2005 Athlete of the Year - Hanny Allston
w w w. o r i e n t e e r i n g . a s n . a u Orienteering Australia President: Director (High Performance): Director (Finance): Director (Development): Director (Technical): Director (Special Projects): IOF Vice President: Executive Officer: Badge Applications:
PO Box 284 Mitchell BC 2911 orienteering@netspeed.com.au w: 02 6162 1200 Bob Mouatt rmouatt@ozemail.com.au h: 02 6231 2463 m: 0412 312 376 Mike Dowling mdowling@tassie.net.au h: 03 6244 7173 Blair Trewin b.trewin@bom.gov.au h: 03 9455 3516 Ben Rattray benrattray@hotmail.com m: 0404 781 032 Andy Hogg natnandy@homemail.com.au w: 02 6125 9962 h: 02 6251 9777 Robin Uppill aruppill@chariot.net.au h: 08 8278 3017 m: 0419 037 770 Hugh Cameron hcameron@albury.net.au h: 02 6027 0885 Gareth Candy orienteering@netspeed.com.au w: 02 6162 1200 m: 0402 312 379 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: Steven Guthridge Ph. 08 8981 3197
OCTOBER ISSUE DEADLINE: August 7 Time-sensitive: August 14
ISSN 0818-6510 Issue 2/06 (no. 142) JUNE 2006
CONTENTS A U S T R A L I A N 3 - D AY S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
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
N A T I O N A L O R I E N T E E R I N G L E A G U E .. . . . . . 8
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: Blair Trewin Printer: Priden Printing Services, 21 Century Drive, Braeside, Vic. 3195 Next edition: Cover date: 1 October 2006 Contribution deadlines: August 7. Time-sensitive material, August 14. 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: Grant Bluett; Competition: Blair Trewin; High Performance: Mike Dowling; MTBO: Blake Gordon; Official News: Gareth Candy; 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 – Philip Purcell philippurc@hotmail.com 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: $40 inc GST. Overseas: Asia/Pacific (inc. NZ) $A44, Rest of World $A49. 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.
N S W U LT I M A X S T I N G E R S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2
2 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA AWARDS... 11 URBAN ORIENTEERING...................... 16 T H E R OA D TO D E N M A R K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8 COACHING...................................... 19 N U T R I T I O N.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0 TRAINING....................................... 22 MAP TRAINING WITH OCAD............... 24 SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY...................... 26 H I G H P E R F O R M A N C E R E P O R T.. . . . . . . . . . . . 2 7 MELB UNI O CLUB............................ 28 C O M PA S S E S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 T O P E V E N T S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 DID YOU KNOW?.............................. 34 M T B - O N AT I O N A L R A N K I N G S . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 6 MTB-O TIPS.................................... 37 MTB-O NEWS ................................. 38 L E T T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1 MUSEUM-O..................................... 42 2 0 0 5 A U S T R A L I A N R A N K I N G S .. . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 RUNNING THE BUSINESS................... 46 E X E C U T I V E M A T T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7 Front Cover: Julian Dent at the National League event at Cowra in March. Julian was unable to run at Easter due to a stress fracture injury and has since had to withdraw from the WOC team for Denmark due to the injury taking longer than expected to heal. Photo: Bob Mouatt
AUSTRALIAN 3-DAYS – CASTLEMAINE , VICTORIA
Over 1000 attend Easter Carnival by Blair Trewin
M
ORE than 1000 competitors and volunteers descended upon Bendigo and Castlemaine over the Easter period for the Australian 3-Days Orienteering Carnival, the foremost event on the calendar for our orienteers. Competitors came from Darwin, Perth and other, closer, towns and cities; even internationals from France, Japan, the UK and Scandinavia. Monday’s competition was an IOF-sanctioned World Ranking Event in which elite competitors compete for world-ranking points, so the heat was most certainly on for that last race of Easter. Blair Trewin reports: Overall, the Australian 3-Days saw comfortable wins for preevent favourites Dave Shepherd and Hanny Allston. Both took the lead from the Prologue onwards, and although both were tested for the first two races, they pulled away from the field to have substantial margins by the end of Monday. Close finishes are the norm in the Prologue, which this year was contested in gold mining terrain on the fringe of Bendigo. The men had a very close finish, but not so the women. Allston set the scene for her eventual victory when she finished nearly two minutes ahead of her closest rival on the day, Anna Quayle. Perhaps more significantly, Jo Allison, her most likely challenger over the four days, pulled up with a knee injury after finishing fourth and did not run again for the rest of the week. The men were much closer, with Shepherd finishing 7secs clear of Grant Bluett and Kerrin Rattray not much further back. Saturday saw a move to the lightning-fast gully-spur near Maldon, where sub-5 minute kilometres were commonplace amongst the men. This was the day when Allston did not have things all her own way, as small errors added up and left her just short of fellow Tasmanian Grace Elson on the day. She was still two minutes clear, though, and in a strong position. The men stayed closely bunched at the top. Shepherd once again won the day by a single-digit margin – this time three seconds from Rattray – and Bluett was close enough to leave the three leaders covered by just over a minute after two days. The critical moves in the elite classes are often made in the long race on Sunday. With Spring Gully proving to be relatively fast terrain despite the areas of mining detail, it wasn’t as much of an endurance test as Easter Sunday sometimes can be, but the key breaks were still made. Shepherd’s two nearest challengers both disappeared from contention, by misadventure rather than lack of endurance. Rattray’s chances were ended by a six-minute mistake at control 21, and Bluett missed control 22 altogether. That left the lead expanded from a few seconds to six minutes, and Eric Morris and Rob Preston, both of whom had solid runs, in the minor placings. Allston displayed her formidable long-distance skills in running away from the field. She was already three minutes ahead by the fifth control, and won by five. Elson remained in second
place, whilst the consistent Anna Sheldon worked her way into contention with a third. The final day was also the most detailed, in the intensive mining and often low visibility of Deadman’s Flat. It was a map which provided plenty of opportunity for people to make big mistakes – opportunities which were often accepted in other classes – but the reverse-order start in the elite classes means that packs are quite common and big moves are rare. They were certainly hard to come by amongst the men. Shepherd made it four wins out of four as he scored by a minute to stretch his final margin to eight, Morris and Preston held their places, and the biggest excitement was the resolution of a tight four-way battle for fourth in favour of Rune Olsen. The women’s finish was more interesting, not at the front – that was a no-contest as Allston extended her lead well into double figures – but in the rest of the field. Elson, who led Sheldon by three minutes at the start of the day, lost that advantage at the first control, and despite some fast legs in mid-course was never quite able to regain second, falling 26secs short in the end. Whilst they fell short of the placings, Danielle Winslow and Orla Murray both had excellent final-day runs – Murray’s second on the day being her best result in a couple of years – to put themselves into contention for the WOC team with one trial to come.
Uppill dominates, and a first major win for Whitfield. Simon Uppill was expected to dominate M17-20E and did. He showed his form by winning the Prologue in a time fast enough for sixth in the open event, and went on to win all four days comfortably, ultimately finishing twelve minutes clear. The close contest was behind him as Chris Naunton and Ryan Smyth fought for second place. They were only seconds apart on the first two days, before Naunton edged clear over the last two. There were more surprises on hand in W17-20E. With three of the leading juniors (Allston, Jasmine Neve and Vanessa Round) running the
Simon Upill (SA), a clear winner in M17-20E
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 3
AUSTRALIAN 3-DAYS – CASTLEMAINE , VICTORIA elite class, Sophie Barker went in as clear favourite, but an erratic run in the Prologue left her four minutes off the pace, and despite wins on two of the last three days she was unable to get any higher than third. Clare Brownridge got off to a good start on home ground, but by Saturday evening Kellie Whitfield had the overall lead, and extended it to four minutes with a win on Sunday. She was slowed a little by knee soreness on Monday but still had more than enough in hand for her first win in a major national event. The tensest battle of the final day was that for second and third. At its outset, less than a minute separated Barker, Ainsley Cavanagh and Heather Harding, with (probably) only two JWOC team places available, but Harding lost five minutes on the first two controls, leaving Cavanagh to narrowly hold second from Barker. Like W21E and W17-20E, W16 was a class where a critical move was made in the early, technical controls of the final day. Emily Prudhoe went into the day two minutes ahead, but after winning three of the first four legs she had extended that to eight, and ended up an easy winner ahead of Julia Sullivan, who came through strongly on the last day. Rachael Sampson also turned a close race after two days into an easy win after three in W14. Australian terrain – especially maps with contours and little else of the sort used on Saturday – has been known to catch out even the most experienced of Scandinavians on their first visit (as Bjornar Valstad and Hanne Staff found out at the 2000 World Cup). That made the wins of the Blomgren brothers, from Sweden, significant. Martin was particularly impressive in M14, winning all three days by at least five minutes. Erik had to work harder in M16 but the two minutes he pulled out on the field on Saturday was decisive in the end. There was a good race for first Australian between two promising prospects in Lachlan Dow and Kurt Neumann (who was running up an age group), with the Canberran coming from just behind after two days to take second place.
Last day the key in deciding masters places. The last day was the key in deciding many of the masters classes, with the more technical terrain catching many out in the opening controls. The lead changed hands in six of the 18 A classes, and in several others small margins after two days turned into substantial ones after three. The most significant reshuffling happened in M60, the largest class these days and often one of the better contests. Terry Bluett and Dick Ogilvie, first and third after two days, both lost about ten minutes at the first control, whilst Tony Simpkins, second at the start of the day, had a similar misadventure at 4. All ultimately missed the placings and less than three minutes separated the top four, with Tim Dent prevailing over a fast-finishing Dave Lotty. The only other class with a similarly close set of placegetters, minus the volatility, was M75, where three minutes separated Tony Mount, Kevin Paine and Ron Larsson. W55 was another class with big changes on the last day. Four started the last day within three minutes of each other, but two Kathy Liley (VIC) of those four, Val Hodsdon won W55 and Meredyth Sauer, crashed out of contention when they lost 20 minutes apiece over the first three controls. Kathy Liley, who started the day in third, had a very convincing run and ended up with a comfortable four-minute margin over overnight leader Alison Radford. Jim Sawkins (M65) was another one who came from third on the last day, dominating the day with a
Hermann Wehner (M80) won all three days.
five-minute win, although without as much reshuffling elsewhere in the pack. Shane Trotter turned a four-minute deficit into a five-minute win in the small M35 field – unlike most classes, this owed more to his strength over the second half of the course than to errors in the first half. Nigel Davies held on in M55, despite losing five of his seven-minute lead at the first control and a great run from Tony Radford to move into second, but the most spectacular comeback of all was almost pulled off by Helen Alexander in W65, another class where the first control on the last day was critical. She started the last day 18 minutes behind the two leaders, was almost in front by the first control and took the lead during the course, but lost it again at the very end as overnight leader Sue Davidson regained the front at the second-last control. A tight battle between Nicola Dalheim and Christine Marshall for two-and-a-half days was resolved in Dalheim’s favour when Marshall lost seven minutes halfway through the last day. (The W40 course was the same as M21E on the first day, and both showed up a couple of the men). W45 also saw a high-standard duel between two former national representatives. Liz Abbott started the last day four minutes behind, made a very good start and briefly hit the front late in the course, but Jenny Bourne finished strongly to score by just over a minute. M50 might have been an interesting two-way battle too, but was spoilt before it began when Geoff Lawford mispunched on the first day, leaving Paul Pacque to score an overwhelming victory despite narrow wins for Lawford on the last two days. Other, closer, classes where there were significant non-finishes were M70, which Clive Pope won by five minutes after injury ended Ian Hassall’s Easter on Sunday, and W70, where first-day leader Maureen Ogilvie missed a control on the second day and Sue Mount pulled away from Joyce Rowlands on the last. Only three veterans were able to win all three days. Hermann Wehner (M80) and Sheralee Bailey (W35) were a class above their fields and were never seriously challenged, but Rob Vincent was equally dominant in the much larger M45 field in a very impressive effort. They were joined as a big winner by Jenny Hawkins, who was bettered by seasoned goldmining campaigner Dale Ann Gordon on the last day in W60 but still finished ten minutes ahead.
Shepherd and Elson take AUS Middle-distance titles. Dave Shepherd made it five wins out of five for the week when he took out the Australian Middle-distance Championships at Mount Korong. On the tricky granite terrain which provided one of the week’s more testing navigational challenges, Shepherd’s run was a fine example of how steadiness can trump speed in technical terrain. He won only four of the 26 splits – one of them a ninesecond road crossing – but he had a narrow lead after the first few controls, and held it almost throughout the rest of the race. He had a one-minute break over a great battle for second; Rune Olsen looked a possible winner after a storming stretch in mid-course where he briefly took the lead before stumbling at 15, then Grant Bluett and Eric Morris swapped second at almost every control towards the end in a race that was finally resolved in Bluett’s favour in the finish chute. Adrian Jackson, always in the hunt before running a close fourth, achieved his best result at this level. The women’s event was effectively decided on the fourth leg, the longest on the course. Grace Elson pulled two minutes out on JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 5
AUSTRALIAN 3-DAYS – CASTLEMAINE , VICTORIA
Felicity Brown (NSW) Tony Radford finished second in M55
Andy Hogg (ACT) in the thick of it on Day 3.
W55A’s Pauline Moore (Waggaroos NSW), Lynn Pulford (Parawanga ACT) and Kerryn Jones (Red Roos ACT) in finish shute Day 3. Photo: Alex Davey
Matthew Hill heading out on the M12A course.
Danielle Winslow (TAS) fourth overall in W21E and selected for WOC in Denmark.
6 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
Bruce Arthur and Paul Liggins discuss their plan for the last legs after the “dead” road crossing leg on Day 3.
AUSTRALIAN 3-DAYS – CASTLEMAINE , VICTORIA
Chris Naunton during the Prologue Sprint, finished 2nd in M17-20E at Easter and gained JWOC selection
Dave Shepherd, Day 3, M21E. He won the Prologue and each of the three days
Vanessa Round (SA) is also off to JWOC, seen here during the Prologue Sprint. She finished 11th in W21E overall.
JWOC TEAM CALENDAR The AUS Team to JWOC 2006 in Lithuania is putting together a calendar promoting JWOC 2007 which will be held near Dubbo, NSW in July next year. The calendar will be utilised as a promotional give-away in Lithuania but will also be available for sale to orienteers to assist with the expenses of this year’s JWOC Team. This souvenir 13-month calendar will have all the dates of major events leading up to JWOC 2007 and will be a great way to show our support to our talented Juniors. The calendar is available from June. To purchase a copy (or several) contact Nick Dent at dentwood@bigpond.com or OA Executive Officer, Gareth Candy, at orienteering@netspeed.com.au . JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 7
AUSTRALIAN 3-DAYS
N AT I O N A L L E A G U E
Hanny Allston, and three on Anna Quayle, there. Given some of her performances in the last year coming back from two minutes down was certainly not beyond Allston, but she never quite managed to get herself back into the contest and had to settle for second. It was Elson’s first senior national title. Consistency was the key further down the list, with the last spot or two in the World Championships team possibly up for grabs. Susanne Casanova had her best result of the week to come third, with Danielle Winslow in fourth, and Felicity Brown achieving her best senior result with fifth. The junior classes were weaker than Easter as some moved up to race against the seniors instead, but M17-20E still turned on a fine contest as Chris Naunton and Ryan Smyth took up where they left off at Easter. Smyth led for the first half but lost time at 10, giving Naunton a narrow lead over Murray Scown which he held to the end, with Smyth in third. Clare Brownridge won her first national title at any level, pulling away from Ineka Booth over the second half, whilst Jess Davis finished well to just miss out on second. It was the first time since the early 1990’s that a Middle-distance national championship had been contested in other classes. Many of the fields were smaller than might have been hoped for, particularly amongst the juniors, and close finishes were surprisingly hard to come by. It was, instead, a day for master classes by some of Australia’s best technical orienteers in the tricky terrain. Geoff Lawford partly made up for his Easter disappointment by finishing nearly five minutes ahead of Paul Pacque in M50, whilst Tim Dent (M60), Jenny Bourne (W45) and Sue Neve (W50) all repeated their Easter wins, in some of the event’s larger fields, with margins of five minutes-and-something.
NSW lead a close four-way battle in the National League
Canberra and Tasmania finish the week on a high note, The Canberra Cockatoos and Tassie Foresters finished the week on a high note with convincing wins in the National League Relays on the final Sunday near Bendigo. The Tasmanian women have hardly dropped a point all season and went in as heavy favourites, after filling three of the first four places at both Easter and the Middledistance Championships. Grace Elson and Anna Sheldon came in four minutes ahead of the field, and with Queensland having juniors on the last two legs the Foresters never looked in danger after that. They were five minutes ahead after Danielle Winslow’s second leg, and Hanny Allston added another four to that with the day’s fastest time. The most interest was behind them. Four teams went out in just over a minute at the start of the last leg, but it was Kathryn Ewels who prevailed as she led Victoria into second place ahead of Canberra. The Southern Arrows were fourth, whilst Orla Murray’s last leg lifted the Stingers into fifth and got them some important points. Canberra’s win in the men’s race didn’t look as much of a sure thing beforehand as the Tasmanian women did, but with Grant Bluett and Dave Shepherd running the last two legs, as long as Gareth Candy could bring them back somewhere near the lead they were going to be hard to beat. Candy did exactly that, coming back with Queensland, NSW and Victoria in the lead group; Bluett opened a four-minute lead on the second leg and after that it was never in doubt, although Shepherd made sure of it with the day’s fastest time. David Meyer gave NSW enough of a break in the battle for second to give Eric Morris an edge which he never surrendered, whilst third came down to a sprint finish between Rune Olsen and Simon Uppill, in which Olsen just prevailed for the Victorians. The small junior men’s field produced one of the most memorable relay finishes seen in Australia for years. All four teams hit the final section together; Nick Andrewartha (Tasmania) led into the last control but missed it slightly and missed the placings altogether, whilst Leon Keely sprinted clear to give the points to the second Victorian team. Victoria also had the only finishing junior girls’ team. 8 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
Blair Trewin reports: The NSW Stingers are narrow leaders in the 2006 National League after nine of the 16 rounds. They hold a three-point break over the Canberra Cockatoos, whose chances were damaged when Jo Allison’s injury left them with only two women for the last three days of Easter. The Tasmanian women have hardly dropped a point all season, which has been enough to put them in third place despite only limited contributions from their men. The Victorian Nuggets complete a top four separated by only 18 points, the closest season for years, and all four teams have at least some chance of winning. Grace Elson and Hanny Allston look set to fight out the individual title. Elson has a 20-point lead at present, but Allston has four wins to Elson’s three and should close the gap once her Round 3 DNF falls out of her leading scores. Eric Morris holds a six-point lead over Grant Bluett in the men’s competition, but the two most likely winners are behind them, providing they can post some good scores in the later part of the season. David Shepherd has won all five rounds he has contested so far, while Julian Dent, who missed the Easter carnival through injury (stress fracture), has two wins and a second from his three events. Victoria, with the benefit of home-ground advantage over the Easter week, has taken over from early leaders Queensland in the junior division, but with Queensland having two home rounds to come they still look the team to beat. Simon Uppill is in a very strong individual position after winning five rounds on end, whilst Kellie Whitfield leads a well-contested series from Heather Harding and Clare Brownridge.
