HIGH PERFORMANCE

Mike Dowling, OA Director, High Performance

Back in the December 2007 edition of The Australian Orienteer, I wrote that one of our priorities over the coming 12 months was to work to raise the level of fitness in our junior orienteers. High level fitness is one of my three tenets for successful international competitiveness. The other two being strong technical skills and a never give up, calm & positively focused mindset. Therefore, it was most pleasing to see the level of fitness development obvious in our junior elites competing for places in our 2008 JWOC team over Easter at Dubbo.

2008 World Championship Teams

By the time this edition hits the streets all our World Championship teams will have been named and team members will be engaged in preparation to represent their country and sporting community at the Junior World Championships in the “home” of orienteering at Gothenburg, Sweden; at the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships in Poland; and at the Senior World Championships in the Czech Republic. This year’s World Championship season is a vital one for Australian orienteering. We are at the end of our current funding cycle and performances will be fresh in the memory of the good people at the Australian Sports Commission when funding is determined for the next four year cycle in early 2009. On behalf of the Australian orienteering community I congratulate all orienteers on their selection and pay tribute to the many hours of hard work and dedication to achieve the standard required to represent your country. As I said to our young juniors selected in the JWOC team, team members need to see their selection as a starting point rather than an end point. The real work starts when you know you are privileged to be chosen to represent your country and know you work extra hard to take your orienteering to another level. Internationally, many countries are developing their orienteering and the depth of international competition is continuing to grow. We have an outstanding group of orienteers both young and older who will represent us in the pinnacle of competition in our sport and I am very confident all will do so to the very best of their ability. Of course all teams have a magnificent support crew of coaches and managers who work damn hard on a purely voluntary basis to ensure organisation and preparation of each team is the very best we can do within our limited financial resource base. Their efforts are often under appreciated.

Thanks to SILVA our National League takes another Step

As HP Director I was very gratified with the sponsorship by SILVA for our National League. Their support shows that we do have a great developing competition that forms a vital basis in developing the competitive depth of our domestic orienteering scene. It’s also timely to publicly thank OA Development Director Ben Rattray and OA HP Manager Rob Preston for their great work with our SILVA partners in bringing this sponsorship to fruition. We have just completed the round of races in Tasmania which brings to a close the early part of the National League season. There has been some great racing to date and all teams are no doubt now looking forward to the finale of the League in Queensland in late September.

MTBO National Series Kicks Off

As I write this column our first round of the new MTBO National Series has just been run and won in Victoria. This is a new innovation that will hopefully encourage more orienteers and mountain bikers to get into this area of our sport for top level domestic competition. Special thanks are due to national MTBO convenor Blake Gordon for his instrumental work in bringing the series to fruition. It is hoped that the Series will be a catalyst for greater participation at a top level and assist in building this most recent aspect of our great sport.

Thanks Bob

Readers will know Bob Mouatt stepped down as OA President at the recent AGM of Orienteering Australia held at Easter in Dubbo. I want to pay particular tribute to Bob for his many contributions to orienteering, and in particular for his passion towards developing our international competitiveness and his mentorship to me as HP Director. Bob was always there to offer wise words of advice and has a keen understanding of the importance international success plays in developing our sport at all levels. Thanks again Bob. Our sport is all the richer for your long involvement.

A New High Performance Strategic Plan For 2009-2012

We are now in the final year of our current three year plan for our high performance program. As has been mentioned before in this column, the plan is the guiding document of our HP program and as such belongs to all our stakeholders; the member States of OA, athletes, coaches and the wider community of orienteers. The document is a dynamic one and continuously undergoes changes and refinements as circumstances change and evolve. Developing a new plan will be one of the focus tasks over the coming months for endorsement at the 2008 Annual Conference of Orienteering Australia. Got an idea on how to develop our High Performance program over the next four year cycle? My door is always open! Contact me at oa_highperformance@netspeed.com.au with your thoughts! Or at 17 High St. Bellerive 7018; tel: (03) 6244 71773