Interviews #5: David Andersson

David Andersson - winner of Croatia open 2009 We made interview with one of great Swedish orienteering potential David Andersson. Wining gold at EOC relay in 2006, silver in WOC 2007 and gold in NOC 2009. One of most serious threats for wining gold medal next year in Trondheim. Also a Junior World Ski Orienteering Champion and overall winer of Croatia open 2009!

Hello David,
Now, when the season of orienteering runing 2009 is over, are you satisfy with it? What would you change if you had a chance?

I´m very happy with my season and don´t want to change anything. I performed well at the competitions where I wanted to be good. I´m also very happy that I could take part in almost whole season since I´ve been struggling with a lot of injuries in the last years.

How did you technically prepare for WOC 2009? Were you training on a similar terrains or did you just focus on basic technique skills and trained in non-karst terrain (for ex. in Sweden)?

For me the most important thing is to be mentally prepared for the WOC, but of course I tried to focus a lot on trainings in relevant terrain. The swedish pre-camps in Hungary and a traingweek in Karst-terrain in Croatia, made me feel confident in my technical skills.

Do you think that your visit to Croatia and Slovenia helped you in your performance during WOC 2009?

Yes for sure. I think it´s important to visit lots of different parts of terrain and my choice visiting Croatia was an important week in my preparation.

Some orienteers think that orienteering maps in Croatia are not drawn in best quality. What do you have to say about that? What is your opinion about map drawing standard in Croatia (expecialy in Croatia open)?

I think the map quality in this year of Croatia Open was really good. Especially I liked the middle distance map in National park Risnjak. That map was really a technical challenge.

How did you handle on Croatian karst and what do you think was the main chalenge on this terrains?

I think the main challenge is to read the map intensive and in the same running fast in the stony ground.

Could you explain us some of your basic philosophy of orienteering technique training? – Do you focus on runing without mistake, simplyfication, compass or is it something else?

I´m trying to do most of my technical trainings in full speed and as similar as possible like competitions. I also try to focus orienteering-training in shorter sessions like 20-25 min and a lot of controls.

How did the winter phase of your training go so far and what is your plan for next year?

My training works until now as I planned. I´m doing a lot of longruns in deep snow and trying to focus on strengthtraining. Now I´m also already at my third trainingcamp with crosscountryskiing since 1 november.

How much hours do you spend training per year and what amount of it is orienteering?

Actually I´m not sure how many hours I trained last year, but I think it´s around 550. I think around 150 hours was orienteering.

Are you satisfy with it?

Yes I am.

What is the goal for the Swedish national team for next year by your opinion? Do you think that Sweden could win gold in WOC men relay after years of waiting?

In this year we had a team with really good chance to win and I think we are, as team, better prepared for a WOC in Trondheim.

What is your personal goal in orienteering for the future?

My goal is to win middle and long distance at WOC in Trondheim.

You are selected for Swedish national team for WOC 2010. How will you tehnicly prepare for Trondheim and what will be the bigest challenge on that type of terrain?

I will spend around 5 weeks in Trondheim from now to WOC. The terrain where I live in Sweden is little bit similar to Trondheim so I think I can prepare also at home. For me the biggest challenge is to not get injured.

Do you have problems with injuries, and if yes, how do you handle with it? Do you have special training sessions to prevent them or...

In last years I've had a lot of problems with my feet and achilles. In this years I´ve learned that you have to use your imagine to find out the best ways for training even if you can´t run. Almost with every injury you can find good training sessions and if you can motivate yourself, the way back to your level before the injury is close.

Will you visit Croatia again?