FROM THE PRESIDENT

Supporting our elite athletes

FOR decades I resisted the temptation to take up golf because it would take me away from my family for too many hours of a weekend. So I fell captive to time-consuming Orienteering and could not persuade my family to join me. One consequence is that for some events, I do little more than arrive, compete and depart. But for most events, and certainly for the more major events, I make it a complete social activity, meeting old friends and being a spectator as well as being a competitor.

As Orienteering internationally seeks to establish itself as a major (Olympic?) sport, it accepts that it has to generate spectator appeal and is to a certain extent endeavouring to re-invent itself. Different types of events are one strategy and a feature of these is typically an appeal to spectators, albeit at present other orienteers.

There are few rewards to be obtained by our champion athletes and the acknowledgement of fellow orienteers plays a significant role. This is particularly so at the elite level, where our athletes need recognition and every encouragement to continue to strive for better performances.

National carnivals have of late being doing the spectator bit very well, giving every attention to assembly areas, legs through the surrounding area and spectator controls. Events organisers are congratulated for this action and must not be deterred by negative feedback about ‘easy’ legs at the conclusion of events.

The arrangement for Day Three of the Australian 3-Days leads to one of the magic moments in Australian Orienteering each year. Most competitors have finished their courses and assume the role of spectator to follow the arrivals of the late-starting elite athletes, with the best finishing towards the last.

However, the biggest difficulty for organisers to overcome in creating spectator interest at these national events seems to be the family car. It sometimes seems a pity they aren’t parked a kilometre away from the assembly area so that people remain ‘track side’. The problem seems to be even greater at State events where there is less of a culture and commitment to being a spectator and supporting the elite athletes.

All orienteers are urged to take an interest in matters relating to elite athletes, whether it be their performances in state, national or international events, and are urged to browse the high performance pages when regularly visiting the state and national Orienteering websites.

Orienteering Australia has sought to enhance the recognition that our elite athletes contribute to the well-being of our sport and instituted an Award for the “Orienteering Australia Athlete of the Year”.

Adrian Jackson was the winner of the inaugural 2004 medal following his gold medal winning ride in the Middle-distance event at the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships. Congratulations Adrian.

Keep spiking those controls!

IOF TODAY

THE IOF has a membership of 66, with the Council recently provisionally approving applications from Mongolia and Kenya. While the IOF is still very much concerned with the conformity of rules and standards throughout the world, as reflected in the recently published International Specification for Sprint Orienteering Maps (ISSOM) and the ongoing work to develop a punching specification, its policies are also about the spread, strengthening and development of the sport throughout the world – to more people in more places. The IOF wishes to raise the profile of our sport by staging high quality, highly visible events around the world, forcefully promoting Orienteering in a global context.

As IOF membership continues to grow and more people experience the challenge and excitement of Orienteering at its best; as Orienteering “comes out of the forest” as evidenced by the arena production at the World Championships in Sweden last year; as the world’s elite compete in tight top level competition in all parts of the world, Orienteering is positioning itself for inclusion in the Olympic/ Paralympic Games. For the summer Olympic program, the immediate goal is to secure the eligibility criteria of 75 nations membership. For the winter program, the IOF has applied for inclusion of SkiOrienteering in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The IOF has also expressed its desire to have Trail Orienteering included in the 2012 Paralympic Games.

There is strong determination within the IOF to strengthen all four recognised disciplines – foot, mountain-bike, ski and trail Orienteering. The highly acclaimed World Orienteering Championships in Ski-O were held in Levi, Finland, earlier this year and the 2009 Championships have been awarded to Japan - testament to the IOF’s world perspective, the growing strength of the discipline and development in the Asian region. The World Championships in Japan, this year, will showcase both Foot and Trail Orienteering, while the Mountain-Bike World Championships will return from exciting exposure

Hugh Cameron – Senior Vice-President International Orienteering Federation

in Australia in 2004 to another highly contested competition in Slovakia in 2005.

Many await the announcement of the nature of a new elite event program to be introduced in 2007. The Foot Orienteering Commission is developing the format and the calendar will be published by the end of this year. Other current priorities of the IOF include increasing the number of professional staff with a view to providing further support for the volunteer organization, the development of the arena production concept seen at the 2004 World Championships and an emphasis on development projects throughout the world.

And Australia and the international scene today ?

Orienteering Australia has always been represented at the Presidents’ Conference. OA has a significant presence on the Commissions and Council of the IOF. Mike Dowling, OA Director High Performance, is a member of the Foot-O commission, Blake Gordon, Chair OA MTB-O Committee is a member of the IOF MTB-O Commission, David Hogg the Environment Commission, Barry McCrae the Rules Commission, John Brammall the Development and Policy Commission and Duncan Sullivan is a member of the IOF Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee. Hugh Cameron is Senior Vice President of the IOF.

When the International Masters Games Association awarded the 2009 World Masters Games to Sydney the IOF asked Orienteering Australia to organise the World Masters Orienteering Championships as part of those World Masters Games. The staging of the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Dubbo, New South Wales, in 2007 and the World Masters in 2009 will contribute significantly to the realisation of IOF objectives – events attractive to the public, media and external partners, recognition in the international sports world and development in a global context.