2006 Archive

Julian Dent and Grace Elson took out the open titles at the Australian Sprint Championships in York today.

For Dent, it was his third successive National League win. He set the time to beat early in the Red Start Group, and none of his opponents were able to come close to him. Dave Shepherd came closest, with Grant Bluett in third place.

It was the first race of the week for Grace Elson. She went into the race as one of the two clear favourites along with Anna Quayle, and it was those two who fought it out, almost a minute clear of the rest of the field. Elson prevailed by five seconds, and Allison Jones narrowly beat sister Shannon for third.

The junior titles were won by Ryan Smyth and Vanessa Round, with New Zealanders filling the minor placings in both events — Thomas Reynolds and Simon Jager for the boys, Kate Rea and Emma Watson for the girls.

The win by Elson, along with Jo Allison’s fifth, assured Elson of the National League individual title with one round to go. The Canberra Cockatoos are now also mathematically certain to win the title they have had a firm grip on for some rounds now. The junior women have also been decided; none of the top four added to their score today, leaving Kellie Whitfield with an unbeatable lead.

The two men’s competitions are still alive. Julian Dent can still tie with current leader Dave Shepherd if he wins on Saturday and Shepherd is third or worse, and Ryan Smyth can overhaul Simon Uppill if he wins and Uppill is fourth or worse.

Queensland and the ACT have tied for the overall title at the 2006 Australian Schools Championships.

The event came down to the two senior relays. The ACT won both, leaving Queensland in a position where they needed a second and a third to win outright, and two thirds or a second and a fourth to tie. Simon Mee went through the spectator control in fourth, a minute behind South Australia, but took third at the second last control to bring the Queensland boys in third. When Bridget Anderson brought the girls in second it looked as if Queensland had taken the title outright, but then Tasmania (who were second across the line, but initially disqualified) were reinstated after an upheld complaint, relegating the Queenslanders to a tie.

New Zealand won the Southern Cross Junior Challenge comfortably for the fourth straight year. They also supplied the senior boys’ individual winner through Thomas Reynolds. The other individual winners were Heather Harding (senior girls) — for the third time in four year — Krystal Neumann (junior girls) for the second straight year, and Oscar Phillips (junior boys).

Other team placings: 3 Tasmania, 4 NSW, 5 Victoria, 6 SA, 7 WA.

Jo Allison and Julian Dent opened the Australian Championships carnival with wins at the WA State Championships held over the weekend. The results keep both in contention for the National League titles, although as both will only have the minimum eight scores, they cannot afford to put a foot wrong if they are to catch the current leaders, Grace Elson and Grant Bluett.

Allison won both days. She started with a two-minute win over Shannon Jones on the middle-distance first day, then extended her lead further over the long, tough second day. Fellow WOC team member Anna Sheldon was the next best on the second day, and came through from fifth to be second overall. Susanne Casanova’s consistency over the two days saw her complete the placings.

Grant Bluett was a narrow winner on the first day, over Julian Dent and Rob Walter; the only surprise that was Dave Shepherd pulled out. That left three to fight out the overall result, and it was Dent who came through in the very tough country, continuing the excellent form of his comeback. Walter and Bluett completed the placings.

Vanessa Round set up her win in W17-20E with a good win on the first day, and was able to withstand Sarah Dunnage’s charge on the second; Ryan Smyth came from behind to take out M17-20E over fellow JWOC team members Chris Naunton and Murray Scown.

The Canberra Cockatoos had an excellent weekend, scoring the maximum possible 40 points, and have extended their National League lead over the NSW Stingers to an almost uncatchable 38 points. In the junior division, Queensland continues to hold a comfortable lead over Victoria.

Twenty years after winning his first Tasmanian title in the fog and rain at Espies Craig, Paul Liggins won his second Tasmanian long distance title in mild, but windy conditions at Littlechilds Creek, scene of last years Australian long distance championships. Grace Elson was the sole competitor in the women’s race after Hanny Alston withdrew,  but as the old sporting truism goes, you can only beat those who turn up, and  Grace joined sister Jasmine as a Tasmanian champion.

