2013 Archive

Last Sunday NSW proved to be the champion overall State at the Australian Long Distance Championships, winning the OA Shield with 68 points from ACT 54 pts, Victoria 42, Tasmania 32, Queensland 16, South Australia 14 and Western Australia 11.

The ACT goes into this Sunday’s Australian Relays as favourites in both the senior men’s and women’s after winning the teams in the  Australian Long Distance Championships. The winning ACT men’s team comprised Matt Crane, Rob Walter and David Shepherd, with a combined time of 277min 10secs. Victoria was runner up with 302:08, NSW 3rd with 303:08 and QLD 4th with 382:49. 

The winning ACT women’s team consisted of Lizzie Ingham, Jo Allison and Allison Jones, with a time of 246:11. Tasmania was a very close 2nd with 247:21 and Victoria 3rd with 256:44, setting the scene for a torrid competition between the 3 States in Sunday’s Relay. Queensland was 4th with 291:06 and NSW 5th with 320:58.

2013 Australian Schools Championships

Victoria have won their first Australian Schools Championships since 2004, with New Zealand once again winning the Southern Cross Junior Challenge.

Victoria secured their result with consistent results across the four grades, both in the individual and relay, which ended up giving them a six-point lead over Tasmania. They were led by Lanita and Asha Steer, who won the senior and junior girls’ events respectively, coming in late in the day to overhaul early leaders Alice Tilley (NZ) and Winnie Oakhill (Queensland) respectively.

New Zealand’s Southern Cross Junior Challenge win was also down to consistency. Compared with previous years they were short of superstar performers, but performed well across the age groups and won three of the four relays (only a mispunch prevented a clean sweep). Their one indivdual win was an expected one, JWOC bronze medallist Tim Robertson having nearly five minutes in hand over his team-mate Shamus Morrison in the senior boys.

The closest race of the day was in the junior boys, where Simeon Burrill (Queensland) posted an outstanding time early on, and just held off M16 Australian champion Patrick Jaffe (Victoria) by 13 seconds in a somewhat unexpected result.

Final state placings: Victoria 1st, Tasmania 2nd, Queensland 3rd, ACT 4th, NSW 5th, SA 6th, WA 7th.

Results from the events are available at the carnival website with official results and tables found at School Sport Australia website.

The Australian Honour Team 2013

Junior Boys: Ewan Barnett ACT, Simeon Burrill Qld, Riley de Jong Qld, Patrick Jaffe Vic.
Junior Girls: Zoe Dowling Tas, Tara Melhuish ACT, Winnie Oakhill Qld, Asha Steer Vic.
Senior Boys: Aidan Dawson NSW, Matt Doyle Vic, Cameron Duncan WA, Ashley Nankervis Tas.
Senior Girls: Nicola Blatchford NSW, Anna Dowling Tas, Olivia Sprod SA, Lanita Steer Vic.

The Australian sprint championships were held today in the hallowed grounds of Canberra Grammar School.  Although this was the first time an orienteering event was held there, the school has produced many fine orienteers including current Orienteering President, Blair Trewin.

A large contingent of New Zealanders were present and two of their very best in Lizzie Ingham & Tim Robertson took out victory in the elites.   Although based in Canberra for the last year, Lizzie, who placed a fine 12^th in this year’s WOC sprint, certainly hadn’t been on the grounds of Grammar before.  Despite just resuming from an injury induced spell Lizzie navigated superbly to take the win from Rachel Effeney (QLD) and Hanny Allston (TAS).   It was pleasing to see Rachel gracing the podium again as she has been unable to race much this year due to work commitments.   Hanny is well and truly back on the orienteering scene, after a 4 year hiatus, and is improving with every race.

Tim Robertson is a truly classy sprint competitor, with a bronze medal from the Junior Worlds this year amongst his credits.  Thus it was no surprise to see him take the victory today, but it was only a narrow 6 second margin to Matt Crane (ACT), with Simon Uppill (SA) a further 30 seconds back.  With fields of 40 in the women’s elite and 49 in the men’s there was definitely plenty of competition.

History was made in the junior elite classes when Western Australian athletes won both.  Oscar McNulty (M20) displayed his liking for speed with a 39 second win over Olle Poland (ACT), with Kiwi Nick Smith third.   It should be noted that both the senior and junior elites had exactly the same courses, and Oscar’s time would have placed him 4^th in the senior race.    Oscar’s younger brother Henry also did well in placing 6^th.   Markéta Novotná (WA) had a narrow 5 second victory over the ever consistent Queenslander Heather Muir, with another Kiwi, Vida Fox in third.

