Author: craigf

Following the success of the orienteering race at the inaugural Stromlo Running Festival in February this year, Australia’s best orienteers will be racing around Stromlo Forest park again in early 2010 (February 19-21). This time orienteering will be a bigger feature of the weekend, with the elite race being scheduled at the more attractive time of Saturday morning and the “novice” (non elite) competitors will have the option of racing the elite courses. The novice race will be held Saturday afternoon and the country’s top elites will be there to offer advice on how to improve (or start!) your orienteering.

The racing in 2010 promises to be even more exciting than the 2009 world games style loops race. Runners will be competing for over $1000 prize money, making this again the richest orienteering race in Australia. Organiser and Canberra Cockatoos coach Grant McDonald will be putting on challenging mass-start one-man-relay style (Hagaby) race which will not only keep the competitors on their toes, but should provide spectators with some head-to-head racing action. Orienteering Australia head coach Rob Preston is planning a number of technical training sessions over the weekend, making it a great opportunity to get some race experience and prepare for the Australian 3 Days which will be held in Canberra in April.

Get your entry into the SRF before it’s too late!

Orienteering Australia is seeking to fill the following positions:

• Australian National Junior Coach
• Australian National Junior Manager/Assistant Coach

  Links to the appropriate job descriptions can be found below:

• JWOC_Coach_Job_Description_2010.pdf
• JWOC_Manager_Job_Description_2010.pdf

OA would like to formally thank Nick Dent and Hilary Wood for great amounts of work and dedication they committed to the coach and manager positions over many years.

Applications and any questions can be directed to Rob
Preston, Manager (High Performance)

Email: oa_headcoach AT netspeed.com.au and orienteering AT netspeed.com.au

Phone: (02) 6162 1200 or 0403296516

Applications close Saturday 8 November 2009

Ian Fehler and Kay Haarsma are the 2009 SA elite MTBO Champions after testing courses on the new Fox Creek map in the Adelaide Hills.  This area includes one of the top downhill and crosscountry mt biking areas in SA and has a dense network of tracks through both pine and native bush in very hilly terrain.  Adrian Uppill, both mapper and course setter, did a wonderful job creating route choices that many competitors are still pondering.

Ian Fehler, who comes from a xc mt biking and adventure racing background, improved from 4th last year with a 4 minute win over Lee Merchant, with Heinz Leuenberger a further 9 minutes adrift.  The 25.5km course with over 1,000 metres of climb took 120 minutes for the winner.  Kay Haarsma took 122 minutes for her 18.5km course with newcomer to mtbo, Fern Tomas doing well to finish 2nd.

A grade winners were:
M16 – Jack Allison
M20 – Riordan Dose
M21 – Ian Fehler
M40 – Ruhi Afnan
M50 – Gerry Velatis
M60 – Peter Mayer
W21 – Kay Haarsma
W40 – Michelle Chamalaun
W50 – Anthea Williams
W60 – Helen Smith.

Australia again led the way at the long distance finals at the World Masters Orienteering Championships today. While the host nation did not dominate to quite the same extent as they did in the sprint, they still took home six gold medals. Warren and Natasha Key both repeated their sprint victories in M50 and W35 respectively, as did Hermann Wehner (M85) and Jenny Bourne (W55). Paul Pacque went one better than the sprint in taking out M55, while the final Australian gold medallist was Cath Chalmers in W40. The hosts also took six silvers and three bronzes.

Non-European nations dominated the women’s classes, winning eight out of ten, with Australia and the United States taking three each. The three American gold medals matched Sweden’s performance.

Two classes which were won by Europeans provided two of the best races. In M40 Russia’s Alexey Marozov led five within two minutes of the lead, while M45 was even better, with five within 1.11. Per Magnusson’s loss of 52 seconds at the fourth-last dropped him from first to fourth and was the exact gap to German gold medallist Michael Thierolf. W50 was also an excellent contest with 34 seconds covering the medallists (who were only separated by one second at halfway). Natalia Deconescu took out one of the three American golds, while Liz Abbott held off a fast-finishing Carey Nazzer for silver.

