The Australian Orienteers – December 2005

Bronze for Adrian Jackson at 2005 World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships

w w w. o r i e n t e e r i n g . a s n . a u President: Bob McCreddin Director (Administration): Dave Lotty, PO Box 740 Glebe NSW 2037. Ph.‑(02) 9660 2067‑(w), (02) 9569 2380 (h) orienteering@sydney.net Director (Finance): Kathy Liley, 83 Kenmare St., Watsonia VIC 3087 Ph. (03) 9432 4023 Director (Development): Bob Mouatt, PO Box W49 Wanniassa ACT 2903 Ph. (02) 6231 2463 Director (Technical): Andy Hogg, 23 Aston Crescent Cook ACT 2614 Ph. (02) 6251 9777 Director (High Performance): Mike Dowling, 17 High Street Bellerive TAS 7018 Ph. (03) 6244 7173 Manager (Coaching Programs): Neville Bleakley, 30 Gledden Street Chifley ACT 2606 Ph. (02) 6207 3723 Badge Applications: John Oliver, 68 Amaroo Street Wagga‑Wagga NSW 2650

STATE ASSOCIATIONS Queensland OA: PO Box 114 Spring Hill QLD 4004 Secretary: Robin Spriggs Ph.‑(07) 3369 0880 (h) qoa@qoa.asn.au OA NSW: PO Box 740, Glebe NSW 2037 Secretary: Dave Lotty Ph.‑(02) 9660 2067 (w), 9569 2380 (h) orienteering@sydney.net Orienteering ACT: PO Box 402, Jamison Centre ACT 2614. Office - John Suominen ph (02) 6251 3885 actoa@iimetro.com.au Victorian OA: 332 Banyule Rd, Viewbank VIC 3084 Secretary: Warwick Williams Ph. (03) 9459 0853 voa@netspace.net.au OA South Australia: State Association House, 73 Wakefield Street Adelaide SA 5000. Secretary: Phil Stoeckel OA Western Australia: PO Box 234 Subiaco WA 6904 Secretary: Cath Chalmers Ph.‑(08) 9380 4049 (h) catheoin@ozemail.com.au Orienteering Tasmania Inc.: PO Box 339, Sandy Bay, TAS 7005 Secretary: Warwick Moore Ph.‑(03) 6248 6405 secretary.oti@trump.net.au Top End Orienteers (Northern Territory): PO Box 39152 Winnellie NT 0821 Secretary: Susi Bertei Ph.‑(08) 8981 5841

CONTENTS ISSN 0818-6510 Issue 4/05 (no. 140) DECEMBER 2005

The national magazine of Orienteering Australia Inc. ABN 77 406 995 497 Published four times a year: First day of March, June, September, December. Print Post Approved PP 236080/00011 Editor: Michael Hubbert, P.O. Box 165, Warrandyte, Victoria 3113 mikehubbert@ozemail.com.au Phone/fax (03) 9844 4878 Magazine Design & Assembly: Peter Cusworth, 8 View Street, Avonsleigh, Vic. 3782. Ph. (03) 5968 5254 cusworth@netspace.net.au Magazine Treasurer: Kathy Liley Printer: Priden Printing Services, 21 Century Drive, Braeside, Vic. 3195 Next edition: Cover date: 1 March 2006 Contribution deadlines: 13 January. Time-sensitive material – 20 January.

Deadline dates for contributions are the latest we can accept copy.

Publication is normally planned for the 1st of March, June, September & December. Copies are dispatched in bulk to State associations in the week prior to that date.

Regular Contributors: Badge Awards: John Oliver; Coaching/Training: Nev Bleakley; Competition: Blair Trewin; High Performance: Mike Dowling; MTBO: Blake Gordon; Official News: Dave Lotty; Running the Business: Bob Mouatt; Ski-O: Ian Baker; Nutrition: Gillian Woodward; Training: Steve Bird; Psychology: Jason McCrae.

Contributions are welcome, either directly or via State editorial contacts.

Prior consultation is suggested before preparing major contributions.

Guidelines for Contributors are available from the editor or from state contacts.

State Editorial Contacts Qld. – Liz Bourne 07 4683 6374 (h) batmaps@halenet.com.au NSW – Ken Sinclair 02 9639 9675 sicad@ozemail.com.au ACT – Matthew Purcell 02 6231 2121 mattpurc@webone.com.au Vic. – SA – Claire Davill 08 8226 4381 (w) davill.claire@saugov.sa.gov.au WA – Cath Chalmers 08 9380 4049 catheoin@ozemail.com.au Tas. – Mary Hawthorne 03 6243 8616 (h) editor.oti@trump.net.au Subscriptions: State Association members via State Associations. Contact relevant Association Secretary for details. Other subscribers: Write to The Australian Orienteer, PO‑Box 165, Warrandyte, Vic. 3113. Within Australia: $36 inc GST. Overseas: Asia/Pacific (inc. NZ) $40, Rest of World $45.

Delivery is airmail, there is no seamail option. Please send payment in Australian dollars by bank draft or international postal order, or pay direct

by Visa or Mastercard. Quote full card number and expiry date.

Subscription renewals (direct subscriptions only). The number in the top right-hand corner of the address label indicates the final issue in your current subscription.

Opinions expressed in The Australian Orienteer are not necessarily those of Orienteering Australia.

2 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

FROM THE PRESIDENT....................... 5 L E T T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 N E W S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 S TAT E C H A M P S R O U N D - U P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 H A N N Y ’ S W O C R O U T E .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 A U S S I E S A T M T B - O W O C .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7 AU S T C H A M P S C A R N I VA L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0 COACHING...................................... 27 G R E A T L E G S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8 SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY...................... 29 H I G H P E R F O R M A N C E R E P O R T.. . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 T O P E V E N T S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 GRANT BLUETT INTERVIEW................ 33 2006 AUS CHAMPS........................... 34 N AT I O N A L O L E A G U E.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 6 A S I A - PA C I F I C R A D I - O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 8 MTB-O .......................................... 40 TRAINING....................................... 42 N U T R I T I O N – Fluids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3 RUNNING THE BUSINESS................... 46

Front Cover: Adrian Jackson photographed by Paul Darvoldelsky during the Czech World Ranking Event (which he won) before the World Champs this year. Paul said that Adrian was one of only two riders who managed to ride down into the creek and up the steep and rough embankment on the other side.

EDITORIAL

Mike Hubbert, Editor

Well done, Aussie riders!

public image of Orienteering and on achieving Olympics status, the IOF appears singularly inept at marketing our sport.

NZOF President, Rob Crawford, has questioned the way this Olympics push is being managed (see p 11). There’s a lot of merit in his call for more consideration for the needs of smaller Onations. Let’s hope that the IOF listens and takes heed.

CONGRATULATIONS to our Mountain Bike Orienteers who have again shown that they can match it with the best in the world.

Adrian Jackson’s bronze medal at the World Championships in Slovakia was the best of several podium places achieved by our Team. And Aussie riders feature prominently in the IOF World Rankings (see p 47).

Now let’s turn to how our fabulous sport is marketed by the IOF, our peak organization. Fans of Spike Milligan will remember “Foot-O, the Wonder Boot Exploder”. Clearly, the IOF has never heard of Spike. If they had they would have chosen a better name to describe the major discipline of our sport. And what about the event descriptors used within each discipline?

“Sprint” is OK. Long-distance and Middle-distance are terms which accurately describe the events but are otherwise totally uninspiring. Where is the “grab your attention” factor in those terms?

For a group which claims to be fully focused on improving the

Good Navigating Mike Hubbert

Next issue 1 March 2006

Contributions

deadlines:

Time-sensitive ................. 20 January All other contributions..... 13 January

Orienteering is a Family Sport Peter Yeates (VIC) THIS popular motto has been decorating Orienteer’s vehicles for many years but has taken on a new meaning in Melbourne. We always knew that we Orienteers looked out for one another but recent events have convinced me that we do more than that.

In past years Mark Korvin (DR-V) was a regular Park & Street orienteer and as regular in the bush as a man with a wife and two small boys could manage.

Devastation struck the family in 2002 when Mark’s wife Tracey was diagnosed with cancer and, after a terrible ordeal, succumbed to the disease in April 2003.

Mark struggled to raise his two boys, Lachlan and Hamish, alone and only in recent months has been able to resume Mark, Hamish and Lachlan – off on a well-deserved holiday. Photo: Erica Bradshaw some Orienteering as his boys grew older. him with a certificate entitling him to three return airfares, six Further devastation struck earlier this year when his eldest son nights accommodation and car hire, and told him to go home and Lachlan was diagnosed with the same terrible disease. Lachlan has pack. Lachlan receives his last chemo treatment in early November been undergoing massive chemo and radiation treatment in the and then they will be off. hope of beating the beast and hopes remain high.

The President and Committee of Dandenong Ranges Orienteering In June this year the family came to an event at Westgate Park Club wish to publicly thank those members of the Bayside on a fine Melbourne winter day and we were moved at the sight Kangaroos, Yarra Valley, Nillumbik Emus, Melbourne Forest Racers, of “poor thin old Lachie” trying to shelter from the biting wind.

ARDF and Tuckonie Orienteering Clubs and the participants of Fellow club members decided it was time for the family to have a Bush and Park & Street Orienteering for their generous donations “bit of a treat”. The Club decided to put in a bit of money and we and for reminding us that we may be competitive in the bush and thought we would “rattle a tin” at the next couple of events and in the park but that we are Family and we look after our own. raise a few hundred dollars.

We were promptly staggered by the response and in two weeks Ed: Mark has requested that I pass on his deepest thanks to the local these wonderful people had donated over $1600, many to a family O-community for their wonderful gesture. that they barely knew. I asked one generous donor how this could be so and his simple reply was, “because he is one of us and this could happen to any of us.”

A few weeks later, with the conniving of a neighbor and friend we managed to get Mark along to the Maxi 3-Hour event to surprise DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 3

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Bob McCreddin, President, Orienteering Australia

FROM the time that I first agreed to become an amateur administrator within Orienteering, I have been struck by the tension that exists as to the balance between Orienteering as a recreation and Orienteering as a sport. There are even those who want to see decision making within Orienteering made solely on the basis of it being a sport or solely on the basis of it being a recreation.

Personally, I enthusiastically belong to both groups. I live for the next event; the physical and mental challenge, the terrain, the company of the recreation. But philosophically and as an administrator, I also strongly support the sport of orienteering and its sports men and women, at the state level, nationally and internationally. Orienteering just has to be both a sport and a recreation – as difficult as this may be for decision makers and the preferences of some orienteers.

It has been interesting to observe the impacts at the local level of the recommendations of the International Orienteering Federation to bolster Orienteering as a sport with popular appeal.

The changes to event organization being adopted at local events in line with the Liebnitz Convention are not being met with enthusiasm in some quarters, which prefer to retain the traditional approaches. However, it is interesting to note that even some of the elites orienteers themselves are not in agreement with the latest experiment of the IOF, Micro-O. When I first attended meetings of the Council of Orienteering Australia, there existed some tensions over the respective state and national roles with respect to high performance and development.

This tension appears to have eased as Orienteering Australia has found roles for itself that do not impinge on the traditional roles of the state associations. With the loss of government funds for development activity at the national level, there will be a danger that Orienteering Australia will serve the sporting component of Orienteering with the recreational component being left to the state associations. It will be important for Orienteering Australia to retain a strong involvement in the development of both the sport and the recreation across Australia.

In recent years, Orienteering Australia has committed increased focus and funding to the high performance and competitive aspects of Orienteering. The National Orienteering League, the Junior National Orienteering League and the links with New Zealand have been positive moves for the sport, also adding new dimensions to major events and carnivals. Orienteering Australia has added support for elite mountain bike orienteers to the high level of support that it has been providing for elite foot orienteers. There are many activities and programs operating in the background of the administration of Orienteering that seek to provide for the nurturing and on-going support of elite orienteers individually and through team membership.

Three orienteers, who have each contributed significantly to the expansion and the success of the high performance program specifically, and to Orienteering in general, leave national roles during the last quarter of this year. Each will be missed. Jason McCrae, Manager, High Performance, Neville Bleakley, Manager, Coaching and Officiating, and Bob Mouatt, Manager, Media and Development, have each made outstanding contributions in these roles in so many ways. Gentlemen, we all thank you.

Keep spiking those controls!

Bob McCreddin

Support our sponsors and support your sport

VICTORINOX AWARD Orienteering Victoria president, Blair Trewin, is a tireless correspondent for The Australian Orienteer. His detailed analyses of most major events held in the country successfully turn time trials and split times into race commentary which could bring readers to the edge of their seats.

Blair is a worthy recipient of the Victorinox Award and we look forward to publishing many more of his gripping event reports. He receives a Victorinox Voyager with 20 tools and features including a watch/alarm/timer; retail value $109.95

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 5

NEWS

Grant Bluett Wins ASC Scholarship GRANT Bluett has accepted an offer of study from the Australian Sports Commission.

He will study part-time on the Graduate Certificate in Applied Science (Sports Coaching) offered by the University of Queensland via the world wide web and attendance tutorial blocks at the AIS. The total costs of tuition, including tutorials, are approx $3,500. All costs will be paid by the ASC. The ASC will arrange further tutorial assistance too, if such is needed.

As Head Coach of the ACT Academy of Sport orienteering program, Grant also has $500 at his disposal to spend on his personal development.

It’s a great start to Grant’s coaching career in Australia.

Neville Bleakley

BJ to run for Britain DAVID Brickhill-Jones (BJ) has announced his intention to compete as a British orienteer from 2006. BJ has been living in Scandinavia for several years, and has shown great potential, particularly in sprint races, winning a silver medal in the UK round of the World Cup this year. In making his announcement, BJ said: I wish to announce that from January 1st 2006 I will no longer be available to compete for Orienteering Australia. I have dual nationality with Australia and Great Britain and have decided from 2006 onwards that I will compete as a British orienteer. This decision is based on my personal circumstances, being based permanently in Europe, and the support available to me from British Orienteering to support me in my goal of becoming World Champion.

I recognise the huge amount of support which Orienteering Australia has given me, and the major role they have played in my development as an elite orienteer, which has made this decision extraordinarily difficult. While I will be competing for Great Britain, Australia is still my home, and I intend to put time and energy back into repaying Orienteering Australia for the support they have given me, starting by volunteering to help at the National Junior Training Camp in January.

BJ Australia’s best performer in 2005 World Cup IN his last series of races for Australia before moving across to run for Great Britain in 2006, David Brickhill-Jones was Australia’s leading performer in the 2005 World Cup pointscore. He set himself up for a good result with a historic second place in the sprint event in Britain in May, but got enough points in the later events to finish in 23rd position overall.

With Australia only having a limited involvement in the two non-World Championship World Cup rounds, the only other Australian in the top 50 was Hanny Allston, whose performances in Japan were enough for 42nd. In the relay pointscore, the Australian men were 16th and the women 13th. Four Australian men ran in the final rounds in Italy, with the best performances being a 24th (middle) and 15th (sprint)

by Brickhill-Jones; Julian Dent and Eric Morris also made finals.

In a clash of two World Champions, Andrei Khramov (Russia) just edged out Thierry Gueorgiou (France) by seven points, whilst Simone Niggli (Switzerland) was an easy winner over her compatriot Vroni König-Salmi. Switzerland also took out the women’s relay, whilst France just edged out the Norwegian men.

Blair Trewin

Hanny Allston to have Surgery DURING the Long-distance qualification race at WOC2005 in Japan Hanny felt something go wrong with her ankle.

Though she didn’t know it at the time she had ruptured the anterior tabofibular ligament in her right ankle.

Hanny went on to finish 6th in the WOC Long-distance final and later won the W21E Australian Championship in Tasmania. All on an ankle requiring surgery.

1086 Competitors at WMOC’05 HELD in Canada last July, WMOC”05 had a large number of Scandinavian entrants. Some 50% of all those who entered were over the age of 60 and the largest age classes were M60 (~120 entrants) and W60 (~70 entrants).

(reproduced from the Orienteering Australia web site). See interview with OA Manager-High Performance on Page 31.

Those Australians associated with the running of WMOC’02 in Victoria will readily relate to some of the problems encountered by WMOC’05 organisers in their dealings with the Masters games organization. Event Manager Geraint Edmunds commented, “We had a great deal of problems to establish cooperation within the Games. Their database didn’t work, their volunteers didn’t show up, etc. Finally we preferred to rely on our own people.”

Lifetime Most Courses Tally

Red Roos (ACT) turns 30

DAVE Lotty (NSW) and Mike Hubbert (VIC) are locked in an epic struggle at the top of the Most Courses Tally. At time of publication Mike had just inched ahead with 2075 courses completed since he commenced Orienteering in 1969, whilst Dave was close behind with 2068 courses since 1971. Former AO editor, Ian Baker, had completed 1903 courses since his first event in 1970.

OCTOBER 2005 saw the 30th birthday for the Red Roos club in ACT. John Walker had been a Red Kangaroo in Victoria and when he moved to Canberra he formed the Red Roos.

In what became something of a tradition, when another Red Kangaroo, Larry Sykes, moved back to New Zealand he formed the Red Kiwis. Congratulations to the Red Roos for reaching that milestone.

I have been very proud to represent Australia and wish to sincerely thank everybody from Orienteering Australia who have assisted me in the past.

BJ’s final races for Australia were the Park World Tour held in China in November.

6 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

NEWS

WOC2006 – Denmark To MicrO or not to MicrO – that is the question.

IN an attempt to create wider recognition for the World Championships and to increase media coverage, the WOC2006 organisers proposed to include MicrO in the Middle-distance Championships. The IOF agreed to the proposal but imposed several stringent milestones which had to be achieved.

One of these milestones was that a secure contract for TV coverage be signed by the end of September ’05 (later extended to mid-October). Although negotiations had reached an advanced stage no contract had been signed by the due date so the WOC2006 organisers withdrew their proposal.

The IOF is now expressing regret that MicrO will not be included in WOC2006.

Grey O-mads DUBBING themselves the Grey O-mads, after a particularly foul weather day, a small group wove its way around five Tasmanian orienteering events, under the influence of good Tasmanian food and wine.

The tour followed in the wake of the Australian Championships at St Helens, and by all accounts the group from ACT, NSW, Victoria and Queensland enjoyed a memorable week of Orienteering on offer on a wide variety of terrains from “St Helens to St Clair”, the east and west coasts and the Midlands, as well as indulging in a range of culinary delights.

Award to Jenny & John Sheahan THE VOA Annual Award for Services to Orienteering was presented to Jenny & John Sheahan of Bayside Kangaroos

by VOA president, Blair Trewin. The Sheahans have been tireless workers over many years in promoting Orienteering in Victoria, especially of the Park & Street-O variety, and this recognition of their efforts is a timely reward.

The tour was the initiative of Valerie and John Brammall, supported by Orienteering Tasmania, with the aim of providing low key event organisation, challenging courses and a range of terrain experiences, together with low cost accommodation and an emphasis on Tasmanian produce and experiences.

Meals featured fine dining at Angasi at Binnalong Bay near St Helens, plus high quality hotel meals at the Man O’Ross at Ross and the Bronte Highland Village. Pre-dinner drinks and nibbles were totally Tasmanian and provided by local supplier Findocs at St Helens.

Control placement and collection was shared by different participants each day with the minimum of effort required, leaving plenty of time for sightseeing and the inevitable cafe and bakery visits between venues.

The format appears to have been very successful so watch out for further Grey O-mads tours in the future.

John Brammall

Chinese Recruits ORIENTEERING may not be on the 2008 Beijing Olympics program but the Chinese national team is busy recruiting top athletes to their Orienteering Squad. 20-year-old Mingyue Zhu is a top athlete with just two years Orienteering experience.

In her fifteenth-ever event, the Middle-distance race at WOC2005 in Japan, she became the first Chinese orienteer to qualify for a World Championships final.

Compatriot Li Ji is a 10,000metres runner who finished 7th in that event at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and has run 2hr 32min for the marathon. She competed in the Sprint at WOC2005 but did not make the final. She, too, has only two years Orienteering experience.

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 7

THE THOUGHT SPORT

Did I punch that last Control?

In addition, SPORTident has meant that courses often involve loops, so the chance is increased of misreading where you are.

Ian Baker, Bayside Kangaroos, VIC.

Pending the introduction of an updated electronic stick with a visual display to show the leg number, there is something we can do to help prevent this mistake.

HAVE you ever finished your course and then been flabbergasted to discover that somehow or other you’ve missed one or more controls and so you get the dreaded DNF? This happened to me earlier this year at The Balt Camp in Victoria, when I trotted blithely past number four and did not realise my lapse until I downloaded my SPORTident stick at the Finish.

