2010 Archive

Closure of entries for the 2010 Australian Orienteering Championships Carnival has been extended to midnight Monday 23 August!

Have you entered yet? Don’t miss out on this first class carnival, otherwise known as the Compact Carnival, with all events within 100km of Adelaide.

Late fee ($10/person) per event applies after midnight on Monday. Late entries will be accepted until 3 September.

Hard copy entry form, downloadable from the website,http://www.sa.orienteering.asn.au/AusChamps2010/Entries/  will be accepted if postmarked by 23 August.Payment methods for this option are cheque, money order or electronic funds transfer.

Simon Uppill, in 34th place, was the best Australian performer in the middle distance final at the World Orienteering Championships in Trondheim today. He finished in 34th place, in a fiercely-contested event in which the top seven were separated by less than a minute. Carl Waaler Kaas brought the hosts a narrow victory ahead of Peter Oberg (SWE), with Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA) and Daniel Hubmann (SUI) tied in third place. Uppill struck some difficulty on the final loop which cost him some places, but not to the same extent as Dave Shepherd, who lost four minutes on a control and finished in 45th.

Grace Crane made a slow start in the women’s race, and although she did not do a lot wrong after that, 37th place was the best she could manage, while two significant errors in the first half kept Vanessa Round to 41st. Simone Niggli’s bid for another gold medal was derailed by the Finn Minna Kauppi, with Marianne Andersen giving the Norwegians another medal.

Results are available through the WOC results page.

Competition will be completed with the relay tomorrow from 1930 AEST. The Australian teams are:

Men: Simon Uppill, Dave Shepherd, Julian Dent

Women: Grace Crane, Vanessa Round, Kathryn Ewels

WOC is over for another year, and Australia has finished on a high note, following a week of solid performances. The Women’s relay was a tight race, in which the leading Swedish team was caught on the final leg by Norway and Finland; Minna Kauppi (FIN) prevailed to win the gold medal ahead of Norway’s Marianne Andersen.

Australia’s race started with a solid 1st leg from Grace Crane in 19th. Vanessa Round immediately made up time on surrounding teams, at one stage up to 15th and finishing in 17th. Kathryn Ewels, who missed out on qualifying for finals this week, came good at the right time as she caught, and then outsprinted, Poland and Estonia to bring the team up to a solid 13th place.

The Men’s race immediately followed. Much was hoped for from an Australian team who qualified well this week, and Simon Uppill didn’t disappoint, finishing 11th on the first leg and still in touch with the leading pack of runners.

The pack was slowly whittled down to 7 runners after the 2nd leg and, while David Shepherd held the Australian ship steady to hand over to Julian Dent in 12th. The race didn’t break apart until half-way through the final leg, when France (Thierry Georgiou) and Russia (Valentin Novikov) edged away. But an uncharacteristic mistake from Georgiou (who didn’t punch control 17, costing him 6 minutes)  left Russia the eventual victors from Norway, Switzerland and Great Britain. Meanwhile, Australia’s Julian Dent started the final leg well, up to 11th at one stage, but faded to finish in 17th.

Australia’s Anna Sheldon finished 38th in the long distance final at the World Orienteering Championships today, in which Switzerland’s Simone Niggli won a record 17th gold medal. Anna had a consistent run for the most part but was never in contention for a place in the top half of the field.

Niggli’s win continues a long run of success for her in the sport, and extends her already record tally of 17 World Championship gold medals. Her win was by the reasonably comfortable margin of 2.13. It was much closer behind her with four within a minute; Marianne Andersen (Norway) took silver by five seconds over Emma Claesson (formerly Engstrand) (Sweden).

It was a quinella for the hosts in the men’s race. Olav Lundanes, still in the early part of his senior career (after a junior career which included several JWOC gold medals in Dubbo and elsewhere), started last and always looked like posting the fastest time, although in the end he had only 40 seconds to spare over Anders Nordberg. Thierry Gueorgiou took the bronze after a close-run battle with fellow Frenchman Francois Gonon.

After a rest day, competition will continue on Saturday with the middle distance final, in which Australia has two men and two women.

Results are available at the WOC results page.

Anna Sheldon will be the only Australian representative in Thursday’s long distance final at the World Orienteering Championships. Despite some time lost on the last long leg, she had a solid run on the whole and qualified with a little under two minutes in hand, in 13th place.

Sheldon was the only Australian to qualify. Kathryn Ewels lost more than ten minutes at the third control, and while she was fourth-fastest from there to the finish, the deficit was too large to make up and she missed out by two places in 17th. It was also a disappointing day for Shannon Jones, who mispunched, although her time would not have qualified in any case.

Rob Preston ran steadily without ever really threatening to break into a qualifying position, finishing at the back of a close bunch in 27th place. Dave Shepherd, who is not 100% well, withdrew from the race to concentrate on his middle distance final on Saturday.

