World University Orienteering Opening Ceremony was held last night in Olomouc. The Australian team had moved into the official accommodation earlier in the day and had a chance to experience the model sprint map which was around the accommodation at the University campus ‘Neredin’ on the edge of Olomouc. The ceremony was at 8:00pm in a large open square in the old town section of Olomouc. We had a thunderstorm earlier in the day and the rain was hanging around. It was an entertaining ceremony featuring the usual welcome speeches, local group singing and dancing and was finished off with a light show highlighting the local area. Light rain fell during the ceremony but not enough to stop the proceedings.

Australian Team waiting for Opening Ceremony to start.

Today we are preparing for the first Sprint Relay to be held as part of the WUOC program.Each country can have one team in this event. There will be 28 countries represented. The terrain is a mix of flat parkland and an urban section of the historic old town of Kromeriz. The Australian team is Belinda Lawford, Bryan Keely, Bridget Anderson, Murray Scown. The organisers have made a different running order to what was used at WOC in Italy with the order being Women, Men, Women, Men. Also it appears from the event information that there will be four courses, so women may end up running the same course as the men. There are some world class runners taking part in the WUOC and the Swiss team today includes Martin Hubmann and Matthias Kyburz who were members of the Swiss team at WOC who won the Sprint Relay.

Live results available

http://splits.racom.cz/wsplits/races/wuoc.htm

Tomorrow is the Long Distance event in fairly steep terrain, many vegetation changes and a dense network of tracks. All team members will compete in this event.

The National Orienteering League will continue for 2014 with the Wildfire Sports Australian Ultra Long Distance event to be held on Kooyoora State Park map that was first used for the World Orienteering Championships in 1985, and was also used for the World Masters Orienteering Championships in 2002. The Ultra Long will be for elite classes M21E, W21E, M17-20E and W17-20E. As well as these classes there will be the Victorian Long Distance Championships held on the same day and on the same map. Eureka and Bendigo Orienteers will be the organiser’s and the courses will be set by well-known Victorian orienteer Jim Russell. The ultra long will be a mass start with loops and a winning time for M21E of 2 hours 30 minutes.

Wildfire Sports and Dirty D are providing prizes for both the Ultra Long and all entrants in the Victorian Long Distance Championships of over $1,000. As well there is a return airline ticket to be won by an elite. The winner of this will be decided between elite class winners by a handicapped adjustment of elite class km rates, based on Scandinavian ultra long km rates.

Entries for these events close on Tuesday 25th August– see “Eventor”

http://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/1345

On Saturday 30th August the Victorian Middle Distance Championships will be held also at Kooyoora State Park. For entry details see “Eventor”.

http://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/1344

Two great events held on one of Australia’s most famous orienteering maps, definitely worth being there.

Yesterday saw the conclusion of JWOC 2014 with the relays for men and women held at Borovets near to the team’s accommodation for the week. The map was not as technical as the middle and appeared to be very well suited to a relay. The men did not have such a good day with unfortunately a mp in the second leg by Oliver Poland. The second men’s team finished in 28th place. The women struggled to deal with the relay challenges and finished in 29th and 31st positions.

Brodie Nankervis who has achieved three top 20 results in the individual events has reported on his experiences

“Today was not the day for Australia. Oscar McNulty ran like a champion, running most of the course with an injury that required a hospital visit! Olle Poland and I pushed until the end but unfortunately it wasn’t enough!

But the day was not without positives! As I was competing my last loop I had the opportunity to cheer Nick Hann and the New Zealanders into 6th place. I have a lot of respect for the New Zealand team and you guys deserve this 100%! Congrats.

With three top 20s in 3 races I can say that my JWOC 2014 was a real success! I am looking forward to what I can achieve in the future.”

In a final report on JWOC we must mention the performances not only of Brodie but also Oscar McNulty in finishing 17th in the sprint and 19th in the long, making the A final in the middle and completing the first leg of the relay with an injury in a competitive time.

