Author: craigf

Rankings for classes have been determined as in previous years based on results in the Australian Championships (A), the Australian Easter 3-Days (E), and all State Championships (by State initial letter, ACT = C, NT = O). Rankings for classes M/W 17–20, and 21 are calculated on a different basis and are separately published.

The first 10 place getters in each class are published here. State Secretaries have the full list of orienteers who scored less than 150.00 points.

Some points of interest in the 2005 rankings:

• Winner by the largest margin was Henry McNulty (LO.W) by 14.92 percentage points.
• There were a number of equal firsts: Lachlan Dow (BS.A), Oliver Crosato (RR.Q) M14; Tristan Lee (TJ.S), Joshua Roberts (NC.N) M16; Nicola Blatchford (NC.N), Phoebe Vincent (NC.N) W10; Dorothy Adrian (NE.V), Christa Schafer (GO.N) W65; Sue Mount (AL.T), Maureen Ogilvie (UR.N) W75.
• 19 clubs had class leaders in the rankings with the most successful clubs being: MF.V, BS.A, NC.N, UR.N (3); WE.A, UG.Q, YV.V, TF.Q, EU.V (2); LO.W, RR.Q, TJ.S, BF.N, RR.A, WR.T, IK.N, NE.V, GO.N, AL.T (1).
• Family groupings with two or more members in the first three places in the rankings were: Jackson (Timothy M10, Carolyn W45); Neve (Todd M12, Sue W50); Blatchford (Joshua M14, Nicola W10); Simson/Quantock-Simson/Radstaak (Neil M35, Robin M65, Gayle W40, Kaitlin W12); Schafer (Neil M75, Christa W65); Adrian (Paul M80, Dorothy W65); Marshall (Nicola W10, Christine W40); Lawford/Bourne (Belinda W14, Jenny W45); Dawson (Aidan M10, Michele W12).
• In W10 two competitors from the same club (NC.N) tied for first place.

Darryl Erbacher, OA Statistician

Tasmania’s Christine Brown has been awarded a National  Officiating Scholarship from the Australian Sports Commission to help her prepare for her job as National Controller of JWOC 2007. The scholarships are offered by the ASC to help improve the quality of top officials in a range of different sports.

Christine is one of Australia’s most experienced  controllers. She is a Level 3 OA Controller, and is also accredited as an IOF Event Adviser. She was controllers for last year’s Australian Championships in St Helens, and has been active in the education of level 1 and 2 controllers in Tasmania. She was also Australia’s WOC  manager in 2004, and is a successful competitor in her own right.

Christine’s scholarship will fund her to travel to Lithuania  to observe proceedings at JWOC 2006, as well as WOC 2006 in Denmark  where she will also attend an IOF EVent Advisers clinic. She will be mentored by Swiss Senior Event Adviser Urs Hofer, who is also the IOF Controller for JWOC 2007.

Martin Fryer of Weston Emus (ACT) has had a brilliant international representative running debut over the weekend, finishing 11th in the World 24 Hour Ultramarathon Challenge in Taipei, Taiwan. Fryer made a charge through the field in the final hours to cover 233kms 239m and finish 11th. The winner, Ryoichi Sekiya of Japan, completed 272km 936m, well ahead of runner up Magroun Mohamed of France with 248.6kms and third placed Vladimir Bychkov of Russia with 246.1kms.

Other Australian finishers were Mick Francis 30th in 210kms, Paul Every, 49th in 185kms, and Simon Phillips 52nd in 177kms. The Australian team finished eighth. Fryer’s previous best ultra running accomplishment was winning the 246km Coast to Kosciusko in December, running 31 hours and taking several hours off the old record.

By comparison, Fryer’s weekly efforts in the ACT Orienteering Summer Series were mere sprints!

Lachlan Hallett did well to win the M17-39 class of the SA Sprint Championships in the prevailing conditions, beating Bruce Arthur from Victoria by 12 seconds followed by John Nieuwenhoven – a great improver, 16 seconds further back. Lachlan completed the 3.4 Km course in 16:29, the race was closely contested as the first four runners finished within 30 seconds of each other, recording less than 5 minutes per Km.

The championships started wet with thunderstorms and flooding in surrounding areas. We were lucky to have only light rain, albeit inconvenient. The area used is a local wooded park at the foot of Black Hill with numerous tracks but no buildings. The map had to be corrected at the last minute to include prominent vegetation, to assist in navigation – to compensate for the lack of other prominent features, usually on sprint maps.

Susanne Casanova won the W17-39 and has been running extremely well since returning from Europe. Susanne’s time was 17:34, followed by Zebedy Hallett and Mallory Hughes.

The inclusion of the M/W 50+ categories saw a good interest in the entries as these were reluctant to mix with the younger faster runners. M50+ John Lyon from Tintookies winning the 3.0 Km course in 21:55 and Onkaparinga Hills’ Robin Uppill first in W50+ completing the 2.6 Km course in 19:57. Doug Lee won the M40+ and Erica Diment  the W40+. First in M16 was Ben Diment and Nadia Velaitis excelled in W16.

