2006 Archive

Tasmania’s Christine Brown has been awarded a National  Officiating Scholarship from the Australian Sports Commission to help her prepare for her job as National Controller of JWOC 2007. The scholarships are offered by the ASC to help improve the quality of top officials in a range of different sports.

Christine is one of Australia’s most experienced  controllers. She is a Level 3 OA Controller, and is also accredited as an IOF Event Adviser. She was controllers for last year’s Australian Championships in St Helens, and has been active in the education of level 1 and 2 controllers in Tasmania. She was also Australia’s WOC  manager in 2004, and is a successful competitor in her own right.

Christine’s scholarship will fund her to travel to Lithuania  to observe proceedings at JWOC 2006, as well as WOC 2006 in Denmark  where she will also attend an IOF EVent Advisers clinic. She will be mentored by Swiss Senior Event Adviser Urs Hofer, who is also the IOF Controller for JWOC 2007.

Martin Fryer of Weston Emus (ACT) has had a brilliant international representative running debut over the weekend, finishing 11th in the World 24 Hour Ultramarathon Challenge in Taipei, Taiwan. Fryer made a charge through the field in the final hours to cover 233kms 239m and finish 11th. The winner, Ryoichi Sekiya of Japan, completed 272km 936m, well ahead of runner up Magroun Mohamed of France with 248.6kms and third placed Vladimir Bychkov of Russia with 246.1kms.

Other Australian finishers were Mick Francis 30th in 210kms, Paul Every, 49th in 185kms, and Simon Phillips 52nd in 177kms. The Australian team finished eighth. Fryer’s previous best ultra running accomplishment was winning the 246km Coast to Kosciusko in December, running 31 hours and taking several hours off the old record.

By comparison, Fryer’s weekly efforts in the ACT Orienteering Summer Series were mere sprints!

Lachlan Hallett did well to win the M17-39 class of the SA Sprint Championships in the prevailing conditions, beating Bruce Arthur from Victoria by 12 seconds followed by John Nieuwenhoven – a great improver, 16 seconds further back. Lachlan completed the 3.4 Km course in 16:29, the race was closely contested as the first four runners finished within 30 seconds of each other, recording less than 5 minutes per Km.

The championships started wet with thunderstorms and flooding in surrounding areas. We were lucky to have only light rain, albeit inconvenient. The area used is a local wooded park at the foot of Black Hill with numerous tracks but no buildings. The map had to be corrected at the last minute to include prominent vegetation, to assist in navigation – to compensate for the lack of other prominent features, usually on sprint maps.

Susanne Casanova won the W17-39 and has been running extremely well since returning from Europe. Susanne’s time was 17:34, followed by Zebedy Hallett and Mallory Hughes.

The inclusion of the M/W 50+ categories saw a good interest in the entries as these were reluctant to mix with the younger faster runners. M50+ John Lyon from Tintookies winning the 3.0 Km course in 21:55 and Onkaparinga Hills’ Robin Uppill first in W50+ completing the 2.6 Km course in 19:57. Doug Lee won the M40+ and Erica Diment  the W40+. First in M16 was Ben Diment and Nadia Velaitis excelled in W16.

It is a credit to the course setter Phil Hazell to set interesting courses in the challenging small area. Only accolades were heard from the competitors.

Maarten  Nieuwenhoven

The final of the Ultimax Sydney Sprints was held on Monday on the grounds around Macquarie University. Ben Rattray re-mapped the area especially for the event, and Ian Meyer set a 2.6km course with many tough route choice decisions. At the end of the day, Rattray’s familiarity enabled the quickest time of the day ahead of Stingers Andy Hill and Peter Preston. Orla Murray finished a strong campaign by winning the last race ahead of Cathy McComb and a brilliant effort from Sue Thomson (showing young sprightly form).

Overall series winners (male and female) were awarded to Mark Shingler and Cathy McComb (Stingers are ineligible for the award). The two showed great form throughout the season. A number of random prizes were also awarded thanks to Berghaus and Ultimax resulting in a number of happy faces and a few pairs of happy feet.

The Ultimax Sprints have provided the NSW Stingers with great race practice leading up to the first NOL races in March. The team has also gained valuable experience in course-setting, event organisation and use of the Sport Ident Software. Stay tuned for details of the 2007 Ultimax Sprints, which will continue to provide fast pace, interesting courses in classic Sydney locations.

Full results and maps from the 2006 Ultimax Sprints can be found at http://sydneysprints.blogspot.com/

On Wednesday morning a number of orienteers started in the XPD Challenge held through the western and central parts of Tasmania. Teams commenced with a mountain bike leg from Stanley on the North West coast of Tasmania and headed south for a series of bike, trekking and kayaking legs that will eventually bring them through to Hobart and the finish line. Teams have a maximum of ten days to complete this arduous journey that will be a sterling test of their physical and mental capabilities.

Follow orienteers in the following teams as they take on the challenge of XPD.

Matt Dalziel (TAS) & Tom Landon-Smith (ACT), Team 1: AROC / Mountain Designs

Rob Garden and Rachel Smith (NZ), Team 12: MacNut NZ

Thorlene Egerton (QLD), Team 14: PB Sports

Phil Wood (NZ), Team 16: Back Country Cuisine Girls On Top

Brent Edwards (NZ), Team 17, OrionAdventure.com

Bernard Walker (TAS), Team 22, Mawson

Darryl Smith (TAS), Team 28, Team 4 Cancer

Danielle Winslow – pictured right (TAS/ACT), Team 43, First Contact

Julie Quinn and Dave Baldwin (ACT): Team 46, Tangerine.