A special thank you to Hanny Allston for all he coaching efforts especially as she travelled to Bulgaria straight after competing at WOC in Italy and to Karen Blatchford for her management of this 2014 Australian JWOC team. I know that the athletes and the supporters all greatly appreciate your efforts.

Detailed report on JWOC can be seen here

http://news.worldofo.com/2014/07/28/jwoc-2014-maps-results-and-medal-overview/

Three Australian men competed in the A final of the JWOC Middle Distance today. Brodie Nankervis doing the best of the three to achieve his third top 20 position with a very good performance to finish in 16th place after being in 6th place at the first radio control. This result means that Brodie has achieved a top 20 place in all the individual events at JWOC- sprint, long and middle. The first time since the sprint was introduced into the JWOC program in 2006 that an Australian has achieved this. Oscar McNulty finished in 32nd place (+8:59) and Oliver Poland in 34th place (+9:20). In the B final Henry McNulty finished in 21st place, Matt Doyle in 32nd place and Ashley Nankervis in 51st place.

All the women competed in the B final with the best performances coming from Michele Dawson in 12th place, Anna Dowling in 17th place. The other results were Nicola Blatchford 22nd, Lanita Steer 23rd, Olivia Sprod 45th and Asha Steer 50th.

Tomorrow sees the final event of this JWOC carnival with the relay for men and women. The men will be represented by two teams: Oscar McNulty, Oliver Poland, Brodie Nankervis and Henry McNulty, Ashley Nankervis, Matt Doyle.

The womens teams are: Lanita Steer, Anna Dowling, Michele Dawson and Asha Steer, Nicola Blatchford, Olivia Sprod.

The JWOC blog has been updated with some reports from the middle qualification and middle final

http://ausjuniororienteering.blogspot.it/

Full results are available from

http://www.jwoc2014.bg/index.php?name=livecenter

Good luck to all four teams in the relay tomorrow.

Today was the qualification heats for the middle distance final to be held tomorrow. After a rest and recovery day yesterday which included a get together with all the Aussie supporters in Bulgaria and also the NZ team and their supporters, the team was faced with what promised to be a very technical middle distance qualifier. The top 20 from each of the three heats progresses to the “A” final.

Our men continued their very impressive performances at this JWOC with three qualifying for the A final. Oscar McNulty and Brodie Nankervis continued their great form with Oscar finishing 11th in his heat and Brodie finishing 17th in his heat. Oliver Poland had a much improved performance in his heat to finish 11th and easily qualify for the A final.

This is the most men (3) who have qualified for the A final in the last ten years. Henry McNulty in his first JWOC had a steady run to finish in 23rd place in his heat.

Unfortunately the women have not managed to make the A final tomorrow. The best performed were Anna Dowling and Michele Dawson who both finished 25th in their heat.

The start times for the A Final Men are Brodie Nankervis 10:22, Oscar McNulty 10:54 (wearing GPS), Oliver Poland 10:58.

The maps from the long distance event are available on the JWOC website

http://www.jwoc2014.bg/index.php?name=maps

It is worth having a look at the map and especially the legs 3-4 and 7-8 for both the men and the women. It is not hard to see why the winning time for the women was 13 minutes longer than expected.

You can also see the old map of the middle qualification and final. Some very interesting contour detail.

Today in Bulgaria the Australian men had a great day in the long distance event which was held in very steep terrain with a lot of “green” areas on the map.

Brodie Nankervis and Oscar McNulty followed up their good results in the sprint distance event with in some ways even more impressive results today. Brodie finishing in 13th place (+8:20). He was one second behind 12th place. This is Australia’s best men’s result in the long distance event at JWOC since Simon Uppill 4th in Dubbo in 2007. To make it an even better day Oscar McNulty finished in 19th place (+10:28) to give Australia two runners in the top 20. This has not been done for a very long time. (Beyond my records). The other Australian men were Henry McNulty (+16:49), Matt Doyle (+26:08), Oliver Poland (+31:18), Ashley Nankervis (+57:02). The winner was Anton Johannsson (Sweden) in a time of 75:17. There was 3 New Zealanders in the top 30 with Tim Robinson following up his win in the sprint with a 16th place in the long.

