Nick Dent – Page 4 – Orienteering Australia

Vanessa Round 9th in Middle Distance World Cup

7 April 2014

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Vanessa followed up her very good 13th place in the long distance World Cup event in Spain with an even better performance in the middle distance event on Sunday finishing an excellent 9th in 38:50, only 2:40 down on the winner Swede Lena Eliasson.

This is a great result for Vanessa and her splits indicate a very consistent performance with no red controls. Unfortunately Vanessa was not wearing a GPS so we cannot follow her perfomance via the live tracking the organisers used.

Vanessa commented after the weekend “It was a great weekend, the terrain was tricky and tough how I like it, and it was just heaps of fun to enjoy orienteering so much again and do a decent job of it. Somehow I wasn’t even sore or tired today after the long. am now though” (Courtesy of Attackpoint)

Well done Vanessa, a great weekend of orienteering. Vanessa will continue her international competition along with Felicity Brown, Evan Barr and Julian Dent next week in the European Orienteering Championships to be held in Portugal.

World Cup Long Distance- Vanessa Round 13th

6 April 2014

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Yesterday in Spain Vanessa Round competed in the Long Distance World Cup event. The distance was 10.9km with 445m climb and the winning time was set at 76 minutes. Vanessa had a very good run finishing 13th in a field of 48 in a time of 101:43. The winner Tove Alexandersson had a time of 87:43, which is 11 minutes outside the expected winning time. Vanessa except for control 2 had a very steady race and to be placed 13th in a long distance World Cup event at this time of the year is a very encouraging performance for Vanessa. The first leg on the course was over 2km long and provided the runners with some interesting route choices.

An excellent analysis of these can be found on the

World of O website

and the splits are available on

Winsplits

In the mens event Australia did not have any runners and unfortunately the event had to be cancelled as two controls were removed from the forest before the runners had completed their course.

Today Vanessa competes in the middle distance event and live tracking is available on the event website.

www.wcupspain2014.es/live-tv-and-tracking/

ELITE NEWS- NOL ROUND 2 REPORT

28 March 2014

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Rowdy Flat and Kangaroo Crossing- March 22nd and 23rd.

Round 2 of the Silva NOL events was held last weekend, with a very challenging Middle Distance event at “Rowdy Flat” and a Long Distance event at “Kangaroo Crossing”.

Rowdy Flat is a small area of very intense contour detail and at scale of 1:1000 it required very good technical skills to master it. The km rates were quite slow as was expected so it wasn’t running speed that mattered but map contact and mental calmness. David Shepherd on his return from injury demonstrated these skills as he has in the past on this map and was the winner in M21E. Simon Uppill who was leading until control 8 came second, with first year senior Ian Lawford having a good run to finish third.

The W21E was a battle between Jasmine Neve and Lizzie Ingham with Jas leading until control 13 when Lizzie got in front only to see Jas regain the lead at the second last control. Grace Crane in probably her last NOL event for a while came a very good third.

The M17-20E class saw the lead change during the event a number of times between Ludvig Ahland (Swedish JWOC representative 2013), Matt Doyle and Brodie Nankervis. Ludvig was the winner with Brodie in second and Matt in third place. Anna Dowling in the W17-20E had a very consistent run being first or second the whole way and was a clear winner from Annika Carlberg in second and Nicola Blatchford third.

Sunday was the granite challenge of Kangaroo Crossing and all courses were faced with a very challenging long first leg which required decisive decision making and then good execution of the plan. This leg in the W21E was won by Hanny Allston by 1:30 and Hanny remained in the lead for the rest of the race to be a clear winner from Jo Allison, showing great strength in this terrain, in second and Lizzie Ingham in third place. In M21E it was a similar story with both Simon Uppill and Lachlan Dow being clear equal leaders after the first leg. Unfortunately Lachie lost his SI stick after control 5 were he was leading by 34 seconds from Simon. Simon remained in the lead for the rest of the race and with a pack forming at control 11 Dave Meyer was able to finish in second place, demonstrating good physical strength and Max Neve in third. Lachie managed to finish the course having punched some controls on his map and then using his mother’s SI towards the end of the course. He later found his SI stick.

In the junior elite classes the same three men and women finished in the top three as on Saturday but in different order. Ludvig Ahlund winning the M17-20E with Matt Doyle a very good second and Brodie Nakervis third. It was a Swedish double as Annika Carlberg won the W17-20E, with Anna Dowling who lead until control 8 coming second and Nicola Blatchford a steady third place.

