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