And of course two members of the Australian team at WOC this year in Japan were DNF’d for omitting controls.

The introduction of SPORTident electronic punching has made this all too easy to do, since there is no visual record of what leg of the course you are on; with a punchcard you can just check the pin-marks in the numbered squares.

Feelmax® Toe Socks Feelmax® Toe Socks are the most comfortable socks in the world. Designed in Finland and sold in 16 countries, they are now available in Australia.

Why toe socks?

Toe socks are designed to fit the foot’s natural shape, eliminating the extra material around the toes that tends to bunch and rub against the skin, causing irritation. Blisters are amongst the most common sports injuries experienced by runners and walkers and are almost always caused by friction and rubbing against socks and shoes. Combined with excessive moisture from perspiration, this friction increases the likelihood of blister formation.

Feelmax® Toe Socks use DuPont Coolmax® fibres. When the foot perspires Coolmax® fibres wick moisture away from the skin to the outer layers of the fabric where it can evaporate. Toe Socks with Coolmax® fibres dry up to four times faster than regular cotton sports socks.

And they look cool too!

Now available at Paddy Pallin stores and David Jones.

For more information check out www.feelmax.com.au Contact: Hazel Kotro Kat K Australia PO Box 51 Magill SA 5072 Mobile: 0400 878 071 8 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Your digital watch Many orienteers still have a Casio digital watch with stop watch/lap function. This shows lap (leg) number, lap time since last control and total time since the start.

So when you punch the control with your SPORTident stick, make a habit of also pressing the watch to update the record of your progress along the course.

Another cross-check is of course to keep tabs on which control you’ve reached on your description (‘clue’) sheet. You should always look at it anyway as you approach the control marker to check the control number code to be sure you’ve got the right one.

Xmas gifts for Orienteers orienteering gear makes a much appreciated gift for Christmas for the orienteer in your life. Here are a few ideas.

SILVA K120 Elastic Polyamide mesh with Kevlar reinforcement. the latest “shoe-within-a-shoe” design. Unbelievable comfort. $179

SILVA K100 Only 300g. Unique Scholler Keprotec uppers. Great strength and elasticity. Reinforced arch to reduce pronation. $149

SILVA ‘Eclipse’ running tops in lightweight Swedish polyamide. Airy, durable, negligible water absorption, quick drying. Blue/white or black/white/yellow. S, M, L, XL. $47.75

SILVA 6 Jet Spectra with the super fast settling and stable fluro broad Jet needle colour-coded ring. LH or RH models. $133

SILVA K80 Super wide last. Durable, waterrepellent, light weight. Reinforced arch and heel for excellent stability and comfort. $119

SILVA K40 Lightweight shoe with rubber studs but no metal cleats. Extremely lightweight. A tough shoe for beginners. $89

SILVA 5 Jet baseplate model with interchangeable map scales and fast Jet needle.

‘Comfort-fit’ curved back end. $133 SILVA ‘Navigator’ trousers in same Swedish material as tops. Black or royal blue. $42.75

AVAILABLE FROM:

the following O-shops and Orienteering Service of Australia 44 Alexandra Pde., Clifton Hill, Vic 3068 Tel (03) 9489 9766

TEAM ‘Super’ gaiters with padded shin protectors. Lightweight and washable. Blue or black. Various sizes. $49.95

NSW - Peter Shepherd 9525 3703 ACT - Anthony Scott 6251 0303 VIC - Kevin Maloney 9544 4469 WA - Andrew Martin 0419 900 233 TAS - Mike Dowling 6244 7173

SILVA 1S Jet. As 5 Jet, but with a large magnifying lens for enlarging fine map detail. $133

COMPETITION

STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS ROUNDUP Blair Trewin reports on recent State Championship events.

Queensland - Flagstone West, 27-28 August Eric Morris and Wendy Read got the spring season off to a successful start with wins in the Queensland Championships. Morris, one of the few interstate visitors, took a narrow lead over Lorenzo Calabro on the short first day. There was a real contest for most of the second day, as Calabro took a narrow lead early and held it through most of the first half. Morris got back on top after that, but the issue was not finally settled until he pulled away over the last 2km.

Victoria - Barambogie North, 11 September After 18 years of trying, Blair Trewin broke through to win his home state’s M21 title for the first time in his best result for several years. It was a close and fluctuating contest with Bruce Arthur for most of the way, once early leader Kerrin Rattray had dropped out, but the minute gained on a long climb at the start of the second loop proved decisive. Rune Olsen was slower than his normal self but still managed to hold third.

Danielle Winslow backed up from her win the previous weekend to again score comfortably, six minutes ahead of the field. Behind that there was a great contest with four within 92 seconds. Emma Prime was an unexpected winner last year. She couldn’t quite repeat it this year but still ran a solid second, whilst another former JWOC representative who went unsighted for some years, Kirsten Fairfax, completed the placings in her first major elite race for some years.

Read set up her win with a twoand-a-half minute lead on the first Blair Trewin won his home state’s M21 title for the first time this year. day. The second day proved to be a fluctuating contest with big time swings on several legs. Julia Davies had an excellent first half and led Read by seven minutes WA - Umuna, 17-18 September on the day – and five overall – with four controls to go, but An excellent W21 race was the highlight of the WA significant time losses on two of them let Read back into Championships. In a meeting of multiple generations, only the contest and she held on by 38 seconds overall. Ainsley five minutes covered the top six on the first day with Cath Cavanagh was never far away, but had to settle for a close Chalmers holding a narrow lead, but Erin Post produced third. the goods on the second day and ended up three minutes

NSW - Bigga, 3-4 September NSW, for the first time, ran their Middle-distance Championships on the Saturday, followed by the Longdistance on the Sunday. The elite winners were the same in both races. Eric Morris continued his string of wins with a narrow victory on Saturday followed by a more substantial one on Sunday, whilst Danielle Winslow did the same.

On a day which had more green than most were expecting, Morris took a lead through the early controls and held it the rest of the way, winning by about a minute. His closest challenger was Ben Rattray, running into some good lateseason form, with Rob Preston in third place. Sunday had a similar, but not identical, look. This time Morris pulled away steadily through a long, tough race to finish five minutes clear, Preston was second, and a different Rattray – Kerrin this time – completed the minor placings.

W21 was a very close affair on Saturday. Winslow looked as if she might have lost her chance with a three-minute mistake at 14, but was able to recover to get across the line by 11 seconds from Nicki Taws. Briohny Davey, in the first of what would be a series of good races through the spring, was a close third, whilst early leader Jenni Adams crashed out with a 16-minute mistake at 11. On Sunday, Winslow was never seriously challenged and emerged with almost five minutes in hand, with Taws again second, and Adams recovering from her Saturday misadventure to finish third.

10 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

ahead of the field. Anthea Feaver just held off Rachel West for second, Chalmers was a close fourth, and another performance to note for future reference was the close fifth of first-year W18 Sarah Dunnage.

M21 was more predictable. Craig Dufty took a four-minute lead over John Toomey on the first day, and trebled it on the second. Rhys Challen looked as if he could provide a challenge to the usual suspects with a third place on the first day, but he failed to finish the second, leaving Terry Farrell to end up in third place.

ACT - Ballinafad Creek, 18 September Eric Morris won his third State Championship in four weeks with a very impressive run as ACT orienteering returned to the Captains Flat area for the first time since the early 1990’s.

The placings were the same as they had been at Bigga two weeks previously, but this time Morris’s margin was even more impressive, five-and-a-half minutes clear of Rob Preston on a shorter course than that of the NSW Championships. As he did at Bigga, Preston just saw off Kerrin Rattray for second place.

In what turned out to be her only run of the championship season, Jo Allison had a comfortable win in a small but high-standard W21 field. She was a surprisingly large seven minutes ahead of fellow WOC team member Tracy Bluett, whilst Nicki Taws completed the placings.

OPINION

THE GROWING PAINS OF BECOMING A GLOBAL SPORT International decision-makers must quickly learn to assess issues on a global basis, or run the risk of damaging the sport’s long-term prospects, argues Rob Crawford*

P

OLITICIANS, including sporting politicians, must always guard against the natural temptation of preserving selfinterest at the expense of unity. The latest decision by the IOF to include MicroO in next year’s WOC has motivated me to write the following article. (Ed – IOF decision now reversed – see NEWS) Allow me to indulge in the sharing of personal experience. Those who competed at a World Cup race in Leuk, Switzerland in 1996 will never forget the day. A sudden thunderstorm struck during the men’s mass-start race, eventually washing away a temporary bridge over a ravine used to get from the last control to the finish. The last third of the men’s field, including myself, was stopped at the last control and directed to the finish using a road bridge 1km away.

Some hours later, the official results were published and the last third of the field could not be ranked. A little puzzled, a visit to the event centre to find out why resulted in a lively discussion with the IOF Controller. I can still clearly remember being told by this person that, because the top 45 could be ranked (for World Cup points), the rest of the results “did not matter”.

Puzzlement quickly turned into rage, as I tried (and failed) to politely point out that I had not given up my employment, and spent thousands of dollars of my own money, to come and participate in an international race to be told that my result “did not matter”. My point was lost on him.

At times, I wonder whether such arrogance still exists in the orienteering world. Some readers may not care, but there is one word to explain why you should – “Olympics”. Orienteering has the Olympic dream. Personally I think the dream is too far away, and I will be very surprised if this happens in my lifetime. If it does, I will be very happy to be wrong, and eat my slice of “humble pie”.

Many decisions are based around the Olympic dream. We must make our sport more visible, attract sponsors and media, to move our sport closer to the dream. Annual world championships, professional arena production, and now Micr-O are all needed for this “progress”. I can see, and understand, this. But do the decisionmakers understand the cumulative effect that all these choices have on the less-developed orienteering nations?

Why is this so important? To answer, let me refer you to the IOC report that assessed our bid for Ski-orienteering to be included in the winter Olympics. They state: “concerns were expressed over the low participation in ski orienteering of countries outside Europe”. Have we learned the lesson this report gave us? International issues must be decided with more balance. It is not acceptable to continually make choices that benefit the strong orienteering nations which at the same time damages the ability of other nations to continue their own development. Another Olympic report published this year, relating to the evaluation of summer sports, listed 33 criteria that sports were evaluated on. It may come as a surprise, but it is not nearly enough just to have 75 affiliated nations and the sport on TV to become an Olympic sport. Under the heading of “universality”, here are some of the criteria sports were evaluated on:

• Results of World Championships • Number of affiliated national federations • Participation by national federations in World Championships • Participation by national federations in Junior World Championships Even the simplest analysis of this report can see that no matter if Orienteering has 100 affiliated nations; if only 40 countries are participating at World Championships and medals are won by the same 6 countries, the Olympic dream is no closer to reality.

Therefore the argument, in simple language, of “let us make the strong nations stronger and then worry about the rest” will not work.

You may find, in 20 or 30 years time, “the rest” may be in such a bad state of affairs that the years of neglect will not easily be reversed.

The major decision affecting countries such as my own is of course the move to annual world championships. That has been a bullet to our ability to develop a high performance programme.

I am sure our nation is not alone. Regular participation at World Championships is just as difficult now as when we commenced in 1976. The politicians will tell you that there were 37 nations at the recent WOC held in Japan. That may be true, but is only a simple analysis. Of more relevance is the number of nations competing in the relay, which indicates a significant presence at the event. In 2003: 37 men and 30 women; in 2004: 33 men and 24 women; in 2005: 27 men and 22 women. The alarm bells should be ringing.

Will the New Zealand women’s team, 9th in 2005, be at the start line in 2006? The answer is not 100% yes.

The move to annual world championships is not the only example. Last year for WOC, we had an athlete available for the relay only. Unfortunately, our Federation could not pay the entry fees and the athlete understandably refused to pay the full entry fee (because the entry fee is a “package fee”). The organisers would not accommodate our request for a reduced entry fee for the athlete.

Correspondence from the IOF stated, in part, “you will be happy to know that Council has decided to propose that the rules for all disciplines be harmonised with the new Ski-O Rules” (2 June 2004). Bulletin 2 for WOC 2006 has just been published and the entry fee is still a package fee; the rules have not changed.

Yes, this is only a small matter, but may I be excused for wondering how the IOF can make a major decision to include Micr-O in WOC in about 6 weeks, yet to change one line in the Competition Rules has taken more than 15 months (and counting)? Is this a symptom of the attitude first experienced in 1996?

The EPG report made the worthwhile suggestion that every 4 years the World Championships should be held outside of Europe.

This idea is not new; it has been suggested before. Yet even if I believe there is the willpower within the orienteering world to make this happen (which I don’t), has anyone stopped to think how the increasing demands on WOC organisers (professional arena production, maybe MicrO?) will affect this laudable aim?

This article should be viewed as an early warning. There will always be decisions on international issues where conflicts arise.

The key to managing such conflict is to achieve a balance. Too many decisions that benefit one section of the international orienteering community at the expense of another will divide, rather than unify, our sport. If Orienteering truly wishes to become a global sport and reach the Olympic stage, self-interest must be put aside, a greater effort made to understand the needs and aspirations of all affiliated members, and balanced decision-making that provides incentives for achievement by all, as opposed to a select few. *Rob Crawford is President of the New Zealand Orienteering Federation and an associate member of the IOF Foot-O Committee.

(Article first published in Orienteering Today 05/2005)

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 11

AUSSIES OVERSEAS

Reflection on the Long-distance final at the World Orienteering Championships Hanny Allston The blue line shows Hanny’s route – red shows where Gold medallist, Simone Niggli’s route was different to Hanny’s. Scale 1:15 000, 5m contours

I

LIE under my crunchy Japanesestyle doona on the floor. It is 22nd August - the day of the Long-distance final for the 2005 World Orienteering Championships. The wind chill factor in the room is huge. Not only is the air conditioner blowing air so cold that the windows have condensation dripping down them and the blue tarpaulins hanging from the ceiling are blowing back and forth across the room, but the reality of the day ahead is making my toes cold. As I lie here, listening to music and trying to relax, it hits me... I know exactly how I am going to run this race!

Begin slowly, taking only the safest route choices, 100% in control, careful and calmly till I am caught (because let’s face it, it is bound to happen). Then, I stick to the other competitor, running just behind them and only taking control when I identify their mistakes. I am not to be intimidated, and must trust my own judgment until the final few controls, when I put my blinkers on and run my own race. Although I laugh now, I truly believe it was a vision.

I arise into the heat and humidity, duck out for my routine pre-breakfast run then shower, breakfast and collect my gear. I travel with my parents out to the start, grateful that I am so familiar with the starting environment after our trip here in March, and marvel at the difference

12 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Hanny in 6th place on the podium with 5th placegetter, Paula Haapakoski (FIN) looking on. Photo: Bob Mouatt

JAPAN – WOC 2005 ... there is certainly no snow now! I am early so I just observe the other competitors and the surroundings. I am certainly not nervous, but in fact feeling just a little bit flat and sleepy. Before long, I am warming up with the ice-vest on, stretching, packing the bags and farewelling Kathy and Jim… I’m on my own now. I look at the cue words on the back of my hand – safe, calm, controlled.

LEG 6: Drinks control. I ignore Paula and turn my attention to this long leg. The most immediately apparent route to me is wide right.

I align my compass to the saddle above the playing fields then power the hill. Paula disappears.

I am on my own again and run as strongly up the gently inclining track as I can, using the large gravel track bend and the flat broad spur as my final attack points before the control. I take a gel and follow it down with four cups of water and an almighty amount tipped over me.

LEG 1: After making a large error on the first control at JWOC, Switzerland, in July I approach this control VERY cautiously. Despite the left track route looking wide, I know it is the best route for me as it provides fast running, little climb, and many large attack features along the way. In Japan the forest is very soft, and the hills deceptively steep, and this route actually gets me to the 1st control in 7th place.

LEG 7: Another deceptively difficult leg. Climbing slightly out of the control, I become aware of Paula again. I let her run past me and check my compass again. As she hesitates on the spur before the control, I check my compass and continue into the control. Our partnership is established.

LEG 2 & 3: There is nothing extraordinary about the next two legs. I spend my time planning each leg carefully before leaving the previous control, paying particular attention to the saddles between knolls, as these are my preferred attack point. I run relatively straight with no errors.

LEG 4: My first mistake comes on this leg when I underestimate the difficulty of the leg. After running along the ridge line, and checking off the two saddles and the extensive forestry trimming on my right, I try to contour round the large hill in front of me to another saddle, and find myself drifting onto a parallel ridge.

Luckily the alarm bells ring, I check my compass and continue unfazed. Before descending down the hill into the control, I stop and triple check my compass as entering a control from above is very dangerous, and if this is unrecognized can lead to large time losses.

LEG 5: This short leg drops me from 6th to 8th place. My route straight up the spur costs me 35 seconds. I first glimpse Paula Haapakoski (Finland) as she approaches the control from the creek gully below.

LEG 8: A grunt of a hill and a careful check of the compass gets Paula and I to control 8 safely in 3rd and 8th place respectively. I let her do the work whilst I look at the approaching long leg for the first time. I am feeling good so far.

LEG 9: The crunch time, and the decision is easy for me - Warren Key and I had guessed the leg almost exactly the night before and so I already had my decision made. I was going right.

And it seemed Paula was too!

Although we were only the 7th and 9th fastest runners on the leg, my choice suited me well as I preserved energy which would be crucial to my performance later in the race. The route provided safe, fast running out along the ridge, spur and track. I take the initiative to leave the track just after the junction on the right hand side and whilst Paula initially stays high I take a lower, more direct route aiming for the long flat spur that will eventually lead straight into the control. I struggle to keep up with Paula as she flies down the hill into the control. I notice weakness in my ankle for the first time in the race.

LEG 10: Drinks control. A simple but grotty leg through thick terrain followed by a long pause at the drinks control! I take another gel.

LEG 11: This is the first time in the race that we see other competitors. Feeling great after the refreshment I power up the

rock gully after the Russian Tatiana Ryabkina. I force myself to pause at the top and Paula goes past me. As we head towards the spur in front of us, the visibility becomes reduced. I hesitate and begin heading a little lower before realizing that we are still a long way from the control. Paula and I correct ourselves, and as we do are suddenly caught by Simone Niggli (Switzerland) and Heli Jukkola (Finland). We get to the control in 5th, 8th, 1st, and 2nd places respectively.

LEG 12 & 13: I am unfazed by the others’ presence, but can feel myself tiring. The pace is lightning fast, so I try dropping to the back for a while to have a break both mentally and physically. I keep an eye on my compass. The green slows everyone down, and the girls become a little confused in the low visibility and intricate gully system before control 13. I catch up just as they are heading into the control, and now feel much more refreshed. I have caught up one more place over these two legs.

LEG 14: The deciding point of the race. Simone dashes off quickly to the left, choosing to follow the creek gully and then climb into the control. She is followed by two other girls. Heli, Paula and Tatiana choose to stay high, and run the ridge line all the way into the control. I hesitate. Which way should I go? My preferred route is to stay high as the running looks easier and there is almost no climb into the control. It also crosses my mind that there is no way I could maintain the pace of Simone even if I wanted to, and I am better working with Paula and Heli whose pace I can match. I hang on to the back as we fly down the hill, my ankle feeling very unsteady and sore. However, as we hit the hill at the bottom, the others hesitate and I lead the small group into the control.

LEG 15 & 16: As I run through the paddy fields the sun is incredibly intense and I begin to suffer from cramp through my quadriceps.

Luckily I remember the gel in my back pocket and just as I whipped it out Simone goes dashing past me - where did she come from?

This is the last time I see Simone or Heli in the race. As I gratefully gulp down water at the drinks control, I remember my vision

earlier in the day. The last loop of the race I am to be 100% in control of my own destiny. I put my blinkers on, and head off for the final loop. I am in 6th place.

LEG 17- FINISH: The last few legs are difficult, and I drop the pace back. I stumble up the last hill towards the second last control absolutely exhausted and look at the last leg – DANGER! I am basically walking now through the thick undergrowth. Fear rises in my chest, so I stop and look around. There in front of me is the last control. I punch and run.

I have never felt so exhausted after a race. I have very little precise memory of what happened after the race finished, except that it took me 3.5 hours to produce a 175ml sample of urine for the drug testers.

This race taught me so much. In Australia we never race - not in its truest sense. I feel very privileged to have had so many experienced athletes and coaches on the Australian team who prepared me to run this race the way I did. Like the other members of the team, I am also greatly privileged to have had the support of many Australian supporters in Japan, including my parents, Mike Dowling, Warren Key, Kathy Hogg, Julia Minty, Rob Plowright, and Paul & Tia Marsh.

