Editorial Contact: Nancy Lindeman (415) 365-4275 Nlindeman@aol.com Steve Jankowski (408) 777-9100 steve@activesw.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BAY AREA ORIENTEERING CLUB SENDS FIRST U.S. TEAM TO WORLDS LARGEST ORIENTEERING COMPETITION. SAN FRANCISCO, CA, June 10th, 1997 -- Seven men from California's Bay Area Orienteering Club (BAOC) are the first team to represent the U.S.A. in the world's largest annual orienteering event. The 49th annual Jukola Relay, being held in Finland this weekend, is expected to draw over 10,000 competitors and 20,000 spectators. This year, for the first time the U.S. is able to field a full team at the event. The sport of orienteering is young in the United States, but is well-established in Scandinavia. The team is largely self-funded, but the BAOC and its members have provided nearly $500 for the purchase of new uniforms. "I thought club members would be interested in supporting this unique orienteering team. The uniforms will help make the first U.S. presence at the Jukola a positive one," said Dennis Wildfogel, BAOC training coordinator, who organized the fund-raising effort for the team uniforms. "I am sure that the entire BAOC membership is excited and enthusiastic about our club having the first team from the U.S. to participate in this classic Finnish orienteering event," said Evan Custer, president of the Bay Area Orienteering Club. "This will be an experience that all members of the team will never forget." The team has attracted the attention of Finnish press and orienteers. Helsigin Sanomat, Finland's largest newspaper, published the registration of the first US Jukola team. The team has since received welcoming messages from Finnish orienteering clubs and runners. Prospects for the team's success are not high. European orienteering is much more competitive than in the U.S. where the sport has received little attention. And four of the of the seven team members have orienteered less than two years. "We're just going to have a good time. If we can place better than our seeding, so much the better," said Steve Jankowski, team webmaster. The team is seeded 937 of 1194 teams. Although the team may not succeed competitively, it is hoped their presence at the Jukola will help promote U.S. orienteering within the U.S. as well as internationally. "I hope we can encourage sponsors to support a US team composed of America's best orienteers to compete in future Jukola relays," said Greg Lennon, Jukola team member. The team's progress can be followed on the Internet. The Jukola organizers will update a web page, http://www.jcfin.fi/jukola97/interactive.html, every few minutes with status of the race progress. The race begins noon Pacific time, Saturday, June 14th and runs for 15 hours. The top teams will be finishing within 8 hours. The Jukola Relay: The 49th annual Jukola International Orienteering Relay will be held this year in the city of Jyväskylä in Finland on the weekend of June 14th. Over 1100 teams will participate (approx. 10,000 competitors and almost twice that number of spectators are expected.) Jukola is a night orienteering relay. The teams consist of seven men, and individual legs are between approx. eight and thirteen kilometers. Normally at least legs 2-4 are run during the darkness for the top teams. The first Jukola was held in 1949. The 7-man teams spring from the idea of the seven brothers, who in Aleksis Kivi's novel found their way to the woods and travelled there like free-moving elk. The relay has 7 stages and starts at 10:30 pm Finnish time on June 14th. Because of Finland's northern latitude, the period of darkness during the night of the race is short. The sun goes down on Saturday June 14th at 11:11 pm and rises on Sunday June 15th at 3:24 am. There will be a half moon during the night of the competition. A concurrent event, called the Venla Relay and for women, occurs during Saturday afternoon before the Jukola relay, at the same location, using 4-woman teams. There are over 600 Venla teams registered. Similar rules and goals apply for the Venla relay although the individual legs are a somewhat shorter. More information is available from: http://www.jyu.fi/~mikpera/jukola-97/ http://www.jyu.fi/~mikpera/jukola-97/jukolat.html What is orienteering? When orienteering you use a map and compass to find you way across unfamiliar terrain. At a typical orienteering event, the organizer has previously planned and placed orange and white control markers on various land features found on the map. The markers act as checkpoints along the course, you use the map and your compass to locate each of the markers in turn and and return to the finish. Using your imagination and navigational skills, you try to select the best route to each control and once there, you punch a score card which verifies that you found the control. Furthermore, most orienteering events are in some way, shape or form a competition (for those inclined). A measure of success is commonly given by time taken to complete a given course or by the number of control flags found during a specific time allotment. A ranking of competitors (including a winner) usually follows. Competition can range from trying to do better than fellows from your club, to elite level where competitors are running and navigating faster than most people can run on a flat road. It's all up to you as to what you want from the sport. (text was borrowed from http://www2.aos.Princeton.EDU:80/rdslater/orienteering/definitions/orienteering.html) About the Bay Area Orienteering Club: The Bay Area Orienteering Club operates within the greater San Francisco Bay Area (on both sides of the bay) to unite people here that share an interest in orienteering. The club's events always include a course suitable for beginners. Find out more about the club from our web site at: http://www.baoc.org or call the hot-line at (408) 255-8018 for a 24-hour recording of information on upcoming events. The BAOC is a non-profit organization established in 1978 and is the second largest orienteering club in the U.S. About the orienteers representing BAOC and USA at the 1997 Jukola: Van Boughner - home town Sweet Home, Oregon - now living in San Jose - BACS from University of California at Berkeley - Software Engineer at Active Software, Inc. - also enjoys ultimate frisbee, bicycling, and running - orienteering since 1995 - contact: (408) 777-9100, van@activesw.com Steve Jankowski - home town Santa Clara, California - now living in San Jose - BSCS from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo - Software Engineer at Active Software, Inc. - also enjoys reading, bicycling, and running - orienteering since 1996 - contact: (408) 777-9100, steve@activesw.com Trevor Pering - home town Palo Alto, California - now living in Berkeley, California - graduate student at Berkeley, getting a Ph.D. in Computer Science - plays trombone, sings a-cappella - orienteering since 1995 - contact: (510) 845-1017, pering@eecs.berkeley.edu Syd Reader - home town Orinda, California - now living in Palo Alto, California - graduate student at Stanford, getting a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering - plays tenor saxophone, enjoys backpacking and canoe making - orienteering since 1995 - contact: (415) 497-7543, sydryck@leland.Stanford.EDU Tapio Karras (team captain) - is originally from Finland - now living in Cupertino, California - an experienced orienteer - works at Design Power, Inc. - contact: (408) 996-8749, tka@dp.com Jorg Hofer - home town Malente / Germany - now living in Hamburg / Germany - MBA from Karlsruhe in Germany - manager with Andersen Consulting - orienteering since 1977 - joined BAOC in 1995 while working for two years in San Francisco - contact: jorg.hofer@ac.com Greg Lennon - lives in Castro Valley, California - PhD in Genetics from Univ. of Pennsylvania - Senior Scientist with Human Genome Project, Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab - orienteering since 1994 - Bay Area Orienteering Club Webmaster (www.baoc.org) - trained for Jukola exclusively by reading "Seven Brothers", the famous Finnish book upon which the Jukola race is based - contact: (510) 727-1378, baoc@baoc.org All are members of BAOC. Van, Trevor, and Syd were undergraduate students at Berkeley at near the same time and performed in the U.C. Berkeley Marching Band. Three of the competitors received discounted fares from Finnair, the national airline of Finland. Finnair is the offical carrier of the International Orienteering Federation. Steve Jankowski maintains a web page with more links to items of interest concerning the Jukola and our team: http://www.activesw.com/people/steve/jukola97.html