Over two days on the 10th and 11th of March, Melbourne Forest Racers and the Eureka Orienteering Club will be holding the Eureka Challenge in the Ballarat area. The Eureka Challenge has been a common feature of the National Orienteering League calendar and the mass start hagaby format has always attracted big fields and great competitions. Event information can be found in this document 2012 Eureka Challenge NOL Invitation v1.pdf and any additional information will be added to this webpage.
Saturday will begin at 9:00am with the Elites competing in a Sprint Event at the University of Ballarat.(about 10 minutes from Ballarat PO) With a planned winning time of 12 to 15 minutes the competition will be fast and furious. Every one is welcometo enter and challenge the Elites at their own game. University of Ballarat location.
At 12:30pm the challenge continues for the Elites at Surface Hill with a Middle Distance event amongst some challenging mining terrain.(about 20 minutes from Ballarat PO)At 2:00pm everyone else is invited to accept the challenge to conquer the hill over the Middle Distance with all classes having a winning time of 30 to 35 minutes.
Sunday, the challenge continues with a Hagaby style event on Chinamans Flat. ( 30 to 40 minutes from Ballarat PO) The NOL race starts at 9:30am and the Victorian State Series event will begin at 10:30.
All events are Pre Entry and entries will close on Wed. 29th Feb.
The successful Otago MTBO Carnival finished with a friendly relay yesterday at the Snow Farm, a ski-field high above Cardrona near Wanaka. The rain cleared, the sun came out, though it was a coolish 6 degrees. Riders tangled with a spaghetti-like maze of benched ski trails and motor vehicle testing tracks. The race format involved 2 person teams taking turns to do 2 loops each.
NZ top guns Phil Wood and Chris Forne sprinted in just 17 seconds ahead of Alex Randall and Oscar Phillips to win the long men’s course. Other Australian placing’s in this class included: 4th – Damian Welbourne & Dion Keech; 5th -David Simpendorfer & Paul Darvodelsky; 6th – Ricky Thackray & Ian Dalton.
Mary after finishing her 2nd course.Chris Firman
Marquita Gelderman and Georgia Whitla won “long women” by 3 minutes ahead of Mary Fien & Melanie Simpson. Chris Firman (Qld) paired up with Jen Graham-Taylor (WA) for a convincing win in long mixed, while the mother and son pair of Carolyn and Tim Jackson took out 3rd.
Andrew Campbell (Far North Queensland) teamed with Tim Hackney for 3rd in medium men, whilst Jean Douglas (NSW) paired with Sally Dickson for 2nd in medium women and Carolyn Matthews and Malcolm Roberts (both NSW) did well to achieve 3rd in the medium mixed category.
In “short women” Victorian duo of Heather Leslie and Peta Whitford placed 2nd while Cath Vero (Alice Springs) teamed with Annie Sanderson for 3rd place. And guess what? A bit of a shower overnight, and the next day the hills were coated with a fresh dusting of snow down to 1000m!
New Zealand is to be congratulated in organising such a fantastic carnival despite the earthquake hardships faced by the Christchurch orienteering community. They utilised a variety of interesting terrains, some innovative course setting and also had a diverse range of weather conditions which added up to a memorable experience for all riders.
Snow farm contouring tracks – map below.
Aussies draw middle event but Kiwis win MTBO Challenge.
Both sides slipped and slid their way to a draw in the third and final event of the 2012 ANZ MTB-Orienteering Challenge at Wanaka yesterday. So the final result over the three events of the ANZ Challenge was New Zealand 14, Australia 10
Carolyn Matthews – part of victorious W40 team in middle
Persistent rain overnight and during the middle distance event near the Clutha River outlet made riding conditions difficult, but riders praised the variety of terrain in the small area. Australia won the tightly contested Womens 40 class for a second time – winning by 1 minute 57. Christine Brown (NZ) won this class by just 19 secs over Carolyn Jackson but 6th place by Carolyn Matthews helped the Aussies to victory. In Men’s Open Chris Forne was threatened by top Australian Alex Randall who finished just 3 mins down but the kiwis held the class. Oscar Phillips was 5th, Paul Darvodelsy 7th and Ricky Thackray 10th. In the Women’s Open Marquita Gelderman took her 2nd win by the narrow margin of 21 seconds over Melanie Simpson, but the Aussie depth showed, with Mary Fien 3rd and Jen Garham-Taylor 8th and the class went to Australia. Australia also took Mens 20 and Mens 50 while the hosts won Womens 50, Mens 40 and Mens 60.
