2011 Archive

The Australian Middle Distance Championships on the granite Marginata map was the concluding event in the “Frazzled Rock” easter carnival held in Western Australia.  With this event being a selection trial for the elite World Championships, there was no easing off.  The 3 day winners in Vanessa Round and Grant Bluett reinforced their status with solid wins.  Vanessa won by a minute in 32.35 over Jasmine Neve, with Mace Neve (35.36) holding onto third narrowly by 4 seconds over Tracy Bluett.   In the men’s race Rob Preston held the lead until control 11 but then Grant Bluett came to the front and won by 20 seconds over Simon Uppill with Rob a minute further back.

The junior elites were not so predictable.  Nicola Blatchford stepped up from W16 to take a good win by 30 seconds over Krystal Neumann and Emma Campbell.  Brodie Nankervis ran brilliantly to hold off Ollie Poland by 19seconds, with Ian Lawford in third.  However JWOC team members Ollie Poland, Oscar McNulty, Lachlan Dow and Ian Lawford all take away a sprint victory over the elite field this week, so that is really exciting as they prepare for the Worlds in Poland.

Overall there were just a handful of orientering legends in the main classes who managed the trifecta of winning Easter, the sprint and middle distance championships.  Well done to Anthea Feaver (W50), Bernard Walker (M50); the kiwi Graham Fortune (M70) and the golden oldies Gordon Howitt and Hehman Wehner in M80 & 85 respectively. 2010 SILVA medal winner Geoff Lawford (M55) was also undefeated and looks like he’s keen to hang onto the award.

With 7 events in 10 days the carnival was demanding on the runners, but even more so on the organisers.  Many thanks to the WA orienteers who worked so tirelessly to give us all that exciting running on enjoyable yet challenging maps.

Photos by John Harding of the Frazzle Rock Four Days, Bunbury Scatter O and Australian Sprint and Middle Distance Championships are at http://hardingjohn.smugmug.com/Sports/Orienteering/2011-West-Australia

The next round of the NOL races is in Tasmania on May 20-21st, with these being the final selection races for the WOC team.

Today saw a fantastic new venue added to sprint orienteering in WA and Australia.

Mandjar Bay map forms part of the Mandurah Foreshore redevelopment that includes canals, footbridges and dolphins on a good day.

Racing was very close in the M17-20E today with Lachlan Dow stealing the win off local boy Oscar McNulty by 3 seconds in a time of 16:53. Ian Lawford finished third in a time of 17:11. Lachlan Dow and Oscar McNulty’s times would have placed them in first and second on the senior leaderboard.

In the Women’s Junior Elite race Belinda Lawford had a comfortable win in a time of 17:52, Lillian Burrell finished second in 19:18 and Jacqui Doyle sqeezed into third place in a time of 20:10.

In the Men’s Elite race Simon Uphill took ou the title in a time of 17:07 followed by Grant Bluett  in 17:18 and Bruce Arthur taking third in 17:40

Kathryn Ewels showed her dominance on the Women’s Elite course today with a clear victory.  Kathryn finished in a time of 16:24, some 39 secs clear of Mace Neve and Rachel Effeney rounded out the podium in a time of 17:09

Results

Splits

Orienteering Australia is proud to announce the team for 2011 Junior World Championships.

Men’s team

Josh Blachford (NSW)
Lachlan Dow (ACT)
Ian Lawford (ACT)
Oscar McNulty (WA)
Max Neve (VIC)
Oliver Poland (ACT)
1st Reserve- Kurt Neumann (QLD)
2nd Reserve- Oscar Phillips (TAS)

Women’s team

Lillian Burrill (QLD)
Claire Butler (TAS)
Jacqui Doyle (QLD)
Belinda Lawford (ACT)
Krystal Neumann (QLD)
Georgia Parsons (ACT)

The Championships take place in Poland 1-9th July 2011. The team will be supported by coach Roch Prendergast and manager Valerie Barker.

