Author: craigf

Orienteers were well represented at the pointy end of the fields in the Mountain Bike Crosscountry National Round No. 2 held last weekend in Hobart.

Adrian Jackson was an extremely close 6th in the elite men’s race, while Jo Williams was 13th in the women.  Canberra’s Hamish Prosser was 2nd in the U17 class.  Tasmanian orienteers, Tom Goddard and Marc Gluskie placed 7th and 10th respectively out of 21 competitors, in the U19 category.  They were separated by less than a minute. Results can be viewed at theAustralian MTB website look under news.  The national cross country championships will be held in Adelaide in February on the Eagle Park Quarry course.

From Kay Haarsma.

Rob Preston and Kathryn Ewels’ Blackheart Adventure team has finished 12th out of 49 teams in the Abu Dhabi Six Day Adventure Race, the world’s richest.

Blackheart took 55hrs 53mins 49secs to complete the 450 km 6-Day event, which included a 121 km orienteering event on day 4 in the desert with dunes up to 200m high. The event was won by New Zealand team Thule Adventure in 45.44.47

In addition to the Christmas 5 Days races, a series of a training sessions will be conducted on days 2-5 for Senior Elite-Standard Orienteers.

The training sessions will be held after each day’s race, on the same map, with different states organising each day.  Sessions will commence mid / late morning, shortly after the prize giving.

If you would like to join the training sessions, please email Anna Sheldon sheldonanna@hotmail.com or Wendy Read wread2@eq.edu.au so that we can print enough extra  maps.  Of course, make sure you have entered the Xmas 5 days as well.  Late entries still accepted this week. See www.ntoc.asn.au

MTBO training camp

An MTBO training camp will be held in the Ballarat-Bendigo region in Victoria from 18-23 January.

Any interested MTB orienteer is welcome to join in, as are coaches.  There will probably be some travel subsidy for elite or junior squad members from outside Victoria.  Riders can participate for part of the camp, if all is not possible. If interested please send your details to Kay Haarsma at kayhaarsma@hotmail.com including your name, email, home and mobile telephone numbers, and postal address by 23 December. 

Call for nominations for Australian MTBO squads 2011
Each State MTBO contact has been requested to nominate Elite Senior and Junior riders, male and female.
It is important that the riders nominated are of a high standard in MTBO, that they have a geniune interest in MTBO and have and will be competing in State, National events in 2011 and have a desire to gain selection in either the WMTBO or JWMTBO Teams in 2011. The deadline for nominations is Friday 17 December 2010. Interested riders should contact their State MTBO Coordinator as soon as possible but no later than early next week to meet this deadline.

The Top End Orienteers have won the Orienteering Australia annual $1000 club development award after an outstanding effort in attracting almost 100 people to its Paddy Pallin Nav Training, Try Orienteering day on 14 November.

Organiser Wolfgang Meike (pictured checking a control) is also the TEO’s Publicity Officer and he went the extra mile in promoting the day. This included writing to local Members of Parliament and Palmerston Council, getting publicity material on Council noticeboards and on the public service public event notice page, and had an ad and photo in the NT News, as well as organising an hour’s coaching for all newcomers before running 2.1 km blue and 60 and 90 minute moderate navigation score events.

1. Orienteering Western Australia is seeking an enthusiastic person to join our Be Active Development Program team, conducting orienteering programs for schools in the Perth Metropolitan area, including Mandurah and Perth Hills.

For most of 2011 the position will be casual, part-time, but a full-time Development Officer position is expected to become available in the second half of the year.

A duty statement, including position responsibilities, qualifications, and conditions, can be found on the Orienteering WA website www.wa.orienteering.asn.au

For more details, please contact Tony Simpkins on 08-9228 0085 or 0417 919 513, or email tosimmo@iinet.net.au

2. Orienteering Australia is seeking expressions of interest to fill 2 vacancies and 2 pending vacancies.
The 2 vacancies are the positions on the OA Board of Director, Development and Director, Media and Communications. Over the weekend the OA Conference resolved that a part-time position to support media, communications and marketing be created. This will be advertised in the near future.
Two pending vacancies are the positions of Director, High Performance on the OA Board and Chair of the Australian Senior Foot Orienteering Selection Panel. Eric Morris and Paul Liggins have indicated that work and family time pressures mean that they will not be standing for re-appointment to these positions at the annual general meeting in April.
Expressions of interest for these national vacancies should be sent to OA Executive Officer, John Harding at orienteering@netspeed.com.au

Australian WOC representatives Rob Preston and Kathryn Ewels are in Abu Dhabi for the world’s richest adventure race next weekend. Other members of their 4 person Blackheart Adventure team are Luke Haines and Damon Goerke. They will cover 400 kms in 6 days, with disciplines including desert adventure running, mountain biking in the mountains, sea kayaking, and rope exercises including abseiling, flying fox and rope climbing.