Since returning home, I have had investigations into my right ankle, which I sprained during the Longdistance qualification in Japan.

The snap that I felt at the time was my anterior talofibular ligament rupturing. Although sore at the time it never once occurred to me that anything this serious had happened. It was certainly a steep drop from my high when I was informed that it requires surgery.

So once again, thanks to everyone for their support of the Australian Team’s efforts at the World Orienteering Championships. As I write this, the warm-up event for the Australian Orienteering Championships is underway at Lea Range, near Hobart, and I am sure it is the beginning of many more outstanding achievements from a very talented and passionate Orienteering nation, capping off a very memorable 2005 Orienteering season for us all.

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 13

JAPAN – WOC 2005

Simone’s Route The following analysis of Simone Niggli’s route choice has been consolidated from the Swiss OL magazine and Orienteering Today. Compare with Hanny Allston’s route on page 12.

Start-1 Niggli took the safe route to the first control along a path to the left. This paid off as all the runners who went direct lost time (Jukkola 12sec; König-Salmi 48sec). Emma Engstrand (Sweden) was fast to the first control and took 7sec from Niggli, but Niggli found no surprises in the forest and was able to plan her route to the first few controls.

3-6 Niggli’s strength in the Japanese terrain showed itself on the leg to control 4. Although they took the same route, Niggli was 17secs faster on this leg than second quickest Heli Jukkola (Finland). Running up to control 5 Niggli caught sight of Jukkola who had started two minutes ahead of her. “Great feedback”, she thought, “now I know I’m running quickly”.

8-9 On the way to control 6 she was able to decide about the long route choice from control 8 to 9. The left variant seemed too hilly while straight ahead seemed even worse – ‘pure horror’. She immediately decided on the right variant which seemed to be relatively easy running, mostly on paths. Even attacking control 9 seemed to be easiest from this direction. “I have the feeling that I have found a fast way,” she said.

“A great feeling! In the second part of the route I had to climb a tough steep uphill but again I felt really fit.”

At the start the runners decided to go east to the road. From the road onwards Niggli and Jukkola both decided to proceed first over a track and then straight across the terrain. König-Salmi ran much further on a track and then turned in and up through a saddle. This was a bad decision as she lost a further 41sec on the two leaders.

In the “crowning event”, the WOC Long-distance, Simone Niggli won the third of her four Gold medals in Japan. Heli Jukkola (Finland) took silver and Switzerland’s Vroni König-Salmi won Bronze.

13-16 Things got interesting for the two leaders on the leg to control 14. Niggli saw two possible routes and spontaneously decided to take the variant in the valley to the left. Jukkola, Hanny Allston and others chose a distinctly better direct route. Jukkola gained 44sec over Niggli on this leg but Niggli’s greater speed on the tracks to control 16 saw her close on Jukkola again.

16-Finish At the last drinks station Niggli took two cups to ensure she had ‘something in the tank’ for the last part of the course.

The controls in the last loop were not very difficult but she still forced herself to run completely focussed. In the long run-in she was anxiously wanting some sign about her current standing. When the coach gave her the ‘thumbs-up’ it confirmed her very good feeling about the race. When she crossed the finish line her happiness was “enormous”. Victory in her favourite discipline had been confirmed.

14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Swedish Stars dimmed REIGNING World Longdistance Champion, Karolina A Hojsgaard (SWE), blew her defence of the title at the first control where she took 13:07 to reach it compared with 4:20

by Hanny Allston and 4:05

by Simone Niggli. Hojsgaard started off well choosing to run the track to the left taken by many other runners, but then her navigation went terribly awry. She never recovered from this mistake and eventually finished the course in 26th position, nearly 27min behind Niggli.

Sweden’s other rising star, Jenny Johansson, ran well to the first control, beating Niggli by 6sec. But then it all fell apart for her on the second leg where she got o-so-close to the control but began looking in the wrong gullies and eventually had to relocate from a nearby track. Her time for that leg was 9:05 compared with 2:35 for Hanny Allston and 2:22 for Simone Niggli.

Johansson finished in 19th place and nearly 19min behind Niggli.

JAPAN – WOC 2005

Women’s Long Distance Final name country time place S-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 6-7 7-8 8-9 9 - 10 10 - 11 11 - 12 12 - 13 13 - 14 14 - 15 15 - 16 16 - 17 17 - 18 18 - 19 19 - 20 20 - 21 21 - F

Simone Niggli Switzerland 1:13:23 1 4:05 2:22 1:24 3:52 4:09 8:16 2:13 1:34 11:34 2:04 4:48 4:08 1:21 6:40 1:23 2:42 2:12 1:00 1:12 2:56 1:24 2:04

4 2 7 1 4 1 4 1 1 4 2 1 4 11 1 1 5 6 6 5 1 2

Hanny Allston Australia 1:23:31 6 4:20 2:35 1:35 4:39 4:59 10:02 2:37 1:40 13:46 2:05 5:54 4:37 1:17 5:55 1:36 3:07 2:33 1:15 1:41 3:24 1:43 2:11

7 6 16 8 21 13 16 4 9 5 12 7 3 1 6 11 18 23 19 18 14 10

Simone Niggli towered over the opposition.

Photo: Lucie Navarova

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 15

17 2005 WORLD MTB-O CHAMPS

Adrian’s Route to Bronze

16

2005 World Mountain Bike Orienteering Long-Distance Championship, Slovakia Map: Kozlinec. 5m contours Scale 1:15 000 (but reduced to 70% to fit our page) This map is a bit harder to interpret in black and white, but most of the gray shaded areas are either yellow “Open Land” or 50% yellow “Rough Open Land” (except for the green “built up area” in the northern tip).

15

Yellow “Open Land” is legal to ride on in MTB-O. All of the Slovakian World Champs maps had a lot of yellow and riders had to consider these areas when working out their routes.

13

14

12

1

9

8 3 2

10

6

11 time 1-31 2-32 3-33 1. Ruslan Gritsan 117.27 11.54/21 18.09/11 24.08/7 Russia 11.54/21 6.15/6 5.59/12 2. Viktor Korchagin 119.06 10.42/5 17.27/3 23.23/2 Russia 10.42/5 6.45/17 5.56/11 3. Adrian Jackson 119.10 10.14/1 18.34/15 24.28/12 Australia 10.14/1 8.20/31 5.54/9

4

7

4-34 27.57/9 3.49/21 26.58/3 3.35/6 27.56/8 3.28/5

16 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

5-35 32.03/7 4.06/22 31.10/3 4.12/28 31.44/4 3.48/9

6-36 37.27/7 5.24/17 35.54/2 4.44/2 36.59/3 5.15/12

7-37 42.02/5 4.35/8 40.27/2 4.33/6 41.25/3 4.26/4

8-38 46.33/5 4.31/16 45.01/2 4.34/18 45.47/3 4.22/4

9-39 52.35/4 6.02/3 51.14/2 6.13/5 51.34/3 5.47/1

10-40 58.06/3 5.31/7 57.05/2 5.51/26 58.33/5 6.59/51

11-41 12-42 61.55/3 73.44/3 3.49/4 11.49/2 61.02/2 73.02/2 3.57/8 12.00/4 62.20/4 75.54/5 3.47/2 13.34/29

13-43 14-44 15-45 16-46 17-100 86.34/3 99.47/1 107.23/1 113.24/1 117.03/1 117.27/1 12.50/3 13.13/2 7.36/6 6.01/4 3.39/6 0.24/5 86.00/2 100.01/2 107.40/2 114.23/2 118.40/2 119.06/2 12.58/5 14.01/11 7.39/7 6.43/17 4.17/27 0.26/26 88.25/4 101.14/3 109.26/3 115.15/3 118.46/3 119.10/3 12.31/2 12.49/1 8.12/13 5.49/3 3.31/1 0.24/5

5

2005 WORLD MTB-O CHAMPS The stand-out performance of the weekend was Adrian. He won both races, albeit with some small mistakes which he still wants to iron out of his racing. Alex wasn’t far behind and is also riding strongly. The recent arrivals, Mary, Anna, Carolyn and Dari all rode strongly, especially given they were still coming to terms with a new country and suffering from jet lag and the long trip to Europe and on to Zlaty Hory.

A Slovakian Diary The World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championship were held in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia in September 2005. Here is a collection of entries from the team’s web blog with input from Paul Darvodelsky, Anthony Darr and Adrian Jackson. Photos from Paul Darvodelsky.

The Long qualification race was held at the Slovakian ski resort, Sachticka.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2005

Czech World Ranking Event THE team came together officially on Friday 26th in Prague. With two huge vans, 10 people (including Kiwi friends) and 9 bikes things were set for the start of our 2005 WOC campaign. The first races were the Czech World Ranking Events (WREs) near the small town of Zlaty Hory, which means ‘gold mountain’. Yes. This was an old gold mining area and, despite the different forest, had many of the same features we are used to around Ballarat and Bendigo.

Once again we encountered what we call ‘Polish kilometres’.

The middle distance courses were given as 9 km and 8 km for the men and women respectively. With expected winning times of 30 minutes. Except that they had 600-700 metres of climb, so we were all pretty confident that times would be longer. As it turned out they were about 15-16 km with AJ riding 46 minutes and the women closer to one hour. The long courses on Sunday were posted as 17 and 12 km and were 25 and 18 km as recorded on the bikes. These courses too weren’t short of hills.

MIDDLE DISTANCE RESULTS Men 1. Adrian Jackson AUS 2. Ruslan Gritsan RUS 3. Martin Sevcik CZE 6. Alex Randall AUS 41. Anthony Darr AUS

46.25 46.59 47.50 50.42 60.43

CLASSIC DISTANCE RESULTS Men 1. Adrian Jackson AUS 87.455 2. Ruslan Gritsan RUS 87.57 3. Jaroslav Rygl CZE 89.42 5. Alex Randall AUS 91.22 25. Anthony Darr AUS 106.32

Women 1. Michaela Gigon 5. Anna Sheldon 7. Mary Fien 13. Carolyn Jackson

52.12 58.38 59.01 62.16

Women 1. Michaela Gigon 6. Mary Fien 10. Anna Sheldon 11. Carolyn Jackson

AUT AUS AUS AUS

AUT AUS AUS AUS

71.41 82.30 83.34 83.41

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2005

Middle, muddle, mechanicals THE weather for the middle distance race was another perfect Slovakian day. Unfortunately for the Aussies it was a day full of problems. Two great results from Anna (6th) and AJ (8th), but the little bit of luck which you need in any big race wasn’t with us today. Some of the team were probably wishing this was foot-o where you don’t have any gear for things to go wrong with!

Carolyn started the day with a very smooth, near perfect ride.

Waiting at the finish they managed to overlook her amongst the other supposed stars, many of whom she beat soundly. When she arrived in the finish she was in the top 10 with a very solid time of around 80 minutes. It seemed we were having a good start and all the team was calm and well prepared. But it didn’t stay like that, problems were lurking.

Mary was next out and very uncharacteristically made a few errors early in the race and never settled down properly. Then AJ got to the start and before his start time one of his pedals nearly fell apart. He rode the whole race with a pedal which was nearly falling off! Despite this he was first at about the two thirds mark with a 3 minute lead and only came unstuck a few checkpoints later in an area with some vague mapping which he couldn’t work out quickly. Despite this he recovered quickly and was briefly in first place when he finished. But the flying Finns, Mika Tervala and Jussi Makkila were stronger on the day, and then eventual gold and silver medal winners Ruslan Gritsan and Jaroslav Rygl snuck in with strong times.

Anna was always going to be our secret bomb. Few knew just how hard she’s worked over the last 6 months and how much she’d improved. And she didn’t disappoint. Like AJ she too was in the lead about two thirds of the way around the course and, like AJ, came unstuck on the same vague tracks. Fortunately, unlike AJ, she didn’t have any mechanical problems. Anna kept her head and rode strongly to the finish for a podium finish.

The troubles continued with Alex who had some badly worn bearings in his bike’s rear suspension. Parts arrived today, but too late for this morning’s race. He struggled on the first part of the course with this distraction and never got into a good rhythm to end up with “one of my worst races in recent times”.

The Aussie team in Slovakia: Mary Fien, Alex Randall, Adrian Jackson, Carolyn Jackson, Anna Sheldon. Front: Anthony Darr and Paul Darvoldelsky (team manager).

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 17

2005 WORLD MTB-O CHAMPS Dari had the unenviable task of being nearly last start. It was a long wait and he rode solidly through most of the course, but also encountered trouble with a part of the map where many riders came unstuck – an unmapped gate across the track made many people think beyond was out of bounds and the circuitous route ensuing cost a lot of time.

Overall, for what was a bit of a mini disaster we had pretty good results – two riders in the top 10. Everyone knows they can ride better and the team is pretty fired up for the remaining races.

WMTBOC MIDDLE DISTANCE Men 21 km, 750 m 1. Ruslan Gritsan RUS 2. Jaroslav Rygl CZE 3. Mika Tervala FIN 8. Adrian Jackson AUS 61. Alex Randall AUS 65. Anthony Darr AUS

67.02 68.02 68.51 70.29 84.38 85.50

Women 17 km, 500 m 1. Michaela Gigon 2. C. Schaffner-Räber 3. Ramune Arlauskiene 4. Marquita Gelderman 6. Anna Sheldon 21. Carolyn Jackson 29. Mary Fien

AUT SUI LIT NZ AUS AUS AUS

69.42 70.17 71.05 72.18 72.45 80.38 83.43

There was plenty of yellow on the world champs maps that had to be taken into consideration when planning your route. Here Carolyn makes her way through a recently mowed paddock.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 08, 2005

Long qualification race QUALIFICATION races are funny things. If you’re a strong rider, then they are a pretty cruisy rest day, and if you’re not, then you have to race hard. For our team it was a pretty cruisy day, especially for the girls where 60 of the 62 riders were to qualify. So that meant they pretty much only had to finish! So the qualifier was really a bit of a non-event and a fairly relaxed day for us.

The courses once again were mighty. The start was in a ski area and was pretty steep. I guess that should pretty much say it all. But to build the picture, the map had 10 metre contours. And it still looked steep! The organisers course profile confirmed what we already knew. This race was going to have lots of climbing. As it turned out quite a bit of it gratuitous.

The general topography was very steep with 300-400 metre height difference. The forest was used for timber and therefore had quite a well established network of forest roads. Dirt mostly and because they got quite a bit of traffic, they contoured around the hills. So the optimum route choice was often 5 times the straight line distance. Are you getting the idea?

Both men and women’s courses were quite long. The men’s heats won in about 100 minutes and the women’s in about 90 minutes. The interesting thing is that the winners, and higher place getters all cruised around at a pretty easy pace. The sort of pace where you keep a good speed, but don’t really push hard.

With the exception of Dari, all Aussies qualified very easily. We were shocked and disappointed to see that Dari came 22nd and missed out by two places. He made a poor route choice to the first check point and the nature of this area meant he lost over 5 minutes. Despite having some of the fastest splits on other legs it was too much to overcome and he just missed out.

18 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Bikes ready for the “Le Mans” relay start.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 09, 2005

The Relay – the Bronze that got away TODAY was a day that some will choose to forget. The Austrian and Australian womens teams were both disqualified as a result of a mispunched control.

The Austrian first leg rider mispunched a control early in the course. For the Aussies however things unfolded differently. Mary, then Carolyn, had excellent rides, keeping well in contention for a high position. Anna came through the spectator control with 5min of racing to go, in third place with the French rider only 30m behind. Over the last km the gap increased significantly and the result appeared sealed. After Anna lead the team across the line in the Bronze medal position, emotional celebrations were interrupted by the voice on the P.A. system announcing that the Australian team was disqualified. Needless to say they were shattered. Words cannot describe the impact on the Australian women.

All three women had very strong rides and should be proud of their efforts. There is a feeling of loss however that comes from being so close to another prized medal.

The men got off to a solid start, with Dari losing a small amount of time finishing just over 10min behind on the longer than expected course. Alex then had a very good ride on one of the longer splits, bringing the team into the top 10. Adrian also had a good ride, making up time, but no more places. Eventually the men finished in 7th spot, achieving a benchmark performance against some very strong teams.

WMTBOC RELAY Women 13.1 km, 415 m, 10c 1 Germany 158.52 2 Czech Republic 162.08 3 France 164.45 Men 18.8km, 540m, 12c 1 Finland 179.14 2 France 182.55 3 Switzerland 184.17 7 Australia 194.46

Mary Fien during the relay.

2005 WORLD MTB-O CHAMPS Adrian on a nicely mowed part of the Long final.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2005

Long distance final – Bronze for AJ THE long distance final was the last race in the programme. It was physically and psychologically very tough to have this scheduled after the relay, normally the last race of a world champs. The team also did a great job to get itself together and focussed after the disappointment of the women’s relay. Come Saturday morning at the start everyone was pretty calm and focussed. That is about as calm as one can be before a world champs final.

Once again the courses were very long and tough. The men’s race won in just under 2 hours, which is 10-20 minutes longer than recommended and the women’s in 94 minutes, similar over-long.

But given the level of fitness of the Aussies and the warm, humid day this was probably an advantage.

Carolyn was first out of the blocks for us and had one of those days where things just didn’t work. This started on the way to the first check point where a field marked as cultivated (and hence out of bounds) had been harvested and was now cut grass like all the yellow (and hence OK to ride on) surrounding. This confused many riders and the result was most chose just to ride straight through. Technically this probably meant that the whole field could be disqualified, but it was a poor piece of mapping and

course setting of which Carolyn went to great lengths to make sure she didn’t ride out of bounds and lost time and rhythm. From there it was too tough to get back into the race and after a fall later in the race retired, thankfully uninjured but disappointed.

Next was Mary. She’d bounced back and simply rode strongly all the way around the course, characteristically making very few errors and ended up bagging an excellent 15th place.

AJ showed a quiet, determined focus, as usual, and set out with good pace. At the first radio he was 2 minutes behind Viktor Korchagin from Russia, fastest at that time, but rode faster over the last part of the course to arrive at the last check point only seconds apart. As it turned out 4 seconds behind the silver medal and 1.40 behind gold. At first AJ was confused as to how he could have lost 2 minutes on an early leg over the other riders, but then noticed that there was a track obscured under the line between check points (see route to control 2 on page 16). The organisers had not broken lines or circles and AJ rode the long way around on this leg, nailed it, but lost a little over 2 minutes and the gold. It was unlucky and frustrating for AJ and a bad technical mistake by the organisers.

Alex had found good speed and rhythm the day before in the relay, having one of the fastest times on what was about the longest course split on the relay. Today he didn’t find the same rhythm and a few route choice errors pushed him out of the medals. Alex’s fitness and form has been great this season in Europe and it was an uncharacteristic ride for him. Having said that he still came 14th in the long final, which is a result few other Australian orienteers have achieved.

Last start by quite a way was Anna. That’s what you get for riding the qualification race so fast Anna! She too was focussed and over the past few days had showed all that she was one of the strongest riders in the field. She rode strongly, but made a few too many errors and then on the way from the 2nd last check point, overcooked a corner on the road had a very heavy fall, picked herself up and pushed on to the finish. Then spent a little bit of time in la la land in the first aid tent (thank you!). But she’s made of tough stuff and was soon back on her feet and getting ready with Mary for the banquet. And an excellent 8th place - and some good grazes for her efforts.

More photos on page 28

WMTBOC LONG RESULTS Men 39.8km 1155m 17c 1. Ruslan Gritsan RUS 2. Viktor Korchagin RUS 3. Adrian Jackson AUS 14. Alex Randall AUS

117.27 119.06 119.10 127.37

Women 27.8km 650m 10c 1. Paivi Tommola FIN 94.31 2. Antje Bornhak GER 95.14 3. Anke Dannowski GER 96.20 8. Anna Sheldon AUS 99.17 15. Mary Fien AUS 105.29 Carolyn Jackson AUS DNF Right: Adrian with the bronze medal and an extra prize of a big bag full of sports goodies.

Left: On the podium with the two Russians, Ruslan Gritsan and Viktor Korchagin.

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 19

AUS CHAMPS CARNIVAL

Tassie East Coast Escape

Grant Bluett (ACT) won M21E at the Highwayman’s Classic NOL event.

Blair Trewin

Tasmanian Championships, Pittwater Dunes, 25 September AFTER a warm-up at the Lea, south of Hobart, on the Saturday, the serious business of the carnival got under way at the Tasmanian Championships at Pittwater Dunes. With Stockton and Cantara now too thick to be in regular use, Pittwater is the one sand-dune area used for high-level competition in Australia, and provided the field with a test different to what most see on any sort of a regular basis.

