2007 Archive

Orienteering Australia has released the 2007 versions of the Competition Rules and National League Guidelines. The major changes to the new rules involve a substantial reduction in the number of age classes recommended for State Long Distance Championships and Badge Events.

Changes to the age class structure at State Championships and Badge Events were motivated by the small number of competitors compared to the number of classes. At many of these events the average number of participants per class was less than 3! The new classes are designed to increase competition in many classes, reduce the organisational workload and reduce the cost of printing maps and awarding prizes. Therefore, you can expect to see 10 year age classes and a minimal number of B classes offered at your next Badge Event. Feedback regarding this initiative should be directed to Orienteering Australia’s Director, Technical, rather than to event organisers.

Other minor changes to the rules are listed below:

• It is no longer compulsory to be a member of a State association to compete in the Australian Championships;
• More flexibility with map scales is permitted, so that elites may now use 1:10,000 at the Australian Long Distance Championships, and sub-junior classes may be offered maps at 1:5,000;
• The National Orienteering League teams competition has been divided into separate Men’s and Women’s categories;
• Minor changes to bring our rules into line with the latest IOF regulations regarding electronic punching.

You can download these the new documents in PDF format here:

• OA Rules (superseded)
• National League Guidelines (superseded)

They are permanently available as part of the Operational Manual (follow the “Administration” link from the menu on the left of this page).

Orienteering, and Orienteering Australia now feature in a new series of children’s book. Orienteering features as the sport corresponding to the letter “O” in Max and Molly’s Adventures. Orienteering Australia supported the idea and now the Orienteering Australia logo and website address appear in the books.

If you have young children, these books are a great way of increasing your child’s awareness and participation in a range of sports.

Books in the series are:

• Colours of sports
• Week of Sports
• A – Z of Sports
• 1 – 10 of Sports

Further details, including details to purchase the book(s) are at Sport4Kids.

The Ultimax 5-days culminated with a reverse order (best last) start based on competitors best 3 results of the first 4 days. The local “Goldseekers” Orienteering club organized the final day, taking the reigns from the Ultimax Stingers team. The tough granite terrain of the last 4 days was also replaced by spur/gully terrain with predominate pine tree forest. Heavy rain during the morning would have put a smile on the faces of local farmers, but made conditions difficult in the steep and slippery terrain.

In the Men’s A class, Mats Troeng (SWE) was leading Julian Dent (NSW), Olav Lundanes (NOR) and Carsten Joergenson (DEN) in a very competitive international field. Lundanes caught Joergensen at #7 after a mistake, and a different route to #10 allowed Dent catch them both. This pack pushed each other very hard to the end of the course, with Lundanes (40.27) showing great speed to open up a small gap at the finish over Joergensen (41.34). Dent (39.41) impressively hung on to two of the fastest athletes in the sport to take the win. Troeng (41.37) raced alone to finish 4^th.

In the Ultimax 5-days overall pointscore, Dent moved into 1^st place after his Day 5 win, but was ineligible for first prize as he was part of the NSW Stingers organising team. Troeng was 2^nd, Lundanes 3^rd and Joergensen 4^th. Australia’s top hope for 2007 JWOC in Dubbo, Simon Uppill, had a great week to finish 5^th.

In Women’s A, New Zealand had their first success, with promising junior Amber Morrison (41.53) leading the race from the 2^nd control. Morrison was part of a large contingent of kiwi juniors in Australia for the 5-days and pre-JWOC training camp. Norway’s Mali Fjogstad Nilsen (43.49) overcame a slow start to finish 2^nd. Grace Elson (44.24) in 2^nd place until losing time at #9, then fought back to take 3^rd place. In the Ultimax 5-days overall pointscore, Elson held onto her lead, with Nilsen 2^nd, and Victoria’s Jasmine Neve finishing 3^rd.

A great array of prizes were provided to placegetters, including Berghaus backpacks for the winners. Many other lucky draw prizes were available for our other sponsors including Ultimaxsocks, The Robin Hood Hotel , Run for Your Life – running magazine, AROCSPORT and Basil & Jean Baldwin’s vineyard, Fourjay Farms.

Winsplits

Olav Lundanes today showed why he is one of the favourites to take gold at the Junior World Champs at Dubbo in July. He dominated the Men’s class, winning by a huge six and a half minutes. The course was long distance and it certainly was tough with many of the field not completing the course and Among those that did not many had ‘clean’ runs. One of those few was Lundanes, he was happy with his run commenting it was error free. It certainly sends a warming to the juniors out there that he is comfortable in Australian granite after only 4 runs. Mats Troeng did challenge him during the course taking a small lead between controls 8 and 12. A mistake on the leg 12^th slowed him down and he followed this with another large error at the 20^th. Carsten Jorgensen slotted into second with a run punctuated with a number of small errors that prevented him winning. Troeng was third. Simon Uphill continued his good form with a strong fourth place.

Grace Elson prevented a Norwegian double when she won her third race of week. Her performance was as dominant as Lundanes’. The margin of five minutes was steadily built over the race and she held the lead from the third control onwards.

Yesterday’s winner Mali Fjogstad Nilsen was second after a few hiccups during the course, her main time loss was on the long leg where she dropped two minutes to Elson. Ida Maire Naas Bjaargul had her best result of the week so far finishing third. The European’s results have steadily improved over the course of the 5 days showing their adaptation to the Aussie terrain. The week following the 5 days will be a training camp based in Orange andCanberra. This will give them ample opportunity to become granite confident.

The NSW Stingers would like to thank the support of all their sponsors including Ultimax socks, The Robin Hood Hotel , Run for Your Life – running magazine, AROCSPORT and Basil & Jean Baldwin’s vineyard, Fourjay Farms.

