Two Australians won bronze medals in Saturday’s long distance finals at the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Germany. Natasha Key took her second medal of the week when she came third in W40, while Su Yan Tay matched that performance in W45.
For Key the medal was the latest of many, both in sprint and long distance. Tay, who took out the sprint in 2009, had hitherto had her best performances at that distance, and was disappointed by her efforts in long distance qualifying, but produced an excellent performance on the day when it mattered.
Other Australians to achieve top-ten results were Warren Key (6th, M50) and Hermann Wehner (7th, M85). Geoff Lawford and Jenny Bourne both won their qualifying events but struck trouble in the final and missed the top ten.
Full Australian A final results:
W40: Natasha Key 3
M40: Blair Trewin 20
W45: Su Yan Tay 3, Wendy Read 45
W50: Liz Abbott 19
M50: Warren Key 6, Jim Russell 22
W55: Jenny Bourne 25, Sue Key 60
M55: Geoff Lawford 20, Ted van Geldermalsen 65
W65: Libby Meeking 71
W70: Ann Ingwersen 13, Janet Tarr 47
W75: Maureen Ogilvie 16
M85: Hermann Wehner 7
World University Champs conclude – Girls 13th in Relay.
The World University Orienteering Championships concluded today in Alicante, Spain. The Swiss and Swedes dominated the medal race. In the men’s event Switzerland claimed victory by a mere 18 seconds from Sweden. However the gold and blue colours of Sweden triumphed by 4 minutes in the women’s, with the host nation thrilled at gaining the bronze. Matt Parton had his best run of the carnival, as did Laurina Neumann. Rachel Effeney seems to have had a pretty useful first leg. The NZ’ers won the down-under battle finishing ahead of both our teams, but narrowly so in the women.
Men
1 Switzerland 1:46:22 A Rüedlinger 34:49 J Mathys 37:12 A Kyburz 34:21
2 Sweden 1:46:40 O Sjoeberg 34:53 A Ridefelt 36:35 E Liljequist 35:12
3 Norway 1:48:44 J Forseth Indgaard 34:51 VRuttenborg 37:20 V R Bråten 36:33
18 New Zealand 2:16:41 G Beveridge 40:50 J Harvey 52:40 T Scott 43:11
20 Australia 2:31:14 Matt Parton 42:57 Oliver Crosato 50:55 Aaron Breed 57:22
DNF New Zealand 2 Simon Jager mp Georgia Whitla 1:01:53 I. Scott 1:02:31
WOMEN
1 Sweden 1:50:25 A Forsberg 37:22 A Bachman 36:55 L Forsgren 36:08
2 Switzerland 1:54:31 B Mathys 37:18 J Gross 36:16 S Jenzer 40:57
3 Spain 1:58:38 O R Perramon 38:42 A G Sánchez 39:47 A S. Arqués 40:09
12 New Zealand 2:16:14 K Morrison 39:51 A Simpson 45:08 GKnarston 51:15
13 Australia 2:19:39 R Effeney 41:27 A Prendergast 46:18 B Anderson 51:54
NC Australia 2:21:14 L Gillis 46:52 L Neumann 45:33 Ilka Barr 48:49
NC = non-competitive, as only the first team from a country is counted.
Four of the Aussie team in Rachel Effeney, Bridget Anderson, Aislinn Prendergast and Murray Scown leave to join the WOC team for a week’s training camp in Switzerlandhaving benefited from the tough international racing here. Bridget and Murray will be making their WOC debuts. Kiwis who raced here in Kate Morrison, Greta Knarston, Angela Simpson and Toby Scott will also be competing at WOC as part of NZ’s 10 person team.
World Masters Championships to be seen from above via drones!
Who has never wished to see the competition area from above? To have a point of view that shows control points at once and clearly differentiates peculiar kinds of terrains. Or to watch the runner who started earlier and thus find the optimal course to the next control.
