9 minute read
JWOC MAPS
Pl Name Class Time Rate 1 2 3) 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 Olav LUNDANES M20 71.30 6.44 1.32 1.32 1.12 2.44 3.47 6.31 1.39 8.10 4.37 12.47 1.02 13.49 1.12 15.01 8.11 23.12 3.07 26.19 1.53 28.12 1.28 29.40 1.03 30.43 6.53 37.36 2.13 39.49 0.55 40.44 4 Simon UPPILL M20 76.42 6.91 1.44 1.44 1.18 3.02 3.56 6.58 1.51 8.49 4.36 13.25 0.59 14.24 1.07 15.31 8.05 23.36 3.24 27.00 1.24 28.24 1.25 29.49 1.04 30.53 7.59 38.52 2.37 41.29 1.06 42.35
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Fin 0.55 9.33 0.59 0.58 6.29 2.23 1.05 2.13 1.24 2.18 0.58 1.18 0.13 41.39 51.12 52.11 53.09 59.38 62.01 63.06 65.19 66.43 69.01 69.59 71.17 71.30 0.56 10.50 0.55 0.59 6.11 2.50 1.26 2.42 1.46 2.44 1.13 1.21 0.14 43.31 54.21 55.16 56.15 62.26 65.16 66.42 69.24 71.10 73.54 75.07 76.28 76.42
A stunning back drop for the presentation for the Women’s Long Championship with Vanessa Round on the podium in sixth place.
Women’s Relay finish goes down to the line
Below: Norway’s Siri Ulvestad and Sweden’s Jenny Lönnkvist put in a desperate final sprint for the Women’s Relay gold medal.
PHOTOS: ROB PRESTON
Coming into the finish chute Siri Ulvestad (left) and Jenny Lönnkvist are neck and neck. Siri gets a slight edge crossing the ditch and rounding the corner… …but stumbles, allowing Jenny to draw level again… Siri regains her balance and they are now literally shoulder to shoulder…
ROB PRESTON
The star of the championships, Olav Lundanes from Norway, won 2 Gold and 2 Silver medals. Simon Uppill clearing the wood from the trees was the best placed Australian with a 4th place in the Long Championship.
ROB PRESTON
and still… shoulder to shoulder… until Siri crossed the line barely a metre ahead… and Gold for Norway. Jess Davis amongst the rocks
AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS TEAM
Australian Schools 2007 International Representative Team The Australian Schools Team to compete against New Zealand in late September is:
Editor’s note: Under School Sport Australia policy, any school-age members of the Australian JWOC Team were ruled ineligible for selection in the 2007 Australian Schools Team. Thus our best school-age orienteers, such as Belinda Lawford, are not in the Team. Will the New Zealand Team include some of their JWOC competitors? Will our depleted Schools Team still be competitive? It’s a real pity that such an inflexible policy has compromised the strength of our Australian Schools Team this year.
Junior Girls
Katie Doyle.................... QLD Lilian Burrill................... QLD Georgia Parsons ........... ACT Melanie Neumann ........ QLD R1. Glennie Nottle........ QLD R2. Naomi Mitchell....... ACT R3. Rebekah Sunley ..... VIC
Junior Boys
Kurt Neumann .............. QLD Samuel Webb ............... TAS Todd Neve..................... VIC Dave Mallen.................. VIC R1. Thomas Carter ...... NSW R2. Aaron Breed........... QLD R3. Kasimir Gregory .... NSW
Senior Girls
Aislinn Prendergast ...... VIC Krystal Neumann.......... QLD Catherine Hewitt........... TAS Brea Pearce................... TAS R1. Claire Butler ........... TAS R2. Emily Prudhoe........ NSW R3. Thea Richardson.... NSW
Senior Boys
Leon Keely .................... VIC Simon Mee ................... QLD Lachlan Dow................. ACT Joshua Blatchford ........ NSW R1. Oscar Phillips ......... TAS R2. Oliver Crosato ........ QLD R3. Callum Fagg........... TAS
Manager: Valerie Barker, ACT Coach: Ian Dalton, WA
NUTRITION Buy yourself JETa
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.
