2014 Archive

Australian MTBO Team announced.

13 May 2014
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Australian MTBO team for World Championships in Bialystok, Poland from August 24-31.
Elite – Callum Fagg (TAS) Chris Firman (QLD) Alex Randall (VIC);
Juniors – Tim Jackson (VIC) Angus Robinson (VIC) Karl Withers (QLD)

Coach: Piotr Czajkowski Manager: Murray Withers

From Craig Steffens (MTBO Chair of selectors)

13thMay2014 Natasha Sparg

Callum Fagg & Natasha Sparg.

The first round of the MTBO National League was held near Stanthorpe (QLD) last weekend in conjunction with the Queensland Championships. The middle was held on the “Amiens” map and the long on “Passchendaele,” with riders appreciating the quality maps and course setting.

Chris Firman rode strongly to win both men’s elite events, ahead of Alex Randall (V) and Ricky Thackray (WA) who shared the placings each day but in different order. Carolyn Jackson (V) won the middle event ahead of Percival Cass (Q) and Natasha Sparg (WA). However it was Natasha who took home the long championship victory.
In the 20’s class the victories were shared by Jwoc team members Karl Withers (Q) and Angus Robinson (V) in the men whilst outstanding junior Gaby Withers won both W20 events.

In the veteran classes the following riders managed to win both events in their class: Andrea Harris (Q) W60; Neil Kerr (Q) M40; Peter Cusworth (V) M60 and Tim Hackney (NSW) M70.

In M21 NOL standings Queensland (18 points) has taken the initial lead ahead of Western Australia (14) and Victoria (10). In W21 WA leads on 14 points from Victoria on 9 points. Victoria leads M20 while Queensland is dominant in W20. The scores for all classes can be accessed via: http://www.orienteering.asn.au/mountainbike/MTBONOL/MTBO2014/

The second NOL round is in Alice Springs from June 14-16 and the third in WA in October.

Australia v New Zealand MTBO Challenge in conjunction with Australian & Oceania Championships. If you are in the following age categories (M21,M40, M50, M60, M70 & W21, W50, W70) and intend competing at the Australian MTBO Championships in Alice Springs please let Craig Steffens (chair of selectors) know so you can be considered for the Challenge team. Send nomination to: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/65HXN6M

Participation grants opportunity for incorporated orienteering clubs and state associations

30 April 2014
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Grants available for innovative ideas to increase participation in grassroots and community based sport

Today, the Australian Sports Foundation (ASF) launched its Grants 4 Grassroots (G4G) Fund, a newly established small grants program funding innovative initiatives and programs aimed at increasing participation in grassroots and community based sport.

Applications are now open and we hope that you will help us spread the word!

G4G was set up to support non-profit organisations with a sporting purpose and sporting clubs throughout Australia. Grants ranging from $2,500-$10,000 will be made to support a variety of participation based projects such as the purchase of sporting equipment, sport development initiatives or improvements to sporting facilities. Funds raised for G4G come from generous donors who wish to see more people playing sport and benefiting from the enjoyment and positive social impacts that sport can have on people and their communities.

Each year, the grant round will focus on a particular idea or theme and for 2014 the core objective is:

”Innovative community or grassroots projects which will increase youth participation in sport.”

*Innovation is defined as making changes to encourage participation in your sport by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.

If you know of a sporting organisation (or are part of a sporting organisation) that is an incorporated non-profit body with revenues of less than $500,000, with a project that fits the criteria, then we’d love to hear from you. To find out more and apply, visit www.asf.org.au

Applications will close at 5pm on Friday 16 May.

We look forward to your ongoing support of the ASF and G4G.

Rod Philpot

General Manager
Australian Sports Foundation
Tel: 02 6214 7868
Fax: 02 6214 7865

rod.philpot@ausport.gov.au

asf.org.au

Orienteering Australia major award winners

23 April 2014
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Photo: Christine Brown being presented with her award by OA President Blair Trewin.