Kellie Whitfield (WA) is leading the Junior Women’s National League and will also be a part of the Australian team at JWOC.
Buy yourself a JET this year! NUTRITION
“It’s not by chance that the world’s best orienteers run with a SILVA Jet compass.” says Grant Bluett who runs with a Silva 6 Jet Spectra
SILVA 6 JET SPECTRA
For competitive orienteers who prefer the ultimate in thumb compasses. Features the broad fluorescent Jet needle and the unique time saving ‘Spectra’ colour coded ring. Elastic thumb strap and rubber pad for a safe and sure grip. Map scales in 1:10,000 and 1:15,000. Available in left and right hand models. $138 from your local O-gear shop at events.
SILVA 5 JET
Features a scratch resistant ‘comfort-fit’ curved back-end baseplate and the unique fluorescent red/white, broad Jet needle. Easy-to-grip housing with enlarged dial. Detachable map scales in 1:15,000 and 1:10,000 and silicon baseplate feet to prevent unintentional slipping on maps. $133 from your local O-gear shop at events.
SILVA 1S JET
Same high-performance Jet needle as in above model. Large magnifying lens in baseplate for enlarging fine map detail. Other features as in 5 Jet. $145 from your local O-gear shop at events.
Buy yourself a Jet at the next event
Photo: Tore Myrberg
JET compasses have the unique super-fast “Rare Earth” broad magnetic needle for the fastest settling and stability when running over rough terrain. Guaranteed to save precious seconds every time you check your bearing.
NEWS
Teams for the World Championships Three Teams of Australian Orienteers are in the final stages of preparation to run for Oz in World championships.
MEN
WOMEN
Julian Dent (NSW)
Sprint & Middle
Jo Allison (ACT) Sprint, Middle & Relay
Troy De Haas (VIC)
Sprint
Hanny Allston (TAS) Sprint, Long & Relay
Eric Morris (NSW)
Sprint & Long
Grace Elson (TAS) Sprint, Middle & Relay Anna Sheldon (QLD)
Rob Walter (ACT)
Danielle Winslow (TAS)
Brett Weihart
Middle & Long Men’s Coach
Sue Neve
Middle & Long Long Women’s Coach
Two other runners for the Men’s relay will be chosen on performances closer to WOC. Grace Elson and Anna Sheldon will be competing in their first WOC event. The AUS Team for JWOC in Lithuania in July will be: MEN: Simon Uppill (SA), Chris Naunton (VIC), Ryan Smyth (TAS), Matt Parton (NSW), Murray Scown (ACT), Evan Barr (VIC). Reserves: Morten Neve (VIC), Loius Elson (TAS) WOMEN: Hanny Allston (TAS), Jasmine Neve (VIC), Vanessa Round (SA), Kellie Whitfield (WA), Ainsley Cavanagh (QLD ), Sophie Barker (ACT). Reserves: Heather Harding (SA), Clare Brownridge (VIC) Coach: Gareth Candy, Team Managers: Hilary Wood & Nick Dent The team will be producing a calendar to promote the 2007 JWOC being held in Dubbo, NSW. It will be available for sale in June and all proceeds will go towards subsidising the substantial costs of the Juniors to travel to and compete in Lithuania. The AUS Team for WMTBOC in Finland in July will be: MEN: Steven Cusworth (VIC), Paul Darvodelsky (NSW), Adrian Jackson (VIC), Alex Randall (VIC), David Simpfendorfer (ACT). WOMEN: Carolyn Jackson (VIC). Grant Lebbink (Vic) was also selected but has declined the offer. The first relay team will be Adrian and Alex plus the best performed of the other three in the Middle-distance final. Carolyn Jackson’s selection in the MTB-O team marks 30 years since she was first selected for an Australian WOC team to go to Scotland in 1976. That’s surely a record which will never be broken. Carolyn photographed here during the selection race near Cessnock in March. Photo: Peter Cusworth
10 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
An Orienteering Mirage? Aaron Dodd
The AUS Team for WOC in Denmark in August will be:
David Shepherd (ACT) Middle, Long & Relay
21Sledge –
For a more or less washed up ex-junior, the prospect of a 14+ km middle day provides more than enough evidence to boycott the Australian Easter 3-Day Carnival. Especially when you haven’t had quite enough time to do that extra training you were talking about, or in fact, any training at all. If I had any doubt in my mind that I was in no way prepared for this Easter Carnival, dry-reaching and then vomiting as I hopelessly tried to compete with the men’s elite Prologue field was a clear sign. My only remaining hope for enjoyment this Easter was the phenomenon that is 21Sledge. M21AS or 21Sledge as it is affectionately known is the only class where regardless of ones age, sex, fitness or ability there is the opportunity to have a damn good time. Sledge embodies the elements of orienteering that most of us enjoy - camaraderie, competition, navigation, being in great places with friends and, thank goodness, not having to train hard and run long courses. Sledge has all the fanfare of the Tour de France, lacking only the toned bodies and lucrative sponsorship deals. Sledge 2006 proved to be no exception to the norm. Day One began with the traditional mass start and saw a field of almost 30 old boys, bandits, hacks and sledgers racing off into the forest at a pace that would be sustained until only about halfway to the first control. As the field spread out across the course, smaller competitions were getting underway. Like Le Tour, the competition for the classification leader’s jerseys, or in the case of 21Sledge, the coveted boxer shorts were already heating up. Despite a truly valiant effort, the overall leader at the end of Day One, Pat Saile, was soon to find himself as a passenger in the battle for the yellow “race leaders” (head bandit) boxers (and hat). The close battle between perennial bandit David Colls and Matt Schepisi was developing behind him, with only five seconds separating the two going into Day 2.5. Collsy was a DNS at the evening event and so was a dubious winner the following day, putting more time into his lead over Matt Schepisi, to take out his second 21Sledge victory. The polka dots, normally the realm of the gravity assisted gentleman, were dominated by Stuart Fell who put in two storming downhill legs on the first two days and never looked to be challenged. Likewise, the green “sprinters” shorts were again held firmly by Aaron Dodd who had a handy lead out on Day One and managed a tidy 18sec split for the 150m finish chute on Day Two. Making his return to orienteering as part of the Melbourne University crew, ex-ACT junior Darren Southwell rather conspicuously shadowed David Searle (the ideal sledger) around the course, taking out the purple ‘sledger’ shorts for the first two days before Searlooo miss-punched on the final day. If competing at Burra in 2007, Darren will be the new ‘ideal sledger’. Toward the back of the field the complex gold mining terrain of the second and third days were taking their toll. Relative newcomers to Orienteering, Robert Lee and Jose Zapata, found the going tough and seemed locked in their own personal battle for the black pigs (biggest mistake) and cup of life (most places lost) shorts. Robert Lee should be congratulated on completing the three days after having never orienteered before. His times clearly reflect that he enjoyed himself more than anyone else. So despite a relatively abrupt beginning to my Easter campaign, 2006 proved to be one of my most enjoyable. Believe me, 21Sledge provides an atmosphere that surpasses those of other classes and gives people the opportunity to simply have a go. Sledgers may not be the pin-up’s of the orienteering scene, but I’m sure they have the most fun. So next time you’re walking to the start and you hear some banter from a bloke in a funny looking pair of shorts, know that he is a sledger, and having a darn good time. Bring on Burra 2007!
ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA AWARDS
Athlete of The Year 2005
Hanny Allston
Bob Mouatt presenting the Silva Award to John Potter.
High Performance Director, Mike Dowling, presenting the Athlete of the Year award to Hanny Allston.
training camps and has, over the years, assisted many of the prominent NSW elite. Hanny Allston was a very worthy recipient of the 2005 Orienteering Australia Athlete of the Year award. Hanny achieved a number of notable firsts in 2005. She was the first female Australian orienteer to gain a medal at a Junior World Championships. Hanny achieved a bronze medal for third place in the Middle-distance event in Switzerland last July and backed that up with a creditable 11th place in the Long-distance event. A month later in Japan at the senior World Championships, in only her second WOC, Hanny became Australia’s highest placed individual orienteer with a sixth place in arguably the physically toughest Long-distance race ever at a World Championships. Such achievements while still having another year as a Junior Orienteer is a truly outstanding performance. Hanny understands success does not come without hard work and dedication. No orienteer trains harder in her home state than Hanny and she mixes her orienteering training with participation in multi-sport and adventure racing. She became the youngest ever female winner to the famous 80km Overland Track run through the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park last February. In addition, Hanny combined her successes in 2005 with academic success through the completion of the first year of a Bachelor of Medicine degree at the University of Tasmania.
Silva Award for Services to Australian Orienteering Coaching
John Porter (NSW)
John is a Level 1 coach (proceeding to Level 2) who has been the Coach of the NSW Junior Squad since 1989; was the NSW Coaching Director from 1992 to 2002 and has been highly involved in Coaching and Coach Education in NSW since 1985. The Junior Squad in NSW has at least three weekends and a full-week training camp each year and John has been responsible for the setting of the training program for each of these. He has often done this by enlisting the support of the older members of the Squad who have been encouraged to complete their Level 1 Coaching accreditation while members of the Squad. He is always in attendance with his 4WD and cheerfully arises early in the mornings to travel to the area with his appointed assistant to set up the days’ exercises before the busload of “squaddies” arrives. He also offers advice and assistance to any and all outside of the Squad
He has organised over 10 Level 1 Coaching Workshops and has been responsible for the education of most of the NSW list of accredited coaches. Other Coaching activities include: organisation and coaching at NSW Training weekends in 1999 and 2000; organisation and coaching at more than 6 Women’s Training Weekends between 1995 and 2002; Coach of the NSW Schools Team in 1993 and 1994. John also attended OA Coaching Committee Meetings and Coaching Workshops as NSW representative between 1992 and 2002.
2005 Silva Orienteer of the Year Ian Hassall Once again, Ian Hassall (IKN) is the Silva Orienteer of the Year. Ian has won or shared this award 10 times during the past 19 years – a truly remarkable level of achievement. When Ian had to withdraw during the recent AUS 3-Days carnival at Easter due to injury, he was asked when was the last time he had not completed this annual 3-Days event. Typically, his answer was “Never before.” No doubt we’ll be seeing Ian in Burra for the 2007 AUS 3-Days. The Silva Orienteer of the Year competition is based on points gained for participating and placing in the AUS Championships, AUS 3-Days, and all State Championships (in Elite and A classes for M/W 16 and older).
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JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 11
N AT I O N A L O R I E N T E E R I N G L E A G U E
Meet Your Team Seven state teams compete each year in a series of major events staged around Australia called the Australian National Orienteering League (NOL). This is the first in a series of articles introducing the teams that compete against each other for the individual and team National League titles. In 2006 the NOL consists of 13 individual races and two relay races. Runners from each state gain points towards the team title and individual categories which are Men’s Elite, Women’s Elite, Men’s Junior Elite and Women’s Junior Elite. The teams are: NSW Ultimax Stingers, Southern Arrows (SA), Victorian Nuggets, Western Nomads (WA), Queensland Cyclones, Tasmanian Foresters, SmokeFree Canberra Cockatoos (ACT) In this edition Julian Dent introduces the NSW Ultimax Stingers. Team Name: NSW Ultimax Stingers State: NSW Sponsor: Ultimax Socks Highest Ranked: Male – Julian Dent Female – Tracey Bluett NOL 2005: 2nd Team Website: www.nswstingers.com Briohny Davey David Meyer Felicity Brown
Catherine Murphy
12 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
N AT I O N A L O R I E N T E E R I N G L E A G U E The New South Wales Ultimax Stingers came into being when the National League competition was re-vamped. Current members of the squad number around sixteen. In most competitive rounds they field a full team of 3 men and 3 women in each of the national league rounds. The depth is strongest amongst the males, recently fielding a strong team of at least 6 male runners in all the competitions so far in 2006. In the female ranks the depth is not quite as extensive but strong competitive teams are always fielded.
Funding
Training The squad holds four training camps every year to organise and prepare for specific races in different terrains. With locations varying from the Blue Mountains in the summer for some long runs to the NSW Association “Hut” in the Southern Highlands of NSW which is a central location for both the Sydney and Canberra based members. These camps are also supplemented by weekly training sessions. The Sydney based runners regularly meet for interval sessions on the North Shore of Sydney or the odd sand dune session down at Cronulla beach, and the weekly long run through the Sydney sandstone bush land. While the Canberra based members often join in on the Canberra Cockatoos training sessions with weekly orienteering intervals and regular technique training. Rob Preston
Sponsorship The squad’s major naming rights sponsor is Ultimax Socks by Wigwam. This sponsorship came about as a result from members in the squad, led by Rob Preston, competing in the AROC adventure racing series throughout the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons. By winning the majority of the races and becoming well known in Adventure Racing circles, the Stingers squad signed up with Ultimax socks for promotion in both Adventure Racing and Orienteering circles. This sponsorship provides support to all squad members for the NOL and the AROC adventure series. The Ultimax Stingers are the only NOL team with a commercial naming rights sponsor. The recently developed website, online at www.nswstingers.com, provides race reports and information on all squad activities and is also used as a promotional device to increase the exposure of the squad.
Eric Morris
To help support all squad members in the NOL the squad continually carries out fundraising events and activities. Last year an Adventure Racing Training Camp was held for budding adventure racers wanting to better their skills in navigation. This was very successful with the squad members organising specific exercises and providing valuable advice. Another camp is planned for later this year. Other avenues of funding include organising numerous events throughout the year such as the upcoming “Ultimax 5-Days” to be held on 3rd - 7th January 2007 in the Orange region of NSW. The Stingers squad is the main organiser.
Ultimax Sydney Sprints Another funding initiative has been the creation of the Ultimax Sydney Sprint Series in suburban Sydney. Organised by Sydney resident and Southern Arrows runner Ben Rattray, the series was very successful with the organisation of five races providing great training for squad members coming into the NOL season and also some great funding for squad activities. These races are held in pockets of technical terrain in Sydney parklands which provide enjoyable and complex orienteering. These races are set to continue in early 2007 and are great for everyone from complete beginners to elite orienteers.
Squad Developments Recently the squad has been fitted out with new uniforms provided by our sponsors and new racing suits, creating a very identifiable team at all races. The squad is starting to focus on recruitment into the squad to continue the current successes into future years by coordinating camps with the NSW Junior Squad and carrying out mentoring roles with juniors and promoting the NOL as a future development path. This complements one of our overall aims of increasing our participation in the Junior NOL. A new manager is being recruited to enhance the overall organisation of the team, thus allowing athletes to primarily focus on orienteering, and the immediate goal of winning the NOL in 2006.
STINGERS MEMBERS Eric Morris
Julian Dent
Phoebe Dent
Rob Preston
Andy Hill
Orla Murray
Peter Preston
Matt Parton
Tracey Bluett
Glenn Meyer
Briohny Davey
Clare Murphy
Ian Meyer
Felicity Brown
David Meyer
Catherine Murphy JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 13
ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
Changing Times at Orienteering Australia Major changes took place last Easter at the OA AGM. The end of an era in OA financial matters and administration came as both Kathy Liley and Dave Lotty stood down from their long tenures in those respective positions. Their contributions to Orienteering Australia were recognised during the awards ceremony at Easter when newly-elected President, Bob Mouatt, presented awards to Kathy and Dave in front of an appreciative crowd. AO caught up with them to talk about those years at the helm.
Kathy Liley Kathy stood down from the position of Orienteering Australia Director (Finance) (formerly OFA Treasurer) at Easter after 16 years in the position. When The Australian Orienteer met with her she was looking decidedly relaxed. AO: Sixteen years – that is a big commitment. KL: I guess so. It really happened just a couple of years at a time. I never envisaged 16 years. I started at Burra in 1990 – perhaps I should have held on until Burra next year. AO: What got you into orienteering administration?
Since I started as Treasurer, I’ve also put more time into my orienteering and improved my ranking through the 90s. I’ve slackened off a bit in the last couple of years but was surprised to see that I still ended last year on top of the W55 rankings. AO: So what will you do with all this spare time now? KL: Sing! I joined the Melbourne Chorus of Sweet Adelines last year – it’s a women’s chorus singing 4-part barbershop harmony. And I’m finding it’s taking up rather more time than I’d envisaged when I started. They expected me to turn up for some weekend activities last year – including the first weekend in December. They were surprised when I said that I’d had a commitment on that weekend for the last 16 years (OA Annual Conference). But this year the chorus is going to America to compete at its international competition in early October so for the first time for over 20 years I’ll miss the Australian Championships carnival. AO: Kathy – I’m sure all orienteers thank you for your contribution to Orienteering and wish you well in your future activities.
Dave Lotty Dave took on the role of OFA Secretary (later OA Director – Administration) in March 1981, stepping into the shoes of your current Editor. In his 25 years in the role he has seen Orienteering in Australia grow and wane and grow again to the point today where Orienteering can claim recognition as a significant sport on the country’s competition calendar.
KL: I started orienteering in late 1973 and was only just getting the hang of it when my teaching job took me to Gippsland, away from the orienteering epicentre in Victoria. I tried to make a map for my outdoor education students and very quickly discovered that I didn’t have the patience to be a mapper. That map was quite a talking point though – I’d envisaged it in black and white, but the local printer had red ink in his printer that day so I got a red and white map!
AO: What originally brought you into Orienteering?
When I returned to Melbourne and joined the Emu Orienteering Club, I was an outdoor education adviser working with teachers to help them conduct safe and educational orienteering and bushwalking activities for their students. It was a natural progression to become the Emu club coach and then secretary.
I started orienteering in November 1971 and (with Rod Dominish) formed the first NSW club (Bennelong Occasional Orienteers - now Bennelong Northside Orienteers) in December 1971. I helped to form OANSW in March 1972 and was initially a Vice-President, becoming Secretary in August 1972.
The Emu’s technical expert was John Burrow (who is now farming in Wales) who worked with Barry McCrae. When Barry was looking for someone to coordinate the technical aspects of WOCARN (the carnival of public races associated with WOC in 1985), John Burrow suggested me. By the end of 1985 I’d decided that working on committees for a common purpose with keen orienteers was a pleasant way to spend my spare time.
AO: How did you become involved with the national administration of Orienteering?
A stint as VOA secretary followed and also I undertook some study to gain accountancy qualifications. By 1990 I had been VOA delegate to the OFA for a couple of years and when Barry McCrae became ‘heir’ to the OFA Presidency, he asked me if I’d consider joining the OFA Board as Treasurer. I’ve outlasted a few presidents since then – I think the treasurer job as a ‘back room’ position is less stressful than the president’s role. I very much appreciate the work of Dave Lotty who has been Secretary/ Director (Administration) for all that time and longer. Work on the Board has changed a lot since 1990. Sports administration is expected to be much more professional now, and the seven (six from 2006) Directors focus much more on their own portfolios. In 1990 there were only three on the Board and we had to have our fingers in all the pies. AO: In that time, you’ve managed to remain competitive in your orienteering as well. KL: It’s interesting isn’t it! How many other sports would have top administrators also regarding themselves as ‘serious’ competitors? Even at the international level, the delegates at the IOF council meeting take time out to participate in an orienteering event. 14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
DL: My background was in distance running (started in 1956 at age 11) and I represented AUS in 10,000m on the track at the Pacific Conference Games in 1969 in Tokyo (3rd in 29:02.4 with the winner 29:01.2). I was Secretary of my club (Randwick-Botany Harriers) from 1964 to 1971 and was also Secretary of the NSW Harrier Board (responsible for distance running) from 1966 to 1970.