Exactly that point of view is going to be provided on Saturday for the long-distance World masters finals. Professional aerial photos will be taken at the competition using modern photo and video drones. That innovative service is offered by the company “PHT Airpicture GmbH – Video- und Luftbildtechnik Michael Mehle”. The innovative point herein is the use of unmanned drones that are led to their destination by coordinates sent from the ground. From there they send high resolution pictures in best quality. The already broad spectrum of uses for the technology is enlarged by the production of pictures for orienteering.
Perhaps it is possible to gain new insights in orienteering through this technology. Surely interesting aerial photographs will result. Homepage: www.pht-airpicture.de
The Masters have just had two long qualifying events and have the final on Saturday. Amongst those who qualified highly were Aussies Jenny Bourne and Geoff Lawford (both 2nd), Natasha and Warren Key, Blair Trewin, Jim Russell, Hermann Wehner and Ann Ingwerson
The Junior World Championships start on Monday in Slovakia with the sprint event. See what our juniors have been up to in training via their blog site (above) or here – http://ausjuniororienteering.blogspot.sk/
The middle event today saw Swiss star Martin Hubmann win his second gold medal of the championships with over a 2 minute victory. Murray Scown ran solidly for 33rd place in a good simulation for his WOC debut shortly. He has a slight foot problem and thus won’t run the relay tomorrow. Rachel and Aislinn were mid field but disappointed with a number of small time losses.
The star of the down-under contingent was New Zealander Kate Morrison and her 10th place, which was just a touch over 2 minutes from a place. A great result.
The women’s course was 4km in length, with 15 controls and 125m climb.
The men’s was 5.4km; 19c; 180m climb.
1 32.49 Martin Hubmann Switzerland
2 35.10 Zsolt Lenkei Hungary
3 35.41 Adam Chromý Czech Rep
33 41.37 Murray Scown
58 45.40 Toby Scott NZ
64 47.03 Matt Parton
67 47.45 Simon Jager NZ
69 47.57 Gene Beveridge NZ
78 50.59 Jourdan Harvey NZ
80 51.06 Oliver Crosato
81 51.11 Aaron Breed
1 29:39 Lillian Forsgren Sweden
2 31:38 Anna Forsberg Sweden
3 32:35 Arqués Serrallonga Spain
10 34:54 Kate Morrison NZ
38 41.26 Rachel Effeney
42 42:36 Aislinn Prendergast
43 43:09 Greta Knarston NZ
50 46:09 Imogene Scott NZ
53 47:04 Angela Simpson NZ
54 47:18 Ilka Barr
57 49:01 Bridget Anderson
Friday’s relay is located adjacent to the middle area and the terrain is the same, again featuring some deserted farmland, rocks and vegetation with low visibility. “Soft terrain but rubbery because of the presence of stones, rocks and ravines.”
Courses are 5.4km (Women) with expected leg times of 35-40 mins, and 6.5km (Men) with legs planned at 40-45 minutes.
Each country can run two 3 person teams in the men and women categories. So, in the women we will have 2 teams and in the men just one, as we have only 4 men participating. Our teams are as follows:
Matt Parton
Oliver Crosato
Aaron Breed
Rachel Effeney
Aislinn Prendergast
Bridget Anderson
Lauren Gillis
Laurina Neumann
Ilka Barr
The men start first at 8.30am Spanish time (4.30pm here) and the women run off at 9am.
Lauren Gillis 13th – Three girls in top 30 in WUOC sprint
The Australian girls produced some brilliant results in the sprint at the World University Championships yesterday with three making the top 30. South Australian Lauren Gillis, a newcomer to the international stage, displayed not only her speed but her fitness too. Lauren backed up after almost a two hour effort the day before in the long, to place a tremendous 13th . Rachel Effeney’s 15th was also a top result, especially as she lost a minute at a mid race control. Bridget Anderson produced her best ever international result with 30th despite injuring her back the day before.
It was a Swiss trifecta in the men’s event, with the same names to feature at WOC in several weeks on home soil. Victorian Aaron Breed also put the disappointment of a long DNF behind him to do better in the sprint. Kiwi Toby Scott ran brilliantly for 17th in the large men’s field. The courses featured an urban area but with some steep slopes. The women did 2.25km with 17 controls, and the men had 2.8km with 19 controls.
