The Board of Orienteering Australia is very pleased to announce Jim Russell has been appointed Head Coach of Orienteering Australia for the remainder of 2016 and 2017. Jim brings an enormous amount of enthusiasm, passion and expertise to the role of Head Coach, through his vast experience as an elite competitor and coach of many national teams. Jim has been the National Development Squad Coach for the past 3 years and his appointment is a natural progression, providing stability to the OA High Performance program. Congratulations, Jim.
High Performance News
Australian men promoted for 2017 after WOC relay
The Australian men’s team have been promoted to division 2 for 2017 after finishing 19th in yesterday’s relay, which concluded the World Championships. The first half of the relay was excellent for Australia, with Julian Dent finishing the first leg in 10th place and Simon Uppill climbing to 9th early in the course, but he was then caught by the chasing pack. The final leg ended up as a trans-Tasman battle between Leon Keely and Chris Forne, with the New Zealander narrowly winning the sprint finish.
After a good start, Krystal Neumann dropped off a closely bunched pack on the first leg. Vanessa Round regained some ground on a solid second leg, and by the arena passage on the last leg, Jo Allison was in a six-way battle for 13th place. The faster runners in the pack got away in the final sector and the team’s eventual result was 17th.
The Norwegian men led almost from the gun to the finish line; Carl Godagar Kaas had broken away from the pack by the third control and they never let the lead go thereafter. Switzerland occasionally threatened to challenge, getting within 40 seconds early on the final leg, but were never able to bridge the gap. Sweden won a close three-way battle for the bronze, with Ralph Street leading Great Britain to fourth for the third successive year.
Russia won their first women’s relay gold. They were in contention all day, although for much of the way, Finland were (slightly surprising) leaders. Natalia Gemperle, already a dual medallist this week, caught Merja Rantanen by the arena passage and then broke away on the last part of the course. Maja Alm’s last-leg charge through the field for Denmark looked likely to finish in a bronze, but it ended up being silver after Rantanen lost time at the second-last control.
Full results are available at the WOC website.
Dent 35th as Lundanes, Alexandersson take gold
Julian Dent was the leading Australian performer in the World Championships long distance today. On a physically and technically demanding course, a consistent run saw him in 35th place. Olav Lundanes of Norway took an impressive gold medal, catching the three runners ahead of him (including two of the favourites, Swiss duo Daniel Hubmann and Matthias Kyburz) on his way to victory. Thierry Gueorgiou’s fast finish saw him squeeze Hubmann out of silver. Timo Sild of Estonia, well-known to South Australian orienteers, was in front at times after a very fast start and looked a good chance for the podium most of the way, but faded late to finish 10th.
Tove Alexandersson took her second individual gold medal of the week. She had to work had for it, as the duo of Natalia Gemperle and Judith Wyder held sway most of the way, but some wobbles by them in the second half combined with a fast finish from the Swede saw her take the last in the last few minutes of the course for a 26-second win. Gemperle also got her second medal of the week, a silver, ahead of Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg, with Wyder fourth. Both Australians found the going tough, with Jo Allison losing time in the final loop to finish 45th, and Natasha Key 52nd.
Further information is available on the WOC website.
The Championships conclude with the relay on Saturday.
Round 36th, Allison 45th, Dent 44th in World Championship Middle Distance
The Men’s Middle Distance World Championships was a tight race between several of the hot favourites in Stromstad, Sweden. Most of the top runners limited their mistakes, but route choices to avoid the steep rock-faces and thicker forest were the key to finishing in the fastest time.
Daniel Hubmann (SUI) took an early lead, but a small mistake at #16 relegated him to the bronze medal; his 21st medal at World Championships! Olav Lundanes (NOR)took a round about route choice to #4, but he made this up with the best route going straight through the paddock to 17 to take the lead. He was still in front at #21, but then lost some time, and the gold medal, by going straight through the green to #22. Matthias Kyburz (SUI) won the race to add to his 2016 European Championship Middle victory, and Silver in the WOC Sprint on Saturday. Kyburz took the best route choice when it mattered on the deciding leg to control #22, earning his 4th World Championship gold medal.
7 time Middle Distance Champion, Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA), lost some time taking a wider right route choice to #12, and was never quite able to get back into the medals, finishing in 4th place. Having not won the Middle World Championship since 2011, this may have been his last attempt.
Australia’s only male competitor, Julian Dent, had a solid race to finish in a strong 44th place out of 76 starters. He took a wider left route to #4, and then had some trouble with #5. Dent was then able to spend a lot of the race with the Polish runner, Pawlak, and work his way back through the field ahead of New Zealand’s Tim Robertson (48) and Toby Scott (52).
