Author: craigf

A new SPORTident option for clubs and schools is now available and during the Easter Carnival Colin Price at the AussieOgear shop has a free booklet and SPORTident Pcard to give to a representative of each orienteering club.

Further details are as follows. “SPORTident wants to introduce you to one of our new projects, a special designed booklet containing information and practical exercises that might assist you and PE teachers in schools. For more information about the SPORTdent School project – The new way of teaching physical education – look at school.sportident.com. We have also attached a sample of the “pCard” so that you can see how it works. The pCard is a cheaper and practical alternative to the standard SI8 & SI9 sticks used in orienteering. They will store up to 20 controls and are perfect for school carnivals or events that attract large numbers of competitors such as an Urban Adventure Race.

Please arrange for a representative of your club to call and collect your copy of the booklet and pCard free of charge from Colin Price who will be at the AussieOgear shop at the Easter carnival. Alternatively contact Colin at colinp53@yahoo.com.au , (email your address details and club), and the material will be posted out to you. Dont miss out on your FREE copy! SPORTident wishes you a wonderful time in Stanthorpe, Qld, for the Easter carnival! Anna Bralite, School Project manager”.

Orienteering Australia meetings – Easter Carnival
During the Easter Carnival, Orienteering Australia will be coordinating a number of meetings. Interested orienteers are welcome to attend any or all of the meetings!
Meeting details are:
Saturday 7 April: OA Committee Meetings, Library, Stanthorpe High School, 2 McGlew St, Stanthorpe
Room 1: 2.30pm Technical; 3.40pm IT and website development.
Room 2: 2.30pm Development Forum
Room 2: 3.40pm Coaching
Room 3: 2.30pm Schools
Room 3: 3.40pm Mapping
Sunday 8 April: OA Annual General Meeting
3.30pm, Granite Belt Community Learning Centre, Stanthorpe High School, 2 McGlew Street, Stanthorpe.

OA is also seeking nominations for the following positions to be either elected or appointed at the AGM:
Board positions due for election for 2-year terms:
– President
– Director, Finance
– Director, Technical
– Director, Development

Appointments:
– Chairperson (Mapping Committee):
– Chairperson (Technical Committee):
– Chairperson (Events Committee):
– Chairperson (MTBO Committee):
– Chairperson (IT Committee):
– Chairperson (Development & Participation Committee)
– Tribunals and Appeals Committee (up to two to be appointed)
– Misconduct Tribunal
– Selection Appeals Committee

The 2012 SILVA National Orienteering League commenced this weekend in Victoria.

Event 3 on Sunday saw WA junior Oscar McNulty take his second win for the weekend in dramatic circumstances. Six men started the final loop of the 12.8 km Hagaby event together and despite swapping the lead often they came to the last control all together with Great Britain’s Matt Crane punching first. However Oscar outsprinted everyone to win the most thrilling race finish ever seen in Australia with Matt, Bryan Keely, Dave Shepherd, Simon Uppill and Rob Preston just behind. 

In the women Kiwi Lizzie Ingham (running for the Canberra Cockatoo’s) had a narrow 5 second win from Aislinn Prendergast with Grace Elson just 13 seconds further back in 3rd.
Lilian Burrill, Heather Muir and Amy Buckerfield were the junior girl placegetters, while Ian Lawford and Brodie Nankervis filled 2nd and 3rd behind Oscar. Having the elites and juniors racing the same courses certainly was worthwhile.

Ballarat University campus was the venue for race #1, with a complex array of building and passages making for tricky navigation. The courses had several loops and legs past the finish providing lots of spectator involvement.

The story of the day was the amazing run from Western Australian junior Oscar McNulty who won the Junior Elite class, but also beat all the elite men. Great Britain rep and now Canberra Cockatoos team member Matt Crane was the best of the >20yo’s 9secs behind McNulty. South Australian Simon Uppill was another 20secs back in 3rd place. McNulty is now the youngest male winner of a National League race.

Tasmanian Brodie Nankervis also showed great promise to finish 2nd in the Junior Elite class with Canberra Cockatoos rep and reigning Junior National Series winner Olly Poland in 3rd.

