Author: craigf

Orienteering ACT regrets to advise the passing of Jim Sawkins.  On Sunday morning Jim was orienteering on the new Goorooyaroo map when he collapsed soon after starting his course.  Despite receiving the best possible first aid (some orienteers, well trained in CPR, were with him quickly and the paramedics were on the scene soon afterwards), he was not able to be revived.

Anne had started earlier than Jim and on her way back to the finish she came across the group (including ambulance paramedics) trying to revive him.  A number of close orienteering friends stayed with her and Jim until son Tim arrived to take her home.  She is being supported by family and friends.

Jim was the consummate orienteer, both as a competitor; he won the M65A class at the 2006 Australian 3-Days and was the 2005 ACT Orienteer of the Year, and as an official; on Saturday he was the organiser of the usual Saturday Program event and he contributed to the success of many major orienteering carnivals in the ACT.  He was the best.  He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

The Sawkins family wants it to be known that orienteering should not be seen as in any way contributing to his death.  He was in great spirits when he started and he died on a beautiful sunny Canberra winter’s day on a new map doing what he loved.

The family and the organizers of Sunday’s event wish to thank the many who stopped to provide assistance and to stay and comfort Anne during her moment of need.

Orienteering ACT is currently seeking advice from the ACT Ambulance service, which provides access to counselling.  More information will be provided when the details are available.

Anne Sawkins and family have announced that the funeral of the late Jim Sawkins will b held at the Norwood Park Crematorium on Thursday, 8 June 2006 at 4.30pm.

Our thoughts and sympathy are with Anne, Tim and his family Jenny, Hannah and Rebekah, David, Robert and the extended Sawkins family.

The 2nd Bushrangers-Pinestars Test was held today near Auckland, and Team Coach Tom Quayle reports on the action.

The day’s racing included two Middle distance races, with the 2nd a chasing start – only the first race counted as a Test match.

Orla Murray was impressive today, orienteering well in very difficult terrain to take a deserved 3rd this morning and 2nd place overall. Kathryn Ewels (8th) has been very consistent over all the races so far and seeems to have her head in gear. Kirsten Fairfax (12th) has been solid, but has struggled a little in the more  difficult terrain. Briohny Davey has had some good results this weekend but was disappointed with herself to make a big error this morning and finished 15th. She came back well with a good run in the afternoon to come 13th overall.

Bruce Arthur (9th this morning) handled the difficult terrain very well. Rob Preston has been running well but made a mistake in the second race today and was  a little disappointed to finish a bit down – although he ran well in the morning (4th) which was the one that counted. Peter Preston (18th this morning) has had problems with a recurring shin injury, while Dave Meyer took the wrong map and so was disqualified.

Full results for today and previous days can be found here.

All maps have been very good, with the warm-up “zoo sprint” on friday the standout area. The team is a little bit tired, but looking forward to the challenge of tomorrow’s classic race in what’s going to be some pretty tough terrain.

Tom Quayle
Bushranger’s Coach

Kathryn Ewels came out firing after her disappointing race in yesterday’s warm-up sprint to come 2nd in today’s Middle distance Test match, 2 minutes behind NZ’s Tania Robinson. With Orla Murray coming 5th, Briohny Davey in 9th and Kirsten Fairfax 10th, the Bushranger’s women were  competitive today, only narrowly losing on points.

The men didn’t fare so well, with the best placed Bushrangers, Bruce Arthur (16th) and Dave Meyer (17th), both 6 minutes behind winner Ross Morrison, and beaten by all four Pinestars. Rob Preston was 22nd with his younger brother, Peter, a late inclusion for the team, unable to finish.

Full results here.

The Australian Bushrangers are currently touring New Zealand, competing in a three-match Test Series. The Bushrangers are competing against a fully-staffed NZ Pinestars team, and face an uphill battle to win the series, but made a positive start in the first race: a warm-up sprint race on Friday afternoon.

The best placed Bushranger was NSW’s Dave Meyer, who finished 3rd behind Pinestars Karl Dravitzki and Darren Ashmore. In fourth place was Peter Preston, a top result for the late inclusion. Bruce Arthur was 7th and Rob Preston 19th.

In the women.s race, Pinestar Tania Robinson ran away with the race, winning by nearly a minute from Rachel Smith. Briohny Davey was the best placed Bushranger in 6th, closely followed by Orla Murray (7th) and Kirsten Fairfax (8th). Kathryn Ewels finished in 16th place.

Full sprint results here.

The test series start today with a middle distance race, followed by a pair of middle distance races on Sunday, and concludes with a long distance race on Monday. We will post reports for these races on this site as soon as possible.

