Natasha Key W35 WORLD CHAMPION
Winning PartnershiP
The Australian Sports Commission proudly supports Orienteering Australia The Australian Sports Commission is the Australian Government agency that develops, manages and invests in sport at all levels in Australia. Orienteering Australia has worked closely with the Australian Sports Commission to develop orienteering from community participation to high-level performance.
AUSTRALIAN SPORTS COMMISSION 2 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Orienteering Australia is one of many national sporting organisations that has formed a winning partnership with the Australian Sports Commission to develop its sport in Australia.
www.ausport.gov.au
w w w. o r i e n t e e r i n g . a s n . a u Orienteering Australia PO Box 284 Mitchell BC 2911 orienteering@netspeed.com.au w: 02 6162 1200 President: Bill Jones oa_president@netspeed.com.au h: 02 6258 6362 Director (High Performance): Mike Dowling oa_highperformance@netspeed.com.au h: 03 6244 7173 Director (Finance): Blair Trewin oa_finance@netspeed.com.au h: 03 9455 3516 Director (Development): Ben Rattray oa_development@netspeed.com.au m: 0404 781 032 Director (Technical): Andy Hogg oa_technical@netspeed.com.au w: 02 6125 9962 h: 02 6251 9777 Director (Special Projects): Robin Uppill oa_projects@netspeed.com.au h: 08 8278 3017 m: 0419 037 770 IOF Vice President: Hugh Cameron oa_international@netspeed.com.au h: 02 6027 0885 Executive Officer: Kay Grzadka orienteering@netspeed.com.au w: 02 6162 1200 m: 0421 174 846 Manager (High Performance): Robert Preston oa_headcoach@netspeed.com.au m: 0403 296 516 Badge Applications: John Oliver 68 Amaroo Street, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650
STATE ASSOCIATIONS Orienteering Queensland Inc: PO Box 114 Spring Hill QLD 4004. Admin Officer: Sandy Cantwell, Ph (07) 3379 8238 oqadmin@iprimus.com.au OA NSW: PO Box 3295, North Strathfield NSW 2137. Secretary: Dave Lotty, Ph. (02) 8116 9848 Orienteering ACT: PO Box 402, Jamison Centre ACT 2614. Office: John Suominen, Ph. (02) 6162 3422 orienteering.act@webone.com.au Victorian OA: PO Box 1010 Templestowe 3106. Secretary: Warwick Williams. Ph. (03) 8846 4140 voa@netspace.net.au OA South Australia: State Association House, 73 Wakefield St Adelaide SA 5000. Secretary: Ken Thompson 08 8351 4757 secretary@oasa.net.au OA Western Australia: PO Box 234 Subiaco WA 6904. Secretary: Carol Brownlie Ph. (08) 9446 3457 carolnken@ozemail.com.au Orienteering Tasmania Inc.: PO Box 339, Sandy Bay, TAS 7005. Secretary: Cindy Fagg secretary.oti@trump.net.au Top End Orienteers (Northern Territory): PO Box 39152 Winnellie NT 0821. Secretary: David Rolland brolland@bigpond.com
NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE
Oct 18. Time-sensitive: Oct 25
ISSN 0818-6510 Issue 3/08 (no. 151) SEPTEMBER 2008
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 Editor: Michael Hubbert, P.O. Box 165, Warrandyte, Victoria 3113 mikehubbert@ozemail.com.au Phone (03) 9844 4878 Magazine Design & Assembly: Peter Cusworth, 8 View Street, Avonsleigh, Vic. 3782. Ph. 0409 797 023 cusworth@netspace.net.au Magazine Treasurer: Blair Trewin Printer: Ferntree Print Centre, 1238 Burwood Hwy Upper Ferntree Gully. Contribution deadline: October 18. Time-sensitive material, October 25. 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; Competition: Blair Trewin; High Performance: Mike Dowling; MTBO: Blake Gordon; Official News: Kay Grzadka; 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 – Alex Davey alexdavey@internode.on.net 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.
CONTENTS W M O C 2 0 0 8 – P o r t u g a l.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 WOC 2008 – Czech Republic ..................... 8 S C H O O L S D E V E L O P M E N T.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 HIGH PERFORMANCE.............................. 15 FA I R P L AY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6 I N T E R N AT I O N A L R O U N D U P .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 9 A C T S P O R T S H A L L O F F A M E – D a v e H o g g .. . 2 0 N AT I O N A L S P O R T S M U S E U M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 JWOC 2008 – Sweden ........................... 22 SPORT PSYCHOLOGY............................... 26 I N T E R V I E W – Ta n i a R o b i n s o n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8 N U T R I T I O N .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 L E T T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 TRAINING............................................ 34 TOP EVENTS......................................... 41 MTBO ................................................ 43 E X E C U T I V E M AT T E R S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7
Front Cover: Natasha Key won the W35 Long-Distance World Championship in Portugal. Photo: www.CompassSport.co.uk
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 3
WORLD MASTERS ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Tash showing her Gold medal with sons Jensen and Aston. Photo: Mike Hubbert
Natasha Key W35 World Champion Michael Hubbert
Portugal – what a revelation ! Weather warm and sunny; beautiful forests with sand tracks to be avoided at all costs; great food, wine and beer – all so cheap that we ate out most nights; and gelado (icecream) to die for. Throw in excellent maps, very well thought out courses and so many young volunteers there was hardly room for the competitors in the start boxes, and we had a very well run and enjoyable week of events. Congratulations to all Portuguese orienteers.
Classic Final, Blair Trewin. Photo: CompassSport
Sprint Final, John Lyon Photo: CompassSport
Sprint Final, Tash Key (2nd, W35) Photo: CompassSport
4 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Some 60 Aussies entered for WMOC2008 and many came back from the forest with great results, but the standout performances came from Tash Key, our newest World Champion. Tash gave us a big hint that she was in top form when she finished 2nd in the W35 Sprint Final at Praia da Vieira on the Atlantic coast. In the Long-distance qualification races she finished in aggregate 2nd position but just five days after her Sprint triumph she went one better by winning the Long-distance W35 Final by over two minutes at Pedrogao in the sand dune pine forests originally planted under instructions from King Pedro to provide wood for the Portuguese naval and exploration ships of the 15th Century. Husband Warren was heard to mutter that he had been trying to win a World Masters title for years and here Tash had done it at her first try.
by husband Warren who took 3rd in M45. Other 3rd placegetters were Jeffa Lyon in W70 and Hermann Wehner in M80. Just off the podium were 4th placegetters Jim Russell in M45 and Blair Trewin in M35, despite Blair’s protestations that he didn’t have a sprint muscle in his body. Perhaps he was helped by the fact that over half of the Sprint Final was in forested sand dune terrain and it wasn’t until late in the courses that competitors hit the streets of Praia da Vieira.
Portugal – home of the great navigators such as Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan and Prince Henry “the Navigator” who forged the “Age of Discovery” with their daring voyages to unknown and distant parts of the world. It was somewhat fitting that more than 3,500 navigators gathered in Portugal for WMOC2008. For more than a week the region surrounding Leiria and Marinha Grande was filled with orienteering masters keen to try their skills in this unique coastal terrain of sand dunes, ancient pines and eucalypts (yes, eucalypts – the Portuguese are cutting down their pine forests to plant eucalypts).
The Final at Pedrogao was in similar terrain described in the Handbook as “Pine forest and sand dunes, rich in contour details, reasonable path network. Many of the tracks are sandy and will be slow to run along in their worst sections.” That last was a real understatement. Even the finish chute wasn’t all that easy to negotiate and maintain some real speed. The sand dunes were almost mountainous (certainly precipitous) in some parts and some of the undergrowth was quite thick, difficult to get through, and did a good job of hiding the control flags in places.
Age of Discovery monument, Lisbon
The Long-distance qualifying races at Pataias took us into some incredibly sandy terrain with small contour detail like depressions and mounds, quite complex in places. The many sandy tracks were almost impossible to run on at any speed. The forest was better and good for the fleet of foot, but some of us less fleet mortals found the going a bit of a struggle at times, particularly in areas where the brashings had been left lying on the ground.
The Aussie women did us proud in the Final results, with Tash Key’s World Championship title in W35 and Maureen Ogilvie taking 2nd place in W75. Maureen’s achievement was outstanding given that she was still recovering from knee surgery just three months earlier and still taking pain killers. She hadn’t been doing so well in the earlier races but saved it all up for the Final. Warren Key was going well and a likely candidate for a podium place until one control where, although he was in the right place, he just couldn’t see the control flag and spent over a minute searching for it. Warren ended up taking 4th place in M45. Other Aussies to post good results were Blair Trewin, 8th in M35, Jim Russell, 10th in M45, Paul Adrian, 6th in M85, Hugh Moore, 10th in M60, and Jeffa Lyon, 9th in W75. In all, Australians took eight top-10 places – not bad for a group of 60 participants in a field of over 3,500.
The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) often refers to the “Orienteering family” and the family certainly descended on the town of Marinha Grande where the Championships were opened with a parade through the streets led by a very athletic and loud local drumming group. In the Sprint Final Tash Key was best of the Aussies with a masterful 2nd place in W35. Tash’s success was nearly equalled
A good deal of interest each day centred on the oldest classes where 94yo Finn Erkki Luntamo (he goes up a class next year) battled 90yo Swede Rune Haraldsson. Luntamo triumphed in the Sprint but Haraldsson turned the tables on him in the Longdistance Final where they had to negotiate 2.2km in the sand dunes with 40 metres of climb. Briton Elizabeth Brown had it all to herself in W90 but still had to complete the 1.2km course with 10 metres of climb. Numbers in the older classes are growing which says something about the longevity of orienteers. (Turn to pages 36 & 37 to see maps from WMOC 2008). SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 5
FAITH FI0555
6 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
SILVA National Orienteering League Event Calendar 2008 Event number
Date
Event/location
Format
1
8 March
Victorian Relay Championships
Relay
2
9 March
Eureka Challenge, Ballarat, VIC
Long
3
21 March
Australian 3-Days Prologue, Dubbo, NSW
Sprint
4
22 March
Australian 3-Days Day 1, Dubbo, NSW
Middle
5
23 March
Australian 3-Days Day 2, Dubbo, NSW
Long
6
24 March
Australian 3-Days Day 3, Dubbo, NSW
Relay distance
7
29 March
ASC Galaxy Sprint, Canberra, ACT
Sprint
8
29 March
ASC Galaxy Mixed Relay, Canberra, ACT
Mixed Relay
9
30 March
Canberra Cup, ACT
10
17 May
Sun Coast Classic, St Helens, TAS
Sprint
11
17 May
Sun Coast Classic, St Helens, TAS
Middle
12
18 May
Sun Coast Classic, St Helens, TAS
Long
13
20 Sept
Australian Middle Distance Championships, Maryborough, QLD
Middle
14
21 Sept
QLD Championships, Maryborough, QLD
Long
15
23 Sept
NOL Round 14, Maryborough, QLD
Middle
16
26 Sept
Australian Sprint Championships, Maryborough, QLD
Sprint
17
27 Sept
Australian Long Distance Champs, Maryborough, QLD
Long
18
28 Sept
Australian Relay Championships, Maryborough, QLD
Relay
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SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 7
WORLD ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS Women’s Relay start. Photo: Erik Borg
Surprises in Czech Republic Michael Hubbert
Czech Republic is a fascinating example of a country pulling itself into the 21st Century. Lovely modern new trams running on tracks so old the trams have to crawl around corners to avoid derailment. Majestic old buildings recently cleaned and repainted standing amongst others in urgent need of major repairs. Derelict factories abound in most towns and villages yet the agricultural sector appears to be booming. Fields of corn, wheat, rye, soya and poppies spread as far as the eye can see. In Prague (Praha) it’s a well kept secret that a fast and shiny new underground rail line joins two decrepit old main line terminus stations. Fun and games for the traveller trying to make connecting trains.
T
he WOC carnival was based in Olomouc, a smaller city in the eastern part of the country. Volunteers had been brought in from far and wide to help run the carnival and there was a significant contribution from the army too. The volunteers worked really hard and were very keen to help all visitors in any way they could. Unfortunately the main organisers seemed to have missed the point that most visitors had come to see the WOC races and that participation in the public events came a distant second.
performance at that distance in World Championships. Czech spectators went wild when Radka Brozkova ran in to take bronze. Best of the Aussies was Grace Elson (16th) closely followed by Jo Allison (17th) with Vanessa Round 32nd.
Sprint
The long-distance Final was a brutal event with some incredibly long legs and patches of new pine plantation where visibility was down to less than 5 metres. Early in the race Norway’s Marianne Andersen lost a contact lens when thick tree growth brushed it from her eye. She finished with a silver medal, just 43secs behind Czech Dana Brozkova and it’s quite possible that with two good eyes she might have taken gold. The open forest was eminently runnable so any time lost in the thick stuff was magnified manyfold. Kathryn Ewels ran the race of her career to take 14th place whilst Jo Allison was 25th and Vanessa Round 39th.
Qualifying races were in Prostejov, a short train ride from Olomouc. Five Aussies qualified for the Final – all three women (Kathryn Ewels, Grace Elson and Jasmine Neve) and two men (Julian Dent and Simon Uppill). The Final was held in the old town part of Olomouc with start and finish in the main square. In the Women’s race Finland’s Minna Kauppi thought she had won the event for quite some time and hung around the finish line for confirmation. But it was not to be – Norwegian Anne Margrethe Hausken was a later starter and though it was close for most of the race she eventually beat Kauppi by 9.3sec. Kathryn Ewels at 27th was the best of the Aussies, closely followed by Grace Elson at 32nd and Jasmine Neve at 42nd. In the Men’s race, Sweden’s king of the sprint, Emil Wingstedt, mispunched near a TV control leaving it to Andrey Kramov (Russia) and Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) to fight it out for a close 1st and 2nd with the rest of the field well back in their wake. Julian Dent (41st) and Simon Uppill (42nd) could not match the speed of much of the field.
Middle-distance Minna Kauppi blitzed the field in the Middle-distance Final winning by over two minutes. But behind her 39yo mother of four, Swiss legend, Vroni Konig-Salmi ran the race of her life to claim the silver medal. Konig-Salmi said after the race that she only came to WOC2008 to run in the relay and that the Middle-distance silver medal was a real bonus. It was her best 8 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Middle-distance king, Thierry Geourgiou of France confirmed his dominance of the event by winning his sixth title at this distance while Australia’s only male qualifier, Julian Dent, finished 32nd.