The overall point score for the NOL sees the Canberra Cockatoos regain the lead in the senior men with the Stingers and the Nuggets equal second. The Cockatoos are now leading the senior women from the Cyclones. In the junior point score the Tasmanian Foresters have taken the lead in the men’s and the Stingers have increased their lead in the women’s.

Results are available on Eventor and splits are available on Winsplits.

The focus for the elites in Australia is now on the Easter Carnival (April 18th-26th) which is a selection trial for both WOC and JWOC teams and comprises five NOL events as well as the first fully mixed relay for state teams using the same format as the WOC mixed relay. Teams of two women and two men, with seniors and juniors running together in the same teams.

Our overseas based elites (Vanessa Round, Felicity Brown, Evan Barr and Julian Dent) will be participating in the European Orienteering Championships to be held in Portugal 9th-16th April. This event comprises a sprint, middle and long qualification race to be followed by finals in each of these. As each country can have six competitors in each discipline the level competition is very high and making the final will be quite an achievement.

http://eoc2014.fpo.pt/index.php/en/news

Silva NOL Round 2- MOC Events

17 March 2014

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This weekend in NE Victoria Round 2 of the Silva NOL will be held on two very contrasting terrains.

Saturday will be a middle distance event on “Yackandandah” – a very complex gold mining area, small but full of detail and technical and mental challenges. The elite classes will be using a map with scale 1:10,000. Having previously been used for major events strategies will have been developed to deal with these challenges.

Sunday will be a long distance event on “Kangaroo Crossing” a very detailed granite terrain area with plenty of contours and thicker vegetation. The scale for this will be 1:15000 and it is a World Ranking event

As both of these events are relevant for the selection of both the WOC teams and the JWOC team a large field of elites have entered both in the senior and the junior classes.

These events see the return of last years Mens NOL champion Matt Crane to NOL competition. He will be up against the current leader of the NOL Simon Uppill as well as many other athletes who are in contention for WOC selection. The Womens class will see the continuation of the rivalry between Hanny Allston the current NOL leader and last years NOL Champion Lizzie Ingham.

This years NOL teams point score currently has a different look to last year. The NSW Stingers are leading in three divisions- senior men, junior men and junior women. The senior men is very close with Victorian Nuggets one point behind NSW and one point in front of ACT Cockatoos- who have Matt Crane and David Shepherd making a welcome return after his foot injury at the xmas 5 days. The Queensland Cyclones have taken an early lead in the senior womens being four points clear of the ACT Cockatoos.

Mediterranean Orienteering Championships (MOC)

During the past week four of our overseas based elites have been attending a training camp in Venice ( the loction for WOC Sprint in July) and also competing in the MOC events along with some of the best elites from other countries especially Switzerland. The competition comprised a sprint event, a middle distance event on green sand dunes and a sprint chasing start in Florence

Julian Dent- returning to competition after over 9 months out with a foot injury- came 13th overall in a very competitive mens field with Daniel Hubmann being the winner. Vanessa Round, Felicity Brown and Lauren Gillis competed in the womens class. Vanessa came 21st overall, Felicity 24th and Lauren 26th.

Some comments

Julian : “The MOC training camp was a great opportunity to visit the most relevant terrains around Venice for the World Championships sprints. The sprint qual and final in Burano and Venice are going to be excellent but challenging not just technically but logistically so it was good to get a taste of what to expect on the day. The MOC races provided some great competition early in the season against quality runners. The terrains were very fast and not as technical as Venice but the constant blue sky and sunshine made certain that it was a great week in Italy”

Felicity : “The sprint camp in Venice was great! Unfortunately I’ve been injured for two months and have only just started training again so had to take it easy as most training was on concrete but am happy to be pain free. The sessions were really useful focusing on route choices and understanding the different features in Venice such as bridges and difficult to see and count alleyways. The MOC races were good although I am not very happy with mine as running speed was a big factor here and I was slow. I am looking forward to the European championships and many other races over the next few months”.

