2009 Archive

Round 3  National MTBO Series in Queensland this weekend

Five Vic MTBO Nuggets will be riding at Beerburrum, Queensland, this weekend in the final round of the 2009 National MTBO Series. The 2-day Queensland MTBO Championships will kick off with a Middle Distance race (over 70 entries) on Saturday afternoon and conclude with the Long Distance Championship on Sunday. Victoria will be represented by

Alex Randall (YV, M21-E), recently returned from Europe and currently in second place in Elite Men,

Thor Egerton (BK, W21-E), currently holding first place in Elite Women,

Martin Boland (BK, M21-E), currently 11^th in M21-Elite,

Heath Jamieson (CH, M-20 E), undefeated in the 5 Junior Elite races in 2009,

Di Mittag (BK, W21-E), currently third in Elite Women.

This will be the first time that Thor Egerton (BK), formerly representing Queensland, will ride as a Vic MTBO Nugget since moving to Melbourne in March.

NSW representatives are

Melanie Simpson W21-E, a strong chance to take a top three National place

Anthony Darr M21-E, recently returned from Europe

David West M40-, currently ranked in top 60 in the WRE rankings

Rob Prentice M50-, a perennial place getter in the highly competitive M50- class

Queensland will have the majority of the 70 entries with strong performances in the home forests expected from Chris Furman M-20E, Josh Neumann M-20E, David Tay M-20E, Jamie Dougall M21-E, Craig Flintoft M21-E, Sue Yan Tay W40-, Andrea Harris W50-, Peter Young M50- and Reid Moran M60-.

Victoria holds strong leads in all four elite classes (M21-E, W21-E, M-20E and W-20E) and overall lies in first place

1 Victoria 149

2 Queensland 71

3 NSW Stingers 68

4 South Australia Arrows 19

5 Canberra Cockatoos 9

Victorians will be supporting the Elite team in Queensland with M50’s Ric Armstrong (AW) and Norm McCann (AW), and M60’s Ray Sheldon (YV) and Blake Gordon (EU) riding in the senior classes. Good performances at these two events will enhance riders’ National Ranking and will sew up the National MTBO Series crown for Victoria for the second year cycling.

-Blake Gordon

The 2009 Victorian Sprint Champions are Leon Keely and Liliia Gluschenko. Leon held off last year’s winner Bruce Arthur to win by a margin of 14 seconds, with Max Neve taking third place. Liliia’s winning margin was slightly bigger at 25 seconds over Laurina Neumann. Julie Gooding placed third.

Congratulations to the new Age Group Champions: Angus Robinson, Darian Panter, James Robertson, Jun Okabe, Ian Davies, Phil Robertson, Tim Dent, Asha Steer, Emily Hennessy, Mary Fleming, Louise Hall, Janet Johnson, Denise Pike and Judi Herkes.

Thanks to organiser Ian Dodd and the DROC team, mapper and course setter Geoff Hudson and controller Geoff Adams, for a great day.

Results

Splits

All competitors will be required to collect their accreditation pass prior to attending their first day of competition. This can only occur at the Sydney Olympic Park. There will be NO accreditation at Lithgow!

When collecting your accreditation, please bring the following documents:

• a copy of your Games Registration Confirmation letter (a copy is located in your MyGames account);
• photographic identification which includes your full name and date of birth.

To make the accreditation collection process smooth, please ensure you upload your photo when when completing your registration. If you have already completed your registration, please send your photo (including your name and User Id) to registrations@2009worldmasters.com

Further information on accreditation (including opening hours) can be found at www.2009worldmasters.com (go to Registration/Accreditation information)

Nick Dent
Event Director, Orienteering

A large group of orienteers and other friends were present at Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth on Friday, 21 August, to farewell Roy Hiller, who died on 16 August, just ten days before his 85^thbirthday. Roy, who was born in Sheffield, England, was one of the pioneers of orienteering in Western Australia. He was well known to Eastern States orienteers of his age group being a regular competitor in interstate and international events.

