The Australian MTBO selection trials for the World Championships (WOC & JWOC) in the Czech Republic in August will be held on March 21-22 in Newcastle, with 3 races (middle, sprint and long). This event is also Round 1 of the National Series, with later rounds being held in Queensland & Victoria. Early entry can be obtained up until the 8th of March.
In addition to the races there will also be a mountain bike skills course held on the Saturday. This will be run by Bike and Fitness and is free and open to all competitors. There will also be an introduction to mountain bike orienteering at the end of this course, as well as free entry to the recreation class on the Sunday afternoon for all those not entered in the state or national series of MTBO, making it a great opportunity to try the sport. If interested in the course or recreational class please contact Greg Bacon on 0401889688 (SMS name and contact number) or email gbacon1@bigpond.com
The long distance held on the final day of the 2015 Orienteering World Cup in Tasmania saw the Australian team finish its campaign strongly. Julian Dent, 13th, (1:29.22) and Hanny Allston, 10th, (1:23.57), the best of the Australians, had world class performances in the steep granite terrain west of St Helens, to post the best Australian team results of the carnival races. Both athletes were the leading Oceania Competitors and have secured a place in the long final at the World Orienteering Championships in Scotland as the 2015 Oceania Champions. Simon Uppill and Lachlan Dow, the next best Australians, ran strong races to place 23rd, and 32nd over a tough course which saw an early 3.8km leg with challenging route choice. In the Women’s race, Vanessa Round and Laurina Neumann placed 21st (1:32:34) and 22nd (1:33.44). Laurina Neumann’s run, her best performance at this level, is a strong step up into world class results and a performance that her recent races have been suggesting was possible. These were great team results after a disappointing middle distance race, two days previously in Coles Bay.
With these achievements from Julian Dent (NSW) and Hanny Allson (TAS), Australia secures another place in both the Men’s and Women’s long race at the 2015 World Orienteering Championships. With 3 male and female spots now available for Australians in the long, this opens the door for our athletes later in the year. A training camp at the end of May in the sand dune terrain of New Zealand will be ideal preparation for the Scottish terrain.
The Middle, 8th January
Lachlan Dow, Vanessa Round
The team bounced back with strong performances on the last day in the long after a tough middle distance on the 8th January in Coles Bay which saw half the field lose time; either on a challenging second leg, or later in the course after the arena run through. Hanny Allston 18th (42.12), the best Australian, lost time early and was closely followed by Laurina Neumann, 21st (43.00) and Vanessa Round 22nd (43.13).
Graham Hammond’s Middle Distance video:
In the men’s race, Rob Preston 22nd (39.50) was the best of the Australians and very closely followed by Simon Uphill 23rd (39.51) with Julian Dent 27th (41.30). The New Zealand pair of Matt Ogden, 13th (36.00) and Lizzie Ingham 12th (37.33) took the Oceania titles and World Orienteering qualification spots – much to the delight of the parochial New Zealand supporters.
The Sprint, 2nd January
Hanny Allston, Simon Uppill
Earlier in the carnival, the sprint final in Launceston on the 2nd of January, saw the Australian team start their campaign strongly taking out the men’s and women’s Sprint Oceania titles with top twenty results. Rachel Effeney (QLD) and Julian Dent (NSW) are the 2015 Oceania Sprint Champions with both Simon Uppill (SA) and Hanny Allston (TAS) on the Oceania podium in third Place.
In the World Cup sprint, Rachel Effeney was the best placed Australian at 14th (17.32). In the men’s race, Julian Dent placed 18th. Hanny Allston was our other top 20 result at 20th. Simon Uppill a close 21st. Lachlan Dow (ACT) and Jasmine Neve (VIC) challenged for the Oceania Sprint Podium and placed 25th and 22nd in the World Cup placings respectively.
Graham Hammond’s video of the sprint qualification at Cataract Gorge, Launceston:
15 Australians made the cut to run in the World Cup sprint final on home soil. Matt Doyle at 18yrs of age, was our youngest competitor and came a credible 36th (18.02) in a world class field. Brodie Nankervis (TAS) in his first year as a senior, also performed strongly to place just ahead of Matt Doyle by one second in 35th place (18.02). Ian Lawford in his second year as a senior placed 33rd (17.49). Our women had a strong presence in the final; Kathryn Preston 31st (19.45) returning to racing only months after the birth of her first child, Krystal Neumann 32nd (19.59), Belinda Lawford 34th (20.15), Aislinn Prendergast 36th and Heather Muir 39th.
The Orienteering Australia consultation meeting with state association representatives on the $80,000 ASC grant to implement Sporting Schools orienteering will be held at 5pm on Saturday 10 January in the St Helens Training Centre (St Helens High School), Groom St, St Helens, 100m from the junction with Circassian St. The meeting is expected to be about 1 hour.
