The champion wasn’t sure he could start

The champion wasn’t sure he could start

Jonas Leandersson, European Sprint Orienteering Champion in 2012 and 2014. Photo: Erik Borg

Jonas Leandersson got an illness in his throat on Tuesday. He had to skip the Middle distance qualification, but gave the Sprint qualification a try and got to the final.

“I started in the Sprint qualification and my health didn’t get worse. It was probably good to get the qualification start; my body woke up”, Jonas says.

The throat was not good for some days, but on Friday it was better and Leandersson could start and do just what he did two years ago. “It’s good to win again and that’s big”, he says.

– How is it compared to the victory two years ago?

“It’s probably not so easy to find anything at all that can be as big as the victory at the Sprint in Falun. That victory was my first, it was in my home country and there were some thousand spectators”, he says.

Jonas showed good form here in Portugal and he had a good race. “The uncertainty about starting or not maybe took away some nerves”, he says.

Leandersson is from Karlstad in the district of Värmland, close to Norway in the southern part of Sweden. For some years he has been studying in Stockholm where Järla is his club. He has just completed his education as a physiotherapist, but there can be more studies to follow. For the last year and a half he has been studying half-time. “I like to have something to do in combination with sport”, he says.

At the last World Championships he took bronze and he’s clearly a Sprint specialist. “The Sprint suits me physically and I like the challenges on the Sprint”, he says.