Senior Elites                                       Junior Elites

15.04     Tim Robertson                  15.57     Oscar McNulty

15.10     Matt Crane                         16.36     Olle Poland

15.45     Simon Uppill                       16.51     Nick Smith

15.16     Lizzie Ingham                     18.33     Marketa Novotna

16.07     Rachel Effeney                  18.38     Heather Muir

16.12     Hanny Allston                    18.46     Vida Fox

Video, by Graham Hammond, Find Your Feet

All results available on Eventor.

Blair Trewin and John Harding attended a briefing today by the head of ASADA on the major things ASADA is involved in. The number one message is that athletes should be encouraged to improve through training and skills development, and to avoid taking supplements, especially if they come from the USA, China or Thailand. An analysis of supplements from these countries found that over 60% contained traces of one or more performance enhancing banned drugs, even in some simple multi-vitamin supplements. There is information on the AIS website on which supplements have been checked for safe use.

ASADA also advised that

“the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) today released the 2014 Prohibited List, which will come into effect on 1 January 2014.

To give you a chance to familiarise yourself with the List, WADA has published it on their website along with a summary of major modifications and details on the 2014 monitoring program.

ASADA encourages your organisation to ensure that your state affiliates, athletes, team managers, medical officials and other support persons are aware of the new List, and remind athletes it is their responsibility to check the status of any medication or substance prior to use.”

The final 4 NOL events will take place in Canberra over the next two weekends.

It looks like a Canberra Cockatoos  and Victorian Nuggets showdown in the teams competition in Senior Men, Senior Women and Junior Men. In the Senior Men the Cockatoos have a one point lead over the Nuggets, in the Senior Women the Nuggets have a four point lead over the Cockatoos and in the Junior Men the Cockatoos have a 12 point lead over the Nuggets. In the Junior Women the Nuggets have a 12 point lead over the NSW Stingers.

Both states appear to have strong teams for the events so it may all come down to the relays on the final Sunday. Watch out for a strong showing from the NSW Stingers especially in the Senior Mens class.

In the individual competition most interest is in the Senior Women where Grace Crane and Lizzie Ingham are sharing the lead on 210 points well clear of Jasmine Neve in third place. In the Senior Men Matt Crane has a comfortable lead over Lachlan Dow, Junior Men Ian Lawford has a comfortable lead over Brodie Nankervis and in the Junior Women Heather Muir (Queensland Cyclones) has a comfortable lead over Jacqui Doyle.

ELITE MEETING

Reminder to all Senior and Junior elites there is an important meeting at Canberra Grammar at 1:45pm straight after the Sprint Champs (for about 30 minutes) and that   NOL presentations will occur each day for the Sprint, Long, Middle and Relay so could ALL placegetters please be present for these presentations.

The elite selectors have named a team of 3 men and 3 women for the Bushrangers vs Pinestars test match races on Sept 28^th/29^th at the Australian sprint and long champs.  This team is based on current form and their ongoing commitment towards WOC2014.

Men: Lachlan Dow (ACT)            Bryan Keely (VIC)   Simon Uppill (SA)

Women: Hanny Allston (TAS)     Rachel Effeney (QLD)       Kathryn Preston (VIC)

The New Zealand team is as follows:

Men:  Nick Hann (Wellington)   Thomas Reynolds (North West)  Tim Robertson (Hutt Valley)

Women:  Lizzie Ingham (Wellington)   Greta Knarston (Counties Manukau)

There has been a lot of changes being made to the area of High Performance Management in Australian Orienteering in 2013.

In January all elite orienteers were  encouraged to complete an Athlete Profile outlining their competition schedule for 2013 and their goals for 2013 and beyond.This was followed  by providing all elites with the opportunity to complete an Athlete Survey online concerning the organisation, structure, and planning within the HP area.

A new Strategic Plan and Operational Plan are currently being finalised. The main focus of this review of HP has been on developing a High Performance Pathway which is aligned to the ASC FTEM framework for whole of sport pathway continuum.