Queensland Cyclones Rachel Effeney continues her stunning year with a win in the women’s elite class, just edging out NZ and Canberra Cockatoos rep Lizzy Ingham. Tasmania’s Grace Elson was 3rd, 31secs off the pace. Effeney had a great debut at WOC last year making the Sprint Final and just last month won the prestigious Sprint the Bay competition in New Zealand.

In the Junior Elite women’s class Queensland Heather Muir lead from start to finish to beat team mate Lillian Burrill by 14secs. Nicola Blatchford (NSW Stingers) filled the podium, 39secs behind Muir.

The competition then moved to Surface Hill, a new gold-mining map SW of Ballarat by Roch Pendergast. The courses passed through a very difficult hillside with difficult steep gullies and mullock hills left behind by the miners from the 1870’s. The Women’s Elite class was dominated by Lizzy Ingham who won by a massive 2mins 11 secs of a 4km course. Southern Arrow’s Middle distance specialist Vanessa Round was 2nd and Victoria’s Natasha Key continues beat competitors many years her junior took 3rd place.

The men’s elite class was much closer. Victoria’s Bryan Keely got off to a great start and lead until the 20min mark before Canberra Cockatoo David Shepherd took the lead. Shepherd stumbled near the end to hand to lead to Matt Crane. But a fast finishing Southern Arrow Simon Uppill snatched the victory in the final few legs to beat Shepherd by 9secs. Uppill, the currently SILVA NOL champion placed 2nd in 8 races in 2011 but failed to claim one victory. Perhaps 2012 will bring a change of luck to Uppill, but the competition is likely to be very close in 2012.

Results

Race 1 Results – National Orienteering League #1
Race 1 Split – National Orienteeing League #1
Race 1 WinSplits
Race 1 Route Gadget – NOL1 Sprint

Race 2 Results – National Orienteering League #2 & Victorian State Series #1
Race 2 Splits – National Orienteering League #2 & Victorian State Series #1
Race 2 WinSplits – Elite
Race 2 Route Gadget – National Orienteering League #2 Middle Distance, Victorian State Series #1

Race 3 Results – National Orienteering League #3 & Victorian State Series #2
Race 3 Splits – National Orientering League #3 & Victorian State Series #2
Race 3 WinSplits – Elite
Race 3 Route Gadget – National Orienteering League #3 & Victorian State Series #2

Thank you to Eureka Orienteers, Melbourne Forest Racers and Orienteering Victoria for 3 great races.  Special thanks to Geoff Adams (Event Advisor), Roch Prendergast, Geoff Lawford, Rob Plowright, Warwick Williams, Nicola Dalheim, Dion Keech and Ruth Goddard for making it all possible.

Videos and Photos by Bruce Arthur for Orienteering Victoria and Melbourne Forest Racers

JWOC & WOC MT BIKE ORIENTEERING Trials – Victoria  – 28-29^th April

-The selection trials for the World Championships to be held in Hungary from  August 20-25^th are all 3 events at the National Series round 1 on 28-29^th April based in central Victoria at Maryborough and Newstead.  There will be a sprint, middle and long race.  See VOA website for further details.

Nominations for the Australian team are due by APRIL 1^st. (see below)

MTBO TRAINING CAMP – 25-27^th APRIL

This will occur all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning and be based in Castlemaine or nearby.

Ian Dalton, the national coach, will lead this and accommodation costs during the camp will be met for squad members by the OA MTBO budget.  Other orienteers, of 16 years and above, and including veterans, are welcome to attend.   OA can provide a verification letter to schools or universities re attendance at the training camp.

MTBO TEAM & CAMP NOMINATION FORM

Return to both Ian Dalton (coach) ian_dalton@hotmail.com and Kay Haarsma (OA High Performance Manager) at kayhaarsma@hotmail.com  by APRIL 1^st.

NAME:                                                                 DOB:                                      Email:

Postal addres:

Ph numbers (h)                                       mobile

If under 21 please add your parent/s names and email.

I wish to nominate for JWOC / WOC Australian team      – YES / NO

I wish to attend the training camp on April 25-27^th               – YES / NO

If you can only attend part of the training camp please state which day/s.

MTBO NATIONAL SQUAD
Elite Women

– Thor Egerton (VIC); Mary Fien (NSW) Melanie Simpson (NSW).