Roy was a tireless worker for orienteering in WA, enthusiastically embracing mapping, event setting and controlling, newsletter editing and other administration tasks. In 1978 he became the founding convenor of the LOST Club, a position he held for many years, subsequently being made a Life Member of that club. He was OAWA’s Newsletter editor from 1978 to 1981, President 1986 to 1989, was made a Life Member of OAWA in 2000 and awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2001. Roy was Association President when the Australian Orienteering Championships were held in WA, for the first time, in 1988. Western Australia won, for the first time, the OFA Shield, decided on points gained by placegetters in the individual championships. An enduring memory is a photograph on the front page of the December 1988 issue of The Australian Orienteer, of Roy triumphantly holding the shield above his head. The accompanying story included the sentence “When Roy Hiller held the OFA Shield aloft it must have been a special moment for all Western Australian orienteers and a true indication that the State had come of age in the orienteering sense”. In addition to his whole hearted commitment to orienteering Roy found the time and energy to act as a Rottnest Island guide, to do maintenance work on the Bibbulmun track, and to carry out field surveys and compete in annual On Your Bike tours. He organised orienteers in annual Clean up Australia campaigns and was a regular rogaine competitor.

The Western Australian orienteering community has been greatly saddened by the loss of Roy and has extended its sympathy to his wife Jo, daughters Mandy and  Anne, sons in law Steve  and Henry, and their children. He shall be sorely missed, a great friend and contributor, a gentleman in every sense of the word.

Don Young

Today, Kathryn Ewels and Hanny Allston will compete for Australia in the Long Distance Final. The first starts in the women’s race are from 11am and in the men’s race, 12pm.

Having both qualified 5th in their heats, the Australians are well positioned to start amongst the world’s best female orienteers. Hanny starts at 11.58am, and Kathryn 4 minutes later at 12.02pm.  Best qualifier and relay superstar Marianne Andersen from Norway is the final starter at 12.28pm. Minna Kauppi (FIN) and Simone Niggli (SUI) will be looking to make ammends for their relay errors, starting only 4 and 2 minutes respectively in front of the Norwegian.

In the men’s race, Martin Johannson (SWE) will not take his place in the final, remaining in hospital and recovering from the serious injury he sustained in the relay.  However, both Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) and Anders Nordberg (NOR), who stopped to assist the Swede, will again be in medal contention, with the top qualifying Frenchman as last starter at 1.29pm (local time).

Course details:
Women
11.790km, 490m climb, 27 controls, 75mins estimated winning time

Men
17.550km, 750m climb, 33 controls, 95mins estimated winning time

The race area is very different to that of the middle and relay map, being much faster underfoot and with the unique limestone, sinkhole terrain providing its own complex, navigational and physical challenges, one being a ‘slingshot effect’ that occurs whilst running around the sinkholes (See previous report – Long Qualifaction Preview).

Terrain description:
Located some 90 minutes north of Miskolc on the Slovakian border, the map is at 300-550m a.s.l. Moderately steep to steep hills and slopes up to 60-100m height. A good number of negative land forms (deep depressions –10-60m deep). Many point features (lime burning places, charcoal burning places, pits, knolls). Many stones, extensive rocky or stony areas in places.
Vegetation is 80% pretty clean beech forest, with some areas of pine forests. Runnability is mostly very good, but reduced remarkably in places due to rocky areas and dense karstbushes. There is a limited network of paths and forest roads.

After many days of temperatures around 30C, tomorrow’s forecast is for showers after an evening storm. Cooler conditions will almost certainly be appreciated by the athletes.

It’s your last chance to get on the team blog and send you encouragement to Kathryn and Hanny.  The girls love it – so don’t be shy.
During the race, stay tuned to live  race coverage and check out the OA Website for updates and pictures during the race (if the on-site wireless works, that is!!)

The forecast rain arrived in Miskolc, and it’s much cooler than the previous days.  The women’s race has been underway for some 45 minutes, the Australian girls Hanny Allston and Kathryn Ewels will start their race shortly.  The forest looks fast and very clean underfoot, although the rain has quickly made the ground quite muddy and slippery in parts.

The rest of the Australian team participated in the final day of the Hungaria Cup this morning, enjoying a run in the fast, sinkhole terrain.

Stay tuned for updates and hopefully some photos of  the Aussie girls throughout the race!

Hanny Allston and Kathryn Ewels have just completed their races in 14th and 17th place respectively. With the top women still to finish, medals are still yet to be decided.

Pictures below of Hanny and Kathryn in the finish shute.

In the last three WOC long distance finals, at least two of the foursome of Simone Niggli (SUI), Marianne Andersen (NOR), Minna Kauppi (FIN) and Dana Brozkova (CZE) have figured in the medals; given their form at WOC2009, they would each have been at pretty short odds, and any one to win a long odds on bet. Marianne Andersen was a gold medallist in this year’s relays, but she lost time to Niggli on both long legs of the course (1-2 and 4-5), to finish almost two minutes behind. On the crucial 4-5 leg, she missed the right hand option and chose a route that required more climb mid-leg, as did both Hanny Allston (+10:23) and Kathryn Ewels (+12:13), who finished 19th and 22nd respectively.

