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At an altitude over 2000m today was the JWOC Long Distance event on a very steep and rocky map that certainly provided a physical and also technical challenge. The Australian team again had some very good performances after yesterdays success in the Sprint. Matt Doyle who was the last starter on the mens course had a very impressive run in this challenging terrain to finish strongly and he ended up in 18th place, time 73:48, 13.5% down on the winner J Hadorn from Switzerland (the winner of the gold medal in the sprint yesterday). In fact the top three today were the same as the top three from the Sprint. Matt had a very steady start and after some time loss at controls 8 and 9 where he was in 39th place  finished the latter part of the course strongly to move up to a very impressive 18th position.

The two youngest members of the team Aston Key and Tara Mellhuish who are both still 16 years old had very impressive debuts in their first JWOC  Long Distance event. Aston who had a very steady run but tired a little after starting fast was in 55th place in a time of 80:57. Tara who was slightly disappointed with her run in the sprint showed very good resilience today to be the best of the Aussie women in 60th place in a time of 76:10. Both of these performances indicate that both these young orienteers have a good future as they develop more with age and experience.

Tomorrow is a rest day and after the sunshine and very warm weather of the last 9 days tomorrow is forecast to be wet and cooler. On Wednesday the Middle Qualification heats will be held on the slopes above the village where we are staying -Ftan. The team will be having an afternoon tea for all the Australian supporters who are in Switzerland cheering the team on tommorrow afternoon at the team hotel and then we will be attending the medal presentation for both the sprint and the long.

Full results, maps and photos-JWOC 2016

http://www.jwoc2016.ch/

Event analysis can be seen on the World Of O

http://news.worldofo.com/2016/07/11/jwoc-2016-long-maps-and-results/

Nick Dent

In todays JWOC sprint held in sunny and quite hot Scuol the Australian team celebrated the first Australian on the podium at JWOC since 2007. Henry McNulty finishing a fantastic run in equal 6th place in a time of 13:20 just 3 seconds from 4th. Henry was very pleased with his run and said that he did not think he could have made up any time. The whole Aussie team and all the supporters we had in the large crowd were very excited with this result.

The two winners today of the gold medal were both from the home country- Switzerland. S Abersold made it two JWOC Sprint victories in two years with a decisive victory by 52 seconds. In the mens race the winner was J Hadorn, with the Swiss having 4 runners in the top seven places.

The Aussie men performed very well overall with Aston Key in his first JWOC  41st place, Matt Doyle  45th place, Simeon Burrill 55th, Jarrah Day 62nd and Patrick Jaffe 91st.

In the women, Lanita Steer had a very steady run  to finish in an excellent 26th place.Other results were: Winnie Oakhill  41st, Asha Steer 91st, Tara Mellhuish 104th  and Zoe Dowling 122nd. Unfortunately Anna Dowling missed a control.

Some analysis of the Aussie Performances

The team is now recovering and resting for the Long Distance event to be held tomorrow.

A great way to start a long week and we can look forward to more good performances during the rest of the events. It has certainly given the whole team a boost of confidence.

Nick Dent

The National Orienteering League program framework for 2017 has been agreed, as follows:

Items still to be finalised are:

• Which events at the Oceania Championships will be National League events (which may differ for seniors and juniors)
• Which events (other than the Australian and Oceania Championships) will be World Ranking events
• The sequence of events within each of the non-championship weekends.

JWOC 2016 starts today in Scuol, Switzerland with the Opening Ceremony to be held at 16:00 in Scuol, which is also the location for the Sprint Distance event to be held on Sunday morning. The Australian team has settled into their JWOC accommodation in a small village Ftan, overloooking the very picturesque Engadine Valley and only about 15 minutes from Scuol. The accommodation is very close to the middle qualification area (Wednesdays event). The team has been spending the last five days preparing for the events by visiting some of the training maps and having talks about the mental and technical challenges of each of the disciplines. The team has responded very positively to the coaching from Julian Dent and Ralph Street and are relaxed and focused ready for the Sprint Distance event tomorrow.

Yesterday the team travelled to the model area for the Long Distance event which will be held at an altitude of over 2000m at Pass dal Fuorn. The team did a map walk checking out the main features of the map and got a birds eye view of the arena for the long from the higher section of the model map. This area will provide a true Long Distance experience for the athletes- steep terrain with some areas of low visibility and rocky ground. The expected winning km rates are 8min/km for the men and 9min/km for the women.

The program for the week is very intensive and certainly provides these young athletes with both a physical challenge and a mental challenge during the five days of competition, especially given that on the Long Distance event there is a lot of travelling involved in getting to the event.