MOC results, maps and videos.

http://www.orienteering.it/macro.php?subsite=n090913_111503

Silva National Orienteering League Round 1

24 February 2014

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The first event of this weekend of sprint events was a sprint relay. Teams of two runners both running twice. The map was Roma St Parklands in central Brisbane, a small intricate area with many sections of olive green and some out of bounds areas. A great setting for a relay with the changeover and the finish at the amphitheater in the park. Wendy Read spent many hours making this map and also set the challenging courses.

Womens Relay winners- R Effeney, A Sheldon.

In the womens relay the ACT team of Lizzie Ingham and Mace Neve had the lead after the second leg from the QLD team of Anna Sheldon and Rachel Effeney with the Victorian team of Aislinn Prendergast and Jasmine Neve only 2 seconds behind in third. Anna Sheldon took QLD into the lead on the third leg and Rachel Effeney held onto this lead for QLD to be the winners, two minutes in front of ACT and the second QLD (Heather Muir/Katelyn Effeney) team taking third in front of the Victorian team.

Mens Relay winners- L Dow, I Lawford

In the mens relay the ACT team of Ian Lawford and Lachlan Dow were in front after the first leg and managed to stay there to win by 9 seconds from a very fast finishing WA team of Henry and Oscar McNulty. Oscar having a very fast last leg but not enough to catch the ACT. The Victorian team of Todd Neve and Bruce Arthur held on to take third with the fast finishing juniors from NSW Aidan Dawson and Daniel Hill coming from 11th after the second leg to finish 4th.

The Sprint qualification was held on a new map- Griffith University. A very technical area with many different levels and some intense map reading required. There were two heats for each division with the fastest 5 from each heat progressing to the A final.

The Mens heat A was a much faster heat with Simon Uppill the winner in 17:04 and the fifth qualifier Murray Scown running 18:04. The B heat was won by Lachlan Dow in 17:25 and the fifth qualifier Andrew Brown running 20:01.

The womens heats were won by Lizzie Ingham 16:37 and Hanny Allston 16:41. The junior mens heat A was the fastest with Henry McNulty winning in 17:36. Heat B was won by the Swedish junior Ludvig Ahlund in 17:48. The junior womens heats were won by the NSW pair of Nicola Blatchford and Michele Dawson.

The finals were held on the Kelvin Grove campus of the QIT, a map previously used for a NOL event in 2011. In the womens final Hanny Allston started 1 minute behind Lizzie Ingham and she caught Lizzie at control 9 and was in the lead for the rest of the race to be a comfortable winner in 20:06, Lizzie Ingham second in 21:04 and Rachel Effeney third in 21:47. In the mens final Simon Uppill who started 1 minute in front of Lachlan Dow lead at control 3 and maintained this lead to the finish to win in 20:10, Matt Parton finishing very strongly to be second in 20:40 and Ian Lawford third in 21:04.

Womens placegetters- L Ingham 2nd, H Allston 1st, R Effeney 3rd

Mens placegetters- I Lawford 3rd, S Uppill 1st, M Parton 2nd

In the junior elite classes the womens was won by Michele Dawson in 24:42, Annika Carlberg from Sweden second in 25:51 and Jacqui Doyle third in 27:02. In the junior men, in perhaps the best run of the weekend Henry McNulty was the winner in a time of 19:58 – the fastest time overall for the men. Oscar McNulty was second in 20:26 and Aidan Dawson third in 21:04.

Junior Womens Placegetters- J Doyle 2nd, M Dawson 1st, N Blatchford 3rd

Junior mens placegetters- A Dawson 3rd, H McNulty 1st, O McNulty 2nd

Results and splits for all events are available on Orienteering Queensland website

https://oq.asn.au/

and Winsplits

http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?ct=true

The second round of NOL events leading up to Easter will be held in NE Victoria on 22nd/23rd March on the challenging maps of Rowdy Flat (middle) and Kangaroo Crossing (long and WRE).

HP Elite News February

18 February 2014

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1. NOL Round 1 Sprint Series this weekend in Brisbane. Three sprint events in two days. Starting with a sprint relay for teams of two women and teams of two men to be held in central Brisbane at Roma Street Parklands. This will be the first time this area has been used for orienteering.

Saturday PM will be a sprint qualification heats for both senior and junior elites with the top five from each heat progressing to the A final to be held on Sunday morning. The heats will be held at Griffith University, Nathan Campus and the finals at Kelvin Grove campus of Queensland University of Technology.