Elite men

– Steven Cusworth (VIC), Jamie Goddard (VIC); Oscar Phillips (TAS) Rob Preston (VIC)  Alex Randall (VIC); David Simpfendorfer(ACT); Ricky Thackray (WA);

Juniors

– Chris Firman (QLD), Marc Gluskie (TAS); Tom Goddard (TAS); Tim Jackson (VIC), Heath Jamieson (VIC), Angus Robinson (VIC), Karl Withers (QLD);

After leading our WOC teams to Hungary 2009, Norway 2010 and France in 2011 Rob Lewis has resigned his coaching position due to family reasons.  We thank Rob for his valuable input into our international teams.  He will continue to be involved with coaching.

OA has had to work quickly to secure a replacement with WOC only 5 months away.  We are delighted to announce that Tom Quayle has eagerly accepted the men’s coach / manager role working in conjunction with Wendy Read, the existing women’s coach / manager.  Tom lives in Sweden.  This provides us with a coach who can easily research European based world championship terrain and also some-one who understands Australian orienteers.

Tom represented Australian in JWOC teams in 1994 and 1995, and WOC teams in 2001, 2003 and 2004, in an era when the Australian men’s team was probably its strongest and had incredible depth.  (Initially WOC’s were held bi-annually)

Tom made an important breakthrough for Australian orienteering when he became the first Australian to podium in a World Championship, with his long distance 4^th in Poland at Jwoc 1994. This success was recognised by all the other nations present who were rapt to see Australia emerge as a top orienteering nation.

Tom repeated his 4^th at JWOC 1995, this time an agonising 2 seconds from a medal, and he also was placed 17^th in the sprint final.  In WOC 2001 Tom stood upon the elite podium with an outstanding 6^th in the relay, and was in ultra-competitive relay teams in WOC 2003 (9^th) and WOC 2004 (10^th). Tom’s best individual result was 13^th in the long in Sweden, 2004.  In World Cup events Tom had many top results, with his best probably being 7^th in a Norwegian sprint in 2002. He has competed in World Park tour events and all the major European international fixtures with good success.  Earlier this month, while holidaying in Australia Tom dropped into a Sydney sprint series race and won the event.

Although Tom has had a coaching position with the Bushrangers in the past, now that he has finished his elite career he is keenly looking forward to his new role.

Congratulations to Rachel Effeney (QLD) for winning women’s elite in the 6 race “Sprint the Bay”in New Zealand.

As predicted the hilly, forested stage 5 saw many people lose major time.  Rachel Effeney lost the leaders yellow jersey and the leading 4 men, including 2nd placed Oscar McNulty (WA) plummeted down the order.

In a drama packed last stage Rachel started 8 seconds in arrears of Angela Simpson (NZ). In this last stage the 2 leaders started together but did two initial loops in different orders before coming together with the same controls to the finish.  When Rachel punched at the final control and Angela wasn’t in view the commentator declared her the victor. Afterwards it was found that Angela had missed the first control and another leading contender, Greta Knudsen had unfortunately taken a men’s course map, resulting in a DNF for both. Lizzie Ingham, the fastest on stage 6, took 2^nd place overall.

An outstanding result for Rachel against quality opposition.  She won the first 4 stages and then was 6th and 2nd today. Runner-up Lizzie Ingham was 11th in the sprint at WOC 2011. Angela Simpson was 6th in the World Universities sprint in 2010; again 6th in sprint at Jwoc 2011 and won STD last year.  Rachel qualified for the final and was 35th in her WOC debut in the sprint last year.

The men’s final stage had plenty of speed but no changes in the leaders. Victory overall went to Toby Scott (NZ), who had leapfrogged from 5^th to first during stage 5 in the morning race. Tom Reynolds (NZ)retained 2^ndplace and NSW’s Matt Parton maintained his composure to keep 3^rdplace.    Toby’s individual stage results were: 9th, 6, 7, 6, 1, 5.

A great result for Matt based on many consistent runs at the pointy end, with his individual stage results being 22nd, 8, 5, 2, 3, 10.  Lachy Dow also performed really well to be the next leading Aussie in 6th, less than a minute behind Matt.

