Julian Dent is Australia’s only representative in the long final race today. He starts at 9:18pm (AEST). He has to traverse 15.9km of forest with 690m climb and visit 31 controls. The race has a spectator control about ¾ of the way through but it is typical long course setting with long legs and some tricky technical bits particularly before the end. Runners will have to be feeling strong and energetic to complete this course.
The women have 10.3 km and 450m climb with 21 controls. 45 runners in each course will attempt to become world champions today.
Australian Media Team
World Championship Sprint Qualifications in Aix Les Bains
The WOC2011 sprint qualification is being held this morning in Aix-les-Bains. It will be an urban sprint race with some park areas as well. It is being held in the centre of the town, so competitors will have a mixture of small and narrow alleyways and wide open town squares.
It’s forecast for 29 degrees here tomorrow so it’s set to be a great day for the Aussies that are used to long hot summer days!
Rachel Effeney, Grace Elson and Mace Neve will be starting in the women’s race and Rob Preston, Simon Uppill and Julian Dent will be running in the men’s. The start times are:
Rachel Effeney: 5.08 pm AEST
Grace Elson: 5.15 pm AEST
Mace Neve: 5.22 pm AEST
Rob Preston: 5.45 pm AEST
Simon Uppill: 5.58 pm AEST
Julian Dent: 6.07 pm AEST.
The expected winning times are 14 minutes for both women and men. The women will run about 2.7 km and the men will run about 2.9 km. The top 15 runners from each heat will make it into the final.
The final will be tomorrow as well, it will be just up the road in Chambéry and starts will be from 11 pm AEST. We will report on the qualification results and the Aussie participation in the final before the start of the womens sprint final.
Remember to visit the Aussie WOC blog to wish the team good luck in their races!
Round and Crane qualify for the WOC2011 middle final!
Congratulations to Vanessa Round and Grace Crane for making it through to the WOC2011 middle distance final which will be held on Friday at La Féclaz.
Vanessa had a tough decision to make towards the last control when she dropped her map at the top of a large cliff. She remembered the control from the long qualification so decided that she knew where to go and to just keep on going rather than scrambling back up the cliff and risk missing out on a spot in the final!
Unfortunately Jasmine Neve, Rob Preston, Simon Uppill and Julian Dent didn’t make it through to the final. Jasmine and Rob are now preparing for the relay which will be on Saturday. Simon and Julian have now turned their attention to the sprint qualification and final.
Monday is a rest day for the WOC competitors and then on Tuesday morning we’ll be in Aix-les-Bains for the sprint qualification before heading to Chambéry in the afternoon for the final.
Grace Crane, Mace Neve, Rachel Effeney, Julian Dent and Simon Uppill will be representing Australia in the WOC2011 sprint qualification.
Don’t miss watching them qualify by watching live.woc2011.fr. For each of the final races you can see live gps tracking at live.woc2011.fr.
From the Australian WOC2011 Media Team.
Dent qualifies for the long final; now it’s time to qualify for the middle.
It was a tough day out at St Francois de Sales for the runners in the long qualification. The winning times were all longer than expected and there were many tired bodies coming into the finish chute after a physically challenging course in warm conditions.
The French men showed their home ground advantage by winning each of the heats. Thierry Georgiou was the clear leader, winning his heat by over six minutes and being the only person to get close to the expected winning time.
Julian Dent scraped through in 13th place in his heat to make it through to the final which will be on Wednesday. Julian will be the first male to represent Australia in a WOC long distance final since 2005.
Julian said “technically I was happy with my run, although I made a small mistake after a steep climb at the end of the long leg. It was physically very challenging, but now I just have to focus on having a clean run in the middle tomorrow”.
Rob Preston, Aislinn Prendergast, Jasmine Neve and Vanessa Round all had steady runs that unfortunately didn’t get them through to the finals. Rob, Jasmine and Vanessa are now preparing for the middle qualification tomorrow and Aislinn will be supporting the team for the rest of the week.
And now for the middle qualification …
The WOC 2011 middle distance qualification is back at St Francois de Sales today. The courses will be shorter, but are expected to be much trickier than the long qualification. The terrain will be complex with intricate contour detail. The visibility will be good, although the rocky ground will slow things down.