Christine Brown (Tasmania) has received the 2014 SILVA Award for Services to Orienteering after many years of outstanding service at the State, national and international levels. The David Hogg Medal for Event Management went to Ross Barr (NSW) who has been organising the Sydney Summer series for the last 23 years, overseeing its expansion throughout the metropolitan area. The SILVA Coach of the Year is Ian Dalton (WA) who has involved in both schools coaching and MTBO coaching for many years. The 2013 Athlete of the Year recognising outstanding international achievement is Grace Crane (Tasmania). The 2013 SILVA Orienteer of the Year is Warren Key (Victoria).

On Sunday at Clandulla Big Foot (NSW) (photo below) edged out Bush Flyers (ACT) to win the Australian Club Championship.
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Australian team for JWOC announced

22 April 2014
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JWOC team
Photo: Karen Blatchford.

Orienteering Australia is pleased to announce the Australian team for the 2014 Junior World Orienteering Championships in Borovetz, Bulgaria from 21-27 July:

Girls: Michele Dawson, Lanita Steer, Anna Dowling, Nicola Blatchford, Asher Steer, Olivia Sprod;
Boys: Matt Doyle, Brodie Nankervis, Oscar McNulty, Henry McNulty, Oliver Poland, Ashley Nankervis.

Manager: Karen Blatchford; Coach: Hanny Allston.

Allston and Uppill take the honours at Easter

22 April 2014
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4thDay_0362

Photo: Simon Uppill, last control, day 4.

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Photo: Jo Allison (2nd), Hanny Allston (1st) and Shannon Jones (3rd) on the podium at the presentation.

Hanny Allston and Simon Uppill took out convincing wins over the Easter weekend in the Rylstone region of New South Wales. Both set up their wins on the long day on Sunday, after having been in close contests with Jo Allison and Lachlan Dow respectively. Allston was particularly commanding, winning by 11 minutes on Sunday and adding another 6 to her margin on the final day, with Allison second and Shannon Jones, in her return to major competition, third. Dow and Matt Crane filled the men’s minor placings.

Matt Doyle took out the junior men’s event, winning the first three days and falling just short on the last for a comfortable victory. It was a different story for the junior women, with Michele Dawson coming from three minutes down on the last day to overhaul Lanita Steer.

The weekend’s results also saw Allston and Uppill take big leads in the individual National Orienteering League series, while the Canberra Cockatoos have also taken good leads in both senior team division.

Results will be available through Eventor and Winsplits, while the updated National League results are available through the OA website.

OA meetings this weekend

17 April 2014
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Orienteers attending the Easter Carnival are encouraged to attend the OA Annual General Meeting on Sunday afternoon and meetings of the OA Committees on Saturday afternoon.

OA Committee meetings, Saturday 19 April

There will be 3 rooms available for the committee meetings at Kandos High School, Fleming St, Kandos.
Room 1 2.30pm-2.45pm Events Committee; 2.45pm-4.30pm Technical Committee; 4.30pm-5.15pm IT Committee

Room 2 2.45pm-3.45pm Coaching Committee; 4pm-5pm Development Committee

Room 3 2.30pm-3.15pm Schools Committee; 3.30pm-5.30pm Mapping Committee

OA Annual General Meeting, Sunday 20 April
3.30pm, Rylstone Community Hall, corner Louee and Cudgegong St Rylstone.
Annual Dinner and presentation of major awards, Sunday 20 April
6.30pm, Rylstone Community Hall, corner Louee and Cudgegong St Rylstone.

Entries now open for Australian Championships Carnival in WA

15 April 2014
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Entries for all events at the Karrak Karnival – the Australian Championships carnival 2014 in Western Australia from September 27th to October 5th are now open through Eventor.

See 2014ausochamps.com for details.

Early bird discounted entry fees are available until June 30th.

Running shirts may be ordered via ‘services’ in just the Australian Long Distance Championships section and budget camping paid for via the WA Long Championships section.

