2013 Archive

Australia just lost the Individual Australia-New Zealand Challenge, 31 classes to 29 over the three days, but tied the relay 10-10, ending a run of unbroken home success in the Challenge which extended back to 1994.

The Oceania Long Distance Championships saw New Zealand win 11-9, a decisive result given the tied score coming into the event. It was a very close-run thing. In a result as close as this, there are always some ‘what might have been?’ stories; New Zealand won M50 by 15 seconds, and also had less than a minute in hand in M40.

The locals also looked to have won the relay by the narrowest possible margin, but the disqualification of the New Zealand M20 team (for taking a wrong map) made it a 10-10 result. Ultimately critical were two close results in the women’s events; Nicola Dalheim won a sprint finish in W45, and Anna Hyslop held off a fast-finishing Jenni Adams by less than a minute in W40.

Australia had a long list of individual Oceania Champions in the Long Distance. Race winners in A classes were Kylian Wymer (M12), Jarrah Day (M16), Bruce Arthur (M35), Geoff Lawford (M55), Nick Dent (M60), Gordon Howitt (M80), Alyssia Wymer (W10), Cathy Hogg (W35), Jenny Bourne (W50), Robin Uppill (W55), Valerie Barker (W60), Ann Ingwersen (W70) and Maureen Ogilvie (W80), while Grace Crane (W21E) and Oliver Poland (M20) also took Oceania titles while finishing second behind European opposition.

While the open classes were not Challenge classes this year because of the World Cup, Australia also took the Oceania title in both elite races. Simon Uppill, Rob Preston and Chris Naunton were second behind an Italian-Austrian combination, while Aislinn Prendergast, Susanne Casanova and Kathryn Preston were first across the line.

The World Cup continues on Sunday in the Hawke’s Bay region, while for other classes there are events on both days of the weekend.

Australian Schools Orienteering Team

Friday Evening saw the Australian Schools Orienteering Team join the Swedish World Cup Team for an impromptu get together in Napier.  The Juniors were welcomed into the Swedish Team meeting to meet and mingle with some of the world’s best Orienteers.  The Swedish team were seen having photos with our juniors as well as signing various bits of memorabilia.  The schools team also got to chat with their various idols in what was a highlight for the schools team.

Australia has levelled the Australia-New Zealand Challenge, taking 13 classes to 7 at the Oceania Championships to leave the competition tied at 20-20 going into the decisive Long Championships tomorrow.

In a reverse of the situation at the Middle Distance Championships, the close classes fell Australia’s way – M20 was won by five seconds, and M65 by eleven – and there were also unexpected wins in M45 when the heavily-favoured local team had two mispunches, and in W65 where Bryony Cox inflicted a rare defeat on Patricia Aspin.

It was also a more productive day for Australian individuals. Seventeen Australians won their races, whilst a further five were Oceania champions as the leading Oceania competitor in their class.

Winners: Heather Muir (W20), Brodie Nankervis (M20), Matt Doyle (M18), Noah Poland (M12), Alyssia Wymer (W10), Cathy Hogg (W35), Anita Scherrer (W40), Eric Morris (M40), Wendy Read (W45), Anthea Feaver (W50), Grant McDonald (M55), Carol Brownlie (W60), Adrian Uppill (M60), Bryony Cox (W65), Ann Ingwersen (W70), Alex Tarr (M70), Maureen Ogilvie (W80).

Other Oceania champions: Julian Dent (M21), Joanna Hill (W12), Michael Burton (M50), Debbie Davey (W55), Ross Barr (M65).

The World Cup sprint final in Wellington today again saw the cream come to the top with pre-race hot tips Matthias Kyburz (Swiss) and Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) taking gold.

The main surprise was the blow out in the winning times, usually 12-15 minutes, to nearly 18 for the men and mid 19’s for the women.   The hilly terrain and wide route choices accounted for some of this no doubt.  Some runners obviously spent their energy early on, not anticipating that a longer run was in store.

Tove’s success was built on consistency, as she only scored a couple of fastest legs.  After holding the lead midrace she fell behind, only to grab the lead and hold it from the penultimate control, with just a 3 second margin from fellow Swede Annika Billstam.

Kiwi sprint specialist Lizzie Ingham delighted the crowd to race in for 3^rd, just 12 seconds behind the winner.  This bronze medal is the best ever result at a major international meet by a female New Zealander.  Now studying for her Phd in Canberra, Lizzie had returned home a month ago to finalise her preparation for a rare World Cup event on home soil.

