Tasmanian David Brickhill-Jones became the first Australian to achieve a top-three placing in an Orienteering World Cup race outside of Australia when he finished second in the 3,500 metre Sprint Distance race in Battersea Park, London, UK on Monday.
Brickhill-Jones, shown here punching the spectator control, was fastest through the first 15 of 26 controls (check points) by three seconds but faded slightly to finish 18 seconds adrift of Switzerland’s Daniel Hubman.
Tasmanian David Brickhill-Jones became the first Australian to achieve a top-three
placing in an Foot Orienteering World Cup race outside of Australia when he finished
second in the 3,500 metre Sprint Distance race in Battersea Park, London, UK on
Monday.
Brickhill-Jones was fastest through the first 15 of 26 controls (check points) by
three seconds but faded slightly to finish 18 seconds adrift of Switzerland’s Daniel
Hubman.
David Shepherd (ACT) has moved into second place after his big win in the Australian Middle Distance Championships, with the highest ranking score (1385) ever seen in a domestic ranking race. Julian Dent (NSW) also moved into the top 5 for the first time after a string of top class performances this year. Danish orienteer Rune Olsen (VIC) 10th and Craig Dufty 11th (WA) have also climbed the list after some great results in recent NOL races.
In the women’s list, Tracy Bluett (NSW) has moved into 4th place. Her win in the Australian Middle Distance Championships was her best ranking score since returning to competition following the birt of daughter Tiia. Anna Danielsson’s (ACT) win in the ASC Galaxy Sprint has moved her to a personal best ranking of 16th, and top performances from Jasmine Neve (VIC) has seen her move into the top 20 for the first time.
David Shepherd (ACT) has moved into second place after his big win in the Australian Middle Distance Championships, with the highest ranking score (1385) ever seen in a domestic ranking race. Julian Dent (NSW) also moved into the top 5 for the first time after a string of top class performances this year. Danish orienteer Rune Olsen (VIC) 10th and Craig Dufty 11th (WA) have also climbed the list after some great results in recent NOL races.
In the women’s list, Tracy Bluett (NSW) has moved into 4th place. Her win in the Australian Middle Distance Championships was her best ranking score since returning to competition following the birt of daughter Tiia. Anna Danielsson’s (ACT) win in the ASC Galaxy Sprint has moved her to a personal best ranking of 16th, and top performances from Jasmine Neve (VIC) has seen her move into the top 20 for the first time.
David Shepherd (ACT) has moved into second place after his big win in the Australian Middle Distance Championships, with the highest ranking score (1385) ever seen in a domestic ranking race. Julian Dent (NSW) also moved into the top 5 for the first time after a string of top class performances this year. Danish orienteer Rune Olsen (Vic) 10th and Craig Dufty 11th (WA) have also climbed the list after some great results in the recent National Orienteering League races.
In the women’s list, Tracy Bluett (NSW) has moved into 4th place. Her win in the Australian Middle Distance Championships was her best ranking score since returning to competition after the birth of daughter Tiia. Anna Danielsson’s (ACT) win in the ASC Galaxy Sprint has moved her to a personal best ranking of 16th, while top performances from Jasmine Neve (Vic) has seen her move into the top 20 for the first time.
Dave Shepherd and Tracy Bluett took out the open classes at the Australian Middle Distance Championships, held in the sandstone of Ganguddy in central New South Wales. Shepherd was particularly impressive in his victory, scoring by three minutes in a strong field. He had opened up that three-minute gap over Grant Bluett by control 6, the most technical section of the course, and held it to the end. Completing the placings, in his best result for some years, was veteran Jock Davis, who took third late in the course after Rob Preston stumbled at the first control of the final loop.
W21E was a much closer affair with a tight battle between Tracy Bluett and Jo Allison, both of whom had excellent runs. After some dicing early, Bluett took the lead by halfway and held it to the end of the course; the gap never got bigger than 23 seconds, and Allison had closed it to 12 by the last control, but that was as close as she was able to get. It was Bluett’s best result of the year and further underlined her claims to a World Championships place. Hanny Allston lost two minutes at control three, but was consistent over the rest of the course to place third, that two-minute gap remaining more or less constant to the end.