Given the unusual nature of the terrain, it was not surprising that there were a few unusual results, with the open classes providing two of them. Grant Bluett and Hanny Allston went into the events as warm favourites, but both made significant errors at various stages of the event, and both missed the placings. That opened the way for others, and in M21E the remaining places in the top seven were filled by three pairs who were all together for significant parts of the course: Rob Preston and Bruce Arthur, Ben Rattray and Peter Preston, and Rob Jessop and Blair Trewin. Jessop led at two-thirds distance but lost three minutes on the highly complex open dunes at the end of the peninsula, opening the way for Preston to take the lead for the first time and get a reward for a consistent season.

Rattray was second, and Arthur third.

The leading women were more consistent, in fact remarkably so on such a technical area. Anna Danielsson, whose prominent Australian results had hitherto been confined to sprint events, found the complex flat terrain more to her liking than most others in this country. She took an early lead of about 30secs over Danielle Winslow and the margin stayed remarkably close to that all the way; Winslow led briefly by one second and was never more than a minute behind, but Danielsson was the leader in the end. Allston, after early problems, looked like she might at least challenge Tracy Bluett for third, but a late mistake ended any chance of that.

The junior elite classes had their first official airing. Ainsley Cavanagh got her carnival off to a very impressive start with a comprehensive six-minute win in W17-20E. She was already well clear of the field by the third control, and although Zebedy Hallett pegged her back to cut the margin from six minutes to three at one stage, she lost all of that again at 13, just holding off Heather Harding for second. M17-20E introduced a new face to the Australian Orienteering scene. Timo Sild carries a considerable pedigree – his father is Estonian WOC medallist Sixten – but other foreign juniors with equally impressive credentials have come out 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

on exchange in the past and failed to set the world on fire, so his win came as something of a surprise. His nearest competition fell away when Simon Uppill failed to register at a control, while Nick Andrewartha, in his first year as an M18, looked to have taken a step up when he recovered from being six minutes down by 6 to take second place.

As is often the case, the cream rose to the top in the technical terrain, with particularly impressive runs being recorded by the likes of Paul Pacque (10min ahead in M50), Geoff Peck (4min ahead in M55), Jenny Bourne (4min ahead of Carolyn Jackson in W45), and, less predictably, Judy Allison, who had a career-best performance with an 11min win in W55. The New Zealand juniors also showed what they have to offer. They went 1-2 in M14 (Toby Scott and Scott McDonald) and W14 (Kate Morrison and Jaime Goodwin), and would have done likewise in M16 had Thomas Reynolds and Simon Jager not both lost four minutes on the second-last control, letting Matt Barratt through for a home-state triumph.

National League Round 12, Sandstone Valleys, 27 September NORMAL service was resumed when Grant Bluett and Hanny Allston won the midweek National League round easily over the hills and rocks of Sandstone Valleys. Allston was a particularly comfortable winner, running away from the field on terrain which was well suited to her physical strength. Anna Danielsson looked like she might be the closest challenger but lost four minutes at 8, leaving Julia Davies to get 2nd in a close contest with Tracy Bluett and Clare Hawthorne.

Grant Bluett got his biggest jump on the field when he took a route choice off the map and around a big hill on the long sixth leg, but he was already in front before that. His lead grew to nearly four minutes before he lost half of it on 10, but he still had more than enough in hand to hold off Ben Rattray, who came 2nd for the second time in three days. Rob Preston just held off his younger brother for 3rd.

Louis Elson and Erin Post impressed most amongst the juniors, with consistent winning runs which would have been enough to place both in the top six on the senior courses. Simon Uppill, Ryan Smyth and Kellie Whitfield were others to achieve the first target of any junior in this event – beating all the Schools Championships competitors.

AUSSIES OVERSEAS AUS CHAMPS CARNIVAL

Wendy Read (QLD) during the Highwayman’s Classic NOL event.

Chris Naunton (VIC) was 5th in M17-20E at the Sprint Champs.

Tract Bluett (NSW) 3rd at the Sprint Champs.

Dave Lotty (NSW) negotiates the water and boulders on his way to 2nd place in M60A at the Aust Long Champs.

Mary Enter (VIC) was part of the winning W55 Relay team with Libby Meeking and Kathy Liley.

Back on his feet again, MTB-O champ, Adrian Jackson was only just back from the World MTBO Champs in Slovakia.

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER

21

AUS CHAMPS CARNIVAL Australian Schools Championships & Southern Cross Junior Challenge, Sandstone Valleys, 27-28 September QUEENSLAND won the Australian Schools Championships outright for the first time. They had got reasonably close in 2004, losing their chance after a relay mix-up, but they made no mistake in 2005. They brought a team with a depth reminiscent of the NSW teams of the mid to late 1990’s, with no weak age groups, and they never looked like losing. It was all over with a couple of relays still to be decided. Their only previous taste of victory had been in 1991, when they shared the title with the ACT. New Zealand were even more dominant in the Southern Cross Junior Challenge. The only reason 2003 and 2004 had been close had been because their senior boys were weak, and with that remedied in 2005 they were almost untouchable. Queensland were the only state which managed to take even a single point off them.

The individual titles were split two each between Queensland and New Zealand. For the first half of the senior boys’ race, it looked like the winner might be someone with connections to both camps, Daniel Stott – a New Zealander who has moved to Queensland. He broke away from the field on the long and tough sixth leg, but started to make mistakes in the more technical second half, and lost five minutes at 11 to end his hopes. That left last starter James Sheldon in the best position to take advantage, despite losing two minutes himself at 10, and while his lead dropped to 42secs at 12, that was as close as it got. Rob Fell had been the clubhouse leader almost all day before being beaten at the last opportunity, but still had a very solid run for second place, whilst Simon Jager and Jack Vincent were the leading New Zealanders in third and fourth, both recovering from poor sixth legs.

The senior girls were close for the first half, although one contender was eliminated when Sarah Dunnage lost four minutes at the first control. Only 90secs covered the top four at halfway, but Lizzie Ingham, who was in fourth at that stage, took the lead for the first time on the long and steep ninth leg, and held it all the way thereafter. Kate Rea made it a New Zealand quinella, whilst Heather Harding and Clare Brownridge were the best of the locals.

For most of the way the junior boys race looked to be a two-way contest between Scott McDonald, a formidably fast New Zealand M14 who has already won major events at M18 level, and Leon Keely, hitherto most notable for being a Victorian cross-country representative (and Jim Russell’s nephew). With three controls to go they were only seconds apart, but Keely’s race fell apart from there, and three minutes lost at the second-last saw him plunge out of the placings altogether. Toby Scott, who had been consistent throughout without ever really looking like beating his compatriot, came through for second, whilst Lachlan Dow was the leading Australian in third.

The junior girls saw a similar story, with two clear leaders through the first half, one of whom sustained it to the finish and one of whom didn’t. This time the protagonists were Krystal Neumann, who had shown ample evidence of her potential by blowing the W14 field away at Easter 2004, and Catherine Hewitt, one of the best chances for the home state. Hewitt lost four minutes at 9, and from there Neumann won comfortably. Rachel Goodwin gave the New Zealanders yet another medal with a solid second, with Claire Darvodelsky in third place.

Like the individual events, the relay titles were split two-all between Queensland and New Zealand. The senior boys provided the closest race of the four. On a day which was something of a running race, five teams were within two minutes of the lead after the first leg, but by the end of the second leg that had been reduced to a two-way contest between Queensland and New Zealand. New Zealand looked clear favourites from there with Simon Jager up against Simon Mee, the Queenslanders having led off with Daniel Stott and James Sheldon, but Mee had his best race of the week 22 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

to keep the pressure on Jager, which meant he was there to pick up the pieces when Jager made a significant error in mid-leg (and full view of the spectators). That was enough to give the win to Queensland.

New Zealand were predictably dominant in the senior girls, extending their lead throughout the day to win by six minutes in the end. The main interest was in the battle for second between Victoria, the ACT and Queensland, in which the three leading Australians from the individual faced each other on the last leg.

Queensland led at the start of the leg, but it came down to a battle between Clare Brownridge and Heather Harding, with Brownridge just holding off Harding to give Victoria the result.

There was something of an upset in the junior boys (admittedly in a week where any loss by a New Zealand team constituted an upset). Queensland’s Gary Flynn surprised by giving his team a five-minute lead over the New Zealanders after the first leg, and although Scott McDonald came back hard on the last leg with the day’s fastest time, Oliver Crosato had more than enough in hand to hold on. McDonald’s late charge was enough to see the NZ team into second, just ahead of the Tasmanians.

Claire Darvodelsky brought NSW in together with New Zealand after the first leg of the junior girls, but New Zealand was never challenged thereafter and won comfortably. NSW were the next best, although they got a scare from Tasmania on the last leg when Catherine Hewitt ran as fast for a whole course as she had for two-thirds of a course the previous day. Queensland dropped away from third after two legs to sixth after three, the only class on either day where they missed the top three, but by then their victory was well and truly assured.

Anna Danielsson on her way to W21E victory in the Australian Sprint Championships.

AUS CHAMPS CARNIVAL Australian Sprint Championships, St. Helens, 30 September SPRINT races are usually close affairs and the 2005 Australian Sprint Championships were no exception. After battling through the streets and parks (and a little bit of bush) of St. Helens, all four classes were decided by four seconds or less, and all had several clustered close to the lead.

It was a Scandinavian double in the elite classes with wins for Anna Danielsson in W21E, and Rune Olsen in M21E. Olsen, who is living in Melbourne for 18 months and was not far away from Danish WOC selection, has not always been consistent in more technical terrain, but he is formidably fast. At St. Helens he threatened to run away with the race when he opened up a 20secs lead at the spectator control, but he lost 16secs – a big mistake in the context of the day – at 10 to bring him back to the bunch, and from there, there were only a few seconds in it. Grant Bluett threatened to take control but lost 13secs at the short 14th, and from there Olsen held on – just. It was even closer for second, with Bluett and Eric Morris recording the same time.

There were never more than a few seconds in it in W21E, with Danielsson, Grace Elson and Tracy Bluett all spending time in the lead. Bluett had the lead for much of the second half, but never by enough to be comfortable – only eight seconds covered the top five at 15, and five seconds the top four at 16. Danielsson took the lead there and had just enough in hand for a four-second win over Elson, with Bluett third and the fast-finishing Danielle Winslow fourth.

Just two seconds covered the placegetters in M17-20E. After early bids by the likes of Daniel Stott and Chris Naunton, it settled into a tight battle for the lead between Ryan Smyth and Simon Uppill.

There was rarely more than a second or two in it, and in the end it was decided by the short finish chute – five seconds to six – as Smyth won by a single second. Thomas Reynolds, still eligible for M16, continued to build on the formidable reputation he has earned on the Australian tour, finishing faster than anyone but just failing to catch the leaders.

It was a New Zealand double in W17-20E. Kate Rea and Lizzie Ingham were very close throughout, with the only significant local challenge coming from Erin Post. The three were never more than a few seconds apart, and sometimes less – at the second-last control only one second separated the three of them. It all came down to finishing speed and Rea was just a little bit too good, two seconds ahead of Ingham with Post a further four seconds back.

Australian Championships, Littlechild Creek, 1 October TWO major figures of Australian elite Orienteering at opposite ends of their careers, Grant Bluett and Hanny Allston, won their first elite national titles at Littlechild Creek. Remarkably, it was Bluett’s first title at any level (although it was also the first time he has run an AUS Champs for the best part of a decade), whilst Allston triumphed at her first attempt at this level after several junior victories.

It was a tough physical event on an area whose only real similarity, at times, to the 1988 Asia-Pacific Championships map was that it was in the same place. In 1988 the whole area had been recently burnt, most of the marshes were yellow, and much of the white had almost nothing on the ground. In 2005 the dark green marshes were major factors in route choice, and much of the forest was hard work. It was no surprise that the going was much slower this year. (Your correspondent, who was probably about the same speed in 1988 as he is in 2005, ran 88min in 1988 for a very similar course to the one which took him 116min in 2005).

The victories of both Bluett and Allston were by overwhelming margins in the end – nine minutes for Bluett, five for Allston. Both were set up on the second half of the course after a close first half.

Bluett was not even in the lead for much of the first half of his

course; that position was held first by Kerrin Rattray, and then by Rune Olsen, who was still in front at 11. Olsen lost four minutes at 12, a short leg which troubled several. Bluett inherited a twominute lead at that stage, and then set about stretching it further and further, with the long, tough 15 and 16 being particularly crucial. By the time he was through that section he was six minutes ahead and it was all over, barring disaster. Ben Rattray looked like he might take second at that stage, but two mistakes on the technical final section saw him lose a chance at that. Rob Preston and Eric Morris, both of whom had had consistent runs but would have hoped for more given their excellent lead-up form, ended up in the minor placings, but the result emphasized the gap between the best and the rest.

Allston was in a tight battle with fellow Tasmanian Grace Elson for the first half. By then the rest of the field had fallen by the wayside, except for Clare Hawthorne who was hanging on in third. Illness had put paid to Tracy Bluett’s chances, and mistakes to Anna Danielsson’s and Danielle Winslow’s. In the first half they had broken everyone else, and then Allston hit the accelerator in an awesome second half. She won five successive legs, most by large margins, to extend her lead from eight seconds to six minutes, and although she lost a bit of time at 14 it didn’t really matter. Elson and Hawthorne were second and third, and the rest of the field was left trailing in their wake – fifth place was 20 minutes behind. With several fancied contenders well back in the field, there were some notable placings by those of whom less was expected; Zoe Radford marked her entrance to the elite arena with an excellent fourth, whilst there were career-best results for two long-standing stalwarts in Cath Chalmers (sixth) and Wendy Read (eighth), and a top-ten result for the quietly improving Briohny Davey.

The favourites also came to the fore in the junior elite classes.

David Meyer’s win was comfortable in the end, but as in the open classes, it was close for much of the way. Louis Elson led through much of the first half, but then slipped back as Meyer eased clear to an eventual four-minute win. Behind him there was a great contest, with 90secs covering five competitors, and second decided by the narrowest possible margin. Chris Naunton had lost time on the first half and was four minutes down at the halfway mark, but he came home strongly and ultimately overhauled a fading Simon Uppill on the leg into the last control. In W17-20E, Jasmine Neve took control early in the race and never really looked like losing, finishing six minutes ahead, with Kellie Whitfield returning to form with an encouraging second, and Sarah Dunnage reinforcing her considerable improvement with an impressive third.

The two closest A classes were at opposite ends of the age spectrum. In M12A Marc Gluskie beat Ian Lawford by a single second in a race decided in the finish chute, whilst Maureen Ogilvie and Sue Mount were separated by only two seconds in W70A, in a fluctuating race where Ogilvie was nine minutes down after three controls, came back to take the lead, and almost lost it again in the chute. (The closest class of all was W45AS, where Teri McComb and Katy Stubbs dead-heated).

Several of the veteran mens’ classes were also very close. M55 and M60 were close all the way. Alex Tarr held on by 23 seconds against Dave Lotty in M60, although Lotty proved he can still run, slicing 35 seconds from the lead between the second-last control and the finish. Geoff Peck and Hugh Moore fought out a two-man race in M55 (no-one else was within seven minutes) which was decided in Peck’s favour by 22 seconds, whilst Darryl Smith beat Rob Vincent by the same margin in M45, coming from five minutes behind at 6 after Vincent lost two minutes at each of 7 and 8. There was a first national title for a stalwart when Rob Simson was 53 seconds ahead of John Lyon in M65.

Close finishes were in shorter supply amongst the veteran women with most classes (other than W70) decided by several minutes. After being leading Australian behind overseas opposition on a number of occasions, Jenny Hawkins finally won a national DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 23

AUS CHAMPS CARNIVAL

Australian Schools Championships

Oscar Phillips (Tas) heads off to the finish with Max Neve (Vic) close behind.

Queensland’s winning Senior Boys relay team: James Sheldon, Simon Mee Daniel Stott.

A colourful Rhys Challen from WA.

NSW’s Junior Girls relay team, second behind NZ but first Australian: Claire Darvodelsky, Emily Prudhoe and Thea Richardson.

Victoria’s Rob Fell looked spectacular jumping the fence, but he then stopped to help another competitor who had fallen.

Lizzie Ingham from New Zealand won the Senior Girls. Lizzie represented NZ at JWOC this year.

24 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Heather Harding was first Australian in Senior Girls coming in third.

AUS CHAMPS CARNIVAL

Wendy Read (QLD) and Kirsten Fairfax (VIC) work their way through the rocks during the Aus Long Champs at St Helens.

Dick Ogilvie (NSW) was part of the winning M60 relay team.

Hanny Allston was final leg runner in the Tasmanian W21 team with Grace Elson and Danielle Winslow that had a comprehensive victory at the Australian Relays.

Erin’s impressive start to the Sprint Champs Erin Post had a little problem at the start of the Australian Sprint title in Tasmania which Bob Mouatt managed to catch on camera. Despite this fall, she still came third in W17-20E, a mere 6 seconds from first. I wonder how long she was on the ground?

Yep, OK, the first control is this way... that’s good. Now what’s coming up next…

aaaahh……

aahh contour. That’s it. It’s gone up hill a bit.

Dam… and everyone’s watching too.

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 25

AUS CHAMPS CARNIVAL title outright, and did it by the convincing margin of six minutes, whilst Debbie Gale was even further ahead of the W55 field on home ground. Jenny Bourne was impressive in W45, not only against her own opposition but against the men on the same course (she beat Tarr and Lotty comfortably).

Ineka Booth, who has missed most of the year through illness and didn’t even make the ACT Schools team, showed that she is getting back towards her best form by winning W16, in a close contest with Nicola Peat and Bridget Anderson which was not settled until Booth jumped from third to first at the second-last control. W14 was just as close, Belinda Lawford edging out Krystal Neumann by 16 seconds in a duel where the pair were never separated by more than 31 seconds.

The New Zealanders dominated the junior boys. Simon Jager led four in the first five in M16, with Josh Roberts in second the only Australian to break the NZ dominance, whilst Toby Scott took advantage of the more technical terrain to win M14, as he had at the Australian Championships. NZ is building a generation of young orienteers of which we will hear much more, and it may well be in Dubbo in 2007 where we hear it.

Australian Relays, The Billabong, 2 October THE Australian Relays are always a significant event in their own right, but, as in 2003, the situation in the National League added extra spice to the contest. To win the League, Victoria needed to beat the ACT in the two open classes by a combined three places, whilst in the juniors Tasmania needed to do likewise to Western Australia.

The first two legs of the relay looked like they had put the Cockatoos in a solid position. Five teams came in within two minutes on the first M21 leg, with the Victorian second team narrowly leading, and all contenders in the group except for South Australia (who were considered good place chances, at least, but came nowhere). That sorted itself out a bit on the second leg. Blair Trewin came through from fifth to put the Victorians in the lead, but the ACT and NSW were not far away: Rune Olsen was left to defend a 50-second lead over Grant Bluett, not impossible but difficult.

Meanwhile, the Cockatoos were holding it together in the women’s relay better than anyone expected, and after two legs, in a race where the Victorians were counting on beating the ACT by several places, they were struggling to beat them at all. Tasmania were running away with the race, as expected, through Danielle Winslow and Grace Elson, and South Australia were an unexpected second, but after a good first leg by Anna Danielsson, Heather Harding had held it together on the second leg, and ACT were in third, two minutes ahead of the Victorians, and it was looking like the best-case scenario for Victoria was a one-place win in both, not enough.

Any faint hopes the Victorians had completely disappeared at the final changeover when Clare Hawthorne took a men’s map by mistake. It disqualified her own team, and effectively ended the men’s chances as well; by the time a map was found for Olsen seven minutes had elapsed, and while he was credited for the time, he had lost the pack and any race rhythm. A ten-minute error at the first control absolutely finished it off. From that point on it was a formality, although Bluett and Hanny Allston both inflated their teams’ winning margins with dominant last legs, both several minutes faster than anyone else on the day. The ACT women passed South Australia on the last leg to take second behind the Tasmanians, whilst NSW and the Victorian second team filled the minor placings in M21. The second Victorian W21 team did provide a little consolation when their sixth place made sure of second in the League.

The junior division of the League wasn’t without its share of drama either. At the start of the day, most were conceding W20 to 26 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Western Australia, and Tasmania’s hopes rested on winning M20, where they were clear favourites, and hoping that WA would not be able to make the top four – a definite chance as the WA boys had struggled all week.

