2013 Archive

Long Distance Final
World Masters Orienteering Championships
Italy 10 August 2013

Maureen Ogilvie, 7^th in W80, Ann Ingwersen, 11^th in W70, Debbie Davey, 24^th in W55 and Ted Van Geldermalsen, 28^th in M55, were the highest placed Australians in A finals overnight in the Long Distance Championships at the World Masters Orienteering Championships. New Zealander Ross Brighouse placed 3^rd in M65. M90 Paul Adrian of Nillumbik Emus, a favourite for a medal, did not start.

In the B finals, Margi Freemantle placed 9^th in W55 and James Lithgow 11^th in M55.

A finals

M55: 28 Ted Van Geldermalsen (Yarra Valley), 52 Andrew McComb (OH.
M65: 3 Ross Brighouse (New Zealand)
M70A: 71 Ron Junghans (Garingal

W55: 24 Debbie Davey (Waggaroos)
W60: 45 Robyn Pallas (Central Coast)
W70: 11 Ann Ingwersen (Parawanga).
W80: 7 Maureen Ogilvie (Uringa).

B finals

M55: 11 James Lithgow (Garingal), 63 Alex Davey (Waggaroos)
M60: 46 Colin Price (Central Coast), 80 Bert Elson (Australopers)
M65: 54 Ross Barr (Garingal)

W55: 9 Margi Freemantle (Yarra Valley), 18 Karin Hefftner (Garingal), 20 Maria Orr (Newcastle), 21 Teri McComb (OH), 25 Gayle Shepherd (Uringa)
W75: 11 Dorothy Adrian (Nillumbik Emus)

C finals

M55: 11 Larry Weiss (Garingal), 20 Peter Orr (Newcastle)
M60: 64 Geoff Hudson (Nillumbik Emus)
M65: 20 Eric Wainwright (Red Roos)
M70: 5 Frank Ingwersen (Parawanga)

Long Distance Qualifier 2
World Masters Orienteering Championships
Italy 8 August 2013

Debbie Davey, 3rd in W55 ht 2, Paul Adrian, 3^rd in M90, Maureen Ogilvie, 7^th in W80, Ann Ingwersen, 8th in W70 ht 1, Ted Van Geldermalsen, 13^th in M55-2, and Ron Junghans, 17^th in M70 ht 1, were the most outstanding Australian performers yesterday in the second of the 2 qualifying events for the final of the Long Distance Championship at World Masters in Italy on 10 August.

New Zealand’s Ross Brighouse had an incredible three and a half minute win in M65 heat 1 and will be a raging hot favourite in the final.

Australia’s best chances of medals in the final lie with Paul Adrian in M90 and Debbie Davey in W55. Paul Adrian just has to have a clean run to secure a medal as there are just three competitors in M90. Debbie Davey is in scintillating form in W55, running second fastest in qualifier 1 and 3^rd fastest in qualifier 2.

Age group and qualifying heat number:

M55-1: 60 Larry Weiss (Garingal); M55-2: 13 Ted Van Geldermalsen (Yarra Valley), 27 Andrew McComb (OH), 41 Alex Davey (Waggaroos); M55-3: 42 James Lithgow (Garingal), 64 Peter Orr (Newcastle).
M60-1: 60 Ron Pallas (Uringa); M60-2: 53 Geoff Hudson (Nillumbik Emus); M60-3: 25 Colin Price (Central Coast); M60-4: 30 Bert Elson (Australopers).
M65-1: (1 Ross Brighouse (New Zealand)), 33 Ross Barr (Garingal), 48 Eric Wainwright (Red Roos); M65-3: 50 Dick Ogilvie (Uringa); M65-4: 51 James Merchant (Garingal).
M70-1: 17 Ron Junghans (Garingal); M70-2: 63 Frank Ingwersen (Parawanga).
M90-1: 3 Paul Adrian (Nillumbik Emus).

W55-1: 46 Margi Freemantle (Yarra Valley), 60 Maria Orr (Newcastle), 61 Gayle Shepherd (Uringa); W55-2: 3 Debbie Davey (Waggaroos), 41 Karin Hefftner (Garingal), 58 Teri McComb (OH).
W60-1: 25 Robyn Pallas (Central Coast).
W70-1: 8 Ann Ingwersen (Parawanga).
W75-1: 35 Dorothy Adrian (Nillumbik Emus).
W80-1: 7 Maureen Ogilvie (Uringa).