DL: I was NSW Councillor to the OFA from 1975 and became OFA Secretary in March 1981 (and later OA Director – Administration, when the titles changed). AO: You’ve also been closely involved with events organization, haven’t you. DL: Yes, I’ve been organiser, planner or controller of a number of National and International events in AUS including the 1980 and 1988 AUS 3-Days (organiser), 1994 AUS 3-Days (controller), 1999 AUS Champs (controller), 2000 AUS MTBO Champs (planner and mapper) and 2004 World MTBO Champs (national controller). I’m also a mapper and have drawn many orienteering maps (over 50 maps and 200sq km) and have completed over 2000 events. AO: You held the record in Australia for the number of courses completed for some time. DL: Yes – Ian Baker claimed that record some years back but I soon overtook his tally. I held the record for several years right up until last December when some usurper from a southern state overtook me. He only managed to do that because they have so many Park & Street-O events down there. In Sydney, when we run in the summer it’s usually in the bush. AO: Dave, I’m sure your 25 years in the chair have brought some lasting memories. All orienteers salute you.
OPINION
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 15
URBAN ORIENTEERING
Fun and Games Summer Series Specials, Melbourne 2006
Debbie Dodd (DRV) – selfconfessed Orienteering and Commonwealth Games Tragic. As anyone with even the slightest interest in sport knows, Melbourne played host to the 2006 Commonwealth Games back in March. For those lucky enough to take part as spectators or volunteers, it was an unforgettable ten days, from the appearance of the flying tram at the MCG, to the very last firework, and a non-stop smorgasbord of athletic endeavour in between. Knowing the reputation of sports-mad Melburnians, when we realised the Games coincided with the last two weeks of our urban Summer Series in Melbourne, we figured we would temporarily lose a fair chunk of the orienteering population. The Games were potentially disruptive to almost anyone involved in grass roots sport. Park & Street Orienteering was no exception, thanks to traffic jams and street closures, loss of usable maps, and probable reduced attendances. On the other hand, they provided a chance to capture the inevitable “feel good” factor and encourage people to get out there and participate. Were they a threat or an opportunity? We decided to take the opportunity and embrace the Games. We planned a series of six “special” events that were not part of the regular competition. Course setters were given free rein and encouraged to be creative. The outcome was surprisingly successful.
Houdini’s Handicap The first event was held on the night the Queen’s Baton Relay arrived in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Games excitement was starting to build, ticket sales were hotting up, and The Fish had already become a major attraction. But the Opening Ceremony was still two days away and we gained a good crowd at the ever popular Jells Park. Course setter Ian Dodd (DRV) had long wanted to run a handicap event to see how the slowest competitors would rate against the fastest, given the right advantage. Everyone who competed during the season was given a ranking based on their series results. Runners and walkers were sorted into 15 different start groups. Each group was allocated a different number of controls to collect on a scatter course – from group A any 5 controls, down to group O any 19 controls. First across the line would win. There was tension on the start line as we eyed off those we’d been assembled with, and those with the advantage – were we good enough to make up the time gap? How would the power walkers stack up against the runners? Each group was sent off at 30sec intervals, beginning with the slowest – thus creating a double handicap of both time and distance - and a somewhat frenetic start procedure! 16 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
Coursesetter, Ian Dodd giving final instructions before the start of Houdini’s Handicap.
Most controls were in the parkland, with an evenly spaced ring around the start making initial route choice difficult. Clever course setting kept everyone on their toes throughout. It was great fun to be competing against the entire field, instead of just your usual few rivals. While the handicapping wasn’t quite perfect, the results were for once completely unpredictable. A widely diverse ability mix filled the top placings, with Allan Miller (DRV) ultimately taking line honours.
Park Orchards Games Let the Games Commence! Your correspondent was lucky enough to be at the spectacular Opening Ceremony, and some stayed home to watch on TV, but there were still over 100 participants at our second Games Special. Pete Hobbs (DRV) was the course setter, and he paid tribute to the Games by delivering the Queen’s Address to the Gathered Orienteers. Suitably inspired, everyone dashed off in all directions. Pete made great use of his 25 controls, and the nearby Hundred Acres bush reserve with its tangled network of tracks. Controls 21-25 were named after famous Commonwealth athletes such as Ian Thorpe and Susie O’Neill. Gold “medals” were presented to certain lucky finishers. The post event barbie and PA broadcast of the Ceremony went down very well – the party had begun.
Shepherds Bushed Score By our third event, the Games were in full swing and Australia was winning gold left right and centre. Yours truly was the course setter, but having a jam-packed Games spectator schedule left no time for mundane activities like putting out control plates. Instead, competitors were given a map, a set of 25 multiple choice questions, a pencil, and a time limit. Careful map reading was required to make sure you were in exactly the right location, and there was a lot for participants to ponder as they ran or walked through Nortons Park and its surrounding streets. Stirred by Australia’s achievements in the marathon and race walks, competitors were exhorted to lift their performance with some new “benchmark” km rates based on Games medal winning times. While these ambitious targets weren’t quite met, it’s only fair to point out that Games athletes are not required to run across parks or rough ground in semi-darkness, negotiate creek crossings, dodge trees, read maps, carry pencils and torches, find obscure clues, and write answers as they go!
URBAN ORIENTEERING
Paisley Park Party The Games were a week old, the weather was brilliant, and Melbourne was basking in glory. Everyone was having a ball, the Fish were a sensation, and John and Jenny Sheahan (BKV) thought we’d have some fun as well. Some competitors ran in fancy dress, much to the bemusement of the local residents. We had two maps with 10 controls on each. Lining up in turn, we were given our first map - but before we could set off, we had to “carry the torch” and “light the flame”, using our rolled up map, a tennis ball, a creatively decorated box and a touch of imagination! After collecting the required number of controls we returned to the start, changed maps, and completed the second half. With the hard-earned finish line in sight, we had to throw a ball into another box (this time decorated with large colourful fish) before running triumphantly down the finish chute. Now we know how difficult Biathlon is. My theory, now proven, is that many people take up running because they have poor hand-eye coordination …
Blackburn South Gold Rush The Summer Series presentations and sausage sizzle drew a large number to the penultimate event. Australia had by now won hundreds of medals, but one of the best things about the Games was the wildly enthusiastic support the crowds gave to the underdogs. I’ll never forget 80,000 people at the ‘G’ giving a standing ovation to the tiny but determined athlete from Papua New Guinea who was hardly bigger than the steeplechase hurdles; or the huge cheers given to the triathletes from the strife-torn Solomon Islands as they finished the course. It was fitting that our course setter Andrew Baker (BKV) gave recognition to some of the smaller Commonwealth countries, with a very cleverly thought out concept. All controls were designated as Gold, Silver or Bronze. Each of the 5 runners’ courses represented a Commonwealth nation with rather less sporting prowess than ours. Competitors had to find a minimum number of gold
From left: Julie Sunley (TKV) gives the Oz Team chant. There were fairies at the bottom of Paisley Park. Gold, Gold, Gold for the Oz Team.
controls, equal to the number of gold medals their chosen nation had won in its Games history. Power Walkers represented Australia and had to collect as many medals as possible in the time available. There was also a small prize for correctly identifying your country’s flag at the finish. (Ed – see portion of the Blackburn South medals map on page 45.)
Springthorpe Sprint The final event recognised the great Australian tradition of levelling the playing field. What’s more Aussie than a handicap race followed by a barbie! All that was missing was the bookie (and there was no sign of John Howard either). Christine Sinickas (YV) made great use of Gresswell Forest and the surrounding streets to set a challenging course with plenty of route choice options. Again, regular competitors lined up according to their series performance, in ranked groupings from 0-5. However all runners had the same number of controls, on shortened courses due to the diminishing daylight. The challenge was to see if a 1min head start was sufficient to get ahead of someone who normally beats you. Unfortunately, by now your correspondent had spent way too much time spectating at triathlons, athletics, mountain biking, road races, medal ceremonies and riverside festivals, and actual power walking performance had tapered off to an alarming degree! All the course setters and organisers did a superb job. Everyone loved the creativity and variety, with due recognition given to the larger spectacle happening around us. We’d also like to acknowledge the orienteers who couldn’t take part in these events because they were working incredibly hard as Games volunteers. Contrary to expectations, attendances didn’t drop significantly over the two weeks and we didn’t all retreat to our armchairs. We urban orienteers are a dedicated lot, and it takes more than the biggest sporting event in our city’s history to keep us off the streets!
Your Editor in Smurf uniform at the Commonwealth Games.
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 17
THE ROAD TO DENMARK
WOC Preparation Sue Neve Manager/Coach of Womens’ Team
T
HE team to represent Australia at the World Orienteering Championships (WOC2006) in Denmark this August has been announced and once again we can be proud of our orienteers who have been selected. The strength of our teams has been developing over the years and we can say that the processes and practices set by Orienteering Australia have worked effectively to achieve such a high standard of orienteers and to give them every opportunity to do well as a team. Due to the good work of many, many people at all levels, we can say these select few can truly represent the nation in our sport. In preparation for WOC, the team attended training camps at Orange in May and at the Queens Birthday Weekend events at Beechworth. Along with a training camp available in Denmark in mid-July, the final preparation will be settling into Denmark prior to WOC. Physically, the team members have already done the training over many years but now must put all that hard work and discipline together toward peaking for those special days in August. Technically we will be exposing them to the right terrain and bringing in Danish expertise to advise here. Most have already familiarised themselves with the Danish terrain and know the specific areas to be used. It is terrain where the Australians are not disadvantaged. However the race intensity and speed will be at the
Grace Elson (TAS) Photo: Bob Mouatt
Anna Sheldon (QLD) has a MTBO World Champs bronze medal to her credit and is now off to her first Foot-O World Championship. Photo: Bob Mouatt
highest level, and most Australians have less experience of this race pressure. Psychologically, I will be aiming for team harmony. A collective spirit is always so much more empowering than an individual effort. Everyone has a role to play in the team and the collective energy is well known to be very effective in lifting all performances. As well, we must properly prepare each individual by providing an environment of sleeping well, being fed well, having good team dynamics and recovery practices. As well they will need the support of other Australians attending the event and from those back home. So wish them well. Nevertheless, after all that preparation we are all too aware of the unknown factors that can daunt us in Orienteering. Events that can occur in life and in the mind whilst orienteering that we cannot anticipate even if we are well prepared. Here, the orienteer who has the ability to hold it together on that all-important day is the true champion. Somehow they know or believe they can do it. No matter what comes their way they come through. Our goals are high - even a medal and top-10 results - and we also need to support this with depth and good relay results to truly represent Australia. This is an ongoing approach to performance that will, both short-term and long-term, raise the bar for Australian orienteering. This can only be reflected in a culture of teamwork to reap the rewards. I would like to thank all of the orienteering public in supporting the Australian Orienteering team to Denmark. We have a team of fine athletes who are to compete at the highest international level that I can say will do us proud.
18 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
COACHING
Why do we make mistakes? Grant Bluett – OA Head Coach
I
was 60 minutes into my course on Day 2 of the Australian 3-Days at Easter, more than three quarters of the way around. The first 60min had been relatively easy orienteering, mainly spur-gully, with the odd bit of gold mining. For the entire race I knew that the coming controls into the finish would be the most demanding of the course, in particular 20, 21, and 22. This is where the race would be won or lost. A couple of hundred meters before I entered this tricky gold mining section I passed Rob Fell (a promising junior who I had met on the junior squad training camp in January), I mentioned to him what was going on in my head at the time, “this is the business section of the course”. I ran on. I knew what I had to do. I had to concentrate 100% on my orienteering, and let the speed at which I could read the map dictate the speed I ran. I entered the gold mining area making sure I knew exactly where I was when I ran into the detail. I jumped down an earth embankment straight into a small patch of blackberries. I ripped myself free and ran on towards my control. I followed the creek bed and tried to read the knolls on my left. I wasn’t picking them up very well. I fumbled my way to the control, losing about 10 seconds by not picking up the knolls the control was between early enough, and having to come into the control from the right through another blackberry patch. I was fuming, I knew this was the most important section of the course and I still managed to stuff it up. I charged off to the second of these three particularly hard controls. I thought to myself, I’m not going to try and read those bloody knolls any more, I’m going to generalise and read my way to the control from the big earth embankment that surrounds all the detail. I ran around the embankment and up into the area where I thought the control should be. But it wasn’t…?? I thought this must just be some erosion gully that isn’t marked on the map and started to search for the right one. After about 40 seconds of searching I stopped and relocated, “bugger - I am about 100m from the control”, I ran on and got the control. THANK YOU, I’m glad that’s over I thought, and ran out of the area of gold mining as fast as I could. Remember how I said there were three controls in that detailed area of gold mining? And I have only described how I found two of them and then ran on! That’s right, I didn’t get that 3rd one! I was so anxious to get out of that area that I was orienteering so horribly in that I didn’t even visit the 22nd control. So a DNF for me on the 2nd day of Easter, but more importantly there are a few lessons to be learnt here. As I entered the “area” I knew what I had to do. I had spotted the danger. I had a plan. I had experienced simular situations hundreds of times. I consider myself a pretty good orienteer so I should have been able to get through there - no problem at all. Instead, when I made my first small mistake on the way to the 20th control I did everything wrong. I made the mistake because I didn’t have a good enough mental picture of what the terrain would look like or, in other words, I hadn’t read the map well enough. What I should have done on my way to control no 21 is calmed down and taken some more time to read the map on the next leg. I should have got a clear picture of what the knolls look like, and combined that with the earth embankments, so that I had a more complete picture, and more points of reference. I did the opposite - I rushed off and read the map less.
Not visiting the 22nd control is the most basic of all mistakes. Somehow, after all that stress of the past two controls, I managed to forget that 22 not 23 comes after 21! The most frustrating thing about Orienteering is that we can know exactly what we SHOULD do, and yet in the pressure of the race situation do the exact opposite. So what is to blame here? I obviously made a few bad judgments. It is very easy to blame it on the stress of the race. But when I break it all down I didn’t read the map well enough! This is the one constant when we make orienteering mistakes. Sure we can all find something else to blame, but the base of these problems always comes from a mistake in our map reading technique. Next time you make a mistake, forget the excuses. Think back to where you went wrong, and work out where you lost map contact, or why you misinterpreted the map. When you have worked this out, you have really learnt something. Take ownership of your mistakes, blame them on your map reading, and work on how to go about that situation better next time. By concentrating on your orienteering technique, you will by default also be working on how to mentally approach a similar situation next time. JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 19
NUTRITION
Gillian Woodward
High Energy Eating For Training
WHEN training load is high and time for food preparation is short, some athletes find it difficult to maintain their energy levels and may even lose weight unintentionally. In this edition we will look at ideas to help provide fuel for winter training schedules as well as all the nutrients necessary without needing to be a qualified chef or have a degree in nutrition! Putting in a couple of hours a day including running or other aerobic workout plus a strength session in the gym, requires a considerable amount of muscle fuel. This can best be provided by a high carbohydrate, moderate protein, low fat diet. Each meal and snack needs to based on carbohydrate foods – from bread, cereal, fruit, vegetable or dairy groups. It has been shown many a time that athletes who think they are consuming plenty of carbohydrates are actually not achieving their aim. For moderate training, ie 1-2 hours a day, most people would require about 6-8 grams of carbohydrate per kg of body weight. So for an athlete weighing 70 kg, this means eating 420-560 grams of carbohydrate each day. This amount would be best divided between three major meals (90-120g carbohydrate) and three snack (50-70g carbohydrate) meals. So what does this diet look like and how much carbohydrate is there? This menu plan delivers a total of approximately 500 grams or 7 grams/kg body weight of carbohydrate for a 70 kg athlete. Contribution of macronutrients to energy in this meal plan is 70% energy from carbohydrates, 14% from fat and 15% from protein with a total energy content of approximately 12,400 kilojoules (3,000kcals). As can be seen from this plan, 135 grams of the total carbohydrates are provided in drinks – juices, milk, sports drinks etc. Eating solid food like cereals or bread would also provide these carbohydrates, but they would tend to fill you up more quickly, so it would be difficult to eat the required quantity. Drinks, however, provide a very easy way to add extra carbohydrate, as they are quick to consume and do not add filling fibre. Of course adequate hydration is another important consideration, so 1,500ml of these drinks could be supplemented with an extra litre of water as well as some tea or coffee (in moderation) if desired. Easy to transport high energy snack alternatives include cereal or fruit bars 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
(approx. 20-30 g carbohydrate per bar), dried fruit & nut packs (40g per box), savoury low fat rice or wheat crackers, fresh fruit, and milk or juices in 250 ml tetrapacks. If you are going to keep your energy supply up all day, most of all you need to be organised and prepared to take food/drinks with you wherever you go. Don’t rely on buying appropriate snacks at commercial outlets as many are too high in fat and consequently low in carbohydrates. And don’t try to have everything ‘high fibre’ if you are battling to consume enough kilojoules. Fibre will fill you up and provide extra bulk, which may reduce your appetite. It may be better to choose white bread or a refined cereal than try to chew your way through heavy muesli or grainy breads. Soup can also be a great meal in a mug of winter – but go for home-made or chunky vegetable style soups with added barley or dried peas or beans or noodles for extra carbohydrate. Teamed up with a big crusty bread roll, they can be a warm winter lunch. Toasted jaffle sandwiches filled with baked beans or lean meat and tomato or creamed corn also make great hot lunches in the cooler months. Evening meals can be simple meat and veg style like the above meal plan, or instead of the potato you could easily have rice or pasta. Only 1 cup of cooked pasta or 2/3 cup cooked rice contains 30g carbohydrate. Team this with a low fat tomato-based meat or bean sauce (and a sprinkle of cheese) for another high carbohydrate meal. Don’t forget to add some extra yellow, red or green vegetables/salad for extra vitamins as the pasta and rice only replace the potato, not all of the vegetables! If you want some easy cooking ideas, then the Australian Institute of Sports ‘Survival for the Fittest’ or ‘Survival from the Fittest’ are two great cookbooks available in bookshops. Australian Sports Dietitian, Helen O’Connor, has also written a great recipe book called ‘Fitness Food’ which is available through Social Club Books www. scb.com.au ( see page 8 of cookbooks).
Breakfast
Carbohydrate (grams) 4 wheat-cereal biscuits + 30 300 ml reduced fat milk + 15 100g yoghurt 15 2 slices toast with jam 40 1 cup (240 ml) orange juice 20 TOTAL MEAL: 120
Snack 1 fruit muffin or scone 300 ml sports drink TOTAL MEAL:
20 50
Lunch 1 salad + 60g tuna/s almon sandwich 30 1 banana & honey sa ndwich 60 300ml low fat choc olate milk shake 30 TOTAL MEAL: 120
Snack 200g tub low-fat fruit yoghurt
30
1 piece fruit – medium orange or apple
15
200 ml sports drink
15
60
TOTAL MEAL:
Dinner 150g lean red meat 2 medium size potatoes
0 30
1.5 cups vegetables (corn, peas, carro ts) 15 1 (240ml) cup juice 20 1 dinner roll 20 TOTAL MEAL: 85
Supper or 1/2 cup of low-fat custard low-fat ice cream e 1 cup tinned fruit with juic
k 200 ml milk-type sports drin AL MEAL: TOT
Gillian Woodward is a Practising Dietician and has been providing advice in the field for over 25 years. She has been an orienteer since 1984.