The start times for the middle qualification are:
Jasmine Neve: 10.00 pm AEST
Vanessa Round: 10.38 pm AEST
Grace Elson: 10.52 pm AEST
Rob Preston: 11.22 pm AEST
Simon Uppill: 12.08 am AEST
Julian Dent: 12.22 am AEST
The women’s starts are from 10 pm AEST and the men’s starts are from 11.10 pm AEST. The women’s expected winning time is 24 minutes and the men’s is 25 minutes.
The 2011 World Orienteering Champs start today with the long qualification. The team is fit and well and settling into life in Aix-Les-Bains, France.
The long qualification is in the foothills of the French Alps at about 1200 metres above sea level. The terrain is made up of two distinct types: one is steep, fast, open meadows which contrasts with the karst forest that has intricate rocky details with poor runnability in parts.
There are three heats for the men and three for the women, and the first 15 in each heat qualify for the final. There are 118 starters in the men’s class and 84 starters in the women’s. The women have a winning time of 45 minutes and an average distance of 6 km; the men have a winning time of 59 minutes and and average distance of 9 km.
If you want to follow all the action worldofo.com will probably have some information going up.
So you don’t miss out on any of the action, the program for the week is:
Sunday 14 August: the middle qualification starts at 10 pm (AEST) watch out for Grace Elson, Vanessa Round, Jasmine Neve, Julian Dent, Rob Preston and Simon Uppill
Tuesday 16 August: sprint qualification starts at 5 pm (AEST) look out for Grace Elson, Rachel Effeney, Mace Neve, Julian Dent and Simon Uppill
Sprint final on the same day starts at 11 pm (AEST)
Wednesday 17 August: long final, 8.30 pm (AEST)
Friday 19 August: middle final, 9.30 pm (AEST)
Saturday 20 August: relay, 9.30 pm (AEST)
Australian Orienteering has hit new heights, with the excitement of live GPS tracking and video being offered at an event in Australia for the very first time. Orienteering is often thought of as a non-spectator sport, but with the promise of improving technology, nothing could actually be further from the truth.
For those who have experienced major European events, you may have come across event arenas complete with large screens emanating from semi-trailers, screens filled with images of runners in technical terrain, GPS tracks of embarrassing mistakes, and close-ups of concern growing over competitors faces. Combine this with real times updates of split times, the suspense of seconds splitting the leaders and expert commentary and you have the making of a thrilling spectator event. And it will all hit Australian Orienteering this year in October.
But wait there’s more, unlike most sports, orienteers get to go out and experience the same terrain, get a sense of the challenges and mistakes in the waiting, and for the those lucky enough, the taste of success in their own class.
Combine all this with some of the best orienteering ever offered in Australia with the prestige of an international event that only hits the nations once every four years and you have an event that you simply can’t miss. The event management extraordinaire Darren “Dazzler” Meeking and the wily cunning of master Warren Key as course setter won’t disappoint.
Don’t believe us? Well get the one up on your competitors and watch a preview of the superb terrain and listen to the master Warren Key tell you about it himself. He wouldn’t exaggerate would he?
The selection panel has selected the following Australian team to contest the Australia-New Zealand Challenge in the Veterans age groups as part of the Oceania Championships in October. The team in the M/W 16, 20 and 21E age groups will be announced later.