The 2010 Orienteering Australia National Conference in Canberra from 4-5 December has concluded with a number of major development decisions:

1.       Implementation actions on participation development

2.       Updating the OA Strategic Plan

3.       An updated High Performance Strategic Plan, with new operational arrangements supported by a HP Manager and HP Operations Officer

4.       Commissioning a scoping study for an online services plan

5.       Engaging a part-time online media communications support officer for coordination of website story provision, website content maintenance and Enews production

6.       A marketing operational plan for 2011

7.       An updated national risk management policy

8.       A national health and safety procedures manual

9.       Agreement among all states and territories on a common definition of engagement membership and collection of data

10.   Recommending to the OA Schools Committee that an Australian Schools Sprint Championship be added to the Australian Schools Carnival

11.   Support of a bid to the IOF to conduct World Cup events in Tasmania in 2015

12.   Nation-wide promotion of an Orienteering Active After Schools Companion Manual developed by Orienteering NSW

13.   Further development of the national results database

14.  A modified national junior elite rankings model

After a hard day pooring over strategic plans, legal liabilities & funding proposals, the weather gods relented allowing the end of day OA annual conference orienteering event to be held in fine but humid conditions.

On offer were a series of 26 control sites around the Australian National University with multiple choice answers rather than the more normal control flags.  Choice was between 30min or 45min score events.

A (small) choice of lollies was available to finishers. Even one of the spectators, a young Master Morris, partook in the post event sweets no doubt spoiling the lovingly prepared dinner awaiting him at home.

Results are listed below in the order competitors crossed the finish line.

Craig Feuerhardt Vic    33:07    26 answers
Eric Morris NSW         32:29    26 answers
Bruce Arthur Vic          24:27    no answers
Jenny Casanova SA     32:40    26 answers
John Harding ACT       39:40    17 answers
David West  NSW       32:45     26 answers (MTB)
Liz Bourne Qld             44:35    18 answers
Paul Prudhoe  NSW     44:50    26 answers
Robin Uppill SA            39:57    26 answers
Geoff Wood ACT        47:29    21 answers
Peter Mayer SA           42:43    17 answers
Richard Matthews WA  43:17    26 answers
Christine Brown Tas      41:37    23 answers
Barbara Hill NSW         42:43    26 answers
Robert Spry NSW        28:33     15 answers (30 mins)
Mike Dowling Tas         29:32     15 answers (30 mins)
Reid Moran Qld            32:30     12 answers (30 mins)

Delegates to the Orienteering Australia Annual Conference on Saturday 4 December were treated to an informative, interesting and challenging presentation by Andrew Collins, Director of Sports Planning and Performance at the Australian Sports Commission. Collins, who has recently competed in Adventure Racing and orienteering events in Canberra, outlined the major changes that had occurred in Australian Sport over the last 18 months. These included sport system strategic shifts from just sport outcomes to broader policy objectives, from National Sporting Organisations being grant beneficiaries to system partners, from a high performance focus to whole of pathway planning, and from competition among Federal-state programs and relations to cooperation.

The ASC’s goals now include increased participation in sport, increased international success, a cohesive and effective national sports system, sustainable sports, and enhanced ASC capacity to lead, partner and support.

Collins outlined the ASC’s expectations of Orienteering Australia in respect of the recently announced funding of $100,000 per year to increase participation. He said OA was granted the funding because it had a good product that appeals to a broad spectrum of participants, that it successfully adapted its product in Park and Street Orienteering to meet consumer demand, and that OA was seen as a well-run sport for its size and resources. However, the ASC requires effective engagement and shared accountability between OA and state associations, well thought out and measureable performance indicators, effective data collection, and ongoing review, evaluation and plan development.

The highest initial priorities are new park and street programs in southern and western Sydney and in priority regional centres in NSW, Queensland and Victoria, and duo mountain bike/foot programs in NSW. Opportunities for extending existing successful programs or setting up programs in new regional areas in the coming years will be reviewed by all state associations. Other priorities receiving funding include online video and self coaching resources, a Rural Coaching and Officiating Development Scheme, and enhanced online organisational manuals.

Following the ASC presentation the Conference workshopped updating the OA Strategic Plan to incorporate the new strategic and funding directions, many of which are all well advanced by state associations in their own planning and funding arrangements.

Picture: Andrew Collins (ASC), John Harding (Executive Officer, OA), Bill Jones (President, OA), Kim Williams (Orienteering Sports Consultant, ASC).