Long Distance Qualifier 1
World Masters Orienteering Championships
Italy 7 August 2013

Debbie Davey, 2^nd in W55 ht 2, Paul Adrian, 3^rd in M90, Maureen Ogilvie, 6^th in W80, Ann Ingwersen, 8th in W70 ht 1, and Ron Junghans, 8^th in M70 ht 1, were the most outstanding Australian performers yesterday in the first of the 2 qualifying events for the final of the Long Distance Championship at World Masters in Italy.

Others with top 20 performances were Ted Van Geldermalsen in M55 and Ross Barr in M65. New Zealand’s Ross Brighouse had an outstanding win in M65 heat 1.

Age group and qualifying heat number:

M55-1: 62 Larry Weiss (Garingal); M55-2: 20 Ted Van Geldermalsen (Yarra Valley), 36 Andrew McComb (OH), 45 Alex Davey (Waggaroos); M55-3: 51 James Lithgow (Garingal), 66 Peter Orr (Newcastle).
M60-1: 61 Ron Pallas (Uringa); M60-2: 52 Geoff Hudson (Nillumbik Emus); M60-3: 28 Colin Price (Central Coast); M60-4: 35 Bert Elson (Australopers).
M65-1: (1 Ross Brighouse (New Zealand)), 20 Ross Barr (Garingal), 54 Eric Wainwright (Red Roos); M65-2: 60 John Giles (Garingal); M65-3: 56 Dick Ogilvie (Uringa); M64-4: 49 James Merchant (Garingal).
M70-1: 8 Ron Junghans (Garingal); M70-2: 66 Frank Ingwersen (Parawanga).
M90-1: 3 Paul Adrian (Nillumbik Emus).

W55-1: 42 Margi Freemantle (Yarra Valley), 67 Gayle Shepherd (Uringa), 69 Maria Orr (Newcastle); W55-2: 2 Debbie Davey (Waggaroos), 47 Karin Hefftner (Garingal), 57 Teri McComb (OH).
W60-1: 23 Robyn Pallas (Central Coast).
W70-1: 8 Ann Ingwersen (Parawanga).
W75-1: 37 Dorothy Adrian (Nillumbik Emus).
W80-1: 6 Maureen Ogilvie (Uringa).

World Masters Orienteering Championships Sprint Final
Italy
5 August 2013

The most outstanding performers in the A sprint finals at the World Masters Orienteering Championships overnight were Ann Ingwersen of Parawanga in the ACT who was 4^th in W70, only 4 seconds behind the bronze medal winner, and Debbie Davey of Waggaroos in NSW who was 12^th in W55A. A big disappointment in W80A was former WMOC champion Maureen Ogilvie who clocked the 3^rd fastest time on the day but was ineligible as she miss-punched in the previous day’s qualifying sprint. The best of the men were Ross Barr (Garingal), 28^th in M65A, and Ron Junghans (Garingal) 29^th in M70A.
In the B finals there were brilliant performances by James Lithgow (Garingal) who won M55B, with Alex Davey (Waggaroos) 16^th, and by Bert Elson (Australopers), 11^th in M60B.

Australian results:

A finals

M65A: 28 Ross Barr (Garingal); 44 Eric Wainwright (Red Roos)
M70A: 29 Ron Junghans (Garingal)
W50A: 34 Andrea Schiwy (Australopers)
W55A: 12 Debbie Davey (Waggaroos)
W60A: 62 Robyn Pallas (Central Coast); 70 Jan Hardy (Australopers)
W70A: 4 Ann Ingwersen (Parawanga)

B finals

M55B: 1 James Lithgow (Garingal); 16 Alex Davey (Waggaroos); 74 Larry Weiss (Garingal)
M60B: 11 Bert Elson (Australopers)
M65B: 42 James Merchant (Garingal)
M70B: 71 Frank Ingwersen (Parawanga)
W55B: 34 Maria Orr (Newcastle); 53 Gayle Shepherd (Uringa)

C finals

M60C: 40 Geoff Hudson (Nillumbik Emus); 54 Ron Pallas (Garingal)
M65C: 5 John Giles (Garingal)

Sprint – Annika Billstam (SWE) was 1^st.   Kathryn Preston finished 32^nd, after a rushed start due to an admin error, while Kiwis Georgia Whitla (33rd) and Rachel Smith (34th) were close behind. Men’s race was won by Matthais Kyburz in 14.30 with Kiwis Chris Thorne 27th in 16.08 and Tane Cambridge 28th.

