High Performance News

High Performance Group (HPG) Updates

24 September 2019
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Categories: 2019 Archive, Coaching, High Performance, High Performance News, National League
  1. OA Confirms Head Coach and High Performance Administrator Roles extension until 2020

At its recent board meeting OA Directors discussed and agreed to extend the terms of the OA Head Coach, Jim Russell, and High Performance Administrator, Ian Prosser, until 2020.

Extending the current terms will allow the current staff to hand over the responsibilities to new appointees after the completion of JWOC, WOC, and preparations for the Australian Championships week in 2020. Since planning for 2021 will start well before the end of 2020, OA’s plan is to commence the Head Coach recruitment in the first half of 2020 and aim for a smooth handover.

      2.Changes to current National Orienteering League flagged

Following on from the recent HPG survey (results summary here) it has been decided to introduce a shorter NOL season from 2020. Next year’s NOL will end with the ACT round in May. Where feasible, other enhancements highlighted in the survey results will be encouraged in collaboration with the NOL organisers and state teams. From the survey results some common themes evolved such as more exciting races, increase the team element of the NOL, reduced costs of participation, and a better pathway for younger orienteers.

      3. OA HPG and Coaching Committee meeting at Oceania

Orienteering Australia has now formally constituted a High Performance and Coaching Committee. Each state is invited to appoint two delegates to the committee (as foreshadowed in an earlier email to the States) and the national athlete representative is invited as well. The terms of reference for the committee are attached.

The first official meeting of the committee will be held at the Oceania Sprint Champs on Saturday 28th September as soon as the presentation ceremony concludes. Details are in the attached draft agenda. Also attached are the earlier circulated notes from the interim meeting held in April.

JWOC 2019 Finishes with the Relays, but not before Aston Key achieves another podium placing in Middle Distance A Final

12 July 2019
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Categories: High Performance, High Performance News, News

The 2019 Junior Championships finished today with the traditional relay events, but the day before’s Middle Distance Final saw Australia’s Aston Key achieve yet another podium finish.

Starting as one of the last three runners in the A Final Aston found how hard it can be at the top. With less than 2 minutes separating the top five men’s placings, Aston secured a 5th place narrowly missing out on a medal after losing less than 30 secs on two legs. In a tight race at the top, Aston was in the hunt for a medal in 2nd/3rd place, but lost time late in the race on leg 11 to 12, with not enough distance left in the race to recover. Aston_Key_MiddleAFinal_JWOC2019

But JWOC 2019 will be an event to remember for Aston with gold and bronze medals and a podium finish to go home with. Orienteering Australia congratulates Aston on three great performances, across the three orienteering disciplines. Well done Aston.

The Middle Distance Final results can be found here, the race splits found here, and the courses here.

Thanks also to Orienteering Tasmania’s Christine Brown (and JWOC2019 Jury member) for these photos from the Middle Distance Finals.

In the relay races, the Mens #1 team finished a creditable 13th, less than 13 minutes behind winners Norway, and the Australian Women finished 21st.

Relay race results can be found here, the splits here, and the courses here.

In the teams event, Australia finished 13th. Full results here. Photos from the relay races can be found here.

Joanna_George_MiddleBFinal_JWOC2019Caitlin_Young_MiddleCFinal_JWOC2019Noah_Poland_MiddleCFinal_JWOC2019Caroline_Pigerre_MiddleBFinal_JWOC2019

Mikayla_Cooper_MiddleBFinal_JWOC2019

Aston’s good run of form continues into the Middle Distance Qualification race, and Tara Melhuish shows the girls can do it too!

10 July 2019
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Categories: High Performance, High Performance News

Aston Key’s good run of form continued today in the JWOC Middle Distance qualification races, and OACT’s Tara Melhuish showed that the girls can match the Europeans too by finishing her heat in 5th place, just 40 secs down on the winner of race 1. Today’s qualification race results can be found here and the splits here.

Aston completed his 4.1km course in 21m42s to have the fastest time across the three men’s races, while Tara completed her 3.3Km course in 25m36s, just 40 secs behind the winner of her race.

As a result both Aston and Tara will compete in tomorrow’s A finals. The Start List for the finals can be found here .

The A finals will be longer for both Aston and Tara, with the men running a 4.7Km course and the women running a 4.3Km course.

The Men’s A final starts at 10:15 (local time), with Aston starting at 12:11 (local time). The Women’s A final starts at 10:45 (local time) and Tara starting at 12:15 (local time).

Live Results and Live tracking of the races can be found here.

Victoria’s Aston Key wins Gold in JWOC Sprint Champs

7 July 2019
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Categories: High Performance, High Performance News

Starting in the last third of the field, Victoria’s Aston Key led from start to finish to win the 2019 Junior World Orienteering Sprint Championships in Denmark overnight.

Aston completed the 3.3Km course over 23 controls in Lyseng, Denmark in 12m20s to win by 13 seconds.

Men’s and Women’s results can be found here and the splits here

The men’s course can be found here and the women’s course can be found here

The JWOC competition website can be found here

Orienteering Australia congratulates Aston on his victory. Well done Aston!!!

OA Head Coach Decision Postponed

24 March 2019
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Categories: Coaching, High Performance, High Performance News

With the 1st two National League events looming next weekend, processes already underway for athletes competing in the first two rounds, and after giving consideration to not causing any disruption to athletes who are now in preparation, OA has decided not to continue with the Head Coach selection process at this time until after this year’s WOC in Norway (12th ~ 17th August). By delaying the decision Orienteering Australia hopes to avoid possible confusion and instability for the season ahead.

Orienteering Australia will re-commence the selection process after the World Champs with the intention of making an announcement at the Oceania Championships in October.

