Gothenborg this year. Below Niemi 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 gold medal at JWOC middle distance in Gothenburg this year and her 5th place in W18 E at Oringen 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 Venla Niemi
World of Orienteering / Ultimate Orienteering – Give a short presentation of yourself.
Venla Niemi - My name is Venla Niemi and I’m 18 years old. I live in Tampere, Finland and I’m studying in sports high school. My orienteering club is Tampereen Pyrintö, and I’ve orienteered in Pyrintö since I was 6 years old.
WoO / UO -What was the highlight of the 2008 season for you?
V N -The absolute highlight of the 2008 season for me was the victory of Junior World Orienteering Champions in the middle distance, in Gothenburg. My performance was almost perfect just when it needed. Though it was a big suprise and I hadn’t really dreamed of it, it felt super, maybe because it was my first (and only, so far) gold, or any medal in JWOC.
WoO / UO – What is your thought about being nominated for the orienteering achievement of 2008?
V N – I’m very happy and grateful for this nomination! But also humble, because this kind of stuff is very new for me.
WoO / UO – What are your main goals for the future?
V N – My main goals in the future are JWOC 2009 & 2010, in Italy and Denmark. Both times I want to be able to fight for medals, but ofcourse the performance should be very well done before you can think about ranking, that’s what I’m thinking. I also would like to rise women’s first team in some of the big club relays of the next few years, Tiomila or Venla-relay.
WoO / UO – Where is your favourite place to orienteer – where you would advice our readers to travel?
V N – I participated last year Midnattssolgaloppen in northern Norway, Tromso and Bjerkvik, and those were the very best terrains I’ve been so far! Unbelievable beautiful landscape, and when you once got yourself up on the hill, it was only downwards till the finish. I liked it so much, and I want to go there sometimes again.
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?
V N – My toughest training week in 2008, if don’t count any training camps, was maybe 10.-16.3. There were some weeks with more hours than this, but I think this week was the hardest.
Monday: 115’ slow running on the small paths, plus couple of leaps.
Tuesday morning: Intervalls on the track 2*6*200m, about 40 sec each.
Tuesday evening: Uphill road training, 4 times. 1. 7.45min (avg 161), 2. 7.29 (avg 166), 3. 6.57 (avg 174), 4. 6.20 (avg 179, max 192)
Wednesday: Orienteering training on the streets of the suburb.
Thursday: Light run 60’, with 50, 100, 200, 100, 50m speedups.
Friday morning: Muscle and leap training.
Friday evening: Flexing, some speedups and some abs training
Saturday: Trial run 7,5km 35.21min. Very much ascent.
Sunday: Skiing 130’
I think this week impacted for example heavily to my uphill running skills, which was useful in Gothenburg.
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?
V N – As I wrote, I’m studying in sports high school, which means that we have three trainings at school per week, every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday morning. This helps me to do more exercises all winter, and besides to do my studies well enough. I’ll study 4 years, and do in that time almost the same program my schoolmates are doing in 3 years, so maybe I could say I’m 75% student.
Last year my training hours were 385, and this year plan was about 410, but I just barely made 400 hours. Next year it should increase a bit again.
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?
S K -I ran my PB in 3000m last year, and it was 11.15 min.
I prefer running in the forest better than on road, because that’s what you do in competitions too. But here in Finland it isn’t very easy to run in the forest in the winter, because usually there is so much snow, and if you don’t have a light with you, you don’t see anything. So that’s why I have to be satisfied with roads in the winter, and forests only summer.