MEN:  1) T Scott (Nzl) 1h34m35s,  2) T Reynolds (Nzl) 1h35m53s,  3) M Parton (Aus) 1h36m36s. 6) L Dow 1h37m.31

WOMEN:  1) R Effeney (Aus)  1h32m56, 2) L Ingham (Nzl) 1h34m11s, 3) K Morrison (Nzl) 1h38m04s. 6) H Allston

Other overall Australian results were:

Men:   8th I Lawford, 11 B Keeley, 12 O McNulty, 15 B Arthur, 17 M Scown, 21 K Gregory, 25 O Mitchell, 28 M McQuire  DNF G Bluett, E Barr, J Russell.  60 starters.

Women:   7th A Prendergast, 9 L Grant, 10 M Neve, 12 B Lawford, 14 I Barr, 15 S Jones, 16 K Effeney, 22 H Muir, 23 E Cantwell. 38 starters.

Most of the Australian squad are staying on in NZ with coaches Jim Russell and Hanny Allston for a training camp for the next 6 days.

Rachel Effeney (Q) and Oscar McNulty (WA) both had tremendous victories in a fantastic opening day of the Sprint the Bay carnival inNZ.   These wins enabled Rachel to be wearing the yellow jersey (overall leader) and Oscar, 3^rd overall, will don the white jersey, as leading junior in the 60 person men’s field.

Rachel, who debuted for Australia at WOC in 2011, won both stages and now has a 52 second lead overall. On the mass start stage 1 course she crossed the line 4 seconds ahead of Lizzie Ingham (NZ), but in stage 2 she took the lead after leg 2 and was never headed and won by a whopping 45  seconds from Great Knaston (NZ).  Lizzie Ingham, who now resides in Canberra, made a big 75 second mistake to fall back to 9^th in stage 2 but is certainly close enough to still podium.

Hanny Allston,  “having a run” to complement her coaching duties, was the next best Aussie in 8^th on both courses.  Aislinn Prendergast, who also debuted at WOC in 2011, and is more renowned as a long event specialist, performed really well to be placed 9^th after day 1.

The “boy from the west,” Oscar McNulty was the talk of the town after his dramatic 8 second victory on stage 2.  Having just finished school in Perth, he is Sydney bound for university later this month.  Oscar won 4 of the 23 splits and led throughout the race except for one leg in the middle.   In the initial race Oscar also excelled winning 7 splits before fading a little towards the end to finish a close 9^th.

Young Bendigo gun Bryan Keeley used his leg speed to advantage on stage 1 by placing 5^th and backed this up with an 11^thin stage 2.  Lachlan Dow (7^th) and Matt Parton (8^th) ran extremely well on stage 2 after being in the 20’s on stage 1.

After day 1 there was just 1 minute 6 seconds separating the top 10 in the men’s elite field, and 2.20 down to twentieth place.  In the women’s field it’s a little more stretched out with 4 minutes between 1^st and 10^th. Sunday’s two races are both again in mostly urban terrain featuring 2 or 3 different schools on each map.  The afternoon stage also has some public gardens to traverse.  With sprint races being so fast and frantic there are many chances for other runners to come to the fore.

Overall after day 1 – top 20 results

1^st  Tim Robertson (NZ)  places  1 + 3      31.01 minutes

3^rd Oscar McNulty (WA)               9 + 1     31.07    “

7^th Bryan Keely (VIC)                     5 + 11

11^th Ian Lawford (ACT)                  12 + 15

13^th Matt Parton (NSW)                22 + 8

14^th Lachy Dow (ACT)                     23 + 7

1^st    Rachel Effeney (Q)                 1 + 1      29.46 minutes  (pictured above)

2^nd   Angela Simpson (NZ)             3 + 3       30.38      “

8^th   Hanny Allston (TAS)                8 + 8

9^th   Aislinn Prendergast (VIC)      11 + 7

12^th  Mace Neve (ACT)                   15 + 13

16^th  Shannon Jones (ACT)            21 + 14

17^th   Ilka Barr (VIC)                         16 + 23

19^th  Katelyn Effeney (Q)               19 + 18

20^th Belinda Lawford (ACT)           18 + 21

Day 2 of Sprint the Bay was another successful day for Aussie orienteers.   In fact it was “moving up” day for a number of our younger men and a “moving further ahead” day for Rachel Effeney.

