2006 Archive

Australia has had a successful day in Denmark on the opening day of WOC 2006, the Middle Distance Qualification races. Held in Hjortsballe Krat, 8km from the event centre Silkeborg, The terrain proved tough with the expected winning time of 25mins not being challenged in any of the heats.

All Australian women qualified with Jo Allison running well in a strong heat to take 8th. Anna Sheldon was 11th, and Grace Elson was 14th in Heat B in which New Zealand’s Tania Robinson finished a very impressive 2nd. Australia’s men had a tougher time of it with David Shepherd 14th in a final-quality heat and Rob Walter scraping through in 15th. Unfortunately Eric Morris was 26th in Heat C and thus missed the final

Results
Heat A

1. Minna Kauppi FIN 28:58.8
2. Marianne Andersen NOR 29:54.4
3. Jenny Johansson SWE 30:20.2
11. Anna Sheldon 35:20.2

Heat B

1. Helena Jansson SWE 31:44.1
2. Tania Robinson NZL 31:51.8
3. Anni-Maija Fincke FIN 32:07.3
14. Grace Elson 35:32.1

Heat C

1. Simone Niggli-Luder SUI 29:07.3
2. Kajsa Nilsson SWE 29:41.1
3. Heli Jukkola FIN 30:45.5
8. Jo Allison 32:22.9

Heat A

1. Mattias Merz SUI 28:40.5
2. Jamie Stevenson GBR 29:27.4
3. Jonne Lakanen FIN 29:29.9
14. David Shepherd 31:37.2

Heat B

1. Jarkko Huovila FIN 27:26.8
2. Francois Gonon FRA 28:36.7
3. Valentin Novikov RUS 28:53.2
15. Rob Walter 31:22.6

Heat C

1. Thierry Gueorgiou FRA 27:00.9
2. Emil Wingstedt SWE 27:05.7
3. Pasi Ikonen FIN 28:01.1
26. Eric Morris 33:59.6

Official results, nightly live coverage, maps and route choices are available on the WOC Online Website.

Orienteers in Melbourne were tested over the weekend in a first-of-a-kind event combining a maze-o with a sprint-o course around Westgate Park, in the shadow of the Westgate Bridge on the eastern banks of the Yarra River.

Event organisers Melbourne Forest Racers teamed up with Dandenong Ranges Orienteering club who created the 40 x 20m maze which was marked out in a flat area of grass with stakes and tapes forming 2m wide lanes. Competitors had to find their first control in the maze before running the 5.5km sprint-o course around the small but detailed terrain of Westgate Park. They then had to go back into the maze to find their last control. With no margin for error – crossing the tapes was forbidden – route planning in advance was critical. Some competitors had to wait for the maze to be dismantled before they found their way out!

Bruce Arthur of MFR posted the fastest time of the day for Course A in just over 22 minutes, closely followed by Adrian Jackson who is more familiar than most with the park having trained there on the many windy mountain bike tracks.

On the special maze course over 9 controls, Jackson turned the tables winning in 3min 44secs, 1 second ahead of Arthur with Andrew Baker in third place.

Dion Keech

Melbourne Forest Racers

No-one knew just what an epic race this was going to turn out.  With the men’s and women’s winning times both more than 20 minutes longer than recommended it turned into a war of attrition for many.  The men’s course, posted as 40.4 Km was measured as 50 km by one rider. And on the women’s course of 29 Km, another rider measured nearly 40 Km!

Unlike the terrain so far, there were fewer tracks, but many of the smaller tracks were much rougher than we’d encountered so far.  In many places the short-dash tracks, strewn with rocks and roots, reduced riders to a walk.  Or at best 6 Km/h or so.  The large roads were very fast and generally flatter.  Long dash tracks were either forest tracks or ski tracks.  In the case of the latter, these had extremely steep sections which were often difficult to ride down and nearly impossible to ride up.  Combine all that with being allowed to ride through the forest and it all added up to a very tough race!

For Carolyn this was a difficult area to race on.  With her broken ribs still healing, the bumps and precipitous descents would have been daunting.  She was slowed by this, but as usual, rode accurately and finished well in 37^th place.  The women’s podium was made up of Christina Schaffner of Switzerland in 1.51.28.  The Russian, Ksenia Tchernykh was only 4 seconds behind in 2^nd place with Finland’s Ingrid Stengård another 2 minutes behind in 3^rd.

The early pace in the men’s race was set by Remy Jabas of Switzerland.  He posted a time of 2.19 and it was clear from when he picked up the map for the 3^rd loop that the course was very long.  Remy is one of the top Swiss riders and said that he’d faded and made mistakes on the last loop.  Shortly after Jeremie Gillman of France reduced the time to 2.16 and this held for a long while until the first surprise of the day.  The Danes, in force at their first MTBO WOC posted a 2.06, 10 minutes in front of the best time in the shape of Lasse Brun Pedersen.

