The Australian Orienteer – December 2008

Adrian Jackson WORLD MTBO CHAMPION again

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FAITH FI0813

SILVA National Orienteering League Event Calendar 2009 Date

Race

Round 1

Location Adelaide Autumn Classic

South Australia

Sat Mar 21

1

Sprint Distance - AM

Sat Mar 21

2

Middle Distance - PM

Sun Mar 22

3

Long Distance

Round 2

Australian 3-day Championships

Tasmania

Fri Apr 10

4

Easter - Prologue (Sprint)

Sat Apr 11

5

Easter Day 1 - Middle Distance

Sun Apr 12

6

Easter Day 2 - Long Distance

Mon Apr 13

7

Easter Day 3 - Relay Distance

Sat Apr 18

8

ASC Galaxy Sprint

Sun Apr 19

9

Buttongrass Challenge

Round 3

ACT Championships

ACT

Sat May 16

10

ACT Sprint Championships

Sat May 16

11

ACT Middle Championships

Sun May 17

12

ACT Long Championships

Round 4

Australian Championships Carnival

Victoria

Sat Sep 26

13

Australian Middle Distance Championships

Sun Sep 27

14

Victorian Long Distance Championships

Fri Oct 2

15

Australian Sprint Orienteering Championships

Sat Oct 3

16

Australian Long Distance Championships

Sun Oct 4

17

Australian Relay Championships

All race details can be found at www.orienteering.asn.au www.silva.se

Silva is a FISKARS BRANDS company. australia@fiskarsbrands.com

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 4 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 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@sydney.net 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: Geoff Hudson, geoff@orienteering.com.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: Sally Wayte, Ph. (03) 6234 8440 secretary@tasorienteering.asn.au Top End Orienteers (Northern Territory): PO Box 39152 Winnellie NT 0821. Secretary: David Rolland brolland@bigpond.com

NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE

Jan 16. Time-sensitive: Jan 23

ISSN 0818-6510 Issue 4/08 (no. 152) DECEMBER 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: January 16. Time-sensitive material, January 23.

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.

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CONTENTS MTB WOC – Poland.................................. 6 A U S T R A L I A N C H A M P S C A R N I V A L .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 HIGH PERFORMANCE.............................. 20 B I G M I S TA K E S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 A Y U P L I G H T I N G .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 S I L V A H E A D L A M P S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 6 SPORT PSYCHOLOGY............................... 27 WAT E R O N C O U R S E S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8 N U T R I T I O N .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 L E T T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 N AV I G AT I O N T E C H N I Q U E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 TRAINING............................................ 34 N AT I O N A L J U N I O R S Q U A D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 6 TOP EVENTS......................................... 41 E X E C U T I V E M AT T E R S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 RADI O .............................................. 43 S I LVA & G E R B E R C O M P E T I T I O N S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7

Front Cover: Adrian Jackson, the number 1 ranked MTB Orienteer in the World after winning the World Middle Distance Championship in Poland last August. Photo: Dion Keech

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 5 DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 5

WORLD MTB ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Adrian Jackson – World Champion

Adrian on the podium with silver medallist, Søren Strunge from Denmark (left) and Lubomír Tomecek from the Czech Republic

Adrian Jackson regained his World crown in Middle-distance at the World Championships in Mountain Bike Orienteering in Poland. Adrian (or AJ) first won the title in 2004 when the Championships were held in Victoria, but then a variety of reasons prevented him from retaining the title in the following years. This year AJ mounted an all-out assault on the title. He went to Europe early; competed in and won some lead-up World Ranking Events in France and Poland; mixed this with some mountain bike events; and as August and the World Championships approached AJ was fighting fit and expecting to do well.

And he certainly lived up to those expectations. A podium placing 6th in the Sprint Championship showed he had the speed required to dominate in his favourite longer events. Then came the Middle-distance Final and a GOLD medal with much celebration. AJ was one of the favourites for the Long-distance crown as well but a bout of food poisoning took the sting from his legs and he could only manage another podium finish in 6th place – only they say – superhuman we say.

Team Manager Kay Haarsma takes up the story: Photos: Kay Haarsma, Eoin Rothery and Carolyn Chalmers

6 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

T

hree podium positions, including a gold to Adrian Jackson plus two benchmark performances via Alex Randall (13th in Long) and Melanie Simpson (16th Middle) gave us a pretty respectable scorecard. Refreshing in that 3 of the 4 girls in the team were first timers, and they all displayed great potential.

Riding is the easy part at a World Championships – spectators and officials have an all day outing and have to fight for information. In Poland this year there were limited glimpses of those racing, with the exception of the Sprint event. In AJ’s Middle-distance win spectators had to cluster around a tent which had two large screens displaying split times as riders went through radio controls. The excitement was extreme when Adrian’s name flashed up as being in the lead and team members starting doing calculations of when he should be at the last control. Then the familiar white and green jersey emerged from the forest. The Aussies and Kiwis yelled themselves hoarse and AJ was announced as being in the lead. AJ felt he had ridden well, albeit with several small mistakes near the end, and people were congratulating him as the likely winner.

However there was a handful of the top ranked riders still to finish. AJ tried to sit down and wait but the tension was too much and he went off on his trusty bike. Soon those good at maths were saying, “He’s won – no one can beat him now.” But still the commentators hadn’t confirmed the result and I wasn’t going to call it before them. Finally those magic words – “Adrian Jackson is the Middle-distance World Champion.” I grabbed my bike and took off down the road to find a nervous AJ quietly pedalling along. “You’ve won, you’ve won” I said. “Are you sure, … is it definite?” he asked. Then a winner’s smile was produced.

AJ had to carry the burden of gold medal favourite into the Worlds, so to actually achieve a win was outstanding. He had a giant reputation amongst his peers but his previous European outing was back in 2006. Granted AJ was super fit but, until this year, he hadn’t competed in Poland nor had access to all the highly competitive European events. So he took himself off to Europe several months early to take in a training camp and 7-day event in Poland. AJ soon refreshed his MTBO skills to the extent that he won both World Ranking Events on offer.

In the four World Championships Adrian has raced in he has podiumed (made the top 6) seven times and won medals on four occasions from nine individual events. Since his initial win in 2004 the men’s competition Adrian at the World Champs has gotten stronger and with Year Sprint Middle Long greater depth but Adrian has 2004 Australia N/A 1st 3rd developed his bike skills and 2005 Slovakia N/A 8th 3rd fitness at an even greater rate.

2006 Finland N/A 7th 6th AJ’s World championships record is impressive: 2008 Poland 6th 1st 6th AUSTRALIAN TEAM: Men - Paul Darvodelsky (NSW), David Simpfendorfer (ACT), Alex Randall, Adrian Jackson (Vic).

Women - Thorlene Egerton (Qld), Melanie Simpson (NSW), Jen Graham-Taylor, Cath Chalmers (WA)

Pre-Championships training Elite MTBO training requires access to new maps or extremely detailed maps as otherwise it is easy to study possible route choices on pre-existing maps. This is the main reason many of our riders made sacrifices to get over to Europe early. AJ, Paul, Alex and Melanie raced in the 7-day Polish event in July while Thor and David took in a Swiss WRE weekend.

Some of the team and I had competed in Poland in 2007 and this enabled me to work out our training and WOC accommodation sites, so for once there was a nice familiarity about where the

necessities like bike shops and laundromats were located. Team training from Aug 17-24th was based at Nowa Kaletka with a huge forest encompassing 5 maps on our doorstep. The New Zealanders, Portuguese, Austrians and Russians were all in attendance. The Russians were there en masse with 14 riders in WOC and 12 in JWOC. Nathalie, their coach, offered to share training exercises. We did so on many days, making use of the fact that they had SI units and a printer on hand. The hotel food here was typical Polish fare with sausages, bread, tomato and cheese for breakfast and dinner and the main meal being a hearty soup and main course at lunchtime. As we trained in the morning this wasn’t too bad, but we supplemented with muesli, yoghurt and fruit and occasionally drove into the nearest town to have a more substantial evening meal.

Polish MTBO has a local rule allowing riding / running of your bike through the forest, so our main training emphasis was in examining the feasibility of this as a route choice option, when it was offered. Getting used to riding on the right was also a necessity. The phrase “happy speed” became our mantra, as everyone sought to find their own optimum racing speed where they could still navigate competently. “Dotty tracks” can be quite variable in rideability and one girl was heard to say to another, “my dotty track was bigger than your dotty track.” Any in-forest breaks in training were turned into blueberry eating time. Deer were occasionally sighted in the forest and there were many storks resident in villages.

“Those boys and their bikes!” exclaimed the girls quite often. The boys seemed to lust over their bikes, cleaning them constantly, and rushing off to the bike shop for various replacement bits. David even had “booties” for his bike forks. We had no mechanicals this year thankfully. Melanie was more practical, having designed and made a brilliant cloth cover to protect her cardboard bike box. Paul Darvodelsky had cause to visit the dentist and reckoned that major work on teeth was so cheap that he could afford to fly over from Australia and still be ahead.

MTB WOC The event centre was in a small town called Stare Jablonki, with just a train station, two small shops, a few houses and one block of flats. However the event centre was the prestigious Hotel Anders, which hosts an international volleyball competition.

Also by the nearby lake, within several kilometres were a number of more basic cabin accommodation parks. Our team stayed in two bungalows associated with the hotel, and this gave us the flexibility to eat from the hotel’s “sumptuous all you could eat smorgasbord,” or cook our own food. Unfortunately Cath Chalmers got a raw deal as her order for a large family room for three adults and a one-year-old child turned out to be a miniscule room. “Team Cath” of husband Eoin and mother Caroline did everything possible to make things comfortable but it was far from ideal.