Rachel won stage 3 by 7 seconds from Angela Simpson (NZ), while Hanny Allston had her best result at 5^th and WOC 2011 team members Aislinn Prendergast (10^th) and Mace Neve (12^th) again ran well, as did Lisa Grant (14^th).   The men saw Kiwis Tane Cambridge and Tim Robertson remarkably have another dramatic draw for first, (as they did on stage 1) both clocking 16.07.   Matt Parton (NSW) had his best result at 5^th just 12 seconds behind and 18 year old Oscar McNulty (WA) starred again with 6^th place, just 3 seconds further back.  Ian Lawford (12^th) and Bruce Arthur (14^th) again were at the pointy end of the field.

Stage 4 saw our boys take the trifecta with brilliant runs!  WA ‘s Oscar McNulty bolted around for his 2^nd stage win just seconds ahead of Matt Parton (NSW) and Lachy Dow (ACT) and Victorian speedster Bryan Keeley was close behind in 5^th.  Bryn Davies (NZ) had looked likely to take the victory but omitted a control near the end.   Rachel took her 4^th consecutive victory racing home 19 secs ahead of Lizzie Ingham with Ainslin Prendergast again steady in 7^th and Hanny Allston was 10^th.

Stage 5 on Monday morning on the “Sleeping Giant” map at Te Mata Park is seen as being “huge in determining overall rankings” by the organisers.  The area was used last year and is unique because of its mix of intricate vegetation and rock detail with rugged hills and complex track networks.  The promise is for physically challenging courses but still with high technical difficulty.  Vegetation, tracks and the 5m contours come into play.  Stage 6 – the final race at Arataki, will utilise three school campuses and again demand some micro-orienteering.

Rachel Effeney takes a 1min41 sec lead into the last day with a number of Aussie girls trying to move up the rankings.  Currently Hanny sits in 8^th just 5 seconds ahead of Aislinn in 9^th, followed by Mace Neve(VIC) and Lisa Grant (NSW) sitting close together in 10^th and 11^th and Belinda Lawford aiming to maintain her top 15 position.

Oscar McNulty heads out 2^nd overall just 11 secs behind the Kiwi leader Tim Robertson. The top 15 guys are only separated by 4 minutes and includes 6 Aussies.  Matt Parton (6^th), Lachy Dow (7^th), Bryan Keeley (10^th), Ian Lawford (12^th) and Bruce Arthur (14^th) will look to maintain their good form.   With tomorrow’s terrain perhaps the danger man is NZ’s super fit Chris Forne, currently sitting in 11^th.

The popular “Sprint the Bay” series of 6 sprint races in 3 days commences in Hawkes Bay, NZ on Saturday Feb 4th. Twenty three Aussies are travelling over and comprise 25% of the elite fields. There are 60 elite men and 38 elite women.  All the Aussies, even the younger juniors, are competing in the elite races.  Three of our WOC women are competing in Aislinn Prendergast, Shannon Jones and Mace Neve.   Shannon will be competing shortly after the birth of her first child, while Mace is flying in from Samoa where she is working for 12 months. Grant Bluett, Bruce Arthur, Murray Scown and Bryan Keeley will be chased around by a lot of our young guns.

After the races most of the Australian contingent is staying on for a 6 day training camp, along with some Kiwis.  Jim Russell is the head coach for this, ably supported by Hanny Allston.

Event one will be held on a brand new map combination called Koponga Ride. This includes public gardens, model train tracks, forested valleys, school buildings and a graveyard. Will be exciting stuff for any race let alone a mass start!   Some events are totally urban while others have substantial forest / paddocks.  All maps are at a 1:4,000 scale.

In the Men’s and Women’s Elite grades there are various coloured singlets available for the overall leader (yellow singlet), fastest overall junior runner in Elite grades (white singlet), sprint leg leader (green singlet) and the hill climb leader (polka-dot singlet). The overall results for each singlet are calculated after each race, and then the singlets are ceremoniously presented to their rightful wearers.

In 2012, the STB crew has really upped the ante by setting up a live video/audio stream to the internet. From the LIVE CENTRE on our website, keen orienteers from all over the world (especially the cold-winter-suffering Europeans) and your friends and family can follow all of the action from the comfort of their living room.

The Kiwis are even trying to psyche out their Aussie competitors, with event notes stating: “There are plants that can hurt you. The main hazards in STB are stinging nettle, and the more dangerous Onga Onga.”