A brief message to thank all those I have worked with over the past 2 and a bit years. I have enjoyed my time as High Performance Manager. It’s been great to work with so many people passionate about orienteering. Most of my duties will be taken over by the new position of Head Coach and I wish he or she (they are yet to be appointed) all the best in the role.
Catch you all in the forest where I can return to my more leisurely role of sledger!
Jason McCrae
Orienteering Australia is pleased to announce the appointment of WOC Foot-O Coaches for 2006-07. OA has altered the structure of coaching and management of the WOC team moving away from the previous model of a manager and a coach to that of having a men’s and women’s coach who share the managerial duties. The men’s WOC Coach for 2006-07 will be Brett Weihart and the women’s coach Sue Neve.
Brett began orienteering in 1982 in South Australia. He represented Australia at junior level and was part of the team that went to Sweden to compete in the first ever Junior World Orienteering Championships where he gained Australia’s best placing of 40th in the Classic (there was only Classic and relay in those days!). Not too long Brett Weihartafter that JWOC Brett met his lovely Swedish wife Camilla and has been living in Sweden ever since with his family (including a new born so Brett will be busy!).
Brett brings strong orienteering and leadership experience to the role of men’s coach. He has 15 years orienteering experience in the Nordic countries, was coach/manager for Australian team at Nordic Orienteering Champs in 2004, assistant coach for the Australian team at WOC 2004 and has been co-ordinator with overseas-based Australians in Europe in 2004 and 2005. In terms of leadership he is, in his non-orienteering life, Chief Financial Officer at Göteborg-Landvetter Airport (Sweden’s second largest airport), was a manager at Ericsson in different roles from 2000 to 2005 and has completed Ericsson’s 12 month Core Leadership Programme.
Sue Neve brings a wealth of experience at the elite level of competition, having been a member of Australian teams at numerous WOCs including the 1985 World Championships in Bendigo. She is ‘stepping up’ from two years as coach of the Bushrangers, Australia’s elite development team, and has coached and managed the Bushrangers in New Zealand and Australia. Importantly, from OA’s perspective, she also brings personal skills of having a mature, balanced approach in a competitive framework and we look forward to having Sue coach the women’s team.
Of course the arrival of new coaches means Jim Russell’s ‘reign’ as WOC coach concludes…….for the moment! Jim through the years has been a great servant to orienteering having been WOC coach, JWOC coach, JWOC manager, WOC assistant manager as well as assisting in numerous roles and jobs in state and national orienteering. We say ‘ends for the moment’ as it is a sure-bet that Jim, with his tremendous work ethic and knowledge of orienteering, will continue in some role or other in the future. OA thanks Jim for all the effort he has put in as WOC coach over the past two years and looks forward to whatever roles he takes on in the future.
The World Ranking Events (WRE) and Australian team selection criteria for 2006 MTB-O WOC are now available. Please find them attached as produced by the IOF and Australian MTBO Selection panel respectively.
At the OA conference held last weekend the Selection Panels for the 2006-07 period were announced.
The selection Panel for MTB-O remains the same as the last few years:
Ann Scown (Chair), Anitra Dowling and Dave Hatley.
We thank them for their continued service to MTB-O.
At the end of 2005 Ian Prosser (Chair) and Nicki Taws advised OA that they no longer had the time available to commit to being selectors. OA would like to take this opportunity to thank them both for their service – Ian in particular has been invovled in selection for a long period and both have been considered by OA to have been excellent selectors. The Senior Selection panel for 2006-07 is:
Paul Liggins (Chair), Karen Staudte and Geoff Lawford.
Paul has been an elite for many years, entering elites in the same junior ‘year’ as Jock Davis and Eddie Wymer. Formerly of Tasmania, Paul works in a senior position for Price Waterhouse Coopers and as someone who still runs elite and is familiar to the majority of elites OA is excited that he is willing to volunteer his time for the role of Chairperson. Both Karen and Geoff are also either still running elites or recently retired and consequently familiar with elite matters. Karen has been a Junior Selector for the past 5 years and Geoff was a Senior Selector in 2005.
