Get to know Måns Lennermo, the project manager for O-Ringen Jönköping 2025..

How did you start orienting Måns?

- At some point in middle school, we had a substitute who was an active orienteer and she invited us to a beginner's course in Nässjö, where I live. It attracted me and I immediately decided that I would join.

Was it the right choice?
- I was relatively bitten right away. There was, and is, something special about the combination of running and orienteering, of meeting new challenges, new courses at every opportunity. The fascination was quite great from the beginning that map and reality belonged together. Getting out into nature was also something that suited me well.

And in terms of results?
- It has been ups and downs. Running has always been my strength, even more so when I was young. I was good at sledding, but when it was up to me to orienteer myself, I needed either easy courses or luck. And relying on luck, or the idea that it will probably work out later, is not a strategy I can recommend. It can work for some controls, but a whole track doesn't work.

The experience of O-Ringen?
- I did my first O-Ringen in Karlstad in 1996. There were quite a few of us from the club, mainly families with children my age, which made it such a fun experience. What I remember from O-Ringen is more about the all-around than the competition itself. Something I think many people recognize. O-Ringen is so much more than orieneering.

Now we get curious, what do you remember?
- I remember that the first start was at 08.00, which meant that we had to get up so early in the morning to make it to the stage. I remember all the play among caravans and tents. I remember that the police came with one of our younger participants after she played a little far away (we'll keep the name anonymous I think...if nothing else for theparents' sake). And I remember the last night when we ordered pizza for the club coffee. In addition to the fact that it took an incredibly long time to receive the delivery, not a single one of the approximately 40 pizzas we ordered were marked when they arrived, so it became a challenge to distribute them correctly.

Is this what we can expect from O-Ringen Jönköping 2025?
- We shall try to avoid both police involvement and long waiting times. But otherwise. I want the feeling to be the same as above. Everyone should go home and be able to think back on a week of wonderful, fun and maybe some awkward memories. From the forest, from the arena and from the common campsite.

How are the conditions in Jönköping?
- Really good, I say as biased in the goal. We will be able to offer a collective campsite at Elmia's exhibition area. Probably with one of the best views of all time with Vättern directly below.