As a result of the postponement the current period of existing Head Coach Jim Russell will be extended until this year’s World Championships have concluded.

Any enquiries on this matter should be addressed to the Orienteering Australia Executive Officer.

Orienteering Australia appoints Director, High Performance

24 March 2019
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Categories: About OA, High Performance, High Performance News

Orienteering Australia is pleased to announce that at its March Board meeting, Stephen Craig was appointed as Director, High Performance.

Steve started orienteering in Sydney in 1982, did orienteering as a school sport at Knox Grammar School in Sydney with the late Mike Isbell as teacher, and joined Big Foot after leaving school.

Steve ran in three WOC teams in the 90’s and then moved to Stockholm representing Tullinge SK and then OK Ravinen, competing in all of the big relays for over a decade. He met his wife, Martina, on the Jukola ferry on the way back to Stockholm in 2002.

While in Sweden Steve obtained his Level 2 coaching accreditation and organised weekly coaching sessions, trips to events, etc for 150+ 7-16 year olds together with Martina and the other coaches in OK Ravinen.

Steve has been back in Australia since 2015 and now lives in Newcastle. He has an Australian Level 2 coaching accreditation and is also the Newcastle club coach. Steve and Martina have two children, Alvin (15) and Rebecca (12), who both orienteer. Steve is a fresh M50 in 2019.

NOL scores going into final races

28 September 2018
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Categories: High Performance News

NOL scores have been updated after the Qld round

http://dev.orienteering.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2018_NOL_Results_After_Round_12.html

There are 4 individual races to go, Aus Middle, Aus Sprint, Aus Long and SA Middle.

Coaching positions available in 2018

17 September 2018
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Categories: Coaching, High Performance News

To all the coaches out there, Orienteering Australia is looking for you to take up a position coaching a team or squad in 2019

All of these positions are available, please consider

Our 2 main positions are
OA Headcoach/Senior Squad coach (has 1st choice of being WOC Coach)
Junior Squad coach (has 1st choice of being JWOC Coach)

These 2 coaches are assisted by
National Development Squad Coach
Targetted Talent Athlete Co-Ordinator

There are a number of squad tours this year, where we need a Coach and a Manager
1 – 3rd June, NZ tour Coach, and Manager
6 – 12th July, JWOC Coach, and Manager
12 – 17th Aug, WOC Coach, and Manager

We are also looking at attending a couple of other competitions
27 – 30th June, EYOC Coach/Manager
20 – 25th Aug, Asian Youth Champs, Coach/Manager
25 – 29th Oct, World Cup 4, Coach/Manager

Orienteering Australia would very much like to fill all of these positions. If you are interested/keen, please contact Jim Russell, (Current OA Head coach) on oaheadcoach@gmail.com before the Aus Champs Carnival, to arrange a time to meet up and discuss

Cheers

JiM Russell 0411 125 178
14 Lawson St BENDIGO 3550
Orienteering Australia Head Coach
headcoach@orienteering.asn.au

Round-up of Australian WOC and JWOC results

22 July 2017
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Categories: Featured News, High Performance News, News

The World Orienteering Championships in Estonia and the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Finland are now completed. A round-up of the Australian results is below.

World Orienteering Championships

Sprint

Henry McNulty – 37th

Krystal Neumann – 39th

Natasha Key – mispunch in final

Belinda Lawford – 20th in qualifying

Simon Uppill – 21st in qualifying

Brodie Nankervis – 24th in qualifying

Sprint Relay

20th (Krystal Neumann, Henry McNulty, Simon Uppill, Natasha Key)

Long

Bryan Keely – 39th

Matthew Crane – 45th

Natasha Key – 39th

Krystal Neumann – 42nd

Middle

Simon Uppill – 34th

Matthew Crane – 42nd

Belinda Lawford – 52nd

Bridget Anderson – 54th

Relay

Men – 18th (Simon Uppill, Henry McNulty, Matthew Crane)

Women – 23rd (Krystal Neumann, Belinda Lawford, Natasha Key)

Junior World Orienteering Championships

Middle

Joseph Dickinson – 8th B final

Patrick Jaffe – 10th B final

Simeon Burrill – 28th B final

Toby Wilson – 2nd C final

Jarrah Day – 3rd C final

Aston Key – mispunch in qualifier

Zoe Dowling – 17th B final

Asha Steer – 22nd B final

Winnie Oakhill – 37th B final

Rachel Allen – 42nd B final

Caroline Pigerre – 43rd B final

Tara Melhuish – 16th C final

Sprint

Joseph Dickinson – 17th

Aston Key – 32nd

Simeon Burrill – 54th

Patrick Jaffe – 82nd

Toby Wilson – 88th

Jarrah Day – 128th

Tara Melhuish – 40th

Asha Steer – 66th

Zoe Dowling – 91st

Caroline Pigerre – 104th

Winnie Oakhill – 109th

Rachel Allen – 111th

Long

Aston Key – 29th

Joseph Dickinson – 57th

Jarrah Day – 83rd

Patrick Jaffe – 90th

Simeon Burrill – 102nd

Toby Wilson – 122nd

Zoe Dowling – 60th

Tara Melhuish – 89th

Rachel Allen – 90th

Asha Steer – 92nd

Winnie Oakhill – 94th

Caroline Pigerre – 99th

Relay

Men – Australia 1 25th (18th nation), Australia 2 40th

Women – Australia 1 26th (16th nation), Australia 2 33rd

Past National Orienteering League results now online

13 April 2017
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Categories: Featured News, High Performance News, News

The full archive of National Orienteering League results from 1993 to 2016 is now available on the Orienteering Australia website. It can be reached through the NOL pointscore page or directly through the page link.

Work is ongoing to update and upload the results archive for other major OA events.