Wins to Minna Kaupi (FIN) & Matthais Kyburz (SWI) in middle. After what looked like a good run into 24th position by Kathryn Preston it was found that she had totally missed control 22.  This was a short leg with the control circle a little hidden by the water feature.  Kiwi placings: Rachel Smith 30th, Georgia Whitla 32, Chris Forne 20, Tane Cambridge 28th. The top 20 result by Chris was really impressive, as he is better known for his endurance exploits.

Below are some insights into the Games from the NZ team, quoting from their blog: http://osquad.blogspot.co.nz/

“Today the World Games middle distance competition was held in Rio Pance East.
This is a park/reserve near Cali popular for swimming and walking, and includes a number of outdoor restaurants. The majority of the park is a kind of spiny bamboo jungle, containing a network of big and small tracks, along with a few buildings and fenced off areas. This offered a good selection of route choice, and a bit more navigational difficulty, resulting in some more interesting orienteering than the
previous day.”

“The final race day was the Mixed sprint relay. The terrain was much the same as the Middle distance.  In fact half of the relay map overlapped the middle map. It largely encompassed an area of spiky bamboo forest with some open areas with long grass, and a physically sapping fast park bit at the end.  (The US & NZ teams had a bet as to which team would finish first and it came down to the last 5 metres of the event.)  Georgia Whitla had headed out with a handy lead but was being chased by Ali Crocker, who was in great form. Georgia held her off right to the last control where she punched ahead and the sprint to the finish began. They were neck and neck but in the end Ali just nudged Georgia out by 1/100th of a second. So all around a pretty well matched race within a race!  This gave the Kiwis 10^th place.

At the front end of the field there was mis-punches by Norway, Great Brittan and Czech Republic, Sweden didn’t have a full team as Tove was sick, but apparently mis-punched anyway. Switzerland was in control from the very beginning and had a comfortable win over Denmark and to complete an all red and white finish the Austrians took out the Bronze medal with a really good performance.   Swiss Matthais Kyburz was the runner of the Games, becoming the first orienteer to take gold in all three World Games races.

The Closing Ceremony was fairly amazing, consisting of the Colombian good old pass time of waiting. The place was crawling with Police and Helicopters circled above the entire time. Eventually we entered the stadium to 50,000 excited people. A lot of Salsa dancing made up the rest of the Ceremony (Cali is famous for Salsa), and it was topped off with some pretty amazing fireworks.”

The World Games site has all the results and allows you to follow all races by tracking, as all competitors had trackers attached.

An excellent weekend of mountain bike orienteering was held near Gympie, Queensland to decide the Australian Middle and Long distance championships titles.  A contingent of 30 New Zealanders, who had incorporated the previous weekends NSW Championships into a 10 day mountain biking tour, added great competition to the races.

The two events were held on vastly different areas.  The middle was at Corella Forest, with several crucial long route choice legs interspersed by two areas of complex single track.  In the women elites Marquita Gelderman had a narrow one minute win over a very fit and fast Carolyn Jackson.  Twenty four year old Patrick Higgins navigated well to take the men’s elite title by two and a half minutes over Greg Barbour.   Patrick is actually British but currently residing in New Zealand.  Unfortunately Australian WOC team members Ricky Thackray (tyre trouble) and Callum Fagg (puncture) had mechanical troubles.

The long event was held in Toolara pine plantation, on a huge area that required the elites and top three courses to have a 1:25,000 map.  Despite its size the area was a detailed maze of roads and tracks which demanded intense navigation at all times.  Several long legs gave numerous route choice commutations, while some short legs at the end saw some come unstuck.

WA’s Ricky Thackray took out a well deserved elite championship, managing to withstand the efforts of young Tasmanian gun Callum Fagg by a mere two minutes on the 38 kilometre course.  This followed Ricky’s win in the WA state championship the week before.  NSW’s Gary Sutherland showed consistency to take out third place again.

