2012 Archive

Chris Firman  (Qld) made history by being Australia’s first individual JWOC MTBO podium placegetter with his 5^th in the middle championships yesterday in Hungary.  He was also  in our history making relay team that placed 5^th in 2010.    What a great result in the 65 person field that has increased dramatically in depth since the Jwoc’s inception!   Chris has travelled extensively to our national series and also to New Zealand to get competition and this fine result is a pleasing reward.   Chris was an early starter and actually was leading until the last starting group came through with some faster times.    The winner Czech’s  Krystof Bogar was a dual gold medal winner in 2011.  All our other junior boys raced well also, showing tremendous fitness on the fast, physical course and  in very hot conditions.

Melanie Simpson also rode excellently being just 4 minutes from a medal although in 23^rd place. Overshooting a turn-off to control 8 cost her almost two and a half minutes, but other than that she was riding as fast as the top women.    Switzerland’s Ursini Jaggi won her first gold medal.   Finnish rider Susanna Laurila was initially thought to have won but had punched a men’s control in a detailed area near the finish .   Quite a few riders “lost” a minute or so on an unmarked track towards the end of the course, which was quite a topic of debate.

With the courses being more physical than technical, with relatively few route choice headaches it was no surprise that the stronger male riders dominated the medals.    Finland’s Samuli Saarela added another gold to his collection ahead of Russian speedster Anton Foliforov, whilst there was a tie for 3^rd place.    Steve Cusworth was our best but had a variety of  mistakes that interrupted his flow.

There was further excitement when the Jackson name won gold also today.  This time it was Carolyn Jackson who had a strong win in W50.

There is a rest day tomorrow with the Championships resuming on Friday with the relays which are again being held in the open terrain, as utilised in the sprint.

I’m sure that there will be some interesting write ups in the team blog –http://ausmtboteam.blogspot.com.au

Jwoc men

1 Krystof Bogar      Czech Rep   41:25

2 Taaniel Tooming    Estonia      42:05

3 Grigory Medvedev   Russia      42:17

4 Marcell Horváth    Hungary      43:02

5 Chris Firman       Australia     43:22

6 Cedric Beill         France           43:35

13 Tom Goddard                         45.08

21 Marc Gluskie                          46.18

32 Heath Jamieson                      49.21

36 Karl Withers                          50.55

Elite women

1 Ursina Jäggi       Switzerland       46:40

2 Ingrid Stengard    Finland            47:35

3 Nina Hoffmann      Denmark       48:42

4 Ramune Arlauskiene Lithuania    48:44

5 Laura Scaravonati      Italy           48:46

6 Gaelle Barlet           France          48.48

23 Melanie Simpson                       52.26

42 Marquita Gelderman   NZ          57.25

58 Christine Browne   NZ               66.50

Elite men

1 Samuli Saarela     Finland     50:49

2 Anton Foliforov    Russia      51:42

3 Samuel Pökälä      Finland     51:46

3 Jan Svoboda        Czech Rep   51:46

5 Ruslan Gritsan     Russia         52:18

6 Jussi Laurila      Finland         52:19

68 Steve Cusworth                    62.54

79 Oscar Phillips                       67.09

80 Ricky Thackray                   67.22

MASTERS

W40 – 9th  Tasmin Barnes

M40 – 40th Bruce Patterson

W50 – 1^st   Carolyn Jackson

M50- 23rd  Peter Cusworth

M50 – 40th  Richard Robinson

M60 – 1st – Rob Garden (NZ)

The senior men was won by Tobias Breitschadel of Austria who won his first world champs gold, and the medals were rounded out by Marek Pospisek (CZE) and the ever consistent Ruslan Gritsan (RUS). Steve made large errors on the 4^th and 5^thcontrols before he settled into a good pace and rode solidly for the rest of the race. He is recorded as a ”mp” after one of the controls failed to read his SI-stick and then his back up punch strip fell out of his map board. Apparently, the units have been affected by the heat and have either failed or taken a long time to record.