M40: Jock Davis (N), Blair Trewin (V), Eric Morris (A). Reserves: Paul Liggins (V), Scott Simson (Q), Paul Marsh( N)
M45: Steve Doyle (Q), Mark Nemeth (Q), Jim Russell (V). Reserves: Tim McIntyre (Q), Martin Wehner (A), Steve Cooper (SA)
M50: Warren Key (V), Grant McDonald (A), Bernard Walker (T). Reserves: Tim Hatley (V), Russel Blatchford (N)
M55: Geoff Lawford( A), Roch Prendergast (V), Eoin Rothery (N). Reserves: Paul Pacque (T) James Lithgow (N)
M60: Steve Flick (N), Paul Hoopman( SA), Adrian Uppill (SA). Reserves: Nigel Davies (T), Hugh Moore (A), Greg Hawthorne(T)
M70: Basil Baldwin (N), John Hodgson (N), Clive Pope (Q). Reserves: John Lyon (SA), John Sutton( A), Peter Cutten (SA)
W40: Cath Chalmers (N), Jenny Enderby (N), Su Yan Tay (Q). Reserves: Anita Scherrer( A), Linda Sesta (N), Barbara Hill (N)
W60: Jean Baldwin (N), Valerie Barker (A), Judith Hay (N). Reserves: Meredyth Sauer (Q), Ruth Goddard (V), Dale Ann Gordon (V)
Many of those selected advised OA High Performance Manager Kay Haarsma of their availability and whether they require an Australian O top. Kay is now overseas. Of those, selected who did not contact Kay, can they please advise OA Executive Officer John Harding at orienteering@netspeed.com.au of their availability and whether they have an Australian O top (and, if not, what size in cms and whether XS/S/M/L). There is a tight timeline to order O tops so a prompt reply would be greatly appreciated.
The QLD MTBO Champs for 2011 has been run and won, with 2 National Team members featuring highly in the results. The Mens Open (Elite) class was won by rider Chris Firman and the Womens Open (Elite) class by Mary Fien.
The Yarraman Area west of Brisbane turned on perfect riding conditions with dry, firm tracks and fantastic warm winter days. The challenging pine and native plantation had plenty of climb to content with as well as the neighbouring mine owners who kept bulldozing new tracks right up until the event weekend. With a cemetery backdrop for day one and a rustic shed for day two, competitors had some interesting scenery at each event area. As word of an impromptu dinner spread the numbers at the local pub swelled to near 70 as the kitchen staff went into overdrive at the influx of customers. For all the results visit the event website and for photos check out the MTBO Club facebook page.
Many of the tracks were incredibly overgrown making for difficult riding conditions.
As a team, Queensland Elite riders Chris Firman, Gary Sutherland, Paul Elby adapted best to the conditions and now stand second to Victoria after the Middle and Long Distance events: Victoria 74, Queensland 66, NSW 38, WA 26 and Tasmania 18 in the combined team competition.
Ricky Thackray (WA) and Ian Dalton (WA) rode well each day in the Elite Mens Division and surprised organisers with Ricky winning the Long Distance Race and Ian second in the Middle Distance. Ricky now leads the national series, closely followed by Damian Welbourne with Ian Dalton not far back in 3rd.
Mary Fien (NSW) took first in Women’s Elite on both days with Kim Beckinsale a very close second in the long distance and Carolyn Jackson second in the middle distance event. The National Series is now lead by Carolyn Jackson with Mary and Marquita Gelderman (NZ) tied in second place.
In the Masters Divisions, Queensland scored maximum points to narrow the gap to Victorian riders. The Masters team standings after Round 2: Victorian 186, Queensland 134, NSW 35, SA 34 and WA 8. Round 3 will be staged at Beechworth, Victoria, in mid-October with ACT organising and Albury-Wodonga club setting the courses.
Australians continue to have a presence in the European season, in both the recently-concluded Swedish 5-Days and the forthcoming Swiss O Week.
At the Swedish 5-Days, the world’s largest individual orienteering event, a dozen Australians were amongst more than 9,000 participants, including leading WOC team member Julian Dent, and three members of the JWOC team. The best overall performer was Susanne Casanova, who was tenth in W35. Dent, with WOC approaching, did not run all five days, but achieved top-twenty results in M21E on two of the three days he did finish, day 2 (sprint) and day 4 (middle).
The Swiss O Week got under way today with a prologue before getting into full swing tomorrow. Several WOC team members are starting the European phase of their preparation there, including Rob Preston, Simon Uppill and Aislinn Prendergast.
Congratulations to Vanessa Round and Grace Crane for making it through to the WOC2011 middle distance final which will be held on Friday at La Féclaz.
The QLD MTBO Champs for 2011 has been run and won, with 2 National Team members featuring highly in the results. The Mens Open (Elite) class was won by rider Chris Firman and the Womens Open (Elite) class by Mary Fien.