2006 Archive

After a long campaign in Europe Anna Sheldon has swapped her shoes for the bike type and had a resounding come-back to MTBO by winning the silver medal in the sprint distance at the European MTBO championships.   Anna was 2nd to Switzerland’s world champion (long distance), Christina Schaffner and ahead of Russia’s world champion (relay) Nadia Mikriukova.

The European MTBO championships are being held about 15 Km east of Warsaw in forested sand dune terrain.  It is technically very difficult with many tracks and paths and some difficult riding where the trails are very sandy.

This evening our time will be the ultra-long distance which will be followed over the weekend by the middle distance and then the relay.

Hanny Allston is the highest ranked Australian in the IOF rankings announced this week. Next best-placed is Grace Elson (69th), with Jo Allison, Anna Sheldon, Dave Shepherd, and Rob Walter also in the top 100. Top-ranked orienteers in women’s and men’s foot orienteering are Simone Niggli-Luder and Daniel Hubmann, both from Switzerland.

For the full list, see the world ranking link on the IOF website

In mountain bike orienteering, Adrian Jackson tops the rankings, with Alex Randall 10th. Carolyn Jackson is the highest-ranked Australian in the women’s rankings at 22.

In a twist, the World University Orienteering Championships have ended with an Australian relay team consisting of one man and three women placing well down the field in the men’s final — but still beating several teams, including the USA!

With the competition being run over the last week in Kosice in the Slovak Republic, Australia has had a small representation due to our semesters not coinciding with the northern hemisphere summer break.  This left both men’s and women’s teams without the necessary 4 runners for relay teams.  In true Aussie “give it a go spirit” our three women competitors, Kirsten Fairfax, Anna Sheldon and Grace Elson joined with Simon Goddard to compete officially in the men’s final.  Following solid runs by Goddard, Fairfax and Sheldon, Elson overtook the Japanese fourth leg runner to bring the Australian team into 20th place, ahead of Japan, Serbia and Montenegro and the USA.

Elson was recovering from injury following a fall during the middle distance final on Thursday which saw her withdraw from that event.  She had placed 9th in a field of 73 in the long distance final the previous day, and went on to place 19th in the sprint.  Sheldon obtained Australia’s next best results with a 19th in the long distance, 37th in the middle distance, and 29th in the sprint.

The Canberra Cockatoos have regained the lead in the 2006 National League after the weekend’s events in Queensland. With the NSW Stingers weakened by the absence of several of their key women, the Cockatoos got the maximum 40 points from the weekend and go into the final series of races with a 16-point lead.

There was also a change in third place, with the Tassie Foresters’ lack of depth costing them heavily in the absence of their three WOC representatives, Hanny Allston, Grace Elson and Danielle Winslow. The Victorian Nuggets have overhauled them, and closed to within 10 points of the Stingers for second.

There was also a change in lead in the junior competition. Queensland, with the benefit of home advantage, overtook Victoria and now have a useful 15-point lead.

Dave Shepherd’s win on Sunday takes him to the lead of the individual competition. He will be very difficult to beat from here, especially as he still has a race in hand over Grant Bluett and Eric Morris, in second and third. There were no changes in the top three in the women’s competition, with all being absent. Grace Elson continues to lead by 20 points from Hanny Allston, and may hold that lead with Allston likely to contest the final World Cup rounds instead of the final National League races.

Jo Allison took out the women’s elite event today, with a comfortable four-minute win over New Zealander Rachel Smith. Anna Quayle, the last starter, was locked in a tight struggle with Smith, but fell five seconds short. In the men’s race, Ross Morrison, who was caught by Dave Shepherd early in the race, finished in second two minutes behind, with Eric Morris in third.

Simon Uppill continues to hold a comfortable junior lead despite Ryan Smyth’s win, although the junior girls standings were not changed by the weekend results, Kellie Whitfield remaining the leader. There was a significant win by a newcomer to the sport at this level, Rachael Effeney, over the more fancied Laurina Neumann and Bridget Anderson.

The second day of the test match confirmed the Kiwi’s dominance of Trans-Tasman series this year. Ross Morrison led his team to a slightly closer win over the Aussies with Adrian Jackson and Robbie Preston closing the gap to 8 points. However, in the women the Kiwis reversed the day 1 result with excellent runs from the Smith sisters and much improved support from juniors Lizzie Ingham and Amber Morrison, but the continued good form of Susanne Casanova and Kathryn Ewels was not enough to help the Aussies. Over the two days New Zealand comfortably won the competition by 26 points.

