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The Wildfire Sports Ultra Long Australian Championships were held in Ballarat, hosted by Eureka Orienteers. The overall winner of the return airfare to Europe was Henry McNulty, the 2015 JWOC representative who has only recently returned to Australia after spending the last 12 months training and competing in Sweden with the OK Linne club. The overall placing for the prize were: First-Henry McNulty, Second-Patrick Jaffe, Third-Ian Lawford.

In the M21E class, with a course distance of 22.3km, Ian Lawford  in his second year as a senior elite had a very strong, consistent run to finish 1:42 minutes in front of Brodie Nankervis. Brodie lost 4 minutes on Control 1*** and then another 3 minutes on Control 9, but he recovered to be in the lead at control 20, but Ian finished stronger to take out the win in a time of 156:05. ***this may be incorrect as the race was in loops , however, the overall results are correct.

In the W21E class, with a course distance of 14.4km, Aislinn Prendergast, a Ballarat local had a very steady start and finished very strongly to beat Krystal Neumann by 35 seconds in a time of 120.55 in a very close race.  (*** see above comment)

In the M17-20E class, with a course distance of 15km, Henry McNulty was a clear winner in a time of 104.00. Henry has obviously benefited from the training in Sweden as he was clearly the fastest runner in this class and his km rate was good enough to win the overall prize. Patrick Jaffe was second 3.44 minutes behind. Patrick was in the lead at Control 22 but he faded over the remainder of the course. (*** see above comment). Aston Key who can still run M16 was 3rd. An amazing run by Aston who was in the lead at Control 16, but he tired after this.

In the W17-20E class, with a distance of 9.4km, the NZ visitor Sonia Hollands was too strong and she won by 3.40 minutes from Lanita Steer in second place.

In the NOL Sprint held on the Saturday Ian Lawford also was the winner in M21E from Brodie Nakervis by 17 seconds (I am informed that Brodie was unofficial in this race) with Bruce Arthur in 3rd place. In W21E the winner was Krystal Neumann by 26 second with Natasha Key in 2nd place and Anna Sheldon in 3rd.

The M17-20E was a tie between Patrick Jaffe and Jarrah Day. The W17-20E the winner was Tara Mellhuish by 14 seconds from Sonia Holland in 2nd and Olivia Sprod in 3rd place.

This report has been done remotely from Sweden so I hope I have all the details correct. *** see above comment

A big thank you to Eureka Orienteers for organising this event again and providing the substantial prize to the overall winner. A special thank you to Geoff Lawford and Jenny Bourne for all their efforts.

Ida Bobach ran a superb race to take gold in the Long race in Glen Affric today, with a winning margin of well over two minutes – Denmark’s fourth gold medal of the week. Mari Fasting of Norway took silver, her first individual World Championship medal, while last year’s champion Svetlana Mironova of Russia took bronze. This completed a magnificent performance from the Danish women, who won four out of the five gold medals decided.

In the men’s race France’s Thierry Gueorgiou put in a strong performance to take his third consecutive Long title. Daniel Hubmann of Switzerland took silver and Olav Lundanes of Norway bronze, with each of the three medalists winning the same medal they won last year. The great Frenchman has now won the last three WOC long distance events to add to his seven gold medals from WOC middle distance events.

Hanny Allston was by far the best performed Australian finishing in a very good 10^th place in a time of 81:47 (6:12 minutes down). Hanny lost nearly 5 minutes against the winner on the three longer legs in the race- controls 5, 9 and 12. Laurina Neumann competing in her first WOC was in 47^th place and Vanessa Round was in 50^th place. Both Laurina and Vanessa lost large amount of time on a long leg- Laurina on control 12 and Vanessa on control 9.

In the men’s race Simon Uppill who was not feeling well during the race finished in 50^th place and Bryan Keely was in 52^nd place. Bryan had a steady run, not having any red controls.

This concludes WOC 2015 and in terms of the future there are two things which flow on from this week.

