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