2009 Archive

After a very successful 2008 competition, SILVA will again sponsor the 2009 National Orienteering League. SILVA will provide cash sponsorship and prizes worth $20,000 over the season. The highlight prize will be a free trip for one lucky (successful) junior orienteer to attend the Swedish 5-days (or WOC) competition in 2010. Sweden is the home land of both orienteering and SILVA compasses. SILVA will provide prizes for competitors in all age classes, not just elites, so come along to a SILVA National Orienteering League event in 2009 and see orienteering at its most exciting level.

The competition will include 17 races conducted over four rounds. The League kicks off in South Australia in mid March followed by the Easter carnival in Tasmania in April. In May, the League heads to ACT and will finish the year with the Australian Championships carnival in Victoria.

Full details can be found at: http://dev.orienteering.asn.au/index.php/national-league/

Prize details can be found here: 2009SILVANOLcompetitiondetails.pdf

Entries for the first round closed yesterday, so anyone wanting to race should contact the organisers soon. All details can be found here or in the files below.

Round 1- Adelaide South Australia –
SILVA NOL 2009 Round 1 Bulletin 2 and Entry_Form

The first ever Stromlo Running Festival took place this weekend in Canberra, providing entrants with unlimited opportunity to compete in numerous running races, talks and seminars. Orienteering featured in the festival, with 2006 World Orienteering Sprint Champion Hanny Allston giving novice orienteers a perspective of orienteering and providing some guidance for their first orienteering event. 

The elite race began at 2pm, providing tough racing conditions in the heat of the day. The World Games format of the sprint race ensured some exciting head to head racing. Two runners started together, running 2 loops each in a different order, before coming back to the finish to pick up their 3rd map for a common last leg.

Hanny Allston (pictured) showed her class and easily took out the womens class, followed by Kathryn Ewels and Jasmine Neve. Julian Dent (also pictured) edged out Grant Bluett and Rob Walter who completed the placings.

There was much prize money on offer and the race attracted most of Australia’s best orienteers. The National Senior Squad members were in town this weekend attending their annual training camp.

Many thanks must go to Bob Allison for making this fantastic new sprint map in the technical area surrounding the Stromlo Forest Park centre. The area will provide many future opportunities for exciting orienteering. 

Elite results can be found here. 

Novice results can be found here, and splits here.

Stromlo Running Festival Entries close this Sunday, 22nd February 2009. Full details can be found at www.stromlorunningfestival.com.au

The orienteering race will feature Australia’s best atheletes in a fast and exciting course based around Canberra’s Stromlo Forest Park. The $1200 prize-money for the elite classes has caused plenty of excitement and has attracted a strong field.

The race will involve a new feature – punching a wrong control will result in a 2-minute time penalty instead of disqualification.

National team member and local Dave Shepherd is the course setter, and has promised exciting head-to-head racing with 2 athletes starting at the same time over a 6 Km course. Most of Australia’s top 20 elites are competing, so if you live in Canberra please come along and cheer loudly.

Additional Night Orienteering Race
A massed start Night Orienteering race will be held at 9pm on Friday 27th Feb. This race is included in your SRF entry, but is not advertised to the general public. Detailed information will be emailed to all entrants into Saturday’s elite race.

This is a reminder that normal entries for The Australian 3 Days Orienteering Championships in Launceston, Tasmania close on 20th February, i.e. this coming Friday, so don’t delay in getting those entries in or you could have to pay the $30 late fee.

Planning for the carnival is going well with seven events on nine days commencing 10 April 2009. Already almost 500 entries have been received with more coming in each day, so the competition will be exciting.

We have had another very dry summer in Tasmania which bodes well for good weather in April. More information is available on the carnival website – click the link on the OT home page atwww.tasorienteering.asn.au. You can download a pdf entry form and post it in or download the MS Word version and email that. Any queries can be sent to easter@tasorienteering.asn.au. See you in Tasmania at Easter!!

