The Australian Government in May 2014 announced a new $100 million project over two and a half years called Sporting Schools (SS) to replace the Active After Schools Care (AASC) program which ceased in December 2014. Sporting Schools is to commence in July 2015 and orienteering is included among 32 sports to be offered to the 8,000 primary schools in Australia. Each school would receive funding to have 4 to 7 lessons per sport for, on average, 2 sports for 3 school terms each year. See https://sportingschools.gov.au/
The Australian Sports Commission is providing Orienteering Australia with a grant of $80,000 in 2015 for capacity building to implement Sporting Schools orienteering nationally and in each state and territory. Most of this funding is being provided to state associations for implementation tasks including training many more coaches and mappers, running professional development coach training for teachers, teaching orienteering lesson plans, and responding to requests from schools for mapping and a series of lessons. However, there is also a substantial workload at the national level in ongoing liaison with the ASC and state associations, providing national website resources, issuing coach certificates, maintaining new coach databases and validating to the ASC the credentials of persons registering as SS orienteering coaches, and progress and accountability reporting to the ASC.
Orienteering Australia is therefore seeking to employ an enthusiastic part-time Administrative Support Manager for up to 12 months to share the Sporting Schools workload and some of the day-to-day running of the OA office with the OA Executive Officer. The successful applicant will be an experienced orienteer who will have experience in providing orienteering lessons in schools (or an equivalent teaching background), have strong website and social media skills, excellent verbal and written communication, and be able to work very well in a team with OA paid staff, ASC staff, state and territory contact officers, and teachers and parents making inquiries from schools. Availability to work in the OA National office will be an advantage. Applications should address these attributes and include 2 referees.
Remuneration is $30 per hour plus superannuation and workers compensation insurance coverage. Initially there is a catch up workload of 2 days per week; this will decline to 1 day per week later in the year.
Contact John Harding at orienteering@netspeed.com.au or on 0427 107 033 or during the Easter 3 Days for further information. Applications close on Friday 17 April.
Embargoed areas near Ballarat for the 2015 Australian Championships Carnival and the 2015 Australian Secondary Schools Championships
Embargoed areas near Ballarat for the 2015 Australian Championships Carnival and the 2015 Australian Secondary Schools Championships:
Please alert your club/team members. Enquiries, or to notify any suspected transgressions: markhennessy@bigpond.com or mobile 0419 559 129.
The areas embargoed as at March 2015 are set out below. The only circumstances under which these might change is if a mapped area becomes unavailable, which is unlikely at this stage.
The whole of the Creswick Forest between the Invermay – White Swan Road and the Creswick – Bungaree Road is embargoed until Sunday 4 October 2015. This includes, but is not limited to, old maps called Slaty Creek, Cotty Creek, Petticoat Gully, Creswick Diggings and White Swan. Note that Nerrina/Little Bendigo and St Georges Lake are NOT embargoed. However, potential competitors in 2015 Australian Championships should be very careful not to stray across those roads named above, into the embargoed areas. The roads themselves are not embargoed.
Borhoney Ghurk Common, namely the stand-alone section of the Lal Lal State Forest south of Mount Doran and west of the West Moorabool River is embargoed until Monday 5 October 2015. This does NOT include Bungal State Forest, as labeled on Melway X911 C3 (2012 Edition), mapped for orienteering variously as Bunjil, Bungal and Long Forest (near Long Forest Road).
Mount Helen Campus of Federation University is embargoed until after the Schools Sprint Race on Monday afternoon 28 September 2015. No formal or informal orienteering training or practice should take place on the campus. Anyone intending to participate in the Australian Schools Championships should avoid the campus completely, unless they are an enrolled student of the University attending university activities or facilities in their role as a student of the university. The Canadian Forest north of Greenhills Road is NOT embargoed and may provide training opportunities for sprint orienteering (Mount Clear Secondary College) and bush orienteering.
