Four Australians have finished in the top 10 at the World Masters Championships in Austria in Friday, led by Eddie Wymer, who was 5th in M35A. The other top 10 finishers were Geoff Lawford (6th in M50A), Jim Russell (7th in M45A) and Hermann Wehner (10th in M80A).
Other Australian finishers in A finals were:
M35: Eric Morris 19, Blair Trewin 22, Paul Liggins 29
Four strong performances from the Australian team give us a good chance in the final for more medals and podium places. Hanny again ran well and although making a minute mistake on the 5th control was able to hold second place in her heat. Simon Uppill ran well to qualify, watch out for him to have a fast race tomorrow. Murray Scown in his first JWOC has come good making it into the A final and enjoyed himself today and although sporting some blisters looks for a good race tomorrow.
Jasmine Neve who was well rested after not competing in the classic due to a nagging ITB injury ran very well to qualify for the A final, coming 14th in her heat.
Hanny Allston Jasmine Neve with Ryan Smyth in the background
Some sad near misses too for the Australians with Vanessa Round finishing in 21st position 12 seconds behind 20th place. Chris Naunton was also close missing out by 81 seconds in 29th place in a particularly close run heat.
The rest of the team all performed strongly to qualify for the B final with the exception of Ryan Smyth who was extremely disappointed with his mispunch after starting his course well. He had ploughed his way through some green to a track and misjudged his position on it by about 50 metres and then panicked and took time to relocate and then found what he thought was his control (70) only to discover on his return that he had punched the wrong control.
Hilary Wood — Team Manager
Hanny Allston ran an excellent race today at Noskunu Miskas winning the gold medal in the prestigious classic event at the Junior World Orienteering Championships. Hanny dominated the first loop to come through the spectator control on 36 minutes – 5 minutes ahead of her closest rival and finished strongly to complete the course a massive 4 minutes and 38 seconds ahead of second placegetter, Betty Ann Bjerkreim Nilsen(NOR). Third place was Elin Skantze(SWE).
Hanny shocked the commentators who were not expecting her to finish so soon and were announcing how much longer before she was expected at the finish while she was already climbing the last hill of the course to the finish line. Hanny played safe opting for track options when possible and avoiding the green and marshy areas which cost others time. This strategy paid off for her, giving her the lead and the gold medal.
The three medallists
Hanny’s gold medal is the first ever for Australia at any World Championships in foot orienteering and Hanny now has a full set, bronze in the middle distance in Switzerland in 2005, silver in the sprint race yesterday and gold in the long distance today. Hanny was very happy with her result and is looking good for the middle distance race following the rest day tomorrow, and for the World Orienteering Championships coming up in Denmark.
The setting today was good for spectators although not enough shade for the sun-shy Aussies. The weather is beautiful with a pleasant cooling breeze. A sweeping corridor of tape ran past the finish chute in the opposite direction next to the forest boundary to lead the runners out into their second loop. This gave them a view of the uphill finish chute, a little daunting for those not prepared for a tough hilly finish. The other highlight today for the Australian team was Simon Uppill’s 36th placing in the men’s race, it sets him up very well for his favoured middle distance following the rest day. In all, team members are very satisfied with their performances over the opening two days of competition and are looking forward to a well-earned rest tomorrow before the final three days of competition. The team is very excited about Hanny’s excellent performances and Matt’s good showing in the sprint and are being very supportive making the traditional laurel and flower victory wreaths for both Hanny and Matt.