Long-distance
Daniel Hubmann of Switzerland won comfortably from Norway’s Anders Nordberg and Francois Gonon of France. Australia had no male qualifier.
Relays Relays always bring excitement and the unexpected. Just two years ago (2006) the Australian women stood on the Relay podium in 4th place. This year the experts thought 7th or 8th would be a very good achievement. Jo Allison led off and for a time seemed to be leading the field according to information from the TV controls. She had a great run bringing the team into 6th place, just 80secs behind the leading team, Russia. Grace Elson kept up the pace putting the team into 7th after two legs, but ahead of her 39yo Vroni Konig-Salmi had streaked to the front building a 50sec lead for Switzerland early in the leg. She was able to maintain a good lead to the end of the second leg ahead of Sweden, Russia, Czech and Finland.
Simon Uppill waiting to start the Sprint. Photo: Robbie Preston
Women’s Relay first change – Allison to Elson Photo: Erik Borg
Aussie cheer squad during the Middle final. Photo: Mike Hubbert
Jo Allison in the Long final. Photo: Erik Borg
Minna Kauppi took over for Finland and proceeded to power through the field to 2nd and then to 1st by control #8. She ran brilliantly to build a substantial lead over Sweden, Russia and the Swiss. Kauppi burst out of the forest into an open field near the finish, did a forward roll as a victory salute then raced down to the finish with her teammates, Finnish flag flying. This was Kauppi’s second gold, and third medal of the week. After a brilliant 14th in the Long-distance Final the previous day, Kathryn Ewels had a great battle with Latvia and China towards the end and finished off a successful week to bring Australia into 8th place, just behind the flying Chinese Li Ji. The Chinese team’s performance was a real surprise though the open forest probably suited the fast running abilities of their former Olympic runners. In the Men’s Relay the French team was near the lead for most of the race and Thierry Geourgiou built a commanding lead on the last leg. But then tragedy struck. At Control #22 with just five controls to go Geourgiou appeared to start heading towards control #24. We could see on the screen that he would miss #23.
It was only a short leg and about halfway along he appeared to realise his mistake and turned toward #23. By then the British and the Russian runners had nearly caught him. Geourgiou appeared to linger at #23 while the other two ran on. TV pictures showed him walking. Gueorgiou had suffered an allergic reaction after being bitten by an insect and was eventually helicoptered to hospital. France’s day was ruined. Although Briton Jamie Stevenson had run in the Long-distance Final, he was still able to outsprint Valentin Novikov of Russia in the run home. This was Britain’s first WOC gold in the Men’s Relay. Australia finished 15th after a great last leg from Julian Dent (11th fastest on the leg). He ran most of the last leg on his own, and was able to pull in a number of nations on the last loop. Earlier, David Shepherd finished 18th on the first leg, and Simon Uppill 20th on the second leg.
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 9
Julian Dent, 41st in the Sprint. Photo: Mike Hubbert Kathryn Ewells was 27th in the Sprint. Photo: Robbie Preston
The Sprint start and finish was in the main square of Olomouc. Photo: Robbie Preston
10 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Jo Allison Photo: Mike Hubbert
Jasmine Neve Photo: Paul Prudoe
Keiran Rattray Photo: Mike Hubbert
Vanessa Round Photo: Mike Hubbert
Grace Elson Photo: Robbie Preston
Kathryn Ewells Photo: Robbie Preston
Julian Dent Photo: Mike Hubbert
Simon Uppill Photo: Robbie Preston
Dave Shepherd Photo: Robbie Preston
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 11
Daniel Hubmann finishes 1st in the Long final. Photo: Mike Hubbert
Thierry Geourgiou won his sixth Middle Distance World title. Photo: Robbie Preston
Long medalists: Anders Nordberg (Norway) Silver, Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) Gold, Francois Gonon (France) Bronze. Photo: Erik Borg
Finland’s winning Women’s Relay team. Photo: Erik Borg 12 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Martin Johansson (Sweden), 3rd in the Sprint final. Photo: Robbie Preston
Sprint Gold medallist, Anne Margrethe Hausken. Photo: Erik Borg
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 13
S C H O O L S D E V E LO P M E N T
Out of the mouths of babes – The real meaning of Orienteering Janet Buchan (AWOC President) Albury Wodonga Orienteering Club (AWOC) runs some popular Orienteering courses for local primary schools with members volunteering their valuable time to help out. Following a course late last year we received the attached thank you letter from one of the young children (age about 8), which I think says it all about Orienteering and the value of the schools programs. It also has some unusual ideas about how to make Orienteering more interesting for the younger generation (not sure about “putting clippers on the roofs of houses and other islands”, but it makes one think!). In all our competitiveness and the necessary rules and regulations of Orienteering we perhaps lose sight of the real meaning of Orienteering - that it must be fun. If you too can want to play it on your birthday, and in your dreams and to hide clippers everywhere; if you too are smiling and puffing after Orienteering (puffing - we can all probably say ‘yes’ to that one!!), then you are having fun and Orienteering is doing its job. I vote our anonymous young person in as our next OA publicity officer! Let’s rock for orienteering! The letter translated: 1. Orienteering is so much fun. If you Put 2000 Clippers every where I would do it for ever. Hide them and trick me. Make it hard. Put them on roofs of house. And other islands. I tell you it is so much fun. 2. Every Monday we do Orienteering and after it I would be smiling and puffing Just because it is fun. 3. Because its fun I would Play it on my birthday party. Play in my dream. 4. race tracks will be good because you will get exercise. 5. GOOD Health. YEAH. Come on orienteering. Let’s rock For Orienteering. (author unknown – age 8, Wodonga)
O-Spy Tim (no compass) Dent Tim Dent (Yarra Valley, VIC) believes that a compass makes navigation too easy in most Australian terrain, so he is regularly seen out on a course without a compass. With this in mind your O-Spy was astonished to see Tim carrying a compass at the World Masters Orienteering Championships Sprint qualification event in the medieval town of Leiria in Portugal. Tim claims he didn’t use the compass, but why would he in a street-O event? For the record, Tim carried his compass in all the WMOC events.
14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Tip from a World Champion Finland’s World Champion, Minna Kauppi, does things differently. She stands out from the crowd. In fact, one Finn was heard to say “She’s not like the rest of us, you know”. At the World Orienteering Championships in Czech Republic it was easy to pick out Kauppi from a great distance as she ran towards spectator or TV controls. She was the one with an enormous sheet of paper flapping from her hand. Apparently she doesn’t fold the map down to a manageable size like most orienteers. Whether this gives her an advantage is not for O-Spy to judge, but she certainly moves fast through the terrain.
ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA Welcome Dave
High Performance Mike Dowling, OA Director, High Performance
I
have recently returned from the World Orienteering Championships held in the Czech Republic where it was my great privilege to work with a fantastic group of young Australians and coaching staff who were representing us. I found all the Team to be wonderful ambassadors for their country and represented the green and gold in a manner that did them all proud. There is no doubt that international Orienteering is showing some signs of development and increased depth of competition. One significant aspect of this was the competitiveness of the Chinese women’s team in particular. With their access to a huge population base and an enthusiasm for international competitiveness I can see China becoming an international power in Orienteering in years to come. This can only be to the good of our sport and particularly for us as we occupy a geographic proximity on the world Orienteering stage. I was highly impressed with the efforts of all of our Team in striving to achieve their best. While some of the Team may have been disappointed with their actual results, readers can be assured all gave their very best and were extremely supportive and encouraging of the successes of those team members who gained pleasing results. Our women’s team showed the benefits that can be derived by having a good depth of quality competitors encouraging and pushing each other. Our senior members in Kathryn Ewels, Grace Elson and Jo Allison all achieved best ever results at WOC and it was really gratifying to see our new WOC team members in Vanessa Round and Jasmine Neve qualify for their finals. For Jasmine, the WOC experience is one she will come to remember with some fondness in years to come by being the first starter in the final of the Sprint in the fantastic arena the Czech organisers presented our sport in the centre of the beautiful Moravian city of Olomouc. With the race being broadcast live on Czech TV and the many thousands of spectators gathered in the square to witness the races unfold both on the big screens and in the arena of the competition it made for a superb showcase of our sport. Another interesting aspect of the World Championships was the entry profile of orienteers in the supporting public races. I was impressed to see that the biggest entries seemed to have be in the junior classes and judging by the number of young people witnessing the WOC races unfold and the number of youngsters clamouring to get autographs of their national team members it is something we need to take on board to grow our sport here at home. It certainly showed why the Czechs are one of the world powers of international Orienteering.
As I write this column our new Manager, Coaching & Officiating Development, Dave Meyer, is settling into his role. Dave is based at our National Office in Canberra and is a welcome addition to carry forward the important aspects of coaching & officiating development for Australian Orienteering. One of the key first tasks Dave is engaged in is getting to grips with the new online accreditation system for coaches and officials for sports developed by the Australian Sports Commission. What this new system will allow us to do is to provide a better method for keeping track of our currently accredited coaches and officials and to keep better track of when their respective accreditations are due for renewal. Another important job Dave is engaged in is planning to conduct a national Level 2 coaching course later in the year to build our coaching capacity and skills for a number of our key coaches. Finally, it is our intention to build coaching & officiating resources on our national website so coaches and officials have ready access to such resources to enable them to more effectively develop coaching activities and improve event management procedures.
Planning For The Next Quadrennium 2009-2012 Both the Foot and MTBO High Performance Management Groups are busy developing a new High Performance Strategic Plan for the next four year period. Such a plan is a necessary requirement of our continued funding through the Australian Sports Commission and also to inform us as to how we can build on our international status as the leading non-European Orienteering nation. The plan underpins all our elite development activities and support programs from our national squads through to our national teams and the necessary support structures required to ensure our teams can do our country proud in international competition. As always we welcome input from the wider orienteering public as many people have great ideas to further the development of our competitive capacities in the international arena. If you have any ideas or thoughts these are most welcome from my perspective. I’m always available to listen to your ideas and can be readily reached via email at oa_highperformance@netspeed.com.au
Good Coaching: A Vital Necessity In Our Great Sport As readers of my column will regularly know I am passionate about the need to develop our coaching infrastructure. OA attaches great importance to the necessity for good coaching at all levels of our sport to enable orienteers at all levels of experience to gain greater enjoyment from our fantastic sport. I work with a brilliant group of young orienteers in Hobart over a number of years and have been very privileged to see how they have made so much improvement in their orienteering and also built some wonderful friendships. It is a rewarding aspect of our sport and I really encourage more orienteers to take on such a role. Contact your State Coaching Director and see how you can be involved? The rewards are really worth the effort!
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 15
FA I R P L AY
At WOC 2008, Czech Republic, in the Women’s Long-distance qualifying race an Irish woman reported being stopped by a Bulgarian woman asking where she was. At JWOC 2008 in Sweden a competitor in the Start quarantine area of the Sprint was observed using a mobile phone. Both these activities are illegal.
They’re still at it..!!! Michael Hubbert
I
t’s Long-distance Qualification race #1 in the World Masters Orienteering Championships at Pataias in Portugal. I’m just leaving control #9 when I hear this anguished cry behind me. “Please hjelp me ….. please hjelp me”, in a distinctive Russian accent. I turn around, expecting to find a woman who has just broken her leg, or fallen down a cliff, or both. What I see is a perfectly healthy woman running up to me and pointing to her map. She’s asking me where she is. I point to the control in a very open and distinctive little sand gully; I point to the wide sandy track just 15 metres away and I point to the open sandy area right next to us. At least she had the decency to say “thank you” as she ran away far faster than I was travelling. In the comprehensive Handbook for WMOC 2008 there is a section on Fair Play. In bold type it states:- “During the races athletes are forbidden to speak to each other.” This is a fundamental Rule of Fair Play in Orienteering (the Silent Forest) but the European orienteers just ignore Rules like that. Time and again Aussies would come in from their courses complaining about the people who had stopped them to ask where they were, or about those who were having animated conversations about the map and controls out in the terrain. I was approached many times. I helped some and ignored others.
major events and would certainly never happen in a World Championship. Well, I’m here to tell you that it does and it has. I was asked not to print an article suggesting the practices were widespread, so I didn’t. The practices are rife in major European events and World Masters Championships and instances were reported at the past two World Championships for Elites – at WOC2007 in Kiev, Ukraine, and at WOC2008 in Olomouc, Czech Republic. In the Ukraine last year it was reported that some competitors were being called in by control ‘watchers’. In Czech Republic this year an Irish woman reported being stopped by a Bulgarian woman asking where she was in the Long-Distance qualifying race. Then there is the mobile phone incident in the Start quarantine area at JWOC this year. These are clear instances of cheating. It’s high time the IOF initiated a crack-down on these and similar practices. Not only are these practices contrary to the principles of Fair Play but stopping someone in the forest is also harassment. It breaks your concentration and puts you off your navigation, particularly in complex terrain where it most often occurs. Here is some of what I wrote in 2006:
Quest for a SILENT FOREST The principle of the Silent Forest seems to be lost on a large number of orienteers, particularly Europeans, who have no hesitation in shouting out control numbers and the whereabouts of controls to their friends, harassing other orienteers by asking for directions, or even snatching maps from passing competitors. These practices, which are tantamount to foul play, happen in major championships, including the World Masters, as well as other minor events. Unless the IOF can put a stop to it, our wonderful sport will suffer in the clean and green comparisons with other sports. I saw these practices two years ago when I last competed in Europe and I saw them again this year. Helping people in minor events is fine by me, but these are World Championships. Two years ago I raised the issue with Orienteering Australia and with the International Orienteering Federation (IOF). I was told that it hardly ever happened in
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Australians who toured Europe (in 2006) were appalled at the lack of fair play they found at major Orienteering events. We knew of some of these practices from earlier visits to Australia by Europeans for events such as the World Masters in 2002. But this year (2006) it seems to have gotten worse. At major championship events competitors were harassed, their concentration distracted, by others demanding to know the
position of a nearby control or feature. In the 2006 World Masters Final your Editor was followed for a good 200 metres by a Scandinavian fellow asking for directions. He got short shrift. In a minor event helping other competitors, particularly children and newcomers, is perfectly OK. Every experienced orienteers should be passing on their knowledge and experience by helping others in minor events – it’s an essential exercise in coaching – but not in a World Championship event. In a championship event these practices are foul play. At the 2006 Swiss O Week, on Day 3 at Trockener Steg, one fellow stood on a hill in open, tree-less terrain with many small gullies, screaming out various control numbers and positions to his mates. This was not an isolated incident – it happened quite often. In the Sprint Prolog event at Swiss O Week the Elite men were lined up in four rows. One fellow at the back took off on the “get ready” signal, pushing past competitors in front of him. Nothing was done to stop him. In Athletics he would have been given a ‘break’ and disqualified.