In the women’s race, Canadian, Emily Kemp, held the lead for much of the afternoon. It was not until the top seeds reached the final loop that she was challenged. Kemp changed her mind exiting control 18, and then tired in the last km. Heidi Bagestvold (NOR) was the first to set a new best time, taking the lead with a fast track route choice to 21. Natalia Gemperle (RUS) finished strongly, but didn’t take the fast track route, and finished behind Bagestevold to take 2nd. Tove Alexandersson (SWE) lost time at #3, but was too fast for everyone else and won by 35 seconds. Remarkably this is her first ever WOC gold medal after dominating most international orienteering events in the last 2 or 3 years.
Vanessa Round had an excellent run, taking the early lead and holding it for some time. She eventually finished 36th. In her comeback to World Championships, Jo Allison started well and finished in a solid 45th place out of 66 starters.
All results, maps, splits and GPS tracking can be found here.
Australia 20th in World Championships sprint relay
Australia has finished 20th in the sprint relay at the World Orienteering Championships. Krystal Neumann led off in 22nd in a closely bunched field, with Leon Keely lifting the team to 20th with a solid second leg. Henry McNulty and Natasha Key then maintained that position through the second half of the race.
Sweden gained a narrow lead on the third leg, but the top two from the individual sprint, Maja Alm (Denmark) and Judith Wyder (Switzerland), again blew the rest of the field away, with Alm’s run allowing the Danes to retain their title. Switzerland took silver, with the hosts dropping back to bronze.
Competition now moves to the forest, with the middle distance to take place on Tuesday.
Results are available on the WOC website.
Natasha Key 19th in World Championships sprint
Natasha Key, making her comeback to the Australian team at the age of 44 after more than a decade away from international elite competition, was Australia’s lead performer in the sprint at the World Orienteering Championships today, placing 19th in an impressive result. Maja Alm of Denmark successfully defended her title, 26 seconds ahead of Judith Wyder of Switzerland, with a surprise bronze medal for Anastasia Denisova of Belarus.
Australia also had one men’s finalist, with Leon Keely placing 39th in the final in a race where the entire field was covered by just over two minutes. Jerker Lysell gave the home fans something to cheer about as he took out the men’s event by three seconds, ahead of the Swiss duo of Matthias Kyburz and Daniel Hubmann. New Zealander Tim Robertson was 13th.
Krystal Neumann and Aislinn Prendergast were both unlucky to miss out on the final, missing the cut by one place, and four and seven seconds respectively. Henry McNulty (22nd) missed out by 23 seconds on his World Championships debut in a brutally tough heat where the cut was only 34 seconds behind the winner, while Simon Uppill (21st) was 20 seconds away from qualifying.
Competition continues today with the sprint relay, which starts at 4.50pm local time (12.50am Monday AEST).
Full results are available at the IOF website.
World Orienteering Championships to get under way in Sweden
The 2016 World Orienteering Championships get under way today in Stromstad, on the west coast of Sweden near the Norwegian border. The Championships start with sprint races over the weekend before moving into the forest from Tuesday onwards, with the full program being:
Saturday 20 August – sprint qualification and final
Sunday 21 August – sprint final
Tuesday 23 August – middle
Thursday 25 August – long
Saturday 27 August – relay
In the sprint qualification, the first 15 competitors from each of three heats proceed to the final. With 36-37 competitors in each men’s heat and 31 for the women, competition to reach the final will be tough; historic experience suggests that the men will need to be within 40 seconds of the winner to be reasonably confident of making the final, and the women within a minute.
Australia will have three men and three women running in the sprint qualification. Their start times are:
Women – Aislinn Prendergast 9.06 (17.06 AEST), Krystal Neumann 9.11 (17.11), Natasha Key 9.26 (17.26).
Men – Simon Uppill 10.11 (18.11), Henry 10.18 (18.18), Leon Keely 10.29 (18.29)
The finals are run on Saturday afternoon (Swedish time), with the first starts for the women at 15.41 (23.41 AEST) and for the men at 16.46 (0.46 AEST Sunday morning).
Further information is available through the WOC website and World of O. Live results should be freely available through the WOC website with online TV coverage and GPS tracking at the IOF LiveCenter (fee applies).