All team members are well and relaxing today before the start of the competition tomorrow. They have been posting on their blog and many photos can be found on the facebook page and on instagram- see these link

https://www.instagram.com/ausjwoc/

http://ausjuniororienteering.blogspot.ch/

https://www.facebook.com/AusJWOC2014

There will be live production of the events and this can be found from the JWOC 2016 website

http://www.jwoc2016.ch

It is planned to provide daily reports for the events on this website.

Nick Dent

The 2016 Australian JWOC team assembled in Sent on Sunday for the 5 days of pre JWOC preparation with a focus on 1. terrain familiarisation, 2.  mental techniques 3. technical challenges of each discipline and 4. creating team harmony and focus. A detailed plan for the 5 days has been prepared by the two coaches who are working with the team during the week-Julian Dent and Ralph Street. These two older elite athletes who have both recently achieved impressive results in the two biggest relays in orienteering- Ralph being in the winning team at 10Mila in Sweden and Julian in the second placed team at Jukola in Finland, have prepared a structured program for the athletes to prepare each athlete for the challenges of the JWOC competition which starts on Sunday with the Sprint Distance in Scuol.

Some of the tam have been in Europe for some time competing and training and all have arrived in Sent healthy and relaxed. There are three newcomers to JWOC competition in the team- Aston Key, Tara Melhuish and Zoe Dowling. We have some experienced JWOC team members with Matt Doyle, Henry McNulty, Lanita Steer and Anna Dowling all having been to at least two previous JWOC’s and are all competing in their last JWOC before moving into senior elites. Winnie Oakhill, Asha Steer Patrick Jaffe, Simeon Burrill and Jarrah Day are competing in their second JWOC.

The JWOC week of competition is very challenging as all athletes compete in five events over the six days. The Sprint on Sunday is followed by the Long Distance event on Monday which will be held at an altitude of 2100m. A rest day follows and then there is the Middle Qualification , Middle Final and the team Relay on the Friday. There will be live streaming on the JWOC website of all the finals and the relay including GPS tracking for some athletes.

2016 Australian JWOC Team at Tarasp

Nick Dent

World Orienteering Championships 2016

Australian Team

Women

Sprint: Natasha Key, Krystal Neumann, Aislinn Prendergast

Sprint Relay: Natasha Key, Krystal Neumann.

Middle: Jo Allison, Vanessa Round.

Long: Jo Allison, Natasha Key.

Relay: Jo Allison Krystal Neumann, Vanessa Round.

Men

Sprint: Leon Keely, Henry McNulty, Simon Uppill.

Sprint Relay: Leon Keely, Henry McNulty

Middle: Julian Dent.

Long: Julian Dent

Relay: Julian Dent, Leon Keely, Simon Uppill.

Coaches: Tom Quayle, Wendy Read.

This team is a mixture of very experienced orienteers, with five team members (Jo, Natasha, Vanessa, Julian and Simon) having competed in seven world championships each and less experienced orienteers with two team members (Leon and Henry) making their debut at the world championships.

Due to the performance of the men’s team at the previous two world championships we are only permitted to have one runner in each of the middle and long distance events. The women are entitled to have two runners in each of these events.

Jo Allison returns to the WOC team after having two children. She last represented at WOC in 2008. Her best performances are 17^th in middle in 2008 and 23^rd in long in 2004. She was a member of the relay team that finished in fourth place in 2006.

Natasha Key  a mother of three, is also making a comeback to WOC representation after last being in the team in 2005. Natasha has a best result of 10^th in the sprint in 2003. Natasha will have her eldest son Aston representing Australia in the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland. So maybe a first in orienteering with a mother and son both representing their country at world championships.

Vanessa Round who has been living in Switzerland for a few years has a best performance of 31^st in middle in 2012. She has competed in the last 6 world championships.

Krystal Neumann who has been living in Sweden since the end of last year will be competing in her second WOC. She has joined a strong club in Stockholm, Jarla, and has been getting some very good experience in Swedish terrain.

Aislinn Prendergast will be attending her fourth WOC and is making a comeback to WOC representation, last being in the team in 2013. Her best result has been 35^th in long in 2012.

Julian Dent will be competing in his 8^th WOC and as he has been living and competing in Sweden for the last 4 years he is very keen to compete at the world championships in Sweden. He is returning to the team after missing the world championships last year due to the birth of his daughter, Freja. His best result at WOC is 24^th in long in 2011 and 22^nd in the middle in 2005.

Simon Uppill will also be competing in his 8^th WOC. His best result in sprint is 30^th in 2013 and he is currently ranked 93 in the world in sprint.

Leon Keely will be competing in his first WOC after having been in two JWOC teams in 2008 and 2009. He has recently returned to elite orienteering and last year spent some time living and competing in Norway.

Henry McNulty who is still a junior and who is also in the JWOC team, will be competing in the sprint and the sprint relay. He has been showing very good form in the last few months in sprints.

WOC will be held in Stromstad, Sweden- August 20^th– 27^th.