The Sprint was held some 30km away at Olsztyn University but all other events started within 5 or 6 kilometres and most races finished just opposite Hotel Anders. So it was easy organisationally and for the riders. This year saw the initial JWOC MTBO Championships, with 67 girls and 46 boys and they started before or after the elites each day. Additionally a Masters event was held with their races on the same maps but starting late in the afternoon. This had a downside for the WOC competitors as they didn’t get their maps back until after 6pm each night. With team leaders meetings each evening this made time for individual debriefing over the maps quite short. Overall the maps and courses were pretty good, despite a few last minute organisational wobbles at times.

The Sprint was advertised in Bulletin 3 as being at 1:5,000 with “moderately broken terrain with a net of forest tracks and DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 7

WORLD MTB ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS paths, and urban terrain with net of many streets and pavements and lanes, demanding technical skills.” We had surmised rightly enough that it would be held at Olsztyn University, but thought it would venture into the adjacent forest too. Rose bushes were probably the thickest vegetation! Bulletin 4 surprisingly told us that the map would totally have foot-O symbols. The start & finish were on an athletics track and riders had to ride a lap midcourse to pick up a 2nd map.

A big screen in the middle displayed all the action courtesy of several TV cameras. This “urban terrain” made the event quite nerve racking and many riders had overshooting problems in the detail. Alex Randall had a disastrous start with a mid-course collision causing a fall and ripping off a bar end. Adrian was a touch disappointed initially with his 6th but it was an impressive return to the WOC competition for him. Thor and Cath were our best girls at 31st & 32nd, just 6 minutes down. The junior boy’s event was a war of attrition with 21 boys mispunching at adjacent similar controls.

The opening ceremony almost resulted in an international incident when the flags of NZ and Australia were designated to the wrong countries. Also the commentator kept congratulating “Australian” Marquita Gelderman on her tremendous 4th place.

She does visit Oz a lot so perhaps she could become naturalized?

James Lithgow (manager) and Kay were initially given nametags classifying them as Austrians. The raising of the flags in the prize giving ceremony struck a snag when one of the flags refused to come down. A nimble Italian rider shimmied up the pole and spent over a minute untying it.

All the other events were at a 1:15,000 or 1: 20,000 scale and were truly bush events on “moderately broken terrain with a net of many forest tracks and paths, some lakes, crossable and uncrossable marsh.” A few of the tracks were cement or cobblestones. In the Middle-distance, by the time I arrived from seeing the last starters off, I found our team abuzz with the excellent result of Melanie in placing 16th, just 7 minutes behind the winner. Alex also recorded a pretty decent result at 21st and 6 mins down. Then AJ came in to take GOLD, thus buoying up the team further.

The three Long-distance qualification heats were pretty cutthroat for the boys. AJ and Alex secured the desirable near last starting positions with excellent rides placing 1st and 3rd in their heats.

Paul (22nd) and David (23rd) missed out. In a somewhat questionable decision five extra riders were added to the final from AJ’s heat 1, as it was deemed that this heat had been allocated too many top ranked riders and too many from some countries. Only a couple of the girls needed to be eliminated, so qualification was a little easier and had only two heats. Cath (13th) led the way with Jen (16th) and Thor (17th) close behind. Melanie (26th) took it a bit too easy.

MEN

SPRINT 8.6k 40m 24c

MIDDLE 21.3k 250m 18c

place

time

behind

place

time

Adrian Jackson

6

20.55

1.12

1

54.13

Alex Randall

50

26.37

6.54

21

60.37

Paul Darvodelsky

48

26.20

6.37

50

67.40

David Simpfendorfer

68

32.11

12.28

60

70.57

Chris Forne (NZ)

45

25.47

13

58.23

WOMEN

SPRINT 7.7k 40m 20c

behind

In the Long-distance Final the men had 39km and the women 27km. Alex wasn’t totally happy with his 13th (6 mins down) but his consistent rides near the top were pleasing. Adrian was still feeling the effects of food poisoning or a virus that had hit him hard on the rest day and he didn’t quite know if he could sustain a long race. In the end he overcame the odds and gained another podium position, 6th, just 3 minutes down. Melanie’s 26th was a fine effort since that she did the course by herself and had to mow the grass down for all the others to follow. I estimate that her early start cost her 5-8 minutes and a top-12 position – a lesson learnt.

We had high hopes for the Relays but it wasn’t to be. Alex suffered a 6 minute error on the first leg leaving us well adrift. Paul rode okay but not brilliantly, Adrian was way off his best and we placed 11th. As is always the way, David rode very well in the B relay.

Melanie got the first leg role in the women’s team. She started well but got overexcited near the end and rode past a control without seeing it, resulting in a DNF. Jen and Thor both had pleasing rides, as did Cath in the B relay. Thor was “rewarded” with a random drug test. The girls all grew in confidence and skill as the week progressed. Australia did actually get on the podium on this day, as coach Kay placed 2nd in the ”Dream team” tipping competition.

Overall the dominant nation this year in medals won and podium places was pretty evenly shared between Russia and Denmark. Quite a way behind were Czech Republic, Finland, Austria, and the Swiss. Australia would rank 7th or 8th.

Interestingly enough Mongolia had four riders entered but no-one arrived. The WOC Banquet and party was as lively as I have seen at a MTB WOC and there was much dancing etc into the wee small hours. The girls looked resplendent in their Aussie flag sarongs. The JWOC party was held separately at one of the other accommodation venues and there were reports of some getting lost in the forest on the way back to Hotel Anders.

The Kiwis had a large contingent this year and achieved some excellent results. Marquita was the standout with 4th in the Sprint, 5th in the Middle-distance, 11th in the Long-distance. Chris Forne was a revelation – a laid back adventure racer who placed 13th (Middle) and 19th (Long) at his first MTB WOC. NZ also took a junior girl, Georgia Whitla whose 15th in the Middle-distance was impressive. I just wish we had sent some juniors - it was so motivating for them. Other NZ team members that Aussies would know were Kath Copland (Victorian resident), and the evergreen Greg Barbour, who now resides in Moscow. Greg bought AJ’s bike at the end of WOC, saving AJ from excess baggage on the way home.

In 2009 WOC is in Israel in August while JWOC will be held concurrently with the European Championships in Denmark in July.

LONG QUAL 20- 20.6km

place

time

behind

6

105.30

3.02

13

109.06

6.38

RELAY 16.1-16.5k 130m 15c

place

time

1

57.29

6.24

3

61.32

42s

13.31

22

76.31

15.21

B final – DNF, saved himself for relay

16.44

23

75.40

17.07

B final (same course as AJ. Would have placed 46th in A

B relay 3rd male overall

38.00

4.10

3

MIDDLE 15.8k 190m 14c

behind

LONG FINAL 38.9k 310m 23c

19

LONG QUAL 16-17km

time 3rd leg

48.24

1st leg

53.28

2nd leg

51.42

111

LONG FINAL 26.9k 240m 16c

RELAY 13.8-14.2k 90m 12c

place

time

behind

place

time

behind

place

time

behind

place

time

behind

Melanie Simpson

42

29.30

8.26

16

59.32

7.49

26

88.42

20

26

95.49

12.35

Jen Graham-Taylor

41

28.49

7.45

41

75.36

23.53

16

79.23

11

29

101.28

18.14

2nd leg

49.53

Thor Egerton

32

27.00

5.56

42

76.30

24.47

17

81.05

13

31

103.19

20.05

3rd leg

51.32

Cath Chalmers

33

27.12

6.08

43

76.33

24.50

13

77.42

10

49

134.41

51.27

B relay

50.00

4

22.05

5

54.17

11

90.54

Marquita Gelderman (NZ)

8 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

time 1st leg – missed a control

MEN’S SPRINT Warmińsko-Mazursk University 1:5000 C: 2.5m ---- Adrian’s course

VI World MTB Orienteering Championships MAP 1

Olsztyn - Stare Jablon 24-31 August 2008

16

17

18

15 19

14 20

22

Adrian racing around the athletic track to the map change at control 13

21

23 MAP 2

24 DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 9

The team from left: Paul, David, Cath, Alex, Thor, Adrian, Melanie, Jen

Men’s Middle Distance Adrian’s course

VI World MTB Orienteering Championships

7

Olsztyn - Stare Jablon 24-31 August 2008

8

6

13 9

5

10

12 11 14

3

15

4

2

17 16 18

1

Adrian downloading after the Middle Distance race.

10 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

WORLD MTB ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Cath Chalmers during the sprint race

Jen Graham Taylor

David Simpfendorfer

Thor Egerton stretching for a crowded control.

Alex Randall had another successful World Champs with a 13th in the Long and 21st in the Middle.

Paul Darvodelsky

Melanie Simpson had some promising results at her first World Champs with an excellent 16th place in the Middle race.

MTBO World Ranking MEN

MTBO World Ranking WOMEN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 37 40 53

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9 19 30 37

Adrian Jackson........... AUS Ruslan Gritsan..................RUS Beat Schaffner.................SUI Anton Foliforov.................RUS Lasse Brun Pedersen.......DEN Beat Oklé.........................SUI Tõnis Erm.........................EST Tobias Breitschädel..........AUT Lubomír Tomecek.............CZE Simon Seger....................SUI Alex Randall................ AUS Damian Welbourne...... AUS Dion Keech.................. AUS David Simpfendorfer... AUS

Michaela Gigon................AUT Christine Schaffner...........SUI Ingrid Stengård................FIN Anna Füzy........................HUN Marquita Gelderman........NZL Hana Bajtosová................SVK Ramune Arlauskiene........LTU Karolina Mickeviciute.......LTU Anna Kaminska................POL Ksenia Chernykh..............RUS Thorlene Egerton......... AUS Carolyn Jackson.......... AUS Melanie Simpson......... AUS

The joys of travelling with bikes – packing up! Adrian took 2 bikes with him on his extended trip overseas – hence the BIG box!