Other good Aussie individual results were: M20 Chris Firman 1st, Tim Jackson 2nd, Paulo Jun Alvear Fujii 3rd. M40 – Peter Swanson 4th; M50 – Malcolm Roberts 2nd; W50 – Heather Leslie 4th; M60 – Andrew Campbell 4th; W60 Kathy Liley 1st.
Jwoc multiple representative Chris Firman again displayed his undoubted talent, in winning M20 and being the fastest on course 2, beating all M40 and W21 participants. Here is his race description: “I had the first start of the day and this meant I had to concentrate on the 1:7,500 “Sticky-Hikuwai” map which had ever changing terrain in its 4 square kilometres. Course 2 was tricky from the get go. The first check point route choice had one of the new symbols that New Zealand invented. A green dash track route, meaning it’s vague and hard to pick up on. The track was more direct and went straight to the first checkpoint. Having managed to navigate my way smoothly through this tricky route, it built up my confidence in the race. The map consisted of a bit of everything. Technical single tracks, mazes of track, dark yellow open areas and a lot more white section of the maps (white meaning you are allowed to ride through the forest on this map.) I used the open areas and white forest section to my advantage giving me and the other riders a lot more route choices and flexibility on cutting the corners. I only made one or two route choices that I felt were not the fastest routes but I executed them well and kept my navigation solid. Very pleased with my ride.”
Another course 2 competitor had a different account. “A real shocker. I forgot to start my GPS, so now I will never know where I went! Lost map contact just after the start triangle, and struggled to relocate – eventually hit the river and worked it out. Another time I rode a long way over the map fold before realising it was a 7,500 scale.”
Riders dried out and relaxed at the historic Cardrona hotel last night. Today they ride a “friendly” relay at the Waiorau cross-country skifield and motor vehicle testing ground, 1675 metres up high on the Pisa Mt Range about 40 km from Wanaka. With snow forecast last night and today, it should be another memorable and unique experience.
(Based on Michael Wood (NZ) report – additional input Kay Haarsma.)
Provisional team results based on the best two riders from each country.
NZ is throwing a little bit of everything at the Aussie MTB orienteers. Heavy rain is forecast for Friday’s event at Wanaka, whilst up at “Snow Farm”, at Saturday’s relay site, the forecast is a maximum of 1 degree and 8 centimetres of snow! True!
The 50 strong contingent of Aussie mtb orienteers spent the rest day in Queenstown. With so much adventure stuff on offer there were actually few who “rested.” Some chose to practice their bike descent skills on the local mountain, courtesy of repeated chair lift rides to the top, whilst others sought out various water pursuits.
The toughness of the long event on Wednesday was a rude shock for many who hadn’t taken the pre-event course description of “open terrain with significant contour detail” literally. The aptly titled “Linger and Die” map definitely needed mental and physical stamina. Many had almost a 400m climb to the first control!
Comments from Chris Firman: “The long distance race was harder than any course I have ever competed in. The steepness of hills we had to climb this day was extreme and there were many gratuitous climbs. All who finished this day were impressive. On this bareback mountain everyone struggled. If you weren’t going down you were pedaling up and if you weren’t pedaling you were pushing up, which everyone had to do multiple times. The descents weren’t always your friend being very tricky to ride down fast and with the loose rock and loose soil it proved challenging for a lot of people. My goal for the course was to have another clean ride like the sprint. One wrong error could potentially send you down the hill in the wrong direction, and it was everyone’s aim to avoid climbing more then you had to. Similar to the sprint day, I was hesitant double checking the vague tracks on the bare mountain and also pacing myself, knowing I had a lot of climb ahead of me.”