In recognition that communication is a key part of any change a meeting is being planned for Saturday 28th Septemebr at Canberra Grammar School at approx. 2:00pm after the Aus Sprint Championships. This will be an opportunity for all elites to be informed about

1. The FTEM pathways and how it relates to orienteering.

2. Talent Development Structure for HP– squad structure for 2014 and beyond and the application process.

3. Training camps- Tasmania Jan 2nd-7th, Canberra Jan 23rd-27th.

4. Competition Structure 2014.

5. Other elite matters.

Australia-New Zealand Challenge series in Auckland and Rotorua in Jan 2014, have until the 1st of October to get their name in.

The Challenge started in 2003 in Daylesford, Victoria, as a competition between the two countries. The rules were kept simple – the visiting country chooses the classes it wants to compete in and then selects a team of at least two (up to three) in each class it has chosen. The host country then matches those selected age classes with teams of two or three. The fastest times of two riders in each class from each country are summed; the fastest combined time wins a point.

Teams of 3 + Reserves will be selected for the challenge events in the following age groups…

M-20, 21, 40, 50, 60, 70

W-20, 21, 40, 50, 60, 70

Any Australian citizen who is a current financial member of their State Association and a Club (regardless of where they live) is eligible.   You do not need to be a champion to be part of our team – we are looking to nominate as many classes as possible.

The primary guides to selection will be performance at the 2013 Australian MTBO Championship events in Gympie and Canberra and 2013 National MTBO Rankings.

The team will be announced by the National MTBO Selection Panel in October.

To nominate use the webform on the NZ Trip site – http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9LZHJKV

Rider who have already nominated via the NZ MTBO Trip site do not need to re-nominate.

For details of the A-NZ Challenge visit – www.ausmtbo.com

For details of the NZ MTBO Carnival  visit – www.mtbocarmival.com

For details of the NZ MTBO Trip visit – www.nz-mtbo-trip.weebly.com

The MTBO WORLD TITLES concluded with the long championship.

Twenty year old Tom Goddard produced another top notch performance with 12^th in his final JWOC race in the physically demanding Estonian forest.  This gave him 4 top results, with 15ths in the other two individual races and a good lead out leg in the relay.   The standard of JWOC has improved markedly in recent years.  Cedric Beill, France ended the week with 4 gold medals in the Junior Championships.  Last year’s dominant jwoc man, Czech Krystof Bogar stepped straight into elite ranks and won two gold medals.  Angus Robinson (VIC) did well in his debut year, placing 31st, while Karl Withers (QLD) took 37th.

In the elite ranks Alex Randall excelled in his favourite distance by placing a close 19^th and had many higher ranked riders behind him.   The new rules only allowed Australia two starters in this discipline.  WA’s Ricky Thackray was disappointed with his 55^th.  The young Czech Krystof Bogar, who started mid-field incredibly won the men’s race by more than 3 minutes with Samuli Saarela, Finland in the silver medal position

Carolyn Jackson overcame a broken shoe mishap in the warm-up to achieve her best result of 32^nd.  The strength of Finland was again demonstrated when Marika Hara won her third gold medal in successive races, taking the Long distance title with a ride 2 minutes 53 seconds faster than her compatriot Susanna Laurila. The bronze medal went to the Swede Cecilia Thomasson, winner of the sprint earlier in the week, proving her ability in all types of terrain.   The last couple of years has seen the entry and now emergence of Sweden as a leading nation in MTBO.

All maps, photos and results:

Leading results – Long distance

Women

1. Marika Hara FIN  1:42:41
2. Susanna Laurila FIN  1:45:34
3. Cecilia Thomasson SWE  1:46:46
4. Emily Benham GBR  1:47:33
5. Ingrid Stengård FIN  1:48:18
6. Maja Rothweiler SUI  1:50:13

Men

1. Krystof Bogar CZE  1:55:24
2. Samuli Saarela FIN  1:58:30
3. Anton Foliforov RUS  1:59:20
4. Vojtech Stransky CZE  1:59:38
5. Ruslan Gritsan RUS  1:59:44
6. Tõnis Erm EST  1:59:53

Junior medallists

Women

Gold – Svetlana Poverina RUS    Silver – Ruska Saarela FIN     Bronze – Katerina Novakova CZE

Men

Gold – Cedric Beill FRA               Silver – Tomas Stanek CZE     Bronze – Vojtech Ludvik CZE

12 Tom Goddard;       31^st Angus Robinson;         37^th  Karl Withers.