Congratulations to the team, and good luck for the championships.

Oscar Phillips of Tasmania won the 2011 men’s Australian Universities Championship at Frazzle Rock on Saturday, with Oliver Crosatto of QLD second and Rory McComb of South Australia third.

The women’s title went to Aislinn Prendergast of Victoria, from Sarah Buckerfield and Belinda Lawford of the ANU in the ACT.

Orienteering Australia major award winners were announced by OA President Bill Jones at the awards ceremony today concluding the Frazzle Rock Three Days Easter Carnival in Western Australia.

The Silva Award for Services to Orienteering was awarded to Bob Mouatt from the ACT for his many years of outstanding service to orienteering in Australia. Bob, who is currently OA media officer and 2011 Australian Championships meet manager, has served in many capacities including OA President, major meet director on many occasions, writer of operational rules and plans, media and promotions and results officer, photographer. Last year Bob was awarded an OAM for his services to orienteering.

The 2010 Athlete of the Year was World Mountain Bike Orienteering champion Adrian Jackson of Victoria. The Silva Orienteer of the Year based on age-sex rankings was M55 Geoff Lawford of the ACT.

The David Hogg Award for Event Management went to outstanding long serving South Australian organiser and administrator Peter Cutten who was the meet manager for the very successful 2010 Australian Championships carnival in South Australia. Peter has been a member of the Wallaringa Orienteering Club since its inception 32 years ago and held every position in the club at one time or other, as well as being President of OASA in 1985 and 1986.

The Silva Coach of the Year was South Australian and Darwin elite orienteer Susanne Casanova who has a long track record in coaching and motivating juniors and older orienteers alike and has been doing an excellent job in Darwin in passing on her coaching tips to a wide audience in the Top End newsletter and in running coaching workshops. Prior to moving to Darwin Susanne was her club coach for a number of years, OASA joint coaching coordinator from 2006-2008 and a coaching assistant at a number of national training camps.

The 2011 Australian Champion Club, decided from the results of Days 1 and 2 of the Australian Three Days carnival was Garingal from NSW with 34 points, with WOW from WA second with 32 and Ugly Gully from QLD third with 31 points.

The Easter 2011 Orienteering Carnival continued today with Day One proper. The non-elite classes got their first competitive race after yesterdays warm-up and the elite classes had a Middle Distance race.

Results
Splits – Stage 2

In the Junior Men’s class Lachlan Dow had the best time of the day (25.50) but it was 2nd placed Josh Blatchford (26.03) that moved into the overall lead after two days. Kurt Neumann was 3rd (26.39) but yesterdays winner Ian Lawford still sits in 2nd overall. The top 7 places are still within 2mins over each other so still plenty of room to move over the next few days.

Belinda Lawford took her 2nd straight win to reinforce her #1 ranking. Krystal Neumann wasn’t far behind and moved into a comfortable 2nd place ahead of fellow Qld Cyclone Lillian Burrill.

Jasmine Neve also won her 2nd day in a row with scorching run. Mace Neve also ran error free to finish 2nd with the SA Arrows duo of Susanne Casanova and Vanessa Round talking 3rd and 4th. Bridget Anderson and Rachel Effeney also had good runs to move up through the field.

Grant Bluett had perhaps the run of the day (31.54) taking a 2min win over Simon Uppill (33.35). Grant has been training well recently for the upcoming North Face 100km Ultra run in the Blue Mountains of NSW, and his younger rivals will have a hard job beating him in tomorrow’s Long distance race. Rob Preston (34.11) also continued his good recent form to finish 3rd and also sits in 3rd place overall behind Bluett and Uppill. Murray Scown (37.42) dropped some time to the top 3 but still holds 4th ahead of Bruce Arthur.

The Australian 3 Days competition made a successful start today with the Senior and Junior Elite Prologue races as well as a public prologue.

