A fantastic spring season!

2019-06-26 Gustav Bergman

This spring season hase gone really well! I felt during the winter training that I was making good progress, and it has shown on the competitions so far this year. After finding some routines with Nore (parenthood have been an adjustment for sure, but he is an easy baby to keep happy, and I have so much help from Helena and my family), my training has worked great! The domestic season with Swedish League went very well for me, winning overall with three stage wins, one 2nd place, and one 3rd place, before I hurt my back really bad in the middle of May.

I have struggled with back issues for 10+ years, so this is nothing new for me, but this time it was worse than it has been for several years. Running was very difficult (some days impossible), and it was a couple of tough weeks before being back in normal training again. Luckily this happened in a period with less competitions, and I got the time I needed to recover.

Swedish sprint champs came perhaps a little bit too early for me, with my back still bothering me a bit (even though the worst pain was long gone), but it was a really good weekend to kick start my body ahead of the first World Cup round in Finland. I hadn’t really prepared for Finland much at all, my only focus the month before had been to get my back ready to run, but the terrain suits me well, and I felt quite confident going in to the races. The results were more than I could hope for: winning all 3 races, and with quite big margin as well. I am especially happy with the middle distance, were I managed to be cool all the way and trust that my speed was enough (which I have had some issues with before, and therefore have had a stressed behavior the whole race). The chase start was also a very good performance, where I controlled the race all the way, never getting close to losing my position in front. The sprint relay was a more nervous affair for me – I was the one who was going to replace Jonas in the team after his retirement last year. Jonas has always been a rock to trust whenever – both as a sprint orienteer and as a person, and this was the first time ever (!) that Jonas didn’t run in the Swedish first team in a World Cup sprint relay. It did go well, however, and we were in the lead from start to finish, after Tove had provided a gap to the rest on the first leg. I have never performed quite this well at a World Cup round before, so I can’t be anything else than very happy about it!

The only slight dissappointment this spring has been 10mila and Jukola. Our teams have been stronger than ever (during my career at least), and we were hoping for something great, but it wasnt our year this year! 10mila was ruined by a broken headtorch on the Long Night, and Jukola by an uncharacteristic 12 minute (!) mistake to the very first control of the relay by Jonny. These things do happen (I’ve been there myself), but it is frustrating when it happens at both big relays the same year, and with such big potential in the team! However, we have turned it around both times and delivered good performances to the very end, so the results have been quite good despite disatrous nights. Next year will be OK Ravinens year, I can feel it!