Results Women
1 Hanny Allston (Australia) 53:57
2 Betty Ann Bjerkreim Nilsen (Norway) 58:35
3 Elin Skantze (Sweden) 1:00:13
62 Vanessa Round (Australia) 1:23:16
71 Kellie Whitfield (Australia) 1:26:02
92 Sophie Barker (Australia) 1:35:35
105 Ainsley Cavanagh (Australia) 1:51:15
dns Jasmine Neve (Australia)
Men
1 Anders Skarholt (Norway) 1:10:41
2 Olav Lundanes (Norway) 1:13:21
3 Markus Puusepp (Estonia) 1:16:57
36 Simon Uppill (Australia) 1:27:04
91 Ryan Smyth (Australia) 1:44:18
92 Murray Scown (Australia) 1:44:53
95 Christopher Naunton (Australia) 1:45:53
119 Matthew Parton (Australia) 1:58:45
131 Evan Barr (Australia) 2:09:55
Full results
An awesome start to JWOC2006 for the Australian team
The women started the day first at 2:00pm, with Ainsley Cavanagh and Kellie Whitfield starting in the first half-hour of the field, and Sophie Barker, Vanessa Round and Hanny Allston all starting within the next 7 minutes, the Australian girls were grouped closely together. Jasmine Neve started 3rd last a full hour after the first starter.
Hanny Allston on the JWOC podium again (photo: Giedrius Petrauskas)
The first radio control, and also the spectator control for the women was only 800m from the start, but still allowed enough distance to determine who was going to be at the top of the leader board. Hanny held a competitive split at the spectator control and held the lead up to the end. She was beaten by a later starter, Norwegian Ingunn Weltzien Hultgren by a very close 3.3 seconds. Hanny was very pleased with her result and is looking forward to another podium finish tomorrow in the long distance race.
Matt Parton surprised many, but those in the know realised he was a potential podium placegetter by his very fast running coming from an athletics background and recently concentrating on orienteering skill development.
Matt starting half way through the field and was leading for about 10 to 15 minutes but his lead was gradually pegged back to an eventual 6th place after the Italian runner who appeared to be in second position (which would have pushed Matt into 7th spot) was unfortunately disqualified, leaving Matt to take the 6th place to achieve a podium finish. This delighted the whole Australian team and its many supporters who were watching from Australia including parents and observers from the JWOC 2007 committee.
The Australian Team has now moved into its new accommodation at Spa Vilnius hotel.
They are all very comfortable and well fed with lovely surroundings of the Druskininkai parklands. The city is a local holiday destination and the hotel offers many treatments for various ailments. Some of the team have already indulged in some massages and team physiotherapist Jan Sargood has been busy keeping the team in tip-top condition for the coming week of competition.
All the team are quite healthy and looking forward to the coming week. We are quietly hopeful of some podium finishes for Hanny Allston and Simon Uppill. The indications during training have been good and the team has benefited from the wise words of Simonas Krepsta, a Lithuanian elite runner who has been a multiple JWOC medallist and World Championships representative. He is Lithuania’s number one orienteer and we are very lucky to have him befriend the Australian Team. Hanny’s form has been particularly impressive, winning the JWOC warm-up event convincingly in very tough, technical terrain.
The sprint will be held within these parklands next to the river and include street and forest orienteering. It will make for some very interesting spectating. The relay will also be within walking distance of the town centre and we are looking forward to some good racing.
The training camp has been a good mix of training on relevant maps and relaxation in the lead-up to the competition. The Fat Romos accommodation was quaint and quirky with many traditional Lithuanian wooden sculptures around the guest house. The team enjoyed a swim in the pool on return from there training and some interesting food including a couple of tough old birds which are some fun trying to eat and carve!
A big thank you to Rob Walter and Reuben Smith, who helped to provide some challenging and worthwhile training exercises. The team has appreciated their efforts to give a good feel for the local terrain.
Bushrangers team for Queensland test match announced
Selectors have confirmed the selection of the following team for the second test match against New Zealand to be held in Maryborough, Queensland on 19-20 August:
Men: Bruce Arthur, Adrian Jackson, Dave Meyer, Robbie Preston, Ben Rattray.
Adrian Jackson racing at last year’s Australian Sprint Championships
The Bushrangers will be looking forward to the opportunity to even the series after losing to the Pinestars in the first test match near Auckland one month ago. The Bushrangers lose Kirsten Fairfax, who will be competing in the World University Orienteering Championships, and Peter Preston. The men’s team will be buoyed by the inclusion of MTBO world champion Adrian Jackson, and Ben Rattray, who will be coming off an intensive orienteering tour of Europe.