Results are available as follows:

Elite Results

Elite Splits

Public Prologue Results

Public Prologue Splits

Jasmine Neve has got off to another good start at Easter, winning the Elite Women’s Prologue race for the second year in a row. Her older sister Mace Neve was just 14secs behind in 2nd place, her best ever National League result. Current Australian Middle Distance Champion Anna Sheldon finished 3rd in a closely placed Top 8.

Men’s Elite hot favourite Simon Uppill won his first race of 2011 ahead of Canberra Cockatoo Murray Scown, just 8secs behind in what is a great break through result. NSW Stinger Rob Preston, better know as a long distance athlete suprised the field to take 3rd place.

But Uppill’s victory was shadowed by ACT junior and Australian JWOC representative Ian Lawford, who completed the same course 9 secs faster. Lawford’s clean and fast run was almost a minute ahead of his nearest junior rival Oliver Poland. WA’s local hope Oscar McNulty picked up 3rd place and it will be interesting to see how he fares over the next few days in his local terrain.

In the Junior Women’s class Belinda Lawford continued her good start to 2011, winning from QLD Cyclone Krystal Neumann and Tasmania’s Clare Butler in 3rd.

The elite classes have a World Ranking Event over Middle Distance tomorrow on the Frazzle Rock map. All other classes begin the traditional Easter 3-day Carnival.

After a long wait since the story was filmed in Brisbane last August, orienteering will feature on an episode of the kid’s TV program Totally Wild  on Network Ten on Wednesday 27th April at 8:00 am.

The segment was filmed at Anzac Park in Toowong and involved eight Queensland juniors –  Lilian Burrill (BB),  Jack, Winnie and Dan Oakhill (UG), Aidan and David Tay (UG) and Matt and Jacqui Doyle (EN). It took the form of a mock orienteering event with Lilian explaining the finer points about orienteering to the presenter, Adam, while the others demonstrated how to run through the bush, read maps and punch controls.

Even if you are in the wilds of Western Australia or holidaying elsewhere, try and make it to a TV to see our junior stars in action promoting the sport. Alternatively, you can also check out the episode online at www.totallywild.com.au and click on the ‘video’ tab.

(Please note the episode is longer available to watch)

After the recent 2 days of selection trials held in rugged conditions at Korweinguboora, near Daylesford, the following 7 person Australian team has been ratified by Eric Morris, OA’s director of High Performance.

Elite team – Steven Cusworth, (Vic); Alex Randall (Vic); Melanie Simpson (NSW / Norway)

Alex’s selection is subject to a fitness test as he couldn’t race the trials due to a severe cut just below his knee attained whilst training.
Melanie’s selection is based on her displaying relevant form in nominated races overseas as she is now residing in Norway.

Junior team – Chris Firman (Qld); Marc Gluskie (Tas); Tom Goddard; (Tas) and Oscar Phillips (Tas).

Tom will represent Australia for the very first time, while Oscar has already worn the green and gold at the past two foot orienteering JWOC’s.  Chris and Marc were part of our inaugural MTBO junior team last year.

The highlight of the trials was the outstanding form of these juniors, and some of the other junior nominees, in riding significantly faster than previous years, although they are still a relatively young group.

The World Championships will be held in Italy near Vicenza (between Venice and Trento) from August 20-28th.  Situated in the foothills of the Dolomites the terrain is generally described as hilly to very hilly with demanding technical skills.  The exception is the sprint which is based largely in an urban area narrow streets and lanes.

Congratulations to Jenny Casanova (SA) who has been appointed as the new chair of the Senior selection panel.

Jenny has been orienteering since age 10 and been running competitively in elites for many years.

She has represented Southern Arrows since their inception.

Jenny brings much experience to the selection panel, with her current roles including:

-Vice president of Wallaringa Orienteering Club
-Orienteering SA Technical Officer
-Southern Arrows NOL Team Manager
-OA Technical Chair

We thank retiring chair Paul Liggins for his tremendous contribution over the past years.

Kay Haarsma (HP Manager)