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 11

12 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

Shannon Jones (ACT)

Mace Neve (ACT)

2008 AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL

Ben Rattray (SA) Rob Preston (NSW)

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 13

2008 Australian Championships Carnival

The Trewin Report Blair Trewin reports on the Australian Champs Carnival held in Queensland in September.

F

or the first time, all four foot Australian Championships were held in the same week, with the mountain bike Championships the next week for good measure. For the first time, a major Queensland carnival was held in the gully-spur country north of Brisbane. Many expected straightforward and fast gully-spur terrain from reports of the National League events in the region in 2006, but most of the terrain was more challenging than that. There was an abundance of erosion detail in lowvisibility gullies to deal with, and the terrain also brought more than its share of spectacular parallel errors, with more than one big name coming horribly unstuck at least once during the week.

Hanny Allston returned to Australian orienteering after the best half of a year in New Zealand and was predictably dominant, especially early in the week when none of the 2008 Australian team were present. Her only loss came through a mispunch in the Sprint. Simon Uppill went one better, winning everything except the Relay, although what was happening around him was not the most encouraging of signs for the long-term future of the Australian men; only one other placegetter all week (Ryan Smyth in the Sprint) was under 30 years of age, and several times three or four of the top five in M21E were eligible for M35.

Australian Middle Distance Championships The big week for Uppill and Allston started at the Australian Middle Distance Championships, which introduced most to the heat and the humidity, and to terrain which was trickier than most expected. Allston was already two minutes clear of the field by #5, and hardly put a foot wrong in some tricky sections in the second half. Anna Sheldon took second, four minutes behind, after a solid run, with Susanne Casanova third and Ilka Barr taking her best result at this level with fourth.

Uppill was a little slow at the start, as he was several times during the week, but took a sustained lead by #6, and made sure of the result when he won seven successive legs in mid-course. Grant Bluett lost time on #3, a control which troubled many, but pulled back on the second half to take second two minutes behind.

14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

Another two minutes back was Lorenzo Calabro, who led early and went on to his best result since his 2001 WOC year.

The best of the National League races was in M17-20. Kurt Neumann, still only a first-year M16, led for most of the race but lost two minutes at #9, and had to settle for third. That left it open for New Zealander Scott McDonald, but he was strongly challenged at the end by Geoff Stacey. Stacey made up ground over the last few controls but fell 19secs short. In W17-20, in a race where the top three were seven minutes clear of anyone else, the fourth control was crucial. Kate Morrison and Krystal Neumann both lost time there, giving Laurina Neumann a lead which she never surrendered. At the end she had two minutes in hand over Morrison.

For a middle distance event close races were in short supply, but one which was close was in W60. Patricia Aspin has dominated on almost every visit over the last decade, but she was pushed all the way by Jenny Hawkins in a fluctuating race which was not settled until the last control. Several other veterans had big wins in decent fields, including Paul Pacque (six minutes in M50), Robin Uppill (six minutes in W50) and Hugh Moore (four minutes in M60). Ian Lawford had a solid two-minute win over Aaron Breed in the competitive M16 class, while Laura Robertson started a good week for New Zealand by having a similar margin over Morgan McIntyre in W16.

Queensland Long Distance Championships Hanny Allston was even more dominant than she had been the previous day, winning by the massive margin of 13 minutes. She was already four minutes up by #3, and continued to extend her lead on a day when she only lost two splits. Amber Morrison provided her strongest opposition, and Susanne Casanova overcame early time losses to take third for the second time on the weekend.

Simon Uppill had to work harder than that, but never really looked like losing after the first few controls. The gap narrowed to 1min25secs at #13 after Grant Bluett made the most of a long leg,

but then drifted out again to its eventual three minutes. Darren Ashmore was challenging Bluett for second most of the way, but fell away towards the end and was eventually overhauled by Craig Dufty, running his first major interstate events of the season, for third place. Several who might have been considered contenders for minor placings had days they would rather forget (highlights of the GPS tracks can be found via Attackpoint for those who like watching slow-motion train wrecks).

Like the previous day, M17-20 was a close race and W17-20 an easy win for Laurina Neumann. The top three boys, none of whom featured in the previous day’s placings, were covered by only 46 seconds. Oliver Mitchell had a more comfortable lead than that for most of the way, opening up a 3min30secs gap by #11, but lost most of it at #14 and had to hang on desperately after his lead narrowed to 8 seconds at the second-last. Josh Blatchford was his closest challenger, and JWOC team member Oscar Phillips had his best run of the week to take third.

Neumann was dominant again, and was four minutes up by halfway; she lost two minutes at #10 but it didn’t matter. The next three places were filled by New Zealanders, with Angela Simpson the best of them.

The best race elsewhere was in W55. Lynn Dabbs led Carol Brownlie most of the way, dropped just behind at the second-last, but came back to win by seven seconds. Kurt Neumann dropped back to his own age class of M16 and unsurprisingly won it by a lot (six minutes), but there was a surprise in W16 where Laura Robertson was beaten by hitherto little-known Victorian Mary Fleming, who was a minute clear of the field on the first leg and never let that advantage go.

Australian Sprint Championships The action moved to the Maryborough Showgrounds on Friday for the Australian Sprint Championships. The fields swelled here with many making their first appearance of the week (although on the other side of the coin a few in the veteran classes passed this one up).

Sprint events always see some close finishes and 2008 was no exception, with three margins of two seconds or less. James Robertson won M16 by that margin over Ian Lawford in a sprint finish; Steve Flick held off a fast-finishing Michael Wood in M60 by a single second; and John Sheahan and Clive Pope could not be separated in M70 after the Queenslander pulled in three seconds in the chute. The Sprint also throws up some different winners to those we are used to seeing in the bush (among this year’s crop were Barbara Hill in W40, Ian Taylor in M50 and Valerie Barker in W55), and gave Western Australia a rare trifecta when Oscar McNulty, Bill Mann and Brendon Canzirri filled the placings in M14.

Australian Long Distance Championships All four championships are now in the same week, but the Long Distance Championships still carry the greatest kudos among most of the orienteering community, and brought the largest numbers of the week. They also brought the week’s most diverse area (at least if your course was long enough to reach the rocks), and the least humid weather of any of the running days (the best day of all was wasted on the Thursday rest day).

Hanny Allston was pushed harder than she had been for most of the week. After losing a minute at the first control, she did not get the lead from Jo Allison until #7, but, as she has several times before, she took command through mid-course and opened the way for a comfortable margin of four minutes. Kathryn Ewels also got ahead of Allison at that stage, giving her a break in the battle for second which she held to the end. It was Allston’s third elite win in as many attempts.

This time Simon Uppill had the larger margin of the two. The field was stronger than it had been earlier in the week (although Dave Shepherd, who injured his ankle a couple of weeks earlier, was missed), but he never looked like losing once the race settled down. He stretched his lead from one minute to three on the long

This was the one race of the week that Hanny Allston didn’t win.

She came in 49 seconds ahead, but it turned out that she had punched a wrong control (which some felt was closer than it should have been to the correct one). Two of Australia’s three star performers from WOC were on hand to take advantage of this.

Jo Allison led through a close first half, but Kathryn Ewels gained 14secs at #9, giving her an advantage which she held to the finish.

Mace Neve, 39secs further back, completed the placings with a career-best result at this level.

Like Ewels and Allison, Rob Walter appeared for the first time during the carnival and gave Simon Uppill his tightest race of the week. He led for most of the way, but never by more than 10 seconds in a remarkably constant run. The event was not decided until the last few controls. Uppill gained four seconds on each of #27 and #28, and that was enough in a race of fine margins. Ryan Smyth never quite looked like winning, but still had by far his best run of the week and came home fast to squeeze Grant Bluett out by a single second.

Bryan Keely’s season has been ruined by the stress fracture that forced him out of the JWOC team last July. In Queensland he was still unable to handle anything much longer than a Sprint, but showed that he has lost little of his speed with an impressive run in M17-20. Almost as impressive was the New Zealand M16 Duncan Morrison, running up, who was within a few seconds all the way but finished nine short. Again there was a close battle between Lachlan Dow and Josh Blatchford, this time for third, with Dow prevailing this time. Laurina Neumann won again in W17-20, this time by 18 seconds. Belinda Lawford was next in her best result of the week, recovering well after a slow start, and Aislinn Prendergast was third.

Hanny Allston (Tas) runs the Sprint at Maryborough Showgrounds.

Photo: Peter Yeates

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 15

2008 AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL – just – to hold on by less than a minute over Moore. There was an even closer race in W50, where Carolyn Jackson overhauled Debbie Davey in the finish chute, while in M50 Paul Pacque was pushed all the way before winning by just over a minute from Melvyn Cox and Chris Norwood.

Patricia Aspin had an easier time of it in W60 than she had in the Middle Distance, although the result was the same – Aspin first and Jenny Hawkins second. Carolyn Chalmers took out W65 over Barbara Pope and Rob Simson was ahead of Clive Pope and Ian Hassall in M70, in two slightly unexpected results. Paul Liggins, who was unexpectedly beaten in M40 last year, made no mistake this year, whilst a slightly more surprising double-digit margin was achieved by Mark Nemeth over Mark Darvodelsky in M45.