The gold medallists were:

M35     Carsten Jorgensen (DEN)

M40     Alexey Morozov (RUS)

M45     Michael Thierolf (GER)

M50     Warren Key (AUS)

M55     Paul Pacque (AUS)

M60     Andy Hemsted (GBR)

M65     Rune Radestrom (SWE)

M70     Rodrigo Slavins (LAT)

M75     Sveinung Bleivkin (NOR)

M80     Helmer Ekberg (SWE)

M85     Hermann Wehner (AUS)

W35    Natasha Key (AUS)

W40    Cath Chalmers (AUS)

W45    Pavlina Brautigam (USA)

W50    Natalia Deconescu (USA)

W55    Jenny Bourne (AUS)

W60    Patricia Aspin (NZL)

W65    Sharon Crawford (USA)

W70    Birgitta Thunell (SWE)

W75    Nesta Leduc (CAN)

W80    Pella Rye (GBR)

Provisional results are available at the WMOC site.

Splits now available on Winsplits.

It was another good day for Australia in the World Masters Games long distance qualifiers, with eight of the 24 classes being won by locals. For three of them, Natasha Key (W35), Warren Key (M50) and Hermann Wehner (M85), it indicates a good chance for them to add to their sprint gold medals. John Brock was especially convincing in winning his M65 heat by eleven minutes over the two days, while there were also wins for Paul Pacque (M55), Caryl Woof (W75), Ray Kelly (M80) and Liz Abbott (W50), who prevailed by 43 seconds after a close contest with Gillian Ingham.

Today’s Scandinavian bragging rights, in contrast with the sprint, went to the Norwegians, who took out four classes to two for Finland and one each for Sweden and Denmark. The other country with multiple winners was New Zealand, for whom Jason Markham led M40 and Patricia Aspin, returning after injury forced her out of the sprint final, won W60.

Unfortunately, two Australian hopes fell by the wayside, with Christine Marshall (W45) and W75 sprint gold medallist Maureen Ogilvie failing to qualify after mispunches in the heats.

The finals will be contested on Saturday. The area is adjacent to today’s but is expected to be more technical and generally more rugged, with many classes having shorter courses despite the longer projected winning times.

Results are available through the World Masters Games site.

Australia led the way with seven gold medals in the sprint finals of the World Masters Orienteering Championships, held today at Sydney Olympic Park. It was also an excellent day for New Zealand, with three golds, while Sweden was the other multiple gold winner with five.

Those to add victories today to a history of WMOC success were Jenny Bourne (W55), Natasha Key (W35) and Hermann Wehner (M85). Bourne was a little off the pace in qualifying but produced the goods when it mattered for a comfortable victory, continuing her record of collecting at least one win in every age group she has contested, while both Key and Wehner had comfortable wins.

Warren completed a Key family double in M50, and at the older end of the spectrum there were gold medals for Kevin Paine (M80) and Maureen Ogilvie (W75). The most dramatic Australia win of the day, though, was that of Su Yan Tay in W45; after having one of the day’s largest margins yesterday, she had the narrowest possible margin today, coming from well behind after two early errors and making up six critical seconds in the finish chute.

That was not the only one-seconder of the day; in M60 Ossi Lakkala (Finland) edged out Tim Sands (Great Britain), in another race where the lead changed hands in the chute, five seconds covered the medallists and 19 seconds covered the top five. At the other end of the scale, Anne-Marie Holmstrom (W60, Sweden) and Gunnar Lerfald (M70, Norway) both had wins by about 90 seconds in highly competitive classes.

In addition to the seven golds, there were three silvers and three bronzes for Australia. Runners-up were Anthea Feaver (W50) and Jenny Enderby (W40) – both to NZ opposition in Gillian Ingham and Marquita Gelderman respectively – along with Paul Pacque (M55). Bronzes went to Bruce Arthur (M35), Clive Pope (M70) and Neil Schafer (M80).

Results are available from the WMOC site.

Splits available via Winsplits here

Competition continues with the first long qualification race near Lithgow on Wednesday.

The National Junior Squad and Junior Development Squad for 2009-10 were announced at the Australian Relays presentation last weekend.

The National Junior Squad is:

Lilian Burrill (Qld)

Belinda Lawford (ACT)

Sarah Buckerfield (Tas)

Krystal Neumann (Qld)

Georgia Parsons (ACT)

Mary Fleming (Vic)

Catherine Hewitt (Tas)

Max Neve (Vic)

Leon Keely (Vic)

Lachlan Dow (ACT)

Joshua Blatchford (NSW)

Oscar Phillips (Tas)

Callum Fagg (Tas)

James Robertson (Vic)

Kurt Neumann (Qld)

Oliver Crosato (Qld)

Alex Massey (NSW)

The Junior Development Squad is:

Rebekah Sunley (Vic)

Michele Dawson (NSW)

Emma Campbell (Tas)

Rebecca Freese (Qld)

Jacqui Doyle (Qld)

Katie Doyle (Qld)

Oscar McNulty (WA)

Ian Lawford (ACT)

Oliver Poland (ACT)

Todd Neve (Vic)

Karl Bicevskis (Tas)

Marc Gluskie (Tas)

Congratulations to all those selected.

