2005 Archive

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.

A small number of Australians has made the trip to Canada to compete in WMOC 2005. The first qualification race has been run, and both Jim Russell and Warren Key are well placed in their age groups.

The selectors would like to announce the Australian team for the World Cup Final in Italy in October. The team is:

David Brickhill-Jones (Tas)

Julian Dent (NSW)

Eric Morris (NSW)

Eddie Wymer (Vic)

The selected relay team is David Brickhill-Jones, Julian Dent and Eddie Wymer.

Aussie girls finish 8th in the relays at magnificent San Bernadino. San Bernadino is a ski resort in the winter and the terrain is a mixture of alpine meadows on steep slopes and alpine forest with small knolls and gullies.

The Australian junior women’s team of Jasmine Neve, Erin Post and Hanny Allston finished eighth. Jasmine Neve led the team out under the noise and excitement of the crowd and a helicopter that was there to take aerial photos of the competitors at the beginning of the relay. Jasmine overcame her knee injury to put Australia in a reasonable position. Erin followed with a steady run and left Hanny to bring the team home to eighth position with her finishing with the second fastest leg time of the day in the women’s race.

In the men’s team Dave Meyer led the team out but lost a lot of time in the first loop being confused by the number of split controls and the noise and crowds of competitors. He was nearly the last competitor to come to the first spectator control above the assembly area. He was very disappointed in his own performance. Simon Uppill was able to salvage some time and brought the team up to 36th position after the second leg from 44th position. Then Julian Dent was able to make up more time and finished with the 6th fastest time for his leg and the Australian men’s team finished in 19th position overall for the relay.

JWOC 2005 in Summary

The 2005 Australian junior orienteering team finished overall in 10th position. This was due to some excellent personal performances from Hanny Allston (Bronze medal in the middle distance and second fastest relay leg) and Julian Dent (8th for the middle distance, 4th in the long distance races), the steady runs from Dave Meyer and Jasmine Neve in the long distance race and Simon Uppill in his first JWOC qualifying for the A final in the middle distance race.

The team displayed all the characteristics of good teamwork and supported each other in their successes and in their disappointments. The support from the physiotherapists Manuela Buzzo(from Switzerland), during the training camp and from Jan Sargood during the competition week assisted the team members to feel confident and comfortable with massages and advice.

Hilary Wood

Sunday was the Teams relay for the World Games. The terrain was a mix of urban area and parklands, with a very small area of forest. The organisers recommended running shorts and shoes for competitors.

The World Games relay is a four-person (two men & two women) relay. Qualification is highly competitive with only 13 teams offered a starting place: Australia qualified 13th, and went into the day aiming to improve that position following some solid runs in the Saturday’s middle distance race.

Australia’s relay team was led out by Troy de Haas, with the pace on from the very start. Troy made a couple of little errors but held on to the back of the pack to come in 22 seconds behind the leaders and handed the reins over to Allison Jones.

Allison had a battle with the Juliette Soulard from the French team, Allison opened up a gap on Juliette as the teams came through the stadium at the half way point of the course, in the second half, the French girl finally caught up to Allison as they took different route choices and they entered the stadium locked together.

Grant Bluett went out on the course with Thierry Gueorgiou, the new World Games Champion. With a couple of wider splits, Grant never got to the front and had to contend with a time 5 seconds slower than Thierry.

Danielle Winslow was the last runner for the Aussie team, she started out in 12th spot and the question was, could she hold off the Finnish team. It was not going to happen as the Finnish girl ran the 3rd fastest time of the day and went past Danielle during the 1st loop, Australia then had to settle for 13th place.

Jim Russell