Australian Relay Championships

Lorenzo Calabro (Qld) waiting for the Relay start.

Photo: Rob Preston

twelfth leg in mid-course, and a minute lost at #18 was only a wobble on the way to a five-minute win. Rob Walter drifted back over the second half and looked as if he might surrender second to Craig Dufty, but Dufty lost a minute at the second-last to miss that chance; third was still his best result at this level.

Laurina Neumann looked as dominant as ever for the first half of the race in W17-20 and had opened up a five-minute lead by #10, but then fell away dramatically over the last part of the course.

She lost significant time on four successive controls to surrender the lead to Angela Simpson, and a late surge was not enough to wrest it back. Bridget Anderson, who ran as a senior for most of the week with some solid results to show for it, returned to juniors and took third place.

M17-20 saw another interesting contest, ending with Oliver Mitchell’s first national title, which came with a consistent run once he was through the first. Scott McDonald led early but crashed out when he lost seven minutes at #10, and it was Kurt Neumann who impressed greatly again, leading at times and coming home hard to get within 42secs of Mitchell. Again it was Dow v Blatchford for third, and this time it was the NSW competitor who got the result.

There is a long history of good M16 races at this event and 2008 was no exception, with less than a minute covering the top three and a surprise win to Tom Palfrey, who could not make the Tasmanian schools team but went from strength to strength during the week. He did not take the lead for the first time until the third-last control, ahead of Duncan Morrison and Robert Bennett; Ian Lawford led for much of the way but dropped back to seventh after losing time at #10. Rebekah Sunley looked to be running away with W16 when she was six minutes ahead of the field by halfway, but dropped out of contention with an error at #6, resulting in another New Zealand quinella through Laura Robertson and Selena Metherell.

There was another upset result in an erratic M60 race. Hugh Moore, who has dominated the class all year, should have lost any chance when he lost seven minutes at the first control. He was still six minutes down going into the third-last control. Both Bob Allison and Reid Moran lost time there, but had enough of a lead 16 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

Simon Uppill finally tasted defeat in the Relay, but not before the men turned on a great race. In the fastest terrain of the week, initial skirmishes did not sort much out, with Eric Morris putting New South Wales a minute ahead of a close pack. It was that first leg which was crucial to the eventual result, but not at the very front. Both ACT and South Australia had put their weakest runners (on paper) out first, but both did admirable jobs to set their teams up; Lachlan Dow came in with the pack, and John Nieuwenhoven three minutes behind it when many would have expected closer to ten.

The ACT took the lead on the next leg through Grant Bluett, and it took a great run from Ben Rattray to keep the Southern Arrows in touch. They needed to beat NSW to be sure of second in the National League and looked to have secured that at least, but Uppill still went out two minutes down on Rob Walter. By the spectator control they were together, and in a race with few splits, at the last control they were still together. That meant it came down to the sprint, and after a titanic struggle Walter prevailed by a few metres. NSW were third, winning a battle with Victoria after Rob Preston pulled away from Bruce Arthur over the closing controls.

The women’s Relay saw more fluctuations. Hanny Allston predictably gave an otherwise thin Tasmanian team a big early lead, but her closest challengers came in the more surprising form of Belinda Lawford (ACT2) and Aislinn Prendergast (Victoria).

New Zealand were just behind and opened up a six-minute lead by the end of the second leg, but a solid leg by Shannon Jones brought ACT1 back into the race. Jo Allison and Kathryn Ewels went out together in second, and ran down most of the gap to the New Zealanders, but Lizzie Ingham held on to win by two minutes, with Allison just ahead of Ewels for second.

Both 17-20 classes were battles between New Zealand and Queensland with the visitors winning both. Scott McDonald pulled away from Kurt Neumann on the last leg, while Kate Morrison finished over the top of Krystal Neumann to take W1720 despite Laurina Neumann’s first-leg lead. W16 might have been expected to be a NZ-Queensland contest too, but as they had at the Schools, the ACT upset the party; once again Naomi Mitchell’s second leg set the result up, and this time it was Georgia Parsons who closed the deal on leg three. A different pair fought out a close result in M16 when Kasimir Gregory had just enough in hand over Oliver Poland to give NSW a ten-second win over the ACT in M16.

M55 was the closest of the veteran classes, as Nigel Davies edged away from Derek Morrison to give Tasmania a margin of just over a minute over New Zealand. In W45 a fast start by Felicity Crosato put Queensland six minutes in front after two legs; Debbie Davey made most of that up on the last, but the finish arrived with NSW still just over a minute short. The result was reversed in W55, where Lynn Dabbs’ second leg set NSW up for a win pulling away from Queensland; New Zealand led into the last leg after Patricia Aspin’s first leg but had to be content with third.

THAT AUS Champs Relay finish - Rob Walter (ACT) just outsprints Simon Uppill (SA) in a thrilling conclusion to a close fought race. Photos: Dion Keech

Arabella Phillips (TAS). Photos: Dion

Keech

Kathryn Ewels (VIC) brings the Nuggets home to an AUS Relays 3rd place. Photo: Rob Preston

Jo Allison (ACT) coming in 2nd in the Sprint.

Photo: Mike Hubbert

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 17

2008 AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL

Australian Schools Championships Blair Trewin

(Q) also consolidated a reputation advanced over the weekend with third. Kurt Neumann (Q) was an unsurprising winner of the junior boys, but he was pushed all the way by Oliver Poland (ACT); Neumann led all the way, but never by much, and the eventual gap was less than a minute. Ian Lawford’s (ACT) fast finish in third left him to rue time lost at the first control.

The action then moved to the Relays. In the senior boys, Patrick Watts (Tas), who had emerged with a fourth place in the individual, gave Tasmania a one-minute lead after the first leg, but most of the other teams were in the next pack, including favourites New Zealand and Queensland. Those two teams emerged as clear leaders on the second leg and were still close through most of the third, but in the end Scott McDonald (NZ) pulled away from Joshua Neumann (Q) to win by just over a minute. The Tasmanians just held on for third despite Lachlan Dow bringing the ACT home in the day’s fastest time.

The ACT had a slightly unexpected win in the senior girls. They were in the hunt after the first leg, where New Zealand led by just over a minute, but took a commanding lead on the second leg when Naomi Mitchell kept her head as others around her were losing theirs. They took a six-minute lead into the last leg which was extended further by Belinda Lawford. Queensland made up ground on the last leg to take second, and Kate Morrison outsprinted Sarah Buckerfield to pull New Zealand ahead of Tasmania.

Lachlan Dow (ACT). Photo: Rob Preston

Q

ueensland’s junior depth has been building for some years now, and on home ground they were comprehensive winners of the Australian Schools Championships. They also came closer than any State team has for some time to beating New Zealand in the Southern Cross Junior Challenge, but were just three points short. A good Relay day left the ACT as the best of the rest.

New Zealand had an easy win in the junior girls. The race was competitive for one leg, with Rebekah Sunley (V) coming in within a minute of Julia McMillan (NZ), but was never a contest after that as Selena Metherell and Laura Robertson successively lowered the benchmark for the day’s fastest time. Queensland were an equally comfortable second, with the Victorians taking third. The junior boys was declared a no-race after some teams got incorrect maps, which may have cost Queensland dearly, as it was their best chance to make up ground in New Zealand’s weakest age group.

There were also National League races in conjunction with the schools individual. Once again Simon Uppill and Hanny Allston won easily, and Laurina Neumann took W17-20 in a time good enough for second outright. Scott McDonald’s winning run in the Schools was also enough to give him the National League points ahead of Oliver Mitchell.

New Zealanders took out three of the four individual titles. For most of the first half of the senior boys’ course, Scott McDonald (NZ) duelled with Josh Blatchford (NSW) and Lachlan Dow (ACT), but took control on the long eleventh leg and finished 1min40secs ahead. Blatchford looked to have secured second by the spectator control, but lost time on #14 and had to come from behind on the last two legs to take second over Dow by the narrowest possible margin. In the girls, Kate Morrison (NZ) held a narrow lead over Krystal Neumann (Q) most of the way.

The Queenslander got within 14secs at #10, but in the end the gap was just over a minute. Belinda Lawford (ACT) looked like making it a three-way race but then lost seven minutes at one control on the final loop, opening the way for Rachel Goodwin (NZ) to edge out Lilian Burrill (Q) for third.

The third New Zealand win came in the junior girls, but came from unexpected quarters. Laura Robertson (NZ) was red-hot favourite, but her race was over by halfway after three major errors in four controls. The fifth leg decided the race; Selena Metherell (NZ) ran 4min21secs on it, Jessie West (Tas) (who was 13th) 5min42secs, and no-one else went sub-7mins. That gave Metherell a big lead, although she lost most of it at #11 to set up a close finish. Her nearest challenger, 46secs behind, was Mary Fleming (V), who reinforced her newfound status as an emerging talent with a second big result in three days, and Morgan McIntyre 18 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

Selena Metherell (NZ) won the Junior Girls Championship.

Photo: Rob Preston

SILVA NATIONAL ORIENTEERING LEAGUE

State Championships roundup Tasmania

2008 SILVA National Orienteering League Blair Trewin

T

he Canberra Cockatoos took both team titles in the 2008 SILVA National Orienteering League with some ease. The men’s result was set up earlier in the season, and the margin grew later on as no other team was able to consistently push them. The greatest end-of-season interest was in the race for second, between the Southern Arrows and NSW Stingers, which came down to whoever performed best in the Australian Relays. The Arrows’ second place there also gave them second in the League. In the women’s competition, the Victorian Nuggets pushed the Cockatoos through the first half of the season, but losing Jasmine Neve and Kirsten Fairfax overseas was too great a test of their depth and they dropped away at the end of the year.