Alex came into the first map change about 9 minutes behind the leaders.  He’d had a disaster at the 2^nd check point and lost most of this time there.  He continued around the course, but ‘soft-pedalled’ to save himself for the relay and finished 35^th in 2.26.

Now we were waiting on only the remaining top riders.  There was great excitement in the Aussie camp when AJ came through the first map change in 2^nd place.  He made a few small errors on the 2^nd loop and lost about 2 minutes, dropping to 8^th place at the map change.  He toughed it out and picked up to finish on the podium in a really impressive 6^th place, tantalisingly close to the medals.  It was another awesome ride by AJ, not perfect, but no-one was riding these courses in this terrain without mistakes.  In the end it was the home advantage that saw the Finns and Russia dominate the men’s results, with Margus Hallik of neighbouringEstonia taking 4^th.

One of the most notable changes in MTBO over the last three years has been the dramatic increase in the speed of the riders and depth of the fields.  This year the competition has really come of age, particularly in the men’s field.  There are “no gifts” at WOC.

Think of Mosquito Flat.  Think of Canadian.  Then double the number of tracks.  Then reduce the scale to 1:10,000.  Only then would you have as many tracks as the middle distance race at Lykynlampi, a popular ski area near Joensuu.

This is a type of terrain only encountered in a few parts of the world.  Apart from here, Estonia,Russia and possibly a few areas in Latvia.  It was always going to be very hard to beat these nations, particularly the Finns in this home terrain.

Alex Randall and Adrian Jackson started in the ‘red’ group.  The first 10 ranked riders in the world, who started last.  Apart from our own races most of our energy and thoughts were with them, as potential medal winners.  Both rode excellent races, but not without mistakes, to place 7^th and 17^th in 53 and 55 minutes.  A local Finn won in a shade under 50 minutes, with former world champions, Mika Tervala and Ruslan Gritsan 2^nd and 3^rd.

Picking up the map, one could be forgiven for thinking there had been a printing mistake.  It looked like all the tracks had been printed twice!  Most of us took a good portion of our 1 minute to find the first check point on the map.

Carolyn Jackson rode her characteristically very steady race to finish in 35th place.  Paul Darvodelsky had a very clean race, posting 61 minutes for 45^th place.  Steve Cusworth rode fast, but made mistakes and came in in 64 minutes and Dave Simpfendorfer rode 74 minutes. To give an idea of the complexity of the area, the longest time of the day was 162 minutes!  Full details can be found on the team’s blog.

Australian Juniors continued their strong performances at the Junior World Orienteering Championships today with a solid team effort. The highlight was Simon Uppill’s excellent 26^th place less than 4 minutes behind joint winners Jan Beres (CZE) and Soren Bobach (DEN), with Norwegian Olav Lundanes in third. The podium was overflowing with two placings getting the same time –first and fifth in the mens race.

The Danes were doubly celebrating today also with Signe Klinting winning a Bronze medal in the women’s race behind Betty Ann Bjerkreim Nilsen(NOR) and Ulrika Uotila (FIN).

Unfortunately Long distance gold medallist Hanny Allston lost any chance of another gold medal on the very tricky third control missing 8-9 minutes.Australia’s other ‘A’ finalists Jasmine Neve and Murray Scown also made significant mistakes and finished 55^thand 53^rd respectively.

Simon Uppill has learnt a bit today and is looking forward to upping his training and preparation for next years JWOC in Dubbo.

Chris Naunton and Ryan Smyth had better runs than yesterday in the B and C finals Ryan finishing in the shorter course in 27’ 19” in 7^th position.  Chris finished in 28’50” in the B final (winning time 23’11) so not too far off the pace. The finish was the same as the qualifying race where the runners had to run up a hill to the finish line-  particular tough in the hot weather.

The girls tried hard and finished in the B final Vanessa Round 15^th, 22^nd for Keliie and 25^thSophie who has improved over the week and Ainslie 40^th.

Kellie Whitfield has had a particular consistent performance this week and can be pleased with her performance here against the world best.

The team are looking forward to some exciting relay racing tomorrow and for an Aussie best for both the boys and girls teams.

As selected after the trials at Easter, Australia’s relay teams for tomorrow are:

Women:

Jasmine Neve, Vanessa Round, Hanny Allston

Sophie Barker, Kellie Whitfield, Ainsley Cavanagh

Men:

Ryan Smyth, Christopher Naunton, Simon Uppill

Matt Parton, Evan Barr, Murray Scown