The women’s race was won by Christine Schaffner (SUI) and silver went to Emily Benham of Great Britain who had an impressive ride in her first major international event for the year. Anna Kaminska (POL), gold medalist in 2010, got the bronze medal. Mel was pretty disappointed with a very messy race, with a combination of poor route choice early and confusing herself with a control in a parallel gully through the middle of the course.

I think everyone in the Australian camp is happy that tomorrow will be a return to more conventional MTBO with controls on tracks, but we have learnt some good lessons for the relay which will again be approximately 40% off road riding.

Videos, photos and maps (including route gadget) are available on:http://www.mtbo.hu/mtbwoc2012.php

New Zealand had riders there for the first time in 4 years.  Evergreen Maquita Gelderman did well to place 25^th while Christine Browne finished in 39th.

The 12 elite podium-placers today represent 8 different nations, with 6 different nations on the podium in the women’s race. Russia was the most successful country with 3 podium placings.  Sweden for the first time fielded a large team.

Leading Sprint results –

Elite Women

1. Christine Schaffner SUI 21:45
2. Emily Benham GBR 22:07
3. Anna Kaminska POL 22:33
4. Tatiana Repina RUS 22:39
5. Gaelle Barlet FRA 24:02
6. Michaela Gigon AUT 24:03

Elite Men

1. Tobias Breitschädel AUT 24:45
2. Marek Pospisek CZE 24:47
3. Ruslan Gritsan RUS 24:59
4. Frantisek Bogar CZE 25:35
5. Jussi Laurila FIN 25:43
6. Valeriy Gluhov RUS 25:53

Junior Women –

1. Lou Denaix FRA 21:52
2. Henna Saarinen FIN 23:14
3. Svetlana Poverina RUS 24:08

Junior Men –

1. Grigory Medvedev RUS 22:32
2. Marcell Horváth HUN 22:48
3. Kare Kaskinen FIN 24:06

Start times for Middle distance:

Karl: 10:59     (6:59pm)

Oscar: 11:00   (7pm)

Chris: 11:09   (7:09pm)

Tom: 11:39    (7:39pm)

Ricky: 11:40   (7:40pm)

Heath: 11:53   (7:53pm)

Steve: 12:22    (8:22pm)

Marc: 12:25     (8:25pm)

Mel: 12:30       (8:30pm)

Today saw the commencement of the Elite and Junior World Championships for Mountain Bike Orienteering in Veszprem, Hungary.

Conditions were not the best for riding with the temperature reaching approx 36˚ out in the open areas.  Riding early would benefit those who wanted extra time to recover but it also had the disadvantage of laying down tracks for the later riders as this year’s maps allowed for off road riding. Foot orienteering skills seemed to be needed for some legs as controls were placed in open land sometimes up to 200m off the track.

Steve Cusworth unfortunately drew a very early start but he worked hard and cleanly to gain an entry into the A final on next Saturday.  Oscar Phillips an Ricky Thackray just missed out on the A final as they were both caught out by the intricate nature of the tracks and also the heat which took its toll towards the end of their courses.

In the Junior category Tom Goddard had a great ride in his heat placing second, only 57 secs behind the winner.  Chris Firman battled with the heat but managed to place 16th in his heat, approx 11min down on the fast time.  Marc Gluskie managed to scrape through to the A final after having a disastrous ride out on the long qualification.  Karl Withers, at his first Junior WOC, managed to qualify also for the A final by placing 28th in his heat.  Heath Jamieson unfortunately mispunched on his course.  With 2 controls in a similar area he punched the wrong one.

Melanie Simpson place third in her heat, just 6min slower than the winner.  This puts her in a strong position for the A final.

The team is currently resting up and preparing for the sprint tomorrow which will be held next to today’s map with similar terrain and heat expected.

For more up to date info visit our blog site http://ausmtboteam.blogspot.com.au/ or even follow the team on facebook http://www.facebook.com/AusMTBOTeam

The Queensland Cyclones women continue on course for the state’s first senior team title in the SILVA National Orienteering League after extending their lead in the weekend’s rounds in the Northern Territory. With the deepest team at the events, they took maximum points from all three races to stretch the gap over the Victorian Nuggets from three points to nine.