The Queensland Cyclones finished well to take third.

Jo Allison’s good first half of the season gave her enough of a margin over Kathryn Ewels to have the individual title secured before the final weekend. At the AUS Champs Carnival the dominance of Hanny Allston (who did not have enough scoring races to be an overall threat) limited the point-scoring opportunities for anyone else. A consistent final week for the ever consistent Susanne Casanova, including three thirds and a fourth, was enough to place her third. Once it became apparent that neither Julian Dent nor Dave Shepherd would contest the final week, Simon Uppill became the favourite, and his excellent finish made sure of it. Rob Walter was next, a result built on three wins out of three in the Tasmanian rounds, while Grant Bluett edged Rob Preston out by a single point for third.

Both individual and team competitions for the junior men came down to the final race. Entering the final week, the Victorian Nuggets were in a strong position in the team event and Bryan Keely in an equally strong position in the individual, but the injury which prevented him finishing anything except the Sprint and Relay severely damaged both his chances and the team’s. In the end Oliver Mitchell had to come first or second in the Long Distance Championships to claim the title, and the Cyclones had to beat a depleted Victorian team in the Relay. Both results were achieved, although the Victorians put up a better fight in the Relay than many expected. There were also close results further down, with the Cockatoos and Tassie Foresters tying for third, and Josh Blatchford taking third by one point over Lachlan Dow after a succession of close races between the two.

There were no such dramas for the Queenslanders in the junior women’s. Their team only dropped points in three rounds all year (all of them races where most of their usual team were otherwise engaged in the seniors), and they took the first three individual places. Laurina Neumann’s big final week gave her an eventually comfortable victory, with Rachel Effeney and Bridget Anderson having enough points to take the minor places despite missing most or all of the final set of races.

The spring season of State Long Distance championships started in Tasmania, near Launceston, on 7 September. In what was to be one of several close races during the season, Ryan Smyth edged out Paul Liggins by seven seconds in M21. Jess Davis, returning to Australia after several months away, took out W21 over Emma Warren and Jess Fuller-Smith. There were also good wins in M20 and W20 for Oscar Phillips and Sarah Buckerfield respectively.

New South Wales After his narrow loss the previous weekend, Paul Liggins broke through for possibly the best win of his long career in the NSW Championships, winning M21 against a good field in which less than four minutes covered the top four places. The minor placings were filled by national team members of the recent past, Eric Morris and Rob Walter. There was not as much depth in W21 but Jo Allison still impressed in finishing seven minutes clear of Belinda Lawford.

The cream came to the top on a tough but interesting new sandstone area near Mittagong. Steve Craig, in his return to Australian orienteering, edged out former national (and Knox) teammate Jock Davis by 30 seconds in M35. Close finishes were rare elsewhere, but there were impressive runs by the likes of Josh Blatchford (M18), Christine Brown (W45) and Liz Abbott (W50).

South Australia The SA Long Distance Championships took place at World’s End. Fields were mostly small, but it provided the opportunity for Simon Uppill to again display his talents on home turf, as he recorded an overwhelming victory in M21. W21 was closer, but Susanne Casanova still had 11 minutes in hand over her sister Jenny.

Western Australia The third State championship of the 13-14 September weekend was in Western Australia, on the 2006 Australian Championships terrain, Hill Park Dale. This year the Middle and Long Distance championships were held on separate days, replacing the traditional two-day event.

Craig Dufty and Rachel West both did the double. For West it was a close-run thing on both days, particularly in the Long Distance when she was only 15 seconds ahead of Cath Chalmers. Chalmers was also her closest rival in the Middle Distance, but Anthea Feaver was only a few seconds behind in third. John Toomey pushed Dufty to within 41 seconds in the Middle Distance, but in the Long Distance they were separated by a substantial 18 minutes.

Victoria The final State championship weekend was in Victoria in October in the goldmining terrain around Daylesford and Castlemaine.

There were two days of close racing in the open classes; indeed, the W21 Middle Distance could not have been any closer, as Natasha Key – running her first events in Australia since her World Masters victory – and Laurina Neumann dead-heated. Key then went on to win the Long Distance too, a minute clear of Vanessa Round.

Bruce Arthur did the double in M21, showing few ill-effects from the injury that has troubled him during the spring season, but both were by single-digit margins – in the Middle Distance he was seven seconds ahead of Blair Trewin, and in the Long Distance eight seconds ahead of Paul Liggins (with Trewin also within the same minute). Liggins was an aggregate 15 seconds away from taking three State titles, but had to be content with one.

The ACT Championships were held in April, and Queensland held theirs as part of the Australian Championships Carnival.

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 19

Photo: Russell Rigby

ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA

High Performance Mike Dowling, OA Director, High Performance

L

ooking back through my out-of-control inbox of email and my high performance files on my computer I’ve realised it is now over six years since I took on the voluntary role of Director, High Performance on the Board of Orienteering Australia. The time has come for me to pass on the baton of this role to someone else and it is my intention to retire from the Board of Orienteering Australia in the very near future. As such this will be my penultimate column for The Australian Orienteer. It is my intention to summarise some of our achievements over the last six years in this issue and to focus on the challenges ahead in my final column for the next issue.

Over the last six years we have made some significant progress across a number of areas in the development of more coherent structures for the OA High Performance program. We now have a more structured development pathway with our national squads from the National Junior Development Squad to the National Junior Squad and then to the National Senior Squad, with a high performance group within the National Senior Squad, and a separate National Squad for MTBO. We have seen international breakthroughs for our sport with Hanny Allston (TAS) and Adrian Jackson (VIC) both becoming two time World Champions. We have had a significant number of benchmark performances (top-16 individual and top-8 relay) in World Championships. We have hosted two World Championships with the 2004 MTBO World Championships at Ballarat (VIC) and the 2007 Junior World Championships at Dubbo (NSW) which were both highly successful events and a tribute to the many volunteers who put in so much time to make them that success.

We have seen the establishment of a National Training Centre though our partnership with the fine people at the ACT Academy of Sport. We have seen the establishment of regular high quality competition with our New Zealand friends from across the Tasman for our emerging senior elite orienteers through the Bushrangers team. We have seen the development of MTBO as a more significant aspect of our sport that has culminated in the commencement of a MTBO National Series this year. We have seen continued development of our National League with both senior and junior divisions for teams with an associated National Series for individual competition in these senior and junior divisions.

And most importantly, we have seen in an incredible number of voluntary hours put into all aspects of our high performance programs by a number of extremely dedicated and wonderful people as competitors, coaches, managers, selectors, mappers and organisers, to name just a few groups, without which a high performance program, and the sport in general for that matter, could not exist.

The SILVA National Orienteering League One of the most significant achievements for our sport in 2008 has been the work of Development Director Ben Rattray 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

and HP Manager Rob Preston in securing sponsorship by Fiskars Brands through their SILVA brand for our National Orienteering League. I want to again express my sincere thanks through this column for their work in achieving this sponsorship and to particularly thank Nic Naes of Fiskars Brands for his personal support and assistance though their SILVA brand. Congratulations as well to all the various State winners of the SILVA National Orienteering League divisions and the individual winners of the National Series divisions.

Level 2 National Coaching Workshop By the time this issue hits your kitchen table Dave Meyer, our Manager Coaching & Officiating Development, will be putting the icing on the cake for our planned national level 2 coaching workshop to be held early next year over the weekend of Jan 31/Feb1. As a part of OA’s commitment to improving the standard of coaching we have put aside financial resources to support and encourage attendance of key coaches both from a National and State standpoint who wish to improve their quality and understanding of coaching. As I have said previously on many occasions though this column good coaching is an essential aspect of sporting success and enjoyment at all levels of any sport.

Selection Procedures Review A group of OA Board members has been conducting a review of our selection procedures and will be presenting a final set of recommendations to the 2008 OA National Conference for adoption by member States as an outcome of this review.

The review group received some very worthy and thoughtful submissions on how to improve our selection procedures and have taken on board a number of those suggestions in order to improve both the clarify and transparency of this very emotional aspect of any sport.

The High Performance Strategic Plan For 20092012 Another important aspect of the 2008 National Conference will be the adoption of the new High Performance Strategic Plan for the period 2009-2012. As has been mentioned many times before in this column, the Plan is the guiding document of our HP program and as such belongs to all our stakeholders; the member States of OA, athletes, coaches and the wider community of orienteers. The document is a dynamic one and continuously undergoes changes and refinements as circumstances change and evolve.

In my final column I will discuss some of the challenges facing us as a sport in implementing this Plan over the next fouryear period. What do you think are the challenges facing us?

Contact me at oa_highperformance@netspeed.com.au with your musings! Go on, I just know you want to!

BIG MISTAKES MACE NEVE (Canberra Cockatoos) headed towards the Finish in 3rd place on the first leg of the SILVA National Orienteering League Relays. She was going well, but where was that last control?

24.375 competitors in 2008!

She got to the run-in bunting in full view of spectators and the Finish but she hadn’t found the last control at the saddle between the mounds. Perhaps she thought it would be at the end of the bunting – it wasn’t. She hesitated, looked at her map, hesitated some more, looked up, looked down, looked up again, then finally figured that the control must be amongst the trees behind her. So she trotted back.

Meanwhile, younger sister Jasmine (Victorian Nuggets) ran down from the last control and into the Finish, bringing the Nuggets up to 3rd place on the first leg.

