The HJ Factor!

Earlier this winter GHO had the awesome opportunity to host a National Training Camp with Holger and Sandy Hott Johansen. Holger is a World Champion and Sandy placed 9th at last year's World Champs. They both gave great presentations and challenged the camp participants to increase their training volume. Take a look at many Attack Point training logs before and after the early january camp and you will see that many people have certainly taken up that challenge. I call that the HJ Factor (or Hott Johansen Factor!). But having some of the World's best participate in events or a camp in your home town has a bigger impact than just training for our top athletes. The Hott Johansens are also role models as well. Here is an example. Earlier this evening Emma "AdventureGirl!" Waddington (8) joined the GHO TNT group for a fun work-out. She was wearing the Kristiansand OK orienteering jersey given to her by Sandy Hott Johansen (see photo above). Asked if she was tired after the workout Emma responded with "A little, but this is Sandy's shirt and it is fast".

HKF (now GHO) hosted the first World Cup outside of Europe in 1986. After the race was over the Norwegian National team conducted a training camp for HKF and Canada's National Team. Many of those Norwegian elite athletes (Oivind Thon, Morten Berglia, and others) became heros and role models for many younger orienteers in the Golden Horseshoe at that time. 20 years after the World Cup we were fortunate to have this other training camp. We will see the results and impact of the HJ Factor for some time to come....