AUSSIES OVERSEAS
Hanny Allston 12th in World Juniors
JUNIOR WORLD ORIENTEERING CHAMPS
T
HE team arrived in Poland two weeks before the competition to acclimatise to conditions and to train in the local forests, becoming familiar with the terrain and mapping styles. They enjoyed this time together and were able to settle down well. For a few days before the competition the team stayed in a villa near the Baltic coast and enjoyed some rest time so they were fresh for the competition.
Day 1 Qualification Race Hanny wins her Qualification Race!
The Australians did very well with four reaching the A Final Hanny Allston (25:13) had an excellent run taking 1st place in her qualifying race. Julian Dent (30:42) and Conrad Elson (29:30) finished 14th and 15th respectively. Julia Davies (29:16) also performed well finishing 18th. All were very happy with their runs and stoked about making the A Finals. Dave Meyer (30:43) just missed out on qualifying for the A Final by 7 seconds. Lachlan Hallett (30:16) was in a very competitive heat and finished just 3:56 behind the winner but was placed 29th. Hanny Allston felt very happy with her run. She kept the legs simple and clean. Erin Post found the running hard as she battled the effects of a cold. Jasmine Neve found the short sharp hills tough and difficult to run fast. Lee Andrewartha (34:37) in his first competition outside Australia ran a creditable time.
Day 2 – Middle-Distance Finals – Hanny 12th in A Final
The annual Junior World Championships in foot Orienteering took place this year from July 4-11 in the Pomerania district of northern Poland, with the event centre in Gdansk. JWOC is for M20 & W20 classes (men & women 20 years of age and younger). Events were contested by 296 athletes (140 women and 156 men) representing 35 countries, including all the orienteering nations in Europe and Scandinavia, and from much further afield such as Australia and Japan who both sent full teams of 6 men & 6 women. The terrain was forest-covered moraine hills with many paths and tracks and, generally, very good runnability, so competition was fast and furious. Team Manager Hilary Wood reports: 14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2004
Intermittent sunny periods with cool temperatures made for great orienteering conditions. Top positions were hotly contested with place-getters coming from six different countries, showing the strength of Junior orienteering in Eastern Europe and Great Britain. Two British girls just missed out on top places. But the winners were Scandinavians. In Men’s A - Auden Bjerkreim Nilson (Norway) finished in 27:09 followed by Swiss Mathias Merz (27:34) (last year’s JWOC winner) and Lithuanian Simonas Krepsta (27:42). In Women’s A, Helena Jansson (Sweden) took first (28:59) followed by Radka Brozkova, Czech Republic, (30:08), and Finn AnniMaija Fincke (30:30). Of the Australians, Hanny Allston had another excellent run finishing 12th in 32:53 (just 3:54 behind the winner). She said she would like to have done better but was very happy to have reached her goals of making the A Final and then being placed in the top 20. She recorded fastest time on some of her splits, showing her potential to compete and succeed with the best. Julia Davies made some costly mistakes leaving her in 59th position. Julian Dent finished 28th with 31:00 (3:51 off the pace). Conrad Elson finished 52nd, about 7 minutes off the pace. A reliable Aussie source reported the Norwegian Auden Bjerkiem Nilson as saying “to be a world champion you have to be crazy and I just run to have fun!!!” Well I guess that's right - they say when athletes are performing 'in the zone' they are enjoying it and everything feels right.
Day 3 – ‘Classic’ Long-Distance Race
Teams tend to put their best runners out last and Matthias Merz from Switzerland - last year’s 2nd placegetter in the “Classic” and winner of the 2004 Middle-Distance – was one of those with a late start. That made for a very exciting finish and the crowd roared as Merz appeared in the finish chute with just 30 seconds to take first place. The Swiss team urged him to sprint but he looked tired and seemed to amble in. It was just enough for he hit the line one second in front of Martin Johannson of Sweden. Talking later to Merz (72:19) he said it was just a bit of luck to win by one second but he was very happy. Johannsson (72:20) had a very good race, coming home strongly after running off the map at the second control, costing him two minutes. He recovered and had the fastest splits towards the end of the race. Third place went to Lithuanian Simonas Kreptas (72:29) matching his third in the MiddleDistance race. The men’s course had lots of route choice and challenged the competitors to make quick decisions on whether to