Out under the shadow of the Matterhorn in 2006, one Australian woman was about to punch a control when she was distracted by a man in a gully below asking what number it was (he could have run up and looked himself !!). Her concentration was so broken that she ran off without punching and only realised when the download at the Finish told her she had missed that control. So she was disqualified simply because some fellow was too lazy to climb up to read the control number. If he could have been identified he should have been thrown out of the competition. Is that harassment ? – Yes ! Is it fair play ? – No ! And it’s the harassment aspect which is of greatest concern – particularly harassment of women orienteers. No-one likes to have their concentration broken so that they miss a control or head off in the wrong direction. Some women seem to be more susceptible to this kind of harassment and can feel quite intimidated. For others it is the break in concentration – loss of contact with the map and the terrain – which does most damage. Having people screaming out control numbers and control positions can be quite disconcerting and certainly disturbs one’s concentration. Being asked to show other competitors where they are also breaks one’s concentration. At the World Masters 2002 in Australia there were many instances of visiting European orienteers waiting at controls which were not on their particular course. When a competitor came in to punch the control the person waiting would attempt to snatch the map away to find out the location of the control. This same type of harassment is happening at major European events.
What is to be done? Let’s promote the principle of the SILENT FOREST and eradicate these unfair practices from all major events, from World Ranking Events right up to World Championships. The IOF must clamp down on these practices quickly and decisively. National federations should be told to devise and act upon procedures to ensure fair play is guaranteed in all championship and major events. Monitoring of fair play should be strict and effective – if it means placing referees in the terrain then do so. Those competitors who are caught flouting the rules should be told to play fair or get out of the sport. As it moves to create a higher profile for Orienteering amongst world sports, the IOF will have to work hard to demonstrate that fair play is an established principle in our sport and that it is guaranteed and strictly practised in all major events throughout the world. The principle of the SILENT FOREST would be a major step.
It shouldn’t be difficult to stamp out – orienteers are intelligent people and understand what is right and wrong. They just need to be told in no uncertain terms that asking for, or demanding in some cases, help when they are not sick or injured is illegal and risks certain disqualification in major events. The principle of the SILENT FOREST must be maintained. Many sports issue Red Cards for illegal misdemeanours. Orienteering doesn’t need to go that far … YET. Both the IOF General Secretary and the Senior Vice-President were asked how the IOF could ensure these illegal practices do not occur at major Championship events in the future. At time of printing no response had been received.
Why am I concerned? The principles of Fair Play are of paramount concern in all sports. Use of performance enhancing drugs gets wide coverage in the press, but there are many other ways some competitors try to get an advantage. So, in Cycling riders’ bicycles must be at least a minimum weight; in Triathlon there is a maximum thickness for wetsuit fabric; in Track & Field the reaction time of sprinters off the blocks is measured (too fast and you have jumped the gun); in Football players who commit foul tackles are given a yellow or red card. In Orienteering it is all about outside assistance - terrains for Championship events are embargoed, coaches are not allowed in the forest, competitors who have finished cannot talk to those waiting to start, and competitors must not be harrassed by others in the forest. So when is our sport going to properly enforce the rule of the SILENT FOREST ? SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 17
FA I R P L AY
Orienteering in Europe and Australia:
Drug Testing
Playing by Different Rules?
New Test Makes Cheating With Drugs in Sports Easier to Detect
Lisa Lampe (Uringa - NSW)
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n 2006 I participated in the World Masters Orienteering Championships, a Swiss National event, the Swiss 6 Days and the WOC Tour events in Denmark. This was my first experience of European orienteering. I enjoyed myself, and was impressed with the scale of the events and the generally good organisation. The forests were often fabulous! I believe Australia could benefit from emulating some of the sponsorship approaches and arrangements that are made overseas. But out on the courses I had to ask myself: are we playing by the same rules? In Australia it is uncommon to be asked by another competitor to show them whereabouts on the map they are. Although it does happen, it is usually by children or juniors and, occasionally on very difficult maps, by competitors who have genuinely little idea of where they are and where their next control is located. Admittedly these latter could relocate to a track or fence, but these are often some distance away. In Europe there was rarely a track more than 100-200m away, yet there was scarcely an event where I did not get approached at least once during the event by another competitor. At WMOC in Austria it seemed that asking others where you were was often a shortcut to the control to spare the competitor having to look for it, or to avoid having to make a small detour to relocate from a line feature. I have no objection at all to two or three lost souls pooling their resources to try to find a control, which you do see not infrequently both at home and abroad, but my objection is to being disturbed while proceeding on my course, by others who are not seriously lost, but just looking for a shortcut when they haven’t found the control immediately. Out in the forests there was constant calling by one competitor to another of control numbers they had found. This is facilitated by the fact that members of a particular orienteering club are often given start times close to each other to facilitate transport etc. for the club. At a Swiss event, two men ran past me, the man running behind calling to the man in front, ‘What number are you going to?’ The other replied, ‘75’, to which the first responded, ‘Then I will follow you’. It was not unusual to arrive within sight of your control and see another competitor standing there. They were waiting to see if you punched the control and if you did, they would then stop you and ask you to show them where your control is on your map. I even had a man ask me where he was in the park race through the streets and surrounds of Zermatt! The scale of the map was 1:4000 and a river ran prominently through the centre of the map – he would have been no more than 150m from an easy relocation from a bridge over the river at the point where he asked me! It’s a kind of harassment, this frequent interruption to your concentration. In my case it is possible that the interruption to my concentration in the Zermatt park race contributed to my unintentionally missing my next control. You can choose not to help the other competitor, but it still interrupts your concentration. Others told me of having their maps snatched from their hands by competitors staking out controls. And it’s insidious – when so many around you are asking for help, it begins to feel like an option when you’re stuck. I was never going to win or even place at these competitions, and my main motive was to enjoy myself, which I certainly did. But I couldn’t help wondering how many of the competitors who beat me into the A final of the Masters did so ‘with a little help from their friends’ rather than by their own efforts? At the end of the day I don’t think anyone becomes a great orienteer by asking where they are at the drop of a hat, and I’m sure that none of those who are asking for help are ever going to win. So does it really matter? Maybe this is a question for the IOF. In the meantime, I think Australia should pursue its policy of not allowing interruptions to other competitors by asking for assistance because firstly, it will make us all better navigators and, secondly, it is in the spirit of ‘fair play’ to allow your competitor to proceed and concentrate without interruption.
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Research news from Journal of Mass Spectrometry
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new mass spectrometry test can help sports anti-drug doping officials to detect whether an athlete has used drugs that boost naturally occurring steroid levels. The test is more sensitive compared to previous alternatives, more capable of revealing specific suspicious chemicals in the body, faster to perform, and could be run on standard drug-screening laboratory equipment. One of the roles of the masculinising hormone testosterone is to increase muscle size and strength. Taking extra testosterone, or taking a chemical that the body can use to create extra testosterone, could therefore enhance an athlete’s performance. For this reason taking it is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The exact level of testosterone varies considerably between different people, so simply measuring total testosterone in an athlete’s urine cannot show whether he or she has deliberately taken extra. There is, however, a second chemical in the body, epitestosterone, which is normally present in approximately equal proportions to testosterone. Comparing the ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone can then indicate whether testosterone or a precursor has been taken. The problem is that it is not always easy to measure these two substances, particularly as they are only present in urine at very low concentrations. A team of scientists the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory at the University of Utah have developed a test that makes use of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. This method has incredibly high sensitivity (down to 1 ng/ml) and increases the power with which officials can search for both testosterone and epitestosterone within a sample. “We can now determine the testosterone/ epitestosterone ratio in a sample with greater confidence, and therefore be in a better position to spot doping violations without falsely accusing innocent athletes,” says lead investigator Dr Jonathan Danaceau. “The test is more sensitive and is also faster to perform,” says colleague Scott Morrison. “This test makes cheating harder and lets us take one more step towards enabling free and fair competition,” says Laboratory Director Dr Matthew Slawson. The new test is announced in a special issue of the Journal of Mass Spectrometry that concentrates on detecting drugs in sports.
I N T E R N AT I O N A L R O U N D - U P
The Trewin Report International traveller, Blair Trewin, brings you news of some Aussie performances overseas this (northern) summer. Jukola Relays 2008 The Jukola (for men) and Venla (for women) Relays, held in Finland each June, are one of the highlights of the international orienteering calendar. More than 1400 sevenman teams contested Jukola, which runs through the night, whilst more than 800 four-woman teams raced in the Venla Relay the previous afternoon. The 2008 event, which was held north of Tampere, saw an allAustralian Jukola team for the first time (there have been two teams in the past which included six Australians and one New Zealander). The team was a mixture of seasoned veterans and juniors in the lead-up to JWOC in Sweden. Warren Key led off, before being followed on the night legs (night doesn’t last very long in Finland in June) by Kerrin Rattray and Jim Russell. Three juniors then followed, Oliver Mitchell, Nick Andrewartha and Leon Keely, before Blair Trewin brought the team home on the long last leg. The team’s aim was to reach the top 200. They were around 300th for much of the first half of the event, but made progress in the second half, particularly after an excellent sixth leg by Leon Keely. They reached 225th halfway through the final leg before ultimately finishing 230th. Delta, from Finland, won after a strong final leg from Valentin Novikov, while the Venla relay was won by Sweden’s Domnarvets GoIF after a fast finish from Dana Brozkova, who was to win gold at the World Championships the following month. As usual, several other Australians ran in Jukola and Venla for Scandinavian clubs. Julian Dent ran first leg for Malungs OK, who eventually finished 24th, just ahead of Dave Shepherd’s Göteborg-Majorna OK who were 26th. Other excellent runs by Australians included those of Jo Allison for Göteborg-Majorna OK, and Murray Scown for Norway’s Ås-UMB.
World Cup roundup The 2008 World Cup rounds, in addition to the World Championships, has featured the European Championships in Latvia, O-Festival in Norway and O-Ringen in Sweden. Australia has been represented at all of these rounds, with four men and two women taking the field in Norway and a lesser presence at the other two events. Grace Elson, who reached all three finals at the European Championships in addition to her WOC results, is the leading Australian in the standings at present, in 44th position. She is closely followed in 47th by Jo Allison, who achieved the best individual Australian result of the series outside WOC, 20th in the Middle-distance in Norway, whilst Kathryn Ewels is 62nd on the back of her good WOC results despite not contesting any other rounds. Julian Dent, with places in the thirties in Norway and Sweden, and Dave Shepherd were the others to score points in the mid-year races, although Jasmine Neve missed out on her first World Cup points by the narrowest possible margin when she was 41st in the Middle-distance in Sweden. The Swedish races, which included a Sprint in front of a crowd of more than 5,000, also gave Kirsten Fairfax the opportunity to represent Australia for the first time at this level.
Jasmine Neve at the World Cup round held in conjunction with O-Ringen in Sweden. Photo: Paul Prudhoe
Two rounds of the World Cup remain, in Switzerland in early October. Anne Margrethe Hausken (Norway), who dominated the early rounds, already has an unbeatable position in the women’s series, whilst Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland) has a useful but not yet decisive lead over Thierry Gueorgiou (France) ahead of the final rounds.
World University Championships – two top-20 results for Jasmine Neve An Australian team of three men and three women contested the World University Championships in Estonia at the end of July. Whilst the event does not have the status it enjoyed in the days before annual World Championships, the 2008 event saw the strongest field for some years, with numerous WOC representatives making the trip, despite it coming at the end of a long period of racing which included WOC and the World Cup at O-Ringen. The best Australian results came from Jasmine Neve, who was 19th in both the Sprint and Middle-distance events. Rachel Effeney also performed well in the Sprint, coming in just behind Jasmine in 23rd position, and was the best Australian in the Long-distance in 40th place. The best result from the men’s team was Murray Scown’s 48th in the Longdistance. The star of the event was Finland’s Bodil Holmström, who had missed the World Championships despite a 7th place at the European Championships. In Estonia she won gold in both the Middle-distance and Long-distance events, with the latter coming by a margin of more than five minutes in a field which included world champion Dana Brozkova. There was more joy for the Czechs in the men’s events, where Tomas Dlabaja and Michal Smola took the Sprint and Long-distance events, while Sander Vaher gave the hosts a win in the Middle-distance. Seline Stalder of Switzerland won the women’s Sprint. SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 19
A C T S P O R T S H A L L O F FA M E
On August 1st 2008, David Hogg was inducted into the ACT Sports Hall of Fame. The citation for his induction is reproduced below. On behalf of all Australian orienteers, congratulations to David on this achievement.
INDUCTEE David Hogg, Orienteering
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he ACT is considered as a powerhouse of Orienteering in Australia. Much of the success enjoyed by Australia, internationally and in the ACT, locally and nationally is due to the vision, enthusiasm and energy of David Hogg. David competed in Australia’s first recognised Orienteering event near Melbourne in August 1969 and has been strongly involved ever since for over 38 years. In 1970 David was involved in the establishment of the Victorian Orienteering Association and the Orienteering Federation of Australia, which would go on to become Orienteering Australia. He was elected as the inaugural president of both bodies. In 1971 he moved to Canberra and took it upon himself to establish Orienteering in the ACT. On the 16th May 1971 David organised the first official Orienteering event in the ACT at Black Mountain. Following this more events were organised around Canberra and David would go on to be an integral part of the forming of the ACT Orienteering Association which would later become Orienteering ACT. David was elected the inaugural president. During his time as an Orienteering official and administrator he has held many positions on national and local boards and was also involved in key supporting committees such as mapping, regulations, development and promotion.