Course setter Greg Hawthorne concentrated his courses on the western side of the map, and for most competitors there was very little overlap between last years national titles and the Tasmanian championships. Thick vegetation along the creeks proved a decisive factor in the men’s race, as Ryan Smyth took the commando route in the second leg, avoiding longer, but safer options, only to be beaten by the thick cutting grass and ti-tree vegetation. He was caught by Lee Andrewartha, and was unable to shake him for the rest of the course. The 9th leg, again featuring route choice options through the green, also proved decisive for Liggins, and he was almost two minutes faster than Andrewartha, to set up a winning break that he maintained to the end of the race.

Although W21 was a race in one, Grace Elson had plenty of opposition in the M35 and M40 classes, and up until the second last control, had a lead of almost four minutes over Jon McComb, but two uncharacteristic errors by Elson allowed McComb to post the fastest time for the course by 28 seconds over Elson.

In other classes, relative newcomer to orienteering, Ian Brown, had a good win in course 3 over youth and experience, finishing ahead of Peter Kleywegt and Christine Marshall. In course 4, it was an Esk Valley Orienteering Club trifecta, with John Brock (course setter for last years Australian championships) running in M60, almost two minutes faster than Nigel Davies (M55), with promising junior Oscar Phillips (M16) third.

The ACT Long Distance Championships were held today on Honeysuckle Creek, one of the maps used for the Australian World Cup races in 2001. The area was heavily burnt in the huge Canberra fires of 2003 and has not been used since and the forest is a combination good open running and thick, young regrowth. Andy Hogg set some challenging and at times very tough courses that tested all who ran, so much so that quite a few competitors didn’t finish. The inclement conditions didn’t help, making the rock slippery and drenching the runners in intermittent down-pours.

Julian Dent made a triumphant return to top-flight orienteering in an amazing display. Although he made errors and by no means had a perfect technical run. it was his speed though the tough terrain that had his competitors stunned. On the first long leg(12^th) he beat Dave Shepherd by 1:46, a huge amount over 12 minutes. While he did take the win he certainly wasn’t the only one in the hunt. In a mistake-riddled race 7 men took a fastest split and, along with Dent, Shepherd and Grant Bluett also led at stages. The twelfth was where Dent finally stood up and took the lead that he able to maintain for the rest of the course. Shepherd moved into second, ahead of Bluett at the 14^th and was looking good to hold it until he began to succumb to severe blisters and slowed  and Bluett was able to take back second. Highly fancied Rob Walter, back from Sweden for a month, was fourth after a disappointing run by his standards.

The women’s race was more of a battle in two between Jo Allison and Anna Quayle. Allison seemed to be out of the race after the second control, losing a mammoth four and a half minutes to Quayle. Quayle held the lead until 11^th, she lost three minutes here, add that to three at the 9^th and Allison was back on top. Her lead was very brief and Quayle took the lead back, holding onto to win by 1:34. Allison Jones, back in Australia with Walter, rounded out the podium. She had been in second before Allison reeled her in.

With the Australian Championships carnival less then a week away the race was a good gauge of the elite’s form. It seems that Dent will be the one to beat in the men’s race, and with Hanny Allston racing inEurope, the women’s race could be a tight tussle between Allison and Quayle.

An excerpt from some GPS data is shown on the right. The red line depicts Julian’s route whilst the blue is Kerrin Rattray. The full file is dowloadable below. Unfortunately we are unable to bring you the animated file. You may notice on some controls they do not go to the feature. This is simply a ‘discrepancy’ in the mapping which is normal.

Results

Splits 

Ben Mather and Rowena Fry today repeated their 2005 wins in the Tasmanian MTBO championships, held on a new map at Virginstowe State Forest in northern Tasmania. Matt Hope went into the competition with high hopes and a new Yeti bike, but Mather’s experience and strength allowed him an easy win in the 27 Km long course.

Rowena Fry’s win in the women’s event was quite decisive, winning easily from Sussan Best and Rachel Walker; she also had the fastest time over the 22 Km course, one second in front of  veteran’s class winner Bernard Walker, who won the day’s most popular class from Simon Phillips and Craig Saunders.