Bulletin 3 is now available

NOL Sprints – Brisbane – 22 and 23 Feb 2014 – Bulletin 3

Start lists for the heats

NOL StartList Event 2

2. NOL Round 2 NE Victoria 22nd/23rd March. Entries are available on eventor and the closing date is 8th March. Saturday will be a middle distance event at Rowdy Flat and Sunday will be a long distance WRE at Kangaroo Crossing.

Start lists will be available from eventor as soon as possible after closing date along with event information. There will be a full range of courses for non elites on both days- refer to information on eventor for class/course structure.

3. Nominations for WOC , World Cup and World University Orienteering Championships are due by this Saturday 22nd February at 8:00am. Any athlete who wants to be considered for selection in any of the teams to represent Australia must complete a nomination form (as per the information in previous news item).

Selection criteria has also been published- see news item.

Sprint Canberra and HP Sprint Training Camp

29 January 2014

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Monday saw the conclusion of the Sprint Canberra series of events. These events were organised by the OA HP Group to coincide with the first HP Sprint Training Camp which was based at the AIS. 42 athletes from all the HP Squads and some other athletes who have shown talent have just completed five days of intense sprint training as well as competing in the Sprint Canberra series.

We would like to acknowledge the efforts of Dave Meyer both in coordinating and organising the Sprint Canberra series but also helping out with the camp organisation through his contacts at the AIS. He was supported in the organisation of the Sprint Canberra events by both Ron Pallas and Toph Norton. The five course setters- Eric Morris, Ben Rattray, Shannon Jones, Ollie Poland and Andy Hogg- provided the competitors with challenging sprint courses with varying formats and on some great sprint maps.

The Sprint Canberra results and splits are available

Eventor

eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events

Winsplits

obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/

The sprint training included a “Maze O” exercise with three different courses through the maze, a 3km course around the athletics track with control descriptions and controls every 50m (this has been named the “Lazy TorsO challenge”), a 3km track time trial, a pairs sprint intervals challenge with a common last loop, some map memory sprint mass start intervals, a full recovery session run by AIS staff, a talk from Jason McRae on mental focus during sprint events and a talk from Grant Bluett, Hanny Allston, Lizzie Ingham and Rob Walter who gave the athletes great insights into the individual orienteering techniques and experiences of they have. Also sessions were held after dinner looking at the Challenges of Sprint orienteering and explaining the new HP Pathways that are related to each of the athletes at the camp. The newly appointed JWOC Manager- Karen Blatchford, and Coach- Hanny Allston took the opportunity to talk to the juniors at the camp about JWOC plans for the next two years.

Maze O courses.Course 1.pdf

1_Com Park Mixed challenge (5).Course 1.pdf

The athletes will now be looking forward to the first NOL events for 2014 to be held in Brisbane on 22nd and 23rd February. These events will include a sprint relay, a sprint qualification event and a sprint final.

OA HP Sprint Orienteering

20 January 2014

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On Thursday 42 of Australia’s elite orienteers both senior and junior as well as some up and coming younger orienteers will be participating in a Sprint orienteering training camp. This camp will be based at the AIS in Canberra and involve participation in the five event series Sprint Canberra being organised in conjunction with the training camp. Entries for these events has now closed and we have 131 entries with many EOD expected from the local Canberra community.

The training will very much have a sprint focus and include some novel exercises to challenge the athletes speed, concentration and ability to deal with stress (mental and physical). The facilities at the AIS will be used for recovery sessions, talks and discussion and also some track time trials.

This camp will be followed on February 22nd/23rd with Round 1 of the 2014 NOL program which will involve three sprint events in Brisbane including a sprint relay on the Saturday morning.

Entries are now open for these events

https://oq.asn.au/events/register/698

and Bulletin 2 is available

NOL Sprints Bulletin 2

HP Training Camp -last two days

8 January 2014

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The HP Training camp concluded on Monday and Tuesday. Monday saw a return to Mt Pearson for some terrain similar to the WC Long terrain of Constable Creek. Using a 1:15,000 map there was a 9km and 7km course with plenty of climb to give the athletes a taste of what the WC Long may be like. Some tired runners did well to complete the course whilst others cut it short. Hanny Allston completed the 9km course which gave her a very good physical challenge. Thanks to Hilary Wood for setting these courses

mt pearson training 2014.Mens.pdf

mt pearson training 2014.Womens.pdf

The afternoon was a one person relay with a mass start for women and men. This saw some very fast running through the area used as the model map for the 2012 Australian Championships. There were three legs of just over a km each. Some competitive challenge between the Aussies and the NZers present was a feature of this exercise.

