2011 Archive

Specific comprehensive selection criteria for all teams will be released in early 2012.

However actual selection events have been decided and are advertised here to enable early travel and accommodation arrangements and for planning of training.   Please note that there have been additional events from past years included for the JWOC foot team selection, as below.

JWOC FOOT ORIENTEERING TEAM – Slovakia, July 7-14th

The primary selection events are the four events of the Easter weekend, to be held in Queensland from 6-9 April 2012. Performances in previous Junior World Championships (for those who have been in a JWOC team previously) may also be taken into account.

The March National League events (in Victoria on 11-12 March) will be asecondary selection trial. All candidates for selection are expected to compete in these events unless they have grounds for special consideration).

Events in 2011 (other than JWOC) will not be part of the 2012 selection process, other than in the case of applications for special consideration.

Candidates for selection will normally be expected to compete in M/W17-20E at Easter. Any candidates for selection who want to run M/W21E should seek the approval of the Chair – Blair Trewin (B.Trewin@bom.gov.au) as soon as practicable – this approval will normally be given only to those who are realistic candidates for selection in senior representative teams or squads.

WOC FOOT ORIENTEERING TEAM – Switzerland, July 14-21

The selection races to be held within Australia are;

-All four days of Easter 2012 April 6-9^thin Stanthorpe, Qld

– All three events at the May 12/13^th National Orienteering League races in Newcastle, NSW

Arrangements for overseas-based athletes to run other races as selection trials will be arranged and communicated to all nominees.

-Selection criteria for 2012 World Cup events will be released also in early January and that for the Bushranger team to NZ at a slightly later date.

JWOC & WOC MT BIKE ORIENTEERING TEAMS – Hungary, August 20-25th

-All events at the National Series round 1 on 28-29^th April based in central Victoria at Maryborough and Newstead.

Orienteering Australia wishes everyone a happy and enjoyable Christmas.

2011 has been a memorable year, including the spectacular success of the Oceania Championships. Thank you to everyone who participated in these events, and a special thank you to all those who volunteered in this carnival to help make it such a success.

Please enjoy the action from the Oceania Championship races in Victoria in these video highlights. This is also a great opportunity to show your friends what orienteering is like.

Seasons Greetings from Orienteering Victoria.  We look forward to seeing you at the SILVA National Orienteering League races in Ballarat, Victoria on March 10 & 11, 2012.

The annual Orienteering Australia Conference was held over the weekend of 10-11 December at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Picture: Bruce Arthur, photographer Jim Russell.

Highlights included:

·         A WOC project committee, chaired by Christine Brown, was formed to undertake an evaluation to bid for a future World Orienteering Championships. This followed a detailed presentation by Mikko Salonen, Chairman of the Finland Orienteering Federation team which successfully bid to conduct the 2013 World Orienteering Championships.

·         Orienteering Tasmania will be bidding to conduct a World Cup round in Tasmania in January 2015 in conjunction with the Oceania Championships. In January 2013 a World Cup round will be staged in New Zealand in conjunction with the Oceania Championships.

·         The Conference accepted the recommendation of the Website and Digital Communications Review by Nicole Davis that there be an overhaul undertaken of the OA website, subject to a Director of Communications and a project manager being appointed.

·         A comprehensive program of camps and other High Performance activities was tabled by Kay Haarsma and Grant Bluett. There is a great deal of enthusiasm for participation in the National O League events in Darwin from 10-12 August 2012 in conjunction with the NT Championships.

·         Andrew Collins from the Australian Sports Commission provided an update on the ASC’s participation funding program and OA requirements in terms of performance and reporting.

·         Ben Rattray presented footage from the filming by the University of Canberra on how to do bush, sprint, street and mountain bike orienteering. More information is at http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Orienteering/Videos

·         Bruce Arthur presented a report on what was involved in providing GPS tracking and the big screen at the Oceania Championships.

·         Barbara Hill and Mike Dowling outlined how OANSW and OTAS introduced highly successful Space Racing programs for primary school children.  In Tasmania a control is called a Space Station, the SI stick a Space Key, and the map a Galaxy.

The National Junior Squad and Junior Development Squad for 2012 have been announced. They are:

National Junior Squad

Karl Bicevskis (Tas), Kasimir Gregory (NSW), Ian Lawford (ACT), Alex Massey (NSW), Oscar McNulty (WA), Brodie Nankervis (Tas), Kurt Neumann (Qld), Oliver Poland (ACT).

Amy Buckerfield (Tas), Lilian Burrill (Qld), Emily Cantwell (Qld), Michele Dawson (NSW), Jacqui Doyle (Qld), Heather Muir (Qld), Georgia Parsons (ACT), Olivia Sprod (SA).