Although Niggli was almost two minutes ahead of Andersen, only 30 seconds separated Andersen, Kauppi, and Brozkova.

In the men’s race, the winner Daniel Hubmann (SUI) and second-placed Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) ran very similar routes on both long legs (1-2  and 10-11), although third-placed Mikhail Mamleev (ITA) and 2007 world champion Mathias Merz (SUI) took the wide right hand option on 1-2, with splits suggesting it was almost two minutes slower than the more direct route favoured by most runners. Hubmann led the race almost from the start, surrendering the lead only briefly to Anders Nordberg (NOR) at controls 16 and 17 before taking over and extending his lead in the remainder of the race.

Women

1. Simone Niggli (SUI) 77:26
2. Marianne Andersen (NOR) 79:18
3. Minna Kauppi (FIN) 79:36
19. Hanny Allston (AUS) 87:49
22. Kathryn Ewels (AUS) 89:39

Men

1. Daniel Hubmann (SUI) 96:31
2. Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) 98:27
3. Mikhail Mamleev (ITA) 100:41
=17. Chris Forne (NZL) 106:32

Grace Crane led out the Australian team in the pressure cooker situation following the drama of the men’s race where three of the top four teams on the final leg stopped to assist an injured Martin Johansson.

Running hard and confidently from the mass start, early reports from the forest had Grace in a good position. After the first change over, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway were clear leaders. Grace handed over to Kathryn Ewels in 16th place about 7 minutes behind the leaders, a little frustrated with both an unlucky split that put her on a different loop to the lead pack, and an uncharacteristic error near tracks.

After the second leg, Finland’s Merja Rantanen had taken the lead by some 50 seconds over Switzerland, followed closely by Sweden, Norway, Russia and the Czech Republic. As the reigning relay world champions, Finland looked to be in a strong position with Minna Kauppi running the third leg. But she would be pushed all the way by Simone Niggli (SUI) and newly crowned WOC Sprint Champion, Helena Jansson (SWE) who even took time at the change over to receive a good luck hug from her second leg runner, Kajsa Nilsson!

Kathryn Ewels continued with her great form, bringing the Aussies up into 10th place, sending Hanny out on the third and final leg.

While Australia continued building their race, steadily moving up the field, the pressure on the leading women caused many small errors. Then the announcement from the PA. ” Unbelievable – Simone Niggli she has made a really big mistake! And what about Minna? I see Helena has made a mistake – she is running in completely the opposite direction!”

To the delight of Norwegian fans, Marianne Andersen punched the spectator control first, followed 30 seconds later by Sweden, then Finland, Czech Republic then Switzerland. Only seconds separated Norway and Sweden at the 2nd last control, but Andersen held off the strong Swedish runner, sprinting up the finish chute and bringing victory to Norway.The silver medal was claimed by Sweden, bronze to Finland.

Hanny improved the Australian women’s position from 10th to finish 9th overall, proudly performing better than many other favoured teams, and gaining continued respect and admiration from other nations.

A Swiss journalist happened to ask “Where in Europe does the Australian team base itself for world championship preparation?” Well, we won’t be letting them in on that little secret will we!

Women’s Results
1. Norway 2:13:10
Nilsen Betty Ann Bjerkrei 32:57
Hausken Anne Margrethe 50:19
Andersen Marianne 49:54

2. Sweden 2:13:28
Höjsgaard Karolina 32:28
Nilsson Kajsa 50:01
Jansson Helena 50:59

3. Finland 2:15:25
Holmström Bodil 33:33
Rantanen Merja 47:51
Kauppi Minna 54:01

4. Switzerland 2:16:12
5. Czech Republic 2:16:26
6. Russia 2:20:10

9. Australia 2:32:23
Crane Grace 39:43
Ewels Kathryn 55:42
Allston Hanny 56:58

A fantastic result for Kathryn Ewels who after holding the top position on the leaderboard for over 15 minutes, placed fifth overall in this afternoon’s Sprint final.

Women
1. Helena Jansson (SWE) 15:07
2. Linnea Gustafsson (SWE) 15:49
3. Simone Niggli (SUI) 15:54
4. Signe Soes (DEN) 15:58
5. Kathryn Ewels (AUS) 16:00
6. Anni-Maija Fincke (FIN) 16:01

Full report and pictures soon.