Deep Creek, being the southern section of the Sandon Forest, including Deep Creek Road and the section of forest between Deep Creek Road and Creswick – Newstead Road is embargoed until after the Australian Schools Relay Championships on Wednesday 30 October (except for participation in the Australian Schools Individual Championship and the Public Event on Tuesday 29 September 2015). No potential participant in the Australian Schools Championships should travel along Deep Creek Road by vehicle, bicycle, or on foot, or enter the forest south of the Creswick – Newstead Road. A Victorian State Series event will be held at Sandon on Sunday 17 May 2015, north of the Creswick – Newstead Road. This will provide an opportunity to experience similar terrain to Deep Creek. Competitors in that event who stick to the line of their course on the day and do not run off the map for that event will NOT breach the embargo.
St Patrick’s College Ballarat is embargoed. No formal or informal orienteering training or practice should take place on the campus. Anyone intending to participate in the 2015 Australian Sprint Championships should avoid the campus completely, unless they are an enrolled student of the College attending school activities or facilities in their role as a student of the College, or unless they are on other official College business. Contact Eureka Orienteers for suggestions for sprint training near Ballarat.
Mark Hennessy, Convenor, Bush Orienteering Committee, Orienteering Victoria
The next entry deadline for the World Masters Orienteering Championships 2015 to be organized in Gothenburg, Sweden is approaching: it is still possible to enter with the 70 EUR accreditation fee until 31 March! Please see the related news article on IOF website at http://orienteering.org/next-entry-deadline-for-world-masters-approaching/
Blair Trewin advises that PWT Travel are running a charter flight from WMOC to the Scottish 6-Days. The first flight is full but a second one is being put on. He can supply contact details of the person he dealt with at PWT Travel if anyone is interested.
Minister for Sport releases new ASC Participation strategy
Today the Minister for Sport, the Hon Sussan Ley MP, launched the Australian Sport Commission’s new participation game plan, Play.Sport.Australia.
This plan sets out the Australian Government’s big picture vision for boosting participation in sport, and is a sister document to Australia’s Winning Edge, the AIS’s 10-year game plan for high performance sport.
As the Minister said in launching Play.Sport.Australia. at the 2015 Business of Sport Summit, this plan is both comprehensive in its information and exciting in its ideas. It paints a compelling picture of how sport has changed in the last decade and plots the opportunities we must embrace and maximise in the years ahead.
Play.Sport.Australia. also provides a clear outline of where the Australian Sports Commission expects sports participation to be in the future, with our keys aims being:
more Australians, particularly young Australians, participating in sport more often
year-on-year membership and participation growth for all sports
strong sporting organisations that deliver the products and opportunities Australians want.
With Play.Sport.Australia. launched, the Australian Sports Commission looks forward to working with sports, state departments and the whole sports sector to grow and strengthen participation in Australia.
Our priority areas will include extending the access sports have to information on participation trends; assisting sports to increase demand; and building the relationship between sports and those that supply it.
A copy of Play.Sport.Australia. is available on the Australian Sports Commission’s website, and I encourage you to take some time to familiarise yourself with it and share it with your peers.
Regards,
Simon Hollingsworth
CEO, Australian Sports Commission
Orienteering Australia AGM and committee meetings, 4 & 5 April
Saturday 4 April: OA Committee meetings, Jamestown Community School, Ayr St, Jamestown (also known as the Wilkins Highway), at the junction with Humphris Terrace. Parking available in school car parks off Ayr St in the front of the school.
The first 2015 MTBO National League event takes place this coming weekend March 21-22 with 3 individual events being conducted just west of Newcastle, NSW. The long distance event on Saturday afternoon is based at Holmsville and the sprint utilises the same assembly area on Sunday morning. Then participants move to Pelaw Main for the afternoon’s middle distance event.
Courses have been set by Greg Bacon & Malcolm Roberts and Scott Simson is the controller. While the Newcastle orienteering club has a strong representation, there are also riders making the journey from WA, Qld, SA, VIC & ACT.
For the elites and M20’s these races double up as the selection trials for the World Championships being held in the Czech Republic in August. Angus Robinson is the benchmark for M20 having placed 10th at JWOC last year but Tim Jackson (VIC) has done equally as well domestically in the past. Then there is exciting new talents in Jack Allison (SA), Nick Cherry (VIC) and Fergus Mackie (NSW), all of whom are renowned mountain bikers but with little navigational experience. Their chances of upsetting the top duo are probably best in the long race.
The elite men has a large field led by previous WOC team members Chris Firman (QLD) and Ricky Thackray (WA). It won’t be a surprise to see Ori Gudes (WA), the wily veteran Greg Barbour (NSW) or locals Steve Todkill and Patrick Gunnarrson vie for places on the podium.