David’s positions and achievements include the following: • 1 970-72 National President and also in 1975-76. • ACT President 1971-1973 and again in 1982-84. • 1 971 produced map and planned courses for first event in the ACT. • 1 971 produced map and planned courses for first ACT Championships at Murrays Corner. • 1 974 produced new colour map of Murrays Corner and planned courses for Australian Championships, the first held in the ACT. • 1973-1974 National Board – Technical member. • 1974-1981 ACT Mapping Officer. • 1 980 instigator, organiser, mapper and course planner for the 1980 Pacific Orienteering Championships staged in the ACT, the inaugural event which went on to become the biennial Asia Pacific Orienteering Championships. • 1 985 Technical coordinator of the World Orienteering Championships, Bendigo. • 1986-1997 Editor of The Australian Orienteer. • 1989-2001 ACT Board member. • I n the late 1980s David developed the ACT Junior Program staged on Saturday mornings. This program has been the entry point for many who have gone on to represent Australia at both junior and senior World Championships. • 1991-1996 National Promotion and Development Officer. • 2000 IOF Event Adviser for World Cup races in Japan. • 2 002 wrote the first national syllabus (Level 1) for the accreditation of Orienteering officials under the National Officiating Accreditation Scheme. David took a step back in 2002 and his son Andy is following in his footsteps and has become a Director on the National Board. David still competes regularly and provides a valuable service for Orienteering ACT as liaison officer with landholders. He is one of only three Australians with the highest level of accreditation as an international official Senior IOF Event Adviser, this level being required to oversee the staging of World Championships, and he is a member of the IOF Environment Commission.
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N AT I O N A L S P O R T S M U S E U M
Established at the MCG in Melbourne with a $25million grant from the Federal Government, the National Sports Museum opened on March 12th this year. To quote from the Visitor Guide – “A sporting moment happens once. Never to be repeated. A split second in time, captured forever. They live in the minds of the people: who competed, who were there, and who pass their stories from generation to generation. They shape our collective view of ourselves, and our country. They become a blueprint for what we value and an inspiration for all.” The National Sports Museum showcases more that 2,500 objects related to the greatest moments in Australia’s sporting history. The Museum seeks to capture the spirit of Australian sporting life and relive the moments that have shaped Australia’s rich sporting traditions. Orienteering is represented in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Roll of Honour where Tom Andrews is honoured. Tom was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992 for his administrative contribution to sport in founding the Orienteering Federation of Australia in 1972, serving as Chair of the International Orienteering Federation Promotion & Development Committee (1980 – ’82) and for being a driving force behind the successful bid by Australia to host the 1985 World Orienteering Championships.
Olympians going to the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris also wore baggy green caps? In the Olympic Gallery there’s the original 1956 Olympic Flame cauldron lit by Ron Clarke at the MCG. The cauldron was lost and forgotten for 30 years before it was found languishing in a council storage depot. There’s film of Betty Cuthbert’s triumphs at the 1956 Games and of Julius (Judy) Patching, in his orange Chief Starter’s coat, holding the gun to start the marathon. Right beside the screen hangs that orange coat. Ian Thorpe’s black swimsuit is there and so is Cathy Freeman’s sleek multi-coloured suit. There are many Olympic medals on display, including the medals and wreaths awarded to Edwin Flack, Australia’s first Olympian. Naturally, AFL has a significant presence. Displays show the many changes in clubs’ playing uniforms over the years, and that Alex Jesaulenko mark over Collingwood’s ‘Jerker’ Jenkins is featured in a larger than life sculpture. And there’s film of the 1909 Grand Final in which South Melbourne beat Carlton by 2 points. Other sports are well represented too – the two Rugbys, Netball, Hockey, Cycling, Boxing, Basketball, Tennis, Golf, Soccer (aka Football), etc, etc. And, if you happen to visit on a Monday you may find your Editor on duty as a volunteer.
Tom also started the Red Kangaroos club in Victoria (whose offshoot clubs include Red Roos (ACT) and Red Kiwis (NZ)). Of course, it’s not just Orienteering which will attract you. In the Cricket Gallery there’s the largest collection of baggy green caps ever seen. And did you know that our SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER
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J U N I O R W O R L D O R I E N T E E R I N G C H A M P I O N S H I P S – G OT E B U R G, S W E D E N
Testing Times and Experience for our Young Juniors
Hilary Wood – Team Leader
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he Australian Junior Team this year was remarkable in two ways: The first was the number of Queensland representatives - 5 in total; and the second was the number of young team members - 7 team members are eligible and have the opportunity to be selected for 2009. This needs to be kept in perspective when reviewing the performance of this team and looking towards future JWOCs. The leadership team looked to this year’s team for performances and to provide them with experience in very unfamiliar terrain. Glacial orienteering terrain is very rare in Australia and so the week’s training camp prior to the competition was all our team had to adapt to this terrain. Some had come over early and gone to the Jukola Relays in Finland and also taken advantage of Australian elite runners, Dave Shepherd’s and Jo Allison’s advice and training in the week leading into the official training camp. Laurina Neumann was the only member who had visited Sweden last year and trained in the Goteburg area. Features of maps in this region are large areas of marsh and swamp in forest and a lot of contour detail featuring rock and bare rock which may be mapped as either yellow or using contour detail to delineate it. The maps also tend to have a lot of features on them making the task of reading the maps challenging, to say the least. Competitors need to take in lots of information as they run along and also know which details are relevant to take heed of rather than trying to read everything. We are happy to say the team rose to the occasion and was able to adapt reasonably well given their limited training opportunities. The team was also plagued with some unfortunate issues in preparation. Bryan Keely was forced to withdraw in early June due to a diagnosed stress fracture requiring plaster and crutches. As he was one of the top performers in the selection trials this was a particularly severe blow to the strength of this year’s boy’s team. Fortunately Geoff Stacey was able to make last minute arrangements to join the team and flew into Goteborg on the first day of the training camp. He came to support the team in the Relay and did not disappoint in this race being the best performing Australian male. Oliver Mitchell’s preparation was interrupted by a knee injury which required surgery in May and so his fitness was not what he desired. He tried very hard to do some last minute training at Jukola and also was able to take advantage of the week before the training camp to put in some extra yards. The team enjoyed staying in a typical Swedish Orienteering clubhouse just south of Goteborg. Access to a map was 22 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Oscar Phillips feeling the hustle and bustle of the Relay start. Photo: John Anderson
right on the doorstep and regular training was to be had in the surrounding forest on a variety of map scales. Training concentrated on familiarisation with the terrain and running in the softer terrain which resembles running through sand dunes but is wetter underfoot. The Goteborg region has lots of rocky outcrops and these varied in how they were mapped - some as bare rock and others just as contours and yellow with some high points. To develop team harmony and spirit groups were allocated for cooking meals and shopping trips. The team had some fun going into the city centre to do some sightseeing and the boys chose to go to the movies on the day leading into the competition. The event centre for JWOC was in an Army camp and had security on the gate which was interesting for the first few trips in and out. The Australian Team shared a floor with the Danish Team and we had access to a kitchen and lounge with a TV in it. The teams checked each other out in the dining hall and much fun was had in talking about others. Food had to be supplemented as is quite usual with some people not enjoying some of the Swedish army cuisine. The team enjoyed running around the camp on a small map of the area which featured some typical Swedish terrain and resident deer. The competitions were held in close proximity to Goteborg and so travel time was much less than usual and made for a more relaxing feel to the competition days. The Swedish organisation was very casual - competitors were able to retain their maps after finishing their course though the start and finish were separated on each day. Unfortunately for spectators it was a pretty bland affair even though we were fortunate to have a large contingent of Aussie supporters in the form of parents and friends of team members. No spectator controls were at any of the events and the IOF Liebnitz Convention was generally ignored by the Swedish organisers. On the plus side the courses were technically challenging and excellently designed and the team enjoyed the challenges they presented even though many were not happy with their performances. We have a young group of very enthusiastic orienteers to consider for selection next year for JWOC in Italy. Sample maps show they will need to do some hill training for the steep slopes in the north of Italy.
Monday 30th June – Sprint Final This year’s Sprint was in a mixed urban area with residential apartments surrounded by open parkland and interspersed with patches of typical Swedish glacial terrain. Apartment blocks in various formations: squares and interlocking L shapes made decision making hard in picking the fastest route as the red line invariably went through a number of buildings. Some creditable performances were shown in the Sprint race from the young members of the team; Lachlan Dow being the best of the Aussie boys and Bridget Anderson showing improvement as the best of the Aussie girls. Belinda Lawford again showed her promise being only seconds behind Bridget Anderson. Krystal Neumann held herself back to maintain contact with her map and was a little afraid to “go for it all out”. We are sure that with experience and building confidence she will improve in the next races. Rachel Effeney was about half a minute behind Belinda and unable to keep the pace up for the entire length of the course. Aislinn Prendergast got a little stumped in the circle at the 4th control in the first bit of forest – trying to pick the difference between the bare rock, rock face and a boulder - this cost her at least a minute, a long time in a Sprint race. This can be a common confusion as these features, although they sound distinct, can blend together in the heat of the moment. She was unhappy with her result. In the boy’s Lachy Dow showed us his promise and finished within 2min 30secs of the winner when the challenge was to finish within 2mins of the winner for this young first-timer. Nick Andrewartha ran most legs well but is cursing himself for missing the 7th control with a brain fade and the forest terrain taking him south and not south-east as was needed. Oscar Phillips ran steadily for the main part with a couple of offline diversions at 78 and 13-14; otherwise safe and sure with his route choices. Geoff Stacey put in a solid navigational run however admitted he just didn’t run fast enough and perhaps chose less swift route choices on some legs. Oliver Mitchell was also solid navigationally but he too needed to run faster and was still recovering from a cold from Jukola. Unfortunately equipment failures of one kind or another plagued Laurina Neumann and Leon Keely. Laurina failing to take her bib number and top to the start after going over this procedure many times beforehand and thus unable to start in the race, despite last ditch efforts by the manager and Laurina. She was pretty devastated and upset about this and vowed to ensure all her equipment would be with her next time. The difficulty lay in the fact that the bibs have a chip identifying the runner and time in them this year making it essential for the runners to ensure they are attached firmly to their racing tops with eight pins! Leon started the race well and was running well however a slight fall on a rock saw his compass disintegrate in his hand and then he had to navigate by map features without a compass. As a substantial part of the Sprint was in forest this made the next leg tricky and slow for Leon as he was drawn south off his line by forest and buildings. He regathered himself for the next legs but had to take safe and sure track routes when forest routes may have proved shorter and faster with a compass. As mentioned before many JWOC’ers this year had family watching and they were second only to the Danes in spirit in the finish area raising encouraging cheers for our runners as they ran into the sports arena and around the finish chute.
Wednesday 2nd July – Middle-distance Qualification One bright spot for the Aussies was Bridget Anderson’s race to finish in 9th place in her qualification heat ensuring her a spot in
the A final. The race finished in the Hogsbro Pistol range which was full of nettles except where they had mowed around the finish area and nation tents. The map is a remap of an old area with a different mapping style from the previous mapper making it barely recognisable from the pre-race competition map. Some sad and sorry stories again plagued some of the team’s results. Oliver Mitchell was the best of the Aussies boys, managing to make the B final, but regretted his lack of fitness due to a stunted preparation with a knee injury earlier in the year. Lachlan Dow was very disappointed in his race as he misread 11 to 12 as 12 to 13. The boy’s team morale was a little low after this race with the young ones finding it a bit tough. Leon Keely and Nick Andrewartha both had a couple of bad legs costing them valuable time in the race. Geoff Stacey and Oscar Phillips also struggled to find competitive race times but had better races technically than Leon and Nick. Laurina Neumann was a little unlucky to be in a faster qualifying heat missing out by two places - if she had run the same time in a different heat she would have qualified. Krystal Neumann and Aislinn Prendergast were also within reach but just a little too slow to qualify. Belinda Lawford failed to be careful enough in reading her control numbers, looking for 36 and finding 46 in a parallel error. Rachel Effeney also found the green and technical terrain a challenge. The girls were a little disappointed and hoped to have good runs later in the week to restore some confidence in their orienteering ability. Competition pressure gets to the best of them and the experience will help them to understand what is required for the future. Coaching advice has been to go out, have fun and enjoy the challenge in the finals.
Thursday 3rd July 2008 – Middle-distance Finals Bridget Anderson had a very good race in the A finals at Hogsbro. Finishing 28th in a very competitive field of 60 competitors is a promising result for 2009 in Italy where Bridget is going to work towards a podium finish. The terrain was rough and tough with open clear and bare rock on the ridges interspersed with complex gullies and tiny marshes in the green. Picking your route was one challenge and then being able to approach the circle and read within the circle accurately and quickly was the next challenge. Bridget was able to do both reasonably well. Nick Andrewartha and Rachel Effeney were able to clear some ‘demons’ from the previous day to come up with better runs in their races. Nick finished 4th in his C final but knows where he lost time on the 6th and 12th controls. Oliver Mitchell had a steady run finishing 8min 41sec behind the winner in the B final. Aislinn Prendergast and Oscar Phillips showed potential with some fast splits but still made costly mistakes on some controls. The Middle-distance race is about accurate sharp navigation and minimising mistakes. This terrain is unforgiving and when one loses contact with where one is it is very costly in terms of relocating - a couple of the Aussies have found this out. Leon Keely and Laurina Neumann struggled in this complex terrain.
Saturday 5th July 2008 – Long-distance Finals Laurina Neumann came good in the Long-distance race with a 25th place and a very good run after spending time talking with her parents on Skype the night before her race and clearing her head. This was the race she was keenest to perform well in and her determination shone through with a solid performance. Leon Keely showed his potential with a reasonable time for his first JWOC only to take a drink on the butterfly loop and then fail to punch the control and was thus disqualified from the results. His fast running and good navigation in challenging terrain will SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 23
JWOC stand him well for future JWOC’s. Nick Andrewartha showed he was the best performing Australian male junior but was 23mins behind the winner. Nick will need to work hard if he wishes to be competitive in the senior elite classes next year. The top spots were closely contested with just seconds separating the first five places. The steep terrain of the Partille-Gunillise area and its rocky crags interspersed with marshy areas with vague contour detail tested the best of them. The Long-distance race is a tough race physically and mentally requiring very high levels of physical endurance and also very good concentration for a long time. Oscar Phillips, Lachlan Dow and Oliver Mitchell were each in the early hundreds and found the experience tough but educational and now know how challenging this race is if one wants to be competitive.