Like a lot of Orienteering scripts, this one wasn’t followed for much of the time. The WA girls indeed led after two legs, but not by much – the Tasmanians were only two minutes behind after a great second leg by Emma Warren, but it still looked an impossible task with their least experienced runner, Sonia Lawrie, up against Erin Post. The New Zealanders were well ahead of both but that was of only academic interest to most except the New Zealanders. On the other hand, with the useful addition of Ivan Komyshan to the team after an absence of a couple of years, the WA boys were doing better than anyone expected and actually led after two legs.

It looked like it was falling apart for WA in the early part of the last leg. Post lost 16 minutes at the fifth control, and by the time the teams reached the spectator control the Tasmanians had a useful lead. If they held it, it would mean the WA boys would have to come second, but they had dropped away as Louis Elson had taken control for Tasmania, and Rhys Challen had slipped into a three-way battle with Wes Dose (SA) and Evan Barr (Victoria) by the spectator control. The pressure was on, but Challen rose to the task, and was able to pull clear again for the second place that made sure of a historic League victory. As it turned out it wouldn’t have mattered; the Tasmanian girls mispunched on the last leg.

Even without the broader context that the League provided, several other classes had their moments. W16 was the best of them all, with five teams within four minutes and the win coming down to the last couple of controls. Queensland dominated the first two legs through Julia Sullivan and Bridget Anderson, but their sixminute lead was whittled away on the last leg, while at the same time Lara Haas was chasing down Ineka Booth. Haas gave the Tasmanians the lead with only three controls to go, but Booth was just a little too fast over the last two controls and gave the ACT a 20sec win.

No other class came down to a sprint finish. Several looked like they were going to, especially M55, where nine of the eleven teams were within four minutes of the lead after one leg, and the four leaders were still within a minute of each other after two.

The situation called out for a big anchor leg and Greg Hawthorne delivered for the Tasmanians, eventually bringing his team home seven minutes ahead of the ACT and NSW. Mike Dowling was another Tasmanian to produce a big anchor leg, overturning a twominute deficit against the Victorians in M45 to win by five. Victoria also won easily in two relays which looked like they were going to be close after two legs: in W55 Kathy Liley’s last leg saw her team home after being five minutes down at the first change, whilst Janet Tarr was even more dominant in W60. At the other end of the closeness scale, the most dominant performances of the day, all by the only team in the class who were able to put three legs together, came from NSW in M60, Victoria in W45 and, to no-one’s surprise, New Zealand in M16.

Four orienteers win free ferry trips The Spirit of Tasmania offered discount tickets on the ferries to Tasmania for the Australian Orienteering Championships.

Those who booked for the ferries using their dedicated service went into a draw for free return tickets.

The lucky winners were: Steve Hicks TTS Stephen Martin BGV

Paul Hoopman TJU Dick Olgivie URN

Congratulations to the winners – and many thanks to TTLine for their support.

Orienteering Tasmania

COACHING

Neville Bleakley

ORIENTEERING COACHING IN AUSTRALIA – A Personal Perspective

Eight Years Ago

I WILL retire from my official positions in Orienteering coaching and administration at the end of October. So this will be my last contribution as sub-editor of AO’s Coaching Connection. I want to use my life as a coach to illustrate how coaching has changed over the decades. Some older readers will be able to identify with the situations that I will describe below. Younger readers will probably think I’m going senile.

I have been a sports coach for 47 years of my life; an accredited Orienteering coach for the last 20 years, and a paid Orienteering coach and coach administrator for the last eight years. Coaching can certainly bring its rewards for the coach. However, it can also be very hard, unrewarding work – particularly at certain levels.

At times in the last few years I have felt it was just like bringing up another family. Being one of the few Orienteering coaches in Australia who received payment (albeit very small) has added an extra burden. So I am very happy to be handing over my coaching responsibilities to others, to do things as they see fit.

How coaching has changed in 47 years! How Orienteering coaching in Australia has changed in 20! How perspectives on Orienteering coaching in Australia have changed in the last eight years!

Forty Seven Years Ago Forty seven years ago coaches were not accredited. Most received no training because there were no coaching courses. There were no Australian coaching manuals, but some capital city bookshops sold UK and US coaching manuals (that often were no more than booklets – I’ve still got a couple on my shelves). We were almost all volunteers (although I will now confess to receiving one pound per week in 1958 and 1959 to coach a local Aussie Rules team – but the money was paid to my father to preserve my amateur status). We were skills coaches, although the most innovative devised tactical ploys. Franz Stampfl (who coached several leading Australian milers from a Wine Bar in Carlton) was probably the only coach in Australia using sports science at that time. With the notable exception of Stampfl’s great rival, Percy Cerutty, coaches didn’t have a clue about mental and lifestyle preparation of an athlete.

If you did harbour such thoughts, you’d have been very brave to go public, lest you be made an outcast by those in authority (as Australian athletics did with Percy). However, I remember those times as being wonderful fun, not the least because my teams and athletes tasted success. Invariably my footy teams won every premiership they entered. Coaching was a ball, and I was invincible! With hindsight, it was predictable that expectation of success – on my part, and the parents of young footy and cricket players whom I was coaching 25 years later - led me to take “time out” from coaching and turn to the sport of Orienteering, of which I knew absolutely nothing!

Twenty Years Ago Twenty years ago I went to a Level 1 Orienteering coach course being conducted for ACTOA by John Foster. I didn’t go because I wanted to be a coach – no way! I was running away from being any sort of coach. I went because that was the only way I was able to learn how to do the sport. I had found my running ability was as good as most of my peers in the sport, but I didn’t have a clue how to orienteer. I have often wondered if that is still one of the main reasons that parents will undertake a Level 1 coaching course.

Eight years ago Bob Mouatt and I started the ACT Academy of Sport orienteering program. I’m sure that the orienteering public, most orienteering coaches, and most elite orienteers at that time didn’t have a clue what we were on about. One leading ACT orienteering coach of that time told me he didn’t know what we were going to do at a place like that. Well, in one sense, that made two of us, but Bob and I knew that every self-respecting sport in Australia was busting a gut to be there, and had found a way of using ACTAS resources. We – the athletes who had faith, Bob, and the coaches who put their hands up to help - did find a way. It took perhaps a year for ACTAS to get a handle on the sport of orienteering, and for the orienteers themselves to understand how ACTAS could help them (other than financially – they understood that immediately).

The recipe seems to change every year because the circumstances are different in every year. Under the new Head Coach, Grant Bluett, the program is bound to change even more. That’s how it should be.

ACTAS – The National Training Centre Because of an exceedingly generous gesture by the Manager of ACTAS, Mr Ken Norris, the ACTAS program can now offer support to the most talented and committed of orienteers who are able to get themselves to ACT, irrespective of which State they compete for in the NL. Until yesterday, full ACTAS scholarship holders had to run for the Canberra Cockatoos. At yesterday’s Joint Management committee meeting (OA, OACT and ACTAS), that was changed – for 2006 at least. Such scholarships will be competitive – but what’s wrong with that in high-level sport? ACTAS is now OA’s true National Training Centre.

Bye-Bye An Air Force mate introduced Pam and me to Lawn Bowls last Saturday in Hobart. Neither of us had ever bowled before. After ten ends (40 bowls each for the uninitiated) he declared us better than half the players in his club, and invited us to join in the afternoon competition. We declined with thanks because we wanted to smell the roses at the Botanic Gardens (literally), but I will soon join a club in Canberra. And, no, I will not be doing a Level 1 Lawn Bowls coach course to find out how to play. There are coaching programs for that nowadays, run by accredited coaches, and plenty of good manuals in the bookstores.

So it’s bye-bye from him and bye-bye from me (with apologies to the late Ronnie Barker).

OR I ENTEER I NG PUBL I CATI ON S IOF Publications

Australian Publications

International Specifications for‑Orienteering Maps . . . . . . . . . . $11.00 Competition rules for IOF events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $11.00 Control Descriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . $11.00 Simple Maps for Orienteering . . . . $11.00 Trail Orienteering (BOF book). . . . . $30.00 Trail Orienteering (booklet). . . . . . . . $8.25 Trail O (leaflet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $0.70

Elementary Orienteering Instructors‑Manual. $13.20 Level 1 Coaching Manual. . . . . . . . $22.00 Level 1 Coaching Syllabus. . . . . . . . $3.90 Level 2 Coaching Syllabus. . . . . . . . $4.40 Level 3 Coaching Syllabus. . . . . . . . $4.40 Among the Best Orienteers (video).$19.75 Sponsorship & Advertising, 1996 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . available from states Club Guide, available on disc.

Prices include GST and postage within Australia for single copies.

Prices for bulk orders available on request. Orders should be addressed to Orienteering Australia, PO Box 740, Glebe, NSW 2037, with cheques made payable to Orienteering Australia. Email: orienteering@dsr.nsw.gov.au DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 27

G R E AT L E G S

Badge event, Old Hidden Vale (Qld) - 24 July’05

4

Scale: 1: 15 000 THIS leg, control 6-7, was set to try to achieve a classic three-way split of competitors and it worked to perfection! One third went wide to the northern fence, one third went wide to the southern fence, and one third went direct. Younger and older competitors tended to head for the fences while those in the middle age groups went direct.

When ages and running speeds are taken into account, split times indicated that the three routes were probably just about equal.

Mark Nemeth M40 Lorenzo Calabro M21 Geoff Peck M55 Rik Plumb M55 Kieren Sullivan M18 Daniel Stott M18

15.26 15.39 17.18 19.07 17.01 17.28

7

5 6

Trevor Sauer

WORLD MTB-O CHAMPS IN COLOUR

Men’s and Women’s Relay mass start

Adrian Jackson finishing the Middle Distance Champs.

Anna Sheldon durin

g the Relay.

28 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Alex Randall at the Czech World Ranking Event.

SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

Jason McCrae – Intern Psychologist

SOWING THE SEEDS FOR EASTER

Step 4 - How are you going to achieve the mini-goals?

BY the time you receive this edition of The Australian Orienteer the races of Spring will be but maps in your map-collection and stories in the magazine. OK your o-socks with the grass seeds might still be hanging over the back-veranda waiting to be de-prickled but basically the races won’t be in the forefront of your mind. It is also possible the Easter 3-Days in Castlemaine won’t be occupying much more thought than accommodation or perhaps flight bookings either. However a little investment of time and thinking over the next few weeks may be what is needed for improved orienteering in Autumn, with goal setting the key.

Example: Technical - navigate well in gold mining terrain.

Goal setting?

Step 5 – Who can help me achieve my goals?

Isn’t that something for footballers…. or the corporate sector?

Although you might do all the hard work yourself there is plenty of help and expertise available out there in your local Orienteering community. Helpers can be coaches, family, friends or the local Orienteering ‘guru’ who wears the t-shirt from the 1979 Easter 3-Days and never makes a mistake. What’s more, all these people are usually more than willing to help, as long as you are willing to ask.

A goal is essentially a specific accomplishment you plan to achieve. It’s something that requires effort to achieve, will be satisfying or rewarding to complete and is important to the goalsetter. Goals are useful to set because they can provide motivation and establish direction for training, help improve upon weaknesses or strengths and be used to monitor progress. This time of year, when orienteers are competing in parks and streets, the days are long and there is not too much ‘serious’ competition, is the perfect time to examine what areas of your Orienteering need improvement and to set some goals.

Setting Goals Step 1 – Long term

Break down each mini-goal into very specific parts that you will know whether you have done or not. This is an important part of goal setting – having aims within mini-goals that you can measure and know for sure you have completed.

How? • Work out what are 3 most important navigation techniques in gold mining • Practice ‘using gullies’ technique at summer-O events on park/ bush maps • Travel to local ‘gold mining-like’ map and train 3 times over summer • Run local gold-mining event in February

Example: Technical - club veteran, club coach.

Step 6 – What will prevent me from achieving my goals?

What excuses will I make?

There are often very good reasons why an individual has not achieved their goals previously. Work, commitment, gets too busy at Christmas, ongoing injuries etc. etc. are not going to suddenly go away and so it’s no good pretending they don’t exist.

Identify something that you want to achieve that in your Orienteering is important to you. For the purpose of this article I’ll focus on Easter 2006 in Central Victoria.

Example:

Example: Finish Top 3 at Easter in my age-class

• I train like an elite for the first 2 weeks of summer but then the commitment drops away

Step 2 – Where are you now?

Assess your current performance or ability to achieve the goal now. This might be done by looking at how you orienteered over the last few months, talking to a coach or fellow orienteer or even doing a test such as how fast you are running in summerO. Another way to look at your current form is to give yourself a rating out of 10 - maybe you are currently performing at 5/10, with 10/10 the best you can be.

Example: Ran as best I could and finished 7th at Aust Champs and 4th at State Champs.

Step 3 – What do you have to do to achieve your long-term goal?

This is where some analysis and perhaps the help of a Coach or club mate come in handy. What things do you need to accomplish to achieve your long-term goal? It’s best to break the things you need to do down into categories – I often use with orienteers the categories of physical, technical and mental.

Physical is the level of fitness required, technical is your actual Orienteering skills and is mostly about navigation and mental is how you perform on race-day. Essentially this step in goal setting is to analyse what needs to be improved to achieve the long-term goal and setting some ‘mini’ goals to achieve.

• Wednesday afternoon meetings mean I often don’t get to Street-O

Step 7 – Plan some strategies to overcome the excuses You’ve listed the excuses that you think are likely to appear now think of some strategies to overcome them. If you can’t think of any, again, ask someone else for some ideas to help overcome them.

Example: • Shift Wednesday afternoon meetings at work to Thursday.

• Stick my goal sheet on the fridge and review them once a week • Discuss my training plans with my partner/coach/club mate • Arrange a weekly time for training with a friend/club mate Step 8 – Get training!

Start achieving those goals!

Jason McCrae is a registered Intern Psychologist in the ACT currently completing his Masters in Psychology. He is also OA’s Manager (High Performance) and a keen M21Sledge competitor. He can be contacted on Jason.McCrae@act.gov.au

Example: Top 3 at Easter equals Physical: Be able to run up 90% of the hills.

Technical: Navigate well in gold mining terrain.

Mental: Enjoy my Orienteering and stay relaxed on race day(s).

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 29

HIGH PERFORMANCE

Mike Dowling, OA Director, High Performance

A good year for our High Performance athletes

Performance program in a position called Head Coach. The central role of the Head Coach will be to work with both national team coaches and state National League coaches to improve both the quality of coaching and the competitive outcomes of aspiring high performance athletes. In addition, it is anticipated that the Head Coach will have a vital role in working with our National Training Centre partner, the ACT Academy of Sport, to continue to build on the role of the Orienteering program at ACTAS as a leader in coach and athlete development for Orienteering.

Our new coaching structure is set out below.

W

ITH the 2005 competition season drawing to a close as I write this column it is a timely point to look back upon the year that was. By all measures 2005 has been a very good year for our High Performance athletes.

In the National League the Canberra Cockatoos took out the senior division from the Victorian Nuggets in a team competition that was not decided until the final round held in conjunction with the Australian relay Championships in Tasmania. Even here the result was uncertain until the final legs of the relays when events conspired to take the Victorians out of the frame. In the junior division it was fantastic, from a national development standpoint, to see Western Australia take out their first national title. With Queensland taking out the national schools championships it was very heartening from a national perspective to see two States achieve successes that have traditionally been dominated by States from the South East central axis and bodes well for the continued national development of Orienteering.

On the international front we have seen some fantastic performances this year. Earlier in the year David Brickhill-Jones produced an outstanding performance to take a silver medal in a round of the World Cup in England showing what a competitive international orienteer he is.

At the Junior World Championships in Switzerland we collectively saw our most competitive overall performance for a long time. Hanny Allston became the first junior female Australian athlete to medal with a bronze in the Middle-distance and Julian Dent came oh-so-close with a 4th in the Long-distance. Julian had previously finished 8th in the Middle-distance a couple of days earlier. With their representation in the senior WOC team as well, Hanny and Julian certainly lead the way as the new generation of high quality international orienteers to wear Australian colours.

Also the girl’s team of Hanny, Erin Post and Jasmine Neve put in a superb effort to place 7th in the JWOC relays.

At the World Championships in Japan, which were a very tough WOC by any measure, we saw our first ever podium finish with Hanny placing 6th in the Long-distance in what was a magnificent effort in such physically demanding conditions. Her effort topped the placing of Troy de Hass a couple of days earlier in the Sprint-distance with a 7th place that was oh-so-close to a medal winning run. Another great highlight of the WOC was the effort of Tracy Bluett to place 13th in the Middle-distance in a return to international competition following the birth of daughter Tiia. The low point of the team was the failure of all the men to record a finish in the Long-distance race.

At the MTBO World Championships in Slovakia Adrian Jackson again showed why he is one of the world’s best orienteers in this format of Orienteering with a 3rd in the Long-distance and an 8th in the Middle-distance. Queensland’s Anna Sheldon took another step up in MTBO with a podium finishing 6th in the Middledistance and also an 8th in the Long-distance to undoubtedly show she is Queensland’s most successful orienteer in international competition.

New Coaching Structures For High Performance Development In concert with the review of the operations of Orienteering in Australia as a result of the changed funding allocation by the Australian Sports Commission the Board of OA has decide upon a new direction for high performance coaching and management.

As this issue hits the letterboxes of Australian orienteers we will be in the process of appointing a person to lead our High 30 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Coaching Structure High Perfomnce Head Coach

Mens Coach

Womens Coach

Bushrangers Coach

National League State Coaches

JWOC Coach

JWOC Support Coach

MTBO Coach

MTBO Support Coach

Individual & Club Coaches

New National Coaches The Board of OA was delighted to appoint Grant Bluett and Gareth Candy as joint National Junior Coaches for the period 2006-07.

With Australia hosting JWOC in 2007 both Gareth and Grant are enthusiastically working to build on the team successes at JWOC this year for the 2006 JWOC in Lithuania and then onto Dubbo in 2007. In addition, it’s also time to acknowledge the work and effort of retiring National Junior Coach Paul Pacqué who has been in the role for a number of years. Thanks Paul for all your valuable work with our juniors and you’ve left our junior program in a sound state.

On the MTBO front we are delighted to re-appoint Kay Haarsma as national coach. Kay has done much to date in working with our MTBO athletes and is a passionate advocate of the MTBO high performance program.

With regard to our senior Foot O team we are currently in the process of determining the coaching positions with a change of focus and moving to a dual male and female athlete centred coaching team. With the continued rapid growth in the international competitive depth of Foot Orienteering we felt it was the right time to have two coaches working with specific groups of our athletes to maintain and build on our international results of 2005. It also appropriate to thank our national coach for the last two years in Jim Russell for all his dedicated work with the senior team. Jim always puts in more than the minimum as a coach and often goes beyond the call of duty.

Thanks Jason & Nev The end of 2005 will see the end of an era in Orienteering with Nev Bleakley retiring as Manager, Coaching & Officiating and Jason McCrae finishing up as Manager, High Performance to take on a new career direction upon finishing his masters degree. I would like to extend a sincere personal vote of thanks to Jason and Nev for the dedicated, passionate and enthusiastic commitment they have put into furthering Australian Orienteering in their roles.

They have done so much for Orienteering and I wish them well for wherever the future takes them.

Strategic Plan 2006-2008 The approval of our new strategic plan for the next three-year period will be currently under consideration at the Annual Conference of OA. As has been mentioned before in this column the Plan is the

HIGH PERFORMANCE guiding document of our HP program and as such belongs to all our stakeholders; the member States of OA, athletes, coaches and the wider community of orienteers. The document is a dynamic one and over its next three-year life will undoubtedly undergo changes and refinements as circumstances change and evolve. Why not take the time to get hold of a copy from your State association and see how you could make a positive contribution to developing our High Performance program?

Or you can contact me at: 17 High St, Bellerive 7018. Tel (03) 6244 71773 Email mdowling@tassie.net.au

Orienteering Australia – National Training Centre

Interview with OA Manager-High Performance, Jason McCrae Australian, David Brickhill-Jones, has announced that from the beginning of 2006 he will elect to compete for Britain in international Orienteering events. He holds dual citizenship and says his reasons for making the change are the closer proximity of training and coaching assistance to his present home in Norway. He says he deeply regrets having to make the decision and will always be grateful for the assistance given him by Orienteering coaches and administrators in Australia.

The Australian Orienteer spoke with Jason McCrae, the soon-to-retire Manager-High Performance for Orienteering Australia.

AO: David Brickhill-Jones (or “BJ”) has been on the verge of achieving great things for some years. How much of a blow to OA’s High Performance program is BJ’s decision?

