2012 Archive

At the Australian Schools Championships presentation dinner last night at the Tidal Waters Resort in St Helens the Australian Schools Honour team was announced. It is:

Junior Girls
Hannah Goddard TAS
Georgia Jones NSW
Asha Steer VIC
Heather Burridge QLD

Junior Boys
Jarrah Day TAS
Patrick Jaffe VIC
Stephen Melhuish ACT
Daniel Hill NSW

Senior Girls
Michele Dawson NSW
Anna Dowling TAS
Nicola Blatchford NSW
Rebecca Butler TAS

Senior Boys
Brodie Nankervis TAS
Shaun McDonough TAS
Oliver Poland ACT
Matt Doyle VIC

Congratulations to all our junior orienteers that were selected in the Honour Team. They will be in with a strong chance of selection in the Australian Schools team to take on New Zealand next January during the Oceania 2013 Carnival. Selection races for the Australian Schools team will also include results from the Australian Long Distance Championships on Saturday.

The Examiner newspaper has published a story online about Tasmania’s victory in the Australian Schools Championships.

The final pointscores for the Australian Schools Championships are:

The final pointscores for the Southern Cross Junior Challenge are:

Matt and Grace Crane both did the double on the first weekend of the Australian Championships carnival in Tasmania, following up wins in the Australian Middle Distance Championships on Saturday with second victories in the Tasmanian Long Distance Championships on Sunday..

Grace was especially dominant in the women’s competition. She celebrated her return to home ground with a massive six-minute margin in the Middle Distance Championships, getting through a technical course without major mistakes on a day when almost everyone else was making plenty, and turning the margin from large to overwhelming on a long leg late in the course. Anna Sheldon had her best result for the year with second, with Tracy Marsh in third. Grace then had an even bigger win the next day, with a 10-minute margin. This time Jasmine Neve was the closest challenger, while Marsh completed a pair of third places.

Matt did not have as much to spare in M21E but still completed a pair of wins. In the Middle Distance he recovered from early time losses, but it took until the long leg late in the course for him to take a decisive advantage over Max Neve. Neve, a first-year senior previously little-sighted this year, had his best result at senior level, and was joined in the places by another first-year senior, Lachlan Dow. On Sunday, Matt opened up a lead early on and held it all the way, although Rob Walter was always in touch and added another good long distance result to his Victorian Championships win the previous weekend. Another experienced long distance specialist, Rob Preston, was third.

Heather Muir and Todd Neve took out the junior titles at the Middle Distance Championships. Oliver Poland, who had been running seniors the previous day, returned to the junior ranks to win on Sunday, whilst Lilian Burrill had a solid win over the longer distance.

The major developments in the Silva National Orienteering League were in the women’s competition. The Victorian Nuggets cut the lead of the Queensland Cyclones from nine points to three, while Grace Crane kept her chances of overhauling Rachel Effeney alive, although she will still need at least a win and a second from the remaining two races.

Competition continues with the Australian Schools Championships tomorrow.

Direct links to results for the Carnival to date are:
Aust Middle Distance Champs results: http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=classes&databaseId=23000&ct=true

Orienteering Australia will be convening an open meeting on high performance pathways in Australian orienteering this Saturday evening in St. Helens. This meeting is open to anyone – particularly coaches and athletes – interested in the development of high performance orienteering in Australia, from the state junior squad level up to the WOC team. We are interested in ideas for improving high performance pathways in the future, and in information exchange from experience of successful programs which already exist, in Australia and overseas.

Areas we are particularly interested in include:

– strengthening the weaker links in our pathways – improving the transition from domestic to international competition, and from junior to senior elite competition

– building a stronger coaching structure and culture in Australian orienteering

– what can we learn from successful programs at the state level?

– learning from successful HP programs internationally (We’re particularly interested in learning more about what the NZ juniors do, and would like to get someone from NZ to the meeting if we can)

Ideas coming out of this meeting will form part of the input to planning our high performance program into the future (starting with a meeting/hookup of the HP Management Group which I’m hoping to convene either late in the carnival or shortly thereafter).

The meeting is scheduled for 8pm on Saturday 22 September, at the Portland Memorial Hall in St. Helens.

Anyone unable to attend is welcome to submit ideas by e-mail to oa_president@netspeed.com.au.