One is that unfortunately the Australian men will only have one spot in 2016 at WOC in Sweden in the middle and the long distance events as they have been demoted to Division 3. The points to determine this are based on the team’s performance in both 2015 and 2014 in the middle, the long and the relay.

The second is that at Extraordinary General Assembly meeting on Thursday the IOF has voted to split WOC into a “Sprint” WOC and a “Bush” WOC. No details of the exact format of the events has been decided nor has there been any decision about having qualification races or some other method of determining how many runners each country can have. I guess we just have to wait for this detail as the decision looks like it will be made this time next year. Much discussion to be had no doubt in many countries about the implications of this decision.

Yesterday at the same arena as the middle distance on Tuesday the WOC relay’s were held with the start for both races being right in front of Darnaway Castle.

The Danish team of Maja Alm, Ida Bobach and Emma Klingenberg dominated from start to finish today to claim Denmark’s first women’s Relay title. There was a thrilling battle for the other medals, with Norway taking silver just ahead of Sweden, who took bronze. Maja Alm set up a comfortable lead right from the first control on the first leg, continuing her superb form this week which has now earnt Maja 3 gold medals.

In the men’s Relay a strong Swiss team of Fabian Hertner, Daniel Hubmann and Matthias Kyburz led throughout to take gold. Again the other medal positions were closely fought, with Magne Dæhli running a superb last lap to take Norway’s second silver medal of the day, while a young French team – running without Thierry Gueorgiou for the first time since 1995 – claimed bronze. The British men ran well to finish fourth in front of a vocal home crowd.

Men’s Relay Analysis-World Of O

The Australian women’s team finished in 18^th place. Laurina Neumann ran the first leg and she was placed 23^rd on this leg. Hanny Allston picked up some places on the second leg and was 7^th fastest on her leg. Anna Sheldon was placed 21^st on her third leg.

Anna- 3rd leg, starting

The Australian men did not have a good day and finished in 25^th place and behind the three countries that we are competing against to avoid relegation back to division three. Simon Uppill ran the first leg and he came in 21^st place (3:51 minutes down). Lachlan Dow was 22^nd on the second leg and Brodie Nankervis running his first WOC relay was 29^th. Unofficial point score (using new rules released yesterday) after the relays has Australia 4 points in front of Belarus and a clear 98 points in front of Ireland. Two countries will be demoted to Division three for WOC 2016.

So the final event at this WOC will be the Long Distance event at Glen Affric. The forest is a mix of pine, birch and oak, with steep slopes, complex contour detail, and few paths.

Glen Affric is classic Scottish orienteering terrain, and hosted the Long race the last time the World Championships were in Scotland in 1999. The Long race will test athletes’ physical endurance. The navigational emphasis is on choosing the right route, often with distances of one or two kilometres between controls. Athletes might have to choose between going over or round a big hill or steep-sided valley, meaning that they need to pick the route that plays to their strengths.

Australian runners start times are:

Women-Hanny Allston 12:46,Laurina Neumann 10:49 and Vanessa Round 11:37.

Men-Bryan Keely 11:15 and Simon Uppill 11:45.

Photos:Paul Prudhoe, Robin Uppill.

WOC Middle at Darnaway.

Today in a beautiful setting the WOC Middle was held. The arena was on a sloping grass area directly in front of the Darnaway Castle owned by the Earl of Moray who was present as a boy in 1976 when the World Orienteering Championships were first held in Scotland. Also the weather was mostly sunny and not to cool with only one small shower of rain. The competition was very exciting especially in the men and Per Forsberg the commentator had to compensate for the lack of any big screen towards the end of the men’s race.

On a day when many of the favourites made mistakes among the tricky moraine of Darnaway, reigning world champion Annika Billstam ran a superb race to retain her Middle title in style. Merja Rantanen of Finland was second and Emma Johansson, also of Sweden, was third.

The men’s race was incredibly close, with just 46 seconds separating the top seven. Daniel Hubmann was triumphant, collecting a Middle gold medal to go with the Sprint, Long and Relay golds he has won in the past. There was a surprise silver medal for Lucas Basset, who ran an excellent race to finish only three seconds down, with Olle Boström of Sweden taking the bronze.

