2006 Archive

The Australian team has continued its stellar performances, with the women’s relay team recording an astonishing 4th place in the World Orienteering Championships relay in Denmark.

Jo Allison ran the first leg for Australia, and mixed it with the world’s best — fnishing in 8th place, only 15 seconds behind fifth place. In the second leg, Grace Elson emerged from the pack of runners, and was in 5th place by the second spectator control. She lost time in the last section  of the course, but did enough to send Hanny Allston out in 9th place, well ahead of 10th.

The last leg was chaotic to say the least. The leading Swedish team lost time early, and Finland’s Minna Kauppi emerged as a clear leader. Meanwhile, Hanny was making ground through the pack — coming through the spectator control with a pack of runners in 4th-7th place. The last split control was decisive, with Dana Brozkova of Czech Republic and Tatiana Riabkina from Russia having a longer split. This left only two fighting for 4th place — and Hanny applied the pace to Norwegian Anne Magrethe Hausken. The final kilometres were nerve-racking for those watching the GPS tracking, but Hanny kept her calm, showing maturity beyond her 20 years. She ran to the last control in a clear 4th, allowing time to celebrate with her team-mates in the finish chute. Hanny’s time was fastest on the last leg by more than a minute, and more than 3 minutes faster than the 3 top place-getters.

The men’s relay was won by Russia, from Finland and Sweden. The Australian team finished 20th after having troubles early on in the piece. But Troy de Haas ran superbly on the final leg, pulling up four places and running one of the fastest times for the final leg.

Results

The World Championships Middle Distance final was held in Denmark overnight, with some impressive performances by the Australian team.

The women’s race was, once again, won by Simone Niggli-Luder — her 12th gold medal at this level. All three Australian women qualified for this final, and Jo Allison ran a great final to come in 20th place. Jo’s performance is all the more special considering she has been out due to injury since the Australian summer — she had knee surgery only 2 months ago and has quickly returned to form. Grace Elson, at her first World Championships, was only a minute behind Jo, and finished in 27th. With Jo, Grace and World Champion Hanny Allston all in top form, the women’s relay tonight looks very promising. Anna Sheldon was our third competitor in the women’s final — she has not fully recovered from the stomach bug she suffered in the gruelling long distance final — but ran solidly to finish 40th.

Rob Walter has also suffered from illness this week. He was faced with a tough decision after he qualified for the Middle Distance final — should he run the Long Distance qualification or spend his time recovering from his flu in time for the Middle Distance final? He decided to put all his eggs in one basket, and the decision paid off when he came 24th last night — his best result in an individual race at WOC. David Shepherd, running his second final of the week, came in 36th. The eventual winner was Holger Hott Johansen of Norway — a very early starter after qualifying poorly, he had to wait over an hour after he finished to learn that he had won his first gold medal.

Stay tuned to the WOCC 2006 live site and the Australian team blog for updates on tonights relay. Australian teams (in running order) are: Jo Allison, Grace Elson and Hanny Allston; and Rob Walter, Dave Shepherd and Troy de Haas.

The Long Final in this years World Orienteering Championships was held in beautiful forest near Silkeborg, Denmark.

After the elation of yesterday, Hanny Allston was unable to re-capture the form she showed in the sprint. We tend to forget after her latest success that she is still a junior and her 12th in the long course race is one of Australia’s best ever results. Simone Niggli-Luder, the Swiss super-star was back to her winning ways with a narrow win over the “training-machine” Norwegian Marianne Anderson. Anna Sheldon appeared to never find great form but put in a strong performance finishing the final in 44th.

The men’s race was a tough battle with less than 5 minutes splitting the top 10 over 105 minutes. The winner was Jani Lakanen (FIN) ahead of Marc Lauenstein (SUI). Some Australians may be familar with Lauenstein who posts all his training on Attackpoint. No Australian men qualifiied for the final.

Tomorrow is a rest day at WOC before the middle distance finals on Friday, featuring Australian team-members Jo Allison, Grace Elson, Anna Sheldon, David Shepherd and Rob Walter.

Women’s Long Distance Final

Men’s Long Distance Final

Full results can be found here.

Remember to check out the insightful and entertaining Australian team blog.

More photos of Hanny’s historic World Championship win in Denmark overnight. A full photo gallery is available at the WOC2006 site and the Australian Team Blog.

Hanny proved her class in spectacular fashion and confirmed her status amongst the world’s top orienteering athletes with her win in the Sprint, defeating Swiss super-star Simone Niggli-Luder by 5.8sec.

At the post-race press conference Hanny was asked how big was this Gold?