JMcC: BJ’s decision is without a doubt very disappointing for all involved in OA HP. We endeavour to provide the best possible support to our elite orienteers within the resources we have available and when someone moves to another country essentially, as I understand it, because he can be provided with better support then it is a blow to those of us trying our best to support the best Australian orienteers. It highlights what I often find myself saying in Orienteering circles - OA spends more than 50% of its budget on supporting High Performance (HP) athletes and activities yet from an athlete’s perspective it wouldn’t even cover 5% of their expenses, especially one such as BJ who is trying to get the best out of himself by living and training overseas. Now having said all that, BJ’s departure provides other Australian elite orienteers with opportunities that they might not have had in the past and I know we have plenty of elites training hard, competing hard and they will relish any extra opportunities that come their way.

AO: BJ has been successful in some recent Park World Tour events.

Do you think that success will translate to future success for him in WOC events?

JMcC: Probably. I thought that when he was competing for us and changing to Britain is not going to change my opinion on that. BJ has a very competitive nature and I think that’s really important in driving a person to do all the hard work and training that is required to get good results at an international level. He’s still got work to do and skills to master before he gets there but he’s made improvements every year I’ve known him so one would think that will continue.

AO: The IOF has rules allowing orienteers to change country allegiance but do you think orienteers should do so unless there is some dire political or social reason?

JMcC: Not sure on that one. I mean where do you draw the line? What is an appropriately ‘dire’ political or social reason? BJ has a pommy passport so I would say technically that’s enough. When I looked up the IOF rules all they seem to say is that you can only run for one country per year with no mention of having to hold citizenship or anything.

AO: OA has made quite a substantial investment in support for BJ over the years, haven’t they?

JMcC: BJ has received as much support as we are able to provide our elites. He had been supported to attend both JWOC and WOC races and this year was added to the High Performance Group (HPG) which receives OA’s top level of funding. Having said that, as mentioned previously, the

amount of money we have spent on BJ would not have covered 5% of his total Orienteering expenses to get to the level he is at today.

AO: How does that compare to the support he will be provided running for Britain?

JMcC: Well, by way of example, a member of the HPG who also made the WOC team to Japan in 2005 would have had half their airfare to WOC paid for by OA plus entry, accommodation and expenses during the WOC week and had access to a coach, manager, assistant manager and physio during the 10 days of WOC. Additionally if they went to the Australian team WOC training camp in Japan in March they would have received $900 to cover their expenses, mind you that wouldn’t have covered half their costs in an expensive place like Japan, especially when you include airfare. Also if an elite had run any of the World Cup races in Italy or England, as BJ did, they would have had no support and would have had to pay themselves for their entry, accommodation, airfare, the lot! I don’t know the details of how Britain supports their athletes but my understanding after doing a bit of asking round is that this year WOC, World Cup and a pre-WOC training camp were all fully paid for, including airfare. Additionally they have already had fully-funded training camps to future WOC areas such as Denmark and the Ukraine and have a training camp, again fully-funded, to South Africa at some point during the northern winter. They generally have two coaches and a Sport Psychologist travel with the team whereas we only provide support staff at WOC and the training camp in March. I don’t know if that is all correct but when it comes to funding and supporting elites we are in a different ballpark.

AO: Many of our top orienteers choose to live and compete in Europe.

We see that in other sports too. Does OA have plans for attracting our top orienteers back to Australia or is it best if they stay in Europe?

JMcC: In an ideal world OA would support our best to live and train in Australia for 75% of the year and live, compete and train in Europe between about April and August each year. That would enable Australia’s elite to live here, build a life here and train with the support of facilities like the National Training Centre in Canberra and their coaches and peers in their home state while still getting the benefits of competing against the world’s best in the different terrains overseas and prepare appropriately for WOC each year.

Unfortunately that is just not going to happen so athletes have to make a choice about where they live with often better ‘life’ benefits such as family, friends and job available here and better O benefits available in Europe with Scandinavian clubs able to provide more comprehensive coaching, training, competition and financial support for Orienteering than we can.

AO: Given the circumstances you just outlined why hasn’t this happened before?

Continued next page DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 31

TOP EVENTS 2006

2007

April 14-17 Australian 3-Days, Castlemaine, Victoria

April 6-15 “Burra to Barossa 2007” Aust 3Days & Middle-dist Champs, SA www.oasa.asn.au/2007

April 22 Australian Middle Dist Champs, Inglewood, Victoria

May 7-14 European Championships Otepaa, Estonia www.orienteerumine.ee/EOC2006

July 7-14 WMOC 2007 Kuusamo, Finland www.wmoc2007.fi/

July 1-7 WMOC 2006 Wiener Neustadt, Austria www.wmoc06.com/

July 7-15 JWOC 2007 Carnival, incl NSW Champs, Aus Champs & Schools Champs, Dubbo, NSW. http:// orienteering.asn.au/events

July 2-7 JWOC 2006, Druskininkai, Lithuania www.losf.lt/jwoc2006

July 22-27 O-Ringen Sweden

July 8-15 Tour O Swiss www.tour-o-swiss.ch

July WMTB-O 2007 Milovy, Czech Republic

July 9-14 World MTB-O Champs, Joensuu, Finland. mtbwoc2006.orienteering.org

August 16-26 WOC 2007 Kiev, Ukraine e-mail: info@woc2007.org.ua www.woc2007.org.ua

July 15-22 Swiss O Week 2006 Zermatt, Switzerland www.sow2006zermatt.ch

October 4 Australian Sprint Championships, Canberra

October 6-7 Oceania Championships, Canberra

November Australian MTB-O Championships, NSW

December Christmas 5 Days, NSW

July 16-21 O-Ringen, Halsingland, Sweden (250 km north of Stockholm) www.oringen.com

July 29-Aug 5 WOC 2006 and Danish WOC Tour 6-Days, Aarhus, Denmark www.woc2006.dk/

29 Sept-12 Oct Australian Championships Carnival York, Western Australia http://wa.orienteering.asn.au/ auschamps 2006

10-12 Oct Australian MTB-O Championships Collie, Western Australia http://wa.orienteering.asn.au/ auschamps 2006

Dec 27-31

Christmas 5 Days, NSW

Dec 29-31

APOC 2006, Hong Kong

Continued from page 31.

JMcC: Good question! Some of our best such as Grant Bluett and Tom Quayle lived in Sweden for a long time. They lived there long enough to have some affinity with Sweden and were, or are, both good enough to get substantial support even in a strong Orienteering nation such as Sweden.

I guess you’d have to ask them why they didn’t - I suppose neither had a family connection to Sweden as BJ has to Britain. As I said previously it is a personal decision. The difficulties for elites in splitting between Europe and Australia can be seen in other elites also such as Eddie Wymer, Brett Weihart, Steve Craig, Donald Staudte and Alix Young who, with the exception of Eddie, don’t represent Australia anymore but have partners, families and established lives in various parts of Europe.

AO: You will soon complete your Masters in Psychology. Do you plan to apply your skills to developing our top orienteers?

JMcC: I’ll certainly be available to if wanted and I have already worked with many who have represented Australia at WOC or JWOC. I have spent this year working part-time in a Psychology role at the ACT Academy of Sport (ACTAS), where the National Training Centre is based, and have worked with various sports - soccer, hockey, rugby union, rugby league and triathlon to name a few. If our top orienteers or their coaches are interested in improving their performance then I am available to help and apply what I’ve learnt. Although I may need a little lie-down after two years in the HP Manager job!!!

AO: Many thanks for your time.

32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Give your event a

B O O S T !

Event advertisements in The Australian Orienteer go direct to the homes of registered orienteers in all states of Australia and give a widespread boost to perception of your event.

The special advertising rates are modest and would be covered by just a few extra entries.

Mike Hubbert, Editor and Advertising PO Box 165, Warrandyte, Victoria 3113 mikehubbert@ozemail.com.au Phone/fax (03) 9844 4878

Sports Au s t r a l i a n

F o u n d a t i o n

Support your Sport through taxdeductible donations to the Australian Sports Foundation Check out the details and download the donor’s form from

www.orienteering.asn.au

LEGEND

GrantBluett retires After 14 years of international competition, 7 years living and competing as an elite in Sweden, a World Games gold medal and numerous top-10 and top-20 performances the legend of Australian elite orienteering, Grant Bluett, is retiring from international competition. Grant has led the charge for Australia in international orienteering since 1991 when he finished the 1st leg of the 1991 JWOC relay in Berlin, Germany, in 3rd place.

In those days for an Australian to be in the top few at any level was fairly unheard of. When Grant followed up the following year at JWOC in Finland with a 15th place he was sending a message to all back home that we were good enough.

Orienteering Australia’s High Performance Manager and regular Voice of the Forest commentator Jason McCrae spoke to Grant about whether he really is finishing up now and asked for a few reflections on his wondrous career.

Jason McCrae (JMc): Well GB the whisper in the forest is that Japan WOC was your last. Is it true?

Grant Bluett (GB): Yeh that’s it Jase. Maybe if I could just do the races I’d continue on but I’m not really enjoying it anymore, I don’t enjoy the travel, and especially not enjoying training for races. I still enjoy training but I’m sick of spending all year training for a particular race – looking at what’s required for that race, focusing my training on those requirements and making sure each session is directed towards being ready for that race – I’m tired of that. I will still keep training and competing in Australia however I just want to be able to do whatever training I feel like doing and not the intense focus.

JMc: No possibility that come next year you’ll change your mind?

GB: It’s possible I guess but I don’t want to be like Hakan Eriksson (44 yo Swedish orienteer) who announces every year he is retiring and then every year comes out of retirement. In fact I was talking to Hakan at WOC in Japan and he was encouraging me to go on. He said he would coach me and set a program for me and I was getting a bit excited thinking “yeh maybe I will keep going” but then towards the end of our conversation he said “yeh you should go on – as long as you are enjoying it” and it was then that I realised, no, I wasn’t enjoying it anymore so time to call it a day.

JMc: Well, sounds like you’ve had a fair think about it. If it is the end Grant, looking back, what have been your best performances at an international level?

GB: Ahh I don’t know. I guess I look back on my World Games victory in Japan in 2001 and my long period of good results in the Park World Tour (PWT) as my best. PWT was particularly good as I had many good results over a decent period of time. It was also an exciting time for orienteering with PWT and sprint or park racing being new. It was really attracting crowds and television coverage in Sweden and it was great to be running so well in an exciting era for world orienteering.

JMc: Any time when you consider you had the perfect race?

GB: Yeh maybe in the PWT in Shanghai. I didn’t miss anything technically and I just felt so strong. I felt like I was running hard the whole way and felt strong and invincible. I won by 45secs which doesn’t sound much but in a PWT sprint race that’s heaps.

JMc: What about disappointments?

GB: I wish I’d had a good run at WOC – I never had a great run in a final. I had great run in the Swedish sprint and qualified really well but was far from perfect in the final where it all went bad.

Every single final WOC race has been disappointing. Even the 8th place which was my best result - it could so easily have been 2nd place but instead a little mistake meant I came 8th instead of 2nd.

A lot of the other finals I feel like I could’ve won the race but did not run well enough, whereas the time I came 8th I couldn’t have won but a little thing took me from 2nd to 8th.

JMc: Have you had a chance to reflect on your Japanese performances?

GB: Yeh that was hugely disappointing especially since it was probably the WOC where I had my best physical preparation for a long time or maybe ever. From when I moved home to Australia (January 2005) I only had a week off from my physical training and that was after hurting my back at the ACT tree-athlon and really a week is nothing in the scheme of things. I felt really good physically until the week before WOC in Japan but then I started to feel flat. I kept telling myself it was nerves but maybe I lost my shape too early. Everything else had really gone perfectly to plan in preparation.

JMc: Who were the big influences on your orienteering career?

GB: Warren Key is the obvious one. And John Porter when I started, really encouraged me a lot. And then everyone I raced against from you up mate, from that Easter in 1988, (GB and JMc were competitors in juniors) I always wanted to be like them, beat them, and I tried to learn from everyone I was competing against.

JMc: And how do you see the future of Australian elite orienteering? Who do you think are the future Grant Bluett’s and how good can they be?

GB: I think the future will be a lot better than I ever was! Julian Dent and Hanny Allston especially. Hanny is already better than I ever was. I definitely think Hanny, if she continues, then I can’t see who can stop her from being world champion. There’s always things that can happen – she’s still young and might get injured or burn out however she’s way better now than Simone Luder or Hanne Staff were at 19.

JMc: And your plans for the future if international competition isn’t going to dominate your life?

GB: I don’t know (laughing). Coaching will always be part of my life even if I just am coaching a couple of people. It will be my future in orienteering rather than myself. I have an interest in coaching at a national team level also. I don’t attach my coaching as something that makes an orienteer win but you associate with it and that gives you a high, knowing you’ve helped them a little bit.

JMc: OK Grant thanks for giving us a few words and for being a legend of Australian orienteering.

Reproduced from the Orienteering Australia web site.

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 33

2006 AUSTRALIAN CHAMPS CARNIVAL

“It’s a long way” THESE words I overheard a competitor say when talking to two West Australians at the Australian Championships in Tasmania.

They were in response to a question by the West Australians asking if the person was coming to WA next year.

The Australian Orienteering Championships are the premier event on the annual Orienteering calendar and the West Australian Orienteering Association is extremely pleased to be holding the event in 2006, giving us a chance to return the hospitality that so many others have shown us as we travel ‘a long way’ across this great country in search of better maps, terrain, food, wine and whatever else we indulge in to drive us towards that perfect run.

The 2006 program commences on Saturday 30th September with the 2-day WA State Champs. The 3rd & 4th of October feature the Australian Schools Individuals and Relays near the town of York approximately 60 minutes east of Perth. Included in the event will be both NOL and public events. On Thursday 5th October the Australian Sprint Champs will be held in York followed by a public sprint event.

York is a beautiful town of significant historical note. The town is well restored and a classic example of mid 19th century architecture, boasting a world class auto museum, fine galleries, arts and crafts, eateries and accommodation. The town can be very popular at this time of the year with the Jazz Festival held on Sunday October 1st and tourists flocking to the area to view the world-renowned WA wildflowers which will be in full bloom.

Closer to Perth, but still within an hour’s drive to each event, is the often overlooked wine growing area at the city’s back door – the Swan Valley, complete with chocolate factory and bootleg brewery.

The schools teams will all be accommodated here.

The foot orienteering will conclude on the weekend of 7th & 8th October with the Australian Individual Long-distance Championships and Relays conducted approx 25 minutes south of York. The maps for both the WA Championships and the Australian

WA junior Sarah Dunnage shows her state allegiances at the Australian Schools Champs.

Long-distance Championships are new and offer an interesting and challenging assortment of WA terrain consisting of wooded hills strewn with a complex mass of granite boulders, rock faces and rock surfaces. Running is generally fast to very fast, but with lots of complexity. Heaps of fun!

At the conclusion of foot orienteering the events move further south for Mountain Bike Orienteering including the Australian Long-distance Championships. The country here will offer some very scenic terrain along with a complex timber track network in typical WA Jarrah/Wandoo Country, which will challenge both the navigational and physical abilities of the riders.

So in response to the comment “it’s a long way”, yes we know; 54 of us travelled to Tasmania this year! However for that travel we can guarantee some great orienteering, hospitality, scenery, wildflowers and fabulous spring weather. So make the effort, and be a part of the 2006 Australian Championships in WA. You won’t be disappointed and you’ll love the wildflowers!

Ken Post Carnival Organiser

Be Active 2006 Australian Orienteering Championships Carnival York, Western Australia 30 September - 12 October 2006 The Orienteering Association of Western Australia invites you to come and enjoy two weeks of high quality foot and mountain bike orienteering in outstanding granitic terrain much of it in highly runnable farmland.

Add to that the world-renowned wildflower season and the many tourist attractions of the south-west and you’ll find that you just have to be part of Spring in the West in 2006!

And afterwards, why not complete the package and travel on to NSW to compete in the World Rogaining Championships?

Check it out at wa.orienteering.asn.au/auschamps2006

34 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

N AT I O N A L O L E A G U E

Ultimax sponsors NSW Stingers Rob Preston THE NSW Stingers National League team should have the most comfortable feet in Orienteering after signing a sponsorship deal with USA sock company ‘Ultimax’.

The Ultimax Stingers have been provided with socks for training and competing in the 2006 National League, and also the AROC Sport Adventure Races, in which the team had much success last season. As part of the deal, the team also received Berghaus shirts, fleeces and backpacks. The Ultimax Stingers have also recently launched a new website. Visit www.nswstingers.com to read profiles of all Stingers, reports from races and information on helping support the Stingers.

NSW Stinger, Tracy Bluett, at the NOL event at Sandstone Valleys in Tassie.

Eric Morris coming in equal second at the Austrlain Sprint Champs.

Rob Preston during the Australian Relays.

ultimax.indd 1

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 24/10/2005 11:19:23 AM35

N AT I O N A L O L E A G U E

Canberra Cockatoos win National League again Blair Trewin FOR the eleventh time in twelve years, the Canberra Cockatoos won the 2005 National League. It was a close-run thing as their depleted team tried to hold off a fast-finishing Victorian Nuggets over the final rounds. When the gap dropped to six points with the AUS Relays to come it was anyone’s competition, but Canberra held steady in the relays, and it was the Victorians who stumbled at the last hurdle. The NSW Stingers were also there or thereabouts for much of the season but never quite pressed for the lead, with lack of depth amongst the women being their biggest problem.

As expected, Grant Bluett won the men’s individual title comfortably. The main interest in Tasmania was in second place, as Rob Preston tried to chase down the score that Dave Shepherd had posted earlier in the season. He looked good for much of the week but was in a position where he could not afford any poor results, and a ninth in the Australian Sprint Championships ended his hopes. Top-four placings in the last four rounds saw Ben Rattray into fourth place.

Like Shepherd, Jo Allison posted a score for everyone to chase before going to Tasmania. The two possible challengers were Hanny Allston and Tracy Bluett, but neither could put a foot right. A fifth in the Tasmanian Championships ended Allston’s hopes. Bluett was still in contention with two events to go but illness on Australian Championships weekend meant she could get no closer, and Allston’s Australian Championships win saw her take second.

The Canberra Cockatoos win the 2005 National League. From left: Grant Bluett, Nicki Taws, Gareth Candy, Heather Harding, Andy Hogg and Anna Danielsson.

her accumulate enough points to pip Cavanagh for second; Jasmine Neve might have overhauled both of them had she run W17-20E in more than six events.

David Meyer always looked the likeliest winner amongst the men. Simon Uppill and Chris Naunton did their best to challenge, but both would have needed either a string of victories in Tasmania, or a disaster for Meyer in the races he ran, to have a chance, and neither happened. In the end Meyer’s win at the Australian Championships saw him take the title comfortably, while Uppill held Naunton off for second place.

Teams: WA 102, Tasmania 84, Queensland 80, NSW 74, Victoria 74, SA 74, ACT 70.

Men: David Meyer 207, Simon Uppill 189, Chris Naunton 180, Louis Elson 171, Ryan Smyth 162.

Women: Erin Post 201, Sarah Dunnage 172, Ainsley Cavanagh 170, Zebedy Hallett 163, Jasmine Neve 159.

Teams: Canberra Cockatoos 213, Victorian Nuggets 195, NSW Stingers 188, Queensland Cyclones 137, Southern Arrows 130, Western Nomads 110, Tassie Foresters 108.

Men: Grant Bluett 243, Dave Shepherd 199, Rob Preston 193, Ben Rattray 183, Eric Morris 181.

Women: Jo Allison 225, Hanny Allston 216, Tracy Bluett 213, Grace Elson 187, Anna Danielsson 176, Clare Hawthorne 176.

WA wins Junior Division for the first time SPEARHEADED by a women’s team that hardly dropped a point all season, Western Australia won their first major national team title when they took out the Junior Division of the National League. It was a tight competition, with all seven teams still mathematically in contention for the title before the final round, but good performances earlier in the season meant WA always had their nose in front, and they went further away from the field in the AUS Relays. Tasmania and Queensland, both of whom finished the season very well, filled the minor placings.

Western Australia also supplied the two leading female individuals. Erin Post got more good results on the board than anyone else, and while Ainsley Cavanagh briefly promised to challenge she could not sustain it. An excellent Australian Championships week by the emerging Sarah Dunnage saw 36 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

A one-year subscription (7 issues) of Orienteering Today $A115, payable to The Australian Orienteer.

Send to PO Box 165, Warrandyte, Victoria 3113

N AT I O N A L O L E A G U E

Erin Post won the Junior Women’s National League title this year.

Photo: Bob Mouatt.

