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SILVA AWARDS
At it’s meeting in Dubbo at Easter, Orienteering Australia confirmed the following awards:
OOrienteering Western Australia nominated Tony Simpkins for the 2008 Silva Award for his long and dedicated service to the sport in Western Australia. Tony has been a stalwart of the association since soon after its foundation and his impact over the years is second to none in the overall development and promotion of Orienteering in Western Australia. As a passionate and dedicated promoter Tony has initiated many of the activities that we now take for granted. Tony started orienteering in 1974, the year that OAWA began, and quickly made his mark as both a competitor and in the organization, helping with mapping, setting and administration. Over the ensuing 33 years Tony has maintained a high profile role in the sport and some, but by no means all, of his many achievements and contributions are noted below:
Major events:
• Setter of the Spring West Carnival (1984), the first event OAWA nationally advertised. • Mapper and Setter of the Australian Championships at Avon Valley (1988), which was the first WA event on the national calendar. • Mapper and setter ANZ Challenge at Pinjarra Hills (1993). • Setter of the Aust Relay Championships (1998) - Yetar Springs. • Australian Middle Distance Champs setter Easter (2003) - Gunapin. • Mapper and Setter of Australian Sprint Championships, York (2006)..
OAWA Council membership:
Technical Convenor OAWA 1980-1983, Mapping Convenor OAWA 19851990, Coaching Convenor OAWA 1990-1993
Sport Development Officer:
Tony has, for the past 6 years, held the position of Be Active Sports Development Officer (BASDO) for Orienteering Western Australia. Tony has introduced around 20,000 school children and corporate groups to Orienteering and taken the Western Australian Schools Championships to new levels with up to 800 school-age competitors now regular attendees at the annual event. Tony has not slowed down as a volunteer, putting hundreds of hours of his time into the sport, developing Metro, Bush and Mountain Bike maps and setting events.
Other significant contributions:
• Setter of the first Mountain Bike Orienteering event in WA in 1995 • Developed the first controllers courses in WA • Initiated level 1 coach accreditation in WA • Developed the Coach-in-Residence scheme in WA bringing Carol McNeil (1984) and Peter Palmer (1993) to Western Australia • Initiated the Metro Orienteering series which is now a highly successful part of the OAWA program • Started the local O-Shop
Competitive orienteer:
As a competitor Tony has always been at the top of his age group with numerous wins in WA events and a longterm hold on the WA male orienteer of the year. Tony has represented Australia in the ANZ Challenge in 2003 & 2006. Tony was Domestic Australian Champion in 2002 (M55) and won the M60 Australian Championship in his highly competitive age group in 2006, after many years of running close. At the Australian 3 Day Tony won the M60 Champion title in SA in 2007.
Orienteering Victoria nominated Jim Russell for the Silva Award for Services to Coaching. Jim is one of our few accredited Level 3 Coaches, and he has had an enormously successful record over many years of coaching orienteers. In 2007, Jim was joint coach of the Australian JWOC team at Dubbo, coaching Simon Uppill and Vanessa Round to outstanding results, as well as supporting the rest of the young team to achieve good performances in, what was for many, their first international event. This was not the first JWOC coaching role for Jim. Previously Jim has coached the Australian JWOC team in 1996 (Romania), 1997 (Belgium), 1998 (France) and 1999 (Bulgaria). Highlights of this period were top results for Jo Allison and a bronze medal for Troy de Haas. Jim followed that with a stint coaching the New Zealand JWOC team in 2001 (Hungary) and 2002 (Spain). Jim has also coached at the top level, coaching our national elite team at the 2004 World Championships (Sweden) and 2005 (Japan), where Hanny Allston broke through for a podium finish in the Long Distance race. 2007 was also successful for Jim domestically. Jim coached the Victoria Nuggets National Orienteering League team, which won the Senior Men, Senior Women and Junior Men divisions and came second in the Junior Women division. Jim also coached the Victoria Nuggets to their 2003 victory, the only other time that the Canberra Cockatoos have been beaten. Jim is an icon of Bendigo Orienteers. He has coached numerous juniors from Bendigo and turned many of them into keen, high performing orienteers. Several of these have represented Victoria’s schools team, which Jim also coached in 2000 and 2002. Jim’s competitive record stands him in good stead for coaching. Jim is a former Australian Elite Champion in Long Distance (1994 Cantara Dunes), and has a bronze medal from the 2001 World Masters Championships. Jim is still competitive at the top level in Australia, and has over 150 National Orienteering League races now under his belt. Jim Russell has contributed significantly to orienteering coaching over many years, in particular his encouragement and development of junior elite orienteers, many of whom have been highly successful. In fact, Jim Russell has coached the majority of current National Orienteering League participants at some time during their development. He is a worthy recipient of the 2008 Silva Award for Services to Coaching.
