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