Follow up events include the four sprints of ‘Sprint the SouthWest’ and three MTBO Championships, two of which are part of the National League, all in the beautiful south west of WA.

AUS MTBO CHAMPS in ALICE SPRINGS.

2 April 2014
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aliceheaderbg2

This year’s Australian MTBO Championships from June 13-16 is being hosted by Orienteering SA with support from Top End Orienteers

Navigation challenge in the desert? Wait till you see the video!

Challenging single tracks, complex terrain, this is what Mountain Bike Orienteering should be.

Get yourself and your bike to the Alice anyway you can and the rest is easy.

Luxury accommodation at the Chifley Resort at mates rates for MTBO, an easy ride to each day’s start and the opportunity to ride in a world ranking event.

Men’s and Women’s classes from under14 to over 80 plus recreational courses for those that just want to have fun.

Check out Lee and Troy’s video and get your entry in today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrLChavaGQ8&feature=youtu.be

For more information and links to the entry in Eventor click this link

Article by Peter Mayer & Video by Lee & Troy Merchant

 

ELITE NEWS- NOL ROUND 2 REPORT

28 March 2014
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Rowdy Flat and Kangaroo Crossing- March 22nd and 23rd.

Round 2 of the Silva NOL events was held last weekend, with a very challenging Middle Distance event at “Rowdy Flat” and a Long Distance event at “Kangaroo Crossing”.

Rowdy Flat is a small area of very intense contour detail and at scale of 1:1000 it required very good technical skills to master it. The km rates were quite slow as was expected so it wasn’t running speed that mattered but map contact and mental calmness. David Shepherd on his return from injury demonstrated these skills as he has in the past on this map and was the winner in M21E. Simon Uppill who was leading until control 8 came second, with first year senior Ian Lawford having a good run to finish third.

Sen Men Round 2 2014 middle

The W21E was a battle between Jasmine Neve and Lizzie Ingham with Jas leading until control 13 when Lizzie got in front only to see Jas regain the lead at the second last control. Grace Crane in probably her last NOL event for a while came a very good third.

Sen Women Middle 2014

The M17-20E class saw the lead change during the event a number of times between Ludvig Ahland (Swedish JWOC representative 2013), Matt Doyle and Brodie Nankervis. Ludvig was the winner with Brodie in second and Matt in third place. Anna Dowling in the W17-20E had a very consistent run being first or second the whole way and was a clear winner from Annika Carlberg in second and Nicola Blatchford third.

Sen Men Round 2 2014

Sunday was the granite challenge of Kangaroo Crossing and all courses were faced with a very challenging long first leg which required decisive decision making and then good execution of the plan. This leg in the W21E was won by Hanny Allston by 1:30 and Hanny remained in the lead for the rest of the race to be a clear winner from Jo Allison, showing great strength in this terrain, in second and Lizzie Ingham in third place. In M21E it was a similar story with both Simon Uppill and Lachlan Dow being clear equal leaders after the first leg. Unfortunately Lachie lost his SI stick after control 5 were he was leading by 34 seconds from Simon. Simon remained in the lead for the rest of the race and with a pack forming at control 11 Dave Meyer was able to finish in second place, demonstrating good physical strength and Max Neve in third. Lachie managed to finish the course having punched some controls on his map and then using his mother’s SI towards the end of the course. He later found his SI stick.

Sen Women Round 2 2014

In the junior elite classes the same three men and women finished in the top three as on Saturday but in different order. Ludvig Ahlund winning the M17-20E with Matt Doyle a very good second and Brodie Nakervis third. It was a Swedish double as Annika Carlberg won the W17-20E, with Anna Dowling who lead until control 8 coming second and Nicola Blatchford a steady third place.

Junior women Round 2 2014Junior Men Round 2 2014

The overall point score for the NOL sees the Canberra Cockatoos regain the lead in the senior men with the Stingers and the Nuggets equal second. The Cockatoos are now leading the senior women from the Cyclones. In the junior point score the Tasmanian Foresters have taken the lead in the men’s and the Stingers have increased their lead in the women’s.