Dave Meyer won the Junior Men’s National League title this year.

Photo: Bob Mouatt.

WA won the Junior National League title for the first time. Photographed here is Sarah Dunnage, Cody Whitfield, Kellie Whitfield, Ivan Komyshan, Erin Post and Rhys Challen.

Grant Bluett won the Senior Men’s National League title.

Photo: Mike Hubbert.

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER

37

AUSSIES OVERSEAS – RADI-O

AUSSIE MEDALS AT ASIA-PACIFIC RADIO ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS Bruce Paterson

A team of four Australians had unprecedented success at the recent Radio Orienteering (ARDF) Championships held in Niigata, Japan, in September.

Never before at a championship level have we come away with podium finishes in each event, both as a team and individually. Let’s start the story at the beginning.

Why Japan?

R

EGIONAL championships are held every second year, with the world championships held on the intervening years.

The previous regional championship was held in Ballarat in 2003, and there the Aussie team did well, especially the juniors.

This year it was Japan’s turn to host the events, the first time the regional champs have ever been held there. For some years they have been postponing, claiming it would be too expensive, but the cost of entry was almost the same as two years ago.

Help on the way We were able to get a bit of a tour around Tokyo for a couple of days prior to the competition, guided by a friend who lives there now, but who used to do direction finding here. It also helped the team acclimatise to the more humid and hotter conditions.

On the Floor Niigata is in northern Japan, a mere 2.5 hours by bullet train from Tokyo, but the accommodation was well out of town. It was the full traditional Japanese-style guesthouses (ryokan) with rice-paper walls, hot spring baths, sleeping mats (tatami), rice husk pillows and dinner on the floor. Each guesthouse had limited room so the nine competing countries were spread across seven houses in two villages. The real buzz was the great cultural experience, with the

Adam Scammell nears the Finish

disadvantage that socialising was more difficult with no common gathering area. On the first couple of days, which included technical testing & calibration against their transmitters and the official opening ceremony, we were happy to catch up with friends (with varying amounts of English) from Mongolia, Kazakhstan, US, China, Japan, Korea, Russia and to greet the newcomers from Thailand.

Lets get into it Day 3 is where things really got going with the first competition, this one being on the HF band on 3.5MHz. It was unusual to have this one first, but since in many ways it is more straightforward it was a good call. The A3 1:15,000 maps weren’t to IOF standards and in fact showed no runnability information at all. As it turned out they could have all been shaded largely dark green, but knowing where the green wasn’t would have made quite a difference. It was a bit like a RadiO street-O event - any venture off the tracks was fraught with danger. I did go bush (read jungle) once on my way to my first transmitter to avoid a very long backtrack, but in retrospect the backtracking may have been faster, and a lot less arduous!

The jungle, the rice fields and the surprise The RadiO team in yukata bathrobes - Bruce Paterson, Bryan Ackerley, Mark Diggins and Adam Scammell.

38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Bryan Ackerly and myself both chose an optimal transmitter order and good route choices (apart from

AUSSIES OVERSEAS – RADI-O my one jungle crawl fighting head-height bushes and knee height vines). I was first competitor to the finish which was encouraging as I’d left in the 7th start group (35mins). The disadvantage of an early run is less tracking near the transmitters to help you during the ‘transmitter off’ time. Bryan had a very respectable time of 1hr17min for 4 transmitters. In M40 we were not required to find transmitter #5. His time was so respectable in fact, that he won M40 outright. I was only about 10 minutes slower (refer jungle, and the early start) coming outright 2nd, a good 30 minutes ahead of the 3rd placed Korean. The time limit for both events was 2hr20min.

Team results are calculated on the best two results of a team of 2 or 3. In M40 we didn’t have a 3rd team member, which is a risk as often things can go wrong, but this time it worked out. Of course our individual placings also gave us team Gold.

We both ended up going within 40m of Bruce Paterson in transmitter #5 anyway due the Finish lane. to our route choice, so it’s encouraging to note that the best Open/M21 time was over 1hr47min.

In M21 Adam Scammell pulled a respectable 4th outright (2nd Asia-Pacific) despite a dreadful transmitter order. His 2hr11min was beaten by two Kazakhs and a Mongolian. Nikolay Tarrasov (Kazakhstan) was 2nd with 1hr51min, also choosing a similar order to Adam.

Mark Diggins came 5th (3rd Asia-Pacific) but with 4 instead of 5 transmitters in 2 hours. Sometimes it’s strange the way the team results turn out, and in this case, despite both Adam and Mark not placing outright they got team Silver (and of course team Gold in Asia-Pacific).

Water World The rest day in between is often taken up with a cultural tour of some sort. In Japan they decided to let us loose in Niiigata for a few hours to go shopping or do whatever. They supplied a college student studying English with each country to look after us.

Afterwards we were taken to an amusement park. We looked at the rusting rides with some trepidation as they groaned to reluctant life at our arrival. Was there no-one else here ?

Our guide enthused about the ferris wheel but we weren’t to be sidetracked. Yes, it was straight up to the top of the hill for go-karts and water world! That set the right frame of mind to enjoy it, till all suddenly stopped (broken?) dead at 4pm. Obviously time to go to the Japanese BBQ. This was in the grounds and was actually very good. We had to cook our vegies and thin sliced meat on our table gas burners (the meal is Shabu-Shabu) washed down with free Sapporo beer. Our guide got into the Karaoke, in fact, he couldn’t stop himself, much to the dismay of all but the severely tone deaf.

Jungle and Hills The VHF competition turned out to be in the vicinity of the amusement park, and in fact the finish had a (rusting) mini train run right past every now & then. Hills and VHF tend to make it a tricky competition with misleading transmission reflections giving wrong bearings. For this reason I took very careful initial bearings

as we were at least some way from the hills and they would be more accurate.

None of the team had a particularly good run. I dared the jungle again due to an earlier guess that didn’t pan out and got stuck in very deep green which was also incredibly steep. I finished with the required 4 controls after a very long run from the most distant transmitter with only 3min to spare (time - 2hr17min).

Surprisingly this still gave me 5th place.

Bryan had all sorts of problems with one of the transmitters and eventually had to abandon his search to get back in time. He found 3 controls in 2hr09min, coming 7th. A Japanese was the M40 winner here with 1hr50min, which is a pretty long time. It was a tough course.

The team scoring magic worked for us again and we pulled a team Bronze out of the hat for that, only 4sec ahead of Mongolia’s team score.

In M21 Adam didn’t Mark Diggins have a clean run, but it finishes strongly. seems neither did many others and he came an excellent 2nd (1st AsiaPacific) with 1hr58min, only beaten by Nikolay Tarasov with a much more typical result for him of 1hr15min. Mark found 3 controls in 2hr08min coming 8th (5th Asia-Pacific). The importance of finishing within the time limit and not getting a DNF shows here because Mark and Adam’s combined score gave them team Silver (Gold Asia-Pacific).

Bryan Ackerley won Gold.

So where to from here ?

Despite a small team Australia is very competitive in our part of the world. Against Europe is another matter, and we’ll get to test that again at the World Championships in Bulgaria next year.

For a more detailed account and links to pictures: http://members.optusnet.com.au/bmp/ardf/reports.html Full set of results and more photos: http://www.jarl.or.jp/2005r3ardf How to get involved: http://www.ardf.org.au

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 39

melbournebikes.com

MTB-O

Mountain Bike competition 226 names of eligible Mountain Bike Orienteers went into the draw for a mountain bike generously donated by Warren Key’s Melbourne Bicycle Centre complete with Miry mapboard from Tom Andrews’ Orienteering Service of Australia.

And the winner is…

Anitra Dowling of Eureka Orienteers, VIC. Jasmine Neve drew the winner’s name at the Melbourne Bicycle Centre last month. Anitra is now checking out all the features of her new bike.

FELT SR 81

$

999

Frame Triple butted lightweight 7005 Alloy, Fork Full Carbon, Wheel Set Alex DA 22 doublewall SAVE $500 with black stainless spokes, Group Set Shimano 105 27speed with Rapidfire levers, Crank Set Truvativ Road Triple, Bars Lightweight alloy, Stem Fully adjustable alloy, Seat Post 0-100% suspension, Saddle Gel contour, Tyres Inertia120 psi with Armour guard puncture proofing.

Jasmine Neve demonstrates the mountain bike donated

by Melbourne Bicycle Centre – Clifton Hill.

Cycle Shirts for ozmtbo.com M B C SUP P OR TING MT B ORIE N T E E RI N G

MOUNTAIN Bike Orienteers will soon have their very own cycle shirts. Organised by Alex Randall, the shirts will be sold to help raise funds for the Australian MTBO Team going to the 2006 World Championships in Finland. The cycle shirts will also give Aussie riders a much-needed uniform identity, particularly when competing in events overseas.

So join the ozmtbo.com team. Buy an ozmtbo.com cycle shirt and help support the Australian MTBO Team in Finland.

Contact Alex Randall (VIC) randalla@ocean.com.au or Paul Darvodelsky (NSW) pd@psd.net.au

Ring Warren or Natasha for a special deal

03 9489 3555

37 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill Victoria

melbournebikes.com

The MTB-O pages supported by Warren and Tash Key from The MELBOURNE BICYCLE CENTRE, CLIFTON HILL – ph. 03 9489 5569

Four Aussies in World MTB-O Top Twenty

Blake Gordon

TO the consistent riders go the spoils! In 2005 Adrian Jackson (2nd), Alex Randall (7th), Anna Sheldon (8th) and Mary Fien (19th) (see World Rankings on p47) have put Australia again on the world stage in the final world MTB-O rankings. The team had a plan to compete in Poland, Estonia and Czech Republic as leadup races to the World Championships in Slovakia. With two firsts in the Czech Republic WRE’s (World Ranking Event) a second in Poland and a bronze in the World Championships Long-distance final, Adrian Jackson finished a close second to double World Champion Ruslan Gritsan (Russia). Alex’s second in the Poland WRE and consistent scoring in the other races earned him seventh place. Anna was never out of the top-10 in the four races she competed in resulting in her eighth place ranking. Mary was in the top 15 in three out of four races to place her 19th overall. This all adds up to the best MTB-O results ever by our talented four-some in Europe.

Summary of Year 2005 •A ustralia made a good showing at the 2005 World MTBO Championships in Slovakia with the team of 3 men (Adrian Jackson, Alex Randall and Anthony Darr) and 3 women (Mary Fien, Carolyn Jackson and Anna Sheldon).

A BRONZE MEDAL to Adrian Jackson in the Long-distance and a 6th place PODIUM finish to Anna Sheldon in the Middle-distance were results of special note. The women’s relay team came very close to a medal; Alex Randall’s 14th (Long-distance), Adrian’s 8th (Middle-distance), Anna Sheldon’s 8th (Long-distance) and Mary Fien’s 15th (Longdistance) were further 2005 benchmark performances in Slovakia.

•V ictoria staged the 2005 National Long and Middledistance Championships on 19th/20th November with a record attendance (over 100) for the Middle-distance Championships, thanks to the combined efforts of the Bendigo, Nillumbik and Eureka Orienteering clubs.

•S ignificant growth continued to occur in Queensland (led

by Liz Bourne) and Western Australia, led by Stewart Greig, Duncan Sullivan and Eoin Rothery, in preparation for the 2006 National Championships in WA.

to results boards in the Victorian and Australian MTB-O Championships. .

•M edia: Excellent coverage in The Australian Orienteer (thanks to Mike Hubbert and Peter Cusworth) was mirrored in Queensland where Anna Sheldon featured on a youthoriented television program on MTB-O. David Searle added much historical data to the www.ozmtbo.com website.

•S chool Events: Victoria staged the first Schools MTB-O Championships at Macedon on 19th August thanks to Peta Whitford and her team of volunteers. Over 80 secondary and primary students participated in cool and damp conditions. This event will be staged again in 2006.

• OA Website: Thanks to Andy Hogg elite MTB-O news was well presented on the new OA High Performance page.

•C ommunication: Anthony Darr’s blogspot webpage was an innovative way to follow the Slovakia WOC. With pictures of the terrain and what the team was doing and Paul’s short stories about the tour through Europe, the highs and lows of the team, and the concise perspective of individuals in the team gave a refreshing look at the MTB-O world championships.

What will be news in 2006 •A ustralia will hold 4 selection trials – two in Victoria (Maryborough area) in late February and two in NSW (Newcastle area) in late March – to choose the team for the July WMTB-O in Finland.

•A ustralia has applied for two WRE (World Ranking Events) in 2006 to give our riders a chance to earn valuable world ranking points downunder – before the team goes to Finland.

•W estern Australia will stage the 9th Australian MTB-O Championships – Long-distance, Middle-distance and Relay – as part of the October Australian Championships Carnival.

•V ictoria will run 4 low-key events over the summer close to Melbourne to introduce new riders to the sport.

Thanks to all the course planners, organisers and bike orienteers who made 2005 a year of growth and development. Hope you will volunteer to make wheel-O fun for increased numbers downunder.

Anthony Darr during the Relay at the World Champs in Slovakia.

•O A revenue was increased with state titles in WA, NSW, SA, ACT, Tas, Vic and the Nationals.

Initiatives from 2005 •R esults Displays: Use of Sportident timing was coupled with “self-service” largeformat result slats (as used successfully at the 2004 WMTB-O) to bring focus back

Blake at the recent Victorian MTB-O Champs.

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 41

TRAINING

Steve Bird

Orienteering, Ageing and Health

maximum heart rate, which reduces maximum oxygen delivery and hence VO2 max. Orienteers certainly manifest these age linked declines in maximum heart rate with average declines of around 3 – 6 beats per decade3,4. In this context it should be noted that the commonly referred to algorithms for estimating a person’s maximum heart rate of: “HRmax = 220 – age” or “HRmax = 200 – 0.65 age” are rough guides based upon population averages and it’s not uncommon for an individual’s true maximum heart rate to vary from these predictions by more than 20 beats per minute, so don’t rely on them too heavily.

Other reasons for declines in running speed mooted by some researchers are an age-linked decline in muscle mass, which may become very significant in the older age groups. Particularly in Orienteering when good leg strength and power are needed for running up hills and over rough ground. However running economy as measured by the oxygen cost of running at specified speeds does not appear to be affected by ageing, although more research is needed in this area. Nor, it would appear, is the ability to produce lactic acid affected by ageing, as we found some of the older women in our studies5 to have similar levels of lactic acid to that of the young men. So even though an older person’s lactate threshold may occur at a slower running speed, it is at a similar % of their maximum speed and % of their VO2max. Practically this means that even though they may not run as fast, older orienteers certainly try as hard and experience similar levels of fatigue as their younger counterparts.

OUR physical fitness tends to peak when we are in our mid-twenties to mid-thirties. Exactly when this occurs varies between individuals and is influenced by how much regular exercise we undertake, what sort of training we do and other lifestyle factors. Then inevitably our physical capacity begins to decline as a consequence of ageing processes. This can be seen clearly in the ranks of top orienteers, where even the best veterans are eventually usurped, as they don’t have the fitness of younger elites who are in their prime.

However, that is not to say that we should give up training after we reach our peak or that there is no point in trying to stay fit.

Indeed, not only are there well established health benefits from continuing exercise such as Orienteering, but by continuing to train, the declines in physical capacity can be minimised. In fact in sedentary older people a substantial amount of their loss of physical function is attributable to inactivity and other lifestyle factors rather than ageing per se. Within our sport, the benefits of staying fit are illustrated weekly by fit older orienteers who regularly beat their unfit competitors, even though they may be are 20 – 30 years younger. This is, of course, ignoring factors such navigational skills. What is also encouraging is that if you’re not already training regularly and at your peak of fitness for your age, you can still improve, and studies have demonstrated increases in the fitness of people aged over 70. So it is never too late to try and get fit, or to at least restore some of what you may have lost.

Of course the amount of improvement you’re liable to experience depends upon how unfit you are to start with and how much training you are capable of doing.

An analysis of the Orienteering speed of top national orienteers1 shows that having attained a near peak of performance in their early twenties some men and women orienteers are still at this level when aged around 40. But despite their best of intentions and dedicated commitment to their sport there then appears to be an inevitable slowing in Orienteering speed that starts at around the age of 40 – 45 years. This slowing in speed equates to about 10 – 15% per decade, with a suggestion of an even steeper decline after the age of 70 years (Figure 1). This overall pattern is also evident in club level orienteers. So why do we slow down as we age and is there anything we can do about it?

Age related declines in Orienteering performance Research on age-related changes in all endurance running events and data based on the world best times for distances on the track and road suggest a decline in running race speed of 6 - 10% per decade in both men and women after the third decade of life2.

Investigations into the underlying physiological changes behind the observed performance declines in endurance events have linked them to reductions in maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max). In general VO2 max in endurance athletes appears to decline by 5 - 7% per decade3,4 and this is primarily attributed to a decline in 42 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

So what can we do about it?

It must be appreciated that the underlying causes of age-linked changes in performance are likely to be a combination of social, physiological, psychological and biomechanical factors. Not all of which will be a direct result of ‘pure-ageing’. As, for example, would be the effects of lifestyle changes, such as having children or the demands of a career. We all go through life phases during which these exert a greater or lesser influence on our athletic activities and our Orienteering becomes higher or lower in our priorities. Other factors affecting performance can be as simple as poorer eyesight and greater difficulty in reading the fine details on the map.

As we age it is important to adjust our training loads to suit our needs and priorities. Although our aims may be to be as fit as we can, the amount we do may need to be adjusted in accordance with what our bodies can cope with. Almost all sportsmen and women eventually have to accept this as recurrent injuries indicate that their training loads are exceeding their capacity. Those of us who have trained hard in our youth and prime, tend to find facing such truths unpalatable, but the adjustment is essential. So finding the optimal volume, intensity and type of training is a key requirement for successful competitive Orienteering in the veteran ranks. Unfortunately there is no formula that suits everyone and we each have to find what suits us through trial and error. However, regardless of our competitive aspirations we should always aim to reach the minimum threshold of physical activity for good health which is to undertake at least 30 minutes of moderate activity on most, and preferably all, days of the week. It is also of particular note that strength training is being more widely recognised by the health and medical professions as an important activity that to some extent can counteract the age linked losses of muscle mass. It is therefore prescribed to help older people maintain their functional abilities. Although I’m not aware of any related study to date, it would be interesting to know whether high intensity strength training could benefit our oldest orienteers and I would speculate that it might.

Orienteering, health and ageing Research into the benefits of long-term participation in competitive endurance sports such as Orienteering suggests the athlete has a

NUTRITION

Gillian Woodward

Summer – time to think Fluids

Sports drinks of course replace not only fluid, but also carbohydrate and electrolytes, all of which are important to be maintained for best body function. They are specifically designed to contain carbohydrate at a concentration which allows the liquid to be emptied rapidly from the stomach and absorbed quickly from the intestine, allowing better hydration than water alone.

EVERYONE knows the importance of fluids to sports performance, particularly those involved in endurance events. We have all had that experience of running well for 80% of the course, but fading in those last few controls towards the end. We lack concentration and energy, tending to make errors which seem impossible when we look over our performance in hindsight with a fully hydrated brain!

There are really only three very simple rules to follow: 1. Start the event well hydrated 2. Keep up the fluid intake throughout the run 3. Replenish fluids adequately after the event

How do you know you are well hydrated?

There are two main ways to tell. One involves knowing your normal weight, the other is to visually assess the colour of your urine.

It is known that a 2% loss in body weight due to sweating is enough to impair performance considerably. So if you know that your normal body weight is 70 kg, and you hop on the scales before a training session or event and see you are 69.6 kg, then you are dehydrated by 2% (normal body weight less 2%). Now I realise that it is difficult to carry scales to Orienteering events and find a place flat (and secluded) enough to step on them! So perhaps the second method is more practical.

Look at the colour of your urine if you manage to beat the queue at the portaloo! If it is just a pale yellow colour, then you are probably fairly well hydrated. The darker it is, the more dehydrated you are. So if it is bright or dark yellow in colour you really need to have time to rehydrate well before your run starts. The darker the urine colour, the more concentrated your urine. In other words, the more your kidneys are trying to conserve what limited fluid your body does hold.

Be careful not to over-hydrate. This can cause problems too.

If you have been drinking excessively and are producing large quantities of very dilute, very clear urine, you may be over-hydrated.

It is unnecessary and potentially dangerous to drink at rates that are far greater than sweat losses. This can cause a dilution of blood sodium levels (hyponatraemia). Symptoms include headaches, disorientation, coma, and in severe cases, death.

What is the best fluid to use?

Will sports drinks improve performance?

