Introducing the WOC Team 2005
The Australian team for the World Orienteering Champs was announced by Orienteering Australia’s Chair of Selectors, Ian Prosser, this morning. The team consists of 5 women and 6 men who will compete in Aichi, Japan in August.
For the first time the selectors have nominated the disciplines that each team member will run, including the naming of the relay teams. David Brickhill-Jones has qualified for a relay run following his World Cup silver medal last month — Troy de Haas and Grant Bluett join him. But highest hopes are for the strong women’s relay team who came so close to a top result in 2004 — this year Hanny Allston, Jo Allison and Tracy Bluett will run the relay, and all three have shown strong recent form.
The team includes a WOC debutant: junior Julian Dent. Julian and Hanny Allston will also race the Junior World Championships (JWOC) in Switzerland in July. At the other end of the spectrum, the oldest hands on deck are Grant Bluett and Natasha Key (32 & 33 respectively). Both are aiming to compete strongly on terrain which is considered neutral ground for the strong European nations; rumours abound that they are both considering retirement after WOC.
The full team is listed below. See the OA High Performance page for more details on selection.
| Jo Allison Sprint, Long, Relay Age: 29 State: ACT Career Highlight: 18th in WOC Middle Distance (Switzerland, 2003) |
Grant Bluett Sprint, Long, Relay Age: 32 State: ACT Career Highlight: Gold Medal, World Games 2001 |
| Hanny Allston Middle, Long, Relay Age: 19 State: Tasmania Career Highlight: 1st in qualifiers and 12th in final of JWOC (Poland, 2004) |
David Brickhill-Jones Sprint, Relay Age: 24 State: Tasmania Career Highlight: Australia’s first World Cup medal – 2nd in Sprint (England 2005) |
| Tracy Bluett Middle, Relay Age: 30 State: NSW Career Highlight: 14th in WOC Middle Distance (Scotland 1999) |
Troy de Haas Sprint, Long, Relay Age: 25 State: Victoria Career Highlight: Australia’s first medallist – 3rd in JWOC Classic (Bulgaria 1999) |
| Allison Jones Sprint, Long Age: 29 State: ACT Career Highlight: 33rd in WOC Classic (Switzerland 2003) |
Julian Dent Middle Age: 20 State: NSW Career Highlight: 2nd in M21E, Easter 3-Days 2005 |
| Natasha Key Sprint, Middle Age: 33 State: Victoria Career Highlight: 10th in WOC Sprint (Switzerland 2003) |
David Shepherd Middle, Long Age: 27 State: ACT Career Highlight: 24th in WOC Middle Distance (Sweden 2004) |
| Jim Russell Coach Age: 44 State: Victoria Career Highlight: 3rd, World Masters (Lithuania 2001) |
Rob Walter Middle Age: 29 State: ACT Career Highlight: 5th, World Cup Middle Distance (Canberra, 2000) |
| Rod Dominish Manager Age: 60 State: Queensland Career Highlight: Australia’s first ever WOC representative (Czechoslovakia 1972) |
Cathy Hogg Physio Age: 29 State: ACT Career Highlight: W10 Australian Champion, 1986 |
| Julia Minty Assistant Manager Age: 26 State:ACT Career Highlight: Three time JWOC representative: 1996, 1997 & 1999 |