Orienteering Australia major award winners

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Photo: Christine Brown being presented with her award by OA President Blair Trewin.

Christine Brown (Tasmania) has received the 2014 SILVA Award for Services to Orienteering after many years of outstanding service at the State, national and international levels. The David Hogg Medal for Event Management went to Ross Barr (NSW) who has been organising the Sydney Summer series for the last 23 years, overseeing its expansion throughout the metropolitan area. The SILVA Coach of the Year is Ian Dalton (WA) who has involved in both schools coaching and MTBO coaching for many years. The 2013 Athlete of the Year recognising outstanding international achievement is Grace Crane (Tasmania). The 2013 SILVA Orienteer of the Year is Warren Key (Victoria).

On Sunday at Clandulla Big Foot (NSW) (photo below) edged out Bush Flyers (ACT) to win the Australian Club Championship.
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Australian team for JWOC announced

JWOC team
Photo: Karen Blatchford.

Orienteering Australia is pleased to announce the Australian team for the 2014 Junior World Orienteering Championships in Borovetz, Bulgaria from 21-27 July:

Girls: Michele Dawson, Lanita Steer, Anna Dowling, Nicola Blatchford, Asher Steer, Olivia Sprod;
Boys: Matt Doyle, Brodie Nankervis, Oscar McNulty, Henry McNulty, Oliver Poland, Ashley Nankervis.

Manager: Karen Blatchford; Coach: Hanny Allston.

Allston and Uppill take the honours at Easter

 

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Photo: Simon Uppill, last control, day 4.

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Photo: Jo Allison (2nd), Hanny Allston (1st) and Shannon Jones (3rd) on the podium at the presentation.

Hanny Allston and Simon Uppill took out convincing wins over the Easter weekend in the Rylstone region of New South Wales. Both set up their wins on the long day on Sunday, after having been in close contests with Jo Allison and Lachlan Dow respectively. Allston was particularly commanding, winning by 11 minutes on Sunday and adding another 6 to her margin on the final day, with Allison second and Shannon Jones, in her return to major competition, third. Dow and Matt Crane filled the men’s minor placings.

Matt Doyle took out the junior men’s event, winning the first three days and falling just short on the last for a comfortable victory. It was a different story for the junior women, with Michele Dawson coming from three minutes down on the last day to overhaul Lanita Steer.

The weekend’s results also saw Allston and Uppill take big leads in the individual National Orienteering League series, while the Canberra Cockatoos have also taken good leads in both senior team division.

Results will be available through Eventor and Winsplits, while the updated National League results are available through the OA website.

OA meetings this weekend

Orienteers attending the Easter Carnival are encouraged to attend the OA Annual General Meeting on Sunday afternoon and meetings of the OA Committees on Saturday afternoon.

OA Committee meetings, Saturday 19 April

There will be 3 rooms available for the committee meetings at Kandos High School, Fleming St, Kandos.
Room 1 2.30pm-2.45pm Events Committee; 2.45pm-4.30pm Technical Committee; 4.30pm-5.15pm IT Committee

Room 2 2.45pm-3.45pm Coaching Committee; 4pm-5pm Development Committee

Room 3 2.30pm-3.15pm Schools Committee; 3.30pm-5.30pm Mapping Committee

OA Annual General Meeting, Sunday 20 April
3.30pm, Rylstone Community Hall, corner Louee and Cudgegong St Rylstone.
Annual Dinner and presentation of major awards, Sunday 20 April
6.30pm, Rylstone Community Hall, corner Louee and Cudgegong St Rylstone.

Entries now open for Australian Championships Carnival in WA

Entries for all events at the Karrak Karnival – the Australian Championships carnival 2014 in Western Australia from September 27th to October 5th are now open through Eventor.

See 2014ausochamps.com for details.

Early bird discounted entry fees are available until June 30th.

Running shirts may be ordered via ‘services’ in just the Australian Long Distance Championships section and budget camping paid for via the WA Long Championships section.

Follow up events include the four sprints of ‘Sprint the SouthWest’ and three MTBO Championships, two of which are part of the National League, all in the beautiful south west of WA.

Vanessa Round 9th in Middle Distance World Cup

Vanessa followed up her very good 13th place in the long distance World Cup event in Spain with an even better performance in the middle distance event on Sunday finishing an excellent 9th in 38:50, only 2:40 down on the winner Swede Lena Eliasson.

This is a great result for Vanessa and her splits indicate a very consistent performance with no red controls. Unfortunately Vanessa was not wearing a GPS so we cannot follow her perfomance via the live tracking the organisers used.

