2009 Archive

Orienteering Australia is currently seeking expressions of interest from any individuals interested in being added to the National Junior Selection Panel. The major selections this panel are responsible for making are:

– JWOC

– National Junior Squad

– Junior Development Squad

– World University Championships (in conjunction with senior panel)

– junior classes for Australia-New Zealand Challenge

– Australian Schools Test teams (in conjunction with School Sport Australia).

The Panel currently consists of Blair Trewin (chair), Roch Prendergast (National Junior Coach) and Fiona Calabro. Nick Dent and Paul Pacque recently stepped down from the Panel after a number of years of service.

Anyone interested should advise the OA High Performance Manager, Rob Preston, atoa_headcoach@netspeed.com.au, by 8 January 2010.

In the opening round of the MTBA national crosscountry series held in Tasmania Adrian Jackson impressed by taking 2nd place, just 1 minute 31 behind favourite Dan McConnell.  AJ had finished second overall in the Jayco Australian MTB series last season and was sitting in third place for the majority of this race but finished strongly over the last few laps to claim 2nd in the event that took over 2 hours. AJ will now concentrate on the National Champs in South Australia next month, then title defence of the multi-day Wildside race in Tasmania.

Others may be interested in riding in or spectating future national races which are being held over the next 3 months.
Jan 15-17 Adelaide (SA); Jan 23-24 Shepparton (VIC); Feb 13-14 Thredbo (NSW); March 13-14 Stromlo (ACT)

OA has now decided to allow junior participation in MTBO JWOC, given that it is being held simultaneously with MTBO WOC in Portugal from July 11-17. However there will be very limited or no financial support from OA but hopefully states and clubs will assist to some degree. Individuals rather than a whole team will be selected and they will be coached by Kay Haarsma along with the elite team.

All interested juniors must attend the selection trials in NSW on March 20-21 and should let the chair of selectors, Peta Whitford, at piwhitford@bigpond.comand Kay Haarsma kayhaarsma@hotmail.com know of their interest, so as to be included in squad emails and receive further information.

Further information on MTBO WOC and JWOC can be found at http://mtbwoc2010.fpo.pt/

2010 North American “O” Festival  – a 21 event extravaganza!

Ever wished you could visit Canada’s Rocky Mountains?  Next summer in the northern latitudes, Canada and the United States host the most extensive series of high calibre orienteering events seen in North America for many years. The North American Orienteering Festival, June 26 – July 27, 2010, offers a diverse and exciting roster of 21 events, including several major championships – all set in the spectacular Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coast Mountains.

Experience some of the finest orienteering terrain anywhere in the world, such as the open fir forests and grasslands of the Rockies. Add the chance to visit renowned Banff National Park, or Whistler, the 2010 Winter Olympics venue, and you have an orienteering festival you won’t want to miss.

Festival highlights include the North American Championships (NAOC2010) in British Columbia, the US Championships in Washington, and the Rocky Mountain “O” Festival in Colorado. The NOAC2010 has courses for everyone, but is also the IOF-sanctioned North American Regional Championship, with 3 World Ranking Events (WRE) in sprint, middle and long distance. Also in Canada are 2 meets in sun-drenched Kamloops, and the Barebones events north of beautiful Vancouver at Whistler. This year’s Barebones doubles as the Western Canadian Championships in sprint, middle (WRE) and long distance.

The US Championships in Washington State will have sprint, middle and long courses, plus the US Trail “O” Champs. Later in July, at the Rocky Mountain “O” Festival in scenic Colorado, another amazing series of races feature the Western States Championships, and the US Night, Relay and Ultra-Long Championships.

As if these races aren’t enough to grab your attention, the North American Festival organizers are including a Top of the World Sprint Series, if you run in the major sprint events.

North American orienteers invite you to come across the pond and enjoy our mountain terrain, excellent maps and hospitality! Registration for the NAOC, with early bird pricing, opens December 1, 2009. For full details on the North American “O” Festival, with links to each of the events, visit the event website

Juri Peepre

Australia’s premiere 10km athletics race- Zatopek:10 was held on Thursday night at Olympic Park, Melbourne. The field was extremely hot with Australian Record holder Benita Willis, last years winner Lara Tamsett and Australian reps Eloise Wellings and Lisa Weightman. Australian Orienteering was represented by Hanny Allston (TAS) and Kathryn Ewels (VIC).

The pace was fast from the gun with the leaders going through 3km in 9mins20secs. The race was decided from a group of 4 on the last lap with Eloise Wellings surging across the line first, closely followed by Weightman and Tamsett. Allston finished in 10th in 34mins25sec and Ewels ran a personal best 34mins50 to finish 13th.