Other class winners were Vicki Campbell (women’s veteran), John Brammall (men’s super veteran), and Oscar Phillips (men’s sub-junior)

The event was held at the Joondalup Education Precinct in Perth’s north and competitors had a perfect sunny day for their speedy progress around the WA Police Academy, West Coast TAFE and Edith Cowan University grounds. With sloping grounds, many stairs and lots of irregularly-spaced buildings the courses proved enjoyable and challenging enough to interest dyed-in-the-wool ‘navigators’. In the Open men’s and women’s classes the fields were pretty small due to Rhys Challen and Ben Corry still being in Europe and others injured, but the competition nonetheless was pretty tight.

It was a classical contrasting sprinter-vs-stayer battle in the Men’s with Eoin Rothery the first starter — and in the form we’ve come to expect from his glory days hit his top speed within 5 seconds of picking up his map. Eoin has only been seen attached to his bike thus far this current season but obviously his fitness is on track for the Australian Championships carnival later this year. Conversely  Craig Dufty gradually built up to his top speed in the last 5s of the course, using his less-than-renowned finish chute speed to pip Eoin by 2s for the State Sprint Championship. Craig later commented that “I was beginning to get warmed-up by the end of the course and it was only because you had the camera out that I ran so hard in the chute!” In a long-awaited return to the podium, Adrian Day managed to stay ahead of Craig Dufty to the 3rd last control and pressured him all the way home. Adrian, obviously in a last-minute bid for fitness to contest 21AS at the Australian championships then headed out immediately to check control sites on a bush map and then followed up with course and control collection on Sunday morning!

In the women’s race it was a stronger field with in-form Cath Chalmers, returning-to-form Rachel West, never-out-of-form Anthea Feaver and reigning sprint champion Sarah Dunnage going toe-to-toe over the same course as the men. In this mouth-watering battle royale Rachel West, who had planned a steady run, got caught up with sprint fever and blasted around the first half of the course but faltered with the uphill nature of the last third of the course finally accepting 4th place. Former World Cup runner Anthea Feaver ran strongly but on occasion a little erratically at controls, to eventually place third. In the tussle for the heavier silverware it was Dunnage’s speed that triumphed over Chalmers with both having good clean runs. Dunnage took the win by a substantial 44s to give her back to back State Sprint titles and a partner to her State Middle Distance Championship from earlier this year. Her time would have given her 3rd place in Open Men.

In the other classes Duncan Sullivan and Carol Brownlie each had clear wins in the Veteran classes. In the Junior classes Swiss exchange student Valentin Gafner had a 60s win over fellow speedster David Turner and Rachel Dunnage was well clear of her less-experienced opposition.

John Toomey

The program for the 2007 National Orienteering League is now released. The 2007 season will see the incorporation of JWOC and WOC trials into the program. The trial races have been planned to not only pick Australia’s best teams for the championships, but also to best prepare our runners in for what is to come at JWOC and WOC.

Program for the 2007 National Orienteering League

Round one Easter Carnival (South Australia)
NOL 1 April 6, Easter Prologue (Sprint)
NOL 2 April 7, Australian 3 days Day 1 (Middle)
NOL 3 April 8, Australian 3 days Day 2 (Long)
NOL 4 April 9, Australian 3 days Day 3 (Relay length)
NOL 5 April 13, ASC Galaxy (Sprint)
NOL 6 April 14, Australian Middle Distance Championships
NOL 7 April 15, Badge Event (Long)

Round two, WOC trials (Ballarat Victoria)
NOL 8 May 4 or 5 (Sprint)
NOL 9 May 5 (Middle)
NOL 10 May 6 (Long)

Round three, JWOC trials (Molong / Eugowra NSW)
NOL 11 May 19 (Middle)
NOL 12 May 20 (Long)

Round four, JWOC Carnival (Dubbo NSW)
NOL 13 July 7, NSW Long Distance Championships
NOL 14 July 14, Australian Long Distance Championships
NOL 15 July 15, Australian Relay Championships

The NSW Long Course Championships definitely provided tough racing and made the winners earn their state titles. The spur-gully terrain featured areas of undergrowth which at times left competitors cursing but also had patches of interesting rock features and some enjoyable, technical gold mining area. The weather looked bleak in the morning but as most runners headed for the start the sun came out and only intermittent showers were experienced.