Generally, yes. All types of effort will benefit from the fluid provided by sport drinks.

Carbohydrate intake during exercise has been shown to enhance performance in the following situations: • Prolonged (more than 90min) sessions of constant lower intensity (60-80% of max) • Prolonged periods (more than 60min) of intermittent highintensity exercise (80-100% max) • High intensity exercise (80-100% max) lasting 60 minutes or more • Any athlete who has heavy sweat losses Orienteering would certainly fit in under several of these categories. The slower steady runners who are out there in the bush for 90 minutes might need sports drinks just as much as the faster elites who perform at greater intensity for a shorter time, covering the same ground in 60 minutes or less.

When should sports drinks be used?

1. Before: Sports drinks are ideal in the last hour before an event.

The carbohydrate tops up muscle glycogen fuel levels, while the added sodium reduces urine losses before exercise begins. The flavour also helps the athlete to drink a higher volume compared to drinking water.

2. During: Sports drinks are primarily designed for use during exercise, for optimal fluid and fuel delivery so this is where they really come into their own. They will allow the athlete to perform for longer and more effectively in training and competition. Just what the orienteer needs – energy for both mind and body for the duration of the whole event.

3. Recovery: Sports drinks can be of great assistance in rehydration.

However, don’t rely on the sports drink alone for complete recovery. It is best to consume them in conjunction with foods that provide carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and minerals. High GI carbohydrate foods like watermelon, and other tropical fruits, can be helpful here.

In the past, the advice would have been that water was sufficient for most sports lasting less than an hour in duration. However, with the invention of sports drinks and the subsequent research into their usage, advice on this has changed. It is now known that even in events lasting only 30 minutes, an athlete’s performance can be improved by consuming sports drinks rather than water only.

In summary for a successful summer in Orienteering, plan your hydration strategy well and stick to this plan, adjusting it to hotter conditions where necessary. Experiment on training runs, using various quantities and types of sports drinks, until you find the best volume and product for you. Everyone’s needs are individual, so discovering what suits you best is the key.

TRAINING – continued

decline is around 0.6 – 1.0% per year in road running and 1.0 – 1.5% in Orienteering we should consider factoring this into our comparisons. So if our rate of decline proves to be equal or less than this, we could congratulate ourselves on maintaining our level of performance. Furthermore, Orienteering fulfils the criteria of a health enhancing physical activity, and therefore we should keep active and aim to stay fit for the good of our health as well as our sport.

greatly reduced risk of coronary heart disease which is about 1/7th that of non-smoking, non-athletic controls6. So although no-one is completely free of the risk of cardiovascular disease, we are certainly loading the dice in our favour by participating in our Orienteering.

Furthermore, in addition to benefiting our cardiovascular health, leisure activities such as Orienteering can have positive benefits upon our mental health as well as our social life.

Conclusions Ageing is inevitable and will affect our Orienteering performance.

It may be impracticable therefore to directly compare our running speeds as we get older. However, given that the average rate of

References 1. Bird, S., Balmer, J., Olds, T., & Davison, RCR (2001). Differences between the sexes and age-related changes in orienteering speed Journal of Sports Sciences, 19, 243-252.

References continued page 47

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 43

LETTERS

The Australian Orienteer welcomes letters. Preference will be given to letters which are concise and which make positive points. The editor reserves the right to edit letters, particularly ones which are longer than 300 words.

JWOC report

Give us more Oldies

I would like to point out some inaccurate reporting in the last edition of The Australian Orienteer regarding JWOC 2005 in Switzerland. The editorial (page 3), the article

by Hilary Wood (page 18) and the caption on the photo accompanying Jason McCrae’s article (page 27) suggest that there was a sprint race at JWOC 2005. This is incorrect as till now a sprint race has never been included in the JWOC program. The event in which Hanny Allston came 4th in the junior women and Ryan Smyth 8th in the junior men took place prior to JWOC as part of the PostFinance Sprint race for elites. In both junior classes the field was limited (25 men and 21 women) and not representative of the JWOC field. A sprint race will be included for the first time in the JWOC program in Lithuania in 2006.

I enjoy The Australian Orienteer very much. As you keep saying – it’s a good read. But I’m getting tired of seeing all those young and fit elites on the front cover. The majority of orienteers are not young and fit and they’re certainly not elite.

Why don’t you show some ‘real’ orienteers on the front cover of your magazine?

I would also like to point out that the team of Jasmine Neve, Erin Post and Hanny Allston came 7th in the women’s class of the JWOC relays rather than 8th.

Paul Pacque Coach Australian JWOC 2005 team (Ed: the Australian Girls JWOC relay team finished in 11th place in the race but, with four No.2 teams ahead of them, they were the seventh-placed national team. With so many unofficial teams in the race it was clearly difficult to confirm places on the day and Hilary Wood’s report for AO claimed eighth place for our team. Hilary did a great job getting reports and photos back from JWOC and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank her for the tremendous effort.)

Show some of the older and lesser lights who are the true mainstays of our sport. Show Orienteering as it really is instead of trying to dress it up.

G. Jones (Ed: It’s true that the majority of orienteers are not elites but that’s also true in all sports and, in most of them, the majority taking part are the older and less fit variety. But please remember that, along with the OA web site, The Australian Orienteer is the public face of Orienteering in Australia.

I believe that we should present our sport in the best possible and most attractive light and the front cover of AO is the first thing people see when they pick up the magazine. It’s on the front cover that we should first celebrate the achievements of our best orienteers – by definition they’re the elites. The achievements of others amongst us are well covered in stories and photos inside the magazine. I try to make the coverage as wide as possible but, of course, space is limited.

Golf probably has a similar age demographic to Orienteering.

So when you next buy your golfing magazine will you expect to find Annika Sorenstam and Tiger Woods on the front cover, or the local weekend hacker? )

Plastic Map Bags A well-packed Orienteering map is a joy to use. A poorly packed one can be a nightmare. Yet still there are major events where the map packing is very inadequate.

For 20 years in Queensland we have followed what we consider is the ideal formula. Firstly, the bag thickness must be 75micron. Bags at 50micron do a poor job, yet it’s still commonly used elsewhere. 75micron bags aren’t always easy to buy off-the-shelf, in which case a special run should be ordered, 5mm wider than the map and 15mm longer. (If the off-the-shelf 75micron bags are smaller than the map, consider cutting or folding the map.)

The bag with map inserted should be exhausted of air before heat sealing. A swipe of the palm on a tabletop does a reasonable job but the gold standard is to roll out the air with a heavy roller. (We use a 90mm PVC pipe full of concrete).

This makes the polythene cling to the map.

The final stage is heat sealing (NOT sticky taping !)

The result is a map that is a delight to use, takes multiple folds easily, is 100% waterproof, and doesn’t “scrunch”.

Finally, a word about self-sealing bags. These are worse than useless. The seal is rarely waterproof, it is impossible to evacuate the air, they are hard to fold, they usually “scrunch”, and worst of all they are always 50micron. They should never be used.

Trevor Sauer (Qld)

Or ienteer ing Aus tr alia photo ar c h iv e PETER CUSWORTH maintains an archive of the digital photo files which have been used in The Australian Orienteer. These photo files can be made available for press releases or special promotional projects.

Any material costs will be passed on to users.

Contact Peter on 03 5968 5254 or cusworth@netspace.net.au 44 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

I N N O VAT I O N

Creatures-O Peter Hobbs (VIC)

Animals as controls; a large-scale colour map; some enthusiastic juniors, and a sunny Melbourne day is all that was required to conduct a fun and unusual Park-O event for both ‘big’ and little kids alike.

T

HE event was staged in conjunction with a regular Saturday series Park & Street-O event at Yarrunga Reserve in Croydon Hills on October 15th, 2005.

“Animals as controls?” I hear you ponder.

This was achieved by using standard bushO controls with large pictures of animals attached to the stands. The animal theme did not stop there. The same images were miniaturised and used on maps in place of control numbers, and the images were also printed onto special control cards in place of numbers. Animal location descriptions such as ‘elephant at track junction’ also added to the theme.

Participants in the little kids’ course visited as many of the nine animals as they pleased in any order, whilst the ‘big’ kids’ course, 2.2km as the crow flies, was similar to a sprint event requiring competitors to visit the animals in a set order. The ‘big’ kids’ course contained an element of surprise and required some map memory as competitors were told only that: (1) you must visit the zebra first, (2) the zebra will inform you which animal you must visit next, and (3), the next animal will inform you which animal you must visit next, and so on.

Although the little kids event was by no means a race, the highly enthusiastic participants stayed out on the course for 20-45 minutes with most visiting all of the animals. Inquisitive passers-by, Nicholas Collins and his big sister, having noticed animals strewn around their local park, approached the registration table enquiring, “are all the animals yours?” In the blink of an eye they visited all of the animals in the fastest time of the day – nine minutes!

The ‘big kids’’ performance of the day came from Ian Dodd (DROC) who covered the course in 10min 30sec, followed by Bruce Patterson (BK), and Jenny Mitchell (BK) who lost valuable time locating the ‘bird at creek end’.

Most competitors completed the course in 15-30 minutes.

The concept of ‘visiting the giraffe’ instead of ‘visiting control 12’ and the associated banter

(e.g. “if you look over there you might be able to see the giraffe poke his head above the trees” and “its been 20 years since I’ve been to the zoo”) made for an entertaining and original Orienteering event. It was hugely gratifying to see the juniors so keen and excited about Orienteering, whilst the ‘big kids’ also enjoyed fine tuning their navigation skills on a short course with plenty of obstacles. Due to the success of the event it is likely that another will be organised in 2006.

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 45

RUNNING THE BUSINESS

Bob Mouatt, Director (Development)

THE END OR THE START OF A NEW ERA?

sport throughout Australia, hence the Sport Development funding was abolished.

Could OA have presented a better case? Yes it could, but the case-building exercise would have to have started in the 1980s and there would have had to have been much better support for it at the grass roots level.

For most of the 30 years before 1997, I was a systems analyst and/or resource manager, with two main tasks: working to a budget and achieving outcomes (getting results). I may not be a good mathematician, but I have long understood the value of good record keeping and being able to sprout statistics and well rehearsed one-liners, that are often called ‘elevator speeches’, ie quotes that could be used during 30 seconds in an elevator (lift) with an important person. Some examples of elevator speeches include, • less than three percent of orienteers are smokers • around 66 per cent of orienteers over the age of 24 have a tertiary qualification • in the past five years over 6,000 people have participated in an orienteering event in the ACT • in visiting remote areas, orienteers provide a community service through highlighting illegal activities, finding the bodies of missing persons, etc • orienteers running through the bush have no more impact on an area than a mob of kangaroos • Julian Dent’s 22nd in the WOC Middle-distance final was a best-ever by an Australian on debut • Hanny Allston is the youngest orienteer to be ranked number one in Australia • China has over one million orienteers

BY now most readers would be aware that the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has cut its support for Orienteering Australia (OA) through the cessation of Sport Development funding. As a consequence OA has had to re-shape its budget to the point where it can no longer afford to pay for a number of activities.

My paid position, Manager, National Development, is one that OA has had to abolish so this is my last column in that capacity.

As a consequence it is longer than usual as I wish to reflect on my nine years in the position. In so doing, I also want to comment on the grounds used by the ASC for cutting OA’s Sport Development funding. As to my future in Orienteering, my intention at this stage is to continue for a while as Director (Development).

I Had a Dream What I am now about to write may be provocative and controversial, but I make no apologies as I consider that if Orienteering is to prosper a number of people in the sport need to realise that we are no longer living in the 1970s, when life was relatively easy.

I have been involved in sport since I started school 60 years ago and in Orienteering for nearly half that time. Even before I started Orienteering I was always attracted to it and after my first event in June 1977, I was hooked. To me it was the ultimate sport and I did not take long to get involved in its administration and promotion.

For many years I had a dream of it becoming a significant sport in Australia, but being in very demanding jobs I could not devote as much of my own time as I wished to making that happen. I consider Orienteering missed a golden opportunity in the mid 1980s to capture the media’s attention and secure a position as a significant sport in Australia. Two sports that did not stand still were triathlon and mountain biking and they now enjoy the fruits of success that could have been Orienteering’s.

So when the opportunity arose in late 1996, to receive a moderate remuneration to pursue my dream, I walked away from a highly rewarding and well-paid job (with a six-figure salary package) to chance my arm at making the dream come true. I believed the skills and energy that had brought me success in the RAAF and in ASIO would be enough to win the day, but now I have to be realistic and say I have not succeeded and the dream is over.

What went wrong?

The great dilemma for Orienteering is that the personality type required to succeed in the sport is not necessarily the best to run a successful enterprise. Many years ago, before he migrated to Poland, Graham Moon told me that Orienteering would not prosper until professionals ran it. At the time I did not agree with him, but after nine years of battling negative attitudes, I am now inclined to agree with him.

The main reason that the ASC down-rated Orienteering was relevance which is defined generally by the ASC as “as indicated by performances in international competitions such as the Olympic and Commonwealth Games and World Championships (senior level for each discipline), the level of participation and the interest in the Sport throughout Australia.”

In other words, how important is a sport to the average Australian taxpayer? If the answer is, ‘of little importance’ then the view of the ASC, as driven by government policy, is that taxpayers’ money should not be wasted on it. OA continues to receive High Performance funding for the time being because its HP program was deemed to be successful, but OA was not able to demonstrate a significantly high level of participation and general interest in the 46 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005

Making credible elevator speeches requires a well-stocked data bank, which in turn requires a good source of data from the grass roots level of activities. Most orienteers have a minimalist approach to management and can’t see the point of collecting data on membership and participation. However, if there had been a positive attitude towards accurate record-keeping and data processing, OA might have been able show that the number of active orienteers, including school children, was in the tens of thousands, rather than the low numbers who are actual members.

Others Who Rate Importance Apart from the ASC, ‘importance’ ratings influence the decisions of a number of other organisations including, other government agencies, landholders, the media, insurance companies, etc. As already mentioned in previous columns, access to many large tracts of good orienteering land are under threat and some State Associations are now engaged in major exercises to retain access to key areas; Namadgi National Park in the ACT is one such area. In their submissions, the associations have to stress the importance of Orienteering within the community, the need to have access to the areas and having Orienteering in the area is beneficial, not detrimental.

Media Interest While Orienteering is able to get reasonable coverage in ‘local’ papers, the major media outlets still do not recognise it as a ‘real’ sport. Orienteers are seen by many as eccentrics and the garb many orienteers wear often reinforces this. Only a minority wears clothing that projects an athletic image and few elites project an appropriate image when they are out of competition clothing, collecting awards, etc. While the older folks should be allowed to enjoy their sport in whatever they please, the younger ones need to lift their game, both in and out of competition.

When I started playing Rugby in my late teens, my first coach had two one-liners, “look like you can play, even if you can’t” and “never

run flat out, always save some oxygen for your brain”. I have always obeyed the first adage, but regretfully often forget the second.

Improving Relevance and Saving the Sport There are many things that Orienteering could do to improve its relevance and despite what some of the critics might say, we have to keep recruiting new people just to cover attrition. I have some data on OACT’s memberships dating from 1985 and on renewals since 1992. The renewal rate has varied from 66% (1993) to 84% (2003), with an average of 79% over the period. So OACT has to recruit around 40 new memberships (100 new members) a year just to maintain its current memberships at around 200 and members at 500. If it doesn’t, its membership will decline and as a consequence the people available to stage events will decline and it will have to reduce the number of events, leading to a further possible decline in memberships and ultimately oblivion. Thus promotion and recruitment are very important to the survival of Orienteering.

There are many ways that Orienteering can improve its relevance rating: • results and general stories in the press, on radio and on television • advertisements and promotional articles in magazines and newspapers, and on radio and television that lead to improved community knowledge of the sport and increased participation and memberships • schools-based activities (this might not have an immediate impact on participation and memberships but it educates young people in the basics of Orienteering so that they know about and have a positive attitude to the sport when they get older) • participating in community activities such Clean Up Australia, community Fun Runs, eg Terry Fox Fun Run, helping charities, planting trees, giving blood in groups, etc (other sports, especially major sports, use these activities extensively to get media coverage) • having good data on activities that can be produced at a moment’s notice.

And What if Nothing is Done?

My greatest concern is that Orienteering could lose its High Performance funding, if OA does not keep meeting ASC standards.

Mike Dowling is working very hard to ensure this doesn’t happen, but he will need a lot of help.

I am hopeful, but not confident that there are enough people living in the 21st century with the vision, desire and energy to ensure the survival of Orienteering, but if nothing is done, then the sport will go into decline and I will have wasted nine years of my life.

Final Observation There are some people who have been critical of having paid officers on a Board of Management, because of a perceived possible conflict of interest and I understand that the OA constitution will be amended accordingly. My view is the concern is unwarranted. I could never have done as much as I have, even if I failed to achieve my dream, if I had not been receiving the remuneration that I used to fund my expenses while being a member of the Board. My net income for a couple of years was next to nothing.

As I receive annual reports from the various companies in which I have shares, I look at the remuneration paid to directors of those companies and ask what is the difference between those enterprises and Orienteering Australia? While there is no way that Orienteering Australia could consider paying substantial remunerations to directors, I consider that it should consider having expense of office allowances commensurate with responsibilities.

IOF World Rankings The International Orienteering Federation World Ranking Scheme is based on points scored at World Ranking Events, full details of which can be found at http://www.orienteering.org/. The current standings for men and women are given in the following tables: Men – Foot-O 1 Mats Troeng 2 Jani Lakanen 3 Daniel Hubmann 4 Valentin Novikov 5 Thierry Gueorgiou 6 Jarkko Huovila 7 Andrey Khramov 8 Mats Haldin 9 Anders Nordberg 10 Øystein Kvaal Østerbø 61= David Shepherd 68 David Brickhill-Jones 84 Grant Bluett 85 Troy de Haas 111 Julian Dent

SWE FIN SUI RUS FRA FIN RUS FIN NOR NOR AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS

Men – MTB-O 1 Ruslan Gritsan 2 Adrian Jackson 3 Margus Hallik 4 Tönis Erm 5 Stefan Surgan 6 Ants Grende 7 Alex Randall 8 Christian Gigon 9 Jussi Mäkilä 10 Beat Schaffner

RUS AUS EST EST SVK LTV AUS AUT FIN SUI

Women – Foot-O 1 Simone Niggli-Luder 2 Vroni Konig-Salmi 3 Jenny Johansson 4 Minna Kauppi 5 A Margrethe Hausken 6 K Arewång-Hõjsgaard 7 Marianne Andersen 8 Heli Jukkola 9 Emma Engstrand 10 Paula Haapakoski 22 Hanny Allston 56 Jo Allison 79 Tracy Bluett 107 Natasha Key 128 Allison Jones

SUI SUI SWE FIN NOR SWE NOR FIN SWE FIN AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS

Women – MTB-O 1 Michaela Gigon 2 Anke Dannowski 3 R. Arlauskiene 4 Anna Füzy 5 Hana Bajtosová 6 Anna Wlodarczyk 7 Hana La Carbonara 8 Anna Sheldon 9 Päivi Tommola 10 Markéta Jakoubová 19 Mary Fien 31 Carolyn Jackson

AUT GER LTU HUN SVK POL CZE AUS FIN CZE AUS AUS

BOOKS ON ORIENTEERING There are a great number of books on all aspects of orienteering. For a list and prices contact:

Orienteering Services of Australia

44 Alexandra Parade, Clifton‑Hill VIC 3068 Phone (03) 9489 9766 Email info@macson.com.au

continued from page 43.

2. Joyner, M.J. (1993). Physiological limiting factors and distance running: influence of gender and age on record performances. Exercise and Sports Science Reviews, 21, 103-134.

3. Bird S, George M, Theakston S, Balmer J and Davison RCR (2003). Heart rate responses of male orienteers aged 21 – 67 years during competition. Journal of Sports Sciences, 21, 221-228.

4. Bird S, George M, Balmer J and Davison RCR (2003). Heart rate responses of Women aged 23 – 67 years during competitive orienteering. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 37, 254-257.

5. Bird SR, George M, Theakston S, Smith M, Burrows M, Balmer J and Davison RCR (2002). Age as a poor predictor of blood-lactate and heart-rate responses during club level orienteering. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 10, 119-131.

6. Kujala, U.M., Sarna, S., Kaprio, J., Koskenvuo, M., & Karjalainen, J. (1999). Heart attacks and lower-limb function in master endurance athletes. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 31, 1041-1046.

DECEMBER 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 47

...every insurance policy sold helps Orienteering Australia fund official teams and reduce levies for members

it's the Home and Car Insurance you can believe in