30
15 20 30 65
CLASSIC INJURIES
Tim Hatley stands on Fingers Tim Hatley (VIC) scored a perfect three at the AUS Middle-distance Champs held at Korong Spur. Coming out of a control he stumbled and managed to stand on his fingers. The spikes he was wearing caused extensive ripping lacerations to his finger tips which refused to heal up, even by next morning.
Presents
2006 ACT SunSmart CHAMPIONSHIPS
HONEYSUCKLE CREEK NORTH Sunday 24 September 2006
At the same event, John Sheahan (VIC) was so fed up with the rock that he head-butted a boulder. When interviewed the boulder declined to press charges.
Event information coming soon to act.orienteering.asn.au
Advertise your event in this space You can have a 6 x 8 cm event ad for just $50. In colour, if we have room, otherwise black and white. Send artwork to The Editor: mikehubbert@ozemail.com.au
QUEENSLAND ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS (Incorporating the National Orienteering League and the Australia/New Zealand Test Series)
August 19th-20th 2006 – Maryborough, Queensland Compete near the area to be mapped for 2008 Australian Championships Carnival. The 2-Day event offers 2 new and exiting Geoff Peck maps with very fast, gently undulating spur-gully terrain that has extensive tree cover with little undergrowth. Start times have been set to allow competitors to spend the weekend in Queensland or plan a winter holiday in the sun with visits to Hervey Bay, Rainbow Beach, Fraser Island, Bundaberg, or The Town of 1770? Enquiries: Terry Cavanagh (07) 3862 9264 (H) or 0407 519 820 www.qoa.asn.au/champs/
+ Tintookies Orienteering Club presents
NSW Championships Weekend 2006 EUREKA ORIENTEERS
present
Sunday 6 August 2006
The Victorian Long-Distance Championships
‘Ngaralta Country’
SU NDAY 2 2 OC TOB E R 2 0 0 6
South Australian Orienteering Championships (inc. the SA/Vic Challenge)
north-west of Murray Bridge For further information: tel: 08 8232 0652 www.oasa.asn.au
at Mt Beckworth (south of Clunes) For information contact: Mark Valentine (03) 5338 1220 mark.valentine@ballaratbasketball.com
Saturday 2nd Sept (PM)
NSW Sprint Championships MITTAGONG Details:
www.southernhighlands.nsw. orienteering.asn.au Sunday 3rd Sept
NSW Long Championships TARAGO New Map by Alex Tarr Details:
www.bigfootorienteers.com JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER
21
TRAINING
Steve Bird
Warm Up: more than just about feeling warm Introduction Warming up before an orienteering event is an important part of your race preparation and failing to do so can put unnecessary strain on your body, which may adversely affect your performance and perhaps increase the risk of injury. Warming up is not just about feeling warm, although this is one of the consequences and benefits. A warm-up is important because of the considerable physiological adjustments your body has to make when you go from being at rest to running. To illustrate this point I have put some indicative figures in Table 1. These are illustrative, as the exact values will vary from one person to another, as well as being affected by how fast you run, how fit you are and your body size, but nevertheless they do indicate the magnitude of the responses your body has to produce. As with previous articles the text of this piece is worded in the context of Foot Orienteering and running, but the same principles apply to Mountain Bike Orienteering, or indeed any strenuous exercise.
Your body at rest At rest your body needs relatively small amounts of oxygen, typically in the region of around 0.6 litres a minute, or if we represent this in terms of body weight, about 10 millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute. This is supplied to the muscles and other organs of the body by breathing gently to oxygenate the blood and by maintaining a steady heart rate that delivers the blood around the body. Typical values may be in the region of 12 breaths per minute, each of about 0.5 litres of air, giving a lung ventilation of about 6 litres per minute. At rest the heart will deliver this oxygenated blood with a heart rate of around 72 beats per minute, with each beat ejecting about 70ml of blood (a factor known as the stroke volume). This means that, at rest, the heart will eject around 72 x 70ml of blood a minute, approximately 5 litres. The amount of blood ejected each minute is known as the cardiac output. Of this cardiac output, only about 20% is directed towards the muscles, since they are at rest and do not require much oxygen. The remainder is sent to other organs of the body such as the brain and gut.
Your body during exercise When you exercise your muscles need more oxygen. When you walk the increased demand for oxygen is slight and can be met by small increases in the rate and depth of your breathing, accompanied by a slight increase in your heart rate, perhaps up to 90bpm. If you jog there is a greater demand for oxygen and hence your breathing will increase more dramatically and your heart rate may rise to 120 bpm. In addition to this, the stroke volume of your heart will also increase, causing more blood to be ejected with each beat of your heart and, furthermore, a greater percentage of your cardiac output will be sent to your exercising muscles. This is achieved by the selective dilation of the blood vessels supplying your exercising muscles and a constriction of those supplying other organs such as your gut. All these of changes are in proportion to the strenuousness of the exercise. So running at a steady pace requires a greater oxygen uptake and hence greater responses by the cardiorespiratory system than gentle jogging. Indeed, when working close to a maximum sustainable running speed, the sort of speed that can be maintained during an event, very large responses are required. Typical figures for a fit elite orienteer may be a heart rate of 165 - 180 bpm, a stroke volume of 120 – 140 ml per beat, a cardiac output of 18 - 25 litres per minute, 75-80% of the cardiac output being directed 22 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
to their exercising muscles and a ventilation of 130 - 160 litres of air per minute, with a resultant oxygen utilisation of 60 – 70 ml/ kg/min. (Note: the figures given here in the text are for a young, fit, male. The exact values will depend upon the size, age and gender of the individual, as well as their level of fitness.)
Why warm up? The reason why a warm up is a good idea, is because your body cannot instantaneously go from a resting state to that which is optimal for hard running. It takes time for it to reach a state whereby you can comfortably sustain a good running speed without becoming fatigued. So a warm-up involving a gradual increase in speed from jogging to running will elevate your heart’s cardiac output and your lungs’ ventilation, promote a greater blood flow to your muscles and increase the temperature of your muscles, which along with other biochemical changes will enhance their extraction of oxygen from the blood as it passes through them and promote its effective utilisation. It therefore prepares your body for the hard running you are about to do. Fortunately the benefits of a good warm-up are retained for several minutes after it’s been completed, so you won’t lose any benefits whilst you’re in the start boxes.
TRAINING The consequence of trying to run hard without a prior warmup is that your body is not prepared for the level of activity being asked of it. For example it’s not able to deliver the amount of oxygen to the muscles and the muscles are not in their optimal physiological state to make use of it. Consequently your body will resort to supplementary processes in order to produce the muscle power needed to run at speed. These are anaerobic processes such as the use of phosphocreatine and the anaerobic metabolism of carbohydrates. The consequences of the latter being an accumulation of lactate and an associated feeling of fatigue. In practical terms what this means is that if you start your event without a prior warm-up you will feel fatigue when running at speeds that you would find relatively easy and comfortable if you had warmed up before hand. It’s also illustrated by a feeling that you may have experienced on occasions when it took you ‘a few controls to get going’. Which was probably at the point when your body’s physiological responses (cardiac output, ventilation, blood flow and oxygen utilisation) finally managed to get to the level you’d been asking of them, as well as having to get rid of any fatiguing chemicals that you’d accumulated during the first few minutes.
and effectively adjust each stride as you try to run over uneven terrain and are constantly having to deal with unpredictable foot placements. Finally a warm-up can be used to help you focus and prepare mentally for the event as you gather your thoughts together whilst jogging to the start.
The benefits of warming up
•T here is strong research evidence that a warm-up can benefit your performance.
There is strong research evidence that a warm-up benefits performance, although as Bishop (2003) emphasises in his review, it needs to be of the right duration and intensity to prepare the body, without being so severe that you feel fatigued at the start. So ideally having completed your warm-up and having had a few minutes to recover before the start you should feel ready when you get to your start time. Likewise the preparation needs to attain the balance between warming up the muscles to their optimal level and raising your body temperature by too much. So weather conditions may dictate the length of your warm-up, and if it’s hot you should jog in the shade to try and promote the desired cardiorespiratory responses without unduly raising your temperature by too much. A warm-up may also reduce the risk of injury and is advocated by the vast majority of coaches and experts. Although it is acknowledged that the research evidence in support of this practice is inevitably largely anecdotal and/or based on logical reasoning, since large randomised controlled trials that involve a perceived risk of injury are clearly unethical. Another possible benefit relating to warming up is the fact that nerve impulses travel more quickly when you are warm, which may help you automatically System
Factor
Heart
Lungs
Blood flow
Muscles
What’s the best warm up? The specific composition of a warm-up is a matter of individual preference, but it is likely to include a combination of some loosening exercises, steady jogging/running (or cycling in the case of MTBO) and some stretching exercises. It needs to be at an intensity that will gradually elevate your cardiorespiratory responses to the levels they need to reach in the first few minutes of your course as well as ensuring your muscles reach an optimal working temperature. Although you may work quite hard during your warm-up, you should recover from it in the few minutes you have at the start whilst waiting to begin your event, and you should not feel fatigued from it as you set off towards the start triangle. Specific suggestions for what to include in your warm-up will be presented next time.
Conclusions
•A warm-up is needed to prepare your cardiorespiratory system and muscles for the demands of running. • I t can help to beneficially elevate your muscle temperature on a cold day. • It may reduce the risk of injury. • It can help you to prepare mentally, just before the start.
Reference Bishop D (2003). Warm Up II. Performance changes following active warm-up and how to structure a warm-up. Sports Medicine, 33(7): 483-498. Professor Steve Bird is Director, Centre for Population Health, Sunshine Hospital, Melbourne. Steve worked with the Great Britain National Orienteering Squad for over 10 years.
Rest
Running
Change
Heart rate (bpm)
60 - 70
140 - 170
x2.5
Stroke Volume (ml): the amount of blood ejected by the left ventricle of the heart each beat
50 – 70
100 - 140
x2
Cardiac Output (litres): the amount of blood ejected by the left ventricle of the heart each minute
3-5
14 - 24
x5
Breaths per minute
~12
~30
x2.5
Volume of air each breath (litres)
0.4 – 0.7
3-5
x7
Air ventilated by the lungs each minute (litres)
5-8
90 - 150
x18
% Cardiac output to muscles
~20%
~75%
x3.5
Blood flow to muscles (litres)
~1
~15
x15
0.4 – 0.6
4-5
x10
Oxygen consumption (litres per minute)
Ineka Booth (ACT) during the Prologue at Easter. Photo: Bob Mouatt
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 23
OCAD
Improve your map training with OCAD
Estimating Distance Estimating distance is always present in any orienteering course you run, though most of the time this process is subconscious. No matter what course you are running, no matter what the terrain and its difficulty, always, when you look up from the map, you have to sort out the objects you see and match them with the information you remember from the map. Doing this, you always relate the objects in the terrain according to their nature, size and to the distance at which they are located from your current position. Acquiring these skills comes with time and experience, but as with other orienteering techniques, even estimating distance can be trained OCAD can be an essential tool with which you can easily prepare exercises to train your distance estimation. Preparing the training in OCAD is similar to preparing ‘Corridor Training’ which we introduced in the second part of the ‘Improve Your Map Training with OCAD’ series last year. Yet, the methods differ in a few steps, therefore we advise you to follow these instructions carefully: 1) Create (first click ‘File’, then ‘New’) a new OCAD 8 ‘Normal map’ file in a scale 1:10,000 or 1:15,000 - depending on the scale of the original map on which you’ll be setting the course. In this file, upload the original .ocd file of the map as a template - click the ‘Template’ option in the upper Menu bar, then click open. 2) In the upper Menu bar select ‘Symbol’ and when the Option panel unfolds, select the command ‘Load symbols from...’ (picture 1). Then select the symbol file. You will find it under: C:\Program Files\Ocad8\Symbol\Course setting 10 000.ocd or C:\Program Files\Ocad8\Symbol\Course setting 15 000.ocd depending on the scale of the map you are using. Open the new symbol file with Course setting symbols with which the Map drawing symbols will be replaced. 3) Set a ‘Star Course’ using the course-setting symbols in the ‘Symbol box’ on the right.
24 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
4) In the ‘Symbol box’ select the symbol 760.0 Background Control Descriptions, switch into the Curve mode ( ) and hide all parts of the map in such a way that you end up having only a circular corridor of the original map revealed, in which all the controls will appear. 5) Click the ‘File’ option in the upper Menu bar and select ‘Print’. Select here ‘Entire map’ or ‘One Page’ and click ‘Print’. Final Tips: •T his training should be run in such a way that your trainees head out for each of the controls from the start triangle. After finding the control, they go back to the start. The training should be done at high speed in order to simulate competition-like conditions. •T he size of the revealed map area in front or behind each control affects the difficulty of the training. The less area you reveal the more difficult for your trainees. •D istances between start and individual controls should vary in order to make the training more challenging for your trainees and also in order to force them to be active in estimating of distance. •T his training also has a huge psychological benefit. With each control your trainees start orienteering a new, from scratch. This way, they easily recover from previous mistakes and can fully focus just on the next control. From a coaching point of view, it gives you an opportunity to have immediate feedback on what your trainees are doing in the forest. •T his training, apart from estimating distance, also teaches your trainees how to immediately relocate on the map. This may be very useful for them during orienteering races; e.g.. after going through green areas, where they mostly fight their way through, just trying to keep their direction without properly reading the map. Jan Skřička Download OCAD 8 Demo at www.ocad.com Reprinted from Orienteering Today magazine.
Heather Harding (ACT) at the National League event at Cowra, NSW, in March). Photo: Bob Mouatt
Terry Bluett, NSW, led M60 after two days but couldn’t que con r Geoff Adam’s Deadman’s Flat course (above) on Day 3. Photo: Bob Mouatt
Consistent performances over the three days at Easter enabled Evan Barr (VIC) to finish 6th overall and also gain selection in the JWOC team. Photo: Bob Mouatt
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 25
SPORT PSYCHOLOGY
Jason McCrae – Intern Psychologist
MTB-O vs Foot-O
The nature of MTB-O also changes what are the key components to be considered in making route choice, compared to Foot-O. Firstly hills and height gain or loss assume great importance in MTB-O. On a bike much greater distance can be travelled down hill compared to up hill and research using GPS equipment on MTB-O has shown speeds as high as 60km/h down hills in contrast to going up steep hills at below 10km/h. This wide variation in speeds, not as wide in Foot-O, becomes very important in route choice decision-making. Secondly, the quality of a track has greater influence on speed in MTB-O than in Foot-O. A minor, heavily rutted and bumpy track will not allow a competitor in MTB-O to attain high speeds compared to travelling along a main road or track. In contrast, in FootO there is less speed difference between uphill running and down-hill running. We all know there is a difference (!) however the difference might be between 17 km/h down hill and 12km/h uphill. For some this means key criteria for Foot-O route choice are based on which route is going to make the navigation aspect easiest, for example, if going up and over a hill rather than around it makes navigating to the control easier then the expert foot-orienteer will often choose that route. So how does the examination of these differences in route choice decisions affect the way a competitor orienteers in each discipline? At the top end of both disciplines of orienteering our elites are able to identify key criteria for making route choice decisions before the competition starts, and then use the criteria in making route choices during the race. For example in MTB-O two key criteria, as previously discussed, could be avoiding up hills and using main roads/tracks instead of smaller more indistinct tracks. Knowing this allows a competitor to plan to make decisions on route choice options in their race based on which choice has the least up hill and travels along the most established tracks/roads. This encourages quicker route choice decisions to be made, provides a framework that supports route choice decisions based on the most important information about the terrain, rather than using less relevant pieces of map information, and with practice should improve the quality of the decisions being made. The process of having criteria or some key points to assess route choices can also be used in Foot-O. Before the 2004 World Orienteering Championships in Sweden Grant Bluett, then Australian team member experienced in Swedish terrain and now Orienteering Australia’s Head Coach, advised Australian team members to choose routes that ran along the south side of marshes as the marshes were good navigational features and on the south side received more sun than other parts of the forest so were firmer and faster running. In conclusion, I would suggest that a key component of orienteering, in either discipline, is decision-making for the fastest route choice between controls. In MTB-O, where there is a greater speed variation than Foot-O, making fast and correct decisions is vital. Having criteria for assessing route choice based on what you consider to be the key features of the terrain can improve your ability to consistently make the route choices best for you.
it’s not (only) about the bike Jason McCrae ONE of the biggest developments in Orienteering over the last 5 years has been the introduction of Mountain Bike Orienteering (MTB-O) within the broader discipline of orienteering. Australia, despite having a relatively small number of people competing regularly in MTB-O, has been highly successful in this field with the hosting of the World MTB-O Champs in Victoria in 2004 and competitors such as Adrian Jackson, Alex Randall, Belinda Allison and Emily Viner winning medals at World Championship and World Cup races. Quite obviously the main difference between MTB-O and what is now sometimes referred to as Foot-O (traditional orienteering), is that a person competes on a mountain bike rather than running or walking. This includes the requirement that in MTB-O races, a competitor is only allowed to ride on marked tracks and through marked yellow clearings, versus the foot orienteer who can go wherever on the map his or her legs can carry him/her. The change from Foot-O to MTB-O is not only about the bike (apologies to Lance Armstrong). From a psychological and technical view point the challenge of Orienteering can broadly be divided into ‘route choice’ and ‘navigation’. Navigation, for the purposes of this article, is the mental and technical processes used in finding your way between controls. That is, navigating to each control following the route you have chosen through the terrain. It is made up of a series of mini or ‘micro’ decisions such as which gully on the map is the one you see before you, what piece of information in the terrain you are looking for next and whether the track junction you just ran or rode through is the 2nd or 3rd on the way to your control. In contrast, route choice decisions are ‘macro’ decisions usually made at the start of a leg regarding which route the competitor wants to take to get to the next control. Route choice is also a very conscious decision-making process with orienteers examining different routes and weighing up the pros and cons of each choice and concluding which is best for them. The information considered in making a choice between routes is often not only about the map and terrain but can also take into account personal aspects about the individual – a competitor feeling strong and fit early in a course might be more willing to choose an option travelling over a hill compared with later in the course when fatigue has set in and round the hill becomes the best choice. In MTB-O the route choice aspect of our sport is often greatly emphasised and challenged, possibly more often than in Foot-O. The restriction of MTB-O to tracks, yellow clearings and roads and also the ability to cover greater distances on a bike, compared to on foot, encourages the emphasis on route choice. By contrast, in Foot-O, the fact that a competitor can go anywhere across the terrain allows for challenges in navigation with short legs and detailed point and contour features that are not always present on tracks alone. That’s not to say that both disciplines don’t have challenges in navigation and route choice, just that each lends themselves to different emphasis. 26 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
Jason McCrae is a Sport Psychologist at the ACT Academy of Sport and keen orienteer. He can be contacted on Jason.McCrae@act.gov.au
HIGH PERFORMANCE AS I write this column for the winter edition the final group of athletes is in the process of being selected for our trio of World Championship teams having just completed the Easter series of events. It promises to be an exciting time for our national teams competing in the World MTBO Championships, the Junior World Championships and Senior World Championships. In MTBO we have the number one ranked rider in Adrian Jackson and Alex Randall who is also ranked in the top 10 which is a fantastic effort while Hanny Allston, our 2005 Athlete of the Year, is fronting up for her final tilt as a junior. In addition, we have seen Dave Shepherd overcome the persistent injuries of last year to dominate the men’s division of the 2006 National League, Grace Elson has taken her orienteering to another level and Simon Uppill has emerged as a genuine future talent. We wish them and all athletes and coaches of our national teams well for their World Championship races.