Lizzie started slowly but then won a decisive route choice leg from 5-6 which saw her remain in either 2^nd or 3^rdplace for the remainder of the course.

The Aussie girls had mixed results, with Grace Crane doing well for 18^th place in a strong field that boasted 11 of the 12 top World ranked females.   Rachel Effeney finished 21^st, but rued a loss of some 45 seconds on one control.   She leaves NZ now, to return to her doctor’s internship in Cairns, thus being unable to race in event 3.   Top junior Heather Muir will step up into elites for this race.   Felicity Brown continued her impressive form for 28^th.

Many of our lower placed girls lost valuable time on leg 5-6.  Where Lizzie ran 3.14 they took 5- 6 and a half minutes.

The men’s race was dominated by the Swiss, as they had 7 runners in the top 10!  Matthias Kyburz took the honours, 30 seconds clear of Swede Jerker Lysell.  It was almost another “Matthias” trifecta with the other Matthias Swiss boys finishing 3^rd and 4^th.    Our two male representatives can be well pleased with 13^th(Julian) and 17^th (Simon).  Given the long winning times they were quite close to the pointy end, with Julian being less than 30 seconds from the podium.

More maps and reports can be found on http://news.worldofo.com/ and winsplits can be found at

www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/

The elite runners have a mini rest now until racing event 3 on January 13.  This event has an unusual format consisting of a Middle distance chasing start in the afternoon with the start times based on a shortened middle distance prologue (20-25 minutes) in the morning. The prologue will have a loop format with 2 athletes starting at a time. The start interval will be 2 minutes

Men  3.6 km 135 m 19 C

1      17.52   Matthias Kyburz          SUI

2      18.27   Jerker Lysell               SWE

3    18.30   Matthias Merz             SUI

4    18.41   Matthias Müller           SUI

5    18.50   Olav Lundanes            NOR

6    18.56   Tue Lassen                 DEN

13 19.23   Julian Dent               AUS

17 19.54   Simon Uppill             AUS

20 20.02   Tim Robertson           NZL

29 20.45   Ross Morrison            NZL

33 21.04   Matt Ogden                NZL

34 21.19   Matthew Crane           GBR / ACT

Women  3.0 km 135 m 16 C

1          19.32   Tove Alexandersson   SWE

2          19.35   Annika Billstam           SWE

3          19.44   Lizzie Ingham              NZL

4          20.12   Sara Lüscher              SUI

5          20.19   Tone Wigemyr           NOR

6          20.33   Rahel Friederich        SUI

18        21.49   Grace Crane              AUS

21        22.23   Rachel Effeney         AUS

25        23.42   Greta Knarston          NZL

27        23.51   Georgia Whitla           NZL

28        23.54   Felicity Brown          AUS

30        24.10   Imogene Scott           NZL

31        24.32   Laura Robertson        NZL

33        24.53   Amber Morrison         NZL

34        25.00   Anna Sheldon          AUS

35        25.46   Aislinn Prendergast  AUS

36        26.21   Mace Neve                AUS

37        26.52   Jasmine Neve           AUS

38        26.55   Cosette Saville           NZL

39        27.29   Kathryn Preston      AUS

New Zealand have taken the first stage of the Australia-New Zealand Challenge, winning 13 classes to 7 at the Oceania Middle Distance Championships.

For a time Australia looked like they might have a chance of becoming the first visiting country since 1994 to win a Challenge event, but New Zealand’s dominance in the junior classes, which were run late in the day, eventually settled the matter. It was a close-run thing, with three of New Zealand’s wins being by less than a minute.

Thirteen Australians took Oceania titles while Grace Crane (W21E) and Blair Trewin (M40) were the leading Oceania competitors in their classes.  Major placegetters were:

M10      1  Torren Arthur    W10   1  Alyssia Wymer

M12      1  Kylian Wymer;  3 Noah Poland     W12   2  Joanna Hill;  3 Zoe Melhuish

M14      1  Matias Salonen

M18      3  Ashley Nankervis

M20      2  Henry McNulty,   3  Brodie Nankervis     W20  1  Heather Muir

M21      3   Fedor Iskhakov

W35      1  Cathy Hogg

M40      1  Mikko Salonen, 2  Blair Trewin    W40  1  Heidi Salonen,   3  Anita Scherrer

W45      2  Wendy Reid,  3  Isabelle Wymer

W50      2  Anthea Feaver

M55      1  Geoff Lawford,  2   Paul Pacque          W55  1  Sue Key,   3  Julia Prudhoe

M60      2  Bert Elson,  3  Nick Dent       W60   1  Lynne Dabbs,  3  Carol Brownlie

M65      3  Tony Simpkins

M70      1  Alex Tarr      W75  1 Ann Ingwersen, 2  Jean Balwin,  3  Janet Tarr

M80      2  Gordon Howitt         W80   1  Maureen Ogilvie

Competition continues with the World Cup sprint qualification from 1pm (NZ time) today, while the next Oceania Championship event is the sprint on Tuesday.