Sporting Schools is a $100 million Australian government initiative targetting the 8,000 primary schools in Australia and a sample of 80 high schools and is due to commence in July 2015. The ASC website for this is http://sportingschools.gov.au/
Implementing this for orienteering will require a considerable increase in the numbers of Level 0 and Level 1 accredited coaches willing to run 3 to 8 week orienteering programs in primary schools, a large increase in the numbers of schools mapped (and schools with existing maps updated), national and state online resources, a State Sporting Schools coordinator in each state and territory, and a state Sporting Schools implementation plan. Orienteering Australia wishes to encourage experienced junior orienteers aged 18 and over and any other orienteers older than this who might be seeking some part-time remuneration to contact your state association to express an interest in becoming an accredited Sporting Schools orienteering coach or otherwise contribute to the mapping and administrative effort needed to implement orienteering in the Sporting Schools program. Further information is also available from John Harding at Orienteering Australia.
Australian World Cup Orienteering team take out men’s and women’s Sprint Oceania titles with top twenty results in World Cup races in Tasmania. Rachel Effeney (QLD) and Julian Dent (NSW) are the 2015 Oceania Sprint Champions with both Simon Uppill (SA) and Hanny Allston (TAS) on the Oceania podium in third Place.
In the World Cup, Rachel Effeney was the best placed Australian at 14th (17.32). In the men’s race, Julian Dent placed 18th. Hanny Allston was our other top 20 result at 20th. Simon Uppill a close 21st. Tasmania hosts the first of four IOF World Cup rounds for 2015. The middle distance races are at Coles Bay on Thursday 8th and the long distance races at St Helens next Saturday 10th. The Australian team will be keen to build on these results and take full advantage of home forest terrain on Thursday and Saturday. Lachlan Dow (ACT) and Jasmine Neve (VIC) challenged for the Oceania Sprint Podium and placed 25th and 22nd in the World Cup placings respectively.
Tove Alexandersson (SWE) and Swiss Matthias Kyburz enjoyed strong wins in the sprint races.
Alexandersson blitzed the 3.75km women’s course at the Uni of Tasmania campus in 14:58, more than a minute clear of world sprint champion Judith Wyder (16:00) and her Swiss team-mate Sara Luescher (16:13).
Kyburz (15:06) was a comfortable 33-second victor over compatriot Daniel Hubmann (15:39) around the men’s 4.35km course. Hubmann recovered from a slow start but could not catch his team-mate. Swede Gustav Bergman was third in 15:45. World sprint champion Soren Bobach of Denmark made a horror start and could only manage 14th in 16:36.
15 Australians made the cut to run in the World Cup final on home soil. Matt Doyle at 18yrs of age, was our youngest competitor and came a credible 36th (18.02) in a world class field. Brodie Nankervis (TAS) in his first year as a senior, also performed strongly to place just ahead of Matt Doyle by one second in 35th place (18.02). Ian Lawford in his second year as a senior placed 33rd (17.49). Our women had a strong presence in the final; Kathryn Preston 31st (19.45), Krystal Neumann 32nd (19.59), Belinda Lawford 34th (20.15), Aislinn Prendergast 36th and Heather Muir 39th.
For a full overview of the the Australian Orienteering Team, their events and profiles with previous achievements see : World Cup Round 1 Tasmania – Australian team athlete profiles. These profiles will be updated with the athletes results throughout the carnival.
Lance Read / Ian Jessop
Aussie World Cup Team Performs Strongly in first Race of World Cup
The Australia team started its 2015 World Cup campaign with a solid opening performance. 9 Women and 7 Men made the cut to reach the top 40, and will run the sprint final to be held at Launceston tomorrow the 3rd of January.
The team achieved 5 top ten results in the two heats, with 16 athletes qualifying for the final. This shapes up for a very interesting World Cup Sprint race. First startes are at 9.30 at Launceston University.
Ian Lawford 9th
Lachlan Dow 10th
Hanny Allston 6th
Jasmine Neve 8th
Rachel Effeny 9th
Strong performances from our younger men see Matt Doyle 18yrs and Brodie Nankervis 21yrs make the final in 18th and 19th place respectively. Great results for the future of Australian orienteering. Heather Muir, as one of our youngest women, also makes the final in 17th place. Our remaining male finalists are; Bryan Keely having a strong race to place 12 and the experienced pair of Julian Dent and Simon Uppill; 11th and 14th. The remaining women to qualify are Laurina Neumann 16th, Krystal Neumann, 17th and Kathry Preston Ewels 18th.