Mace lost over 2min40sec with this mistake and it may well have cost the Canberra Cockatoos eventual first place in the Relays.

The Nuggets took 1st, beating the Cockatoos by 3min05sec but, if the time Mace lost is subtracted, the race down the Finish chute on the final leg between Jo Allison and a fast-finishing Kathryn Ewels would have been very, very close.

World Champs 08

- The World’s Greatest Orienteering Event -

Men’s Middledistance Final

18-24 July

Swiss star DANIEL HUBMANN was just 8sec down on leader Thierry Gueorgiou of France at control #8, and 25sec ahead of eventual bronze medallist Valentin

Welcome to Småland in southern Sweden!

O-Ringen town will be located just west of the city of Eksjö.

Welcome to a very compact event: Three of the five stages will finish next-door to O-Ringen town and the other 2 stages 3 km to the northwest, just a short bike ride or shuttle bus ride away.

Order the map now!

All five stages of O-Ringen 2009 will be within the area shown on the above map. Order the map, in scale 1:15.000, and start preparing for the races. (Can be ordered from the website www.oringen.se).

Accomodations Service Various types of accomodations are available. Camping or caravan sites in O-Ringen town, military barracks or rentals (apartments, houses, club cabins and caravans) are all offered via the website.

Entry Regular entries can be made until 1 June 2009.

Novikov of Russia. If he could hold it together Hubmann had a good chance of running down Gueorgiou. Instead, he dropped 72sec to Gueorgiou on the next short leg and totally blew his chances of a medal of any colour.

He got very close to #9 but then turned left towards some rock clusters, circled one, came back, ran around in some more circles, then saw the control through a gap between two large boulders.

He recorded 33rd best time for this leg. The time he lost at this one control put him out of medal contention.

More info: www.oringen.se DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER

21

PRODUCT REVIEW

Ay Up Lighting David Shepherd

On June 21st, midwinter, in our nations capital the sun is above the horizon between 7:12AM and 4:58PM. If you spend nine of those hours at work and getting to/from work there isn’t much time left for training! Training at night is a familiar activity for European orienteers and has become more so for orienteers here in Australia. Apart from in Melbourne where more than 100 competitors race in several events each week during the winter, there’s a lack of any real night Orienteering races on the OA calendar meaning that orienteers in other States never race at night.

H

owever the rising popularity of adventure races and marathon MTB races (such as CORC’s Scott 24 hour) means many orienteers are racing through the night.

The ACTAS squad owns 15 Silva and Mila headlamps which are regularly used by the Canberra Cockatoos for orienteering, running, commuting, mountain biking... These headlamps are worth a small fortune, have heavy batteries and don’t fit on anything other than your head. Besides, the technology used in those lights (halogen globes, NiMH batteries) is older than mobile phones. Imagine you were still using a big car phone thing like Nice Guy Eddie in Reservoir Dogs. While Silva and Mila are developing LED (light emitting diode) lights, the real advances are happening in the bike light market. LED lightsets are light (weight!), tough, easy to use and put out a bright, white light.

Just a note of warning, this article is a John Laws style product review. Ay Up Lighting have generously sponsored me and given me several of their LED lightsets for orienteering/running and cycling. News just in: Ay Ups are awesome, know what I mean?

An Ay Up lightset

your door as soon as physically possible”. A lightset is actually 2 lights, each LED encased in a separate shell. There are 12 colour choices for the shell so you can choose one that doesn’t clash with your bike (or your hair). The light has a cool white tint and has three beam width options; narrow, intermediate and medium.

The narrow beam is recommended for use on the helmet and intermediate on the handlebars. The medium beam has a much wider spread and is good for running and orienteering, but the intermediate beam has a better throw and is my choice.

The lights can be independently rotated so with an intermediate lens you can widen the beam if it’s too narrow. For cycling you probably want less spread and more throw, so the intermediate is a good choice for someone wanting to use the light for both sports. I found the throw on the medium beam a little too short for the MTB. The best set up for cycling is narrow on the helmet and a wider beam on the bars, which gives you the best of both worlds.

The LEDs are currently CREE XRE, but Ay Up uses the LEDs with the highest possible flux bin they can buy. The technology in LEDs is advancing every day. Before we talk numbers we need a quick science lesson. A lumen is the unit of luminous flux, it gives a number to the power of light in the way that the kilowatt does to the power of the engine in your car. Now the numbers: each lightset outputs over 300 lumens, not as many of the little fellas

Ay Up Lighting was started in Brisbane a couple of years ago.

The Australian company has developed a reliable lighting system with super low weight, long burn time, high light output and low cost. They plan to continue to evolve the system and incorporate advances in LED and battery technology. Their lights have been designed to be a multi purpose unit suitable for running/ orienteering, mountain and road cycling, adventure sports, hiking, climbing/trekking, camping, kayaking, caving, and anything else requiring light bright lights.

The Lightset When all is said and done the most important thing for night Orienteering is light. Bright and reliable light. Most orienteers (and mountain bikers) have had some sort of problem with their light. Circuitry, vibration, switch, plugs and water have all played a part. Ay Up lights are bombproof, the units are fully sealed (waterproof to 5m, means you can snorkel with it!) anodised aluminium shells which weigh just over 50 grams. They say “You break it .... we want it back - a new set will be delivered to 22 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

Intermediate beam, the marker is 35 metres away.

as the Lupine or Öhlund orienteering lights - but the Ay Ups don’t have 4 numbers on the price tag (more about that later).

The 3 hour burn battery will run at full power for 3 hours (and the 6 hour battery for a surprising 6 hours) then slowly dim to the brightness of a good torch for up to 8 hours. Plenty of time to get back to the car if you had more problems hitting controls in the dark than you thought you would!

The mountings are probably the neatest aspect of the Ay Up lightset. The helmet and bar mountings are streamlined mountanywhere brackets that you can leave on your bike or helmet (cable tie or velco). The Headband kit has a clip-in light mount, 3hr battery mount and velcro straps, wire clips and a 3 point elasticated harness. A small rubber strap keeps the lights in place.

It only takes a few seconds to swap lights from your head to the MTB to the roadie.

The Summary Australian Mountain Bike Magazine gave the Ay Up lightset 9 out of 10. The only lightsets with higher ratings were two Lupine LEDs, which cost $950 (Wilma) and $1400 (Betty), and a HID Technologies helmet mounted system (Lumen8r) which will set you back about the same as the Ay Up MTB kit. HID (high intensity discharge) lights are among the brightest money can buy, but are a little heavier and a lot more fragile than LEDs. If its pure lumens you’re after, the sky’s the limit. But the Ay Up package combined with their low weight and price is hard to beat.

If you want an affordable, versatile lightset that beats the run-ofthe-mill orienteering lights hands down, then go for the Ay Ups.

The batteries are custom made for Ay Up. They’re lithium-ion polymer (LiPo), a sort of evolved lithium-ion (used in most modern mobile phones). LiPo has super high energy density and is robust enough to drop onto concrete (if you’re into that). What does this mean for you? Lightweight batteries which last. They are protected from short circuit, over voltage, low voltage and water.

The kits come with either a single or dual battery charger which run off 12VDC – plug the charger into the cigarette lighter in your car or into the wall at home with the supplied power adaptor. You can’t go wrong. And it only takes 2.5 hours for a full charge. Now for more numbers, this time they’re even more impressive. The LiPo batteries weigh only 70g and 130g for the 3 and 6-hour units respectively. So with the headstrap you can be running for 3 hours with over 300 lumens illuminating the forest and only 200 grams on your head!

The Price Now for probably the numbers that will make the decision for you - the price. You can get a basic kit for $270. This will get you a lightset, 6 hours of battery power and charging gear plus mounts for your helmet and couple of bikes. For an extra $220 you get another lightset and two 3-hour batteries (MTB kit). The headstrap costs an extra $20. If you can’t choose between beams and battery sizes then the Enduro kit has it all for $650.

The MTB kit, everything you need to run and ride all night.

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 23

24 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

2008 AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL

Josh Blatchford (NSW), 2nd in Senior Boys.

Photo: Rob Preston

Brodie Nankervis (TAS) in Junior Boys. Photo: Rob Preston

Julie Sunley (VIC) leads Anna Sheldon (QLD) to the finish in the W21E Sprint. Photo: Peter Yeates

Dave Meyer (NSW). Photo: Rob Preston DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 25

PRODUCT REVIEW

arts venue). Amber did fantastically well in the 60 strong Open Women’s course, placing 4th, just a few seconds from third.

SILVA headlamps L Series

Lamps for both professional users and leisure activities in a series of lightweight headlamps, which have a compact design and impressive LED technology.

Reliable light for long periods of time without access to any other light source, perhaps a long way from civilisation. Choose your headlamp according to the amount of light you require. Two examples are:

O-Spy HISTORY of ORIENTEERING QUEENSLAND

SILVA L1 A n efficient headlamp with a compact design.

LED headlamp with 3-watt output power, which lights up to a distance of 63 metres and is suitable for running or skiing. The headlamp also has an external battery pack, which increases the illumination time by up to 300% and makes it possible to keep the batteries inside your jacket when it’s cold. A running belt, which moves the batteries down from the headband to the belt, is also available as an accessory.

Key features are: • Weight: 226 grams including batteries • Max beam length: 63 metres •M ax illumination time: 200 hours (using light mode Power Save) RRP: $199.95 - available at Anaconda, Rays Outdoors and other leading outdoor retailers.

SILVA L4 A headlamp with four LEDs and an extra wide beam.

