DID YOU KNOW? Orienteering Australia has a new e-mail address. You can contact Dave Lotty - Director (Administration) at orienteering@sydney.net Grant Bluett (NSW) has been living for several years in Sweden working as an instructor in an Orienteering school. This year he hopes to score a medal at the World Championships in September. At the end of the year he will be moving to Canberra in preparation for WOC 2005 in Japan.
When is a SportIdent ‘stick’ a ‘dibber’ ? When you’re orienteering in the UK. Everyone there knows it as a ‘dibber’ so it follows that the act of punching a control must now be known as ‘dibbing’. Only the British could dream up such terms.
Tasman including two at Invercargill, at the south of the South Island, on a latitude of 46.26 degrees south. He wonders if this is the most southerly orienteering area in the world. Looking at the atlas, there’s about 1200 km of South America further south than this, but it’s not known whether there’s any orienteering in those parts. Incidentally, 46 degrees north is just about the Italian- Swiss frontier in Europe and corresponds with the Great Lakes in North America. World class marathon runner Peter Gitura (best time 2.11.06) from Kenya was introduced to Orienteering by Sweden’s O-missionary Peo Bengtsson. Peter has taken part in some Park World Tour races and in Sweden’s monster five-day O-Ringen.
Wine label OAWA has been making an attractive offer to members as a fundraiser, a case of white, red or mixed quality wines for $115. That’s just $9.50 a bottle; normal retail would be about $15. OASA are promoting a special wine for the state championships, “Morialta Shiraz” at $13 a bottle or $120 a dozen. Some may remember that in the 1970’s Victoria had a similar deal with Hardy’s to market wine to members and to raise a few dollars. Tash Key with sons, Aston, 4, and Jensen 18 months, and husband, Warren (recently retired national coach), were off late August on a round-theworld trip, paid for with reward frequent flyer points from many previous journeys.
Top Kiwi Jenni Adams had a baby due in August. She and partner Carsten Jorgensen, top Danish orienteer placed fourth in last year’s World Championships Classic distance race, headed overseas after Easter and the baby might be born in Denmark.
First stop was Washington DC, USA, to visit Warren’s brother Steve who, when still living in Australia, was lead mapper for WOC ’85. Steve now works in the US Patent Office, researching applications. Then across the Atlantic for a week in Finland as a build-up to WOC in Sweden in September.
Events Tally
The two boys’ names – Aston and Jensen – come from quality British performance cars. Vroom!
Dave Lotty (NSW) leads the all-time events tally with 1940 events completed (or organized) since he started Orienteering in the early ‘70’s. New Australian Orienteer editor, Mike Hubbert (VIC), has 1846 events and former editor, Ian Baker (VIC), 1830 events. Can anyone else match these tallies? Let us know.
World Games The 7th World Games 2005 will be held in northern Germany with Orienteering events on July 16 &17 in the Köllnischer Wald at Bottrop, near Duisberg. Host city for the 8th World Games 2009 has just been confirmed as Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. The program will run between July 16-26. Bob Smith (SA) writes in SA newsletter that at Easter he was on a business trip to New Zealand so took part in several events the other side of the
38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2004
He says that training in Kenya you need to take care not to encounter wild animals. “A lion sounds like thunder, and it seems the animal is only 50 metres from you, but it’s not true, it can be as far as three kilometres. The lion is king of the forest and when you hear his sound it has only one meaning: Run away! “There is no way to get away from a leopard. People may be good runners but a leopard is a much better runner! If you can climb a tree, the leopard can too. So there’s no way to get away from a leopard.” O-sport Annette Woodward, former member of Victorian club Tuckonie, competed at the Athens Olympics last month in pistol shooting.
Soccer star Gary Linecker gave a classic answer, when asked to describe the game, “The ball is round, a game lasts ninety minutes and at the end the Germans always win.” Not true any more, of course. Swiss magazine OL has adapted the quote, “The courses can vary in length, but when you’ve been right round, the same Swiss woman always wins!”
Budget flights in Europe 25 airlines are on the budget internet site www.EuropebyAir. com/ covering 170 cities in Europe. Just click on the city you want and a map shows the routes to and from. You can book online. Also check www.easyjet.com and www.ryanair.com
E-mail Newsletters Tasmania’s newsletter asks members whether they would be happy to receive the state newsletter in downloadable electronic format, instead of a mailed copy. AO will report the response when available from Orienteering Tasmania. We asked all states if they have a regular email newsletter (not the printed publication for all members). Responses as received are: The ACT e-newsletter also goes to 60 non-members. Vic has a separate e-bulletin for nonmembers. No responses received from SA or from Tasmania. Some clubs in Australia give members the option of an electronic club newsletter instead of a print-out. State Email Frequency Number % of n/letter? of reg members Qld Y Weekly 250 80% NSW Y Weekly 250 56% ACT Y Weekly 300 60% Vic Y Weekly 235 89% WA No
O-zine, new issue A preview of the 2004 World Orienteering Championships in Sweden is the theme for the June edition of O-zine, a free on-line colour newsletter published by the IOF. There are features on the 2003 star, Simone Niggli-Luder of Switzerland and on Thierry Gueorgiou of France (see his winning 2003 route in The Australian Orienteer, June). You can receive an e-mail notification each time O-zine is published. To register, just fill in the form at www.orienteering. org/headline. htm and press the ‘Subscribe’ button. See advertisement on page 35.