Tristram Miller marked his return to orienteering with a win at Ballinafad Creek on Sunday. Miller ran 86.30 for the hilly 11.9Km race to narrowly beat former Cockatoos team-mate Andy Hogg, who was just 38 seconds behind. Tony Woolford finished off the placings a further 2.20 behind Hogg. Miller, a former ACTAS scholarship holder, Canberra Cockatoo and Bushranger, has been having some time away from training and racing but a move back to Canberra later in the year is scheduled and may mean a return to elite level competition. “I’ve been doing a lot of running – nothing as fast as I ran today, but I really enjoyed it”, said Miller, whose presence in the Canberra Cockatoos would strengthen an already strong team.

Anna Quayle won the women’s race but was not entirely happy with her performance, losing some time on the broad hillsides in the typically Australia spur-gully terrain.

David Shepherd used an ACTAS GPS unit to record his race in the NSW State League at Seldom Seen. Its interesting to see how much Shep zig-zagged through the forest – a sign of how rough the terrain really is.

David Shepherd (Canberra Cockatoos)

This is a race I would really like to forget. I usually start races using what I consider to be the safest route choices, which in this case I thought was along the fence and over the hill past number 19. But this time I started out hard and tried to run straighter but misjudged how far I had come and ran up through the saddle immediately to the south west of the number 19 printed on the map thinking I was coming into the saddle under the line and closer to the control. I quickly realised this but pushed on harder and was quite unsure of where I was coming down the hill into number 1 as I hadn’t attacked the control from a safe direction (i.e. directly down from the knoll above). I regained some composure on the way to number 2 but I wasn’t feeling 100% and I had quite sore calves from running on an athletics track earlier in the week so I decided to ease off as I crossed the spur on the way over to the fourth control. From there on I tried to keep the orienteering smooth but the terrain was so rough it was extremely difficult to hold any line through the forest. This is quite evident by the GPS track zig-zagging around the course, running up over the hill to number 8 instead of contouring around to the saddle, and my mistake at number 10 where I was trying to avoid running diagonally downhill over rough and rocky ground. This was the first time I had raced with the GPS and I’m pretty impressed with the results. I’m looking forward to seeing more of this sort of thing!

A top class elite field, including the WOC team there to kick off its preparation for Denmark, competed in Orange/Eugowra in the NSW state league.

Saturday’s middle distance race was held in pine plantation at Macquarie Woods South where fast running and few errors were the order of the day. Rune Olsen showed that he felt right at home in the pines by putting up the fastest time of the day followed closely by Troy De Haas with Grant Bluett coming in a solid third. Hanny Allston maintained her excellent form in beating the quality field by nearly four minutes. Grace Elson led the rest of the field home followed by Anna Sheldon.

Sunday’s long distance race provided a considerably tougher challenge on the rocky slopes at Seldom Seen Central near Eugowra. That didn’t make any difference to Hanny Allston who took out the women’s class by nearly 8 minutes followed again by Grace Elson who was five minutes ahead of third placed Anna Sheldon.

Grant Bluett showed that he is still a force to be reckoned with, winning by three minutes over a tightly bunched men’s field. You could have thrown a blanket over the next five men who were within less than a minute of each other. Dave Shepherd took second followed by Troy De Haas, Robbie Preston, Eric Morris and Andy Hogg who showed excellent form on both days.

You can find results at www.goldseekers.org and www.garingal.nsw.orienteering.asn.au

Melbourne Forest Racers organised the inaugural Turkey Traverse orienteering race over a series of three bush and park maps in Melbourne’s inner suburbs.

With Victoria’s elites racing in Orange, and Bruce Arthur course setting, the 12km course was contested by an evenly matched field of juniors and veterans. In a mass start, the pack took a longer route choice, with Paul Liggins going on his own and taking an early lead. He was then caught by the pack at 3, and there were 6 leaders running together through to the end of the first map.

Adam Scammell came to the front and led briefly at the Chandler Highway bridge at just under half distance. However with the most physical and technically demanding forest to come, he was always going to find it hard to hold on. Juniors Bryan and Leon Keely were looking good but would be tested in the second half by the experienced Warren Key, Jim Russell and Paul Liggins.

Liggins hit the front with 2km to go, but a poor route choice brought him back to the pack. Five were left together for the last kilometre. Everyone hesitated at the base of the large quarry for around 15 seconds. No one wanted to commit to going left, right or straight up the cliff. Eventually Key chose wisely and headed left and took a small lead.
Key, Russell and the Keely brothers all punched together at the last control, but Bryan won the sprint to take out the race.

Kerrin Rattray has been added to the WOC team to replace the injured Julian Dent.

Kerrin will run the sprint and the long distance races at WOC.  A number of other small changes have also been made to the team: Dave Shepherd will run the sprint and middle races instead of the middle and long, and Eric Morris will run the middle and long races instead of the middle and sprint.

The mens relay team will comprise Dave Shepherd plus two of Eric Morris, Rob Walter and Troy de Haas.

OA congratulates Kerrin on his selection.