Orienteering Australia is pleased to announce that Jim Russell has been appointed as as a HP Coach of the National Development Squad (NDS) for the next two years. Jim brings with him many years of experience both as a competitor at the highest level and also as a coach of both Australian and NZ WOC and JWOC teams. Jim will be working with the already existing HP Coaching group- Nick Dent, Tom Quayle, Wendy Read and Hanny Allston to further develop the new squad structure in line with the FTEM Pathways.

Here is a brief biography of Jim’s experience as a competitor and a coach:

Jim started coaching Australian teams in 1996, JWOC, Romania through to 1999, JWOC, Bulgaria, where  we achieved Australia’s first medal(Troy de Haas,Bronze, Long). Then he became a bit of a mercenary, selling out to NZ, where he coached their JWOC teams in 2001, 2002. Jim was the Australian WOC Coach in 2004 and 2005. He was called in to coach the Australian JWOC team with Hanny Allston (current JWOC coach) in Dubbo 2007, then he was the coach of the NZ  WOC team in 2008 and the NZ JWOC team in 2013.

As an athlete, he started orienteering in 1980, after becoming slightly disillusioned with cross country running, as most of the comps were on bitumen roads. He has not given up cross country running, and still does it, he just has a preference for orienteering. Also he became a Athletics Australia Coach, in 2008. As an orienteer he won M20 Australian Champs at Korweinguboora 1981 and M21 at Cantara Dunes 1994, and also 1994 NOL. As a veteran, he came third at WMOC Lithuania, M35 in 2001. He represented Australia at WOC, 1991 and 1995, after missing out on the team in 1985, where WOC was in his home town of Bendigo. He really enjoys relays, where he has been involved with 9 wins in M21A.

He is really looking forward to this opportunity to coach an Australian squad, where he hopes he and the squad, can achieve their aims.

Nick Dent

Sept 2014