Rachel Effeney led the way for the Cyclones, winning two of the three events despite not being totally over the illness that damaged her World Championships campaign. She took out the sprint comfortably over Kathryn Preston, and had another win over a Victorian in the long distance with a 1 1/2 minute margin over WOC long distance team-mate Aislinn Prendergast. Another Queenslander also had a presence here, with Anna Sheldon in front for much of the race before a mistake on the long, flat third-last leg dropped her to third.

It took an import to break the Queensland monopoly on the weekend. In the mass-start night event on Saturday evening, Malin Andersson put her Swedish night experience to good use and ended up winning a sprint finish against Bridget Anderson.

The men’s events were a duel between Matt Crane and Simon Uppill, with only Bryan Keely’s second in the sprint breaking the duopoly. Crane got off to a winning start in the Charles Darwin University sprint, but it was Uppill who had the better of the two Lok Cabay events, albeit by the narrowest of margins. On Saturday night he won by six seconds in a sprint finish, and on Sunday the margin was nine. In both races, junior Oliver Poland was the nearest opposition, finishing in the lead pack on Saturday night, and helping the already dominant Canberra Cockatoos to extend an overwhelming lead. Crane and Uppill look set to fight out the individual National League title with Crane taking a three-point lead to Tasmania in September, while Effeney will be very hard to beat from here amongst the women.

The event was a great success, with Top End Orienteers finding two excellent areas (and an outstanding assembly area on the beach for the sprint) and drawing an impressively good crowd.

The Australian MTBO team have been arriving recently in Budapest for the upcoming MTBO World Champs.  We are currently staying at a sport and recreation campsite up in the hills of Pest.

Yesterday was the Hungarian Middle Distance Champs.  The aim was to treat the Middle distance race as a familiarization session seeing it was the first opportunity to ride on a Hungarian map for most of the team.

The Hungarian map posed a few challenges for the team with a couple of the team members coming unstuck in 1 or 2 places on the map. Up to 15 min was lost due to the riders struggling to decipher what was mapped as tracks and what were actually driveways to properties as they were essentially the same.

The junior males rode the same course as the elite males and Kristof Bogar of the Czech junior team posted the fastest time overall in a time of 60:28.  Our fastest rider was Chris Firman in 69:20 placing second in the M20.  This time would have placed him 19th overall in the Elite class.

Today’s relay was held on the same map as the Middle Distance but had a scale of 1:10000 compared to yesterday’s 1:20000.  Our fastest team placed 8th overall in what was a fast and furious ride.  Consistency was the key for Chris Firman and Ricky Thackray whilst Oscar Phillips and Steve Cusworth placed 11th, Russian Alexander Archipov and Ian Dalton 12th, Heath and Karl 15th with Tom and Marc placing 16th out of 28 teams.

This week sees the team continue training in Budapest in preparation for the World Champs next week in Vesprem.

Keep up to date with the Aus team at http://ausmtboteam.blogspot.com.au/ and on twitter and facebook.

All results and maps from the Hungarian Middle Distance and Relays can be found at http://astrois.hu/MTBO

Huge disappointment for our Australian relay teams today, with both finishing in 22^ndposition. The first leg resembled more of a cross-country race, with runners being in a long conga line, especially in the larger men’s field.  Thus staying with the pack was essential.    Rachel Effeney led our women off and seemed below par, quickly falling behind and then being a bit scrappy navigation wise.   Thus Aislinn started off in 25^thposition.  Her effort to improve caused several large mistakes and she returned in 23^nd.   Vanessa Round had a somewhat lonely run but was clean navigationally, and she was 16^th best on that leg to pull the team up to 22^nd.   The best “down under” performance of the day came from Lizzie Ingham, with her first leg run that had her only 4 minutes down.

After the first leg Sweden was at the front of the pack, Switzerland was close behind and third at the changeover was USA, due to a fine run by Alison Crocker. At the end of the second leg, Sweden led Switzerland by 42 seconds with Russia and Norway changing over together, 2.57 down on the lead.   Swedish junior Tove Alexandersson  lost 90 seconds on the first control and  Simone Niggli went past and confidently strode around the rest of the course.   Her lead went out to 2 minutes 24 seconds by the end and this allowed her team-mates to have a long celebratory run in. Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg (Norway) was stronger than Tatiana Riabkina (Russia) on the day and brought Norway into a comfortable third place.