“It’s pretty big,” she replied. “It’s a really big achievement in my orienteering life. Gold at JWOC was really exciting but this is the big highlight. When I first came to Denmark my first thoughts were that the terrain was very like Australia so I am able to read the terrain well. For this race I was relaxed and confident that I could run well. But winning is just incredible.”

Simone Niggli-Luder said she had not had a perfect race, making small mistakes in the early stages. This is her first Silver medal so she is quite happy, she said.

Men’s Champion, Emil Wingstedt of Sweden, said “Still being on top in the Sprint is great – this Gold is the best one.” He is always aware of younger challengers coming up but will try to stay ahead of them for some time yet.

One of those challengers is the Swiss Daniel Hubmann. He said he made some small mistakes on the long leg and near the end so winning Silver was a very good feeling for him.

Hanny’s Gold medal has set a landmark in Orienteering by being the first ever won by an orienteer from outside Europe. It is also believed to be the first time a JWOC gold medallist has won a senior Title in the same year.

And Hanny being a Tasmanian had special significance for Crown Prince Frederik who we all know has a special link with Tasmanians.

Orienteers around Australia were cheering in the early hours of Wednesday morning as Hanny Allston stormed to victory in the World Sprint Orienteering Championships.

The victory is not only Australia’s first medallist at the World Orienteering Championships, but our first champion at this event. This amazing result follows her gold and silver medals only one month ago at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Lithuania. Spectators were in awe as she kept her composure and pushed her body to the limit to force the great Simone Niggli-Luder into second place. Fellow Tasmanian Grace Elson finished 39th after losing some time on the long route choice which split many runners and punished those who made the wrong choice.

Dave Shepherd was Australia’s only men’s result after Troy de Haas was disqualified. Dave struggled over the latter stages of the course, unfortunately fading to finish 39th.

Hanny will now re-focus and concentrate her efforts on the long distance race where she will be aiming to repeat her effort of JWOC in winning two medals. The long distance race will begin at 10pm AEST with Anna Sheldon joining Hanny as Australia’s only representatives.

Those that missed the action last night can listen to Hanny’s post-race interview

(mp3 file; 1.31Mb)

Women’s Sprint Final

Men’s Sprint Final

Orienteering Australia congratulates Hanny Allston, World Champion

Results

Australia has had a successful morning in Denmark with four runners managing to achieve a top 15 spot in the qualifiers. Located in Mindeparken in central Aarhus, the area proved to be very tricky and provided some tough orienteering, especially at high running speeds.

While Hanny stormed into the final Troy’s entry was very controversial. Initially disqualified for punching the incorrect control, he was re-instated after a protest from the Australian Team. It was judged that the control which he punched was 22m from the correct control. IOF rules state that no two controls can be within 30m. As such his protest was upheld and he was re-instated in 8th in Heat A.

Dave Shepherd scraped through in 15th place with a run that he described as less then perfect. The race entered an Amusement park and this is where he lost time with many short legs in succession requiring quick decision making. Kerrin Rattray ‘tried his hardest but wasn’t good enough on the day’ taking 19th place in Heat C, although he hasn’t made a final in Denmark it has been a very rewarding learning experience for one of the future faces of Australian Orienteering.

Hanny Allston stood up yet again and led the Aussie charge, finishing a clear 2nd in her heat, only behind Orienteering’s own Super-woman Simone Niggli-Luder. Jo Allison had some trouble amongst the detailed map and lost too much time, taking 20th in Heat A. Grace Elson made her second final on debut with a very solid run finishing 11th.

The Final is now late tonight starting at 12.50am AEST, some dedicated members of the Orienteering community will be depriving themself of sleep to watch, possibly, Australia’s first ever World Champs medal with both Hanny and Troy in real contention.

The action will be broadcast over the internet will live video streaming, audio and text results being provided on the WOC Website.

Although judging from the on-line service it appeared Hanny made an early error, her class prevailed climbing back through the field to qualify 5th fastest in an extremely competitive heat. Anna Sheldon put in another great performance and is the first Australian this year to qualify for two finals! Anna was 14th in her heat. Danielle Winslow finished 27th, outside the top 15 required to qualify in the final.

In the men, Australia was unable to secure a spot in the Long Distance. Kerrin Rattray in his first appearance at WOC finished 27th, Eric Morris was 23rd. Rob Walter did not start due to his ongoing battle with a flu. After qualifying for the Middle Distance final yesterday Rob rested up in an effort to put in a strong performance later in the week.

WOC now takes a breather with Monday off before both the qualification and final for the Sprint race on Tuesday.

Further details and story to follow.Check out the Australian team WOC blog at: http://woc2006-aus.blogspot.com/

Ben Rattray