Author: craigf

Provisional results of this morning’s qualification races. The finals will be run later today.

Provisional results of this morning’s qualification races. The finals will be run later today.

As indicated in the preview the sprint races were held in a very difficult area. Mike Dowling, who competed in the public event between the heats and the finals said: “It was just like competing in New Zealand native forest, steep, thick and low visibility”. During his run he had a heavy fall, smashed compass and bruised his hip.

The day started in bright sunshine, then a shower came through wetting the ground & making it extremely slippery. After the rain the temperature and humidity rose sharply. The recorded temperature when the women started at 13.00 was 37C and it got hotter later in the day.

Spectators were given a map of the controls they could visit and it seemed like there were more spectators around controls directing runners than there were at the finish. Some runners may have received an advantage.

Troy de Haas ran steadily throughout both races, and had an excellent start in the Final. He lost a few seconds over the concluding stages and that not only cost him a podium finish, but probably also a medal.

Grant Bluett had a reasonable run in the heats, was not feeling well after that run and did not get away well in the final. However, he picked up the pace and finished strongly over the concluding stages.

Jo Allison , Natasha Key, Allison Jones and David Brickhill-Jones all did their best but it was not quite good enough on the day. Tash Key backs up in middle distance final on Thursday, Jo Allison takes on the long distance final on Friday and David Brickhill-Jones’ next run will be in the relays on Sunday.

Some notable features of the day were that all Japanese women made it through to the final, the New Zealanders again did well in terrain that suited them (confirming Mike Dowling’s assessment), and previous top sprint distance competitors Yuri Omeltchenko and Tore Sandvik both missed the final. Switzerland’s Simone Niggli claimed her third straight sprint distance gold medal and her current form suggests she might repeat her record of four medals in 2003.

As indicated in the preview the sprint races were held in a very difficult area. Mike Dowling, who competed in the public event between the heats and the finals said: “It was just like competing in New Zealand native forest, steep, thick and low visibility”. During his run he had a heavy fall, smashed compass and bruised his hip.

The day started in bright sunshine, then a shower came through wetting the ground & making it extremely slippery. After the rain the temperature and humidity rose sharply. The recorded temperature when the women started at 13.00 was 37C and it got hotter later in the day.

Spectators were given a map of the controls they could visit and it seemed like there were more spectators around controls directing runners than there were at the finish. Some runners may have received an advantage.

Troy de Haas ran steadily throughout both races, and had an excellent start in the Final. He lost a few seconds over the concluding stages and that not only cost him a podium finish, but probably also a medal.

Grant Bluett had a reasonable run in the heats, was not feeling well after that run and did not get away well in the final. However, he picked up the pace and finished strongly over the concluding stages.

Jo Allison , Natasha Key, Allison Jones and David Brickhill-Jones all did their best but it was not quite good enough on the day. Tash Key backs up in middle distance final on Thursday, Jo Allison takes on the long distance final on Friday and David Brickhill-Jones’ next run will be in the relays on Sunday.

Some notable features of the day were that all Japanese women made it through to the final, the New Zealanders again did well in terrain that suited them (confirming Mike Dowling’s assessment), and previous top sprint distance competitors Yuri Omeltchenko and Tore Sandvik both missed the final. Switzerland’s Simone Niggli claimed her third straight sprint distance gold medal and her current form suggests she might repeat her record of four medals in 2003.

The long distance qualification races were held in similar conditions to the middle distance heats, with the same finish area. If anything the temperature and humidity were higher than Sunday. The terrain was again very difficult, with much of the course slow running and walk.