This was an historic race for Simone Niggli, bringing her WOC gold medal tally to 20!  She has has 7 minor WOC medals; 4 Jwoc medals and 54 World Cup wins to her credit.  The 34 year old started her WOC career in 1999.  Asked earlier in the week whether this home country WOC would be her last Niggli stated: “maybe ..but perhaps I would like to run again in Finland in 2013 as I have good memories of winning my first gold there (2001).  We will see.”

The race used the same arena as for the Long distance final, with a spectator passage about 10 minutes before the changeover/finish. With 4 TV controls and other in-forest shots, interspersed with lots of live tracking, spectators were kept in touch with the action throughout.

David Brickhill-Jones was our lead runner and stayed with the pack until just over half way around.  Going into no 12 he was only about 90 seconds down on the lead, and in a heavy throng of runners, but he initially missed the control and struggled to relocate, dropping about 2 and a half minutes.   At this level this was irretrievable and he lost further ground coming in 22^nd and over 7 minutes down.  Simon Uppill  appeared to navigate well except for an excursion into some dark green en route to no 7, but still emerged in 24^th   Julian Dent anchored the team home with a 16^th best time, which enabled the team to place 22^nd.

At the front of the field  Czech, Norway and Sweden went out on the last led together with the Swiss lurking a minute back.  It wasn’t until the second last control, when Czech Jan Procházka surged to the front, that the trio were split.   Given that the margin was just 6 seconds his team-mates saved their celebration until he safely crossed the finishing line.  This was the first ever relay medal for the Czech men, and a gold one at that!   Norwegian Olav Lundanes was very disappointed after his race, after leading at the second last control and then losing the gold medal.

He said “It is difficult to be happy about this when we get the silver medal for the third time in a row. But at least we are closer. “

MEN

Czech Republic                 1.40:00

Tomáš Dlabaja                   33:41                     +0:24

Jan Šedivý                           32:49                      0:00

Jan Procházka                    33:30                     0:00

2 Norway                             1:40:06     +0:06

Magne Daehli                    33:44                     +0:27

Carl Waaler Kaas               33:26                     +0:40

Olav Lundanes                  32:56                      +0:06

3 Sweden                            1:40:11     +0:11

Jonas Leandersson          33:33                     +0:16

Peter Öberg                       33:08                     +0:11

Anders Holmberg            33:30                     +0:11

4 Switzerland                    1:41:21     +1:21

5 France                               1:42:56    +2:56

6 Denmark                          1:43:08     +3:08

22           Australia              1:55:45     +15:45

David Brickhill-Jones       40:28                     +7:11

Simon Uppill                       38:17                     +12:15

Julian Dent                          37:00                     +15:45

25 New Zealand               2:04:42                 +24:42

Ross Morrison                   40:33                     +7:16

Thomas Reynolds            42:12                     +16:15

Toby Scott                           41:57                     +24:42

WOMEN

1 Switzerland                    1:44:54

Ines Brodmann                   35:27                     +0:01

Judith Wyder                     35:49                     +0:42

Simone Niggli-Luder       33:38

2 Sweden                            1:47:18    +2:24

Annika Billstam                                 35:26                     0:00

Helena Jansson                                 35:08                      0:00

Tove Alexandersson                         36:44                     +2:24

3 Norway                             1:48:11                 +3:17

Silje Ekroll Jahren             36:35                     +1:09

Mari Fasting                       36:56                     +2:57

Anne Margrethe H-Nordberg 34:40         +3:17

4 Russia                                1:48:38     +3:44

5 Finland                             1:51:41    +6:47

6 Denmark                          1:52:21     +7:27

19 New Zealand               2:14:34                 +29:40

Lizzie Ingham                     39:26                     +4:00

Kate Morrison                   48:57                     +17:49

Amber Morrison              46:11                     +29:40

22           Australia              2:17:53     +32:59

Rachel Effeney                  45:56                     +10:30

Aislinn Prendergast         49:43                     +25:05

Vanessa Round                 42:14                     +32:59

RELAY TEAMS are: Women – Rachel, Vanessa and Aislinn.  Men –  Simon, Julian and BJ.   The women’s relay starts at 7.30pm Eastern Aus time, and the men’s at 9.30pm.