The junior fields were thin, particularly the men. There was some quality in W20E where Erin Post continued her good form from the last two days of Easter to take the race out by a minute over Ainsley Cavanagh; Chris Naunton prevailed in a small M20E field.
The Canberra Cockatoos consolidated their lead in the National Orienteering League over the three races of the Anzac weekend, stretching their break to 18 points after seven rounds. The big movers of the weekend were the NSW Stingers, who took advantage of home ground to turn a three-point deficit into a seven-point lead over the Victorian Nuggets at the end of the weekend; the Queensland Cyclones also had a good weekend to move into a clear fourth place.
After the Middle Distance Championships, the weekend was completed with a long(ish) distance race at Dungeree Forest on Sunday and a sprint in Sydney on Monday. Grant Bluett recovered from missing out at Ganguddy to win both races, giving him the lead in the individual league. In both races he had narrow wins over Julian Dent. On Sunday the gap was only 16 seconds; Dent led for most of the way but could not quite finish it off. Dave Shepherd was third on Sunday, with the sprint the placings being completed by Tom Quayle, who missed the longer weekend races due to an Achilles tendon injury but was able to get through 14 minutes without much difficulty.
Jo Allison won impressively on the Sunday, reversing Saturday’s loss to Tracy Bluett with an impressive four-minute victory. Hanny Allston was again third. The sprint result was more of a surprise, with Anna Danielsson, newly arrived from Sweden this year, breaking through for her first major win in Australian competition with a narrow win over Bluett. Allison was third, but retains a comfortable lead in the League over Alston, with Bluett in third place.
Swedish (and Cockatoo) delight at today’s NOL Round 7 with Canberra Cockatoo, and recent emigre from Sweden, Anna Danielsson taking victory by 4 seconds in the Sydney Sprint at Sydney Park. In a demanding park course Danielsson, who has moved to Canberra after becoming engaged to long-time Cockatoo Tom Quayle, showed the form that has brought her success in Sweden with a breakthrough victory in NOL race 7. Danielsson, a former representative of Sweden at junior world championships level, got home by a whisker over NSW Stinger Tracy Bluett who completed a weekend of first and second placings with another second place. Consistent Cockatoo, and leader of the NOL Senior Women’s division, Jo Allison, finished third another 2 seconds behind and Hanny Allston of the Tassie Foresters was 4th. In other notable performances first year seniors Julia Davies (Queensland Cyclones) and Mace Neve (Canberra Cockatoos) showed their potential with 5th and 6th places respectively.
In the men’s race it was another victory for one of Australia’s pre-eminent Sprint racers Grant Bluett (Canberra Cockatoos) holding off Julian Dent (NSW Stingers) by 10 seconds for victory. Bluett and Dent are continuing a ding-dong battle for the lead in the NOL Men’s title race with both of them only being out of the top three in the NOL after 7 rounds on one occasion. Tom Quayle (Canberra Cockatoos) who through an achilles injury had not been able to complete either of the longer NOL races this weekend overcame the injury to finish third, 14 seconds behind Bluett and 5 seconds ahead of round 5 winner Dave Shepherd (Canberra Cockatoos). In other notable performances Victorian Nugget Rune Olsen, NSW Stinger Eric Morris and Southern Arrow Ben Rattray all produced season-best placings for 5th, 6th and 7th respectively.
The National Orienteering League resumes in a fortnight at the ‘Call of the West’ series of races in Western Australia.
Australian on 10-Mila PodiumOver the last few years Australians have made regular appearances in top placed teams at 10-Mila: the legendary Swedish relay where teams compete over 10 day and night legs ranging from 7-17km in length. Last year Dave Shepherd, running the long last leg for Göteborg-Majorna, brought the team home in 7th place. In 2003 Rob Walter and Grant Bluett were both members of 4th placed Malungs-Skogsmårdarna. In 2001, Finnish club Turun Suunistajat finished 5th with Troy de Haas in the team. The year before that Grant Bluett ran 9th leg in the Malungs-Skogsmårdarna team that finished 3rd – the best placing of any Australian in 10-Mila….until now that is.