Natasha Key does the double at World Masters
Natasha Key dominated the W45 age group at the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Estonia, winning by large margins in both the sprint and long distance events. In the sprint, held in Tallinn’s Old Town, she had a minute in hand over the rest of the field, and in the long distance she was more than four minutes clear, huge margins at this level. Her runs are indications that she is in excellent form as she moves on to her elite international comeback at the World Orienteering Championships in Sweden later this month.
Geoff Lawford almost managed to repeat his 2015 sprint triumph in M60, but had to settle for silver, five seconds behind Great Britain’s James Crawford. There was a near-miss for Wendy Read, who after winning her qualifying race, finished seven seconds outside the medals in fourth place in W50.
In W35, Anna Sheldon was 7th in the sprint and 14th in the long distance, while there was also a pair of top-20 results for Amber Tomas, about to return to Australia after many years in the UK and US.
Other Australians to achieve top-20 results were Gayle Quantock (12th, W50 sprint), Jim Russell (13th, M55 sprint), Basil Baldwin (17th, M75 sprint) and Liliia Glushchenko (16th, W45 long).
One of the most keenly anticipated Australian contests of the event, in the M35 sprint between former WOC team members Troy de Haas and David Brickhill-Jones, turned out to be something of a fizzer after both missed the A final (de Haas picking up the wrong map in qualifying, although he did have the fastest time in the B final).
Full results, along with videos (spectacular ones from the sprint), are available at the WMOC website.
WUOC Middle Distance
WUOC Middle Distance
Today was a long day and a pretty challenging day for the Aussies. What stated with a bus trip that was longer than indicated, on some narrow and windy roads and then continued with a map that had a lot of green and some fairly vague features, sometimes in the green, ended with some disappointments, some could have been better and some not to bad runs from the team.
After the domination yesterday by Great Britain, the Swedes dominated today winning both the men and women’s events by small margins- O Sjoberg in the men and L Forsgren in the women. Michele Dawson was the best placed Aussie in 40th place 31.9% behind the winner. Michele had a good start being in 17th place at control 6 however, she lost over 3 mins at controls 9 and 10. She then had some running mates and finished well. Belinda Lawford after a very slow start and after 5 red controls in a row (66th at control 9) speeded up significantly from control 10 to control 15, to finish in 46th, 38% behind. Heather Muir was an early starter and tired towards the end of the course to finish in 65th place 64% behind. Nicola Blatchford who was in 70th place at control 8 mispunched at control 9.
Andrew Barnett who had a very consistent run was the best of the Aussie men to be in 64th place, 31.5% behind. Matt Doyle was running faster than Andrew but a small mistake at control 21 caused him to lose over 1 minute. He finished in 66th place, 32% behind. Henry McNulty had a pretty inconsistent run today with control 12, 14,15 and 21 costing him time and his running speed slowed towards the end. He finished in 71st place, 38% down. Brodie Nankervis who started well and was in 31st place at control 10, then had some problems and he mispunched control 19 (he was in 57th and control 18).
Tomorrow is the relay with all the Aussie team running.
Men: Henry McNulty, Brodie Nankervis, Matt Doyle: Lachlan Dow, Ian Lawford, Andrew Barnett.
Women: Krystal Neumann, Belinda Lawford, Michele Dawson: Nicola Blatchford and Heather Muir will run in a mixed team with a French women.
Ciao
Nick Dent
WUOC Sprint Relay
WUOC Sprint Relay
Today’s Sprint Relay was held downtown in Miskolc and was a very spectacular event with good visibility of the runners, big screen and also GPS available in the arena. Relays can be very exciting and this one certainly was. The comment from those Aussies present was “why don’t we have more events like this one?” I can only agree with this sentiment.
The Great British team are certainly demonstrating their strength in sprint orienteering. After their successes in the individual sprint they were clear winners today by 50 seconds from Czech Republic with Norway in 3rd place.
The Australians who do not get much experience in relays let alone sprint relays had a very impressive team performance finishing in 13th place only 5:14 down on the winners. All runners had good runs with some small errors but the combined result of 13th which is four places higher than two years ago. Krystal Neumann was 14th on her leg, Henry McNulty 12th, Ian Lawford 11th and Michele Dawson was 17th on her last leg.
Tomorrow is the middle distance event on a map with some negative terrain and rocky areas that should lend itself to some good middle distance courses. Australia will be represented by:
Men- Matt Doyle, Henry McNulty, Andrew Barnett and Brodie Nankervis.
Women- Heather Muir, Nicola Blatchford, Belinda Lawford and Michele Dawson.
Sorry too late for analysis and any photos.
Nick Dent