The Bushrangers’ team for the Australian Bushrangersvs NZ Pinestars Elite Test Matches (Aust Sprint Champs Sept 28th, Aust Long Champs Sept 29th) is as follows:

Men

Josh Blatchford

Bryan Keely

Rob Preston

Reserve: Brodie Nankervis

Women

Grace Crane

Rachel Effeney

Aislinn Prendergast

Reserve: Susanne Casanova

SCHOOL SPORT TEST MATCH TEAM

A School Sport Australia team of  16 athletes, comprised of 4 Junior boys, 4 Junior girls, 4 Senior boys and 4 Senior girls.will be selected to contest a “Test Match” against New Zealand .  This will be held in NZ in January 2013.  2 non traveling reserves will be named for each category.

Selection criteria are as follows:

2012 Australian Schools Championships Results and the 2012 Australian Orienteering Long Distance Championships.

Students must compete in both championship events to be considered for selection.    The selectors may make use of different formulae for analysing the results (eg placings, kilometer rates and total elapsed times.)    Greater emphasis should be given to the Schools Champs ahead of the Australian Long Distance Champs.

Note:

Any competitor who has been found to have breached the code of behaviour set down by School Sport Australia shall not be eligible for selection.

Any competitor who has been disqualified (DNF,DSQ) from either event shall not be eligible for selection.

A selection panel of 3 will be appointed at the management meeting before the commencement of competition.    A fourth panel member will be appointed by Orienteering Australia.

BUSHRANGER TEAM will be announced shortly.

A MTBO TRAINING CAMP will be held in conjunction with the Christmas 5 Days in Victoria.  It will go from Dec 27^th – January 2^nd.  More details available in October.

The Nordic Orienteering Tour began last weekend in Oslo, Norway.  This involves 5 stages –  9 races over 8 days in 3 different countries.  It also includes the last events of the 2012 World Cup.   The tour moves onto Sweden on Tuesday and finishes with two days of racing next weekend in Vuokatti, Finland.

The first stage involved a sprint qualification and then the top 30 went through to the final later in the afternoon at the Holmenkollen Ski Centre in Oslo.   Australia had Julian Dent (43^rd), Evan Barr (54^th)and Vanessa Round (42^nd) competing but none were happy with their runs and didn’t progress to the finals, which were won by Simone Niggli, (Switzerland) and Olav Lundanes, (Norway).  This was Simone’s eighth World Cup win this season from the nine races held so far!!      Olav Lundanes was fastest in the men’s qualification and  urged on in the final by the home crowd, he managed to win by the narrowest possible margin, one second!

 Sprint final,Oslo

 Women

 1.Simone Niggli SUI 16:22

 2.Emma Klingenberg DEN 16:42

Men

 1.Olav Lundanes NOR 15:14

 2.Matthias Kyburz SUI 15:15

 3.William Lind SWE 15:51

The  second race last weekend  was a shortened Middle Distance race with a winning time of 30 minutes and a 90-second start interval. The start lists were the sprint results in reverse order.

The Middle distance king Thierry Gueorgiou (France,) showed that he is back on his best form after injury, winning the 4.9 km course (with 290 m climb) by 42 seconds.   Julian Dent had an impressive run finishing 26^th, just 3.28 mins in arrears.

Simone Niggli, (Switzerland) won yet again – this time  by 1.19 over Swiss team mate Judith Wyder.   Vanessa Round had both injury and navigation concerns to finish in 46^thplace, over 8 minutes down on the winner.

  Middle Distance

 Women

 1.Simone Niggli SUI 29:09

 2.Judith Wyder SUI 30:28

 3.Tatyana Ryabkina RUS 31:00

  Men

 1.Thierry Gueorgiou FRA 29:00

 2.Peter Öberg SWE 29:42

 3.Matthias Kyburz SUI 30:06

The next race of the Nordic Tour is on Tuesday, when the Gothenburg northern waterfront will be the venue for an urban Sprint, knock-out style. The finals for the best eight runners start at 17.55 (women) and 18.10 (men), Swedish time.

The final races next weekend are in Finland and these will give both organisers and competitors some insights into what awaits next year at WOC, also in Finland.     There is great coverage on the Nordic Tour website, including maps with route gadget and live TV which is being seen in Sweden, Norway and Finland!    The “World of O” also has good summaries and map discussions.  

Kiwi star and present Canberra Cockatoo, Lizzie Ingham is this month’s athlete interview subject on the IOF website.  “My goal is to be the first Kiwi on the podium at WOC.”   An excellent read.

Congratulations to the many Aussies who competed in the World Rogaining Championships in the Czech Republic last weekend.  ACT stalwarts Julie Quinn and David Baldwin won the veteran mixed category and reportedly covered 135 kilometres in the heavily tracked terrain.  Supervets Geoff Lawford (ACT/Vic) and Rod Gray (Qld) were victorious in their category also.