Swiss runner Fabian Hertner and Swedish star Helena Jansson won the first World Cup race of the season in very detailed and sandy terrain in New Zealand. Very intricate contour details made map reading and orienteering challenging, as demonstrated below.

In the men’s event all the top 8 were Swiss and Swedish runners while the women’s top 8 list featured five different nations, albeit with 4 Swedes amongst them.   The fact that the overseas nations raced well in the sand-dune terrain was expected, as particularly the Swedes and Danish have similar areas at home.    The men’s favourite, Norwegian Olav Lundares, looked to be the winner in the finish shute until it was discovered that he had punched a women’s control instead of his number 16.   Chris Forne’s 22^nd place was the best NZ result in the men.   Best Aussie Julian Dent was with the leaders in the early stages of the race but lost time later on to finish in 27th^{th place}, with Simon Uppill in 36th.   Lachy Dow made an excellent senior debut for 42^nd and rookie Chris Naunton was close behind in 48^th.

Swedish winner Helena Jansson told  orientering.se after the race, “I was prepared for a tricky race, and therefore I was very careful in my orienteering.   I did not do a technically clean race. But I am probably the one who did the least amount of mistakes, and that was rewarding.”     Grace Crane was Australia’s stand- out performer, and the first “down under” finisher,  with a fine 16^th place.   Lizzie Ingham, in 21^st was the best of the Kiwi women, with 5 others in the top 30, just ahead of Kathryn Preston in 31st.

See Mick Finn’s World Cup Orienteering #1video at:  http://tv.worldofo.com/?id=1215

Men     5.3 km             140 m 25 C

1  Fabian Hertner        SUI      32:58

2  Johan Runesson     SWE    33:55

3  Jerker Lysell           SWE    34:31

4  Matthias Merz         SUI      34:35

5  William Lind             SWE    35:01

6  Baptiste Rollier        SUI      35:13

22  Chris Forne           NZL     39:12

23  Thomas Reynolds NZL     39:21

26  Ross Morrison       NZL     39:31

27  Julian Dent          AUS    39:37

35  Matt Ogden           NZL     41:00

36  Simon Uppill        AUS    41:09

41  Brent Edwards      NZL     43:20

42  Lachlan Dow       AUS    43:24

45  Tane Cambridge   NZL     44:24

46  Gene Beveridge    NZL     45:12

46  Greg Flynn            NZL     45:12

48  Chris Naunton    AUS     45:15

51  Matthew Crane     GBR    46:47

52  Oliver Poland      AUS    46:55

53  Bruce Arthur       AUS    47:18

54  James Bradshaw NZL     47:25

55  Josh Blatchford AUS     49:32

56  Ian Lawford         AUS    50:46

57  Rob Preston        AUS    53:18

Toby Scott                         NZL     mp

63 starters

Women     4.3 km       120 m 19 C

1  Helena Jansson      SWE    33:31

2  Ida Bobach              DEN    34:54

3  Tatyana Riabkina    RUS    35:21

4  Tone Wigemyr        NOR    35:32

5  Annika Billstam       SWE    35:49

6  Venla Niemi            FIN      35:55

16  Grace Crane        AUS    39:12

21  Lizzie Ingham        NZL     40:09

22  Rachel Smith        NZL     41:10

23  Amber Morrison    NZL     42:31

27  Georgia Whitla      NZL     44:48

29  Jenni Adams         NZL     45:56

30  Laura Robertson   NZL     46:07

31  Kathryn Preston             AUS    46:33

33 Lara Prince            NZL     47:04

35  Rachel Effeney    AUS    47:22

36 Jasmine Neve       AUS    47:23

37  Tessa Ramsden    NZL     48:38

40  Aislinn Prendergast AUS 50:18

41  Imogene Scott      NZL     50:40

42  Felicity Brown     AUS    50:43

43  Mace Neve           AUS    50:58

44 Susanne Casanova AUS  53:11

47  Anna Sheldon     AUS    57:02

48  Bridget Anderson AUS 63:20

Greta Knarston     NZL     mp

52 starters.

