Discussion: Major Tove sighting

Swedish Ski-O Pursuit Sprint Championships: SM Jaktsprint @1:19:..

And @ +2:00, lesson for the 3rd finsher: O until you see the Finish line straight ahead!

Did I see a Bengtsson in the results?

If you did that must have been just wishful thinking.
A couple of Anderssons and Erikssons but no Bengtsson in this race.

Not in SM. It's a common southern last name; not known to be top skiers.

How is snow over your way? We have 3' but in drifts a bit.

My way?

We finally have had some snow here in Borlänge.
Close to 50 cm to be exact - all since Friday night.
A lot of shovelling the past few days...

Oh, maybe I got too carried away while watching and sent vibes all the way to VT.

Awh, it was Bergstrom---sorry Hans. But maybe Stefan in Ottawa is pleased.

Snow here was runnable until about a week ago. Now, with two storms, there's too much to run through but plenty for most any ski sports though a bit cold right now.

By the way, since Tove is the subject, any idea on what it would take to get her to the North American Championships in 2016?

It looks like NAOC avoids major international conflicts that I can think of - World Cups, e.g. There appears to be a National Swedish Meet in Österåker, but I don't know the gravity of such an event. I don't think the 25-manna has been scheduled yet, which conflicted with the 2014 NAOC. It seems reasonable to contact Tove and ask if she would come. A free entry seems like an obvious first step; perhaps it would only take a travel subsidy to persuade her to attend.

I personally appreciated the presence of high caliber Eurofolk at 2014 NAOC. It would be wonderful if even a handful of Europeans attended the 2016 NAOC. I imagine that if free entries are offered to anyone above some world ranking level, it will encourage some attendance. Maybe Ross and Sam can get married again to encourage more Swedes to attend?

We failed to get good Swedes to our "Race the Castles" due to the clash with 25-manna. Apparently "We should have known" it was the second week in October - so NAOC is probably OK.
We found many of the top elite were responsive to just being asked*, especially if it's clear there will be no hassle with transport/accommodation.

* If you find the optimal person to do the asking.

free entry and local transport/accommodation we could arrange----getting across the pond though is another matter.

good point about finding the right person to do the asking, it would not be me.

Anyone else notice the Choice Hotel ad on the backdrop? Oh, the irony ...

graeme, carlch>> I may possibly be the right person in the case of Tove?

Then PLEASE ASK. We would love to have her at the North Americans. I'm not in charge but I'm sure we can offer free entry and probably accommodation/meals. I also expect that we can arrange pick-up in Boston and transportation to/from Dartmouth. Beyond that, I don't know.

I'm sure she wouldn't make any sort of commitment now but if it's even on her radar, that would be great. And, the orienteering in New Hampshire is awesome. We'll post some maps when the website is up.

Maybe we can entice some other world elites too???

One thing for future NAOC organizers to consider is making the event a World Cup event as well. That would be the surest way to get more international elites coming. It would mean more work (and I think a significant fee to the IOF) but it could well be worth it. I wonder what the Tasmanian World Cup organizers would advise about that now?

Also, I think World Cup bids are due 3 years out. I.e. this year for 2018.

I trust NAOC will be creating a plan to get some top 20 runners to attend that's more organized than asking friends of friends (well I hope they do!)

Having some top international runners in 2012 was a great part of that event, even if the announcers butchered many of their names.

Thanks bubo; you are the perfect contact! They are/were running for the same club: Stora Tuna! Is she still living around greater Borlänge?

"It would be wonderful if even a handful of Europeans attended the 2016 NAOC"

A good start would be to get all the Canadian elites living in Europe to make NAOC 2016 a priority. There I said it.

Especially if you ever want to get that trophy back!

...and that other trophy back.

While I don't normally carry out IOF discussions here, it's fair to say that if the World Cup still exists in something like its present form in 2018 - a significant if - any credible bid for a World Cup in conjunction with NAOC would probably be favourably received by IOF. (If Canadians want to follow this through further I'm happy to do so by e-mail; both Regional Championships and World Cup fall within my areas of responsibility on FOC).

more organized than asking friends of friends
Don't knock it: pretty much everyone is a friend of a friend of someone on this thread. Just sign up bubo for the publicity team!

You just have to pick a friend who is friends with all the top elites. Graeme picked the right person and Race the Castles had a really great elite turnout!

The friend of a friends system is a great system if you support it properly. Give those friends the tools they need (postcards to hand out, all the info they might need to pass on, etc.) and it makes it easy. People are a lot more likely to say yes to a friend then to a stranger or an out of the blue ad or e-mail. But you do need to have a system and support the people asking and inviting.

OK, I´ll give it a go and see what comes up this side of the pond...

Yes, Tove is still living in Borlänge but not necessarily spending much time here between training and racing year-round in various international venues from World Cup races in Tasmania to Ski-O WOC in Norway as an "easy" start to this years activities.

And yes, we´re in the same club - Stora Tuna OK-

Thanks Bubo, that would be great. I would not expect any sort of commitment now but just having her consider it would be awesome.

And thanks for your input Jeff. We do need to give this more thought and come up with something we can commit to. I will start that ball rolling.

No worries Carl. Let me know if you have any questions about how we went about publicity for last year's event. I'm more than happy to pass anything along if you think it will help.

The other good trick is a wedding with invitations sent to an appropriately selected clientele :-).