Bert Elson / Jan Hardy – Carnival Directors

Tragedy strikes orienteering family for a second time

Tasmanian orienteers, Miriam and John Whittington have confirmed that John’s parents (David & Kate) who lived in Marysville have almost certainly died in the recent bushfires.  Miriam, current Orienteering Tasmania president, is the daughter of the late Irena and Dexter Palmer who also died as a result of an accident (motor vehicle) some years ago.

In Miriam’s words: “We are sad, exhausted and resigned to yet another devastating tragedy for our family… We cannot comprehend the magnitude of the tragedy but live each day in their memory and knowing how precious and short life can be.”

Orienteering loses a mountain bike rider in the fires

With regret we advise that Rob Davey has died in the Kinglake fires along with his wife and 2 children.

Rob was a regular Mountain Bike orienteer, competing in the Summer series, State League events and was enticed by Ralph Koch to make the trip to NE Victoria to Shelley to ride in the MTBO championships.  Rob was a wine merchant, so loved his wines and food and found that the riding was helping him get fitter.  Ralph had introduced him to orienteering a few years ago and they had planned to ride in the Summer Series this Saturday at Eltham.

Courtesy Peta Whitford         Further information: The Age A (photo)  The Age B

Street orienteer another victim of fires

Melbourne Northern Series competitor Carolyn O’Gorman has also been lost as the fire toll increases.  Although she had not competed in the current series, Carolyn attended previous Summer Series events performing well in the Power Walker division.

Further information: HeraldSun online 11 Feb

Many other members have been touched by this tragedy with family or friends involved.

On behalf of the Board and all the members of Orienteering Victoria we extend our heartfelt condolences to all those impacted.

Victorian Bushfire Fund – 1800 811 700
Concerned about family or friends? 1800 727 077
The Age online Condolence Book – Share your sorrow over the tragedy
Latest updates from the CFA

The selection procedures for the 2009 Australian team to attend the Junior World Championships in Italy have been published (see link below). As in previous years, the principal selection trials will be the four days of Easter.

Nominations from intending candidates are required by 3 April.

Detailed selection information and procedures are available in this document.

Orienteering Australia’s High Performance Group has appointed Rob Lewis as the 2009 Australian Men’s Coach for the World Orienteering Championships in Miskloc, Hungary.

Rob Lewis has been a keen orienteer since age ten in the mid 1970s, running with the Bayside Kangaroos and also with the Melbourne Forest Racers. He attended the orienteering school in Åmål, Sweden and was a member of OK TYR.  He currently lives in London with his fiancée and runs with the South London Orienteers and Wayfarers (SLOW). Rob is a qualified social worker and is working at the Maudsley Hospital on a psychiatric outreach team for homeless people.

We would like to formally welcome Rob to the team, and look forward to his help in guiding our elite to success.

The orienteering race at the Stromlo Running Festival will be held on the Saturday afternoon (February 28) of the Stromlo Running Festival and Australia’s top orienteers will make the trip to Canberra to compete. Orienteering Australia head coach Rob Preston has confirmed the weekend will be a National Senior Squad training camp, runners such as former world champion Hanny Allston will spend the weekend training and racing in Canberra. National Team member David Shepherd is planning the courses, which promise to provide exciting head-to-head racing using the World Games format on a 1:4000 map. The course will be 3 loops of about 2Km, with runners starting in pairs on different loops, where the third loop is common. The prize money has been doubled to $1000 and will be awarded down to 8th place. The ACT’s top mapper Bob Allison is currently drawing the map. Get a sneak peak below…

This document sets out selection arrangements for the following elite Australian orienteering teams in 2009:

• World Orienteering Championships (18-23 August, Miskolc, Hungary)
• World Games (17-19 July, Kaohsiung, Taiwan)
• Bushrangers challenge (26 September to 4 October, Victoria)
• World Cup races (9-10 June, Finland, 26-27 June, Norway, 26-27 September, Switzerland)

They reflect input from Australian and overseas-based elite athletes; coaches, experience from past selection processes and general selection guidelines published by the Australian Sports Commission.  They also reflect Orienteering Australia’s rules.

MTBO and JWOC teams selection details will be published soon.

2009SelectionArrangements.pdfhttp://dev.orienteering.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2009SelectionArrangements.pdf