Mike Dowling, OA Director, High Performance
Elite Athletes Take On Coaching Orienteering Australia was delighted to appoint one of our outstanding elite orienteers of many years standing in Tom Quayle as coach of the Bushrangers team for 2006-07. Tom is an orienteer with many years of top international experience and it is gratifying to see him wanting to move into coaching to impart his great knowledge onto our emerging athletes who form our “Bushies” team for the test matches against New Zealand. Tom’s appointment is very much a central part of our long-term strategy to encourage our elites to be actively involved in coaching to build our pool of coaching knowledge so that we can continue to improve our international competitiveness. To that end we are delighted that elite orienteers Reuben Smith and Rob Walter will again be helping out with the JWOC team in Lithuania for their final preparations, as they did last year, along with Suzanne Casanova. In addition, Head Coach Grant Bluett is implementing a High Performance Level 2 Coaching program to enable our elites involved in coaching to build on their practical knowledge with the support of a sound theoretical framework.
Coaching The Essence Of Improving Your Orienteering With the restructure of the activities of Orienteering Australia in 2005 coaching came under the auspices of the Director, High Performance. To that end, I was privileged to be able to attend the meeting of the OA Coaching Committee during the Easter 3 Days in Victoria and to get to hear first hand the work a dedicated band of people are undertaking in their States. There is no doubt that good coaching is the cornerstone of any athlete in any sport being able to improve their enjoyment of their sport at any level. The role of the Coaching Committee is to provide leadership in the area of coaching education and development with support from OA Head Coach Grant Bluett. It was with great pleasure on my part that Queensland’s Fiona Calabro took on the role of Chair of the Committee. We are fortunate in orienteering to have people like Fiona who bring a great sense of passion and dedication to this vital area of orienteering activities.
Improving Our National League Our National league is now a well established and a vital component of our domestic competition calendar. One the major goals of the Board of Orienteering Australia and the foot High Performance Management Group for this year is to look at ways we can continue to develop the National League and make it an even better series of events as our premier domestic competitive series. There is no doubt States are building the capacity to become more competitive with team depth and the addition of the Junior division in recent years is a positive move to build an articulated pathway for our young orienteers. One aspect we will be looking at is how to assist States to continue to improve both the quality of orienteering and the presentation of the event to the viewing audience where possible. As always your thoughts and ideas are always welcome. Mike Dowling 17 High St, Bellerive 7018 Ph 6244 71773 Email mdowling@tassie.net.au
Hanny Allston considering options, Day 3 Easter 2006
Orienteering Australia – National Training Centre JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 27
Clare Brownrid
ge finishing
Looking south from
David Brownridge finishing
Looking south-east, to control 13
28 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
control 12
NEW CLUB
Orienteering at Melbourne University James Fell On Wednesday 8th March 2006, the brand new Melbourne Uni Orienteering Club held its inaugural race, on the brand new Melbourne Uni map. The race was held in a Sprint format, with a course of approximately 3.6km in length. The extremely technical area was a challenge for all competitors. The course began in the north and wound its way south, down through the campus, twisting and turning around (and through) buildings and across grassy lawns. Proceeding south, runners continued through University Square. The race continued west, before heading north, through crowds of smiling graduates (who’d just finished graduation ceremonies), for a final showdown in the university’s sporting area. The winner of the men’s division was David Brownridge, with Clare Brownridge taking out the women’s.
The Melbourne Uni map The new map extends from Lygon Street, in the east, to Royal Park in the West, and from Queensberry Street in the south, to Princes Park in the north. The map is drawn entirely to the 2005 International Specification for Sprint Orienteering Maps (ISSOM2005). The area encompasses parkland, streets and a mass of intensely close buildings on the university campus, making for what can only be described as a maze of an area in the heart of the map. The map is drawn to a scale of 1:5000, with two metre contours.
About the Club Previously at Melbourne Uni, Orienteering had been under the control of the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club (MUMC), a once active but now dormant club with regard to Orienteering. (Ed note: MUMC was one of the founders of Orienteering in Victoria. One of its members, Ron Frederick, won the first event held in 1969 and is still an active participant and also current President of Emus OC). A group of orienteers felt that Orienteering wasn’t getting the support it deserved and, led by Stuart Fell, Matt Schepisi and James Fell, a group of keen orienteers at Melbourne Uni broke the sport away from MUMC (with the approval of MUMC), to form the Melbourne University Orienteering Club. MUOC runs weekly training sessions and has the only sprint map in Victoria that satisfies the International Specification for Sprint Orienteering Maps. The club currently has twenty five members. Membership is open to current students and graduates and new members are welcome. Event placings 1. David Brownridge 2. Stuart Fell 3. Rob Lee
1. Clare Brownridge 2. Gabby Lanman 3. Jasmine Neve
VICTORINOX AWARD The Victorinox Award goes to Steve Bird for his excellent series of articles on Training. There’s been a lot of interest expressed by readers about these articles and we look forward to more of the same in coming editions. Steve receives a Victorinox Voyager with 20 tools and features including a watch/alarm/timer; retail value $109.95
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 JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 29
COMPASSES
Compasses – products made with precision and feeling Olle Bergman COMPASSES, COMPASSES, COMPASSES – small, large, antique, modern. I thought I knew everything there is to know about compasses. Standing in front of a display case in the Silva premises in Sollentuna I start to feel nostalgic thinking of my first compass, purchased from my club in 1976: an angular base plate compass with aluminium housing and a reliable magnifying glass. I never treated myself to a step counter.….. Wide assortment My energetic host, Christer Svensson, takes me back to reality. He’s eager to show me the assortment of today, which includes everything from marine instruments and GPS equipment to compasses with built in whistles and can openers. Our attention quickly focuses on the products that were there when it all started for Silva in the late 1920’s – orienteering compasses. Christer starts to describe the production, and it hits me how little I actually know about the instrument which has been my guide in darkness and in marshes. To produce a standard compass is certainly not simply putting a magnetic needle in a plastic can and filling it up with paraffin oil! No, it’s a production that requires precision and knowledge of the materials.
automated. Every single compass is balanced and glued by hand.” The main difference is that the Jet compass does not have the traditional compass needle. Instead it is structured on a small square magnet on to which a plastic needle has been attached. The compass needle requires manual balancing (see picture), unlike the metal needles which are punched out of a set form.
Electronics in the future More and more of the Silva products will be electronic, but to make a simple electronic compass suitable for orienteering at a reasonable price is not so easy. The problem lies in the vertical factor of the earth’s magnetic field. Cheap electronic compasses are extremely sensitive to tilting – to the extent where they are useless to orienteering. Another problem is the practical use of an electronic compass. How do you set a compass course when you can’t see the map and the north lines or turn the compass housing. However Silva is preparing for an electronic future for the sport. “We think – and hope – that GPS will not be allowed in orienteering, but we think that the electronic compasses will be allowed. Speaking for myself I would like to see more interesting supplementary sports to get more people interested in orienteering, e.g. GPS orienteering”, says Christer Svensson, who himself has tried geocaching with great pleasure. What kind of gadgets our kids will take with them out in the forest is hard to tell, but it’s very likely that some of the gadgets will be branded Silva. Olle Bergman is a Swedish freelance writer. First published in Skogssport 2/2006.
A lot to take into consideration Christer shows me the frictionless suspension, where the sapphire stone hub rotates on the pin in the housing. He tells me about the liquid, ‘a petroleum product that resembles paraffin oil’. The liquid has to remain clear and uncoloured. He explains how important it is that the plastic wall of the housing has the exact amount of flexibility to allow for the volume changes of the liquid – no cracks caused by summer heat, no bubbles caused by cold weather in the winter. When Christer talks about balancing the compass needles, because of the vertical direction of the earth’s magnetic field, we reach the hard hitting question: why are the speedy orange needles of the Jet compasses so much more expensive than the classical red needles? Do they really differ all that much? I’ve been asked the same question so many times: why does a compass cost around $140? The answer is - it’s made by hand!
Different manufacturing Conventional compasses, with a needle punched out of steel plate, are rather simple to mass-produce, whereas the more modern orienteering compasses require a more complicated process. “This production must be made by hand”, Christer Svensson explains. “It cannot – with reasonable investment costs – be 30 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
’Standard’ compass needles punched out of steel plate. The needle is magnetised by a strong magnetic field as the compass is being put together. If the compass is to be used at Scandinavian latitudes, it will be slightly heavy at the back. This is to stop the Earth’s magnetic field to tip it forwards/ downwards. The Jet compass is more complicated than you may think. If you look very carefully you can see the transparent dampening disc that settles on the needle a second or so after it is aligned to north.
OA AWARDS
Silva Services to Orienteering – Neville Bleakley
T
HE 2006 Silva Services to Orienteering Award goes to Neville Bleakley for his long and dedicated service to Orienteering Australia, not only as a coach but for developing the strategies for the High Performance program and for completing the curricula for the National Officiating Accreditation Scheme Level 2 and Level 3 officials’ (controllers) courses. Neville Bleakley came to Orienteering in the early 1980s after years of being a successful coach in other sports. For many years he was content to be just a competitor, but in the early 1990s, he regained his enthusiasm for coaching. In 1992 he was appointed ACT Orienteering Director of Coaching and Training (a voluntary position). At about the same time he became Head of Dept Sport and Fitness at the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT), after working for a number of years in curriculum development. In 1994, he undertook study to be a High Performance coach. To gain more understanding of the intricacies of coaching in orienteering, he undertook to be the coach of the 1995 JWOC team that did so well in Denmark. The team was the 9th nation in overall standings, Australia’s best result, only equalled in 2002 in Spain, and achieved seven top-30 placings, a result unsurpassed so far. Neville Bleakley worked at the Australian Coaching Council for a short period in 1996 under a ‘return to industry” program for TAFE teachers. In December 1996 he was appointed the OFA National Director of Coaching (NDC) (then a voluntary position). In 1998, he was accredited as a High Performance Coach, the first and only orienteering coach to achieve this level. In April 1998, he left his position at CIT to take up two paid part-time orienteering positions, National Director of Coaching and ACT Academy of Sport (ACTAS) Orienteering Head Coach. He remained in both positions until 31 October 2005. In 1999, Neville Bleakley identified a need to create a High Performance program under the control of a Director (High Performance) and overseen by a Manager, High Performance. Recruiting people for both positions took some time, but his vision meant that Orienteering Australia was well placed in early 2001 when the Australian Sports Commission required all national sporting organisations to have a High Performance Strategic Plan and structure. Within three weeks, during January 2001, he and Bob Mouatt created OA’s first HP Strategic Plan, which was good enough to satisfy the ASC. When, in 2003, Orienteering Australia decided that it wanted its controller accreditation scheme incorporated into the ASC National Officiating Accreditation Scheme, Neville Bleakley agreed to extend his duties to include Officiating and to write the curricula for the Levels 2 and 3 controllers’ courses. This enabled Orienteering Australia to implement full NOAS accreditation for all of its officials (controllers). While his role as Head Coach at ACTAS was predominantly an ACT position, he always took a national perspective which led to many benefits accruing to the national HP program. The most significant came as he was standing down, when ACTAS agreed to National Training Centre scholarships being granted to two orienteers, living in the ACT, without the requirement to compete for the Canberra Cockatoos. Neville Bleakley’s greatest strengths in orienteering are his holistic approach, his ability to operate at a number of levels and his ability to communicate effectively with people from all walks of life. He has the rare ability to be both an ‘administrator/official’ and a ‘practitioner’ at the same time. As with many innovators, Neville
Bleakley had visions that were not always shared by all of his colleagues and he had to use all of his considerable communicative skills to bring about change, which was ultimately recognised as being the smart thing to do. His greatest contribution to orienteering in Australia has been his insight of what was required to improve the situation, and his preparedness to work tirelessly to execute the necessary changes. He also possesses an almost unrivalled ability to ‘network’ with people of influence. He is held in very high regard both within and outside orienteering. He has been an inspiration to the orienteering coaching community, and given orienteering coaches a new belief in themselves. He was the epitome of what every National Coaching Director should be.
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
Or ienteer ing Aus tr alia photo ar chi v e Photos that appear in The Australian Orienteer can be made available in a digital format for press releases or special promotional projects. Contact Peter Cusworth on 03 5968 5254 or cusworth@netspace.net.au Any material costs will be passed on to users.
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 31
TOP EVENTS 2006
2007
July 1-7 WMOC 2006 Wiener Neustadt, Austria www.wmoc06.com/
July 2-7 JWOC 2006, Druskininkai, Lithuania www.losf.lt/jwoc2006
Jan 3-7 Ultimax 5 Days, Orange NSW
April 6-15 “Burra to Barossa 2007” Aust 3Days & Middle-dist Champs, SA www.oasa.asn.au/2007
July 8-15 Tour O Swiss www.tour-o-swiss.ch
July 9-14 World MTB-O Champs, Joensuu, Finland. mtbwoc2006.orienteering.org
July 7-14 WMOC 2007 Kuusamo, Finland www.wmoc2007.fi/
July 7-15 JWOC 2007 Carnival, incl NSW Champs, Aus Champs & Schools Champs, Dubbo, NSW. http:// orienteering.asn.au/events
July 16-21 O-Ringen, Halsingland, Sweden (250 km north of Stockholm) www.oringen.com
July 22-27 O-Ringen Östergötland, Sweden www.oringen.com
July 29-Aug 5 WOC 2006 and Danish WOC Tour 6-Days, Aarhus, Denmark www.woc2006.dk/
August 16-26 WOC 2007 Kiev, Ukraine e-mail: info@woc2007.org.ua www.woc2007.org.ua
August 19-26 WMTB-O 2007 Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic www.mtbo.cz/woc2007/
October 4 Australian Sprint Championships, Canberra ACT
10-12 Oct Australian MTB-O Championships Collie, Western Australia http://wa.orienteering.asn.au/ auschamps 2006
October 6-7 Oceania Championships, Canberra ACT
Dec 29-31 APOC 2006, Hong Kong http://www.apoc2006.hk
November Australian MTB-O Championships, NSW
Dec 27-31 Christmas 5 Days, NSW
July 15-22 Swiss O Week 2006 Zermatt, Switzerland www.sow2006zermatt.ch
29 Sept-12 Oct Australian Championships Carnival York, Western Australia http://wa.orienteering.asn.au/ auschamps 2006
32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
COACHING
Orienteer gets Top-10 place in Commonwealth Games Lauren Shelley, Bayside Kangaroos member and a former regular participant in Melbourne’s Park & Street-O events, ran for AUS in the Commonwealth Games Women’s Marathon last March. She finished the 42+km event in a very creditable 8th place. Lauren reports: Well it was a busy and exciting two weeks and I think it took a few more weeks to really sink in. But overall it’s been a fantastic experience. The opening ceremony was great particularly as we waited before rushing out onto the bridge into the centre of the MCG - a real rush. But it was all over so quickly, and the next day the mood in the village was no longer one of excitement and more one of anticipation and preparation for the hard days of competition to come. I was really relaxed going into the marathon race - I’d had a good preparation and had been training as well or better than leading into the Tokyo marathon, so I was hoping for a good run. I’m not one for nerves but there was certainly a sense of excitement, and I was glad to be competing early in the Games as I was looking forward to racing (and then hitting the 24hr food hall!). The day of my race was about 24 degrees max, so a little warm - but I coped well with the heat. Walking onto the MCG before the start I could hear friends and family in the crowd cheering. We started on the track with 3.5 laps before heading out into Melbourne for our 42km tour of the city. The support on course was the best I’ve encountered in a race - there were so many people out, and of course the majority were cheering for us Aussies! The cheering crowd as I ran into the MCG was something I certainly won’t ever forget. The race itself was exciting - the first 5km was relatively slow (18:45) and we ran in a pack of 15 over the early undulating stages of the race until about 15km, with only 11 of us left by 20km. Half-way split was 1:16:24 so going along well and I felt comfortable. It was great to run a competitive race in a pack as so often in marathons you run alone.
Kerryn McCann (AUS) won in an exciting sprint finish in the stadium with the Kenyan runner. The other Australian Kate Smythe finished in 7th, 43sec in front of me, and not looking quite as fresh. She was placed on a drip afterwards and recovered fine. I have mixed emotions about my run - it was a fantastic race to be in; I was able to stay with the leaders early on; I felt I ran my best on the day; I coped with the heat well and had a good preparation. The field was strong and to finish 8th in my first major championship marathon and beat several strong runners who beat me in Canada last year was good. On the other hand, I finished 5min 30sec off my PB in Tokyo last November, I slowed considerably and struggled in the second half. I felt like my four marathons in eleven months had perhaps started to catch up with me, and I feel that Tokyo was definitely a better run. But if I had my time again I would do everything the same - run the race the same, and do the same marathons leading up to the Commonwealth Games - because without them I wouldn’t even be here. But I also know I can do better next time...
But by 22km the leaders were cranking up the pace and I The Closing Ceremony was my last chance to soak up the dropped off, and soon after there were atmosphere of the ‘G, before flying back only three runners left at the front. From Women’s Marathon Results to Esperance. I’ve had a great time living there it was a battle to the finish, trying 1 AUS McCANN Kerryn 2:30:54 in the village, catching up with friends, to slow as little as possible and stay in 2 KEN CHERONO KOSKEI Hellen 2:30:56 and watching the athletics, but by the end touch with those in front. My legs started 3 ENG YELLING Elizabeth 2:32:19 I was exhausted and tireing of village life to really tighten up and it got harder and 4 WAL MORRIS Tracey 2:33:13 and 24hr food halls. I was looking forward harder to run fast. My times got slower 5 TAN AKUNAAY Josephine 2:36:27 to heading home, taking it easy for a and my final 5km from 35 - 40km was 6 CAN KORTCHAGUINA Lioudmila 2:36:43 few weeks, jogging along the foreshore, run in 20:25! Nevertheless, despite me 7 AUS SMYTHE Kate 2:38:30 dipping the legs in the ocean post-run, slowing considerably, everyone else was 8 AUS SHELLEY Lauren 2:39:13 and cooking my own dinner - back to suffering the same fate and after a couple 9 SCO HAINING Hayley 2:39:39 normality! 10 SCO PARTRIDGE Susan 2:39:54 of tussles with the Scottish runners and the Lesotho runner, I managed to hold my Thanks for all your support - anyone for Lauren’s 5km splits: 18.46; 17.36; 17.59; 18.04; place in the end and finish 8th in 2:39:13. Beijing 2008?? 18.24; 19.06; 19.46; 20.25.
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 33
DID YOU KNOW?