The outstanding ride of the weekend was undoubtably from Kiwi Marquita Gelderman who raced around the women’s 30 km course so speedily that she bettered the times of the M40’s and M17’s on the same course.  In fact, Marquita’s kilometre rate was only beaten by the two top elite males!  There will be great interest to see where she actually went on route gadget!  Carolyn Jackson was joined by Jenny Enderby (NSW) on the podium.

The Queensland based Withers family dominated the junior ranks with Gaby winning both W14 titles and Karl the M17 races, though pushed in both by Tim Jackson.  Karl is off to his second Junior World Championships in Estonia soon.   Promising Ballarat rider Declan Dickson won both M14 races, but was more pleased by his navigation in the long.

The veteran classes had both quality and quantity and all wins were hard earned.  Ann Scown (W60), Malcolm Roberts (M50) and Peter Cusworth (M60) won both titles, albeit Peter’s win in the middle was by a mere 1 second over over NSW’s Paul Haynes.   Over the four NSW and Australian Championship title events both Marquita Gelderman and Peter Cusworth managed to remain unbeaten – a tremendous feat of navigation.

Many thanks must go to the Queensland organisers, notably course setters Graeme Hall and Liz Bourne and mappers Craig Steffens and Eric Andrews for the enormous amount of time and effort they put into making the events not only possible but highly enjoyable.  Also thanks to Rob Croscato, Wendy Steffens, Debbie Gordon and other Multi-Terrain Bike Orienteers and QOA who assisted the running and promotion of the event.   This included a lovely meal and quiz on the Saturday night.

Full results are available on eventor.

Middle                                                                 Long

W21       63.22     Marquita Gelderman (NZ)           102.39   Marquita Gelderman (NZ)

64.36     Carolyn Jackson (VIC)                     115.42   Carolyn Jackson (VIC)

69.21     Rachel Drew (NZ)                             135.35   Jenny Enderby (NSW)

W14                       Gaby Withers (Q)                                             Gaby Withers (Qld)

W40                       Kim Beckinsale (Qld)                                       Kath Heppelthwaite (NZ)

W50                       Deb Bain (NZ)                                                    Roz Clayton (NZ)

W60                       Ann Scown (ACT)                                             Ann Scown (ACT)

W70                       Dale-Ann Gordon (VIC)                                 Yett Gelderman (NZ)

M21       65.42     Patrick Higgins (Great Britain)     120.51   Ricky Thackray (WA)

68.28     Greg Barbour (NSW)                      122.49   Callum Fagg (TAS)

73.07     Gary Sutherland (QLD)                  146.45   Gary Sutherland (QLD)

M14                       Declan Dickson (VIC)                                      Declan Dickson (VIC)

M17                       Karl Withers (Qld)                                            Karl Withers (Qld)

M40                       Peter Swanson (NZ)                                       Greg Barbour (NSW)

M50                       Malcolm Roberts (NSW)                                     Malcolm Roberts (NSW)

M60                       Peter Cusworth (VIC)                                     Peter Cusworth (VIC)

M70                       Blake Gordon (VIC)                                         Graham Fowler (NSW)

M80                       Graeme Cadman (VIC)                                  –

The 2 day NSW MTBO Championships were held on the tremendous Taree maps last weekend.  This area features kilometres of fast flowing mtb specific single track as well as a good network of forest tracks.
However, the degree of difficulty for riders was increased markedly by heavy rain on the preceding days, making tracks muddy and slippery.

In women’s elite the super fit duo of Marquita Gelderman (NZ) and Carolyn Jackson (Vic) had two more close tussles but Marquita reigned supreme this time.  NSW’s Jennifer Enderby rode well for 3rd in both events.

In Men’s elite NZ Orienteering Vice President Peter Swanson took out a surprise victory in the middle distance championship over Steven Todkill (NSW).  However, Steven navigated brilliantly in the long to win by 12 minutes over Kiwi Patrick Higgins.

Eddy Prentice (m16), Peter Cusworth (M60), Graham Fowler (M70), Graeme Cadman (M80), Deb Bain (W50) and Yett Gelderman (W70) were successfull on both days.

Other victories went to:
W40  Carolyn Matthews, Kay Haarsma
W60  Toy Martin
M40  David West, Darren Gosse (NZ)
M50  David King (NZ), Andrew Power

Many thanks to Carolyn Matthews and Malcolm Roberts for their excellent course setting, and to Andrew Power for being the organiser.