Geoff Stacey Photo: Hilary Wood
Oscar Phillips Photo: Hilary Wood
Sunday 6th July 2008 – Relay Races The Relay teams were largely determined by the team members’ performances in the Long-distance and Middle-distance races. Some discussion about having a younger relay team and an older one was set aside after Nick Andrewartha was the best performing Aussie boy. Again the terrain was tough, vague contour detail and rough underfoot which had the potential to lead one off-line. In the girls’ teams Laurina Neumann led out on the first leg and unfortunately made a big error and cost the team severely. Rachel Effeney had a solid race and beat Laurina back. Bridget Anderson was second leg runner and gave a reasonable result for Aislinn Prendergast to give her best effort as last leg runner in Australia 1; however this was not good enough to beat the Australia 2 team of Rachel Effeney, Krystal Neumann and Belinda Lawford.
Leon Keely Photo: Hilary Wood
Krystal Neumann Photo: Hilary Wood
In the boys Geoff Stacey had his best run of the week to bring the second boys team home. Leon Keely had an excellent first leg finishing in 12th fastest on his course.
General organisational comment The model event was really just an extra training day as it modelled very little of the championship area. The map was not printed by offset and the area did not have proper controls out with numbers on them. The rules stated that sport drinks and water stations would be demonstrated – there were none. There were some unhappy team leaders about with regard to some of the technical omissions by the organisation for this year’s JWOC in Sweden. The team leaders meetings consisted of basic questions around information which should have been clearly stated in the Bulletin and they ended with the organisers scurrying off to fix some problem that arose as a result. For example the start list for the Sprint had to redone and was not ready for the team leaders meeting beforehand. Leaders had to wait for the start list for the qualification to be given out and the numbers as stated in the bulletin were completely wrong - the bus times also had to be readjusted. Organisationally this JWOC was not very good compared to the superb job done last year by Australia. We have found this extremely surprising given the status Sweden has in the Orienteering world and are very disappointed in this aspect of the Championships.
24 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Laurina Neumann Photo: Hilary Wood
Rachel at last control in the Sprint Photo: John Anderson
Team huddle. Photo: John Anderson
Nick makes a point Photo: John Anderson
Lachlan and Geoff changeover in the Relay Photo: John Anderson Rachel with a fan at last control. Photo: John Anderson
Bridget Anderson negotiating the steep forest exit in the Middle Distance final. Photo: John Anderson
Belinda powers in to the Sprint finish. Photo: John Anderson
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 25
SPORT PSYCHOLOGY
Orienteering and the Psychology of Happiness Lisa Lampe
Recently, psychologists and psychiatrists rediscovered happiness. No, it wasn’t that we’d all been miserable for years, but a large proportion of our day-to-day work was dealing with miserableness, of all shades and hues. It can lead to a kind of tunnel vision. We became totally focused on alleviating depression. Then a few psychologists started to ask, shouldn’t we be aiming for happiness, rather than just “not being depressed”?
P
erhaps the most famous psychologist to do the turnaround, both personally and professionally, is Martin Seligman. Seligman began his career by studying how people got depressed and stayed that way (he coined the phrase “learned helplessness”). In his more recent book, “Authentic Happiness”, he describes how he came to realise that he himself had a habitually negative outlook and decided it was time to change. This new science of happiness is called “positive psychology”. The message, supported by science, is that we can cultivate an authentic, lasting happiness, if we’re prepared to put in a little work. Research has identified a number of strategies that can lead to greater long term happiness. These include: • Plan for happiness • Identify goals and plan to achieve them • Develop your ability to appreciate the positives in your life, past and present • Train yourself to be realistically optimistic • Live in the moment, focus on the present • Identify your personality strengths and actively use them • Develop your intimate and social relationships • Live a healthy, active lifestyle • Engage in altruistic acts • Act in accordance with your moral standards • Do things you love and create “flow” So, how can Orienteering make you happy? A closer look at the list above reveals that the sport of Orienteering encompasses a large number of these strategies. For many of us, Orienteering is a passion, and for others hopefully at least a pleasure. Even for those who go only to keep a partner company, there is the act of love and altruism in supporting someone you love doing something they love! When we are orienteering well we will experience that sense of “flow” that comes from being totally in 26 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
the moment, totally absorbed by an activity. Clearly, Orienteering offers healthy physical activity, which in turn can promote good quality sleep and assist with weight control, all parts of a healthy lifestyle. For me, Orienteering also provides the motivation to get out and be active during the week to try to maintain or – in my dreams! – improve my fitness. Orienteering is also a satisfying social activity. It is one we can share with the family, and it provides an opportunity to see our friends – many of whom we may not even have met were it not for Orienteering. For those who volunteer to help with events, there is the engagement with altruism – and for those who haven’t yet volunteered, a good reason to do so! So Orienteering nicely addresses a good chunk of the strategies that can increase our happiness in life. How can you address the rest? Planning is important for a start. We can’t rely on happiness just falling into our lap! You probably have a good idea of the things that put you in a happy and positive mood. Do you plan to include more of these things, or just hope they’ll happen? It’s also important to think about your goals in life more generally. Most of us probably spend more time planning our route on a score course than we do planning our life. Take a little time out and think …What would your ideal life be like? We need to guard against setting the bar too low just because we think we mightn’t achieve a lofty goal. So many times we just don’t try something at all because we’re frightened we wouldn’t cope with disappointment or failure. A partial success can be surprisingly satisfying and sure beats the total failure (and demoralization) of not even trying. Can you learn to be more optimistic? Seligman and others would argue a resounding “Yes!” You can cultivate mental strategies that can be used to help see the bright side, focus more on the positives and choose to be less upset by disappointments. Helpful
reading includes Sarah Edelman’s book “Change the Way You Think”, and Seligman’s book (above). You can train yourself to become more aware of positives in your life. Many people unconsciously develop the habit of focusing on the negatives, and perhaps this is contributed to by prevailing cultural attitudes: after all, we all love to whinge and the media are full of “bad news stories”. Like that column in The Sydney Morning Herald, “Heckler” – would you read it if it was called “Applauder”? Whingeing can become a habit! Tim Sharp, a clinical psychologist, author of “The Happiness Handbook”, and “Chief Happiness Officer” of The Happiness Institute in Sydney, described research that shows that actively focusing on the positives in your life every day for six weeks can cause an increase in happiness for the next six months. Thinking more about core strengths is also recommended. When we do something we’re good at, we feel good. Similarly, when we actively exercise our character strengths – things like honesty, fairness, kindness, loyalty, perseverance, courage, perspective, leadership, enthusiasm, humour, appreciation of beauty, and capacity for analysis – we feel good. Note that we need to actively exercise these strengths: it’s the decision to act in a particular way (e.g. choosing to exercise our generosity by pitching in and helping), as opposed to remaining a passive observer, that makes us feel good. Seligman has a quiz you can take to identify your own inner strengths – it’s at www.authentichappiness.org. Professor Seligman recommends exercising your strengths every day!
attending to the present moment, without judgment. Noticing things as they are, being aware of all the sensory information available to us, but not seeking to change the experience, and trying to refrain from judging it, for example, as good or bad. Mindfulness practices are usually based on the meditation techniques of Vipassana Buddhism, but you don’t have to be a Buddhist to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness can be practiced in many ways – from just “paying attention” to something you’re already doing, like brushing your teeth or having a shower, to more formal practices such as focusing on the breath or bodily sensations. Mindfulness strategies are easy to learn – not so easy to master, but it’s the practice that’s important! Such practices can result in a greater sense of wellbeing for anyone who chooses to practice them, as well as being helpful in conditions such as chronic pain, chronic illness, and depression. Mindfulness practice can also help you to attend better to your work or study and, importantly, to those you love. You can learn more about mindfulness based stress reduction at www.openground.com.au. So there you have it in a nutshell – how Orienteering can be not just a great hobby, but an important part of your happiness plan! Dr. Lisa Lampe is a consultant psychiatrist and senior lecturer in psychological medicine at the University of Sydney.
A strategy to help with the ability to focus on the moment can be found in the various mindfulness approaches. “Mindfulness” is a hot topic in psychology these days. Jon Kabat-Zinn was one of the first to apply mindfulness strategies to problems of stress, pain and chronic illness (e.g. see “Full Catastrophe Living” or “Wherever You Go, There You Are”). He defines mindfulness as actively SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 27
INTERVIEW
Tania Robinson Mick Finn, Editor of New Zealand Orienteering magazine, interviews one of the stars of New Zealand orienteering – Tania Robinson. (reprinted with permission from New Zealand Orienteering magazine).
Tania, congratulations on your stellar career, encompassing many years and great performances at 11 world championships and world cups. And numerous National titles at all distances! Before we get into talking about the big races can you tell us how you got started and when you knew that orienteering was “the sport” for you? I’m guessing that your parents had something to do with it, but maybe not... Well it all started when I was 6yrs old and Mum and Dad set off into the forest on their Orienteering event and left me at the finish area with a bit of pocket money for some lollies (it was normal to leave your kids by themselves back then). So I guess I thought I was missing out and I couldn’t wait for them to get back from their runs to take me around a course so I entered myself and trotted off into the forest. I must say my Mum did get a bit of a shock when she met me in the middle of the forest yelling out ‘HI MUMMY, I’M ORIENTEERING BY MYSELF’. But she left me to it ...I figured it out and made it home and so from then on I had the earned the right to orienteering course freedom. And, in the early days of your Orienteering career was there any advice that you took to heart and still remember? I remember very early on I went and watched the World Champs in Australia. I was about 11 years old and all the Swedes who won had short spikes (haircut), so I came home and got my hair chopped off. This proved to be a bit of a bad move as when I lined up for the Auckland Secondary School 1500 metres they told me...’the boys race is next sonny’. I went on to win by the home straight length. Apparently the magic training formula is 2x7x365 but I can’t say I have ever had the motivation to try that theory out. All I can advise is that you be really honest with yourself and work on that one weakness that always nabs you. Mine is compass work and a bit of ‘crowd screaming at you anxiety’ that you get in the big races overseas. I noticed the Finnish coach runs out in the forest with a load hailer during some training sessions screaming at his athletes...maybe more of that would be good. Looking back, is there anything you might have done differently or you would advise someone else to do differently? Perhaps some aspect of big race preparation/ peaking for the Worlds/getting mentally prepared etc? Physically I think I have been pretty good. Mum and Dad are from a Lydiard background so I have always had a great little training program that allowed me peak just in time for World Champs. I guess it would have been nice to try the pro athlete thing that some of the overseas runners do, but I have an amazing job. It’s taken me all over the world where orienteering hasn’t, and allowed me compete against the world in another field. We even win sometimes. I wouldn’t want to trade this side of my life for anything. I also have a little man in my life that helps keep me sane and busy. I’m quite happy that I have kept a really good balance in my life but I’m positive if you really want to achieve at the very top level you really have to be willing to focus on the one goal...