This year David Brickhill-Jones ran first leg for Norwegian super-club Halden SK which finished a very close second to Sweden’s Södertälje-Nykvarn. In a fascinating battle on the last leg (which is traditionally long with no splitting) Halden’s, Tore Sandvik, had to try find a way to drop Södertälje’s young Czech runner Petr Lossman. This he was unable to do and Lossman fulfilled his role exactly as the club tacticians had foreseen it: stay in contact then win the sprint finish. This was the first Swedish victory since 1997 (also Södertälje). The last 8 years have all been won by Norwegian clubs. Of those Halden has won 6 times and been second twice.
For BJ perhaps the toughest part was just to make the team. Halden don’t take risks on team selection for 10-Mila and they have a deep pool of very talented runners to choose from – the best in the world. BJ is a natural first leg runner thriving on the hustle and bustle, the head to head combat, the adrenalin rush. But to get that spot in the team he was up against Björn Eriksen who, as first leg specialist for Halden in recent years, has rarely finished outside the top 20 in any major relay.
A first leg runner cannot win the relay for the team, but he certainly lose it by blowing out in the high pressure. BJ ran a perfect first leg, staying in close contact with the leaders throughout the course but not taking any risks; especially in the last part of the course when the temptation can be to go for the pyrrhic glory of being the first across the line. He finished a comfortable 16th, 1.05 behind the leader.. Rob Walter, again running for Malungs-Skogsmårdarna, also ran a very good first leg, finishing in 37th place. The team was 18th at the finish.
With BJ planning to stay in Norway for some time to come and Halden certain to be out to reclaim what they feel is their rightful place at 10-Mila, maybe we won’t have to wait too long to see an Australian on the highest step of the victory podium.
In just 8 weeks, across the Baltic Sea in Finland, is Jukola, the other mega-relay on the annual calendar (7 legs, over 1000 teams). Troy de Haas has already tasted victory there with Turun Suunistajat in 2001. There will be several Australians running this year in teams with good prospects of repeating that performance.
Rob Plowright
Team manager Paul Darvodelsky shares some insights into the championships…
Banska Bystrica in Slovakia between 5-11 September.
There are 4 races, qualification, classic, middle distance and relay.
This part of Slovakia seems to range from somewhere between hideously and brutally steep!! So generally we’ll have shorter and steeper courses than we’re used to with slower track surfaces.
Yes. The Aussies are all very strong riders, so generally the tougher it is the better we should do.
When and where are the selection trials for the Australian team being held, and what are the selection criteria for the team?
Selection races are on the 21st and 22nd of May in the Daylesford area. The size of the team will depend on the results, but the general idea is to send a team of 4 men and 4 women. Changes to those numbers will depend on the results in the selection races. Australia is very strong in MTBO and therefore we may send a larger team.
As soon as practical after the selection races. There is no fixed date and timing will depend in part on the results. Most likely the selectors will make an announcement a week or two after the last selection race.
There is quite a strong European MTBO calendar now, with World Ranking Events and multi-day events in many countries. These start in early July and some people may head across around then, but I expect most will head across between late July and mid-August and stay until after the World Champs party! As with foot-o the more time one can spend in a new terrain, the better.
Apart from the normal race programme at home in Australia there are two MTB-O 5-days, 4 World Ranking Events, Austrian, Slovak and Czech championships leading up to WOC and the team will probably have a training camp in Slovakia in the last half of August on the WOC training maps.
We’ll be looking for one! At this stage we haven’t organised a specific mechanic and most team members are used to doing routine maintenance on their bikes. But I hope to organise some sort of share agreement with one of the European teams. WOC organisers usually arrange some sort of access for maintenance also as part of the event, particularly for major work. Which hopefully we won’t need!
I’ve been orienteering since a fateful day sometime in 1976. In that time I’ve orienteered in about 25 countries and done well over 1000 races, including world cups and the like. For MTB-O I did my first event in late 2001, just after I bought my first bike and haven’t actually run a step now for about 3 years!