Julian and Aislinn, our two representatives in the long final, ran solidly for fine results.

Julian’s 30th follows on from his best ever 24th in the long last year, thus showing his consistency.  Julian took 114 mins and was 19.36mins behind the winner.  This performance shows that good results are possible in the long distance for those willing to put the hard kilometres in.

Aislinn was running at her 2nd WOC and first ever final and handled the pressure admirably. Her main time loss seems to have been in a too wide a route choice on the long leg. The winner took 75mins and Aislinn was 24 minutes behind.

Controversy occurred in the men’s when Swiss youngster Fabian Hertner was disqualified from a medal after mistakenly punching the women’s control at the 2nd TV & radio control.  Although the controls were very close (41m), they had distinctly different numbers (43 & 60) and were on a 3×3 depression and a spring; the Swiss team did not lodge a formal protest.

Men’s winner was Norwegian young gun Olav Lundanes who also had won the WOC long in 2010.  Australians will remember him as the star at Jwoc 2007 in Dubbo  where he took gold in the middle and long and silver in the sprint and relay!  Olav took 94.42 mins and had almost a 3 minute winning margin.  Matthais Merz (Swiss) was a popular 2nd and Latvia’s Edgars Bettuks won the bronze, to add to his gold in the middle.

There are lots of maps and leg by leg discussions on the World of O site.    The diversity of orienteering was again demonstrated with 6 different nations on each podium.   The relays on Saturday should be super exciting.

Aislinn  Prendergast starts at 7.43pm & Julian Dent at  9.17pm (Eastern Aus time) in LONG FINAL THURSDAY.

Vanessa Round ran well in the technically demanding middle distance final to place 31^st, her best ever WOC result.   A late mistake of about 90 seconds in the control circle of no 13 cost her some positions but besides that she navigated well.

Comments relayed from Aislinn Prendergast:   “Vanessa said her goal had been to run a very smooth race and to prevent making big errors. Instead of running risky route choices she decided to play it safe.  She reported that the terrain was easier navigationally than the qualification, with large features such as knolls and depressions making it easier to know where you were at most points in the race. However, the terrain was exhausting with cut wood and mossy rocks covering almost the entire map. Both Vanessa and Lizzie Ingham said they found the race very physically challenging.    Vanessa had a very smooth run until losing time on control 13. She said that she had stood on top of the cliff and hadn’t been able to see the control, running away to relocate and then back in again. ”

Finnish star Minna Kaupi took home the gold medal, as she did in the 2008 and 2010 middle distance championships.  The home crowd favourite, Simone Niggli-Luder, made a huge inexplicable mistake by going from control 7 to control 15 but stormed around the course afterward to still make the podium in 5^th.

Edgar Bertuks brought home Latvia’s first ever gold medal with a narrow 5 second win in the men’s class.  He had previously a best place of 9th in the middle at WOC 2008 and was the first runner home on the first leg of Jukola this year, proving that he had good form.  Reigning middle distance champion Frenchman Thierry Gueorgiou had to settle for 4^th, but was thankful to be able to race after just recovering from a stress fracture.   The fact that five different countries shared the six medals shows just how global orienteering has become.

Julian Dent and Aislinn Prendergast will be our representatives in the long final on Thursday night and then the Championships conclude with the relays on Saturday.   You can look at the map and course and follow runners as they do the course via live streaming.   For a small fee of about $5 you can also get live TV coverage, which features quite a lot of “in forest” footage plus glimpses of route choices via the map – well worth it.

1              Minna  Kaupi                      Finland                 37.37

2              Tove  Alexandersson      Sweden                38.09

3              Tatyana     Riabkina             Russia                   39.03

31           Vanessa  Round                                                47.58

39           Lizzie Ingham                     NZ                          53.01

1              Edgar Bertuks                    Latvia                    36.45

2              Valentin Novikov             Russia                   36.50

3              Fabian Hertner                  Switz                     37.10

39           Ross Morrison                   NZ                          44.04

Vanessa Round finished strongly over the last few controls to take 12^th position in her heat and was three and a half minutes within the time needed.   However she was our only qualifer.  Susanne Casanova placed 17^th, missing the cut by less than a minute and Aislinn Prendergast suffered an early mistake and never recovered.   Simon Uppill finished 19th in a strong heat and unfortunately Murray Scown, in his first WOC run, injured an ankle.