NZ WORLD CUP AND BUSHRANGERS  – NOMINATIONS  now close THIS SUNDAY  SEPT 2^nd.

Note change:   World Cup maximum team size is now 10 men and 10 women.

Selection criteria for the Australian team to contest the World Cup races in New Zealand during the Oceania Championships, January 2013

Dates for the World Cup Races are as follows:

1) Middle distance Sun 6^th

2) Sprint qualifier Mon 7^th, final Tues 8^th

3) Prologue and chasing start Sun 13^th

Australia can now field a team of up to 10 men and 10 women for each of these races.

The only selection trials for these races will be:

1. Australian Middle Distance Championships Saturday September 22^nd(all athletes wishing to be considered for selection must enter the M/W21E classes)
2. Australian Sprint Championships Friday September 28^th(junior athletes wishing to be considered for selection should enter the M/W17-20E classes and all senior athletes must enter the M/W21E classes)

It is acknowledged that these are at different ends of the championships week; therefore if athletes are nominating for only the middle distance race at World Cup they need only run the Australian Middle Distance Championships trial, and if only nominating for the sprint race at World Cup they need only run the Australian Sprint Championships trial. If nominating for the final prologue race, or wishing to be considered for all 3 World Cup Races, athletes are to run both middle and sprint trials.

If an athlete who is nominating for these World Cup races is unable to attend either of the selection trials then they may request that their past results, i.e. all known form, be taken into account.

Past results are to be taken into account in order of significance:

1) WOC 2012

2) JWOC/WUOC/WC 2012

3) WOC 2011

4) Easter and WOC trials 2012

5) Oceania 2011

Nonimations for the Bushrangers vs Pinestars Test Matches Sept 2012

The Australian Championships 2012 week will also include a series of Bushrangers vs Pinestars Test matches. Although athletes were invited to nominate for these earlier in the year, this is the official call for nominations.

The races are to be the:

Australian Sprint Championships Fri Sept 28^th

Australian Long Championships Sat Sept 29^th

The Bushranger team size will be 3 men and 3 women, as determined by the size of the visiting NZ team.

Nominations for both the World Cup races and the Bushrangers vs Pinestars Tests are to be received by SUNDAY SEPT 2nd, 2012.

All nominations are to be sent to the Chair of Senior Selectors, Jenny Casanova, at jenny.casanova@health.sa.gov.au   on

2013 WC (and Sept Bushrangers) nomination form.doc

After the great performances by our junior boys in the middle distance there were high hopes of a medal in the relay.    They certainly gave it a great shot and were in 2^nd place through legs one and two before some terrain collywobbles got to Tom Goddard on leg 3 and he slipped back to 9^th.   Nevertheless it showed that our boys certainly have the potential to be at the pointy end of the field.

Our elite men’s team were led out by first time elite Oscar Phillips and he did pretty well finishing just on 6 minutes down, although in 20^th overall.     Ricky Thackray had probably his best ride so far and did a similar time and got the team back in 14^th and Steve Cusworth managed to peg back another team to give us 13^th overall.     Taking out the second teams for some countries that gave us 9^th overall.

We fielded a second elite team, comprising of our other two juniors (Heath and Karl) and our lone female elite, in Melanie Simpson.     This provided them with another international race and it seems that they individually all rode quite well.

The Championships conclude on Saturday with the long distance championship event.

The organisers have sensibly put these last given the predicted hot weather and the long physical nature of the courses

JUNIOR MEN

1 Czech Republic   2:01:12

2 Finland 1       2:06:06

3 Russia 2        2:12:23

4 France 1        2:14:59

5 Russia 1        2:15:04

6 Lithuania 2:  18:06

7 Latvia 1        2:18:45

8 Sweden 1      2:19:51

9 Australia 1  2:26:31    ( 8^th official team)

Chris Firman 44.39 = 2^nd   Marc Gluskie 40.40 = 2^nd   Tom Goddard  60.12 = 9th

 JUNIOR WOMEN

1  Russia 1       2:06:36

2 Finland 1      2:10:25

3 Czech  Rep   2:11:36

4 Polish            2:19:47

5 France 1            2:25:12

6 Russia 2          2:38:39

ELITE MEN

1 Finland 1                  2:16:04

2 Russia 1                    2:16:47

3 Austria 1                    2:17:06

4 Czech Republ 1        2:20:00

5 Czech Republ           2          2:21:17

6 Finland 2                  2:21:21

7 Russia 2                    2:24:06

8 France 1                   2:24:13

9 Switzerland  1                      2:24:58

10 Italy 1                     2:31:53

11 Portugal 1                          2:32:03

12 Switzerland 2        2:33:28

13 Australia 1                         2:35:03    (9^th official team)

30 Australia 2                         3:13:22

AUS 1  Oscar Phillips 52.58 = 20^th;  Ricky Thackray 52.28 = 14^th;  Steve Cusworth 49.37 = 13^th.