Vanessa commented after the weekend “It was a great weekend, the terrain was tricky and tough how I like it, and it was just heaps of fun to enjoy orienteering so much again and do a decent job of it. Somehow I wasn’t even sore or tired today after the long. am now though” (Courtesy of Attackpoint)

Well done Vanessa, a great weekend of orienteering. Vanessa will continue her international competition along with Felicity Brown, Evan Barr and Julian Dent next week in the European Orienteering Championships to be held in Portugal.

World Cup Long Distance- Vanessa Round 13th

Yesterday in Spain Vanessa Round competed in the Long Distance World Cup event. The distance was 10.9km with 445m climb and the winning time was set at 76 minutes. Vanessa had a very good run finishing 13th in a field of 48 in a time of 101:43. The winner Tove Alexandersson had a time of 87:43, which is 11 minutes outside the expected winning time. Vanessa except for control 2 had a very steady race and to be placed 13th in a long distance World Cup event at this time of the year is a very encouraging performance for Vanessa. The first leg on the course was over 2km long and provided the runners with some interesting route choices.

An excellent analysis of these can be found on the

World of O website

and the splits are available on

Winsplits

In the mens event Australia did not have any runners and unfortunately the event had to be cancelled as two controls were removed from the forest before the runners had completed their course.

Today Vanessa competes in the middle distance event and live tracking is available on the event website.

www.wcupspain2014.es/live-tv-and-tracking/

AUS MTBO CHAMPS in ALICE SPRINGS.

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This year’s Australian MTBO Championships from June 13-16 is being hosted by Orienteering SA with support from Top End Orienteers

Navigation challenge in the desert? Wait till you see the video!

Challenging single tracks, complex terrain, this is what Mountain Bike Orienteering should be.

Get yourself and your bike to the Alice anyway you can and the rest is easy.

Luxury accommodation at the Chifley Resort at mates rates for MTBO, an easy ride to each day’s start and the opportunity to ride in a world ranking event.

Men’s and Women’s classes from under14 to over 80 plus recreational courses for those that just want to have fun.

Check out Lee and Troy’s video and get your entry in today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrLChavaGQ8&feature=youtu.be

For more information and links to the entry in Eventor click this link

Article by Peter Mayer & Video by Lee & Troy Merchant

 

ELITE NEWS- NOL ROUND 2 REPORT

Rowdy Flat and Kangaroo Crossing- March 22nd and 23rd.

Round 2 of the Silva NOL events was held last weekend, with a very challenging Middle Distance event at “Rowdy Flat” and a Long Distance event at “Kangaroo Crossing”.

Rowdy Flat is a small area of very intense contour detail and at scale of 1:1000 it required very good technical skills to master it. The km rates were quite slow as was expected so it wasn’t running speed that mattered but map contact and mental calmness. David Shepherd on his return from injury demonstrated these skills as he has in the past on this map and was the winner in M21E. Simon Uppill who was leading until control 8 came second, with first year senior Ian Lawford having a good run to finish third.

Sen Men Round 2 2014  middle

The W21E was a battle between Jasmine Neve and Lizzie Ingham with Jas leading until control 13 when Lizzie got in front only to see Jas regain the lead at the second last control. Grace Crane in probably her last NOL event for a while came a very good third.

Sen Women Middle 2014

The M17-20E class saw the lead change during the event a number of times between Ludvig Ahland (Swedish JWOC representative 2013), Matt Doyle and Brodie Nankervis. Ludvig was the winner with Brodie in second and Matt in third place. Anna Dowling in the W17-20E had a very consistent run being first or second the whole way and was a clear winner from Annika Carlberg in second and Nicola Blatchford third.

Sen Men Round 2 2014

Sunday was the granite challenge of Kangaroo Crossing and all courses were faced with a very challenging long first leg which required decisive decision making and then good execution of the plan. This leg in the W21E was won by Hanny Allston by 1:30 and Hanny remained in the lead for the rest of the race to be a clear winner from Jo Allison, showing great strength in this terrain, in second and Lizzie Ingham in third place. In M21E it was a similar story with both Simon Uppill and Lachlan Dow being clear equal leaders after the first leg. Unfortunately Lachie lost his SI stick after control 5 were he was leading by 34 seconds from Simon. Simon remained in the lead for the rest of the race and with a pack forming at control 11 Dave Meyer was able to finish in second place, demonstrating good physical strength and Max Neve in third. Lachie managed to finish the course having punched some controls on his map and then using his mother’s SI towards the end of the course. He later found his SI stick.

Sen Women Round 2  2014

In the junior elite classes the same three men and women finished in the top three as on Saturday but in different order. Ludvig Ahlund winning the M17-20E with Matt Doyle a very good second and Brodie Nakervis third. It was a Swedish double as Annika Carlberg won the W17-20E, with Anna Dowling who lead until control 8 coming second and Nicola Blatchford a steady third place.