The team of 12 Australian Juniors has arrived in Lithuania and met up with coach Gareth Candy, managers Nick Dent and Hilary Wood and assistant coaches Rob Walter and Reuben Smith.
Already they have been training out in the forest and gaining valuable experience for the JWOC competition. On Monday the 26th of June they will all be competing in a warm-up race on a map adjacent to the JWOC middle distance competition. Results will be available onhttp://www.dbtopas.lt/takas/varzybos.php?varz=2006026
Anybody wanting to contact the team or team members can call on +37068352352, just don’t call before 3pm AEST!
Sarah Dunnage broke through for her first senior title in bush orienteering and, given his recent lack of form, John Toomey had a surprising win. The event was held in beautiful winter sunshine at the remapped John Forrest National Park – the closest and oldest WA orienteering area. Course setters (and new parents) Craig Dufty and Rachel West set an interesting course on a portion of the map that was almost free of thick prickly vegetation. By not running, both Craig and Rachel created one of the more unpredictable races in recent times!
The women’s race was a closely-contested affair in which the experienced Karen Staudte and usual W17-20 runner Dunnage were not separated by much for most of the course. Eventually Dunnage pulled away on the long up hill on leg 9-10 and finished fast through the final two controls to win by 1min 29s. Leida Williams had a steady run, improving through the whole course to take 3rd place and unfortunately Cath Chalmers injured her knee while negotiating a fallen tree on leg 8-9. She was already 2mins behind and it would have taken a strong effort over the rest of the course to salvage the expected win. JWOC representative Kellie Whitfield will be hoping to have got her ‘bad run’ out of the way after being a bit off the pace from the start and then making a large 6min error on control 6.
The men’s race was an open affair with people predicting a win by three different people – the old stager Terry Farrell, newcomer Ben Corry and country-boy Steve Fletcher. Last starter Toomey, who has had chronic hamstring troubles all season, took the lead with a fast start through controls 1 and 2 to be 90s ahead but lost enough time in the circle at 3 to only be 20 seconds ahead. From here he gradually pulled away to win by almost 2 minutes from Farrell, who courtesy of a late error from Fletcher, took 2nd place by 15s. Corry took 4th 6mins down and is a name to watch for at the Australian Champs carnival in WA later this season. Adrian Day and rogainer Paul ‘Wil’ Williams completed the field.
Sarah Dunnage broke through for her first senior title in bush orienteering and, given his recent lack of form, John Toomey had a surprising win. The event was held in beautiful winter sunshine at the remapped John Forrest National Park – the closest and oldest WA orienteering area. Course setters (and new parents) Craig Dufty and Rachel West set an interesting course on a portion of the map that was almost free of thick prickly vegetation. By not running, both Craig and Rachel created one of the more unpredictable races in recent times!
The women’s race was a closely-contested affair in which the experienced Karen Staudte and usual W17-20 runner Dunnage were not separated by much for most of the course. Eventually Dunnage pulled away on the long up hill on leg 9-10 and finished fast through the final two controls to win by 1min 29s. Leida Williams had a steady run, improving through the whole course to take 3rd place and unfortunately Cath Chalmers injured her knee while negotiating a fallen tree on leg 8-9. She was already 2mins behind and it would have taken a strong effort over the rest of the course to salvage the expected win. JWOC representative Kellie Whitfield will be hoping to have got her ‘bad run’ out of the way after being a bit off the pace from the start and then making a large 6min error on control 6.
The men’s race was an open affair with people predicting a win by three different people – the old stager Terry Farrell, newcomer Ben Corry and country-boy Steve Fletcher. Last starter Toomey, who has had chronic hamstring troubles all season, took the lead with a fast start through controls 1 and 2 to be 90s ahead but lost enough time in the circle at 3 to only be 20 seconds ahead. From here he gradually pulled away to win by almost 2 minutes from Farrell, who courtesy of a late error from Fletcher, took 2nd place by 15s. Corry took 4th 6mins down and is a name to watch for at the Australian Champs carnival in WA later this season. Adrian Day and rogainer Paul ‘Wil’ Williams completed the field.