The lamp can be angled vertically and is specially designed to provide a really broad beam for walking, running or Nordic Walking.

The fixed light has two strengths and illuminates up to 10 metres. You can also choose from blinking white or red lights to make you more visible in the traffic. The broad headband has reflective thread woven into it - again offering greater visibility in traffic. Power source: 3 AAA batteries. www.silva.se australia@fiskarsbrands.com

26 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

“Map & Compass” is the story of Orienteering in Queensland, produced by Barbara Pope and Pam Cox.

SYLVIA DANSIE conquers Hawaiian Ironman.

On the weekend of October 11-12, Port Lincoln orienteering stalwart, Sylvia Dansie, completed the difficult Hawaiian Kona ironman at her first attempt. In horrendously hot conditions she swam 3.2kilometres, cycled 180km and then finished off with a marathon run of 42 kilometres in 13hours 31minutes.

Sylvia never had Kona as a goal. She signed up for Ironman Western Australia in December 2007 just to see if she could go the distance, unaware it was a qualifying event for the Ironman World Championships. Her time of 12hrs 35min 17sec put her nearly 20 minutes ahead in her age class competition and won her one of the prestigious qualifying places.

The book includes: the beginnings of Orienteering in Europe and how it spread to Australia; the formation of clubs in Queensland; stories of success and disaster; in-depth accounts of how some of the most influential people in Qld orienteering came to take up the sport; development of mapping; coaching plans and structure; over 200 photos of past and present orienteers.

FUTURE WORLD CHAMPION BORN?

Price is $20 – contact Barbara Pope at clibarpope@ bigpond.com

Meanwhile, Simone is back in training and planning a comeback for the World Championships in Hungary in 2009.

AMBER TOMAS Recently Amber, now an Oxford, UK, resident, took part in the inaugural “City of London” O race. This took place in the central part of the city, with competitors rushing past such heritage areas as St Paul’s Cathedral and through the Barbican (Europe’s largest multi

Fourteen-times World Champion, Simone Niggli of Switzerland, became a mother on September 3 with the birth of her first child, a daughter Malin. With husband Matthias also a top orienteer there’s a high possibility that Malin will be vying for the title of World Champion in about 20 years time.

The Niggli familyMatthias, Malin, and Simone

SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

Orienteering on Autopilot Jo Mitchell

Have you ever been reading The Australian Orienteer and your eyes have passed over the words and your hand turned the page only to realise, after several minutes have passed, that you have not taken in anything that you have read? Have you eaten a meal and not recalled what it tasted like? Or perhaps you have been doing the long leg of an orienteering course and found yourself soundlessly singing the lyrics of a song and not quite sure how far you have run? This experience is called being on autopilot and features a lack of present moment awareness, or the tendency to go through life without paying attention to what is going on within and around ourselves.

Time travel and story tellers Being on autopilot lets us carry out familiar tasks while allowing our mind to roam free. Like Doctor Who we become time travellers, although our destinations tend to be a little more proximal and mundane. You may find yourself travelling back in time to dwell on past experiences, maybe to berate or congratulate yourself on how poorly or well you completed the previous leg.

You may be more of a future time traveller, predicting what it will feel like if the competitor that left 2 minutes behind you should catch you; or seeing yourself having difficulty running up the big hill before the 10th control; or perhaps you are thinking about what you will eat for dinner. Wherever you are, your body may be in the here and now, but your mind is travelling elsewhere, away from the immediacy of the present moment experience.

When we do attend to our internal (i.e. body/mind) or external experience (i.e. environment) it is often in the context of stories we create based on our expectations, judgements and habits (e.g.

I feel anxious because I always run poorly in relays; I spiked that

Autopilot • Lack of present moment awareness • Time travel (past or future)

focal attention only briefly, if at all, before some automated thought and emotional reaction to them occurs, usually based on a limited range of past experiences. The consequence of such processing is that labels, ideas and judgements are often automatically imposed and events are rarely seen impartially.

For example, I am running to the 5th control when another orienteer comes in to my vision, not feeling particularly confident after losing time on the previous control, my automatic processing leads me immediately from an awareness of their presence, to assuming they are going to the same control and a desire to punch the control first and get away from them; consequently I stop paying attention to the map and terrain because I am now paying attention to the person and an internal story along the lines of ‘how did I let them catch me? Have they already punched the control? How can I get ahead?’ On autopilot I unconsciously get caught up in my own time travel and storytelling, subsequently I become disengaged from present moment awareness and as a consequence I am more likely to make a mistake.

Autopilot and you You may like to start observing how much of the time your mind is on autopilot (either in your orienteering or life in general) and what the consequences of this are for you. Perhaps ask yourself the following questions: • How much of the time do you spend thinking about the past or future?

• How much time do you spend being present (i.e. in the moment)?

• What is your performance (or enjoyment) like when you are on autopilot?

To be continued... (learn how to spend less time on autopilot and the benefits for your orienteering).

Jo Mitchell is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Melbourne and recovering orienteer (with occasional relapses). She has over 15 years of experience working in sport and is completing her PhD in well-being and performance psychology. You can contact Jo at psychjm@gmail.com

control because I wore my lucky socks today). At times like this it is easy to forget that we exist only in the present moment, the past has gone and the future is yet to be experienced. In a sport, as in life, all you have is this moment.

When autopilot gets in the way So what is the problem with autopilot? Potentially nothing, depending on what the purpose of your experience is, but being on autopilot at the wrong time or too much of the time (which people often do) can narrow your range of responses to present moment experiences. When we are on autopilot sensory objects (e.g. another person, a distinct rock feature, rain) are held in

Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 27

OPINION

Water on Courses some thoughts from John Colls* and Geoff Peck*

[*This article is a result of Geoff and John chewing the fat in Queensland during the recent Australian Championships carnival, reviewing evolution in the O-world since they first got into it in Scotland more than 40 years ago.

Geoff was the first Brit to break into the world elite of Scandinavians and central Europeans back in the 1970s: he has been at the pointy end of the sport ever since. John was instrumental in setting up the Scottish 6 Days in 1976 and regularly controls one of its race-days, facing issues of scale and complexity that are unknown here in Australia. For example, coping with 500 competitors sounds easy enough – but that’s just on the String Course!!]

We doubt that any experienced orienteer would challenge Andy Hogg’s basic premise (Letters; AO-September ‘08) about the importance of having water available on courses to help heat-stressed competitors.

In conditions which were hotter and more humid than found at most Australian events, organisers of the World Masters in Portugal chose to site water points at convenient, accessible positions. Each was manned by an army cadet with a radio link to base. Medical trucks were similarly positioned.

28 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

OPINION

Thereafter, however, many would argue that the crux of the problem lies with the current Orienteering Australia (OA) rules, in their insistence that water be placed only at a control site or compulsory crossing point. Such a restriction is not only at odds with practice elsewhere in the world (as Andy acknowledges) but is inherently illogical and potentially dangerous.

For example, at the Queensland Championships the competition area was bisected by a vehicle track, along which it would have been easy (but for the pesky OA rule!) to place a series of well-stocked water-points at intervals.

If (as Andy rightly argues) access to water may be a life saver in hot, dry Australian conditions, then why on earth place it at a control site that a heat-addled competitor may be incapable of finding? From a risk management perspective it is lunacy, especially when – as often happens in those weather conditions where water is most needed – the hapless competitor eventually struggles to the site only to discover that its meagre supply has already been exhausted.

If course planning is co-ordinated with the location of the water-points (as it should be), then each and every leg and control site can be chosen purely on technical merit, free of the compromises that are inevitable if some sites have to be chosen with a view to getting water to them.

Rather than a spirited defence of existing OA rules and policy, would it not be better to examine where they might be improved?

We believe that there are critical health and safety issues surrounding this topic. They should be worked through methodically and urgently before there is a serious accident where the finger of blame or responsibility may be pointed at OA, but the sport as a whole suffers in terms of public perception.

The first key point is to recognise that there are two sets of issues (some running in parallel, others intersecting) that affect competitors and organisers respectively. The event controller should be monitoring both – and insisting on corrective action where necessary.

For example, from an organiser’s perspective: •w hy devote large amounts of time and effort to carrying heavy containers of water to remote control sites, when a better outcome could be achieved for a tiny fraction of the same investment?

• i n particular, why expose volunteer officials to the risk of accident or injury from such back-breaking jobs (perhaps literally so!) when a different approach would render the tasks redundant?

•w hy condone a flawed policy that ‘hides’ vital water at hard-to-find control sites? A defence of ‘it seemed a good idea at the time’ is unlikely to find favour in any legal action resulting from a serious incident.

• s imilarly, why condone a flawed rule (water available every 25 minutes)? Andy emphasises that the 25 minutes is calculated on leading times, a mindset that creates a fundamental problem. If emergency water is needed, it is far more likely to be for competitors who have made major mistakes than for the leaders. By definition, ‘25’ then becomes ‘30’, ‘35’, ‘40’ or more.

•e ven accepting ‘25’ in its current interpretation, the first water on M60 at both the Queensland and the Australian Championships was two-thirds of the way round the course. With an expected winning time of about 60 minutes, that means an initial 40 minutes without water even for the leaders. So were the relevant officials unaware of OA rules, or did they decide to ignore them? Either way, it raises questions as to why OA is overseeing premier events that breach its own safety rules.

Serious as such problems are, they are not difficult to solve. All that is needed is for OA to adopt the sorts of rules and policies that have been standard practice in the rest of the world for many years.

This is the practice universally adopted at large events overseas, and with good reason. Not only does it make the organiser’s job easier and safer, it provides a better and safer outcome for competitors.