The course saw the runners starting near the top of castle Santa Barbara in Alicante. They were led from the pre start to the side of the castle where they started in the middle of the old town. The first controls of the course caused much confusion and many a time you had to stop to plan your next leg. Was technically and physically hard and included about 400 stairs.
1 17.47 Iveta Duchová, Czech
2 18.38 Julia Gross Swiss
3 18.43 Ivana Bochenková Czech
12 19.58 Greta Knarston NZ
13 20.20 Lauren Gillis
15 20.31 Rachel Effeney
18 20.41 Angela Simpson NZ
30 21.47 Bridget Anderson
47 23.21 Gergia Whitla NZ
57 24.54 Laurina Neumann
65 26.47 Imogen Scott NZ
78 starters
1 17.53 Martin Hubmann Swiss
2 18.12 Raffael Huber Swiss
3 18.20 Andreas Kyburz Swiss
17 20.11 Toby Scott NZ
62 22.44 Gene Beveridge NZ
63 22.52 Jourdan Harvey NZ
67 23.08 Aaaron Breed
78 24.40 Murray Scown
81 25.16 Oliver Crosato
86 25.54 Matt Parton
91 27.38 Simon Jager NZ
101 starters
The middle courses start in the morning, which will be about 4.30pm Thursday in Australia. According to the bulletin the courses feature:
“Great slopes. The vegetation consists of low Mediterranean pine which makes the way of progress difficult. It is an area with large rocks, but we have just drawn those are greater than a meter. 30% of the forest in map is open and crossed by several rent ravines.”
Aislinn 37th in long event at World University Championships.
Below are the results from the long distance event at the World University Championships in Spain yesterday. The race today consisted of very hilly, rocky terrain in which the winner of the course was the one who took the best route choice. Track options around large hills seemed to be the best choices at times however knowing your way through gigantic ravines also seemed to help ( note control 14 to 15) . Our girls today struggled mainly in the ravine just outside of 14 as the crossing point was hard to find and if you missed it you were stuck in blackberries with 10m high cliffs surrounding you. Aislinn was the best of our runners today maintaining a solid pace throughout the course.
1 1.15 Raffael Huber Swiss
2 1.16 Štepán Kodeda Czech
3 1.17 Adam Chromý Czech
32 1.31 Toby Scott NZ 64 1.45 Matt Parton 67 1.47 Gene Beveridge NZ 69 1.51 Oliver Crosato MP Aaron Breed
Wednesday is the sprint in the town of Alicante, starting at the top of a castle with 360degree views of the region. The finish is on the beach front, 200m below the castle.
World Masters silver medals to Wehner and Key while Cusworth and Fien take ACT MTBO titles
Hermann Wehner and Natasha Key, both of whom already have multiple WMOC medals to their name, have taken silver medals in today’s sprint finals at the World Masters Orienteering Championships.
Key missed out by the narrowest possible margin, finishing one second behind Romania’s Veronica Minoiu in W40 after losing time late in the course. At the other end of the age scale, Wehner, who was competing in his original home town of Goslar, took second in M85, 58 seconds behind Swiss Edgar Bachtold.
Jenny Bourne (W55) and Warren Key (M50) both narrowly missed out on the medals, placing equal fourth and fifth respectively. The other Australian to achieve a top-ten result was Jim Russell (tenth in M50).
Switzerland led the day’s medal table with five golds. It was an outstanding day for Great Britain with four gold medals, the same as Sweden. The World Masters has attracted 3,958 competitors in age classes from M/W35 to W85 and M90. Australia has 71 participants which makes us the 12th most represented country out of 43 competing. Finland leads the way with 654, then Sweden (506), Norway (500) and Russia with 428.
Competition resumes, after a rest day tomorrow, with the first long distance qualification race on Wednesday.
The ACT Sprint and Middle Distance MTBO Championships were held in Canberra last weekend. The elite fields featured a good number of present and past Australian team members who were eager to tackle the world class terrains of “Bruce Ridge” for the sprint and “Stromlo” for the middle. The latter map included unique symbols for one direction only tracks.