Carolyn Jackson (VIC) winner of 7 gold medals at the World Masters maintains favouritism in elite women. The NSW trio of Cath Chalmers, Jennifer Enderby and Marina Iskhakova, as well as WA’s Natasha Sparg are likely to be fighting for the minor placings.
The areas are relatively flat but with detailed track networks. Fire trails tend to have moderate ridability due to ruts, waterholes and fallen logs. The single tracks are described as tight and twisty. There will be lots of controls to be found over the weekend as illustrated by the men’s elite long distance being 26 kilometres in length, with 26 controls and 270 metres climb.
The Queensland Cyclones (Yasi) were successful in the Sprint Relay held at Sydney University. The two favored teams were the Canberra Cockatoos (Gang Gangs) team of Jo Allison, Ian Lawford, Lachlan Dow and Lizzie Ingham and the Cyclone Yasi team of Rachel Effeney, Mark Gregson, Tim Effeney and Anna Sheldon.
Leg 1 Mass Start
Rachel Effeney was the fastest on leg 1 (11:07) to be 1:08 in front of Victorian Nuggets team (Aislinn Prendergast) and Gang Gangs in 3rd 5 seconds further back. Mark Gregson had a very good run on Leg 2 to maintain a strong lead (39 seconds) from Ian Lawford, who moved the Gang Gangs into second place. Unfortunately for the Gang Gangs Lachlan Dow missed three controls and this meant that the Cyclone Yasi team (Tim Effeney) were still in the lead after the 3rd leg by over a minute. The NSW Stingers after a strong 3rd leg from Alex Massey were 2 seconds in front of the Victorian Nuggets. On leg 4 Anna Sheldon ran well enough for Cyclone Yasi team to maintain a comfortable lead. Catherine Murphy ran very strongly on the 4th leg for the NSW Stingers and after a small error from Laurina Neumann before the spectator control was a comfortable second place with the Victorian Nuggets finishing in third place.
Bruce Arthur leading Matt Parton (Leg 3)
The Sprint Qualification was held on a new map next to Botany Bay and featured a small area of sand dunes as well as some open parkland with many man made features. The courses started in the sand dunes so there was a need to slow down and pick up the small details. Each NOL class had two heats with the 5 fastest from each heat qualifying for the A final on Sunday morning.
The M21E heat A was very close with only 24 seconds between 1st and 5th. The winner was Max Neve in 12:40. Other qualifiers were Brodie Nankervis, Bryan Keely, Oscar McNulty and Andrew Barratt. Simon Uppill who would have been a favourite to make the A final missed out on qualifying by 14 seconds. In Heat B Lachlan Dow was the winner in 13:26, other qualifiers were Ian Lawford, Matt Crane, Matt Parton and Mark Gregson.
Oscar McNulty- Sprint Qualification
In W21E the two favorites Rachel Effeney and Lizzie Ingham both missed a control in the sand dunes and so were out of Sundays A final. The winner of Heat A was Krystal Neumann (14:50). Other qualifiers were Heather Muir, Belinda Lawford, Lisa Grant and Tracey Marsh. The winner of Heat B was Jo Allison (14:50). Other qualifiers were Laurina Neumann, Malin Anderson, Aislinn Prendergast and Michele Dawson.
In the M20E class Matt Doyle was a clear winner in Heat A in 13:14. Other qualifiers were Toby Wilson, Stephen Melhuish, Aidan Dawson and Will Kennedy. In Heat B the winner in a much slower time was Ashley Nankervis (15:30) with other qualifiers being Daniel Hill, Jarrah Day, Oliver Mill and Nicholas Collins.
In W20E there were only 8 starters so all runners made the final. The winners of the Heats were Nicola Blatchford and Olivia Sprod.
The NOL Sprint Final was held at the University of New South Wales. A new map which provided the athletes with a very intensive sprint course on the complex campus. A real test of urban sprint orienteering technique. The A finals were held consecutively so all the orienteers who had earlier competed in the NSW Sprint Championships could spectate each of the finals. The first final was the W20E and this resulted in a close victory to Nicola Blatchford (NSW Stinger) from Tara Melhuish 7 seconds back in second place with Alison Burrill in third place.