Junior Development Squad

Jarrah Day (Tas), Matt Doyle (Qld), Henry McNulty (WA), Max Neumann (Qld), Ashley Nankervis (Tas), Jack Oakhill (Qld), David Tay (Qld).

Nicola Blatchford (NSW), Heather Burridge (Qld), Anna Dowling (Tas), Hannah Goddard (Tas), Shea-Cara Hammond (ACT), Winnie Oakhill (Qld), Lanita Steer (Vic).

Congratulations to all of those selected.

The Australian MTBO team for the 2012 Australia v NZ Challenge has been named below. The team will compete from Jan 8-15^th in the South Island of New Zealand, with events ranging from Christchurch to Queenstown.  Team members will receive their official Aussie caps in NZ.

Over 55 Australian competitors are competing and a large tour group is being co-ordinated by Craig Steffens.  The selection panel was: Carolyn Jackson (chair), Ian Dalton, Paul Darvodelsky and  Kay Haarsma.

M20: Chris Firman (Q); Marc Gluskie (Tas); Karl Withers (Q).

Reserve Paulo Alvear Fujii(Q)

M21: Oscar Phillips (Tas); Alex Randall (Vic), Ricky Thackray (WA).

Reserve Paul Darvodelsky(Nsw)

M40: Dion Keech (Vic); Craig Steffens (Q); Damian Welbourne (Nsw).

M50: Peter Cusworth (Vic); Simon Phillips (Tas); Malcolm Roberts (Nsw).             Reserve Daryl Smith (Tas)

M60: Andrew Campbell (Vic); David Firman (Q); Peter Hill (Vic);

Reserve Leigh Privett(Vic)

W21: Mary Fien (Nsw); Jen Graham-Taylor (WA); Melanie Simpson (Nsw);

W40: Kay Haarsma (SA); Carolyn Jackson (Vic); Carolyn Matthews (Nsw).

W50  Jean Douglas (Nsw); Heather Leslie (Vic);  Peta Whitford (Vic);

Reserve Helen Edmonds (Vic)

Many riders were competing last weekend in a variety of events around the countryside.  Alex Randall rode brilliantly to win all 4 stages and overall in the veteran male category of the Forrest festival in Victoria, with Carolyn Jackson and Kay Haarsma also being placed.  M21 Ashley Lynch made his debut in the elite category.

Further north near Bendigo, Dion Keech, Grant Lebbink, Thorlene Egerton and Jonathon Sutcliffe were racing in various teams in the Victorian 24 hr event.

Meanwhile, in WA, Ricky Thackray placed 4^th in the 40 person elite men’s field, covering some 171 kilometres in a 12 hour event there!

There is a National Senior Squad training camp being held from Jan 2-9 based at Beechworth, Victoria.

For this camp the new “Rowdy Flat” map and the very old “Kangaroo Crossing” area will be amongst the maps utilised. To do so the organisers have been given special permission by Orienteering Victoria, as these areas are being used in September 2012 for Victorian Championship middle and long distance events.

Thus there will be an embargo on both maps mentioned above, which will take place from January 10^th2012. This gives any orienteer the chance to run on these areas until that date.

Additionally, other orienteers are invited to participate at the January camp, especially keen juniors.

For more information on this please contact Rob Preston – rob_preston AT hotmail.com

Also, in February, after the Sprint the Bay carnival (4-6^th) in NZ there will be a senior squad training camp from Feb 7-12^th.  Other keen orienteers, juniors or seniors are also invited to participate in this.  For more details contact camp coach leader Jim Russel – jymbo@dodo.com.au

Some lucky Aussies were in Venice last weekend for the unique O race that is held annually amidst the many canals, thousands of bridges and tourist full narrow streets.

In the elite men’s event David Brickhill-Jones placed 10^th in the 149 person field, just 7 minutes down on the winner Jonas Gvildys whose winning time was 70 mins.  Julian Dent, resuming after a long injury, was 17^th, ten and a half minutes behind, while Gareth Candy (soon to return to Australia) also ran impressively for 22^nd.   Julian’s GPS recorded that he ran 18.45km at 4.23mpk!!

The women’s elite winner was Svobodna Sarka, with MTBO champion Austrian Michaela Gigon a close 4^th. In the women’s “A” class Felicity Brown made the podium with a fine 3rd while former South Aussie orienteer Libby Schofield was 11th!!  There were 4 open women’s classes totalling 350 starters and almost 500 in open men, as well as the usual array of junior and veteran’s classes – no small event.  Blair Trewin did well to place 10^th (out of 102 starters) in M40 with Janne Salmi being the victor. Eureka stalwart Chris Norwood was 15th in an 112 person M55 field.

