JUNIOR WORLD ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2007
JWOC 2007 All Aboard… For Dubbo Ron Pallas
In the lead up to JWOC 2007 and Western Plains Carnival there are many different facets of the event that need to be brought together to ensure the success of the carnival.
A
LONG the way there have been some very interesting problems tossed our way, some which we knew would arise and others …. well they came from left field. The secret of handling these is in the flexibility of the organisational structure allowing it to bend to accept change. When permission was given to use the Western Plains Zoo for the JWOC Sprint there was a great deal of celebration amongst the committee. The Zoo will be such a stunning setting for the event. However in gaining access another rather large problem arose – what do you use for a base map? The competition areas had been flown almost 18 months prior to this and alas the Zoo did not feature in any photos. Maybe the Zoo itself has some detailed maps etc – no! Curses foiled again. It was at this stage when fearing the worst that Planning Director Robert Spry quietly suggested that there was another way to “skin the cat”. Robert, through his line of work, has been involved with the use of Aerial Laser Survey and more specifically with Dubbo Council and so knew that a base map could be produced. As promised, courtesy of many hours of computer crunching which Robert carried out in his own time he produced a base map. (see “High Tech Creates a Sprint Map” at end of this article). With a base map prepared it was then up to Alex Tarr to put it to the test and in early November 2006 Alex completed the map within a week with drawing taking a further week. “The photo which I used to create the base map for my field work was good, however the traditional photogrammetry would have provided for faster mapping rates. There is obviously a need to experiment with varying resolutions of the printed base map to find the most advantageous settings. It was an interesting experience,” remarked Alex Tarr. Handling the entries for an Orienteering event is usually a walk in the park. What is there that can make it complicated (beside the inevitable later than late entry!) For JWOC, the entry is quite easy as you are entering up to 12 names per team and they all will run each event, with only the complications of start blocks and heats plus a relay to trap you. However the Western Plains Carnival features a relay, and 5 individual events, of those only two have the same age classes. Toss in Australian Schools Championships and, for a little extra spice, add in family maximums and clothing sales and then earlybird entries and you have a complex beast to deal with. Fortunately Chris and Ashley Crane (Western and Hills Orienteers) have applied the lessons learnt in carrying out this role during the 2004 “Grapes of Rock” Tour to make things a little easier. Chris is responsible for the hack work and son, Ashley, is the operator that can caress the data base into a form that the SportIdent team will enjoy.
During the gestation period for this event there was always a desire to have a total electronic entry system. Unfortunately the fully online system did not become available until after the entry forms went out. This late start has led to further changes to the database. For the trivia minded souls within the sport – Kathy Liley was the first entry received followed ever so closely by Blair Trewin. Amongst the many tasks that await the team in the countdown to JWOC is the preparation of maps. With the mapping completed well in advance, Rob Vincent, aided by the course planners and controllers, has carried out extensive field checking. The mapping team of Alex Tarr, Eric Andrews plus Graham Fowler completed almost all mapping by late August 2006. Alex completed the Sprint map in early November. The course setting team: David Meyer – Sprint; Julian Dent – Long; Jim Merchant – Middle Qualifiers; David Shepherd – Middle Finals and Phoebe Dent – Relays, finalised their courses in November 2006. “The assembly areas chosen will all provide fantastic interaction between competitors and spectators. Julian, Phoebe and I have set courses that will not only challenge the orienteer but provide exciting viewing of the runners on their courses,” commented David Shepherd. One of the challenges for this group, David Meyer excepted, was to use tagging at control sites that goats would not find appetising. David however has his own problems in trying to distract the tigers whilst he tags a site in their enclosure! Also out in the field busily tagging sites were the Western Plains Carnival setters of Graham Fowler – NSW Champs; James Lithgow – Dubbo Dash; Allan Wright & Dennis Lyons – mid week events; Alex Davey – Australian Champs and Robert Vincent – Australian Relays. Each setter has a controller who has checked their courses and control sites. Christine Brown (Tas), who represents the International Event Adviser, has also checked all JWOC courses and control sites giving her seal of approval. International Event Adviser, Urs Hofer (Switzerland), gave final approval for the JWOC courses in February. Now it is off to the printer. More decisions! Which maps must be offset printed, which can be digital? What scales for which events? Decisions, decisions! Perhaps the hardest of all is agreeing on a colour theme which all maps will share. Within any group there will always be a great deal of discussion on any issue.
Suppose you gave a party and no one came! One of the biggest concerns in preparing for JWOC was the unknown support for the event as it is being held outside of Europe for the very first time. As part of the preparation for JWOC, International Teams Liaison Director, Nick Dent, surveyed all the competing teams at JWOC2006 in Lithuania. Nick was very pleased with the results and felt confident that there would be around 250 competitors plus officials at JWOC2007. For some obscure reason Australia was first on board as definite starters, however it was Russia that surprised all with a very early commitment to be in Dubbo with a full team of 6 men, 6 women and 5 officials. The Orienteering powerhouse countries of Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and Finland were also early to indicate their intentions to send full teams. In Lithuania, the Danish team manager summed it up best, “Australia has travelled halfway round the world to every JWOC and now it is our turn to do the travelling!” The Danes indicated that they would have full men’s and women’s teams. MARCH 2007 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 3