It was a good day for the hosts, along with Sweden and Great Britain, as the 2009 World Masters Games orienteering got under way with the sprint qualification at Macquarie University. Sweden led the way with seven victories from 24 classes contested, with the locals and the British taking five each.

Two of the largest victories went to Australians. Defending long-distance W35 champion Natasha Key was nearly three minutes clear of the small W35 field, but a more surprising big win was the two-minute margin that Su Yan Tay held in W45, ahead of 2009 American WOC representative Pavlina Brautigam. Hermann Wehner won the M85 heat, while Warren Key and Paul Pacque won their heats in M50 and M55 respectively.

In two classes New Zealanders saw off Australian opposition; Marquita Gelderman edged out Cath Chalmers in W40, and Gillian Ingham headed Anthea Feaver in W50, with Carey Nazzer making it a clean sweep for the Southern Hemisphere.

The finals will take place at Sydney Olympic Park tomorrow.

Results are available through the WMOC 2009 site.

The Canberra Cockatoos and Victorian Nuggets won the open classes at the Australian Relays today. Both teams went in as favourites after good individual performances on the two preceding days.

The Canberra men lived up to their favouritism. They opened up a two-minute lead over the nearest state team after Grant Bluett’s first leg, and extended it on each of the next two legs, ending up five minutes clear after Dave Shepherd capped off an excellent weekend with the fastest leg time. There was much more of a contest behind that, with the next four state teams separated by only 30 seconds going into the final leg. Simon Uppill came through to give the Southern Arrows second, while the NSW Stingers were third ahead of two Victorian teams.

In contrast, the women’s event was a close battle. Slightly surprisingly, Victoria came back a couple of minutes behind the lead pack (led by NSW’s Tracy Marsh) on the first leg, and while they recovered somewhat through Kathryn Ewels on the second, they still trailed entering the final leg, where Natasha Key was chasing Briohny Davey. Davey, who missed the previous day with a leg injury, held together better than might have been expected, but was still run down by Key and by Queensland’s Anna Sheldon, who ran an outstanding final leg (not for the first time). The three were separated by less than a minute at the final spectator control, with Key holding it together to take the win for Victoria, with Queensland second and NSW third.

Queensland extended their lead at every change to score by five minutes in W20 over the ACT, but there was more drama in M20, when what was expected to be a comfortable Victorian win was derailed by the Cockatoos, first when Oliver Poland’s outstanding second leg brought them back into contention from ten minutes down, then when Lachlan Dow overturned a 90-second deficit on Max Neve to gain some revenge for the previous day’s result.

The best race in the other classes came in M16, where the first six teams went out on the last leg within a minute, and Oscar McNulty eventually prevailed over Marc Gluskie in a sprint finish by the narrowest possible margin to win another race for Western Australia. W55 was also decided by seconds, with Tasmania narrowly beating Queensland.

Results

Splits

The SILVA National league team trophies have a new name on them. Previously, only the Canberra Cockatoos and Victorian Nuggets had won senior team competitions, but this year the NSW Stingers emerged to run away with the men’s title. They opened the season with a spectacular streak of 12 consecutive victories to give themselves what turned out to be an unbeatable lead. Julian Dent’s late-season injury put paid to possibilities of a perfect score, but they still had more than enough in hand. It was much closer behind them, coming down to the Australian Relays, where the Canberra Cockatoos’ win lifted them into a share of second place with the Southern Arrows.

The women’s margin ended up being even larger as the Victorian Nuggets built progressively on their lead on home ground at the end of the season. It was tight between the Nuggets and the Cockatoos early on in the season, but the absence of Allison Jones for most of the second half of the season left a hole that the Cockatoos were unable to fill and the Victorians took full advantage. The Tassie Foresters held third for much of the season, but were severely depleted at the end of the season and were overtaken by the consistent Queensland Cyclones.

The Victorian Nuggets took another title when a good final week saw them pull clear in a close junior men’s competition. It was even closer behind them than it was at the front, to the extent that the Cockatoos were fifth at the start of the final leg of the Australian Relays and second at the end of it. The Queensland Cyclones once again won the junior women’s competition, ahead of the Cockatoos.