Further reports can be found here

Athletics Victoria’s Youtube Video report here

Zatopek: 10 -10/12/2009

Olympic Park

Results – Zatopek

Event 9 Women 10000 Meter Run Open

================================================================

Aust. Record: % 30:37.68 2003 Benita Johnson, VIC

Meet Record: M 31:26.34 2001 Susie Power

Name Year Team Finals

================================================================

1 401 Eloise Wellings NEW SOUTH WALES 32:19.08
2 413 Lisa Weightman VICTORIA 32:20.14
3 389 Lara Tamsett NEW SOUTH WALES 32:20.39
4 337 Rebecca Lowe NEW SOUTH WALES 32:24.70
5 245 Nikki Chapple VICTORIA 32:29.92
6 297 Cassie Fien VICTORIA 33:16.16
7 398 Melinda Vernon VICTORIA 33:22.70
8 394 Jessica Trengove SOUTH AUSTRALIA 33:38.09
9 405 Benita Willis VICTORIA 33:58.69
10 121 Hanny Allston TASMANIA 34:25.74
11 238 Tamara Carvolth QUEENSLAND 34:44.49
12 383 Lauren Shelley WESTERN AUSTRALIA 34:49.84
13 295 Kathryn Ewels VICTORIA 34:50.49
14 305 Clare Geraghty QUEENSLAND 35:09.59
15 300 Lisa Flint NEW SOUTH WALES 36:11.70
— 345 Kaila McKnight VICTORIA DNF
— 236 Josie Carberry VICTORIA DNF
— 360 Tara Palm SOUTH AUSTRALIA DNF

The Orienteering Australia annual conference was held last weekend at the ANU in Canberra. It was attended by 25 state association delegates, OA Board members and staff and an athlete representative (Mace Neve on Saturday, Julian Dent on Sunday).

The most substantial item on the agenda was the recently released Crawford report into sport. Recommendations in the report were workshopped and Conference made the following major decisions as a consequence:

• Fund development of a marketing plan and employment of a part-time Manager of Marketing and Development to report to the Director of Development.
• Attract more members through National and State Orienteering Day events for beginners at the start of the summer and winter season programs, by providing innovative events to market to a wider range of participants, by increased marketing to the recreational running, cycling and bush walking communities, by developing a club start up template that may be used to develop new clubs in large regional centres, and by encouraging increased participation where possible by people in the Crawford report’s nine social inclusion groups.
• Endorse an Inclusion Policy, formally recognising that orienteering is one of the most inclusive of all sports.
• Improve statistical reporting of our true full and casual membership base by encouraging all state associations to adopt the membership model which has been implemented very successfully by Orienteering Tasmania in the last 12 months.
• Strengthen our High Performance planning through identifying core tasks funded by our existing ASC and private sponsorship, and priority tasks in the High Performance Strategic Plan for future support as funding becomes available.

Blair Trewin will represent OA at a national ASC workshop on the Crawford report on 15 December and the OA Board will submit a response to the Crawford report to the Minister by 21 December.

Other major decisions of Conference included:

• The election of Robert Spry from NSW to the OA Board as Director, Special Projects.
• A major update of the national risk policy.
• Adoption of new rules on use of GPS devices for Group A events and selection trials, but encouragement of the use of GPS devices for post-race analysis for coaching, athlete development, promotion and development.

The conference noted that the Director of Development position is still vacant. If you, or someone you know, would be interested, please contact the Executive Officer or a member of the Board.

Orienteering Australia would like to announce the National Senior Elite Squad and High Performance Group for 2010. In selecting the squad, OA has again placed an emphasis on younger athletes with a high chance of being selected in national teams in coming years. We would like to build on the very successful 2009 international season with some more benchmark performances in 2010. Congratulations to all the athletes.

Orienteering Australia is pleased to announce the appointment of two positions: Roch Prendargast as Junior Coach, and Valerie Barker as Junior Manager. Roch and Valerie are both school teachers and have been involved in the sport for many years. They both have children who have recently been in the JWOC team (Aislinn Prendergast and Sophie Barker)

Roch lives in Ballarat Victoria and competes for Eureka Orienteers. He has been involved in coaching junior squads in orienteering, triathlon and swimming. His first orienteering coaching position was back with the very first Victorian Schools team to Adelaide in 1990.

Valerie has been a secondary school teacher in several countries, and states of Australia: New Zealand, Canada, England, Brunei, South Australia and the ACT. She has managed the ACT School Sport Orienteering team from 2003-2009. She has also been appointed by School Sport Australia to manage the Australian Schools Orienteering team- on home soil in Canberra in 2007, and in New Zealand in January this year.

Orienteering Australia would like to thank the previous coach and managers Nick Dent and Hilary Wood for all their hard work over many years. OA looks forward to working with Roch and Valerie to further develop junior orienteering in Australia.

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