2008 Archive

Adrian Jackon is leading the Men’s division and Thorlene Egerton’s winning the Women’s division. The 3rd and final round will be held in Canberra in November- more details can be found here.

The Australian team for the Australia-New Zealand Challenge, to be held in conjunction with the Oceania Championships in New Zealand in January, was named following the Australian Championships week. The team is:

M16: Ian Lawford (ACT), Kurt Neumann (Qld), Oliver Poland (ACT).
M20: Joshua Blatchford (NSW), Lachlan Dow (ACT), Oscar Phillips (Tas).
M40: Jim Russell (Vic), Paul Liggins (Tas), Neil Simson (Qld).
M50: Eoin Rothery (WA), Grant McDonald (ACT), Nick Dent (NSW).
M60: Bob Allison (ACT), Greg Chatfield (Qld), Hugh Moore (ACT).
M70: Barry Hanlon (NSW), Tony Mount (Tas), John Lyon (SA).
W16: Mary Fleming (Vic), Katie Doyle (Qld), Michele Dawson (NSW).
W20: Bridget Anderson (Qld), Aislinn Prendergast (Vic), Krystal Neumann (Qld).
W40: Sue Hancock (Tas), Su Yan Tay (Qld), Cath Chalmers (WA).
W50: Anthea Feaver (WA), Louise Fairfax (Tas), Robin Uppill (SA).
W60: Judi Hay (NSW), Jenny Hawkins (NSW), Ann Ingwersen (ACT).
W70: Sue Mount (Tas), Jeffa Lyon (SA), Maureen Ogilvie (NSW).

The M/W21 teams will be chosen at a later date.

Victoria’s World Champion Adrian Jackson has won the Australian Championships in Sprint, Middle and Long Distance. QLD local Andrew Fellows was 2nd in all 3 races. Fellows is relatively new to Orienteering, but has a strong cycling background, winning his 25-29yrs age class at the recent 2008 World 24hr MTB Championships in Canada. Victoria’s Dion Keech was a consistent 3rd place in all races.

In the Women’s elite class, NZ’s Marquita Gelderman showed the form that saw her standing on the podium at the World MTBO Champs in Poland. She won the Sprint and Long Distance titles, while Australian rep Thor Egerton won the Middle Distance race.

In the junior classes, strong performances from ACT’s Luke Poland saw him win the M20 class in all races, and Newcastle’s Alex Massey won both the Sprint and Middle Distance races.

Sprint Distance Results

Middle Distance Results

Long Distance Results

The new National Junior Squad and Junior Development Squad for 2009 have been announced, following the Australian Championships week in Queensland. The squads are as follows:

National Junior Squad

Joshua Blatchford (NSW), Oliver Crosato (Qld), Lachlan Dow (ACT), Leon Keely (Vic), Simon Mee (Qld), Joshua Neumann (Qld), Kurt Neumann (Qld), Max Neve (Vic), Oscar Phillips (Tas), Patrick Watts (Tas)

Bridget Anderson (Qld), Ineka Booth (ACT), Sarah Buckerfield (Tas), Lilian Burrill (Qld), Belinda Lawford (ACT), Krystal Neumann (Qld), Brea Pearce (Tas), Aislinn Prendergast (Vic)

Junior Development Squad

Aaron Breed (Qld), Ian Lawford (ACT), Stuart Lawrie (Tas), Alex Massey (NSW), Todd Neve (Vic), Tom Palfrey (Tas), Oliver Poland (ACT)

Katie Doyle (Qld), Mary Fleming (Vic), Morgan McIntyre (Qld), Naomi Mitchell (ACT), Melanie Neumann (Qld), Glennie Nottle (Qld), Georgia Parsons (ACT), Rebekah Sunley (Vic)

Australian Schools Test Team to contest New Zealand in January.

Junior Girls: Mary Fleming (Vic), Morgan McIntyre (Qld), Katie Doyle (Qld), Michele Dawson (NSW)  Reserves: Rebekah Sunley (Vic), Jacqui Doyle (Qld)

Junior Boys: Kurt Neumann (Qld), Oliver Poland (ACT), Ian Lawford (ACT), Max Neumann (Qld) Reserves: Todd Neve (Vic), Paul De Jongh (ACT)

Senior Girls: Krystal Neumann (Qld), Belinda Lawford (ACT), Sarah Buckerfield (Tas), Lilian Burrill (Qld)  Reserves: Melanie Neumann (Qld), Brea Pearce (Tas)

Senior Boys: Joshua Blatchford (NSW), Lachlan Dow (ACT), Patrick Watts (Tas), Joshua Neumann (Qld)  Reserves: Oliver Crosato (Qld), Max Neve (Vic)

Tour Manager: Valerie Barker (ACT), Tour Coach: Ian Dalton (WA)

New Zealand won the womens Australian Relay Championships today, while the Canberra Cockatoos claimed the mens race.