Tomorrow is a rest day before the long distance final on Thursday.

Full results are available at the WOC results page.

Four Australians have qualified for the WOC middle distance final after today’s qualification races. Simon Uppill was probably the most impressive performer of the day, qualifying in 10th place. Dave Shepherd had a few nervous moments but made it through in 13th.

On a day when times were more spread out than usual in the challenging terrain, Vanessa Round’s time initially looked like she might struggle to make the cut, but she qualified reasonably comfortably in the end in 11th. Grace Crane, one of the last starters in her heat, was 13th.

The big surprise of the day was the failure of Julian Dent to qualify. He lost four minutes at the first control and another two at the fifth to put himself out of realistic contention, eventually finishing 23rd. Jasmine Neve was perhaps the day’s hard-luck story,  missing out by two places despite running much of the race with one shoe (the other one having fallen victim to the local marshes).

Full results are available at the WOC results page.

Competition continues tomorrow with the long distance qualifiers, starting at 4pm (midnight AEST).

Grace Crane was the leading Australian in the WOC sprint final in Trondheim today with a 30th place. This equalled her previous best sprint result and should boost her in the lead-up to the middle distance, for which qualification takes place tomorrow. Shannon Jones, running her first WOC final, was another 39 seconds back in 41st place.

Julian Dent, the sole Australian representative in the men’s final, came 35th after losing some time early. The leading group of the men’s race was remarkably close, with only 4.5 seconds separating the top six. It was a Swiss 1-2 with Matthias Mueller leading Fabian Hertner, with Frederic Tranchand (FRA) an unexpected bronze medallist.

There was also Swiss success in the women’s event, as Simone Niggli won yet another gold medal, edging out Helena Jansson (SWE) by 0.7 seconds. Marianne Andersen gave the hosts their one medal of the day.

Full results are available at the WOC results page.

Jenny Bourne won her second medal of the World Masters Orienteering Championships when she won a bronze medal in the W55 long distance final, following her sprint gold. It was a close-run thing as she was tied for third place.

It was the only medal for Australia on the day, although Hermann Wehner came close with 4th in M85. Other Australians to make the top ten were Tracy Marsh (8th in W35), Warren Key (8th in M50) and Paul Pacque (9th in M55).

This lists all Australians who finished in the top 20 in a final (winner, followed by the Australians):

M45-B: 1. Hallett Clive GBR 0:47:25, 4. Simpson Andy AUS 0:54:36
M50-A: 1. Zuzanek Zdenek CZE 0:47:21, 8. Key Warren AUS 0:51:40
M55-A: 1. D?hli Sigurd NOR 0:45:41, 9. Pacque Paul AUS 0:54:11, 13. Lawford Geoff AUS 0:54:55
M60-C: 1. Helle Edvin NOR 0:50:17, 4. Uppill Adrian AUS 0:51:33
M65-B: 1. Kellenberger Ruedi SUI 0:45:09, 13. Erbacher Darryl AUS 0:54:00
M65-D: 1. Eriksen Jan A NOR 0:47:41, 11. Meeking John AUS 1:04:04
M70-C: 1. Vikane Per NOR 0:33:09, 19. Sheahan John AUS 0:54:32
M85-A: 1. Isaksson Rune SWE 0:39:24, 4. Wehner Hermann AUS 0:57:46
W35-A: 1. Gunell Yvonne FIN 0:43:02, 8. Marsh Tracy AUS 0:49:01, 12. Key Natasha AUS 0:50:46
W40-B: 1. Champtiaux Isabelle FRA 0:40:41, 16. Troedson Alexa AUS 0:53:15
W55-A: 1. Wolf Ursula SUI 0:40:26, 3. Bourne Jenny AUS 0:41:14
W60-B: 1. N?rgaard Mona DEN 0:39:29, 3. Hay Judith AUS 0:46:25
W75-A: 1. Pokh Lilia UKR 0:38:39, 17. Woof Caryl AUS 1:36:52
W75-B: 1. Ogilvie Maureen AUS 0:43:40, 6. Lyon Jeffa AUS 1:12:27

The WOC Sprint Qualification race was run this morning in Trondheim, Norway. The terrain was a mixture of simple urban and complex forest — see here for maps from this morning’s race.

Australia fared well in the morning session. Shannon Jones, running her 2nd WOC, qualified for the final with 13th place in Heat 1, while Grace Crane went one better in Heat 2. Jasmine Neve finished 24th in her heat, with only 15 to qualify.

In the men’s race, Julian Dent lead the way for Australia, qualifying in 15th with only 23 seconds to spare. Simon Uppill also ran strongly, and with a bit of luck might have qualified as well, but his 17th place had him only 10 seconds outside the qualifying time, while Rob Preston finished 25th in Heat 1.

The final will be held in the town centre of Trondheim tonight, Australian time — see the WOC2010 pages for live results.