Vale Sue Millard (1941-2006) Sue’s involvement with Orienteering began in about 1990. Sue threw herself into all aspects of the sport - recruiting, the social side, wherever she could volunteer her help and competition (including Rogaining in which Sue partnered Jan Hillyard on several occasions). In addition to bringing along new people herself, she made all newcomers feel welcome with her cheerful laughter, offers of delicious cake, or a glass of wine (while at the same time having some colourful knitting tucked under her arm). Sue’s willingness to help led to her being the Minute Secretary of OASA and to being the Co-ordinator of Registration at the 2002 Carnival in the Flinders.
Ian Baker (VIC) went cross-country skiing in Norway in March this year. Travelling the trails near his hotel in Sjusjoen near Lillehammer, he came across quite a few orienteering markers with a punch, all in prominent locations such as trail bends or junctions. A map for the permanent course was available in a ski-hire shop and Ian intended to have an O-outing on his last day. But the air temperature was minus thirteen degrees and a brisk wind meant the wind-chill made it feel much colder, as well as blowing snow all over the tracks. So Ian retreated instead to the hotel lounge for a hot chocolate. Lillehammer was only thirty minutes away by bus. At the Olympic Museum one of the panels on display describes how, during World War II, the Norwegians defied a German attempt to “nazify” all sporting activities by refusing to take part in ‘official’ sports events. Instead, they held clandestine football matches, ski runs and Orienteering meets. The sports strike lasted until Norway was liberated.
She was a Level 1 Coach, a great mentor for those at nonElite level. She even took on the job of “controlling” an event: the Very Easy and Easy courses at Rock Oyster needed to be made easier still, said Sue, quoting Ron Larsson’s advice that the course-setter should be able to see the next flag while on his knees if setting the Very Easy course. All this helped Sue’s own skills too. So she was ready to travel the world to a Scottish-6 Day, a World Masters in USA and one in Denmark in 1999. Then came the first diagnosis of cancer in 2000. Sue’s response was typical. She came 2nd in W60 in the State Champs and went on to be 3rd in the Nationals both in 2001. Not surprisingly she won an OY glass that year. Mostly you’d never know that Sue was battling the disease. Then in July 2005, Sue and Ian made it to the NT Championships where she navigated that varied terrain with great accuracy and considerable speed. She never gave up the will to keep going. She came orienteering for the last time on December 16th. I met her walking along the Torrens Linear Park. “Isn’t it beautiful along here?” then she went back to join the circle of chairs as people sat around eating their evening meal. We all admired her courage enormously and we all wish to honour her memory by continuing her policy of cheerful inclusion of everyone in the Orienteering community. She loved life and made the most of it. We shall miss her. Jeffa Lyon
Melbourne airport explosives testing device passes effectiveness test! When returning from the Easter carnival, both Louis Elson (Tas) and Matt Hope (Tas) sent the explosives testing device at Melbourne Airport off, requiring them to both be led away for further interrogation. They were ultimately released when it was explained that they had taken part that day in an orienteering event at an old mine dump. Apparently the dust around the tailings heaps at Eaglehawk still contains sufficient explosives residue from the mining era that the sensitive airport equipment registered a “hit”, particularly as Matt was still carrying his O shoes in his bag! Blair Trewin 34 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
A one-year subscription (7 issues) of Orienteering Today $A115, payable to The Australian Orienteer. Send to PO Box 165, Warrandyte, Victoria 3113
HYSTERICAL HISTORY
Spot the Difference CANADIAN FOREST, near Ballarat in Victoria, has been a regular venue for Orienteering events for more than thirty years. Eureka Orienteers’ Russell Bourke was having a clearout recently and came upon copies of one of the original maps produced in 1975 for an event held on Sunday 1st June. At a scale of 1:4,800 it had the potential to show a great amount of intricate detail. Compare it with the 2005 version used for the VIC Relays last year. Many of the main tracks are still there. Some mine shafts
have moved (and some haven’t) perhaps due to the influence of local tectonic plate adjustments over the intervening years. Dry water channels dug by the gold miners do not appear on the early map though watercourses (probably equally dry) do appear. Three courses were offered, the longest being 3.75km with 13 controls. Entry fee to all courses was just 20 cents per person and an additional 5 cents for extra members in a group. Compass hire charge was 20 cents. There was a 5min pre-start and courses were pre-printed on the maps though, sadly, we don’t have a copy. Two maps – Canadian Forest 2005 and 1975.
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 35
M T B - O N AT I O N A L R A N K I N G S
The first Australian MTBO Rankings Mountain Bike Orienteering rankings for 2005 have been determined using the same formula as for Foot-O. Your finish time for the ranking event is divided by the winning time in your class - and then multiplied by 100. In 2005 I have added your best two event ranks (listed in the events column) and divided by 2 to get an average (ie. if you scored 100.00 and 104.20, the average = 102.10). The top 10 ranks in each class are shown. The 9 ranking events for 2005: Australian Long-Distance, Australian Middle-Distance, ACT, NSW, SA, TAS, WA, Victorian Long-Distance, and Victorian Middle-Distance. Since Qld did not stage a 2005 championship, no individuals from Qld scored ranking points. Riders who only completed one 2005 championship event have been given 200.00 ranking points - regardless of their placing. 2005’s nationals were in Bendigo and Maryborough, Victoria. Some interesting notes from 2005:
Rob Davis (VIC), first ranked M40, at the 2005 Aust Champs in Bendigo. Photo: Peter Cusworth
• Most classes were won by Victorians •T here were two equal firsts - M-18 Bryan Keely (BGV) and Brett Merchant (TJS); W60+ Dale Ann Gordon (EUV) and Joyce Rowlands (NEV) •N ine clubs had class leaders YVV (3), BGV (2), BKV (1), EUV (1), NEV (1), MFV (1), TJS (1), TKV (1), TTS (1) • In M-16, Bendigo boys were ranked 1, 2, and 3 •N o junior woman completed two courses to be eligible for ranking - so all are ranked at 200.00. •E lite rankings (IOF World MTB-O Rankings and Australian Elite MTB-O rankings) are published below but use more complex criteria and overseas races. Blake Gordon, OA MTB-O Committee ELITE MEN 1 Adrian Jackson 2 Alex Randall 3 Grant Lebbink 4 Tony Clark 5 Anthony Darr 6 Tom Walter 7 Paul Darvodelsky 8 Darryl Taylor 9 Paul Liggins 10 Jim Russell 11 Peter Irish 12 Matthew Schepisi 13 Steven Cusworth 14 Adam Hunter 15 Rob Davis 16 David Simpfendorfer
VIC VIC VIC VIC NSW ACT NSW NZL VIC VIC VIC VIC VIC ACT VIC ACT
0.00 8.51 19.63 19.98 20.17 20.91 22.60 22.79 28.19 30.47 31.02 31.93 32.80 33.38 34.22 35.55
17 18 19 20
David Baldwin Marcel van Schie Jiri Cech Bruce Arthur
ELITE WOMEN 1 Anna Sheldon 2 Mary Fien 3 Carolyn Jackson 4 Marquita Gelderman 5 Tanya Beacham 6 Barbara Hill 7 Dianne Michels 8 Caitlin Wade 9 Cath Chalmers 10 Natalie Saunders
ACT NSW NSW VIC
QLD NSW VIC NZL VIC NSW NZL VIC WA VIC
35.89 37.49 37.58 38.58
0.00 1.41 2.80 10.58 33.22 33.53 34.92 35.62 35.85 60.79
Barbara Hill at the WOC selection event at Cessnock in March. Photo: Peter Cusworth
36 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
M-14 1 Timothy Jackson MFV 100.29 2 Morgan Clark BKV 104.76 Luke Poland BSA 200.00 Oliver Poland BSA 200.00 Oscar McNulty LOW 200.00 Rhys Kessell LOW 200.00 Joe Dowson BOW 200.00 Henry McNulty LOW 200.00 Alexander Massey NCN 200.00 Matthew Hill GON 200.00 Aidan Dawson GON 200.00 Daniel Hill GON 200.00 M-16 1 Leon Keely BGV 100.00 2 Luke Grinton BGV 118.82 3 Tom McKee BGV 137.85 Danny Roberts-Clark ..N 200.00 Tristan Lee TJS 200.00 Oscar Phillips EVT 200.00 Sam Hey WRT 200.00 Alan Rainbow ..T 200.00 Mike Smith WRT 200.00 M-18 1 Bryan Keely BGV 100.00 2 Brett Merchant TJS 100.00 3 Stephen Balharrie EUV 110.94 Steven Cusworth BKV 200.00 Matt Hope WRT 200.00 M40- 1 Robert Davis BKV 100.00 2 Tim Hatley BKV 102.11 3 Fabrizio Andreoni AWV 102.21 4 Piotr Czajkowski ..V 108.22 5 Steve Sullivan YAS 109.78 6 Duncan Sullivan LOW 112.67 7 Bruce Paterson BKV 114.31 8 Cormac McCarthy YVV 118.42 9 Geoff Charnock MDN 131.76 10 Steve Bird BKV 146.62 M50- X Rob Garden NZ 1 Keith Wade TKV 2 Peter Jackson MFV 3 Lee Merchant TJS 4 Peter Cusworth BKV 5 Peter Shepherd IKN 6 Robert Prentice SHN 7 Geoff Armstrong NEV 8 Ralph Koch YVV 9 Heinz Leuenberger OHS 10 Graham Wallis DRV
100.00 100.00 101.52 104.14 105.94 113.54 113.59 128.85 134.60 139.01 149.49
M60- 1 Tim Dent YVV 2 Ray Sheldon YVV 3 John Chellew BGV 4 Bill Chalmers NCN 5 Blake Gordon EUV
100.00 102.84 113.27 117.88 123.07
6 David 7 John 8 Terry 9 Bill 10 Kevin
Tilbrook Sheahan Davidson Filson Maloney
OHS 124.33 BKV 130.17 BGV 132.83 MDN 134.09 NEV 147.42
M70- 1 Graham Cadman YVV 100.00 2 Gordon Clark YVV 133.76 Kevin Paine BSN 200.00 Frank Assenza BNN 200.00 W-14 Aleksandra Czajkowski ..V 200.00 Michelle Dawson GON 200.00 Nadia Velaitis YAS 200.00 Reanna Clark BK.V 200.00 W-16 Louise Krstic CHV 200.00 Emily Prudhoe CCN 200.00 Marissa Lee TJS 200.00 Robyn Kemp ..T 200.00 W-18 Madeleine Lewin NCN 200.00 W40- 1 Kay Haarsma TTS 100.00 2 Anitra Dowling EUV 101.28 3 Tanya Beacham ..V 115.64 Jo-Anne Keely BGV 200.00 Anthea Feaver LOW 200.00 Jenny Duffey MDN 200.00 Dympna Baker MDN 200.00 Carolyn Strong TTS 200.00 Christine Brown EVT 200.00 W50- 1 Liz Randall YVV 100.00 X Roz Clayton NZ 100.69 2 Ann Scown AOA 103.05 3 Peta Whitford YVV 104.60 4 Kathy Liley YVV 110.77 5 Helen Edmonds NEV 122.34 6 Margaret Barker EUV 171.75 BJ Johnson EUV 200.00 Parissa Poulis RRA 200.00 Carol Brownlie WOW 200.00 Penny Dufty BOW 200.00 Jennifer Binns LOW 200.00 Lois West BOW 200.00 Judy Hill BOW 200.00 Kate Chown MDN 200.00 Connie McName BFN 200.00 Anthea Williams TJS 200.00 W60+ 1 Dale Ann Gordon EUV 100.00 2 Joyce Rowlands NEV 100.00 3 Jenny Sheahan BKV 127.22 Maureen Ogilvie URN 200.00 Helen Smith TTS 200.00 Sandra Hogg POA 200.00 Valerie Brammall EVT 200.00
MTB-O TIPS
Folding and preparing your map Adrian Jackson (2004 World MTBO Champ) shows you how.
Premarked maps are the norm at most events nowadays (including all major events!), and standard start procedure gives you only a minute from picking up your map to riding off. Many people struggle to quickly analyse their map, fold it to fit the mapboard, and plan the first leg before their time is up. How you fold and prepare your map can also impact greatly on how you go out on the course too. With clever folding you can minimise and speed up refolding of the map on the course. Often after a sloppy fold at the start vital route choices can be folded off the map, and can lead to large time losses. Hopefully with these tips you can streamline your map preparation, saving time both at the start and on the course.
General start procedure: Before you pick up your map look around and pick a few key features that will help you get oriented at the start (i.e. nearby knoll, major road, track junction, etc). Also look around and see how many tracks are leading off which you could go down. Getting to the start and watching a few other people start can help, but don’t assume they are all going the best directions. The hardest starts are when you are immediately faced with many options, and you can often pick these situations before you pick up your map so get ready to navigate carefully! As you get to a minute before you pick up your map undo at least two sides of your board, and all three sides if possible when you are expecting a large map. The first big decision is whether you will fit your course into the board in one go, or whether will you need to refold during the course (top photo). If the course fits in without any folding, or one simple fold that doesn’t go anywhere near the course, then simply slot it in and start planning your course as you do the mapboard up. If you are not immediately sure if the course will fit in one go, then go on with the following steps. Run your eye around the course, and look for areas of the map that your course definitely couldn’t go (i.e. title areas, white space and out-of-theway sections of the map). Fold off these portions, but only if they are about 2cm wide or greater. Narrow sections of map are fiddly to fold, and can be easily folded out of the way by using the edge of the board (photo right).
Next, look for sections of the map proper where there is no course printed. You have to quickly look at the legs closest to these areas and decide if there is any possible route choice out that way. Don’t actually plan the leg, simply ask: could I go onto this bit of the map. If the answer is no then fold it off, if you are unsure or think you may then don’t! This stage is the trickiest, and as you practice more you will become quicker in deciding on which sections to fold off. After you have done this for each relevant edge of the map, then reassess whether it will fit into the board. If it still won’t fit in one hit then you will need to refold on the course. Obviously it will be beneficial to refold the minimum number of times on the course. Look at the finish and working backwards put a crease where as much of the last part of the course as possible is on the map when at the size of the board (photo left). Now from the start, pick the control furthest into the course which you could get to
and fold this section, again with the map at the limit of the board size (photo right). Hopefully the two folds will overlap, so that you have a ‘zone’ during the course which you will be able to stop and fold to the final section. Actually pre-creasing the map wherever necessary at the start will save you time on the course, as when you stop to fold you simply can fold at the new crease without thinking. If you are a skilled rider it is even possible to open your mapboard and refold whilst riding! If you had to go through all the steps above it should have hopefully only taken you 40-50 sec, so you still have time to plan the first leg. When time is limited, it is always better to fully plan the first leg rather than to try and hurriedly plan the first two or three. Knowing where you are going right from the first pedal stroke is the key to getting into the rhythm of navigation.
Board styles The Miry mapboards which I use come in two styles, the so called ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ boards. The more popular ‘wet’ board has the press studs underneath, and is better in wet conditions. The ‘dry’ board however is my favourite, as with the press studs on top it is possible to have the course
Wet
Dry
hanging out the edges of the board if desired (photo left). It is amazing how often the map is only a few centimetres too big to fit in a normal board, and having the flexibility to let it hang out has saved me many stops to fold my map during courses. Fine tune your technique to suit your particular mapboard, and practice at home with all sorts of maps. JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER
37
Photos: Peter Cusworth
Improve your start procedure
MTB-O NEWS
Good, Better, Best – never let it rest!
Blake Gordon
“It doesn’t get much better than this!” Those were my words after watching the ‘splendid Saturday’ WMTB-O Relay action in Maryborough, Victoria, October 2004. Australia claimed two bronze medals in the space of less than an hour. But I was wrong - in late March 2006 - when Adrian Jackson claimed a first and a second placing in the World Ranking Events in Newcastle, NSW, he became World No.1 (170.5 points - 50.5 points ahead of second place Ruslan Gritsan (RUS)). And to put icing on our MTB-O cake, Alex Randall’s second and first placings in the same event moved him into third place in the world on 109 points. But there’s more - Marquita Gelderman’s (NZL) two wins (80 points) in Newcastle saw her leapfrog Michaela Gigon (AUT) into first place in the women’s world ranking’s. And as a special extra bonus, Carolyn Jackson’s two second placings (72 points) catapulted her into third place in the world, with Anna Sheldon holding down fourth place (87 points) as a result of her great rides in Slovakia in 2005. That’s five AUS top-5 placings in the world. With the Australian WRE in March (before the snow melts in the rest of the MTB-O world) we got the jump on the Finns, Czech Republic, French, Germans, Austrians, Swiss, Estonians and Russians. Thirteen AUS men in the world’s top 50; ten AUS women in the women’s top 50. How can it get much better?
Team for Finland – experience and youth The two WRE Newcastle races - following the two selection races in Maryborough, Victoria, in late February - provided the selectors with several challenges and potentially a strong men’s team. Just before Easter, Chief of Selectors Ann Scown (ACT) announced the 2006 team for Finland WMTB-OC: Women: Carolyn Jackson (Vic); Men: Steven Cusworth (Vic), Paul Darvodelsky (NSW), Adrian Jackson (Vic), Grant Lebbink (Vic), Alex Randall (Vic), and David Simpfendorfer (ACT). Unfortunately Grant has withdrawn from the team due to pressure of work. The team manager will be James Lithgow (NSW).
Youngest Aussie team member I interviewed Steven Cusworth (Bayside Kangaroos) – the youngest man - age 18 - to represent Australia in a World MTB-O Championships. My first memory of Steven was at his first Australian MTB-O Championships at Creswick Forest in November 1998 when he finished third behind Troy Merchant (SA) and Evan Barr (BG). The junior place getters were the first to get a pick from the “prize table”. Steven’s eyes were as big as saucers as he sorted out which item he would get, but Melinda (Jackson) was the first to pick and she selected the helmet! BG: The Jacksons and Cusworths have dominated junior MTB-O in Victoria for the past 8 years. Why do you think other juniors have not taken up MTB-O? SC: I guess the reasons that the Jacksons and Cusworths had so much success in MTB-O is because other family members are also going to the MTB-O events and taking part. As with Foot-O most of the juniors competing are taken to events as young kids and grow into the sport. I have always enjoyed riding bikes and have been encouraged to push myself. Also MTB-O is still a relatively new sport with not a huge number of people taking part. 38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
Steven Cusworth – off to Finland for the World Champs
BG: Victoria held the first schools MTB-O championships at Macedon in 2005. What other ways do you think we can encourage juniors to try MTB-O? SC: To try to encourage other juniors into the sport of MTBO it needs to be promoted in schools as well as in Mountain Bike magazines and on websites that kids access regularly. Rather than emphasise maps and map reading as the main attraction, which most kids will see as “dorky”, MTB-O needs to be promoted as an exciting “cool” sport; e.g. emphasise the clothing, gear that is used, the excitement of riding in rough terrain. It is also important to run events close to Melbourne as most parents will not transport their kids to an event a long way off when they are not taking part; e.g. parents take kids to hockey, basketball where they do not take part as well and usually these are in the local area. BG: You are the first junior since Adrian Jackson (current world No.1) to come up through the age groups. What do you consider your strong suit - your riding or your navigating? SC: I come from a foot orienteering background so my navigation is usually adequate for MTB-O. MTB-O navigation is more about route choice and picking the right tracks to ride. While I have been training quite hard, my riding speed is still developing and should continue to do so as I get into my 20’s. BG: How did you feel when you heard you had been selected to ride for Australia in Finland? SC: When I heard that I had been selected for the Australian team I felt both nervous and excited. Excited about the great experiences I will have overseas and nervous about representing Australia and not wanting to let myself and other people down. BG: Describe the bike you will be riding in the world championships. SC: I am riding a Scott Scale 20 carbon hard tail frame, Sram XO shifters and derailier, Fox RL forks, Shimano XT cranks, Mavic Crossmax tubeless wheels, Hope Mono mini brakes, carbon seatpost and handle bars. Mostly a custom made bike thanks to my working at The Melbourne Bicycle Centre!