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you and your mission. I know that when I asked Mum to train me to get on the dais at the World Juniors and she said sure, I had that kind of focus and it worked well enough (I got 5th). But it’s pretty intense and somewhere along the way I realised this kind of focus really wasn’t for me. So I have a lot of respect for people who take this path. Where do you think your strengths are? Something that you would have liked to have done better? My strength is I think I can orienteer as good as anyone. I think the couple of weeks of Orienteering training alongside any of the big teams (Norway - thanks Egil, Sweden, Finland, France, Britain) just before WOC each year does a world of good. I just wish we could pop over to all the training camps they have pre WOC and do all the World Cup races. If anyone has been hiding a private jet and a gold mine, sing out. But seriously we can do heaps from home. For a start we need a National Coach! It is absurd that we don’t have one...the efforts of the National coaches I have had along the way were huge and that is really missed. Another thing that bugs me is that we don’t fill our JWOC teams...the sport needs the stories and adventures of these guys. One of my good ‘O’ friends (Fleming Norgard), actually invented JWOC and even though it has become a fierce competition he wanted it to be a place where like minded youngsters from around the world could get together and hopefully be encouraged to stay in the sport and be dedicated elite athletes. I lived with them for a while so I got to fully appreciate his thoughts. In my experience it is often the support of those 5th/6th members of the team that provide the fun aspect of a trip and take a bit of the nerves out of this international experience. Looking back at some of your races, are there any that you would call “perfect runs”? Perfect runs are weird things....because I think you can sometimes come to the finish and think it was alright and it was a ripper, or think it was a ripper and it was just alright. I had a really nice run on Rabbit Island Nationals in Nelson where I kicked all the Junior guys butts...that was a fairly nice moment. Also finishing 2nd in my Qualification race in the middle in Denmark.....that was a pretty good one to. There was also this race I had in the snow which was actually the Danish trials for the Nordic Champs. I had a perfect run and beat them all by 5 minutes. They thought I must have cheated but I was just really cold and had been a full time athlete for 3 weeks and had done everything on Mum’s training program for a change. Any races that were close to perfect? Is there an extra factor such as luck, that plays a major part or is that irrelevant? No such thing as luck in Orienteering. Actually like Dave Melrose says, ‘the bigger the event the more you have to play it like a tennis match’. The more the nerves come on the more you have to have set strokes and you just have to play the same stroke over and over and it’s the one with the least amount of errors that wins. The only problem is your tennis
match is played on a surface you have maybe never seen before and you can’t see your opponent. Any particular races or events that stand out? Something that you’ll always remember with a rush of adrenaline? Anyone you’ve met that made a big impact? Well there was the moment I came out into a clearing and had a whopping big moose standing in front of me. I figured they can’t be that different to horses so I just walked up to it going ‘here Moosie, Moosie’. It sniffed my hand and ran off. In hindsight I realise this wasn’t the brightest thing to do. The Norwegians I was training with said I was lucky it didn’t kill me. When they see them they run the other way very quickly. More Norway; running in the mist over stuff that made you bounce in the air (mountain mingi mingi?) or stopping on course to scoff down a load of blueberries. Actually one event that sticks out is when I ran for Denmark in a World Cup (their second relay team because we didn’t have one). I got out onto the map and whizzed through the first couple of controls, not with anyone because I was on the last leg. But then I hit these tracks and ditches, I got totally confused. I didn’t want to give up because I’d let the team down, but when I finally did skulk back in during prize giving and explained my problems with the map, the coach apologised and said he had explained all that in Danish to the rest.... bugger I should have learnt more languages. Knowing the top competitors over the years, such as Simone, and how they train and prepare, do you think it’s necessary to compete overseas to be on level terms? Simone is an amazing athlete. I think she is probably the best female orienteer there has ever been. I have been beside her when she has made a mistake though, so its good to know she’s human. I think it would help to run in more big races but New Zealand has the perfect training environment to produce champions. Look at all the champions that have come down here to train. I wish we had more major events on our half of the world. I don’t think the IOF and the Scandi’s quite realise the extra effort we have to make to get to the world champs every year. They sort of take us for granted a little in that way. I had the coach of the Finnish team explain that they would of course be staying in the A accommodation for the World Championships, and when I said we would too if we didn’t have to pay the $2500 to get to this side of the world he was quite quiet. What steps would you advise for young competitors here in NZ to get to the top level? What can the rest of us do to help? Please forgive us elites if we seem a little distant or unhelpful at times as it is quite hard to fit in all that’s required to get to competing at WOC and fit our life around it. If we do all the internal races we are often too broke to go to the big events and vice versa. And we can only stretch our resources so far. But what you can be hopeful about, is that orienteering is a sport for life, and as things get a little less hectic we will be the ones stepping up to dig the toilets. SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 29
NUTRITION
Overweight, obesity and orienteers – are we affected too? Gillian Woodward
T
he media is constantly full of these first two words starting with ‘O’ lately – particularly in relation to young people in Australia. Are orienteers (another ‘O’ word) free of this problem? I doubt it. Why is it increasing so rapidly into an overwhelming epidemic? It is due to a number of factors, including: 1. Increased availability of energy dense foods and drinks, aggressively marketed to children; 2. Increased viewing time of small screens by young people today (TV, videos, DVD’s computers, electronic games etc.); 3. Lack of physical activity. Now you might think that Number 3 does not apply to orienteers, but how many of our juniors do at least 60 minutes a day (every day) of physical activity which makes them puff. Whether it is training for Orienteering like running, or playing an energetic team game like hockey, football or netball, these are all good energy requiring activities, but they are not usually performed on a daily basis. And that is what kids need to counteract their sedentary lifestyles – sitting on transport, sitting at school, sitting in cars and sitting in front of screens. It all adds up to a lot of ‘sitting time’ in 24 hours! Maybe with their active play in the school ground during primary years, they might do enough, but particularly when they reach high school age, their activity levels plummet to a low level unless they are exceedingly well motivated. What can we do? So what can we do about this obesity epidemic apart from getting our young people moving more? Look at Number 2 on the list and limit ‘screen time’ to no more than 2 hours daily. That is what has been recommended by childhood obesity experts. Impossible you say? Not if you are determined to make change. Start by being a role model to your kids and limit your own viewing time. Think of other more active things they can do after school – buy a skipping rope, a soccer ball to kick around the yard or a basket ball hoop. Ask them to walk the dog or ride their bike to the shops for an errand. Make their pocket money dependent on some activity-involving tasks. What about the food side? Have a look in your pantry and see how many of the foods/drinks you purchase are considered high in energy density. Let me explain how………..A food or beverage which has more than 12 kJ (3 kcals) per gram is considered to be very high in energy density and should only consumed rarely. Such foods include cheeses, cream, oils, margarines, potato crisps, biscuits, cakes, pies, pastries, nuts, chicken skin, processed meats etc. Foods of medium energy density, ie 7kJ (1.5 kcals) – 12 kJ (3 30 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
kcals) per gram, should only be used sparingly. These include low fat ice-creams, coconut milk, jelly sweets, fruit muffins, etc. Low energy density foods can be eaten reasonably freely ie those with less than 7 kJ (1.5 kcals) per gram. Fruits, vegetables, breads, some cereals, fish and very lean meats all fall in this category. There are not enough low energy density foods in our diets these days – fruit and vegetables especially. How many of our kids actually eat the recommended two serves of fruit and five of vegetables every day? It is a tall order but can be done. Vegetables need to feature at more than one meal a day. Try including them at breakfast or lunch as well – tomatoes or creamed corn on toast or lots of salad piled into the lunch-time roll or some vegetable soup as an after school snack. Reduction in consumption of energy dense, nutrient poor foods and beverages is essential if we are going to combat obesity. Not only soft drinks but juices are also culprits here. Two oranges or 200 ml of fruit juice would provide about 6 teaspoons of sugar, but I know which would satisfy the eater more. The whole fruit, containing all the fibre would provide more satiety, whereas another glass of juice could easily be consumed straight after the first without discomfort. Fibre is another food component in which many Australian diets are deficient. We should be concentrating on more whole grain and wholemeal breads and cereals as well as eating fruits and vegetables with their skins on where practical. Children need about 20 grams of fibre daily while adults should be having about 35 grams. Fibre doesn’t only help to keep the bowels healthy. It can increase our satiety level and help with weight control as well. A slice of whole grain bread provides about 2 grams of fibre, an apple with the skin on, only 2-3 grams. So you can see that it is not easy to eat sufficient fibre unless every meal and snack provides at least 5-7 grams – a tall order indeed. If you are concerned about the weight of a child in your family, then consult your child’s GP and seek out an Accredited Practising Dietitian to help design a healthy eating and activity plan. There are some great programs being run out there in the community now to help get kids be more active too, so look out for these opportunities as well. Remember, prevention is better than cure. Stopping the weight gain in adolescence can prevent a lifelong struggle with overweight and the health consequences in adulthood. 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.
LETTERS 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.
Water on Courses A recent article in The Australian Orienteer promoted a decision by Bayside Kangaroos to ask competitors to carry their own water around the course. I wanted to take the time to clarify Orienteering Australia’s position on the provision of water on courses. Our competition rules, as they have always done, include a clause requiring water to be provided every 25 minutes for courses longer than 30mins (these times are the estimated speed of the winner). Moreover, OA rules require the water to be at a control or a compulsory crossing point. (The IOF has similar rules, except that they do not require the water to be at a control or compulsory crossing point.) People often ask me why we can’t relax the rules on provision of water. My answer is always the same -- it is because provision of water is designed to ensure competitors do not become dehydrated. Thus, it’s a safety issue, and is a greater concern in a warm climate, such as Australia, than it is in most countries. We had a close shave several years ago when a competitor became seriously ill following dehydration; I’m determined to protect event organisers from similar occurrences in the future, which is why I have never considered compromising on the provision of water.
State of Origin I read with interest Kay Haarsma’s letter in the June edition proposing that the National Orienteering League be run on a State of Origin basis. Such a bold and, in many ways, controversial move could not happen unless someone was prepared to stand up and show the real leadership that is a fundamental part of any major reform in any field of endeavour. Such reformist leaders have, throughout history, shown they are prepared to sacrifice their own selfish needs for the greater good. Clearly Kay and, by inference, OASA have put their hand up to be in the vanguard of this change and should be applauded for this. Their offer to have Simon Uppill run for Queensland in all future National Orienteering League events in order to demonstrate the value of this reform is gratefully accepted and we look forward to this brave new world. Richard Robinson (Queensland)
Orienteering Australia – National Training Centre
The rules above apply at all national events -- badge events and above. State or club level events are governed by different rules, but I recommend in the strongest possible terms that guidelines for these events should include similar provisions for water on courses to those in the OA rules. Andy Hogg Orienteering Australia Director, Technical
O R I E N T EERING P UB L ICATIONS 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 284 Mitchell BC 2911, with cheques made payable to Orienteering Australia. Email: orienteering@netspeed.com.au
VICTORINOX AWARD The Victorinox Award goes to Kathryn Ewels for her excellent performances at this year’s World Championships. Kathryn will receive a Victorinox Voyager with 20 tools and features including a watch/ alarm/timer; retail value $109.95.
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 31
MEET YOUR TEAM
VICTORIAN JUNIOR SQUAD
Mary Fleming
Rebekah Sunley & Sarah Atkins
Jasmine Sunley
James Robertson
Darian Panter in his Junior Development Squad t-shirt
Anneke Top Close control punching between Jasmine and Rebekah Sunley
32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Alternatives to those Soft Drinks E
ver read the ingredients label on that can of soft drink? Grab one now and read it. Surprising, isn’t it? Most likely the top ingredients are corn syrup or high fructose corn syrup, two very concentrated forms of sweetener, and a whole list of artificial ingredients. Like sugar-free? What does that label say? Anything “natural” in it? The supermarket has hundreds of delicious, refreshing alternatives to the nutrient-free soft drink. Here are a few to consider: Vegetable juice is one terrific way to ensure you get your three to five servings a day. Most vegetable juices are concentrated forms that equal at least two servings. Green drinks with concentrated forms of greens are fantastic and combination drinks like V-8 come in regular or spicy for a real change to the palate. You can make your own vegetable juices with a blender or a juicer. All of them can be diluted with water. Suggested serving is 100 – 200ml, especially of sweet juices like carrot. Fruit juice is an ideal drink for all ages whether fresh squeezed or bought in concentrated or non-concentrated form. When melons are inexpensive make them into juices; plain watermelon juice, cantaloupe or honeydew melon blended with crushed ice, or any of the great melons on the market make refreshing, filling juices. No need for added anything. When drinking juices at home, consider a fruit spritzer with one-third juice and one-third sparkling water for a sparkling and cooling drink. You can also dilute fruit juice with water that not only stretches the juice, it also stretches the concentration of natural sugars. Suggested serving is 200 – 250ml a day. CAUTION: Lots of fruit juice manufacturers add high fructose syrup and other sugars to both bottled and canned products that are totally unnecessary and only provide more calories. Once you try fresh squeezed or blended juices, you’ll understand why fruit juices are terrific on their own. Teas and coffees refresh the body, stimulate the brain, and give some energy yet the caveat is moderation, moderation, moderation. Both teas and coffees are dehydrating because of their caffeine content and other elements. Over-consumption can mean depletion of essential elements leaving your body dehydrated and, in some cases, over stimulating your nerves. Tea, which has
a milder form of caffeine called theine, is preferable because it enters the bloodstream slower and is less jarring to the nerves than coffee for most people. You can enjoy tea or coffee hot or iced. One iced tea recipe is tea sangria, made with your choice of tea, cut up fruit like strawberries, kiwi or stone fruit, and serve over ice. Iced coffees are great with a spoonful of condensed or evaporated milk for extra richness yet way below the typical 400-600 calorie laden coffee and tea drinks you buy at your local shop; consider these special once-in-a-while treats. Enhanced waters can be a great alternative to spring waters. Most come in flavours, with extra minerals and/or vitamins. They’re not without sweetening, but usually in the form of crystalline fructose (which comes from fruits or is artificially made to simulate fructose.) They are excellent cold. Suggested serving is one-half to one 500ml bottle per day. Other waters or juices enhanced with electrolytes do indeed help hydrate the body during excessive workouts or during times of excessively hot weather. In fact, electrolytes in liquids work even better than plain water in hydrating the body. Again, read the labels. Some products like Gatorade® are loaded with corn syrups and high fructose syrups and, while it is tempting to down a whole bottle, dilute it with water and drink a modest amount; 250 – 500ml a day. Even if the electrolyte product has no corn syrups and high fructose syrups, you should keep the quantity consumed per day at 500ml unless requested to consume more by your health practitioner. Sparkling mineral water, domestic or imported, is refreshing, has the carbonation you may enjoy, and tastes great alone or with a freshly cut lime, orange or lemon dropped into the glass. Mineral waters are so named because they do have healthful minerals and no artificial or non-nutrient chemical additives. If you choose flavoured mineral water, read the label to make sure the flavourings are natural. Suggested serving is two to four 250ml servings a day. Spring or distilled waters are your best choice for your daily drink, especially if your city’s municipal water resource is too hard or soft for your taste. Spring waters contain natural minerals; distilled waters contain none. Some people view distilled waters best for irons and hair curlers, but others prefer the taste of distilled, without any elements at all so that’s a viable choice. Perk up plain waters with fresh-cut citrus or other fruit. While the ubiquitous recommendation of 2 litres of water per day keeps popping up, it is not necessary if you eat a well-rounded diet of grains, fruits and vegetables (which contain a lot of water), and get enough daily exercise so that your digestion is regular. If it is not, try for 500ml, then work up to a litre or more of plain waters until you feel you are comfortably hydrated and your body is in “good working order.” adapted from supermarketguru.com SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 33
TRAINING
Age and Gender Influences on Training Adaptations Steve Bird
Introduction In response to the article on ‘gender differences’ published in the last edition (AO-June’08), I’ve had a number of requests to expand on certain aspects. So in this article I’ll briefly look at some of the issues concerning age and gender influences on adaptations to training. This is a complex area given the number of variables involved, such as the type of training, intensity, frequency, fitness level, and so on. And at the moment there are a number of gaps and inconsistencies in the research - so I’ll be presenting what I believe to be the current consensus, although we may see it evolve as our understanding of exercise physiology continues to grow. Training responses and adaptations Firstly, regardless of age or gender, some people adapt more rapidly to training than others. That is to say, they get fit quicker, and perhaps can attain higher eventual fitness levels. In recent years biotechnology has enabled studies into whether this has a genetic basis, and there is some evidence for the involvement of the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) gene, amongst others, although at the moment findings are inconsistent and more work is required 1. Another factor affecting adaptations to training is the individual’s current training status. That is to say, how close they currently are to their hypothetical peak. Those who are untrained have greater capacity to improve substantially from their low starting values, whereas someone who is already highly trained may only make small further improvements with continued training - which are of course nevertheless important at the elite level. Nutrition is another important factor, and it is well established that a good, healthy diet that contains plenty of carbohydrate is vital to support large amounts of training. It is also well established that inadequate nutrition will impair the effects of training, as the body will be unable to maximize any improvements to its anatomy and physiology, as well as being unhealthy. However, beyond this the general consensus is that most supplements don’t augment the effects of training – provided you have a good nutritious diet 2,3. A possible exception to this is creatine supplementation for developing strength, power and muscle mass, in younger and older people 4-6.
Hormones Training places physiological demands on our bodies, which respond by making improvements to our physiology and 34 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
tissue structures. It’s these adaptations that make us fitter, and underlying this myriad of training induced adaptations is our endocrine (hormonal) system. Of particular pertinence are the levels of anabolic (growth promoting) hormones such as testosterone, Growth Hormone (GH) and Insulin Like Growth Factors (IGFs). And it’s the difference in circulating values of these between men and women, and their decline with increasing age that has been proposed to be the cause of gender differences in the rate and magnitude of many training adaptations.