AUS 2 Heath Jamieson 61.28 = 32^nd; Karl Withers 61.52 = 31^st; Melanie Simpson 70.02 = 30^th.

 ELITE WOMEN

1 Finland 1       2:15:12

2 Switzerland  2:17:31

3 Slovakia 1       2:26:02

4 Austria 1       2:27:48

5 France 1       2:28:36

6 Czech Rep    2:28:45

MASTERS SPRINT

2 –   W50   Carolyn Jackson

13 –  W50   Carolyn Cusworth

9 – W40     Tasmin Barnes

25 – M50     Richard Robinson

37 – M50     Peter Cusworth

2 – M60      Rob Garden (NZ)

The MTBO World Championships concluded today with the Long Distance Final, with races finishing in the historical town of Veszprem..

Queenslander junior Chris Firman became our “rider of the meet” with another fine performance, this time placing 12th.   This followed his 5^th in the middle event and 2^nd on the first leg of the relay.   Tom Goddard was 7^th about 75% of the way around the course but suffered a troublesome flat tyre that caused him grief.

In the elites Melanie Simpson raced well  placing 20^th, again fantastically close to the top, being just 4 minutes off the podium in a tightly packed field.   Kiwi Marquita Gelderman followed on from her sprint 25^th with an 18^th place today.   Finn Susanna Laurila added an individual gold to her relay gold medal.   Steven Cusworth had his best result of the week with 27^th.  Ruslan Gritsan’s (Russia) pulled off a 16 second victory after starting last and storming home over the last kilometres.   Finn Samuli Saarela, who finished 4^th, just a minute down, had the misfortune to get a puncture in the closing stages.

Overall during the week the Finnish team dominated the medal collection, to a degree not seen before..  However there was a greater depth of nations than ever before actually making it into the top 6.  Also Sweden this year came with a large team and are intent on being a MTBO force in the future.

Ruslan Gritsan’s gold medal today took his individual medal career haul to 12 – 5 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze.  The only other rider ahead is Austria’s Michaela Gigon, who also has 12 but this includes 6 gold, 4 silver and and 2 bronze.

JUNIOR MEN

1              Krystof Bogar      Czech Rep   73:35

2              Jonas Maišelis     Lithuania     77:54

3              Vojtech Ludvik     Czech Rep   78:02

4              André Haga         Finland           78:46

5              Reinis Grende      Latvia            79:09

6              Grigory Medvedev   Russia      79:17

12           Chris Firman                                  81.52

31           Tom Goddard                               95.50

32           Karl Withers                                96:02

37           Marc Gluskie                              101:03   

JUNIOR WOMEN

1              Eeva-Liisa Hakala       Finland       58:30

2             Svetlana Poverina       Russia         61:31

3              Ruska Saarela              Finland        65:22

4              Barbara Sanocka          Polish          65:26

5             Henna Saarinen           Finland         66:18

6              Caroline Konring         Denmark      67:25

ELITE MEN

1              Ruslan Gritsan     Russia                  90:41

2              Juho Saarinen      Finland               90:57

3              Samuel Pökälä      Finland              91.34

4              Samuli Saarela     Finland                 91:41

5              Davide Machado     Portugal         95:01

6              Tonis Erm               Estonia                 95:13

27           Steve Cusworth                                     103.58

ELITE WOMEN

1              Susanna Laurila    Finland             77:27

2              Ksenia Chernykh    Russia            77:50

3              Marika Hara        Finland               79:15

4              Annick Béguin      Switzerland    79:38

5              Ursina Jäggi       Switzerland         80:43

6              Christine Schaffne   Switzerland    81:02

18           Marquita Gelderman     NZ              84.55

20           Melanie Simpson                              85.31

MASTERS

2              W50        Carolyn Jackson

5              W50       Vivienne Prince    (NZ)

11           W40       Tasmin Barnes

27           M40       Bruce Patterson

19           M50       Peter Cusworth

26           M50       Richard Robinson

2              M60       Rob Garden      (NZ)

7              M60       Michael Wood (NZ)

Medals overall WOC & JWOC

G   S   B

Finland            4   2   3

Switzerland     2  1

Russia              1   3    1

Austria             1   –    1

Czech Rep       –    1    –

Great Britain   –    1    –

Denmark         –     –    1

Poland             –     –     1

Slovakia           –     –     1