MTB-O NEWS BG: How do you get to the start line ready to race? SC: I’m not the most organised person, though I am trying to get into more of a routine before the start of a race. Checking over and cleaning of my equipment on the day before a race is important. Reviewing any maps that are similar to the area that I am racing in. Also it is normally a good idea to have a 10 – 15 minute warm-up ride before I head off to the start. BG: What was your toughest race in the selection trials? SC: The toughest race for me was the Long-distance event in Maryborough. It was very hard to concentrate for the full distance and my fitness level began to show towards the end of the race. I feel much stronger with my fitness now and hopefully that can also have a positive effect on my navigation. BG: What goals have you set for yourself in preparation for Finland? SC: This will be my first WOC event so I’m not too sure what to expect, whatever I achieve will be a learning experience. I will try to get a good result in all of the events, though as I am younger and have not built up as much endurance I think my best chance for a good result will be in the Middle-distance event. If I compete well in that event I may be able to compete in the No.1 relay team with Alex Randall and Adrian Jackson who have already secured their places in the relay team. BG: What do you think you need to improve before heading off to Finland? SC: I’m working hard on my fitness and race speed though as the Champs get closer I will be doing much more map work and practice events to try and improve my navigation and quick decision making. Making a quick and correct decision on route choices is one of the keys to MTB-O and in the WOC events in the past you can lose many places with small mistakes. BG: Who has helped you get where you are today – a member of the AUS MTB-O team! SC: I have been helped to be as good as I am by having to compete on a regular basis against two of the world’s best mountain bike orienteers and as they have proven, contenders in the highest level of cross-country racing in Australia. It really does push me to try and bridge the gap between me and Alex and Adrian We look forward to hearing more from you and the team on the blogspot. Thanks and best of luck in Finland.
MTB-O growing in 2006 With all States in 2006 organising championships, the participation numbers should start to rise. Indications from WA are positive as they prepare for their first Australian MTBO Championships. Under the direction of Duncan Sullivan and the WA executive, we can look forward to three national championships - Middle, Long and, for the first time, Shortdistance (or Sprint). Andrew Slattery (SA) has just finished two of the maps to be used east of Bunbury, while a popular MTB-O area near the Perth airport is being prepared as a possible venue for the Sprint race (20-25 minutes winning time on a 1:10,000 or less scale map). This planning is in line with the rest of the world, as 2007 will see the first Sprint WMTB-O in Czech Republic. So make plans to take your bike to WA for the Nationals on 10-12 October - or arrange to hire one over there.
Plans for 2006 and beyond The Easter meeting of the State MTB-O representatives agreed to the following:
The MTB-O pages supported by Warren and Tash Key from The MELBOURNE BICYCLE CENTRE, CLIFTON HILL – ph. 03 9489 5569 2006 Australian Championships in WA • October 10 (Tuesday) Middle-distance Champs at Wellington National Park; mapped by Andrew Slattery (SA) • October 11 (Wednesday) Long-distance Champs at Bussell Brook; re-mapped by Andrew Slattery (SA) • October 12 (Thursday) Short-distance Champs (close to the airport); re-mapped by Duncan Sullivan • Event Adviser - Steve Sutherland (WA) • Course Setters - Rob West and Tony Whittaker (Long and Middle Champs), Duncan Sullivan (Short Champs) 2007 Australian MTB-O Championships in NSW • three races (Long, Middle, Short) will be staged in 2007 dates to be determined • Newcastle or Lithgow areas under consideration for venues • Organiser - Paul Darvodelsky • Course Setters - to be appointed • Event Adviser - to be appointed 2008 Australian MTB-O Championships in Queensland • two races (Long and Middle) to be staged in Maryborough, Qld area on the Monday/Tuesday after AUS Relays (Foot-O) in October • planning with NZL and New Caledonia to send teams to compete; suggest AUS approach Japan - make it an Oceania Challenge • huge pine forest with excellent track network close to Maryborough and large eucalypt area with track network (to be assessed for short championships) 2009 Australian MTB-O Championships • SA is prepared to draft a proposal for staging three championship races • Burra area is being considered for the Long and Middle races; Mt Crawford area possibly considered for a Short Champs • Tasmania will consider a National Championships in an area closer to Hobart at Easter 2009 • Decision - SA and TAS to present written proposals to the October MTB-O meeting in Perth at the 2006 Australian Championships Guidelines for Winning Times at 2006 AUS MTB-O Champs in WA. • No changes to Long and Middle Distance race guidelines (except in severe weather conditions) • National Short-distance Champs - the first to be staged in Australia - should have winning time range of 20-25 minutes in all classes ARE (Australian Ranking Event) in 2006 • Victoria held an ARE on the 28 February 2006 (Victorian Middle-distance Champs) with a levy paid to OA (from the VOA) of over $200 • Other States to consider staging ARE events to increase financial commitment to OA from MTB-O • Blake Gordon discussed with Darryl Erbacher (ACT), OA Statistician, the logistics of using the present national ranking system for all MTB-O classes (except elite men and women). Ranking events in 2005 include two AUS Champs (Long, Middle), two VIC Champs (Long, Middle), WA Champs (Long), SA Champs (Long), TAS Champs (Long), ACT Champs (Long), NSW Champs (Long). The inaugural national MTB-O ranking list is on page 36.
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 39
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MTB-O NEWS The Australian MTB-O team to compete at the World Championships in Finland from July 9 to 14 Adrian Jackson (VIC). With one gold and three bronze in the last two World Champs, “AJ” is primed for more medals in Finland. Has some great results this year in MTB races as well. Alex Randall (VIC). Alex has been to all the MTB-O World Champs with Finland being the fourth. With his top three world ranking he has a good chance to add to the bronze medal from 2004.
Carolyn Jackson (VIC). Carolyn is our only female competitor this year but is determined to leave her mark on the women’s field in Finland. With a bronze in 2004, this will be will be her fourth MTB-O World Champs. Steven Cusworth (VIC). A look to the future as Steven, aged 18, is our youngest World champs rep yet but has been improving his results in big leaps over the past few months. Paul Darvodelsky (NSW). A very experienced competitor, Paul has been dogged by misfortune and injury over the past few years, but will finally make his debut in the World Champs in Finland. David Simpfendorfer (ACT). David’s first World Champs. Fairly new to MTB-O, but an MTB racer with good speed and has shown lots of potential.
EUREKA ORIENTEERS
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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.
LETTERS Increasing Orienteering Exposure I’ve just returned from a visit to my local GP. His waiting room reading material was so atrocious I was forced to read a Women’s Day, a parachuting magazine and an aviation safety magazine. I wished I had taken my copy of The Australian Orienteer which was at home on the top of my reading pile. It was then I thought this might be an avenue to give wider exposure to our sport. As much as I enjoy re-reading your informative articles, on my next visit I intend to add a few of your recent issues to their magazine pile. If we all ‘recycle’ this valuable advertising resource to any ‘captive audience’ we must increase the exposure of our sport. Cliff Howard (Qld)
Orienteer Cover (March’06) Congratulations on a cover that picks up another aspect of Orienteering. It’s a great picture. Mary Jane Mahony (NSW)
To maintain is to succeed Only 17 per 10,000 in the ACT are Orienteers (Bob Mouatt AO p47, Dec’05) and the figures would be much smaller in other parts of Australia (except Pt. Lincoln and Orange?). Bob doesn’t need to apologise for this. Australians are not ‘forest people’ (like Scandinavians) and for all our efforts we’re never going to do better than this. We don’t need to cringe for being a minor sport (as others see us). For competitive types and the elites it is a major sport demanding more skill and fitness than in most other sports. Orienteering is just too hard for most in Australia and, I suspect, the US, etc. and even in many parts of Europe it’s hard to keep up the numbers (an ex-Polish elite estimates that 1% only is a good long-term response from school programs). Many give Orienteering a try but few make it their No. 1 sport. The drop out rate in the ACT is around 100 members per year (approx 20%) which is probably much the same elsewhere in Australia. All credit to Bob and his team for maintaining 500 members by recruiting. He (and the rest of us enthusiasts) was looking for massive growth in the 80’s and beyond, but that’s not how life is here. We were fooled by the growth of the late 70’s when Orienteering was ‘discovered’ by us outdoor types. The numbers have plateaued (see ‘50 Golden Years’ p25… A History of Orienteering in SA and NT).
need to remember that how the map looks to them is not how it may appear to colour blind orienteers. Guidelines have been developed for colour presentation in Web sites, so that optimal colours are used for colour blindness. One of these sites www.etre.com/tools/ colourblindsimulator/ enables conversion of a small image to the appearance for both “protanopia” and “dueteranopia” colour blindness (both have problems in the red-green/ yellow-green spectrum) and the rare “tritanopia”. Converting an image (preferably a scanned version of the map with proposed overprinting) highlights the problems colour blind orienteers have with magenta and other less purple colours. Some appear identical to brown in particular so that in complex map areas the course overprinting is easily lost in map detail. This can be exacerbated when control circles are the same thickness on 1:10 000 maps as index contours. Use of the correct purple adds enough blue content to the course symbols to appear “blue” to the colour blind orienteer and thus more separate from the majority of the map symbols. In map overprinting, please use the correct purple colour which will be visible to all orienteers rather than magenta or other variations although the latter may be best for the majority. Robin Uppill (SA)
Ageing and health Thanks to Steve Bird for his fascinating article ‘Orienteering, ageing and health’ (p42, AO Dec’05). It’s encouraging to read that we can contribute to our health by continuing our orienteering training for as long as possible. The graph of orienteering speed against age correlated so well with my graph of metres per sec against age since 1988 (when I was 51) on a timed run on the same 4km route (on tracks, through the bush with significant climb). The actual readings in m/s were different from Steve’s but the downward gradient was as good as identical with the little dips observable at 60, 65 and near 70. Whoever set the age group cut-offs in the IOF was either lucky or smart… did they have Steve’s graph? But how did Steve measure O speed which seems to defy definition with varying terrain running speeds, route choices and the uniqueness of the once-off run in every competition? I’ll have to go to the Sports Institutes library and consult Steve’s reference No1.
In 2004 Orienteering Australia released a Colour Swatch for map printing including digital printing. This contained reference colours for all map symbols and course overprinting. The latter is defined as PMS purple with the recommended CMYK combination for digital maps to produce a purple colour.
He makes the point that at our age it is still possible to increase our aerobic strength through training. This explains the higher reading I recorded just before WMOC at Asiago in 2004 (the increased fitness did not help a lot as a couple of little navigational errors put me way down against the best!) I have an article in my coaching file by Dr Peter Reaburn which seems to confirm Steve’s point. “Older athletes lose muscle mass particularly after 60-70 years of age. Strength training has been shown to improve muscle size in both older men and women”. When one looks at Steve’s graph it is easy to say that we don’t like this ageing process but I’ve been reminded that the alternative may be worse!
Unfortunately this reference is often ignored and Magenta or other redder/pinker colour variations are used for courses with the reason given that these colours are more prominent for the majority of orienteers. However not using the correct colour is against the spirit of fairness for Orienteering as this colour makes distinguishing the course (circles, numbers and lines) extremely difficult for colour blind orienteers (~5% of males and a smaller percentage of females). Event organisers
The article raises a couple of questions. If we lose up to 1.5% of our running speed each year then a 65 year-old will have a 6% advantage over a 69 year-old. That could explain a lot. Then again, does our thinking ability slow down commensurate with our running speed? Going more slowly ought to reduce the % of silly navigation errors. I’m not convinced. I wonder if any research has been done on whether we think more slowly the older we get.
John Lyon (SA)
Course Overprinting
John Lyon (SA) JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 41
MUSEUM-O
Orienteering takes to the great…INDOORS? Carolyn Rigby (Newcastle Orienteering Club)
I
T really was a great sight – several Orienteering families amongst around a hundred Museum visitors and a sprinkling of local government officials at the opening of a Museum exhibition - Paper Worlds: the art and science of mapping. Newcastle Regional Museum is possibly THE first museum to mount an exhibition featuring Orienteering. The idea originated from the Australia Day Maze-O activities conducted by Newcastle Orienteering Club in 2005 and 2006. The Museum team was about to set up an exhibition of antique maps dating from the 1400s. In addition, Newcastle Council’s new multi-layered three-dimensional mapping of the city was on show as a backdrop to an array of instruments used in map-making. But the “oomph” factor of an interactive element was still missing. A section of the exhibition would feature maps in sport, so Newcastle Orienteering Club was allocated two display cases. We could also set up a Maze in the exhibition – indeed half the exhibition floor space was taken over by the Maze. A map of the Maze was produced and we could publicise Orienteering all we liked. It was too good an opportunity to pass up. The Museum staff was more than happy with the Maze concept – white plastic bollards and plastic chain formed the walls of the Maze. Control sites were marked by an Orienteering flag sticker on a bollard with a traditional 9 pin punch. Participants weren’t timed (no running in the Museum!) though one prominent Orienteering family did take their splits (some habits die hard) as they walked very quickly through the Maze. Believe it or not they also compared route choice!
The Roberts family seem concerned about some unusual features on this course.
Part of the exhibition was given over to the history of Orienteering at local, national and international levels. A colourful section was the display case showing clothing, shoes, equipment and a selection of trophies. I don’t know how many people would be attracted to the sport if the Street Series Trophy is a highlight – it is a piece of road base – but it did prove to be a talking point with the visiting public. A four-metre long case showing the steps in making an Orienteering map also proved to be a focus. Thanks to Peter Cusworth for helping with photography on the main text panel. Promotional material (stickers, magnets and flyers) soon disappeared after the many school group visits and one school from central NSW requested help to set up Orienteering as a sport. Club member Carolyn Rigby (who happens to be the Museum’s Education Officer) ensured every school group heard the words “Orienteering” and “fun” as part of their visit to Paper Worlds. Perhaps Newcastle Orienteering Club has added a new form of the sport – move over Foot-O, BikeO, Ski-O now it’s Museum-O and the chance to see an exhibition on Orienteering in a cultural institution in Australia.
42 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
Lord Mayor of Newcastle, John Tate, opens the exhibition Paper Worlds
Group Manager, Graham Clarke, and elected councillor Sonia Hornery, more at home with approving DAs, punching at a control.
Young Orienteer Edmund finds his way to the control, but needed dad’s help to punch.
Checking the punch marks at the finish.