Australian individual highlights were as follows: Alex Randall placed 3rd in open men despite a puncture with 4 controls to go, while teammates Oscar Phillips and Ricky Thackray were 5th and 6th in the 20 person field. David Simpfendorfer retired with a broken chain, as did Ian Dalton with tyre issues.
In open women, on course 2, the ultra-fit Melanie Simpson (122 mins) had a well deserved victory over Maquita Gelderman. Mary Fein also rode extremely well to place a close 3rd and secure the class victory for the Aussies. Jenn Graham-Taylor, on the comeback trail after motherhood, persevered well to place 6th out of 14. The fastest time of the day on course 2 went to M20 Chris Firman with 109 mins, while fellow Queenslander Karl Withers was 2nd (129mins) in M20, with Victorian youngster Tim Jackson 3rd. M40 winner (also C2) Damian Welbourne actually enjoyed the tough conditions to win in 110 mins, just a minute ahead of Greg Barbour, a dual foot and mtbo world champs Kiwi representative. Remarkably Damian rode the entire event with his front forked locked out, after forgetting to re-engage it after a bitumen climb to the first control.
Course 3 saw two victories for the reliable duo of Carolyn Jackson (W40) – 104 mins, and Marcus Roberts (M50) – 99 mins. While Carolyn had a 13 minute win Marcus had less than a minute up his sleeve over Kiwi Phil White. On course 4 Victorian Heather Leslie was Australia’s only placegetter, with her 3rd in W50. Peta Whitford was unable to start and reserve Carolyn Cusworth bravely stepped up into the W50 team and was thrilled to finish. In the ultra-competitive M60class, David Firman (Qld) and Leigh Privett (Vic) rode well in a strong field for 4th and 5th respectively. Course 5 saw evergreen Kathy Liley again take the honours in W60.
Some of the riders will go into the 3rd of the challenge events, the middle distance, aiming to achieve a clean sweep trifecta of wins. These are New Zealanders Chris Forne (men’s open), Ed Corey-Wright (M16) Bruce Meder (M60) and Aussies Chris Firman (M20), Carolyn Jackson (W40) and Kathy Liley (W60).
Elite victor Chris ForneElite Aussie Jenn Graham-Taylor
NZ maintained its lead today, in the second event of the 2012 MTB-Orienteering Challenge at Alexandra. The long distance courses in steep hills across the river were run in sweltering conditions, with several errors and retirements in the field of 150.
Australia won the Mens 20 and Womens Open again, narrowly lost Womens 40 by 59 seconds, but picked up Mens 50 after the leading kiwi Rob Garden visited a wrong control point. New Zealand retained Mens Open with Chris Forne leading the field by an incredible 20 minutes. Also both veteran womens classes, plus Mens 40 and 60. Australia’s Melanie Simpson was the fastest Open Woman, 4 minutes ahead of top kiwi Marquita Gelderman.
Riders finishing on the banks of the Manuherikia River were too exhausted to comment on Joe Sherriff’s mapping and courses, but as they recovered the extent of his hard work over many months received recognition. And also the work of his partner Jo Wilson, who had installed a 4-metre control flag next to the town clock on the cliffs overlooking the town.
New Zealand now has a lead of 10-6 going into the final event, a middle distance at Wanaka on Friday. Winning times will be up to 50 minutes depending on class.
(Michael Wood, NZ)
Provisional team results based on the best two riders from each country.
NZ inched ahead of Australia today in the first of the three events of the 2012 MTB-Orienteering Challenge at Roxburgh, by 5 classes to 3. The visitors won the Men’s 20, the Women’s Open and Women’s 40, while the hosts won the rest of the Men’s classes and Women’s 50. Australia met with bad luck in the last when Peta Whitford took a tumble while negotiating a stream crossing, and Helen Edmonds missed a control point, leaving the team with insufficient times for a result. The best two out of three riders per class are counted
Oscar Phillips.