Splits/Results

Winsplits

Lachlan Dow (BS.A, pictured) has won the Silva Medal for 2006.

Lachlan’s excellent year included wins at Easter and the Australian Championships and two firsts in State Championships. A perfect record for the year slipped through his hands when he came second in the NSW Championships.  He is the first junior to win the award since Cassie Trewin and Andy Hogg shared the award in 1990.

The Silva Medal competition is based on points for participating and placing in the Australian Championships, the Easter 3-Days, and all State Championships (Elite and A classes in M/W16 and above).

Leading point scorers were:

1. Lachlan Dow       BS.A  27
2. Jenny Bourne      EU.V  23
3. Todd Neve           MF.V  22
4. David Shepherd   RR.A  22
5. Hugh Moore        RR.A  20
6. Dave Lotty          UR.N  20
7. Jo Allison            RR.A  20

The list of 2006 Non-Elite rankings is here (72KB PDF).

Day 2 of the Ultimax 5 days saw competitors return to Kahli’s Rocks but venture into different terrain with a different format. All classes had mass starts with ‘A’ classes also having hageby style loops. That is two loops beginning and ending at central pivot control with half the field doing each loop then swapping. The last 4 controls were common allowing for a spectacular finish.

The long first leg spread the 80+ men’s field with NZ’s Ross Morrison taking the award for first there to the control. Many of the favourites were on the same looping and were battling strongly until Julian Dent made a mistake taking Kerrin Rattray with him. At this point Carsten Jorgensen took the lead opening up a gap over Dave Shepherd and fellow Dane Rune Olsen. With a small lead Carsten chose the safe route around the clearing to the second-last control and Dave and Rune pounced. Dave was slightly ahead of Rune heading up to the last control while the spectators were treated to a ding-dong battle. As they jumped the fence Rune drew alongside using his superior speed and had the better approach to punch the last control first and secure the victory. Carsten came in third with a trio of juniors taking 4^th, 5^th and 6^th. Czech Jan Benes, Danish hopeful Christian Bobach and Aussie JWOC gun Simon Uphill.

Susanne Casanova looked set to take a comfortable victory in the women’s class with a 1 ½ minute lead with three controls to go. It all came unstuck however when, at the next control, an error allowed Norwegian Guro Flatekval to get a sniff of the lead. The mistake seemed to dampen Susanne’s pace and Guro was able to sneak ahead to finish three seconds ahead. Day 1 winner, Grace Elson, had a break earlier in the race but got lost amongst the rocks and blew any chance of a double. She showed her class however in recovering to third place. Jasmine Neve was next with NZ’s Lizzie Ingham leading a big group to come 5^th ahead of Anna Sheldon.

Gumble Creek played host to Day 3, a middle distance set by Dave Shepherd. Competitors were immediately thrown into technical granite with low-visibility undergrowth and it took some early victims. Julian Dent was out of the blocks fast and had the lead before he made a two-minute error allowing Swede Mats Troeng to pounce. He didn’t relinquish the lead and held on for a 30 second victory. Dent in second was 1:15 ahead of current Junior World Champion Saaren Bobach who was very fast but lost small amounts of time at a number of controls.

Jasmine Neve came out firing as she raced to the lead over the first three legs, it was short lived though as she lost 40 seconds at the fourth dropping her down the field. The ever present Grace Elson was there to take the lead and was looking good for the win when a lapse in concentration cost her two minutes and Mali Fjogstad Nilsen flew home for a 25 second victory

Spilts Available on Winsplits

The Ultimax 5-Days kicked off today amongst the complex granite of Kahli’s Rocks. Men’s and Women’s A started proceedings with a tough but fast sprint. It was Julian Dent who shone through in the Men’s with a massive minute victory to his housemate Kerrin Rattray. Former world number 1 Mats Troeng took third a further 30 seconds adrift. Grace Elson won the women’s in equally emphatic fashion, beating Jasmine Neve but over a minute to show that she could be the one beat this week. Neve was followed by NZ veteran Jenni Adams

The top ten from the qualifier raced again in the afternoon in a top ten shootout which had $350 total prize money on offer. It was a reverse chasing start, at one-minute intervals, with a map change to give spectators a good view of the competitors. Kerrin Rattray blew his chances early with a one minute mistake at the first control. Julian then caught him and then ran the majority of the course together. Junior Norwegian star Olav Lundanes was the clubhouse leader with Mats Troeng coming through slightly behind. Dent however stormed to victory helping Rattray to fourth along the way.

Three young Australian girls showed the international field how its done. Vanessa Round was the first to climb on the podium’s top step with a quick time. It was quick but not enough to keep out Jasmine Neve who slipped in ahead. All eyes were then on the last starter Grace Elson who looked strong through the map change. In the end she took the $100 winner’s cheque followed by Neve and Round.

Day 2 sees a return to Kahli’s Rocks with all classes having a mass start. It should definitely provide an interesting battle in all classes.

An archive of historical event results, both Australian and international, is now available on the Orienteering Australia website at http://results.orienteering.asn.au/.

This includes results for all Australian Championships (all distances), National League events and World Championships. (There is also a list of Australian Championship results sorted by name, so people’s career records can be viewed – just the thing if you want to see what today’s WOC team member did as M/W12).

There are also many results from the Australian 3-Days, Australian Schools Championships, state championships, and other international events, both in Australia and elsewhere (such as APOC, JWOC, World Cup and WMOC).

Entry of more historical results is a work in progress. This complements the results database for current events that OA expects to launch during 2007.