It is a credit to the course setter Phil Hazell to set interesting courses in the challenging small area. Only accolades were heard from the competitors.

Maarten  Nieuwenhoven

The final of the Ultimax Sydney Sprints was held on Monday on the grounds around Macquarie University. Ben Rattray re-mapped the area especially for the event, and Ian Meyer set a 2.6km course with many tough route choice decisions. At the end of the day, Rattray’s familiarity enabled the quickest time of the day ahead of Stingers Andy Hill and Peter Preston. Orla Murray finished a strong campaign by winning the last race ahead of Cathy McComb and a brilliant effort from Sue Thomson (showing young sprightly form).

Overall series winners (male and female) were awarded to Mark Shingler and Cathy McComb (Stingers are ineligible for the award). The two showed great form throughout the season. A number of random prizes were also awarded thanks to Berghaus and Ultimax resulting in a number of happy faces and a few pairs of happy feet.

The Ultimax Sprints have provided the NSW Stingers with great race practice leading up to the first NOL races in March. The team has also gained valuable experience in course-setting, event organisation and use of the Sport Ident Software. Stay tuned for details of the 2007 Ultimax Sprints, which will continue to provide fast pace, interesting courses in classic Sydney locations.

Full results and maps from the 2006 Ultimax Sprints can be found at http://sydneysprints.blogspot.com/

On Wednesday morning a number of orienteers started in the XPD Challenge held through the western and central parts of Tasmania. Teams commenced with a mountain bike leg from Stanley on the North West coast of Tasmania and headed south for a series of bike, trekking and kayaking legs that will eventually bring them through to Hobart and the finish line. Teams have a maximum of ten days to complete this arduous journey that will be a sterling test of their physical and mental capabilities.

Follow orienteers in the following teams as they take on the challenge of XPD.

Matt Dalziel (TAS) & Tom Landon-Smith (ACT), Team 1: AROC / Mountain Designs

Rob Garden and Rachel Smith (NZ), Team 12: MacNut NZ

Thorlene Egerton (QLD), Team 14: PB Sports

Phil Wood (NZ), Team 16: Back Country Cuisine Girls On Top

Brent Edwards (NZ), Team 17, OrionAdventure.com

Bernard Walker (TAS), Team 22, Mawson

Darryl Smith (TAS), Team 28, Team 4 Cancer

Danielle Winslow – pictured right (TAS/ACT), Team 43, First Contact

Julie Quinn and Dave Baldwin (ACT): Team 46, Tangerine.

Check out their progress at www.xpd.com.au.

For Edgerton and Winslow it will be interesting to see if they can recover in time and turn out for their states in the first round of the National League in NSW in mid-March.

1. WOC Selection – overseas trials

The selectors have confirmed that there will be one overseas selection trial – the Spring Cup classic race in Denmark on 25 March.  Overseas-based candidates are also encouraged to post results in other major events listed in the selection critieria, including the Swedish Elite Series.  Results in such races will be considered up to 23 April 2006 (ie including the Swedish Elite Series race on this date).

2. Bushrangers

The Australian Bushrangers team will take on New Zealand in two separate events – at the NZ Queens Birthday races on the first weekend in June (note that the NZ Queens Birthday weekend is one week ahead of the Australian equivalent) and in Queensland at the NOL races in August.  All Australian elites with the exception of those selected in the WOC team will be considered for this team.  The selection critieria will be the same as for WOC and the team will be announced at the same time – ie during the last week in April.  If some athletes are only available for one set of races then two separate teams may be announced.  Funding for the NZ races is yet to be confirmed.

The WOC nomination form has now been amended (and is attached below) to allow people to indicate whether they wish to be considered for selection for the Bushrangers team if they don’t make the WOC team.  For those who haven’t yet nominated for the WOC team (or only wish to nominate for the Bushrangers team) please use this new form.  If you’ve already sent your nomination in, please send me an email indicating whether you wish to be  considered for Bushranger selection.  The size of the team(s) will be between 4 and 6 men and women, depending upon the number of nominees and the number of people that New Zealand (as the visiting team) will be sending to Queensland.

3. World University Championships

Nominations are sought for the World University Orienteering championships to be held in the Slovak Republic between 14 and 20 August.  Countries may send up to 6 men and 6 women.  To be eligible you must be a current University student (or have graduated in 2005) and be born between 1978 and 1988 (inclusive).

Those interested in competing should contact Paul Liggins at paul.liggins@au.pwc.com by Friday 7 April.

Selection will generally be based on performance at Easter 2006, as well as results in major Australian races in 2005.

Please inform those people who might be interested in competing but are not regular readers of this web WOCandBushies2006NominationForm

Paul Liggins

Orienteering Australia announce that Andrew Rowe has been appointed to act as Team Manager for the 2006 Australian MTBO team to take part in the World Championships in Joensuu Finland this July. Andrew’s appointment has come about as a result of the National Coach Kay Haarsma being unable to attend the MTBO World Championships due to work commitments.

Andrew has previous experience in working with the MTBO team having been team manager at the 2004 MTBO World Championships in Ballarat Victoria.