Thanks to Aislinn for these insightful comments:

” The arena today was very picturesque, an alpine meadow with a great view across a road to the second last control. The final control was on a tunnel beneath the road with a punishing 200m uphill finish chute. The terrain was a lot different to the long distance, with the courses being mostly downhill and on steep slopes. Some areas were flat, with interesting depressions and knolls, while others were sheer-sided with little detail, and yet others were very intricate sections of cliffs, knolls and small gullies. It was much more difficult running, with moss-covered rocks and a lot of cut wood, even in areas marked white. The women had 4.2km and the men 4.9km.
Once again, I was the first starter, and my race was doomed from the start! Rushing out from the start triangle, I went to the wrong first control, and then lost four minutes trying to find the right one. I eventually relocated off a paddock to the west, but the damage was done and I had the difficult task of calming the nerves ahead of me. Luckily I hit the next four controls cleanly, but again came unstuck on a boulder in green. I was much too high, and wasted three minutes looking in the wrong places. Interestingly, many athletes lost time here, including Mari Fasting, who lost 9 minutes but still qualified, Simone Niggli-Luder, who lost a minute, and Vanessa, who lost 2 minutes or so. I managed a few more smooth controls before losing time on a dark green gully, and then a boulder in dark green. Overall, the run was very unsuccessful, and even my better legs were hampered by loss of confidence and a lack of planning.

Despite my own disappointment, it was fantastic to watch Vanessa qualify (quite easily!), and make up for her near miss in the long distance. Even with her error, she managed to take 12th place and run very strongly into the finish. Suzanne had a similar experience to myself, losing a lot of time on the first control, and also losing some time on the third last. Despite this, the legs in between were smooth and fast and she came very close to qualifying, in 17th.
We all held our breath and crossed our fingers when Simon ran in strongly to put himself in a tentative 15th place. Sadly, he was soon knocked out by qualifying Kiwi Ross Morrison and a few other athletes, pushing him into 18th. He lost a lot of time at the 4th control and some more time in other areas; however his later splits show that he also clawed back some time on the leaders in the later part of the course. His heat was very fast, with 15th place just 3 minutes down on the leader.
Murray fell victim to a treacherous limestone hole, and sprained his ankle very badly. He walked (hobbled?) back into the finish and was taken straight to hospital, where X-Rays thankfully showed no broken bones. It looked to be a very painful injury, however, and he will be getting around on crutches for at least the next few days.
Tomorrow the team will be watching Vanessa run her middle distance race, which seems to be on some nicer terrain than today. I’m a bit jealous to be honest, as training on the middle distance final maps seemed to be the most fun! Her start is at 12.21 (8.21 AEST).”

WOMEN

1 Riabkina Tatyana    RUS   33.51

2  Strand Lina   SWE  33.59

3  Klinting Signe  DEN   34.17

15  Oram Louise   CAN   44.17

17   Susanne Casanova   45.12

1  Alexandersson Tove  SWE   30:38

2 Kauppi Minna FIN    32:18

3  Lüscher Sara SUI   32:34

12   Vanessa Round         38:06

15 Bjorgul Ida  Marie Ness    NOR  41:36

1  Niggli-Luder Simone   SUI         31:58

2  Chataing Amélie           FRA        32:35

3  Duchová Iveta               CZE         33:49

10  Ingham Lizzie              NZL        38:02

15  Perramon Ona Rafols   ESP    39:25

24  Aislinn  Prendergast              45.12

MEN

1 Gernot Kerschbaumer AUT 30:34

2 Valentin Novikov          RUS 30:54   +0:20

3 Magne Daehli                NOR 30:55   +0:21

15 Ross Morrison              NZL 33:51    +3:17

19 Simon Uppill               AUS 36:15    +5:41