Dave Shepherd and Jo Alison re-asserted their dominance of elite competition with good wins in the continuing hot and dry conditions.  In other classes of the 2-day Queensland Championships competitors enjoyed the rarity of clear running in a Queensland environment.  In M16 Oliver Crosato turned the tables on Gary Flynn, running the 7.4 Km course in 58 minutes but Gary retained the lead over the two days. Lance Reid continued with his slim lead over Tim McIntyre in M35. Russell Creed was delighted with his win in M55 as this was his first championship win in 26 years of orienteering. In M70 Clive Pope continued his dominance with a second fast run. With the 3 Neumann families picking up places in most of the junior age groups Krystal Neumann starred winning W16 by 8 minutes.  In other classes the best performances came from Linda Burridge  in W40 and Lynn Dabbs in W50.

The prestige Perseverance Cup (awarded to the runner with the greatest cumulative time over the 2 days) went to Denis Johnson of Toohey Forest for his marathon 5 hours over the two days.

The Championships were a special event for Queensland with the Test Matches, NOL and JNOL structured to maximise spectator options.  In today’s courses runners completed one loop and were reported from a radio control at a compulsory fence crossing point.  The second loop ended with an open run through the finish area leading to a map change and a final loop, and commentary from Blair Trewin and Neil Simson adding to the tension of the competition. Queensland has now opened up a new area for competition and all of this weekend’s competitors will go home with a small taste of the terrain and the environment to be used for the 2008 Australian Championships.

The first day of the Australia/NZ Test took place on Day 1 of the Queensland Championships near Maryborough, in hot and very dry conditions.  In the incredibly fast but vague terrain of Wild Boar Creek Darren Ashmore and Neil Kerrison led a Kiwi dominance in the men’s event, each running under 5 minutes per kilometre for the almost 7 Km courses. Adrian Jackson was close behind for Australia but the win to NZ was 27 to 9 points.  In the women’s event Australia turned the tables in a very close struggle.  Susanne Casanova of Australia won her first national and international event with an excellent 6 minute/Km run and although she was closely followed by Rachael Smith from NZ the 4^th place of Kathryn Ewels insured a 21 to 15  win to Australia.  Day 2 will be a different test over much longer distances and a more technical course.

In the NOL event Canberra Cockatoos showed their depth with comfortable wins in both men’s and women’s races.  Grant Bluett showed his ability to win the men’s event running under 31 minutes for the 6.7km course, beating Dave Shepherd by 12 seconds. In the women’s event, Jo Allison followed only 7 seconds behind Susanne Casanova. The junior NOL women’s event was dominated by Queensland with a great win to Laurina Neumann from Bridget Anderson.  The junior men supplied the event of the day with recent O-Ringen winner Simon Uphill (SA) winning by 4 seconds from Ryan Smyth (Tas) and Kieran Sullivan (Qld) a further 11 seconds behind in third.  It looks likely that Queensland will win the junior NOL on the day.

In other courses in the Queensland Championships Clive Pope showed that 70-year olds can still run under 10 minute/Km and at the other end of the age groups Gary Flynn flew round the 7 Km M16 course in 57 minutes. The M35 age group is a very close struggle between Lance Reid and Tim McIntyre who both covered the almost 9 Km in under 60 minutes, conquering the “horror” 2 Km leg over the vaguest part of the map.  M55 looks like being a very close call between 6 runners led by Russell Creed. In the women’s divisions there were few stand out performances except for Krystal Neumann in W16 with 40 minutes over 4.9 Km, Jacquie Rand, 47 minutes for 4.9 Km in W50 and Gayle Quantock-Simson, 54 minutes for 5.8 Km in W40.

Tomorrow will see day 2 of the championships on the new Graveyard Creek map with the competition expected to be as hot as day 1.

Grace Elson was the best placed Australian in the long course at the World University Orienteering Championships in the Slovak Republic, finishing 9th, 6:11 behind WOC bronze medallist Dana Brozkova of  the Czech Republic. Anna Sheldon finished in 19th place, and Kirsten Fairfax was 40th.

The men’s race was won by Michal Smola of the Czech Republic, and Australia’s only representative, Simon Goddard, finished 67th.

The 2006 Bendigo Ironman championships were run on “New Saint Mungo”, the sprint map used recently for the 2006 easter Prologue. The field was largely made up of elite orienteers, who had recently returned from Europe.