There is a group of 25 keen New Zealand MTBO devotees who are on a 10 day MTB tour.  They finish at Gympie (Queensland) this weekend, taking in the Australian MTBO Championships.

Women’s elite again looks like a match race between Marquita and Carolyn, although Kiwi Cath Hepplethwaite could surprise, having flow in just for the Australian Championships races.

Men’s elite is very open, with Australian elite representatives Ricky Thackray (WA) and Callum Fagg (Tas) getting final race practice before heading to the World Championships in Estonia next month. Kiwi young gun Patrick Higgins and local Queenslander Joel Young should be well in the mix too.  In M20 MTBO JWOC rep Karl Withers will have strong competition from Victorian junior Tim Jackson.   The elite men have 38 kilometres on the long day while the women and M20 have a 30 kilometre course.

From Kay Haarsma

In the men there is no non-European country qualified for division 2.

In the women Australia, USA and Canada have all qualified to be in division 2.

So for Australia next year, the allocation of places per event is as follows:

• Sprint Qualification & Final    3 men    3 women
• Mixed Sprint Relay                   2 men    2 women
• Long Final                                 1 man    2 women
• Middle Final                               1 men    2 women
• Bush Relay                                3 men     3 women

From IOF website:

For the 2014 World Orienteering Championships the following countries will have three nation start slots in the middle and long distance finals:

The following countries will have two starting slots:

Rest of the countries will have one guaranteed starting slot for both middle and long distance race. The countries closest to the category two are New Zealand, China, Bulgaria, Belgium, and Japan in women’s class and Belgium, Slovakia, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand in men’s class.
The new model means that all countries are guaranteed at least one start slot in both middle and long distance finals. In addition, all nations are allowed to have three runners in the sprint qualification race and one team in the sprint relay and in the “traditional” relay.

The Australian Boomerangs had a strong finish to their World Championship campaign in the forests of northern Finland Saturday.  After a storming first leg from Simon Uppill the men’s team placed 20th. While the women’s team finished strong to place 13th.

Simon Uppill ‘had a clean run and got into a good pack and stuck with them’. Little did Simon know that the pack was the the actual leading group and Simon finished first leg in 11th. This sent WOC debutante Josh Blatchford out only 54 seconds from the leading team. Josh only found out in the last two days that he was needed for the relay due to Lachlan Dow’s ankle injury. He had a ‘pretty good run with only a few small misses’ and sent Bryan Keely out in 20th position. Bryan Keely had a solid run and finished strong to maintain 20th position. A great result, considering the disrupted build up, with a two place improvement on last year’s result. It could make the difference between two long/middle places or one for next year’s World Championships.

In the women’s race Vanessa Round provided a great start for Australia coming back in 10th place 4.41 behind the leading team. Aislinn Prendergast ‘had a good run except from one big mistake’ and sent Hanny out in 16th place. Hanny Allston, despite nursing an ankle injury from the middle final stormed through the final leg ‘feeling the best I’ve felt all week’  with the 7th best leg time to bring the women into 13th place. A solid performance and which should guarantee two spots in the long/middle distances for next years World Championships.

For all the inside news from the Boomerang’s WOC week check out the team blog. 

Results

GPS 

Australia had four starters in the WOC middle final today in the Vuokatti hills. Starting near the top of Vuokatinvaara the courses had many tricky downhill legs in thick rocky forest. With many mistakes by all runners even the medalists, it provided some great entertainment for the large crowd in the arena.

Simon Uppill was our only starter in the men’s competition and he had a ‘clean run but was unsure on the long route choice he ‘found the last loop tough’ but was happy with his run. Simon placed 33^rd in the Men’s final, his best middle result at WOC.  The surprise winner of the day was Leonid Novikov from Russia who beat hot favourite Theirry Gueorgiou, France and Gustav Bergman from Sweden.

In the women’s competition Jasmine Neve, 44^th had an ‘average’ run while Vanessa Round 43^rd missed time in the beginning and never got into her rhythm and never felt comfortable in the terrain. Hanny Allston 33rd also had trouble getting into the flow and felt exhausted in the tough forest. Simone Niggli took gold in the women’s class, ahead of Tove Alexandersson Sweden and Merja Rantanen Finland.

The action continues tomorrow with the WOC Relay.

Men – 20.55 (AEST)

Women 23.00 (AEST)