The M20E was expected to be a win for Matt Doyle but Aidan Dawson set a clear best time of 17:03 and with Matt being the last starter we were expecting a close challenge. However, at the radio control it was clear that Aidan’s time was going to be good enough for him to take the win. Matt was second in 17:49 with Stephen Melhuish in 3rd place. Aidan was the early leader in the race but Will Kennedy had a very fast middle section and was in the led until he lost nearly 2 minutes on control 15. This enabled Aidan to regain the lead and he ran strongly for the rest of the course.
M20E- Matt Doyle 2nd, Aidan Dawson 1st, Stephen Melhuish 3rd.
In the W21E A final the interest was not only in who would be the winner but whether anyone in the A final could get close to the time set in the B final by Lizzie Ingham (14:16) and Rachel Effeney (14:20). Krystal Neumann was in the lead for the whole course and was the winner in a time of 15:20, second was Malin Anderson and third was Jo Allison.
W21E- Malin Anderson 2nd, Krystal Neumann 1st, Jo Allison 3rd.
The M21E A final was a close race, only one minute separating the top 7 runners. Oscar McNulty started fast and continued with good speed for the whole course to be the leader for all but one control in a time of 15:42. Ian Lawford had a slow start but finished strongly to run a close second- 10 seconds down on Oscar. Matt Crane was third. Simon Uppill who just missed qualifying had the fifth fastest time on the course.
M21E- Matt Crane 3rd, Oscar McNulty 1st, Ian Lawford 2nd.
Australian Three Days Standard Entries are closing soon – Sunday March 1st.
This Three Day event (3rd to 6th April) begins with an urban event in Jamestown, followed by three bush events in mallee areas east of Jamestown and northeast of Hallett.
The courses planners have been very busy over the last few months finalising the courses, this is nearing completion. The Jamestown event begins with the elite races, after which other orienteers can enter in the Public Prologue covering the same courses plus a shorter course. You can put three family members together to enter the Family Teams event (results are both overall and on handicap based on ages). The map covers the Jamestown school (photos below) and adjacent areas of this rural township.
The three following days are all in mallee terrain, with the details and styles of course setting varying each day. Day 1, set by Simon Uppill on the southern part of Bri-Glen, northern Merridee and an extension to the west, has Middle Distance format course setting through the complex creek systems of this area. Day 2 set by Phil Hazell on Tundarri (new area) and northern Bri-Glen varies in style through creek systems on the eastern flatter parts of the map to more traditional long distance courses setting on the typical mallee spur gully terrain to the west. Paul Hoopmann has set the Day 3 courses on the new Mulga Valley map, where subtle topography dissected by steeper creek systems offers a third style of courses.
All the course planners have included spectator legs on the longer courses, so whilst you are not out running on your courses, you can watch other orienteers on their courses from the Assembly areas.
Orienteering Australia National Squads have been selected by the High Performance coaches. Athletes who have applied to be part of the squad structure have been assessed on their performances during 2014 and including the World Cup events in Tasmania. This has given the selectors benchmarks of achievement for each athlete which have been used to place athletes into the squad that is at their level of performance. Membership of the Targeted Talented Athlete Squad is by invitation only, based on performance analysis from major national events in 2014
The squads are:
Elite High Performance Squad (EHPS)
High Performance Squad (HPS)
National Development Squad (NDS)
Australian Junior Development Squad (AJDS)
Targeted Talented Athlete Squad (TTAS)
As a member of an OA National Squad each athlete must:
Create a Profile on the Orienteering Australia Athlete Management Platform (AMP). New squad members will receive an invitation to be a member of the AMP. This profile is to include- age, phone, email address, postal address, coaches name and contact, IOF ID, link to training log, athlete biography, photo.
Maintain an Athlete Log– contact with squad coach
Complete Race Analysis (under Evaluations) for all major events
Prepare an Event Schedule for 2015
Complete a Wellness Test at least once a month and log any illness or injury
Regularly log on to AMP to check documents as all communication with athletes will be via AMP.
Congratulations to all the listed athletes on becoming a member of one of the OA National Squads for 2015. The HP Coaches look forward to working with you all to further develop your orienteering and helping you to achieve your orienteering goals.
