OA Hall of Fame

Jim Russell inducted into the OA Hall of Fame

Jim’s contribution to Orienteering:

Achievements as a Coach

Jim is one of Orienteering’s accredited Level 3 Coaches and he has had an enormously successful coaching record over many years.

With the Australian JWOC teams

● 1996 (Romania)

● 1997 (Belgium)

● 1998 (France)

● 1999 (Bulgaria)

Highlights of this period were top results for Jo Allison and a bronze medal for Troy de Haas

● 2007 joint coach of the Australian JWOC team in Dubbo, coaching Simon Uppill and Vanessa Round to outstanding results

With the Australian WOC teams

● Australian WOC team coach 2017 & 2018

● Australian WOC team Assistant Coach / Manager 2019

With the Australian Bushrangers test match team

● Team Manager / Coach 2016, 2017 & 2019

With the Victorian Schools Team

● In 2000 and 2002

With Senior Australian Women’s WOC Team

● 2004 (Sweden)

● 2005 (Japan) - where Hanny Allston broke through for a podium finish in the long distance race

With Orienteering Victoria National Orienteering League team

● 2007 winning the Senior Men, Senior Women and Junior Men divisions and second in the Junior Women division

● 2021 commenced position as Orienteering Victoria High Performance coach & Victoria’s NOL team manager

Orienteering Australia Head Coach

● 2016 – 2020

● During his time as Head Coach has organized multiple National Training Camps

Long Term State Coordinator of Coaching

● Developing and implementing the process for accreditation of orienteering coaches.

Jim has also coached the New Zealand JWOC team in 2001 in Hungary and then Spain in 2002.

Achievements as an Organiser

Jim has been involved in orienteering for about 40 years and apart from the first 5 when he was heavily involved in competition, he has been involved on the organisation side consistently. Jim has been organiser and controller for countless events in Victoria and has supported many Australian events.

Jim served on the VOA (Committee of Management) Board for many years, and as VOA Vice President from 1995 to 1998. Similarly Jim has consistently participated on the Bendigo Orienteers committee (including 3 years as president). Jim is currently Vice President of Bendigo Orienteers, a position he commenced in 2020.

As then president of Bendigo Orienteers, Peter Creely, noted “Jim barely ran a race, because he liked to make sure everyone was welcomed and looked after. Then there was making sure the technology was all good. Then there was the effort to provide consistent information on the club website. He knew that it was good to make the club ‘look’ active to outside eyes”. This continues to hold true and not just at club level.

Jim has been involved in running countless events at national, state and local scale. There are even events known as Jim’s, particularly the BendiGo ToDay event at the start of each season. 2019 marked 13 years of the BendiGo ToDay events. Jim has organised every single one (note: 2020 BendiGo

ToDay event could not proceed as planned due to the strict rules introduced. The 2021 event is planned to proceed).

One particularly large organisational feat was his role as

Then there is Pretex paper - yes it’s his business now, but there may have been no Pretex paper in Australia if Jim didn’t do something about what he saw was happening in Europe.

In 2006, Jim took on a role to be the VicHealth Project Officer for a 4 year project to increase participation. Through this position Jim learnt how to handle the bureaucracy and he’s shown a wonderful ability to work with school aged students to inspire them, their teachers and parents.

The outcome has been the increased participation of people in Central Victoria to Orienteering through the development of Space Racing and the success of ‘his’ schools and students at the Victorian Primary Schools Championship - it is a great credit to him.

Everyone’s Helper

High profile contributions get their own recognition but the behind the scenes things often do not.

And this is what everyone remarks on when they’re asked about Jim. It is all the unsung organising, mentoring, and stepping into gaps, often without needing to be asked, that make him worthy of induction.

Warwick Williams gives an example. “What comes to mind for me is when he has helped me (usually without being asked, and I mean that in a good way): Handling all the entries and setting up the events in OE for the 2008 Christmas 5-Days; Setting up and printing all the maps for the 2012 Christmas 5Days; and Printing maps, and setting up and running the finish for the Warm-Up for Tassie events at the end of 2014”.

Carnival Director for the Bushrangers 09 Australian Orienteering Champs.

Jim has always wanted to put on the best event possible for the competitors and spectators, from his super straight finish chute at the 2003 Vic Long Champs at Sedgwick, to personally buying OLynx radio controls for Easter 2013 because no one else would.

Jim has helped to develop orienteering in Victoria and Australia with the sport’s use of technology, promoting the use of Sportident and OLlynx Touch, having screens displaying real time results at the Melbourne Sprint & Autumn Bush series, plus every MSW carnival that has been run. Jim has played a significant role in the introduction of the technology behind commentary at major events.

In 2020 Jim played a major role in setting up events in a covid safe manner that met the Victorian Government requirements, including using an online live results system.

Jim is often the invisible hand behind the things that get done, without being asked to, and without other people being aware of what he is doing. The things that need to get done, will be done, ready for an event.