Results are available on Eventor and splits are available on Winsplits.

The focus for the elites in Australia is now on the Easter Carnival (April 18th-26th) which is a selection trial for both WOC and JWOC teams and comprises five NOL events as well as the first fully mixed relay for state teams using the same format as the WOC mixed relay. Teams of two women and two men, with seniors and juniors running together in the same teams.

Our overseas based elites (Vanessa Round, Felicity Brown, Evan Barr and Julian Dent) will be participating in the European Orienteering Championships to be held in Portugal 9th-16th April. This event comprises a sprint, middle and long qualification race to be followed by finals in each of these. As each country can have six competitors in each discipline the level competition is very high and making the final will be quite an achievement.

http://eoc2014.fpo.pt/index.php/en/news

Silva NOL Round 2- MOC Events

17 March 2014
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This weekend in NE Victoria Round 2 of the Silva NOL will be held on two very contrasting terrains.

Saturday will be a middle distance event on “Yackandandah” – a very complex gold mining area, small but full of detail and technical and mental challenges. The elite classes will be using a map with scale 1:10,000. Having previously been used for major events strategies will have been developed to deal with these challenges.

Sunday will be a long distance event on “Kangaroo Crossing” a very detailed granite terrain area with plenty of contours and thicker vegetation. The scale for this will be 1:15000 and it is a World Ranking event

As both of these events are relevant for the selection of both the WOC teams and the JWOC team a large field of elites have entered both in the senior and the junior classes.

These events see the return of last years Mens NOL champion Matt Crane to NOL competition. He will be up against the current leader of the NOL Simon Uppill as well as many other athletes who are in contention for WOC selection. The Womens class will see the continuation of the rivalry between Hanny Allston the current NOL leader and last years NOL Champion Lizzie Ingham.

This years NOL teams point score currently has a different look to last year. The NSW Stingers are leading in three divisions- senior men, junior men and junior women. The senior men is very close with Victorian Nuggets one point behind NSW and one point in front of ACT Cockatoos- who have Matt Crane and David Shepherd making a welcome return after his foot injury at the xmas 5 days. The Queensland Cyclones have taken an early lead in the senior womens being four points clear of the ACT Cockatoos.

Mediterranean Orienteering Championships (MOC)

During the past week four of our overseas based elites have been attending a training camp in Venice ( the loction for WOC Sprint in July) and also competing in the MOC events along with some of the best elites from other countries especially Switzerland. The competition comprised a sprint event, a middle distance event on green sand dunes and a sprint chasing start in Florence

Julian Dent- returning to competition after over 9 months out with a foot injury- came 13th overall in a very competitive mens field with Daniel Hubmann being the winner. Vanessa Round, Felicity Brown and Lauren Gillis competed in the womens class. Vanessa came 21st overall, Felicity 24th and Lauren 26th.

Some comments

Julian : “The MOC training camp was a great opportunity to visit the most relevant terrains around Venice for the World Championships sprints. The sprint qual and final in Burano and Venice are going to be excellent but challenging not just technically but logistically so it was good to get a taste of what to expect on the day. The MOC races provided some great competition early in the season against quality runners. The terrains were very fast and not as technical as Venice but the constant blue sky and sunshine made certain that it was a great week in Italy”

Felicity : “The sprint camp in Venice was great! Unfortunately I’ve been injured for two months and have only just started training again so had to take it easy as most training was on concrete but am happy to be pain free. The sessions were really useful focusing on route choices and understanding the different features in Venice such as bridges and difficult to see and count alleyways. The MOC races were good although I am not very happy with mine as running speed was a big factor here and I was slow. I am looking forward to the European championships and many other races over the next few months”.

MOC results, maps and videos.

http://www.orienteering.it/macro.php?subsite=n090913_111503