Junior women Round 2 2014Junior Men Round 2 2014

The overall point score for the NOL sees the Canberra Cockatoos regain the lead in the senior men with the Stingers and the Nuggets equal second. The Cockatoos are now leading the senior women from the Cyclones. In the junior point score the Tasmanian Foresters have taken the lead in the men’s and the Stingers have increased their lead in the women’s.

Results are available on Eventor and splits are available on Winsplits.

The focus for the elites in Australia is now on the Easter Carnival (April 18th-26th) which is a selection trial for both WOC and JWOC teams and comprises five NOL events as well as the first fully mixed relay for state teams using the same format as the WOC mixed relay. Teams of two women and two men, with seniors and juniors running together in the same teams.

Our overseas based elites (Vanessa Round, Felicity Brown, Evan Barr and Julian Dent) will be participating in the European Orienteering Championships to be held in Portugal 9th-16th April. This event comprises a sprint, middle and long qualification race to be followed by finals in each of these. As each country can have six competitors in each discipline the level competition is very high and making the final will be quite an achievement.

http://eoc2014.fpo.pt/index.php/en/news

ASADA Anti-doping annual updates needed.

This is compulsory for:

a) All National squad members – elite, junior, development squads, MTBO or their equivalents.
b) All national team coaches and managers.
c) All Australian elite & W/M20 team members – WOC, JWOC, World Games, World Cup, Bushrangers, Australian University team; Oceania W/M20 and elite teams.
It is desirable, but not mandatory for all regular participants in NOL / NS races at elite or M/W20 level to complete the courses. This is because anyone who participates in these races can potentially be subject to drug testing. However, we do not wish to discourage participants who are older or relatively inexperienced from being able to race the occasional NOL / NS event. Age group orienteers are also welcome and encouraged to do the courses.

COURSES:

Compulsory:
– Level 1 Anti-Doping Course (or Level 1 Fast Track Course-if confident of your knowledge)
– Level 2 Anti-Doping Test
Basically everyone must do both of these.
IF you have already done Level 1, then you are able to go straight to Level 2 Anti-Doping Test, which is much shorter than Level 1.
Level 2 will need to be done annually, by Easter each year. This revises some core knowledge but also introduces concepts which are new or changed in the past 12 months. Optional:
-Learning Updates. A series of short interactive videos about current trends in anti-doping.

WHERE:

These courses can be accessed via the ASADA Pure Performance Online learning system
Then go to E-Learning in the yellow box on the Right hand side.
You will need to create a log-in and password.

WHEN? Before Easter – April 18th

WHY?

-Education about this subject needs to be ongoing as changes occur regularly re banned substances and testing methodologies.
-ASADA has reported a rise in “state level” athletes being sanctioned for doping rule violations and testing can occur at any level, not just in the elite.
-It is important that all orienteers are responsible in protecting their own and Orienteering’s sporting integrity and thus we have a fair and level “playing field.”
Then go to E-Learning in the yellow box on the Right hand side.
You will need to create a log-in and password.

HOW MONITORED?

OA’s Anti-Doping Officer, (Nick Dent starts this role in April) simply rings the ASADA Education Officer and will receive a list of all orienteers that have completed each level.
You do not need to forward certificates, as in past years.

COMPLIANCE

All team members of any Australian elite or junior team will be required to have completed Level 1 & 2 within 7 days of selection, or else selection will be withdrawn.
Orienteering Australia is not going to chase people on this – it’s your responsibility as a committed athlete.

I.T. PROBLEMS

Last year some people experienced IT issues due to some problems with the ASADA website. I have been told that these have been rectified.
However, for any IT related problems or with logging on etc please forward your queries to the ASADA Education Officer, Chris Butler – chris.butler@asada.gov.au
Updated WADA Prohibited List
The 2014 List of Prohibited Substanc­es and Methods took effect on Janu­ary 1, 2014.
The List – which was approved by WADA’s Executive Committee on Sep­tember 11, 2013 – can be viewed at WADA’s website or through the free iPhone application.
The List can also be accessed us­ing other mobile devices via the mo­bile site.

Supplements

Because supplement manufacturing processes can lead to their contents varying from batch to batch, ASADA cannot advise whether, at any particular time, a specific supplement, or batch of a supplement, contains prohibited substances.
Athletes who take supplements are, therefore, at risk of committing an inadvertent anti-doping rule violation. The presence of a prohibited substance in a supplement product may result in an anti-doping rule violation, whether its use was intentional or unintentional.

Under the World Anti-Doping Code strict liability principle, athletes are ultimately responsible for any substance found in their body, regardless of how it got there.

Therapeutic Use Exemptions

Athletes may at times need to use a prohibited medication to treat a legitimate medical condition.
A Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) is an exemption that allows an athlete to use, for therapeutic purposes only, an otherwise prohibited substance or method (of administering a substance) which may be present during competition.

Kay Haarsma
(current anti-doping officer)