Brodie’s comments after the race

“I don’t really know how to describe today.. Coming through spectator I had no idea that I was on a half decent run but with the amazing aussie support on the run through I was able to keep it together and run solidly in the last loop! To finish in 13th today is absolutely amazing for me and shows that perseverance after making mistakes certainly pays off.

This result has been a goal of mine for the past 3 years but I couldn’t have made it without the help of Michael Dowling, you have been an amazing mentor and have taught me many important lessons over the past few years. I would also like all those who helped with my preparations for JWOC 2014, including but not limited to; Hanny Allston (an amazing coach and mentor), Karen Blatchford and of course two of the most supportive parents you could ask for Kim Nankervis andDirk Nankervis!
Finally I would just like to thank all of the aussie support I have been receiving over the past couple of days and a special shout out to the boys who accompanied me in Bulgaria for final preparations over the past two weeks!”

The women’s course was a very challenging one as the winning time of 68:15 is 13 minutes longer than the expected winning time. The winner was Gunvor Hov Hoydal (Norway). The best Australian was Michele Dawson finishing 58th (+26:31). The others were Lanita Steer 86th, Olivia Sprod 88th, Asha Steer 97th, Anna Dowling 103rd, Nicola Blatchford 105th.

Tomorrow will be a day for rest and recovery in preparation for the Middle Qualification heats on Friday.

The 2014 Junior World Orienteering Championships will be held next week in Bulgaria. The event centre and the location for the relays is Borovets which is Bulgaria’s main ski resort and is 1300m in altitude. The Australian team are currently in a pre-competition camp along with the NZ team undergoing some exercises set up by Rob Jessup the NZ coach.

The Australian team is:

Coach: Hanny Allston

Manager: Karen Blatchford

Women: Nicola Blatchford, Michele Dawson, Anna Dowling, Olivia Sprod, Asha Steer, Lanita Steer.

Men: Matt Doyle, Henry McNulty, Oscar McNulty, Ashley Nankervis, Brodie Nankervis, Oliver Poland.

This year’s Australian team is a mixture of experienced JWOC competitors and those who are experiencing JWOC for the first time.

Oliver Poland is competing at his 5th JWOC, Oscar McNulty at his 4th, Brodie Nankervis and Michele Dawson at their 3rd. Matt Doyle, Nicola Blatchford and Lanita Steer are competing at their second JWOC. The debutants are Anna Dowling, Olivia Sprod, Asha Steer, Henry McNulty and Ashley Nankervis.

JWOC is a little different to WOC in that all team members can compete in all events, so we have six representatives in both the women’s and the men’s events. The events do not include a sprint relay, but there is a qualification event for the middle.

The program for the week is:

Tuesday 22nd July: Sprint– Samokov, mixed urban and park terrain.

Wednesday 23rd July: Long Distance– Malyovitsa, moderately hilly pine forest between 1300m and 1750m altitude.

Friday 25th July: Middle qualification– Zheleznica, hilly terrain between 900m and 1000m altitude.Terrain with many details. The using of magnifier is recommended!

Saturday 26th July: Middle Final– Zheleznica,hilly terrain between 900m and 1000m altitude. Terrain with many details. The using of magnifier is recommended!

Sunday 27th July: Relays– Borovets. Moderately hilly terrain in the forests nearest to Borovets resort. About 1300m altitude.

The well-known elite Bulgarian orienteer Kiril Nikolov will be the course setter for both the Long Distance and the Middle Distance events.

There is no indication on the official website about live results. Bulletin 4 indicates that there will be GPS tracking of 40 athletes in the Sprint, Long and Middle distance events so something may become available.

Event website is

http://www.jwoc2014.bg/index.php?name=home

The Australian team’s blog is being kept up to date with the latest team info

http://ausjuniororienteering.blogspot.it/