2010 Archive

Two of the five days of the 2010 Christmas 5-Days at Armidale have been completed, with a sprint at the University of New England followed by challenging courses in the complex granite of Banalasta. The turnout has been good, although numerous Queenslanders failed to make the first day (and some the second) after being stranded by floods.

Julian Dent has held sway in Men A so far, winning both days comfortably. His only major opponent on the second day was Swedish international Mats Troeng, who was the only competitor within nine minutes of him. Perhaps the most impressive performance, though, was that of junior Lachlan Dow in the sprint, taking second just ahead of Troeng and Dave Shepherd. Other juniors to impress were Ian Lawford (fifth on day 1) and Joshua Blatchford (third on day 2).

There has been more variety in Women A with a complete changeover of places between the two days. It was an international clean sweep in the sprint, with the Swedes Johanna Oberg and Malin Andersson separated by Lithuanian Rasa Ptasekaite. At Banalasta, though, it was the locals who came to the fore, especially Jo Allison who finished five minutes clear of the field. Anna Sheldon and Tracy Marsh filled the minor placings.

The event continues tomorrow on gully-spur terrain east of Armidale.

Results and splits are available through the 5-days page.

Orienteering Australia National Junior Coach Roch Prendergast has announced training plans for 2011. These commence with training for interested juniors at the Christmas Five Days next week. To have some idea of numbers, Roch would appreciate an email from interested juniors before Boxing Day. Email: prenderg@tpg.com.au

Christmas 5 Days, Armidale

Dec 27: 6pm Meet with all juniors and parents (Location to be announced)

Dec 28: Junior training on same map after presentations

Dec 29: Junior training at Oakview( Steve Doyle organising)

Dec 30: Evening talk and group meal

Dec 31: Meet with all juniors time permitting

January Training Camp (11-15 January, Canberra)

3 to 4 days of training for all Juniors in the squads or not.  Costs slightly more for those not in the squad

National O League Event 12-13 March, Canberra

All squad members should attend this weekend.  Performances may be considered for selection.

Weekend Training Ballarat 26-29 March: Open to all who wish to attend. 

Easter 22-25 April, WA: Principal JWOC Squad selection trial.
Week following Easter: Training for Juniors during the week as a lead up to the weekend NOL. Format and process to be announced.  Open to all Juniors.

Pre JWOC Camp Ballarat May or June: For all members of JWOC Team and emergencies.

Orienteering Australia is seeking to fill the position of Australian MTBO Coach for 2011-2012.

The duties can be found at MTBO Coach Job Description Dec 2010.pdf.

Applications and any questions can be directed to Kay Haarsma, Manager (High Performance). Email kayhaarsma@hotmail.com or ph 08 8337 0522 (h)

Applications close 31 December 2010.

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.