Adaptations by Age and Gender In younger adults, aerobic training such as running will promote an increase in capacity to utilize oxygen (VO2max). One of the reasons for this is an increase in the chamber size of the left ventricle of the heart. This means that the heart can eject more blood with each beat whilst exercising strenuously - a parameter known as its maximum Stroke Volume (SVmax). Consequently it can deliver more oxygen to the exercising muscles. Another adaptation occurs at the muscles, whereby training increases the muscles’ ability to extract oxygen from the blood passing through it. The difference between the amount of oxygen in the blood going to the muscles through the arteries and that returning to the heart from the muscles via the veins is called the a–vO2 difference. Trained muscle can extract more oxygen and therefore a trained person will have a greater a–vO2 difference. Studies in previously untrained older people have shown that older (>60 yrs) men and women can increase their VO2max. In the study by Spina et al. 7 the relative increases were similar in men and women (19% and 22% respectively), although the men had larger absolute values. However, the physiological adaptations underlying these increases appeared to differ. For example the men increased their maximum Stroke Volume by an average of 15%, which accounted for 66% of the increases in VO2max, and increased their a–vO2 difference by 7%, which accounted for the remaining 34% of the increase in VO2max. Whereas the women exhibited no change in their maximum Stroke Volume and their entire increase in VO2max was attributable to an 18% improvement in their a–vO2 difference. However, it should be noted that these studies were conducted with previously untrained individuals and the implications for older orienteers, who may have had many years of training before reaching an older age, are unknown. Other studies comparing older and younger men (again previously untrained), show that although older men do increase their SVmax with training (as indicated above), the amount of improvement is less than that seen in younger men 8. And other studies suggest that the ability to increase SVmax declines with age, and that with increasing age, improvements in VO2max become more dependent on improvements in a–vO2 difference 9. So ageing appears to not only reduce the magnitude of these improvements, but also the modality of the underlying changes, and may be associated with reduced levels of circulating anabolic hormones. A similar scenario is seen with resistance training. Muscular strength increases can be attributed to increases in muscle mass (muscle hypertrophy), and non-hypertrophic adaptations, such as improvements in the neurological recruitment of the muscle fibres. And whilst men and women of all ages can increase their muscle strength and muscle mass, it would appear that younger people are able to increase their strength by more than older people, and men by more than women 10. Furthermore, it would appear that the strength increases in women are more reliant on the non-hypertrophic adaptations, whereas the men rely more on the increases in muscle mass 11. Again these differences are attributed to differences in levels of circulating anabolic hormones.
References 1. Charbonneau et al. 2008, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 40: 677 – 683 2. Singh A, et al. 1992. Chronic multivitamin-mineral supplementation does not enhance physical performance. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 24: 726 – 732 3. Weight et al. 1988. Vitamin and mineral supplementation: effect on the running performance of trained athletes. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 47: 192 – 195. 4. Tipton and Ferrando, 2008, Improving muscle mass: response of muscle metabolism to exercise, nutrition and anabolic agents. Essays Biochem, 44: 85-98. 5. Gotshalk et al. 2008. European Journal of Applied Physiology. Creatine supplementation improves muscular performance in older women. 102: 223 – 231. 6. Gotshalk et al. 2002. Creatine supplementation improves muscular performance in older men. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 34: 537 – 543.
7. Spina et al. 1993, Differences in cardiovascular adaptations to endurances exercise training between older men and women. J Appl Physiol, 75: 849 – 855 8. Makrides et al. 1990. High-intensity endurance training in 20- to 30and 60- to 70-yr-old healthy men. Journal of Applied Physiology, 69:1792 – 1798. 9. McGuire et al. 2001. A 30-year follow up to the Dallas bed rest and training study. Circulation, 104: 1358 – 1366. 10. Lemmer et al. 2007, Age and sex differentially affect regional changes in one repetition maximum strength. J of St Cond Res, 21: 731 – 737. 11. Delmonico et al. 2005 Effects of moderate-velocity strength training on peak muscle power and movement velocity: do women respond differently than men? J Appl Physiol. 99: 1712 -1718. Professor Steve Bird is at RMIT University, Melbourne. Steve worked with the Great Britain National Orienteering Squad for over 10 years and is now assisting the Victorian Junior Squad.
The sport of Orienteering clearly promotes active longevity – winners in the W90 and M90 Sprints at the World Masters in Portugal – Elizabeth Brown (UK) and Erkki Luntamo (Finland). Erkki is 94yo and will go up a class next year.
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 35
WMOC 2008 – PORTUGAL
Jim Russell
Dick Ogilvie
Mike Hubbert
36 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
WMOC 2008 – PORTUGAL
Paul Liggins
Maureen Ogilvie
M45 Sprint Warren Key 3rd
M80 Sprint Hermann Wehner 3rd
W75 Sprint Jeffa Lyon 3rd
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER
37
Scottish 6-Days Orienteering www.scottish6days.com
2-8 August 2009 Entries open Dec 08 Photo copyright David Thompson Photography
Come to Tassie for Easter in 2009 and enjoy 8 days of orienteering in a range of different terrains across the north of the state. Entry forms will be available online during September with printed copies handed out at the 2008 Aus Champs in Maryborough Qld, and enclosed in the December issue of Australian Orienteer. For more information click on the Easter 2009 logo on the Orienteering Tasmania homepage at
w w w. tas ori en t eeri n g . a s n . a u or go straight to the event site at
www.tasorienteering.asn.au/tas_e_2009.htm
38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
nteering Orie
2009
th Island N Z Sou
ceania
Come to the land that time forgot for fantastic terrain and first class orienteering
3 -11 January 2009 - South Island - New Zealand Featuring the
2009 OCEANIA CHAMPIONSHIPS for sprint, middle and long distances, plus relays and incorporating the Australia New Zealand Challenge
Programme
January 2009
Saturday Multiday event Canaan Downs, Nelson
3
Sunday Sprint event Brayshaw Park, Blenheim
Thursday Rest day
Monday Oceania Sprint Distance Championship Lincoln University, Canterbury
4
5
ge
9
7
Wednesday Oceania Long Distance Championship Craigieburn, Canterbury
incl. A-NZ Relay Challen
Friday Oceania Middle Distance Championship Duntroon, North Otago
8
6
Tuesday Oceania Relay Championship Kairaki Beach, Canterbury
llenge
incl. A-NZ Individual Cha
10
Saturday Multiday event Naseby, North Otago
11
Sunday Multiday event tago Naseby, North O incl. A-NZ Schools Relays
incl. A-NZ Schools test : Individual Champions hips
test:
Entry forms now available at www.oceania2009.co.nz
, You won t forget your time* at Oceania 2009... *as measured by sportident
www.oceania2009.co.nz
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 39
Orienteering Service of Australia www.osoa.com.au
Orienteering Service of Australia stocks a wide range of orienteering equipment and publications, Miry MTBO mapboards and world-leading Silva compasses. We also supply navigational aids, walking poles, pedometers and personal lighting and other outdoor equipment. Check out our range of Italian designed Gabel trekking and walking poles. Gabel poles are high quality and lightweight.
Order online
before 30/11/2008 for a free gift! Quote “AOSept08” when you order for a free carabiner LED light.
Browse our product range and order securely online at:
www.osoa.com.au
AMAZING New Zealand
tales
New zealand orienteering in full colour drama % action % passion % thrills & spills magazine subscription via www.nzorienteering.com or email nzof@nzorienteering.com
annual subscription (4 issues) = 31.50 NZD ≈ 13GBP or 28AUD 40 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
TO P E V E N T S 2008 Sept 20-28 Australian Championships Carnival Maryborough, QLD www.oq.asn.au/2008austchamps Sept 30 Australian MTB-O Championships -Oct 1 Maryborough, QLD www.oq.asn.au/2008austchamps Dec 27-31 Xmas 5-Days Central Victoria www.vicorienteering.asn.au
2009
January 3-11 Oceania Championships 2009 South Island, New Zealand www.oceania2009.co.nz
April 10-13 Australian 3-Days The Royal Easter O, Launceston, Tasmania www.tasorienteering.asn.au
June 6-8 AUS MTBO Championships 2009 (Sprint; Middle; Long) Mt Gambier, Sth Australia June 13-14 Jukola Relays Mikkeli, Finland www.jukola2009.net
June 22-28 JWOC/MTB Farum, Copenhagen, Denmark July 3-5 3 Days of Belgium Genk, Belgium www.orientatie.org July 5-12 JWOC 2009 Primiero, Italy www.jwoc2009.it
Sept 26-Oct 4 AUS Champs Carnival, Victoria www.vicorienteering.asn.au/
Oct 10-17 WMOC 2009, Lithgow NSW www.wmoc2009.orienteering.asn.au
Dec 27-31 Xmas 5-Days Southern Highlands, NSW
2010
April 2-5 Australian 3-Days, ACT www.act.orienteering.asn.au
June 19-20 Jukola Relays, Kytäjä, Finland www.jukola2010.net
June 27-July 4 6 Days of Tyrol, Karersee, Austria/Italy www.tyrol2010.com
July 4-11 JWOC, Aalborg, Denmark www.jwoc2010.dk
July 11-17 WOC/MTB & JWOC/MTB West Alentejo, Portugal
July 12-17 Fin5, Imatran, Finland www.fin5.fi
July 24-30 O-Ringen, Örebro, Sweden www.oringen.se/987.php
July 24-31 Tour O Swiss www.tour-o-swiss.ch
July 31-Aug 7 WMOC, Neuchatel, Switzerland www.wmoc2010.org
August 7-15 WOC, Trondheim, Norway woc2010.com
Sept 25-Oct 3 Aust Champs Carnival, Sth Aust
Dec 27-31 Xmas 5-Days, NSW
July 7-12 5 Days of Dolomites Primiero, Italy www.jwoc2009.it
July Fin5 Hameenlinna, Finland www.fin5.fi
July 19-24 O-Ringen 2009 Smaland, Sweden www.oringen.com/smaland2009
Aug 2-8 Scottish 6-Days Tayside, Scotland www.scottish6days.com/2009/ Aug 2-8
Swiss O Week Muotatal, Switzerland www.swiss-o-week.ch
Aug 9-16 WOC/MTB’09 Ben Shemen (20km from Tel Aviv), Israel
Aug 14-16 3 Days of the Kempen Leopoldsburg, Belgium www.kempen-ol.be
Aug 18-23 WOC 2009 Miskolc, Hungary www.woc2009.hu
Aug 17-23 Hungaria Cup (6 Days) Miskolc, Hungary http://hungariacup.woc2009.hu
Aug 23-30 Portugal ‘O’ Summer 2009 (6 Days) Cantanhede, Portugal www.ptosummer.com
XMAS 5 Days Orienteering Carnival 27th to 31st December Five days of quality orienteering in Victoria’s Golden Triangle Gold mining and granite between Maldon, Daylesford and Ballarat Bring your bikes too. The program also includes two late afternoon MTBO events Put this one in your diary now!
www.vicorienteering.asn.au SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 41
ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
How Your Magazine is Financed Michael Hubbert – Editor
T
he operating budget for The Australian Orienteer runs at around $50,000 per annum. By far the largest single cost in producing the magazine is that of printing and packing, including inserting leaflet flyers and entry forms for major events. In 2008 a change of printing house has resulted in a reduction in basic production costs. This has enabled me to increase the number of colour pages in each edition at no extra cost to subscribers. More colour pages means more colour maps and photos from major events, and a more attractive magazine overall. It was not only more attractive costings which prompted the change of printing house. The magazine is now printed on better quality paper which gives us an improvement in print reproduction, something which is most important when reproducing complex maps with fine detail and good quality photographs. The magazine is financed mainly by subscribers – just over two-thirds of income is from members’ subscriptions. Some 17% of income is from event advertising and approx 11% from commercial advertisements with the remainder coming from non-member subscriptions and other minor sources. In recent times I have been able to obtain more event advertising, particularly overseas events for which the revenue is obtained from outside of Australian orienteering. They advertise their events in our magazine because they know that Australian orienteers are great travellers and there’s a good chance some can be persuaded to enter their events. Through their State Association fees members pay $5.45 per copy for each edition of the magazine. I think that is very good value when compared with other, similar, magazines available and I continually strive to maintain and improve the quality of The Australian Orienteer to make it even better value-for-money. Orienteers can never get enough maps and courses to study and the changes this year are all aimed at giving you, the reader, more of what I believe you like best in the magazine. I’ve included more and more stories and photos of junior orienteers because our juniors are the future of our sport and they like seeing themselves in print. But our sport is not just about juniors so I have tried to include articles which should interest people from a wide range of age groups and levels of expertise from novice orienteers to those who have been participating for many years. Of course, if you have any suggestions on how the magazine can be improved even more please let me know by email at mikehubbert@ozemail. com.au or by snail mail at The Australian Orienteer, PO Box 165, Warrandyte, VIC 3113. Lastly, without a good graphic designer the “look” of the magazine would not be nearly as good as you see today. For that I must give very deserved credit to Peter Cusworth who does a great job in taking all the articles, photos and maps I send him and moulding them into a magazine which certainly has that attractive “look” so necessary to attract readers.
42 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
INCOME Event adverts Commercial adverts Members’ subscriptions other subs
EXPENDITURE Ex
pe GST ns es
Management & admin.
Printing & packing Graphic design
M O U N TA I N B I K E O R I E N T E E R I N G
SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 43
M O U N TA I N B I K E O R I E N T E E R I N G
Adrian Jackson Tops World Rankings A
drian’s stunning form on his tour of Europe in July and August rocketed him back up to the Number 1 position on the IOF World MTB-O rankings. Adrian won four World Ranking Events in France and Poland in his lead-up to the MTB World Championships held in Poland in late August. Alex Randall ranked 21, David Simpfendorfer 40, and Paul Darvodelsky 61. Thor Edgerton was our top ranked woman at 41 with Carolyn Jackson 47. Adrian continued his excellent mountain bike racing form by winning the two MTB-O World Ranking Events held in France at Fontainebleau. The Middle and Long-distance races were part of the French 5-Days MTB-O event held in the same area that hosted the first MTBO World Championships in 2002. The field of over 50 riders contained many of the current top-10 ranked competitors from Switzerland, France, Austria and Russia. Just the weekend before Adrian had finished 3rd in the BC Bike Race, a 2-person team MTB race held in British Columbia, Canada. This 7-day race covered over 500km of challenging trails and included some of the biggest names in mountain bike racing. Following his successes at Fontainebleu Adrian moved to Nowa Kaletka in Poland to contest the Polish 7-Days MTB-O carnival and the two World Ranking Events that were part of that carnival. AJ had a comfortable victory in the Middle-distance event leading from start to finish, but it was much later in the Ultra Long-distance event before he hit the lead. All of the top ranked Russians were competing as well as top riders from Estonia, Czech Republic and Denmark. Alex Randall also rode very well, finishing in 5th place in the Middle-distance and 8th in the Ultra Long-distance event. Amongst other Aussies competing Paul Darvodelsky came in 24th and 20th in his two rides, and Melanie Simpson was 17th and 27th. Kiwi Marquita Gelderman had some good rides too finishing 13th in the Middle-distance and 2nd in the Ultra Longdistance. A full report on the MTB World Orienteering Championships will appear in the December edition of this magazine.