Attack point comments:  Julian – “Awesome race, which just kept on going. Thousands of tourists to dodge and great fun.  Started off solidly until getting stuck in a dead end going to 5.  After the long leg to 19 I died physically. (He had hardly run for 6 weeks.)Much longer race than I thought it would be, but awesome fun and loved all of it. Great to be back running again.”

Blair: “Venice was always likely to be a race to remember, and so it proved.   It was a unique orienteering experience with an intensity of decision making rarely found.  I was really pumped for the race and this converted to an opening 15 minutes in which I surged every time the alleyways opened up enough to allow it (this wasn’t always the way in the early controls, which had the bulk of the heavy pedestrian-congestion areas).  .. What could have been a significant mistake happened at 12 when I missed a turnoff, potentially a mortal sin here, but it was fortunate that I had the option of going the other two sides of the diamond and probably lost little if any time. Tired a bit at the end by the 58 bridge crossings! “

A reminder that entries close in early December for the New Zealand MTBO Carnival. Flights at reasonable cost are also getting scarce. Fifty five Aussies have already indicated that they intend to compete in this South Island multi-day carnival from Jan 7-14^th. Events are held in varying sites ranging from Christchurch to Queenstown.

Training opportunities for National Squad Members and interested others.                           

-Dec 27-31st – Falls Creek-physical altitude training

Fabrizio Andreoni (Albury-Wodonga triathlon coach and orienteer) has a squad of 15 already booked in and his accommodation is full though he is trying to get a bigger place as he normally takes 30 up. Contact no is 0447368245 Detailed program of planned training sessions available at:www.fab4fitness.com

Accommodation options: try Falls Creek itself or Howman’s Gap (4kms below Falls Creek) does have accom available.

-Jan 2-7 Beechworth. This would be piggy backing on foot o training camp. About 6 mtbo maps available in the region plus Beechworth and Mt Beauty mtb parks to hone your skills.

-April 25-27^th Immediately prior to World Champs selection trials (April 28-29^th), based at Castlemaine. Short technical navigation exercises in similar terrain to hone your skills. Ian Dalton / Kay Haarsma to lead.

2012 World Championships are being held in Veszprem, Hungary from August 20-25^th

These will incorporate JWOC,WOC & WORLD MASTERS all at the same time.

For further information on any of the above contact me at: kayhaarsma@hotmail.com

Following consideration of nominees the OA Board has chosen to make the following appointments of officials for 2012-13.

WOC – Rob Lewis (head coach); and Wendy Read (assistant coach / manager.

JWOC – Roch Prendergast (coach) and Valerie Barker (assistant coach/ manager).

They look forward to continuing the work and development of athletes in their respective squads and teams.

The Adventure Racing World Championships start today (Wed 2^nd Nov) in Burnie, Tasmania. 80 teams of 4 are taking part in the multi-day race which will cover a 733km circuit with 52 checkpoints of Tasmanian coastline, bush and mountain in the rugged and beautiful North-West of the island. The winning team is expected to take 6 or 7 days!

With the strongest possible line up of teams, coming from every continent, the race is sure to be closely contested and to test teams to the limit.  Many orienteers are taking part, and I’ve tried to list them all below. Again there will be great Aussie – NZ rivalry, with 2011 WOC foot orienteering representatives Chris Forne, Robbie Preston and Aaron Prince leading their no 2, no 3 and no 9 ranked teams respectively. However, like the Melbourne Cup, any “runner or team” has a chance of winning.

The race includes various trekking, mt biking, kayaking, and coasteering legs. It also involves a caving section where the organiser states “anyone afraid of confined spaces … is going to be very afraid.” Also on the “menu” is a clay shooting challenge; rafting; a waterfall abseil and canyoning section at Reynolds Falls. Plus a 75km paddle stage on the Arthur River with 12km of trekking along the way to find CP’s in the nearby pristine Tarkine forest.  The highest point on the race will be on Black Bluff.  The planners are confident teams will be very surprised at how long it takes to get to checkpoints in the Tasmanian bush!

2              Seagate                    Chris Forne (NZ)

3              TeamBlackheart     Rob Preston

9              Silva                     Aaron Prince (NZ)

22           Cyanosis              Nick Mulder (South Africa)

29           iadventure          Seb Dunne,  Danielle Winslow

30           its all good           Kath Copland,  Brett Sparkes

35           Mt Designs          Gary Sutherland

46           City Bike Depot   Kathryn Ewels, Sergey Kurov

47           Hardtale               Steve Todkill, Maria Plyashenko,  & Matt Bacon

48           Kauri Coasters     Jon Sutcliffe

50           Brat                       Ingrid Stengard (Finland)

57           Dancing Pandas      Thorlene Egerton

66           Mawson                Ricky Thackray