Hanny Allston was Australia’s top performer with a third in her heat just two minutes behind veteran Vroni Konig Salmi. Her result was all the more remarkable in that she hurt her ankle going to the first control. Mother Julia was on hand to render first aid and the diagnosis for the middle and long distance finals is good. Her third is the best result by an Australian in a long distance heat.
Jo Allison was next best with a steady run in her heat to finish seventh behind Marianne Andersen of Norway. Although seventh, Jo was only two minutes behind Andersen and she was in great shape coming into the finish. Her next race will be the sprint on Wednesday.
Allison Jones was unfortunately the only Australian not to make it through to the finals. Her only mistake was on a long leg from three to four, where the control was near the bottom of a long spur, 11 contours below the optimum attack point. She lost confidence that she was on the correct spur and moved to another one before realising her mistake, which she estimates cost her about five minutes. She missed qualifying by three minutes. She will now focus on Wednesday’s sprint race.

Grant Bluett came in 10th, about five minutes behind Marc Lauenstein of Switzerland. He said he was very leg weary during the early stages and came home strongly. He was not overly affected by the run and is looking forward to the sprint and long distance final.
Dave Shepherd managed not to lose his contact lens today and was a little leg-weary after yesterday’s middle distance heats. He had a few anxious moments as the latter runners came in, but he managed 14th place, a good two minutes ahead of 16th place.
Troy de Haas almost overdid his cruising around the final loop in just managing to scrape in by 10 seconds. Troy claimed he was misled by a team member, as he passed a spectator control, who said that he was just a couple of minutes down on the leaders. Coach Jim Russell jokingly said that Troy overdid it, as he had nine seconds to spare.
Sweden and Switzerland are now the only nations to have all of their competitors through to the finals, with Australia and Denmark both dropping one runner today.
Simone Niggli is again going for four gold medals and on her form over the last two days she must have excellent prospects to achieve that feat. The Swiss and the French seem likely to displace the Scandinavians at this World Championships as the top orienteering nations.

The sprint distance on Wednesday is also going to be run in tough, forested areas and this could blunt the speed of David Brickhill-Jones, who has been in great form in Europe during the past six months. All of the other Australians have a competitive run under their belt and that should help them.

A great start to the 2005 WOC campaign, with all six Australians qualifying for the final in today’s middle distance heats, the first race of the 2005 World Championships in the Mikawa Highlands near Nagoya in Japan. Australia was one of only 4 nations (alongside Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland) with all runners qualifying.

In typically hot and humid conditions most of the Australians made some mistakes or had other problems. For some it was a nervous wait after finishing to see if they would make it into the top 15 but as the later runners arrived it became clear that all would qualify – although some just scraped in.

Hanny Allston (11th) felt the terrain was quite Australian – steep gully-spur. She made few errors but was relatively happy with her run saying she was glad to get the mistakes over and done with in the qualification.

Tash Key (13th) made a couple of significant mistakes and wished she had fresher legs to tackle the very steep terrain. But she made it though despite only being in Japan 4 days. With a bit more acclimatisation she is sure to improve for the final.

Julian Dent (14th), fresh from his success at JWOC performed well in his first senior WOC race. A couple of minor mistakes and a poor route choice (he chose to contour around a steep hillside but the terrain made it harder than expected – he now knows the few extra contours up to the ridge top were worth it) but generally he was happy with how he ran.

Tracy Bluett (13th), making her WOC comeback after a four year hiatus, had a tough time. A two minute mistake at the first control was not the best of starts and she felt under pressure all the way after that. Feeling slow on the big hills (a feeling everyone else shared) she was extra careful not to make further mistakes but never sure if she had already blown her chances with that initial mistake. In fact she qualified quite comfortably with two minutes to spare.

David Shepherd (14th) had a “Simone Niggli experience” losing a contact lens at the fourth control. After futile attempts to put it back in he had to give up and just keep going, finishing the rest of the course with one in and one out. It was a disconcerting experience but he kept his cool and also managed to qualify.

Rob Walter (11th) suffered a few scratches to his legs as a consequence of choosing to run in shorts – presumably due to the heat. But a steady run saw him comfortably qualify.

The best performers in the heats were quite predictable. Both Thierry Gueorgiou and Simone Niggli won their heats with clearly faster times than the other heat winners. It looks as though the real competition in the middle distance final next Thursday will be for the silver medals unless one of them makes a big mistake.