Riders were complimentary about the gold-mining terrain over the river from Roxburgh, where locals have created a maze of tracks in an area only 1km long and 500m wide. Planner Conal Boland-Bristow of Christchurch set 5 sprint-distance courses of up to 7km in the tiny area. Only Bruce Meder (M60, NZL) beat the target winning time of 22 minutes, though Chris Forne (M-Open, NZL) came close with 22-29. After the teams had ridden 100 other orienteers between 14 and 70 rode the courses. The challenge continues tomorrow at Alexandra. (MWood)
Many classes rode the same courses allowing for time comparisions. Kiwi Chris Forne was dominant on course 1 taking 22 minutes in winning men’s open. Queensland junior Chris Firman impressed in taking the 2nd best time, with 25.53, easily winning M20. Greg Barbour (Aussie resident but NZ team member) won M40 in 27.16. Alex Randall (VIC), Ricky Thackray (WA) and Oscar Phillips (VIC) were next, closely grouped all in the 27 minute range. Maquita Gelderman had a time of 30 minutes in winning the women’s open, but Mary Fein (NSW) and Melanie Simpson (NSW) weren’t far behind and gained Australia an important class win.
The fastest time in course 2 was recorded by M50 winner NZ’s David King (27.04) but Aussie star Carolyn Jackson rode well to be 2nd overall (and win W40) with a time of 28.34. NSW’s Carolyn Matthews made an outstanding Australian team debut to finish 3rd in the same class and clinch the class victory. (KHaarsma)
“A” class winners Rachel Effeney and Dave Shepherd pictured with organiser Nick Dent
The 2011 Xmas 5 Days in NSW finished with head to head racing using a loop format on Brush Creek above Glendale High School, with courses planned by NSW Junior squad member Kasimir Gregory.
With 2 competitors starting at the same time on each course, each competitor had three loops to complete with the third loop being common. The loop format made good use of the Brush Creek map utilising the area to great effect. The loop control on most, and possibly all of the courses, was a feature which some competitors found equally hard to see and sometimes find on all three visits to it.
So after 5 days of racing using 5 different formats the overall results were:
Mens A: Dave Shepherd (ACT) Womens A: Rachel Effeney (Qld)
Mens B: Oliver Crosato (Qld) Womens B: Vilde Kinneberg (Norway)
Mens C: Eoin Rothery (NSW) Womens C: MOrgan McIntyre (Qld)
Mens D: Greg Chatfield (Qld) Womens D: Val Hodson (NSW)
Mens E: Bob Gilbert (NSW) Womens E: Samantha Wallace (NSW)
Mens F: Lachlan McIntyre (Qld) Womens F: Judith Anderson (Great Britain)
Men/Women Novice: Ryan Gray (Qld)
In the “A” class men Dave Shepherd won 4 of the 5 days, with junior Lachlan Dow (also the runner-up) taking the other victory. Third place was taken by the canny veteran Greg Barbour who will be riding for New Zealand next week in the Aus v NZ MTBO Challenge “over the ditch.” Rachel Effeney, who made her WOC debut in 2011, continued her good form in taking overall honours in the womens “A” with three victories along the way. Tracy Marsh won one of the three races in which she competed. Regular W40 placegetter Barbara Hill demonstrated great fitness and strategy to upstage her younger rivals to be runner-up to Rachel overall. This included a clear win in the mass start event on day 4. Rounding out the top three was fellow veteran Jenny Enderby, who had represented Australia in her juniors years.
Day 5 individual results can be found here, Day 5 splits can be found here, and RouteGadget for the Day 5 courses found here.
Overall results for the 5 Days competition can be found here.
There were many people involved in the organisation of the 2011 Xmas 5 Days, and Nick Dent and his team of junior course planners are to be congratulated. They provided 5 great events which were enjoyed by all who competed. The idea to use 5 different formats made the week even more enjoyable.
Article – Paul Prudhoe, with some additions by Kay Haarsma.
Selection events for Australian Teams to the various 2012 World Orienteering Championships.
Specific comprehensive selection criteria for all teams will be released in early 2012.
However actual selection events have been decided and are advertised here to enable early travel and accommodation arrangements and for planning of training. Please note that there have been additional events from past years included for the JWOC foot team selection, as below.