Start lists are now available at the event website http://oceania2015.com/world-cup-live/ for the World Cup Sprint Qualification races at the spectacular Cataract Gorge, a photographers’s delight!!
There will be live radio splits at http://o-lynxlive.com/
First starters:
WOMEN
1 Emma Johansson SWE 16:00:00
2 Kayla Fairbairn NZL 16:00:00
Orienteering Australia has a new Anti-Doping Policy coming into force on 1 January 2015 & complying with WADA, ASADA and IOF Anti-Doping policies coming into force on the same day. The OA policy is found in section 5.12 of the OA Operational Manual at http://www.orienteering.asn.au/administration/operation-manual/
Australian international and national level orienteers have a responsibility to be familiar with the policy. The final page of the policy defines who is considered a national level orienteer for the purposes of the policy.
Australian World Cup Orienteering Team Ready to Shine in Tasmania; January 2-10, 2015.
With Round One of the 2015 Orienteering World Cup about to commence on the 2nd of January, beginning with the sprint qualification at Cataract Gorge Launceston Tasmania, the Australian team of 12 women and 11 men is well prepared for the terrain and ready to shine at home, on the world stage. As the world’s best orienteers embark on their travel to Tasmania, the 2nd and final Tasmanian training camp for the Australian team has recently concluded. Nearly half the team took time at the end of the year to make their final terrain-specific preparations. Others are in Tasmania now running in the local terrain, or at the warm up events in Sydney and Victoria.
Recent Tasmanian Training Camp Athletes
Earlier in 2014, a week long training camp was held in St Helens, with 2 and sometimes 3 sessions a day for the entire week. This demanding camp was also well attended by the team; the Australians are well prepared for the January 2015 World Cup. After a tiring week at the training camp, the final “Camp Champs” were contested. Will the Camp Champions, Hanny Allston (AUS) and Nick Hann (NZ), pictured below, be some of the best performers in Tasmania this January?
Medals: Stealth of a tiger, cunning of a shark.Nick Hann (NZ), Hanny Allston (AUS)
The last time a World Cup round was held in Australia was in 2000. Only 2 of the current 23 Australian team members participated in this event held in Canberra. Since then, the Victorian pair of Kathryn Preston and Rob Preston have represented Australia multiple times at international events.
Many of the younger Australian team members will be looking to improve on their results achieved at the 2013 World Cup races in New Zealand. The experiences gained two years ago in NZ, (for many as juniors competing against international senior elites) will be invaluable for success, and will provide the added confidence needed to race in the forests on the east coast of Tasmania, where the middle and long are to be held on the 8th and 10th of January.
Three of the Australian team make their senior international debut; Matt Doyle (VIC), Brodie Nankervis (TAS) and Mark Gregson (QLD), with Matt Doyle being the youngest in the team. At 18, Matt is still a junior with 2 more years in the junior international ranks. There are a number of accomplished international athletes in the Australian Team who have a string of international achievements to their names. The team is a mixture of talented, developing youth and experienced seniors.
Many Australian athletes have the experience of competing on the world stage at home when they were juniors, at the 2007 World Junior Orienteering Championships in Dubbo. The South Australian pair of Vanessa Round and Simon Uppill had top 10 results in Dubbo and are both now seasoned international senior athletes who provide the benchmark of what might be achieved in the 3 disciplines; sprint, middle, long. Earlier in 2014, Vanessa Round had 2 impressive top 10 placings in the early World Cup races in Spain. Simon Uppill’s 17th in the 2013 NZ World Cup sprint is a result he will be looking to equal.
The Australian team boasts strong past international accomplishments that include 2 athletes achieving podium results at the senior international level, and 4 athletes at the junior international level:
Hanny Allston; 2006, 1st World Orienteering Champs Denmark + Multiple podium results
Kathryn Preston; 2009, 5th World Orienteering Champs, Hungary.
Julian Dent: 2005, 4th Junior World Orienteering Champs Switzerland.
Simon Uppill; 2007, 4th Junior World Orienteering Champs, Dubbo, Australia.
Vanessa Round; 2007, 6th Junior World Orienteering Champs, Dubbo Australia.
Our younger Australian athletes have strong recent performances and their results match the seasoned international Australian performers in some disciplines. They will be looking to build on their international accomplishments.
At the Tasmanian World Cup, the winners of the Oceania races in Middle and Long, secure a place in the World Orienteering Championship finals in August 2015 to be held in Scotland.
For a full overview of the the Australian Orienteering Team, their events and profiles with previous achievements see : World Cup Round 1 Tasmania – Australian team athlete profiles. These profiles will be updated with the athletes results throughout the carnival.