The sprint qualifying World Cup event was held today in Wellington, New Zealand.

This was on the 1:4,000 “Mr Speaker” map, so named as it finished in front of the Parliament building.   It also featured the Botanic Gardens and other urban areas.

Swiss Fabian Hertner again led the way in the men’s event.  However the exciting news was that both Julian Dent and Simon Uppill easily qualified within a minute of the winner.   Olle Poland was our next best, but he fell just 7 seconds short of the qualifying mark in taking 44^th place,

For the second event in a row again it was a Swedish victory in the women with Tove Alexandersson (14.05) taking an 11 second victory over compatriot Helena Jansson.  As expected NZ’er Lizzie Ingham was prominent in 5^th and could improve even further tomorrow.    The best of the Australian contingent was grouped together in the early 20’s, with Rachel Effeney (15.54) being 1 second up on Grace Crane, Kathryn Preston a further 2 seconds back and Felicity Brown again ran well to record 15.59 for 25^th place.   Overall we had 8 girls qualify for the final.

Finnish star Minna Kaupi again watched from the sidelines, having not overcome a bout of the flu.  Hopefully she will compete in event 3 on Sunday before joining other Europeans for a month training  in the warmth of NZ.

Women – 2.8 km, 65 m climb

1              14.05     Tove Alexandersson (SWE)

2              14.16     Helena Jansson (SWE)

3              14.36     Sara Luscher (SUI)

5                              Lizzie Ingham (NZ)

20           15.54     Rachel Effeney

22           15.55     Grace Crane

23           15.57     Kathryn Preston

24           15.59     Felicity Brown

26           16.15     Amber Morrison (NZ)

28           16.25     Mace Neve

29           16.31     Laura Robertson (NZ)

30           16.32     Georgi Whtla (NZ)

31           16.34     Aislinn Prendergast

32           16.37     Anna Sheldon

32           16.37     Great Knarston (NZ)

38           17.03     Corsette Saville (NZ)

39           17.04     Imogen Scott (NZ)

40           17.48     Jasmine Neve

41           17.52     Susanne Casanova

45           18.01     Bridget Anderson

45           18.01     Lara Prince (NZ)

47           18.07     Rachel Smith (NZ)

48           18.48     Jula Macmillan (NZ)

Men – 3.3 km, 75 m climb,

1              13.27     Fabian Hertner (SUI)

2              14.47     Jonas Leandersson (SWE)

3              13.50     Olav Lundanes (NOR)

10           14.12     Julian Dent

15           14.23     Matthew Crane (GB/ACT)

17           14.27     Simon Uppill

19           14.31     Ross Morrison (NZ)

32           14.47     Tim Robertson (NZ)

35           14.48     Matt Ogden (NZ)

44           15.08     Olle Poland

46           15.18     Tane Cambridge (NZ)

47           15.20     Chris Forne (NZ)

49           15.31     Lachy Dow

51           15.48     Tom Reynolds (NZ)

52           15.49     Oscar McNulty 

53           15.52     Josh Blatchford

54           15.54     Ian Lawford

55           16.10     Bruce Arthur

57           16.38     Rob Preston

59           16.48     Bryn Davies (NZ)

60           16.55     Chris Naunton

MP         Toby Scott & Gene Beveridge (NZ)

The sprint final will occur Tuesday morning, again in Wellington commencing at 8am eastern Australian time.  The runners will venture into Government House grounds, as well as Mount Victoria and the school sites of Wellington East Girls College and Wellington College.

The World Cup and Oceania Championships get under way in New Zealand today, with a middle distance World Cup races, and the Oceania Middle Distance Championships. Both races will be contested on an area of complex, largely open sand dunes north of Wellington.

Australia has 9 men and 10 women taking the field today, led by Julian Dent and Grace Crane. The race will be the first World Cup event held in the region since 2000, and while the field is not quite at full strength, it still contains a large proportion of the world’s best orienteers. The first starts are at 9.30am (NZ time) for women, and 10.00 for men. The Oceania Middle Distance Championships for other classes follow from 2.00pm.

Two carnival events have already taken place. The major feature of this was the Australia-New Zealand Schools challenge, with the relay on Friday and the individual on Saturday. While Australia put up a close contest in some classes on both days they were unable to prevent a clean sweep by New Zealand. The best Australian individual results were by Brodie Nankervis (2nd in senior boys) and Nicola Blatchford (3rd in senior girls).

Live video streaming and results should be available through the ‘Results’ section of the Championships website. This also has results from the Friday and Saturday races.