One person relay GF east.Course 1.pdf

One person relay GF east.Course 2.pdf

One person relay GF east.Course 3.pdf

Toph Norton has produced some great video of this exercise- see link

https://vimeo.com/83586722

Tuesday was a very early start to travel to the north west edge of Lively Bogs for the camp champs. This was a technically challenging middle distance course similar to NOL races in 2011.

Results

Men: Nick Hann 40.09, Matt Ogden 41.44, Simon Uppill 42.04, Andrew Barnett 49.40, Lachlan Dow 51.30, Ian Lawford 51.41, Brodie Nankervis 51.42, Josh Blatchford 53.32

Women: Hanny Allston 41.58, Laura Robertson 47.57, Aislinn Prendergast 48.54, Lizzie Ingham 52.22, Vanessa Round 52.53, Belinda Lawford 55.47, Heather Muir 59.19, Bridget Anderson 59.35, Jacqui Doyle 63.54, Mary Fleming 67.07.

Maps

Camp Champs Livelys Bog.1.pdf

Camp Champs Livelys Bog.2.pdf

Splits from some training events

http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?ct=true

Camp Champ winners

Camp Champs.jpg

with their special St Helens trophy- “the stealth of the tiger and the aggression of the shark”.

As if training twice a day wasn’t enough Nick Hann and Matt Ogden planned some night training on Sunday night using a special map of Golden Fleece prepared on OCAD which featured a map of Tasmania. They convinced a few Aussies to go and do the course also. The map is worth having a look at.

NightTraining NZ Creation.pdf

A great camp and especially rewarding to have some great competition between the Aussies and the NZers, something we will do more of in the future. It also provided some of the younger elites with an insight into how the best in NZ and Australia attack their training.

HP Training Camp- St Helens, Tasmania

3 January 2014

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Preparation for World Cup Races 2015!

The best of the elite orienteers currently residing in Australia have gathered together in St Helens, Tasmania to share their knowledge and get to know the terrain. There are 22 athletes including 4 New Zealanders and world champions. Hanny Allston(Australian World Champion Sprint in 2006), Matt Ogden(NZ JWOC Middle Distance Champion 2012) and Lizzie Ingham, 3rd in World Cup Sprint in Wellington 2013.

WOC coaches Tom Quayle and Wendy Read are leading the camp aiming to improve technical orienteering, at speed, adaptability to new terrain, and routines. High Performance Director, Lance Read is also closely watching the development and performances of the athletes. Also assisting with the camp are Roch Prendergast, Hilary Wood, David Quayle and Nick Dent.

Training commenced on Thursday 2/1/14 using the Golden Fleece map. The focus for training was to heighten awareness of the orienteering process and routines used during an orienteering race.

Friday saw 2 sessions one in the morning involving a head to head racing with 3 athletes completing 6 short courses on the Lively Bogs map.

Lively Bogs Friday Short.pdf

Lively Bogs Friday long.pdf

After a well earned rest the afternoon training was a corridor exercise to highlight fine navigation and map contact on Mt Pearson map. This area is going to be very similar to that which is embargoed for the World Cup Long distance event.

Corridor Mt Pearson.All corridor pdf.pdf

Saturday(AM) was training on the Golden Fleece map which is close to the World Cup embargoed area and there were two courses with butterfly loops.

In the afternoon the squad returned to Lively Bogs for some competitve challenge with teams of two completing four short courses with a mass start for the men on the first leg. Some exciting man/man and women/women running was the feature of this exercise. Coach Tom had put runners into the pairs hoping for some even competition. Teams were competing for some at the time, unknown prizes. The eventual winners were the pair of Andrew Barnett and Lizzie Ingham, with Toph Norton and Laura Roberstson a close second.

Sunday was a drive to Bicheno to do some sprint intervals and a sprint course on the unique sprint map used for the Aus Sprint Champs in 2012.

Bicheno Sprint.Sprint.pdf

Bicheno Sprint.Course 1.pdf

Bicheno Sprint.Course 2.pdf

Bicheno Sprint.Course 3.pdf

More maps and also some split times for the training exercises to follow. Some training photos will be on the OA Facebook page.