Check out their progress at www.xpd.com.au.

For Edgerton and Winslow it will be interesting to see if they can recover in time and turn out for their states in the first round of the National League in NSW in mid-March.

1. WOC Selection – overseas trials

The selectors have confirmed that there will be one overseas selection trial – the Spring Cup classic race in Denmark on 25 March.  Overseas-based candidates are also encouraged to post results in other major events listed in the selection critieria, including the Swedish Elite Series.  Results in such races will be considered up to 23 April 2006 (ie including the Swedish Elite Series race on this date).

2. Bushrangers

The Australian Bushrangers team will take on New Zealand in two separate events – at the NZ Queens Birthday races on the first weekend in June (note that the NZ Queens Birthday weekend is one week ahead of the Australian equivalent) and in Queensland at the NOL races in August.  All Australian elites with the exception of those selected in the WOC team will be considered for this team.  The selection critieria will be the same as for WOC and the team will be announced at the same time – ie during the last week in April.  If some athletes are only available for one set of races then two separate teams may be announced.  Funding for the NZ races is yet to be confirmed.

The WOC nomination form has now been amended (and is attached below) to allow people to indicate whether they wish to be considered for selection for the Bushrangers team if they don’t make the WOC team.  For those who haven’t yet nominated for the WOC team (or only wish to nominate for the Bushrangers team) please use this new form.  If you’ve already sent your nomination in, please send me an email indicating whether you wish to be  considered for Bushranger selection.  The size of the team(s) will be between 4 and 6 men and women, depending upon the number of nominees and the number of people that New Zealand (as the visiting team) will be sending to Queensland.

3. World University Championships

Nominations are sought for the World University Orienteering championships to be held in the Slovak Republic between 14 and 20 August.  Countries may send up to 6 men and 6 women.  To be eligible you must be a current University student (or have graduated in 2005) and be born between 1978 and 1988 (inclusive).

Those interested in competing should contact Paul Liggins at paul.liggins@au.pwc.com by Friday 7 April.

Selection will generally be based on performance at Easter 2006, as well as results in major Australian races in 2005.

Please inform those people who might be interested in competing but are not regular readers of this web WOCandBushies2006NominationForm

Paul Liggins

Orienteering Australia announce that Andrew Rowe has been appointed to act as Team Manager for the 2006 Australian MTBO team to take part in the World Championships in Joensuu Finland this July. Andrew’s appointment has come about as a result of the National Coach Kay Haarsma being unable to attend the MTBO World Championships due to work commitments.

Andrew has previous experience in working with the MTBO team having been team manager at the 2004 MTBO World Championships in Ballarat Victoria.

The start of the National Orienteering League 2006 is now less than a month away! Which means even less than a month to finalise and send in your theFOOL team. Entries have started trickling in already, but perhaps most of you are waiting for that extra bit of inside knowledge…

Round the Grounds

ACT – The reigning champions are seemingly unbeatable. But a few things have changed this year. A training camp in Beechworth may have been a good step for granite practice but it revealed a few holes. A few of the big names are just coming back from injury and maybe not in time for the first races. Other team members are now living overseas, weakening any depth they might have had. The summer series in Canberra has revealed good form for Anna Quayle though.

VIC – Runners-up last year taking that title away from NSW at the last race of the season. They are relying on some aging stars but have the advantage of quite a number of races at home. Of course Troy de Haas is back in Australia and he can make a massive difference. And they have some promising juniors coming up, as well as those versatile mountain bike types. There is some cluckiness around.

NSW – If anyone can challenge the Cockies, it’s the Stingers, or so you might think. A few of the men raced the Overland track, a 82km run! This may seem a little silly to some and presumably isnt the best preparation just over a month before the start of the season. The purchase of kayaks suggests some may be concentrating less on orienteering these days. An extremely high quality sprint series in Sydney will add good preparation though and has seen the return of Orla to Sydney which should boost the Sydney women’s scene. And then there are the distant cries of babies…

QLD – Is a team that may be the best prepared going into this coming season. With Geoff Peck playing an influential role in coaching, the squad seems to be active at training camps and preparing specifically for the coming races. All this and more are hinted at on their website. And in case you are wondering who will be running for them, even their team selection is on the web!

SA – Has a big training camp this weekend and a renewed push to take on the likes of the Cyclones and even sneak into the top 3 overall. With ideas for a new uniform as well, the team is hopeful they can encourage more out to the races. Because there is a lot of talent in SA, its just whether they make the start line, either through not being able to travel or being injured. Did someone say injured?

WA – To be honest, I have no idea what is happening out West. There is plenty of talent for solid results, maybe the silence is a sign they are too busy training. Despite the distance I can hear something though… is that more babies??

TAS – The Forester women are getting awards left right and centre. Hanny of course picked up a state award and Grace won the Overland track race. Some concern over operations and long races/adventure races may come into play. The men are a different story though, and the Foresters didn’t finish last last year due to their women. Although there are some young ones with promise there is a sense they may not be too keen to develop it.

The views expressed here do not necessarily represent anyone, particularly Orienteering Australia or theFOOL.