Tomorrow morning is the long qualification using the same finish area but a different part of the terrain. Then the real action starts on Wednesday with the sprint qualification and final followed by the opening ceremony at World Expo.

Results

Rob Plowright

The program for the Australian team is:

Sunday 7 August: Middle Distance Qualification Heats:

Men: 3.8 km: Julian Dent (ACT/NSW), David Shepherd (ACT), Rob Walter (ACT)

Women: 3.4 Km: Hanny Allston (Tas), Tracy Bluett (NSW), Natasha Key (Vic).  The top 15 in each of three heats for men and women go through to the finals.

Monday 8 August: Long Distance Qualification Heats:

Men: 7.8 Km: Grant Bluett (ACT), Troy de Haas (Vic), David Shepherd (ACT)

Women: 5.2 Km: Jo Allison (ACT), Hanny Allston (Tas), Allison Jones (ACT).

The top 15 in each of three heats for men and women go through to the finals.

Wednesday 10 August: Sprint Distance Qualification Heats (0900-1100):

Men: 2.0 Km: Grant Bluett (ACT), David Brickhill-Jones (Tas), Troy de Haas (Vic)

Women: 1.8 Km Jo Allison (ACT), Allison Jones (ACT), Natasha Key (Vic).

The top 15 in each of three heats for men and women go through to the finals later in the day.

Wednesday 10 August: Sprint Distance Finals (1300-1500)

Men: 2.4 Km

Women: 2.0 Km.

Finalists from heats earlier in the day.

Thursday 11 August: Middle Distance Finals (0900-1430)

Men: 4.8 Km

Women: 3.9 Km.

Finalists from heats on Sunday.

Friday 12 August: Long Distance Finals (0900-1530)

Men: 12.9 Km

Women: 8.8 Km.

Finalists from heats on Monday.

Sunday 14 August: Relays (0900-1315):

Men’s legs: 6.5 Km: Grant Bluett, David Brickhill-Jones, Troy de Haas

Women’s legs: 5.0 Km: Jo Allison, Hanny Allston, Tracy Bluett.

Note that AEST is one hour ahead of Japanese time.

Canadians were unable to take much advantage of their local terrain in Edmonton, with only Ted de St Croix winning an “A” final at WMOC. Scandinavian and Russian orienteers dominated the placings, with Karen Staudte and Warren Key finishing third in W35 and M45A respectively. Warren was in good company in M45A, with de St Croix winning from Jorgen Martensson. Herrmann Wehner was 4th in M80, and Jim Russell 8th in a closely-contested M40A race.

Other Australian to make A finals were Dale Ann Gordon in W60A (22nd), and Nigel Davies in M55A (26th).

Closing date for posting of normal entries for the Australian Championships carnival in Tasmania is 12 August 2005.

Preparations are continuing well for the carnival which commences on Saturday 24 September with a warm-up event at The Lea, just out of Hobart – the site of Tasmania’s first ever orienteering event in 1972.  The carnival finishes on Sunday 2 October with the Australian Relay Championships at Littlechild Creek just north of St Helens on Tasmania’s East Coast.

In between is a full program of events including the Tasmanian Long Distance Championships at Pittwater Dunes, The Australian Schools Orienteering Championships at Sandstone Valleys in Tasmania’s midlands and the Australian Sprint and Long Distance Championships at St Helens.

Tasmanian orienteers are looking forward to welcoming our interstate and overseas colleagues.  Combine a Tasmanian holiday with some great orienteering.  See you in Tassie in September!

Warren Key had the second fastest time for the second qualification race, behind former Canadian WOC campaigner Ted de St Croix in the M45 class, and is the overall fastest qualifier. Karen Staudte is 5th fastest qualifier in W35, and Jim Russell 8th fastest in M40. Nigel Davies improved on his first M55 qualification race to make the A final.