JWOC FOOT ORIENTEERING TEAM – Slovakia, July 7-14th
The primary selection events are the four events of the Easter weekend, to be held in Queensland from 6-9 April 2012. Performances in previous Junior World Championships (for those who have been in a JWOC team previously) may also be taken into account.
The March National League events (in Victoria on 11-12 March) will be asecondary selection trial. All candidates for selection are expected to compete in these events unless they have grounds for special consideration).
Events in 2011 (other than JWOC) will not be part of the 2012 selection process, other than in the case of applications for special consideration.
Candidates for selection will normally be expected to compete in M/W17-20E at Easter. Any candidates for selection who want to run M/W21E should seek the approval of the Chair – Blair Trewin (B.Trewin@bom.gov.au) as soon as practicable – this approval will normally be given only to those who are realistic candidates for selection in senior representative teams or squads.
WOC FOOT ORIENTEERING TEAM – Switzerland, July 14-21
The selection races to be held within Australia are;
-All four days of Easter 2012 April 6-9thin Stanthorpe, Qld
– All three events at the May 12/13th National Orienteering League races in Newcastle, NSW
Arrangements for overseas-based athletes to run other races as selection trials will be arranged and communicated to all nominees.
-Selection criteria for 2012 World Cup events will be released also in early January and that for the Bushranger team to NZ at a slightly later date.
JWOC & WOC MT BIKE ORIENTEERING TEAMS – Hungary, August 20-25th
-All events at the National Series round 1 on 28-29th April based in central Victoria at Maryborough and Newstead.
Orienteering Australia wishes everyone a happy and enjoyable Christmas.
2011 has been a memorable year, including the spectacular success of the Oceania Championships. Thank you to everyone who participated in these events, and a special thank you to all those who volunteered in this carnival to help make it such a success.
Please enjoy the action from the Oceania Championship races in Victoria in these video highlights. This is also a great opportunity to show your friends what orienteering is like.
Seasons Greetings from Orienteering Victoria. We look forward to seeing you at the SILVA National Orienteering League races in Ballarat, Victoria on March 10 & 11, 2012.
The annual Orienteering Australia Conference was held over the weekend of 10-11 December at the Australian Institute of Sport.
Picture: Bruce Arthur, photographer Jim Russell.
Highlights included:
· A WOC project committee, chaired by Christine Brown, was formed to undertake an evaluation to bid for a future World Orienteering Championships. This followed a detailed presentation by Mikko Salonen, Chairman of the Finland Orienteering Federation team which successfully bid to conduct the 2013 World Orienteering Championships.
· Orienteering Tasmania will be bidding to conduct a World Cup round in Tasmania in January 2015 in conjunction with the Oceania Championships. In January 2013 a World Cup round will be staged in New Zealand in conjunction with the Oceania Championships.
· The Conference accepted the recommendation of the Website and Digital Communications Review by Nicole Davis that there be an overhaul undertaken of the OA website, subject to a Director of Communications and a project manager being appointed.
· A comprehensive program of camps and other High Performance activities was tabled by Kay Haarsma and Grant Bluett. There is a great deal of enthusiasm for participation in the National O League events in Darwin from 10-12 August 2012 in conjunction with the NT Championships.
· Andrew Collins from the Australian Sports Commission provided an update on the ASC’s participation funding program and OA requirements in terms of performance and reporting.
· Ben Rattray presented footage from the filming by the University of Canberra on how to do bush, sprint, street and mountain bike orienteering. More information is at http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Orienteering/Videos
· Bruce Arthur presented a report on what was involved in providing GPS tracking and the big screen at the Oceania Championships.
· Barbara Hill and Mike Dowling outlined how OANSW and OTAS introduced highly successful Space Racing programs for primary school children. In Tasmania a control is called a Space Station, the SI stick a Space Key, and the map a Galaxy.
Saturday will begin at 9:00am with the Elites competing in a Sprint Event at the University of Ballarat.(about 10 minutes from Ballarat PO) With a planned winning time of 12 to 15 minutes the competition will be fast and furious. Every one is welcometo enter and challenge the Elites at their own game. University of Ballarat location.
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