Hanny Allston started out for Tasmania on the first leg, and arrived home with a 4 minute lead over Amber Morrison of NZ. A standout performance from JWOC representative Belinda Lawford had the ACT second team in third place at this stage. Tasmania dropped out of contention on the second leg, and a steady run from Rebecca Smith gave the NZers an unassailable 6 minute lead going into the final change. Behind them, the battle for the resident title was going on between ACT (number 1 team) and Victoria. Jo Allison (ACT) and Kathry Ewels (Vic) departed for the final leg at the same time, and raced head to head for the entire course. Ultimately, it was Allison who held her nerve, taking 30 seconds out of Ewels on the 3rd last control.

Another JWOC representative starred for the ACT mens team, with 17 year old Lachlan Dow promoted to the number 1 team to cover for Dave Shepherd’s injury. Dow kept the strong ACT team in the mix, only 1 minute off Eric Morris’ (NSW) lead and in 4th place. From there it should have been plain sailing for ACT’s veteran campaigners, Grant Bluett and Rob Walter, but the fastest runs of the day from SA’s Ben Rattray and Simon Uppill nearly put a spanner in the works.  Uppill caught veteran Rob Walter (ACT) on the 5th control of the final leg, and again it was head to head racing for the rest of the way. In this case it came down to a simple sprint, and Walter won the day for ACT by the narrowest of margins.

New Zealand won both the mens and womens junior races, with the residential title going to Queensland in both of those classes. Full results and splits now available.

The relays conclude a successful week of competition in Maryborough, Qld, and the end of a long Silva National Orienteering League.

It’s official – Adrian is back in the Number ONE position in the World MTBO Rankings. With the upcoming AUS MTBO Championships in Queensland, Adrian should be able maintain his commanding 22 point lead over Beat Okle (SUI). Alex Randall (presently in 19^th place) will need to compete in QLD to maintain his position in the top 20.

In the women’s rankings Marquita Gelderman (NZL), after a very successful World MTBO Championships where she claimed 2 podium finishes, leads the riders downunder with an outstanding 6^th World Ranking.  Qld’s Thor Egerton has moved up to 20^th, fast improving Melanie Simpson (NSW) now holds 36^th on 90 points.

The Canberra Cockatoos sealed victory in both the mens and womens divisions of the Silva National Orienteering League after today’s Australian Long Distance Championships.

The Cockatoos have dominated the women’s competition and their team of Jo Allison, Shannon Jones and Mace Neve  gained full points today to hold an unassailable lead of 28 points over the Victorian Nuggets. The National Title itself was claimed in convincing fashion by former World Champion Hanny Allston, who has shown that her break from the sport over the first half of 2008 has not harmed her form. Kathryn Ewels capped off a fantastic year to place 2nd, with stalwart Jo Allison in 3rd.

The men’s divison of the Silva National Orienteering League has been a closer race. While the Cockatoos have held a narrow lead over the Southern Arrow for much of the season, injury to David Shepherd meant that the Cockatoos failed to field a full team today. But the Arrows were unable to capitalise despite Simon Uppill’s 5 minute victory, only picking up 2 points on the Cockatoos. Rob Walter was placed 2nd, while veteran Craig Dufty just keeps getting better with age – placing 3rd in the best result of his career.

Full results and splits.

The Silva National Orienteering League concludes with today’s Australian Relay Championships.

Simon Uppill has continued his outstanding week in Queensland by adding a national sprint title to his middle distance win last weekend, his fourth successive National League win in all. He was pushed harder this time than he was earlier in the week. Rob Walter led for much of the race, but never by more than nine seconds, leaving Uppill close enough to take the lead at the third-last control and hold it to the end, seven seconds ahead. Ten seconds further back was the young Tasmanian Ryan Smyth in a career-best result, recovering from a disappointing weekend with an excellent run.

Kathryn Ewels, running her first race of the week, took the national sprint title by a comfortable margin in the end, but not before two key contenders were eliminated by punching wrong controls late in the race. Hanny Allston had built up a 50-second lead by 20, whilst Amber Morrison was just behind Ewels in third place at 18, before both of them stumbled. That left Ewels with a substantial lead and she finished 25 seconds ahead of her nearest rival, Jo Allison. Mace Neve completed the placings; like Smyth, this was her best result at this level.