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.
JWOC2007
from the Tower
A number of people have expressed their thanks, and their curiosity, regarding the race commentary at the recent Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) held near Dubbo. This article explains why we did it and how we went about it, from both a commentary viewpoint and the technical angle.
Creating The Voice of the Forest
Jason McCrae & Andy Hogg
WE rated JWOC2007 as the second most important race in Australian orienteering history (behind only WOC’85) and we wanted it to make a big impact; not just amongst the Australian orienteering community but also the rest of the world. After much discussion, we decided we could best contribute to JWOC by reviving our World Cup 2000 commentary team. We recruited Paul Liggins (a.k.a The Work Experience Kid) as a Producer, and a technical team to rival Google. In a reckless fit of imagination we also promised the event organisers we would broadcast to the web – at the time having almost no idea what was involved. In the end, we relied heavily on the technical gurus to do most of the hard work (see below), leaving us free to concentrate on talking. We have our own particular style of commentary – Jase tries to amuse while Andy likes to give information – but it’s a combination that works well, provided you give it enough thought. Here we give our opinions on the important elements of commentary. We can’t just turn up on the day and produce interesting or insightful commentary, particularly for an international race like JWOC (220 competitors who were mostly unknown to us). This required substantial research on previous competitions in an attempt to filter out the favourites from the rest. After several goes at this we produced a single document that we could refer to when flustered to give interesting facts or speculation. Other times we just had to make it up. On the day, we found planning to be essential. With 220 competitors, as many as 4 radio splits and 3 spectator controls, we faced information overload. We couldn’t hope to mention every runner who came past the arena – this meant concentrating on one spectator control at a time; alternatively we focussed on potential leaders or Australians (in some cases both!). Our producer was essential here, refocussing us when needed and providing extra information when required. Of course, an Orienteering race has the potential to be very boring from a spectator point of view. In our case we were lucky that all of the course planners had spectators foremost in their mind when planning the courses, and gave ample opportunity for us to see the competitors. The most critical element of Orienteering commentary is to give the crowd information before they can see the runners. To do this we used radio controls (details below) which provided almost instantaneous information on leading runners through the OESpeaker program. This information made our job easy – we could usually tell when a potential leader was approaching the arena before the crowd could see them. We used this to build anticipation, particularly during the Long Distance race when the view from the tower included the amusement of the entire crowd flooding back and forth across the spectator area en masse to see leaders go through spectator controls on both sides. The tower is also an essential element for two reasons. Firstly (provided it is sited properly) we can catch a glimpse of runners through the forest before most of the crowd. Secondly it keeps us separated from the crowd so that we can keep our attention on the race. In summary, if you’re thinking of doing commentary for a race (say a State or National champs) it can be a very worthwhile exercise for the event and rewarding for the commentators. It requires good planning, preparation, anticipation and a sense of humour when things are going awry. Few in the crowd were aware, but on 3 of 5 days at JWOC we started the race commentary with our technical gurus still working flat out to get radio splits working. For the Long Distance race, this occurred about 20 seconds before the first person went through the radio control. Keep reading to hear how they did it…
Jason calls a finisher in on the Long Distance, while Andy watches on. Photo: Richard Talbot
Taking it to the World
José Zapata
THE Voice of the Forest was propagated to the world via two channels. One was the set of amplified speakers which produced the sound for the spectators in the event arena and the other was a live audio feed, which took the same sound and made it available over the internet. The commentators’ voices and the music (played from a laptop) were carefully combined through a mixing console to produce a seamless transition from the competition action to sponsors announcements and recorded interviews. Commentators could also play popular songs, which allowed them to entertain the public during less eventful periods and recover their breaths. The mixer output was then directed to a PA system and speaker horns, which were placed around the commentary tower and directed to the designated spectator areas, enriching the public’s race experience. At the same time, the mixer output was also directed to a second laptop, which encoded the audio signal in real time and sent it via the internet into a SHOUTcast server. A SHOUTcast server is the internet equivalent of a free radio station,