MTBO World Ranking MEN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 21 40 59 62
Adrian Jackson........... AUS Beat Schaffner.................SUI Lubomír Tomecek.............CZE Beat Oklé.........................SUI Anton Foliforov.................RUS Ruslan Gritsan..................RUS Tobias Breitschädel..........AUT Matthieu Barthélémy.......FRA Lasse Brun Pedersen.......DEN Torbjørn Gasbjerg.............DEN Alex Randall................ AUS David Simpfendorfer... AUS Damian Welbourne...... AUS Paul Darvodelsky........ AUS
MTBO World Ranking WOMEN................ 1 2 3 4 4 6 7 7 9 10 41 47
Christine Schaffner...........SUI Michaela Gigon................AUT Hana Bajtosová................SVK Päivi Tommola..................FIN Ksenia Chernykh..............RUS Ingrid Stengård................FIN Anna Füzy........................HUN Marquita Gelderman........NZL Renata Paulícková............CZE Karolina Mickeviciute.......LTU Thorlene Egerton......... AUS Carolyn Jackson.......... AUS
Adrian posted some descriptions of the events and preparations on his Blog (http://adrianjacksonsblog.blogspot.com/):
Five Days in Fontainebleu After finishing the BC Bike Race the racing switched gear, with my first MTB-O races outside Australia for more than two years. The French 5-Day was held in Fontainebleau, site of the first World Championships for the sport. The terrain is quite flat and sandy with a nice and complex track network to get this little rusty brain back into orienteering mode. I’m staying in an awesome huge old French house with some friends from NZ and some of their family. This place has about ten bedrooms and I might not have found them all yet. Days 1 and 2 were used to settle back down and try and go as smoothly as possible in preparation for Days 3 and 4 which were doubling as World Ranking Events. After a solid 2nd and 5th places on the first two days, I slipped it into 5th gear and despite a couple of mistakes managed to win both the important WRE days. Day 5 was a bit of a come down, with tired legs and motivation on the way down I did just the minimum to hang on to win the overall 5-Days title for which I got a very spiffy maillot jeune (yellow jersey) and a not-so-spiffy maillot verte (green jersey - more fluro verte really!) for the fastest sprint between the last control and the finish line! The race finished on Bastille Day which was good planning on the organisers’ behalf, as we could join in the festivities on the French national day.
Problems and Success in Poland As soon as we arrived in Poland things seemed to start going wrong. The guy who was supposed to meet us at the airport with the van was late, and when he arrived it took us quite a while to work out how to fit five bikes and four people into a mid-sized people mover. Later that afternoon when looking for hotels, Greg managed to leave his jacket with passport and wallet inside in a hotel room which we looked at but decided not to take. It was then that we discovered the car problem. On the mad dash back to the hotel to try and retrieve Greg’s stuff the gearbox started playing up. Eventually it simply would not go into any gear, and we were left to drive back entirely in 2nd gear. Interestingly though, we discovered that an Opel Zafira does 85km/h redlining in 2nd gear. We did find Greg’s stuff and the car did make it just back, and after a while the guy who organised the car arrived to sort out the mess. Amazingly, after a couple of hours of fiddling under the bonnet he drove it away without a hint of trouble. We ended up with the same car again, and I don’t know what he got done to it but it is now working a treat. The next hiccup came when we arrived at the accommodation for the Polish 7-Day MTB-O event in Nowa Kaletka. We had been told we were getting a ‘house’, but upon arrival we discovered all we had was a tiny glorified shack in the middle of the forest with unbelievably bad beds. After two painful nights there we shifted out into a hotel in the big nearby town of Olzstyn, which is a really nice town actually. The 7-Day event got off to a mixed start, with the Sprint held in pouring rain which turned the sandy tracks into bike destroying death traps. I had a fairly good ride and won, but I knew a few of the other good guys were resting up for the World Ranking races on the next two days. With the rain gone, but the tracks still very wet, the Middle and Long-distance races were hard work. I had good races in both, losing only a little time here and there, to win both. That means with my wins in France a few weeks ago and some other races in Australia that my world ranking should jump up to around 2 or 3 in the world! I successfully held onto my lead for the rest of the Polish 7-Day MTBO to win the competition.
44 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
Aussie team members at the Polish World Ranking Events had an extra challenge. This picture shows it is possible to get 4 people, four bikes and four bike bags into a Kia Carnival. It took about 1.5 hours of packing but we did it.
Mel Simpson and Paul Darvoldelsky out for a training ride in the forests near Warsaw.
After winning four World Ranking Events, AJ found time to relax by riding Alpe d’Huez (of Tour de France fame) as well as some nearby MTB trails including the 32km downhill Megavalanche course.
GPS Tracker Review Craig Steffens - Multi Terain Bike Orienteers QLD
I recently purchased a new GPS device to record my route during MTBO events. This new unit is primarily sold as a device to locate photos that you take on trips and display them as a travel blog in Google Earth. I got it for the GPS data recording feature mainly. The one I bought is an ’i-gotU’ http://www.i-gotu.com/ . It’s the size of a matchbox, very light and is simple to use. The included software geo-tags photos from the GPS route it records, but it also exports in GPX format, that most other applications require, like O-Track, OCAD and Google Earth. The unit has no screen, just one button and 2 LED’s to indicate what it’s doing. Price is around $80, but you can find it cheaper. The unit comes with a download cradle and charges the inbuilt battery from a USB port. Battery time is dependant on the recording interval, but lasts for approx. 4 hours at the shortest 1 second setting. Worn on a Velcro wrist band (not included) it quietly does it’s job during a race with no fuss.It’s accuracy was spot on, compared to a GARMIN Forerunner during a recent Beerburrum Event.
New car bike rack This new bike rack from Thule looks after your bike when in transit. Bikes rest on their wheels rather than being clamped on the top tube, avoiding scratches and damaging carbon fibre frames.
Try the trace of ‘Craig Vs Bruce’ for a comparison, here… http://users.bigpond.com/craig.steffens/. SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 45
M O U N TA I N B I K E O R I E N T E E R I N G Blake Gordon OA MTBO Coordinator
What can we expect in Poland?
B
y the time you read this, the 5th MTB WOC will be history. After lean years for AUS in Finland and Czech Republic, I firmly believe Poland will see the re-emergence of Adrian Jackson, our most successful MTB-O competitor (4 medals in 3 WOC’s) since his spectacular start in 2004 where he collected one gold and two bronzes. Adrian has had a dream run in 2008 with wins in the Wildside and Anaconda Enduro MTB stage races in Australia. A strong 3rd place with the Flight Centre/Scott team against pro MTB teams in the 7-stage BC Bike Race in Canada showed he is world standard. With multi-day fitness and hard riding under his belt, AJ switched his pre-WOC training back to MTB-O with an unprecedented four strong wins in the four WRE races in Fontainebleau (France) and Poland. Then as a change of pace he rode (and was on the podium again) in the French multi-day l”Hexagonal VTT race during the second week of August prior to heading back to Poland. Coming into the World Championships AJ regained the World No 1 World Ranking which he held in 2007. I know better than to predict medals, but I think Adrian has not yet reached his peak and with the strength and consistency developed around the world, I can’t wait to watch him take on the four races (Sprint, Middle, Long and Relay) at the end of August.
Blake was chief starter at the Victorian Schools MTBO Championships in August. Here he gets one of the mass start groups away. Photo: Bruce Paterson
Winners in the solo divisions in the 120min scatter format included Heath Jamieson (Senior Boys, Braemar College, 550 points), William Bleek (Junior Boys, Braemar College, 550 points), and Miss Dorrizzi (Senior Girls, Braemar College, 390 points). A record 156 participants - 11 of whom scored the maximum 550 points – was a very encouraging result for the chief course setter/organiser Peta Whitford. A great atmosphere at the start/finish in cool dry conditions made for an exciting day for the solo and group riders. Several other States have planned schools events to help develop our junior MTB-O competitor base.
Round 2 National Series in Queensland & Round 3 in Canberra
AUS team members Paul Darvodelsky, Alex Randall, and Melanie Simpson also contested the Polish 6-Day event in similar terrain to WOC gaining valuable competition against the world’s best. The men competed in Lithuania and have had excellent lead up and racing practice close to Warsaw. The last members of the 8-person WOC team, Cath Chalmers and Jenn Graham-Taylor, have been racing MTB-O and adventure races with success in WA. David Simpfendorfer rounded off his preparation with wins in both the Sprint and Long NSW Championships at Nowra recently, and Thorlene Egerton has been based in England.
Organisers of the annual Australian Championships hope to surpass the 100+ numbers recorded in NSW in 2007. Adrian and Carolyn Jackson will defend their Men and Women Elite Championships over the Sprint, Middle and Long-distance races. The venue has been shifted due to dense vegetation and timber cutting clogging tracks in the proposed area near Gympie. The organisers promise typical Queensland weather for Maryborough – a real improvement on the overnight thunderstorms and rain that plagued the NSW races last year. Victoria will defend the Champion State Plaque it won in 2007 with strong competition expected from host QLD and NSW.
The Aussie training camp commenced on August 17th at Nowa Kaletka, Poland. Adapting to riding on the right side of the track, learning to consider the option of carrying your bike off track (allowed in Poland) and reading the intricate 2.5 m contours was part of the team’s preparation. The team moved into cabins in the small village of Stare Jablonki for WOC, where entries were - 28 countries with 112 men and 67 women. For the inaugural MTB JWOC there were 21 countries with 67 men and 46 women. Finland, Russia and Poland fielded full teams of 12 in JWOC with one junior girl from New Zealand. All results are on www.mtbo.pl/woc2008
Round 3 will be staged in Sparrow Hill (Sprint) and East Kowen Forest (Long), Canberra on 1-2 November under the supervision of Ann Scown.
School MTBO Championships in Victoria As part of the developing MTB-O scene in Victoria the 4th Victorian Schools MTB-O Championships produced some new and exciting riders at Mt Macedon on August 15th. 46 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER SEPTEMBER 2008
2009 Draft National Series After 2009 national event applications were assessed, the draft schedule of 8 events over 3 rounds (with the WOC/ JWOC Selection Trials in Round 1 and the Australian Championships / 2 WRE races in Round 2) is:Round 1: April 25-26
Middle, Long-distance Woodend, VIC
Round 2: June 5 - 7
Sprint, Middle & Long Mt Gambier, SA
Round 3: Sept 12-13
Sprint, Middle & Long Beerburrum, QLD
ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
Executive Matters Kay Grzadka – OA Executive Officer
The Board congratulates Hugh Cameron who was recently re-elected as Vice President of the International Orienteering Federation (IOF).
IOF meeting The month of July saw half the Board members overseas. Directors Hugh Cameron, Mike Dowling and Blair Trewin, together with Christine Brown, attended the XXIV IOF Ordinary General Assembly in the Czech Republic. Mike Dowling also performed the role of Senior Coach to the Australian Team competing in the World Orienteering Championships in the Czech Republic.
World Masters It wasn’t all work and no play though as Blair and President Bill Jones also competed in the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Portugal with Blair achieving a notable fourth in the Sprint Final. At the end of WMOC Bill Jones, representing Orienteering Australia, along with Robyn Pallas and Colin Price representing the 2009 World Masters Orienteering Championships organising committee, accepted the IOF Masters Games flag to take back to Australia for the 2009 World Masters Games.
Codes for Teams A file of official clubs plus codes for State/Territory teams, Australian and New Zealand National teams, official New Zealand clubs and national teams affiliated with the IOF has been created by Director (Special Projects) Robin Uppill with the assistance of Bob Mouatt and is available for download from the IT and SPORTident page on the OA website.
School Sport The Board is currently working with the School Sport Australia National Secretary for Orienteering, Ian Dalton, to resolve the issue of Northern Territory students being ineligible to enter the Australian Schools Orienteering Championships.
Board Meetings The Board of Orienteering Australia met using voice over the internet software on Thursday 19 June. Although there were some technical glitches the technology will be used again for the Board’s next meetings.
Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority
World Rankings The International Orienteering Federation World Ranking Scheme is based on points scored at World Ranking Events, full details of which can be found at www.orienteering.org WORLD RANKING FOR MEN Rank Points Forename 1 5848 Thierry 2 5705 Matthias 3 5695 Daniel 4 5648 Andrey 5 5605 Anders 6 5539 Valentin 7 5526 Martin 8 5512 Mikhail 9 5483 Michal 10 5468 Peter 33 5267 Julian 135 4616 David 157 4462 Simon 173 4346 Rob 206 4108 Reuben
Surname Gueorgiou Merz Hubmann Khramov Nordberg Novikov Johansson Mamleev Smola Öberg Dent Shepherd Uppill Walter Smith
Nation FRA SUI SUI RUS NOR RUS SWE ITA CZE SWE AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS
WORLD RANKING FOR WOMEN Rank Points Forename 1 6133 Simone 2 6015 Heli 3 6008 Minna 4 5787 Marianne 5 5772 Helena 6 5729 Anne Margrethe 7 5714 Tatyana 8 5703 Lena 9 5576 Emma 10 5521 Hanny 54 4823 Jo 56 4790 Grace 70 4718 Kathryn 102 4439 Vanessa 109 4341 Anna 131 4089 Jasmine 138 4042 Tracy 163 3644 Susanne 178 3463 Mace 197 3232 Kirsten
Surname Niggli-Luder Jukkola Kauppi Andersen Jansson Hausken Riabkina Eliasson Engstrand Allston Allison Elson Ewels Round Sheldon Neve Bluett Casanova Neve Fairfax
Nation SUI FIN FIN NOR SWE NOR RUS SWE SWE AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS
World number 1, Thierry Gueorgiou celebrates after winning yet another World Championship. Photo: Erik Borg SEPTEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 47
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An essential you can really afford.