Steven Cusworth displayed excellent form in his lead up to WOC in Hungary with convincing wins in both events while JWOC debutante Heath Jamieson had his best ride in the long to take 3rd. Mary Fien exhibited her fitness and navigational cunning to take both victories in the strong women’s field but adventure racer and former foot o star Danielle Winslow was right on her tail.
Other double victories were recorded by:
M16 Stephen Melhuish M20 Paul de Jongh M50 Andrew Power M70 Graham Fowler
W20 Rebecca Powell W50 Sue Donoghue W60 Kathy Liley M 80 Kevin Paine
Today the World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC) kick off in Alicante in sunny southern Spain. This year Australia is fielding a strong team of 10 athletes.
The mens team includes Murray Scown (ACT), Matt Parton (NSW), Oliver Crosato (QLD) and Aaron Breed (QLD/VIC).
The womens team includes Aislinn Prendergast (VIC), Rachel Effeney (QLD), Ilka Barr (VIC), Laurina Neumann (QLD), Bridget Anderson (QLD) and Lauren Gillis (SA).
The athletes and coaching staff of Evan Barr and Simon Upphill have spent the last few days in Alicante acclimatising to the to the warm dry conditions, the late afternoon siestas and the street rioting that occurs when the host country wins the European Football Cup during the carnival.
The racing kicks off tonight (tuesday night Australian Eastern Standard time) with the Long distance and with the mens race including over 700m of climb it should prove to be a tough day out for all.
This year clashes with the World Championships and the Junior World Championships have meant the some of the traditionally stronger countries are not sending full strength teams. This fact combined with competition terrain that is not dissimilar to Australian terrain means that the Aussie team could well post some great results.
The first mountain bike orienteering event in Far North Queensland will take place this Saturday, 30 June, in the McKenzie Pocket Forest outside Kuranda.
Being organised by the newly formed Far North Orienteering club, the event is sure to attract a good following from the large number of mountain bike riders and adventure racers in the region. Over the last month, local orienteers and other volunteers have been busy checking the tracks through the plantation forest and undertaking track pruning to ensure some enjoyable riding for participants.
An experienced orienteer and MTBO rider, Andrew Campbell, formerly from Victoria but now living in Cairns, is one of the key organisers of this inaugural event, ably assisted by Mike Coleman of Adventure Sport NQ who has a long history of involvement in outdoor recreation in the region. The forests of North Queensland have not yet been fully explored for their MTBO potential but there are some exciting possibilities around the Atherton Tablelands and west of Ingham and we look forward to further development of the sport in the region in the coming years.
21 Australians have reached the A finals in the sprint at the World Masters Orienteering Championships after today’s qualification races in Bad Harzburg, Germany.
The most impressive qualifiers were Natasha Key (W40), Jenny Bourne (W55) and Geoff Lawford (M55), all of whom were second in their heats. There were three Australians in the top eight in M50-4, with Europe first-timer Tim Hatley joining regular WMOC contenders Jim Russell (3rd) and Warren Key (7th), while Ann Ingwersen (W70) and Hermann Wehner (M85) were also third.
Ted van Geldermalsen made it by the narrowest possible margin after dead-heating for 20th, the last qualifying spot, in M55. On the other side of the coin, Nick Dent missed out by one place and three seconds in M60.
The final will take place tomorrow in the medieval town centre of Goslar.
Vanessa Round (SA) and Julian Dent (NSW) did well to finish about a minute down in their respective sprint races in Switzerland yesterday. As only the 40 top ranked runners got a start in the World Cup sprint held on the same day, these fields were quite strong and full of runners from a variety of countries.
Some of our team members will join in the Swiss and Finnish middle and long WOC selection races mid week.
Elite Women ( 2.8 km, 20c ) Elite Men ( 3.2 km, 24 c)
Eva Jurenikova CZE 14:50 1. Yannick Michiels BEL 15:46
Franziska Meier SWI 14:50 2. Rasmus Thrane Hansen DEN 15:52
Hanna Wisniewska POL 15:05 2. Robert Merl AUT 15:52
The first mountain bike orienteering event in Far North Queensland will take place this Saturday, 30 June, in the McKenzie Pocket Forest outside Kuranda.