Laurina Neumann continued her commanding week in W17-20E , building up enough of a lead early on to hold off a fast-finishing Belinda Lawford. Bryan Keely, still troubled by the foot injury that forced him out of JWOC, managed to stay on his feet for long enough to complete a sprint, and was rewarded with a victory, although he was pushed all the way by New Zealander Duncan Morrison. Keely’s win puts him in the box seat in the last undecided National League class, although Oliver Mitchell still has a chance if he finishes first or second in tomorrow’s Long Distance Championships.

Results and splits are available.

Queensland have easily won the Australian Schools Orienteering Championships after continuing their dominance in today’s relays. They were second in all three relays which were completed, behind two New Zealand teams and one from the ACT. This was enough for them to extend their lead further to 13 points over the ACT.

The closest finish of the day was in the senior boys’ relay. Five of the six official teams were within two minutes of each other after the first leg, but Oliver Crosato (Qld) and Toby Scott (NZ) broke away from the pack on the second leg. New Zealand were heavily favoured from there with individual champion Scott McDonald on the last leg, but Joshua Neumann hung in there and was still just off the lead at the final spectator control. It was not until the last kilometre that McDonald finally broke away, winning by just over a minute. Tasmania just held onto third despite a storming finish by the ACT’s Lachlan Dow.

Queensland and New Zealand might also have been expected to dominate the senior girls, and that was the way it looked after the first leg when they were two of the three leading teams. It was, however, the third member of that trio, the ACT, who emerged to dominate the second half of the relay, as Naomi Mitchell made the decisive break early on the second leg. She gave Belinda Lawford a five-minute lead to take into the final leg, and the JWOC representative was never going to surrender that, extending it further in the day’s fastest run. Queensland were second, whilst, after striking trouble on the second leg, Kate Morrison came through from fourth on the last leg and won a sprint finish for third with Tasmania’s Sarah Buckerfield that could have been crucial for the Southern Cross Junior Challenge.

Rebekah Sunley gave Victoria the early lead in the junior girls’, but New Zealand’s Jula McMillan passed her late on the first leg, and from there it was one-way traffic as first individual winner Selena Metherell, then Laura Robertson, lowered the day’s fastest time. Queensland were equally comfortable from the second leg onwards as the leading state team, ten minutes ahead of the Victorians. The junior boys’ relay was declared a no-race after some teams received incorrect maps.

New Zealand retained the Southern Cross Junior Challenge by three points from Queensland. It was an unfortunate result for the Queenslanders who would have tied but for the problem in the junior boys’ (which did not affect either team).

Team points for Australian Schools Championships: Qld 47, ACT 34, Tas 32, NSW 30, Vic 27, SA 9, WA 7.

Southern Cross Junior Challenge: NZ 52, Qld 49, ACT 36, Tas 32, NSW 30, Vic 27, SA 9, WA 7.

Full results are expected to be available on the OA results page later today.

Queensland have taken a clear lead after the first day of the Australian Schools Championships. On home ground, they went close to sweeping the team results in the four classes, only dropping a point to the ACT in the junior boys. They lead by 8 points over the ACT in the state competition. Their only real opposition came from New Zealand, who are two points ahead of them in the Southern Cross Junior Challenge.

New Zealand took three of the four individual races. Scott McDonald led the way by winning the senior boys’ division, just over a minute ahead of the two leading Australians, Josh Blatchford (NSW) and Lachlan Dow (ACT), who were separated by a single second. Kate Morrison took the senior girls’ class by a minute from Krystal Neumann (Qld); pre-race favourite Belinda Lawford (ACT) was only 21 seconds behind at the spectator control, but lost seven minutes at 11 and had to settle for fifth. Rachel Goodwin (NZ) completed the placings.

The third win for the Kiwis came in the junior girls’. Selena Metherell opened up a big lead halfway through the course, and while she surrendered some of it on the final loop, she still had 46 seconds in hand over her nearest rival, Mary Fleming (Vic). Fleming’s results continued her good form from the weekend, as did the third place of Morgan McIntyre (Qld). Kurt Neumann, who went into the junior boys’ race as a red-hot favourite, was the only local winner. His nearest rival, 59 seconds behind, was not Ian Lawford (ACT) or Todd Neve (Vic) as expected, but Lawford’s ACT team-mate Oliver Poland. Lawford completed the placings, with the first control proving crucial.

Schools points: Qld 27, ACT 19, NSW 18, Tas 17, Vic 15, WA 7, SA 6.

Southern Cross Junior Challenge: NZ 30, Qld 28, ACT 20, NSW 18, Tas 17, Vic 15, WA 7, SA 6.

Results here.