MUSEUM-O
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 43
2 0 0 5 N AT I O N A L R A N K I N G S RANKINGS for classes have been determined as in previous years based on results in the Australian Championships (A), the Australian Easter 3-Days (E), and all State Championships (by State initial letter, ACT = C, NT = O). These Rankings do not include the Elite classes M/W 17- 20, and 21 which are separately published. The first 10 place getters in each class are published here. State Secretaries have the full list of orienteers who scored less than 150.00 points. Some points of interest in the 2005 rankings: • Winner by the largest margin was Henry McNulty (LO.W) by 14.92 percentage points. • There were a number of equal firsts: Lachlan Dow (BS.A), Oliver Crosato (RR.Q) M14; Tristan Lee (TJ.S), Joshua Roberts (NC. N) M16; Nicola Blatchford (NC. N), Phoebe Vincent (NC.N) W10; Dorothy Adrian (NE.V), Christa Schafer (GO.N) W65; Sue Mount (AL.T), Maureen Ogilvie (UR.N) W75. • 19 clubs had class leaders in the rankings with the most successful clubs being: MF.V, BS.A, NC.N, UR.N (3); WE.A, UG.Q, YV.V, TF.Q, EU.V (2); LO.W, RR.Q, TJ.S, BF.N, RR.A, WR.T, IK.N, NE.V, GO.N, AL.T (1). • Family groupings with two or more members in the first three places in the rankings were: Jackson (Timothy M10, Carolyn W45); Neve (Todd M12, Sue W50); Blatchford (Joshua M14, Nicola W10); Simson/QuantockSimson/Radstaak (Neil M35, Robin M65, Gayle W40, Kaitlin W12); Schafer (Neil M75, Christa W65); Adrian (Paul M80, Dorothy W65); Marshall (Nicola W10, Christine W40); Lawford/Bourne (Belinda W14, Jenny W45); Dawson (Aidan M10, Michele W12). • In W10 two competitors from the same club (NC.N) tied for first place. Darryl Erbacher - OA Statistician
44 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
Rank
Club Points Events
M10 1. Henry McNulty 2. Aidan Dawson 3. Timothy Jackson 4. Daniel Parton
LO.W 100.00 GO.N 114.92 MF.V 132.45 GS.N 141.18
AT EN EV AN
M12 1. Todd Neve 2. Marc Gluskie 3. Karl Bicevskis 4. Daniel Neumann 5. Bryn McComb 6. Matthew Hill 7. Kelly Bertei 8. Glen Charlton 9. Brendan Creely
MF.V 100.00 AL.T 100.88 AL.T 115.27 EN.Q 115.42 OH.S 123.42 GO.N 125.43 TE.S 129.52 NC.N 139.82 BG.V 149.85
EV AT AT AT AE EA EO EN AT
M14 1. Lachlan Dow = Oliver Crosato 3. Joshua Blatchford 4. Oscar Phillips 5. David Turner 6. Rory McComb 7. Benjamin Diment 8. Dave Mallen 9. Thomas McIntyre 10.Max Neve
BS.A 100.00 RR.Q 100.00 NC.N 100.86 EV.T 109.77 LO.W 110.20 OH.S 110.56 TT.S 111.61 NE.V 115.01 UG.Q 120.42 MF.V 122.83
EC AQ EN AT AW AS AT AV AQ AE
M16 1. Tristan Lee = Joshua Roberts 3. Simon Mee 4. Daniel Worsley 5. Kelsey Dougall 6. Matthew Barratt 7. Anthony Brown 8. Peter Kleywegt 9. Cameron Bailey-Price 10.Thomas Top
TJ.S 100.00 NC.N 100.00 TF.Q 106.79 AW.V 107.36 TF.Q 108.16 EV.T 112.45 EV.T 115.82 AL.T 121.78 PO.A 123.65 YV.V 124.72
ES AN AQ AV AQ ET AT AT ET AV
M35 1. Jock Davis 2. Shane Trotter 3. Neil Simson 4. Pat Walsh 5. Tim Hatley
BF.N 100.00 NC.N 106.37 TF.Q 121.32 UG.Q 124.35 BK.V 133.13
AN AT AT AQ EV
M40 1. Tony Woolford 2. Michael Burton 3. John Whittington 4. Andy Simpson 5. Simon George 6. Peter Charlton 7. David Neumann 8. Peter Swanson 9. Jonathan Sutcliffe 10.Andrew McNeill
RR.A 100.00 BF.N 102.72 WR.T 104.54 BF.N 107.19 BF.N 112.65 NC.N 121.55 EN.Q 121.74 AO.C 121.76 UG.Q 123.20 EO.C 124.91
AC EN ET EA EN EN AV AT EA AT
M45 1. Darryl Smith 2. Michael Dowling 3. Martin Darvodelsky 4. Andrew McComb 5. Eoin Rothery 6. Alex Davey 7. James Lithgow 8. Noel Schoknecht 9. Andre Scott 10.Ian Taylor
WR.T 100.00 WR.T 103.80 LI.S 104.18 OH.S 107.95 LO.W 110.83 WR.N 113.20 GO.N 113.40 LO.W 115.68 TT.S 116.66 UG.Q 117.37
AT EA EN AT AW EN EA AW AS AQ
M50 1. Ross Coyle 2. Ted Van Geldermaisen 3. Chris Norwood 4. David Marshall 5. Nick Dent 6. Paul Pacque 7. Nick Wilmott 8. David Firman 9. Gordon Wilson 10.Tony Whittaker
UR.N 100.10 YV.V 103.06 EU.V 109.00 AL.T 110.61 CC.N 111.24 EV.T 111.26 UR.N 111.53 EN.Q 113.90 BN.N 114.55 LO.W 121.34
EC EV EA EA EN ET AN EQ EV EW
M55 1. Geoff Peck 2. Hugh Moore 3. Terry Bluett 4. Stephen Flick 5. Paul Hoopmann 6. Robert Allison 7. Peter Shepherd 8. Adrian Uppill 9. Robert Preston 10.Peter Jackson
UG.Q 100.00 RR.A 100.46 BN.N 100.71 BN.N 101.93 TJ.S 102.03 RR.A 103.32 IK.N 105.81 OH.S 108.80 NC.N 109.19 MF.V 109.78
AT AV EC EQ EO EN ET ES AC EV
M60 1. Alex Tarr 2. Dave Lotty 3. Leigh Privett 4. Darryl Erbacher 5. Tim Dent 6. Ron Junghans 7. Jim Merchant 8. Mike Howe 9. Jim Laver 10.Ted Mulherin
YV.V 100.00 UR.N 100.42 AW.V 101.13 PO.A 105.29 YV.V 105.75 GO.N 115.36 GO.N 116.35 LO.W 116.67 AL.T 117.78 WH.N 121.16
AT AO ES AC EV AO EC AW AE AN
M65 1. Robin Simson 2. John Sutton 3. Graham Galbraith 4. John Porter 5. Basil Baldwin 6. John Sheahan 7. Hub Carter 8. Clive Pope 9. Bill Chalmers 10.Norm Johnston
TF.Q 103.19 RR.A 104.67 SO.Q 109.62 BN.N 116.52 GS.N 119.03 BK.V 122.01 SO.Q 123.65 UG.Q 124.10 NC.N 125.74 WE.A 126.31
AT AN AN AN EN EV EQ EQ AN EC
M70 1. Ian Hassall 2. Pauli Piiroinen 3. Barry Hanlon 4. Don Bajenoff 5. Tony Mount
IK.N 100.00 BS.A 107.55 WH.N 113.12 AW.V 122.36 AL.T 132.20
AC EC AE EO AT
M75 1. Kevin Paine 2. Malcolm Stewart 3. Neil Schafer 4. Tom Norwood 5. Brian Johnson 6. Wally Cavill 7. Ross Gilby
BS.A 100.00 GO.N 108.29 GO.N 114.95 EU.V 127.84 GO.N 130.09 DR.V 140.33 WE.A 148.95
AV AT AC AV EN EV AT
M80 1. Hermann Wehner 2. Doug Goodwin 3. Paul Adrian
WE.A 100.00 EC AL.T 113.02 AT NE.V 149.42 AV
W10 1. Nicola Blatchford = Phoebe Vincent 3. Nicola Marshall 4. Gemma Hicks 5. Kerrin Davis
NC.N 100.00 NC.N 100.00 AL.T 124.68 TT.S 127.52 BF.N 139.05
ET AO ET AS AN
W12 1. Kaitlin Radstaak 2. Talia Colwell 3. Michele Dawson 4. Sophie Warren 5. Lisette Schults-Rand
TF.Q 100.00 OH.S 110.14 GO.N 116.39 AL.T 123.40 UG.Q 129.38
AT AS EN AT AQ
W14 1. Belinda Lawford EU.V 100.00 2. Krystal Neumann EN.Q 100.64 3. Rachel Dunnage WO.W 113.28 AW 4. Jasmine Sunley TK.V 113.57 5. Tamara Orr CC.N 113.99 6. Emily Prudhoe CC.N 114.55 7. Nadia Velaitis YA.S 114.59 8. Georgia Parsons BS.A 119.16 9. Claire Butler EV.T 122.95 10.Genevieve Knowles WO.W 123.20 AW
AV AT AT AN EA ES AC AT
W16 1. Bridget Anderson 2. Ineka Booth 3. Kristen Walker 4. Bronwyn Steele 5. Kylee Gluskie 6. Claire Darvodelsky 7. Aislinn Prendergast 8. Marissa Lee 9. Lara Hass 10.Shannon Nicholson
UG.Q 100.00 BS.A 101.88 PO.A 102.56 UR.N 103.55 AL.T 103.85 BF.N 106.35 EU.V 109.56 TJ.S 111.29 AL.T 111.88 YA.S 113.82
EQ AT EC EN ET AN EV ES AT AS
W35 1. Linda Sesta 2. Sheralee Bailey 3. Anitra Dowling 4. Mary Enter
UR.N 100.00 WH.N 100.66 EU.V 114.63 BK.V 132.33
AE EC EV EV
W40 1. Nicola Dalheim MF.V 100.00 2. Christine Marshall AL.T 100.97 3. Gayle Quantock-Simson TF.Q 109.86 4. Sue Wood PO.A 120.01 5. Felicity Crosato RR.Q 120.23 6. Karen Blatchford NC.N 125.07 7. Clare Leung UG.Q 126.47 8. Joanna Parr BF.N 127.40
ET AE AQ AT AT ET AQ EN
9. Toni Brown
BS.A 146.73 EC
W45 1. Jenny Bourne 2. Carolyn Jackson 3. Carol Harding 4. Lisa Lampe 5. Anthea Feaver 6. Lyn Stichbury 7. Debbie Davey 8. Jan Sargood 9. Liz Bourne 10.Hilary Wood
EU.V 100.00 MF.V 103.52 BS.A 106.67 UR.N 113.40 LO.W 114.02 SO.Q 117.16 WR.N 118.08 UR.N 118.47 BB.Q 121.51 CC.N 121.76
AT ET EN EW AT EQ EA EN EQ EN
W50 1. Sue Neve 2. Robin Uppill 3. Lynn Dabbs 4. Jacquie Rand 5. Carol Brownlie 116.12 6. Helen Edmonds 7. Fiona Calabro 8. Robyn Pallas 9. Lynda Rapkins 10.Allison Radford
MF.V 100.00 OH.S 105.27 WH.N 111.92 UG.Q 112.40 WO.W AE NE.V 120.19 TF.Q 122.17 CC.N 122.80 EN.Q 123.56 TT.S 129.21
AT ET AO AQ
W55 1. Kathy Liley 2. Judith Hay 3. Judy Allison 4. Debbie Gale 5. Sheila Colls 6. Jitka Kopriva 7. Christine Sinickas 8. Carol Jacobson 9. Janet Bush 10.Pam Prime
YV.V 103.75 BN.N 104.83 RR.A 105.52 EV.T 106.84 YV.V 110.08 UR.N 111.55 YV.V 113.34 GO.N 117.47 AL.T 119.79 TK.V 119.97
EV EC ET AT EV EN EA EN ET EV
W60 1. Jenny Hawkins 2. Ann Ingwersen 3. Ruth Goddard 4. Jean Baldwin 5. Penny Dufty 6. Valerie Brammall 7. Dale Ann Gordon 8. Robin Spriggs 9. Janet Tarr 10.Judi Herkes
BS.A 100.00 PO.A 101.80 YV.V 112.46 GS.N 114.13 BO.W 116.04 EV.T 119.34 EU.V 119.88 UG.Q 127.16 YV.V 127.76 BK.V 128.13
AC EN EA EN AW EA EV AT AV EV
W65 1. Dorothy Adrian = Christa Schafer 3. Pat McGuire 4. Merran Warlters 5. Janet Morris 6. Pam Cox 7. Seija Piiroinen
NE.V 100.00 GO.N 100.00 WR.T 112.57 SH.N 115.16 WH.N 121.25 TF.Q 129.41 BS.A 139.79
ES AN AT AT AT EQ EC
W70 1. Sue Mount = Maureen Ogilvie 3. Sue Healy 4. Jeffa Lyon 5. Pat Miller 6. Anne Stewart 7. Joyce Rowlands
AL.T 100.00 UR.N 100.00 NE.V 106.72 TT.S 113.09 DR.V 114.35 GO.N 119.03 NE.V 125.18
ET AC EO ES AE EC AE
W75 1. Marjorie Gilby
WE.A 120.37 AT
EV EA EN EA ES
Tom Marshall (TAS) finished 5th in M14 at the Aust 3-Days.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES-O Why isn’t Orienteering on the Commonwealth Games program? Debbie Dodd’s Urban Orienteering article on pp 16 & 17 of this edition shows the attraction of Orienteering could surpass some current Games sports. Future Games organisers take note. There was plenty of Gold, Silver & Bronze to be won out on the course at the Blackburn South event held during the Games. The more gold collected the higher the competitor’s points score.
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 45
RUNNING THE BUSINESS
Bob Mouatt
Promoting and publicising Orienteering in Australia
•F ifthly, the biggest obstacles to timeliness are the distance that most Orienteering events are staged from media bases (deters media presence at events) and Internet connections, the timely obtaining of official results from event managers, and key people being diverted by other obligations. In regard to the Internet connections, we recently acquired a Minimax modem that connects directly to the Internet via the Telstra CDMA network. We used it for three days (including the Prologue) of the 2006 Australian 3-Days to post material on the OA website and to file results with AAP, but we still experienced delays in getting official results and we had other duties to perform before we could concentrate on media matters.
THIS will be my last ‘Running The Business’ column as I have stepped down as Director (Development) to become President of Orienteering Australia. I elected to write one last RTB column rather than start with a new President’s column to enable me to respond to the plethora of suggestions that people have contributed to The Australian Orienteer regarding what Orienteering Australia ought to be doing to promote and publicise Orienteering in Australia. •F irstly, many commentators do not acknowledge that Australians probably participate in more sports than any other country in the world, thus there are probably more than 200 sports seeking media coverage. In 2005-06, the Australian Sports Commission provided financial support to around 60 sports. So promoting and publicising Orienteering is not as simple as some people would like it to be, as there are many other sports seeking the same goal and the Olympic and Commonwealth Games sports have an advantage. •S econdly, while our athletes do well in international competitions, there are many Australian world champions across a wide range of sports, so to suggest that we should do more to publicise the achievements of our top performers fails to recognise that in the context of international competitiveness our best often do not rate sufficiently high enough to interest the national media. •T hirdly, whether we like it or not, Orienteering still has an image problem of not being regarded an athletic pursuit. While this might suit the many recreational orienteers, it does not help Orienteering get media coverage as a mainstream sport. A knowledgeable person recently suggested to me that the general public would probably rate Croquet ahead of Orienteering as a real sport. •F ourthly, many commentators assume that what appears in the media is the extent of the material submitted, without any knowledge of the strategies and tactics that have been employed over the past nine years, and that while their suggestions might have been followed, they have not been successful. The two key rules in dealing with the media are timeliness and being ‘persistent and consistent’. A few other rules are: television networks are not interested in stories that are not supported by high quality vision (ABCTV generally prefers its own footage), newspapers like personal quotes and high-resolution action photographs, and national magazines generally have a lead-time of about three months. I could fill the whole 48 pages of The Australian Orienteer with stories of the things that have worked against us meeting those ‘rules’.
46 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2006
I haven’t attempted to provide any answers; just to explain that the task is not as simple as some commentators might suggest it is.
Thanks to Event Managers In commenting on the matter of electronic copies of official results, I want to make it clear that all event managers have been as cooperative as they could possibly be. I also want to record my appreciation of their help over the past nine years. The issue is that a copy of the main file cannot be taken while normal results processing is happening and event managers understandably try to avoid interrupting normal results processing. This is an issue that Orienteering Australia has to solve and we will be looking at options over the coming months.
A vacancy for a Media Officer As to the future for promoting and publicising Orienteering in Australia, that will be a matter for the new Director (Development), Ben Rattray, to address. I have told Ben that if he wants me to continue with my being the official photographer and media liaison person for Orienteering Australia, I will do so until he can get someone else to take on those roles. So if anybody has the interest, the inclination and the time to take on the task, they should contact Ben Rattray at benrattray@hotmail.com as soon as possible to offer their services.
E X E C U T I V E M AT T E R S
Gareth Candy – Executive Officer, Orienteering Australia
New faces for Orienteering Australia Board
IOF World Rankings
THIS year’s AGM saw two of Australia’s longest serving Board members stand down, Kathy Liley after 16 years of service as Treasurer and then Director (Finance) and Dave Lotty after 25 years as Secretary and then Director (Administration). The service provided to Orienteering Australia by these two individuals can not be underestimated and the organisation owes them a large debt of gratitude for their commitment. Sadly, Orienteering Australia’s incumbent President Bob McCreddin was forced to stand down and was unable to attend the AGM due to ill-health. Everybody at Orienteering Australia wishes Bob McCreddin all the best in his recovery and thank him for the great job he did as President, particularly in overseeing the drastic changes caused by funding cuts from the Australian Sports Commission. Taking over as President during this transition period for Orienteering Australia will be former Director (Development) Bob Mouatt. Bob has served on the Orienteering Australia Board for many years and his experience will be invaluable with so many new faces on the Board. Director (High Performance) Mike Dowling, Director (Technical) Andy Hogg and IOF Vice President Hugh Cameron are continuing in their roles on the Board while newcomers Blair Trewin and Ben Rattray will be taking over as Director (Finance) and Director (Development) respectively. Gareth Candy will also join the Board as the newly appointed Executive Officer for Orienteering Australia. Subsequent to the AGM under clause 9.7 of the Orienteering Australia Constitution Robin Uppill was seconded to the Board as Director (Special Projects) where her primary role will be overseeing IT and the development of the OA website. Apart from the Elections the major item at the AGM was a proposal to introduce a levy of 20 cents per entry on all State association run events that currently do not attract a levy. The background of this item was that in 2005 the Australian Sports Commission cut Orienteering Australia’s Development grant entirely and this event levy was proposed as a way to be able to continue funding crucial development projects. The recommendation was supported by all delegates and adopted. The major projects which will receive this extra funding are: development of the Orienteering Australia Website, a project which will be lead by seconded Board Member Robin Uppill; and a biennial National Development Conference. A motion for a CPI increase in the subscription rate for The Australian Orienteer was defeated with any increases in costs to be covered by increased advertising revenue or a decrease in size of the magazine. Looking to the future the major topics for discussion at the December Annual Conference will be Development projects and funding, the National League and future International Events in Australia.
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
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 Thierry Gueorgiou 2 Daniel Hubmann 3 Andrey Khramov 4 Øystein Kvaal Østerbø 5 Anders Nordberg 6 Valentin Novikov 7 Chris Terkelsen 8 Jarkko Huovila 9 Holger Hott Johansen 10 Jani Lakanen 82 Grant Bluett 89=Troy de Haas 119=David Shepherd 12 Rob Walter
Women – Foot-O 1 Simone Niggli-Luder SUI 2 Vroni Koenig-Salmi SUI 3 Anne Margrethe Hausken NOR 4 Jenny Johansson SWE 5 Minna Kauppi FIN 6 Marianne Andersen NOR 7 Emma Engstrand SWE 8 Heli Jukkola FIN 9 Paula Haapakoski FIN 10 Heather Monro GBR 20 Hanny Allston AUS 68 Jo Allison AUS 117 Natasha Key AUS
FRA SUI RUS NOR NOR RUS DEN FIN NOR FIN AUS AUS AUS AUS
Men – MTB-O 1 Adrian Jackson AUS 170.5 2 Ruslan Gritsan RUS 120.0 3 Alex Randall AUS 109.0 4 Jaroslav Rygl CZE 90.0 4 Jussi Mäkilä FIN 90.0 6 Margus Hallik EST 87.0 7 Matthieu Barthélémy FRA 84.0 8 Mika Tervala FIN 82.5 9 Stefan _urgan SVK 76.5 9 Beat Oklé SUI 76.5 12 David Simpfendorfer AUS 64.0 22 Paul Darvodelsky AUS 54.0 22 Grant Lebbink AUS 54.0
Women – MTB-O 1 Marquita Gelderman NZL 129.5 2 Michaela Gigon AUT 109.5 3 Carolyn Jackson AUS 94.5 4 Anna Sheldon AUS 87.0 4 Hana Bajto_ová SVK 87.0 6 Christine Schaffner SUI 85.5 6 Anna Füzy HUN 85.5 8 Susana Pontes POR 80.0 9 Ingrid Stengård FIN 76.5 10 Ramune Arlauskiene LTU 73.5 10 Hana La Carbonara CZE 73.5 20 Barbara Hill AUS 61.0 20 Melissa Thomas AUS 61.0 25 Jill McNaught AUS 54.0
EMBARGOED AREAS IN WA Orienteers wanting a competitive run in Orienteering Australia “Badge” and Championship events organised by Orienteering Western Australia this season are advised that the following areas are embargoed, effective immediately: Day Date Event Sun 7-May State Series (Badge) Mon 5-Jun MTBO State Champs Sun 18-Jun WA Middle Dist Champs Sat 2-Sep WA Sprint Dist Champs Sat 30-Sep WA Long Champs Day 1 Sun 1-Oct WA Long Champs Day 2 Tue 3-Oct Aus Schools / NOL Thu 5-Oct Australian Sprint Champs Sat 7-Oct Australian Long Champs Sun 8-Oct Australian Relays Tue 10-Oct MTBO Australian Middle Wed 11-Oct MTBO Australian Long Thu 12-Oct MTBO Australian Short
Area Location John Forrest NP (SW part) 2km N of Darlington Turners Hill* 10km NW of Dwellingup Red Hill 4km north of Darlington Edith Cowan Uni Joondalup Campus Perth Metro Darkin River* Mount Dale, 25km E of Armidale Beraking Brook* Mount Dale Peterdine 11km SW of Northam York* York Hill Park Dale* 30km SW of Beverley Umuna 25km SW of Beverley Wellington Mills* 25km SE of Bunbury Bussell Brook 35km SE of Bunbury Greenmount Goat Farm Perth Metro
* new map, no previous orienteering map available
The embargo specifically applies to entering the area with an orienteering map, or to familiarise with the terrain. Mountain Bike Cross Country races, the Munda Biddi and Bibbulmun Trails are not embargoed. Permission may be obtained from the Organiser of each event for other purposes. Orienteers should be aware that many venues for orienteering are private property or need special permission to enter from the land managers. Copies of previous maps, where available, may be purchased from Cath Chalmers at catheoin@ozemail.com.au or PO Box 234, Subiaco, WA 6904. JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 47
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