The first tasks for the Senior Selection panel will be to put out the criteria for WOC selection next year and select the National Senior Squad and High Performance Group for 2006.
With Karen Staudte moving to the Senior Selection Panel the Junior Selection panel will now be:
Blair Trewin (Chair), Fiona Calabro and Paul Pacque.
Blair and Fiona are long-standing Junior selectors and Paul concluded this year 6 years as JWOC Coach. All have a terrific working knowledge of Junior orienteering and OA looks forward to their continued involvement in Junior orienteering in Australia.
Signed
Jason McCrae, Manager (High Performance), OA
To all my orienteering friends,
I was recently diagnosed with lymphoma, which is a malignancy of the lymph system. Although this is potentially fatal (e.g. Jackie Kennedy), modern technology means that in most cases nowadays it isn’t. However the treatment always leads to hair loss, and also to lethargy, which can be very significant.
The upside is that this will be an excellent excuse for my poor performance or even non-performance for the next little while. M60’s needn’t count their chickens though, as the debility is usually temporary, and I’ll be back to exact vengeance when the treatment is over.
Trevor Sauer
Have a looksie at one of the areas for WOC 06 to make your training well-informed over the summer. Thanks to Jimbo Russell copies of the Sprint map are available here at OA HP central:
The ACT Academy of Sport (ACTAS) has announced its new scholarship holders for 2006. The squad for the 2006 season has a mix of seasoned international campaigners, and some young blood who are hoping to be the future of Australian orienteering. Between them, the 8 squad members have run 116 world championship races, and have over 15 years in Europe competing and training.
New for the 2006 season is that ACTAS is offering full scholarships in the National Training Centre, meaning that runners who have lived in the ACT for 2 years can have the full benefit of an ACTAS scholarship and still compete for their home states in the National Orienteering League. ACTAS is also offering scholarships at the National Training Centre for high performance orienteers who are based temporarily in the ACT, these scholarships being partly funded by the orienteers’ home states.
Scholarship holders receive support with a holistic approach to their athletic performance, under the guidance of the new head coach Grant Bluett. Apart from specific orienteering training, some of the areas athletes receive support in include sports science, psychology, career and educating assistance, nutrition, strength and conditioning, and medical support.
The 2006 scholarship holders are:
Jo Allison
Sophie Barker
Gareth Candy
Tom Quayle
David Shepherd
Julian Dent (NSW)
Danielle Winslow (Tas.)
David Meyer
The IOF has announced Australia’s World Ranking Events for 2006. Our 3 allocated races will be:
April 17, Day 3 (Monday/last day), Australian Easter 3-day, Vic
Aug 19, Bushrangers Test Match (and NOL Middle Distance race), Qld
Oct 7, Australian Long Distance Champs, WA
The Australian Orienteering Elite Ranking Scheme points are now finalised for season 2005. Recent World Ranking Events in China provided David Brickhill-Jones (Tas) with the opportunity to climb to the top of the ranking list for the first time. His 1312 points in the Yunnan Orienteering Festival Sprint Distance race and 1223 in the Middle Distance has enabled him to leapfrog Grant Bluett (ACT) and finish the season as Australia’s number one ranked orienteer.
There is no change to the women’s list, with Hanny Allston (Tas) finishing the year at number one, ahead of Jo Allison (ACT) and Tracy Bluett (NSW).
Adrian Jackson was a clear winner in middle and long distance races, winning the middle distance race by over 3 minutes from Alex Randall, and the long distance race by 15 minutes from Tom Walter.
Anna Sheldon was just over 3 minutes in front of Mary Fien in the women’s middle distance race, with Carolyn Jackson third, but Jackson prevailed in the long distance race to beat Sheldon by a similar margin.