The M21A course looked daunting at 14.5Km with 645m climb, and the women had 9.9Km with 440m climb. The men’s favourite was Dave Shepherd who was a late entrant, only deciding to run the previous day, although Jo Allison also looked good to win her second NSW title in two days. Shepherd took an early lead overcoming early hiccups including dropping two minutes to Eric Morris on the long eighth leg. He did not feel good though and when he pulled out at the eleventh control, Andy Hogg assumed the lead. It was however to be short-lived with Rob Preston taking 42 seconds out of him along with the race lead at the 12^th. Although Hogg tried gallantly over the final stages Preston held on to the finish to take the title and State Champion by 8 seconds, denying Hogg his first state title since he won in WA in 1999. Victorian Blair Trewin took the small step on the podium, 1:47 adrift of Hogg.

Briohny Davey took her first women’s title,  set-up by a strong, consistent run. Briohny has been improving steadily over the last few years and although her victory wasn’t a surprise it was something of an upset. The two main challengers, favourite Jo Allison and Anna Quayle both dropped out of contention on the second control. Quayle simply missed the control during a concentration lapse, realising later in the course but deciding to press on without it. Allison made a large error here, she may have been able to fight back but 6 mins lost at number 5 put an end to that. She did however take second ahead of Mace Neve.

In the junior classes Newcastle flyer Joshua Roberts had a comfortable 7 minute victory over ACT’s Geoff Stacey in M18A and Heather Harding squeezed out Nadine Cejka by 6 seconds in W18A. The race also marked the return of Julian Dent. Running unofficially on the M20A course Julian ran under 6 min/Km which, had he kept the pace, would have given him a clear victory in M21. This shows some great comeback form before the Australian Long Course Championships in Perth in October. 

A glorious day welcomed competitors to the NSW Sprint Championships at Lake Alexandra in Mittagong on the Southern Highlands. The terrain was a good mixture of open school buildings, intricate track networks and runnable bush sprinkled with sandstone cliffs. The two start locations thrust the competitors into intricate orienteering immediately, with many inexperienced ‘sprinters’ finding the course a tough technical challenge.

Dave Shepherd, recently returned from the World Orienteering Championships, took the men’s title even though, like many others, he lost some time at the 5^th control, with some fresh unmapped tracks causing trouble. This control was the only time he relinquished the lead, with Steve Todkill (making a return to orienteering after a couple of years in the wilderness) stealing it for a solitary leg.  The podium spots went to Eric Morris and Rob Preston.

The women’s class was close, with three ACT women jostling for the lead. By the 10^th control Anna Quayle had opened a 41 second lead over Jo Allison, with Shannon Jones a further 15 seconds adrift. Unfortunately Quayle lost it all at the 13^th, with Allison coming through to lead them home. Jones and Quayle rounded out the top three.

Veteran Rob Vincent showed he can still cut with the big boys with a winning time in the M40A class that would have been good enough for sixth in M21A.  Daniel Hill, a young Sydney-sider streaked the field in the M10A to win by a huge5:14, maybe the next big thing for JWOC 2016? The veteran classes seemed to be riddled with mistakes and in a few cases it was the cleanest run that took the victory, although Dave Lotty (M60A) was still able to make errors and win. M75A was decided in the finish chute with Brian Johnson turning an eight second deficit into a one second victory.

Recently returned JWOC manager Hilary Wood took her first State title in winning W50A; she was trailing fellow Central Coast runner Robyn Pallas until Robyn lost three minutes in finding the ninth control. Southern Highlands local Val Hodsdon won the W55A class, though she did punch two extra controls along the way.

Full results and splits can be find on the Southern Highlands Orienteers’ website.