Favourite for the 4 x 2km handicap race was Troy De Haas, running his first race in Victoria in 6 years. After finishing first and second in the opening two races, it seemed unlikely that anyone would be able to shake him over the second half of the event. Adrian Jackson looked a chance with a second and a third, but but lost it with a blowout in the third race (15th position).

The field opened up with De Haas dropping a place in the final two loops (a 13th and a 7th place, allowing JWOC team member Evan Barr to take a tight lead after a series of consistent placings throughout the race (7th, 3rd, 1st, 4th).

Bendigo veteran Jim Russell followed up his overseas form with a solid third placing; knocking Jackson off the podium. Russell’s promising nephews, Bryan and Leon Keely, finished in 5th and 6th place, closely followed by Paul Liggins and  Bruce Arthur.

Further results and a detailed analysis can be found at: http://www.bendigo-orienteers.com.au

Rob Fell

The second ACT badge event for the year was held at Picaree Hill today. Runners were greeted with clear sunny skies (once the fog cleared) and headed out in the fast, but steep at times, spur-gully terrain.

In M21A there was a strong field, with Blair Trewin hopeful to be in form after returning from his European sojourn. But it was Ben Rattray who took an early lead and held it throughout the course. Second was Gareth Candy, running strongly to win many splits on the longer legs, but ending 1 minute behind Rattray. Trewin finished third. Mace Neve took out the W21A race from Natalie Smith, and Murray Scown, inspired by his JWOC experience, won a tough M17-20A course.

The event was a selection trial for the ACT Schools Team. Nadine Cejka returned from injury to win the W17-20A class, while Lachlan Dow won M16A.

Results

Results with splits

The drama and euphoria of WOC2006, the World Orienteering Championships, in which particularly our women’s Team did so remarkably well, was an incredible experience for those Aussies present in the crowd. Some fifty or so gathered each day around the Australian flags strung up on makeshift poles, creating a point of focus and support for the Team. Many wore the de-facto Australian t-shirt discovered by one of our number in an outlet shop. The bright colours and distinctive design attracted the attention of TV cameras, especially after Hanny Allston’s storming win in the Sprint, so much so that we were featured on the Big Screen and later on Danish national TV.

Hanny’s win created something of a sea-change in international Orienteering. So many people of many nationalities came up to us in the following days with congratulations, saying how great it was for Orienteering that the title had been won by someone from outside Europe. That the European dominance of WOC titles had finally been broken was certainly being celebrated by Europeans and non-Europeans alike.

For Aussies in the crowd it was an amazing moment which we will all remember for a long time. For your reporter in the press area, when it was clear that Swiss star, Simone Niggli-Luder, would not beat Hanny’s time pandemonium broke loose and it was a case of fighting for position to get the all-important photos of the youthful winner. For the rest of the Team it seemed that cloud-nine was far below them.

The following days were punctuated by good, solid performances in the Long- and Middle-distance disciplines. Then it was on again in the women’s Relay. Jo Allison and Grace Elson had set the team in a very good position when Hanny took over for the last leg. By the half-way spectator control she had nearly caught the Czech and Norwegian runners and up ahead Niggli-Luder had made some bad mistakes. In the crowd our hopes were running high for a podium (top-6) finish. But the Czech, Brozkova, was running fast. Could Hanny catch her?

Then, in the lead the Finn, Minna Kauppi, made a three-minute mistake. Out in the forest could she hear the booming voice of the announcer proclaiming that Finland would win, “That’s for sure!”? Had her concentration been broken for a vital moment? For the Aussies in the crowd there was only one runner who mattered – how was Hanny going?

Kauppi recovered to take the gold medal for Finland, pausing to bow to the crowd from the last control before running down the straight with her team-mates. Sweden’s “Karro” claimed silver after making some big mistakes early and Niggli-Luder ensured bronze for Switzerland.

But the drama was behind her. Hanny had run straight through the Czech and Norwegian girls. She came storming (there’s that word again) up the hill to the last control almost a minute clear of Brozkova. She turned, punched her fist in the air and, hair flying, raced down to the finish with a big grin on her face and clearly in 4^th place, Jo Allison and Grace Elson running at her side.

She had taken nearly 5min off the Swiss super-star, Niggli-Luder, and close to 4min off Minna Kauppi, the Finn. It’s the kind of run which makes relays so exciting and we Aussies in the crowd were so proud to have seen it on that day.

Congratulations to all three girls for giving us such a wonderful exhibition of Aussie spirit and determination, and particularly to Hanny for putting the icing on the cake.