In the women’s race Hanny Allston finished in a respectable 21^st place  loosing close to four minutes on controls 1 and 2. Hanny finished very strongly and from the second TV control (16) to the finish she picked up 8 places. Anna Sheldon finished in 54^th place having been losing time against the winner steadily throughout the race.

In the men’s race Simon Uppill who had a very steady race finished in 35^th place but he was only 4:44 minutes down on the winner in what was a very close race. He was always around 35^th place and he finished strongly to maintain this position. Lachlan Dow who started very early was the leader on the big screen for some time and eventually finished in 54th place 12:17 minutes down on the winner.

Photos: Paul Prudhoe, Hilary Wood

WOC Sprint Presentation 

This evening the presentations were held for the WOC Sprints and also the WOC Sprint Relay. The highlight for the small number of Australians present along with the rest of the Australian WOC team was to see Hanny Allston on the podium for the Women’s Sprint. A beautiful sunny afternoon at the WOC Event Centre saw Hanny receive her certificate and flowers for her excellent 5^th place. It was great to see Hanny again on the podium at WOC.

Middle Distance

Tomorrow we have the Middle Distance event at the Darnaway Forest next to Darnaway Castle. The arena will be across the road from the castle and will also be the arena for the relay on Wednesday.

Darnaway is an area of former glacial moraine, with numerous small hills and depressions making for tricky navigation.

The forest has a mixture of woodland types: open pine wood with ground cover of heather and dwarf shrub, denser pine and areas of broadleaves, especially beech. Both runnability and visibility will vary throughout the courses.

It is anticipated that the middle will be in the southern section of the map and the relay in the north western section.

The distance for the women’s event is 5.3km and for the men is 6.2km. The expected winning time for both events is 33 minutes.

The Australian start times are

Anna Sheldon 12:48

Hanny Allston 13:30

Lachlan Dow 14:33

Simon Uppill 15:18

Photo courtesy of Hilary Wood

Oi Oi- Hanny 5^th in Sprint Final at WOC 2015

“Every picture tells a story”

In an even more exciting Sprint Final today than yesterday’s Sprint Relay Hanny Allston ran herself into a brilliant 5^th place in the women’s sprint final. Hanny who was the WOC Sprint Champion in 2006 at the age of 20 again returned to the podium at the World Championships. A fantastic result from Hanny who has backed up from the sprint relay yesterday to demonstrate her strength in today’s fairly open and fast sprint final. Hanny was in 11^th place at control 6 and by control 14 for which she had the fastest split she was in 5^th place. The remainder of the course was in the open area and her strength meant that she finished much faster than other runners. At the finish Hanny was only .2 second from 4^th and she was .4 second in front of Minna Kauppi who was in front of Hanny all through the course except at the finish. The timing at the start and finish meant that the official results are to the nearest 10^th of a second.

Rachel Effeney, the other Australian in the sprint final, started very fast being fastest on control 2 and 4, eventually finishing in 31^st place .8 second in front of Lizzie Ingham from New Zealand.

The winner of the women’s race was Maja Alm from Denmark who continued her excellent form from yesterday to be a clear winner by almost 40 seconds. In the men’s race the gap between 1st and 10^th was only 14.7 seconds. Sweden had a better day today with Jonas Leandersson winning by 1.9 seconds and Jerker Lysell in 3^rd place. With SI Air being used today and in all events at WOC the punching technique that the orienteers are using was crucial today particularly in the men’s event.

MENs Top Ten

Tomorrow is a well earned rest day with the middle distance to be held on Tuesday. Austrlia will be represented in the women by Hanny Allston and Anna Sheldon and in the men by Simon Uppill and Lachlan Dow. The rest of the Aussie’s will compete in Day 2 of the Scottish 6 Day.

Results,maps, GPS tracking etc

Winsplits

Photo’s courtesy of Adrian and Robin Uppill.