Moreover, if water-points in hot conditions are seen as a special type of First Aid post (as Andy implies), then the corollary is that they must be easily found by anyone whose capacity for rational thought has already been impaired by heat/dehydration. Clearly, a series of water-points strung along a major track meets that criterion.

Of course, many competition areas are such that it is not feasible to use a vehicle to place water at strategic locations, so what best to do then?

The answer, not surprisingly, is that the outcome will depend on a careful analysis of whatever options are realistic for the terrain and weather conditions in question. It may, for example, make sense to set longer courses in hot weather as a series of loops that bring competitors back through ‘spectator’ controls close to the Finish/Assembly where water is adjacent.

Additionally, the issue of recommending to competitors that they carry their own water ought to be addressed seriously (not just dismissed as contrary to OA rules). The critical issue for any competitor is that he or she needs to know before the race where water will be available in order to make a personal decision about how best to avoid the risk of dehydration. If that means a recommendation in the event program from organiser/controller that competitors carry their own water, then so be it. Such a clearly defined outcome would be much better than the ambiguities that often prevail at present.

Of course, the question of competitor dehydration is not unique to Orienteering. It is common to all endurance sports and we ought therefore to look at medical opinion and at their practices and trends in deciding what is best for our own sport. Broadly speaking, the debate is about where the line should be drawn between what an organiser provides for a competitor and what the competitor takes personal responsibility for. [This is obviously a big topic in its own right - anyone interested should Google on a few key words].

In summary, guaranteed access to water on courses is a vital safety factor in the hot, dry conditions that so often prevail in Australia. Whether that water is carried around by the competitor or provided by the organiser is only a secondary consideration.

Bearing in mind that today’s competitors are typically tomorrow’s organisers (and vice versa), the situation is crying out for reform that protects both groups from the shortcomings of the present system. Such a solution is not hard to find - it simply means revising OA rules and policies to bring them into line with standard practices overseas and to put greater onus on competitors to attend to their own needs.

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 29

NUTRITION Gillian Woodward

Sports drinks of course replace not only fluid, but also carbohydrate and electrolytes, all of which are important to be maintained for best body function. They are specifically designed to contain carbohydrate at the concentration which allows the liquid to be emptied rapidly from the stomach and absorbed quickly from the intestine, allowing better hydration than water alone.

Will sports drinks improve performance?

Summer – time to think of fluids Everyone knows the importance of fluids to sports performance, particularly those involved in endurance events. We have all had that experience of running well for 80% of the course, but fading in those last few controls towards the end. We lack concentration and energy, tending to make errors which seem impossible when we look over our performance in hindsight with a fully hydrated brain!

There are really only three very simple rules to follow: 1. Start the event well hydrated 2. Keep up the fluid intake throughout the run 3. Replenish fluids adequately after the event

How do you know you are well hydrated?

There are two main ways to tell. One involves knowing your normal weight, the other is to visually assess the colour of your urine.

It is known that a 2% loss in body weight due to sweating is enough to impair performance considerably. So if you know that your normal body weight is 70 kg, and you hop on the scales before a training session or event and see you are 69.6 kg, then you are dehydrated by 2% (normal body weight less 2%). Now I realise that it is difficult to carry scales to Orienteering events and find a place flat (and secluded) enough to step on them! So perhaps the second method is more practical.

Look at the colour of your urine if you manage to beat the queue at the portaloo! If it is just a pale yellow colour, then you are probably fairly well hydrated. The darker it is, the more dehydrated you are. So if it is bright or dark yellow in colour you really need to have time to rehydrate well before your run starts.

The darker the urine colour, the more concentrated your urine. In other words, the more your kidneys are trying to conserve what limited fluid your body does hold.

Be careful not to over-hydrate. This can cause problems too. If you have been drinking excessively and are producing large quantities of very dilute, very clear urine, you may be over-hydrated. It is unnecessary and potentially dangerous to drink at rates that are far greater than sweat losses. This can cause a dilution of blood sodium levels (hyponatraemia). Symptoms include headaches, disorientation, coma, and in severe cases, death.

What is the best fluid to use?

In the past, the advice would have been that water was sufficient for most sports lasting less than an hour in duration. However, with the invention of sports drinks and the subsequent research into their usage, advice on this has changed. It is now known that even in events lasting only 30 minutes, an athlete’s performance can be improved by consuming sports drinks rather than water only.

30 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

Generally, yes. All types of effort will benefit from the fluid provided by sport drinks.

Carbohydrate intake during exercise has been shown to enhance performance in the following situations: • Prolonged (more than 90min) sessions of constant lower intensity (60-80% of max) • Prolonged periods (more than 60min) of intermittent highintensity exercise (80-100% max) • High intensity exercise (80-100% max) lasting 60 minutes or more • Any athlete who has heavy sweat losses’ Orienteering would certainly fit in under several of these categories. The slower steady runners who are out there in the bush for 90 minutes might need sports drinks just as much as the faster elites who perform at greater intensity for a shorter time, covering the same ground in 60 minutes or less.

When should sports drinks be used?

1. Before Sports drinks are ideal in the last hour before an event. The carbohydrate tops up muscle glycogen fuel levels, while the added sodium reduces urine losses before exercise begins. The flavour also helps the athlete to drink a higher volume compared to drinking water.

2. During Sports drinks are primarily designed for use during exercise, for optimal fluid and fuel delivery so this is where they really come into their own. They will allow the athlete to perform for longer and more effectively in training and competition. Just what the orienteer needs – energy for both mind and body for the duration of the whole event.

3. Recovery Sports drinks can be of great assistance in rehydration. However, don’t rely on the sports drink alone for complete recovery.

It is best to consume them in conjunction with foods that provide carbohydrate, protein, vitamins and minerals. High GI carbohydrate foods like watermelon, and other tropical fruits, can be helpful here.

In summary for a successful summer in Orienteering, plan your hydration strategy well and stick to this plan, adjusting it to hotter conditions where necessary. Experiment on training runs, using various quantities and types of sports drinks, until you find the best volume and product for you. Everyone’s needs are individual, so discovering what suits you best is the key.

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.

Editor’s footnote – some instances of dehydration of competitors occurred during the recent Australian Championships Carnival in Queensland. Dehydration can lead to serious consequences. It is important to be aware of this and to prepare carefully before a race, particularly in warm or humid climates.

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.

The Australian Orienteer proved an interesting read for me -- it’s not a sport that has ever come across my radar before(!), not sure if it is practised in South Africa? It must be though. It looks very challenging. I was also fascinated to see how many older people can still achieve so highly in the sport. I thought you did an excellent job of putting together a well-rounded magazine, with the psychology, nutrition, etc, angles and I enjoyed reading the piece on how the mag is financed. Well done.

Lindy Hughson, Editor – PKN Packaging News Having perused Sept 2008 edition I’m minded to congratulate you on an excellent production. For years I’ve edited newsletters for church groups, music ones, (Nillumbik Emus) and so forth --- decades ---- but yours is on another level altogether. Peter Cusworth must be pretty good too. I’ve never seen any other sporting magazines so mightn’t have a basis of comparison but they’d be hard pressed to beat The Australian Orienteer.

How do they navigate?

I am a relative newcomer to the sport and someone who mainly does the Sydney Summer Series and Stingers Sprints.

Work and other weekend sporting commitments prevent me from doing more ‘true’ bush events.

To be able to know how to navigate better without a compass - and from the comfort of the lounge chair - I would find it very interesting if you published a bush map that covers a smallish distance (say 3-5 km) and a competitor’s recollection of their race from checkpoint to checkpoint; eg “From the start I headed south past the big boulder, then went a little left on the same contour for about 50m, then right around the thick bush section for 20m and found the punch on the watercourse; etc, etc” Something like that would help amateurs like me understand the thought processes of the elites when it comes to navigating.

I look at some of the map sections published in the magazine and sometimes wonder how the competitors even find their way home before dark !

Ian Jessup (NSW) (Editor – good point, and there will be more articles on navigation technique in the future. Meantime, have a look at AO-June 2005 for a very informative description by France’s Thierry Gueorgiou on how he navigated to a World Championship win in 2004; also AO-March 2007 for an account of the Night-O event in Hong Kong.)

Bill Johnson (Nillumbik Emus, Victoria).

Please include Results I enjoyed reading the September AO with articles about the Australians at the high profile events - World Masters, JWOC and WOC. With considerable OA funding supporting the JWOC & WOC teams and the High Performance area in general I was frustrated that in the JWOC article there were few actual results mentioned.

It was nice to read the four-page story with nice photos – but for some reason finding their actual placing/time was very difficult and in most cases not reported at all (and there was no mention of who was coach of the team).

In future, could a small table be included at the end that shows 1st (or 1st – 3rd) and then all Australian results for the qualification races and finals so that we, the readers, can see their results. Or perhaps within their photo list their place and time for each event they entered, then just a table for the relays.

People may say ‘check the internet’ but with our national magazine reporting on our national team it should be there succinctly. Our WOC and JWOC teams are the cream of our representative teams and so the managers should be reporting a summary of the actual results (not just the feel good story, which was sort of a nice read) for all orienteers to see in a permanent form (ie the national magazine). Having to start up the computer, get internet access, and then search for what one is after is never as easy as grabbing that last magazine.

Already some internet result pages on past World Events have become ‘sorry this page is unavailable’ - but we can always keep the copy of our magazine!

Christine Marshall (Tasmania)

VICTORINOX AWARD The Victorinox Award goes to Ian Jessup (NSW) for his letter asking for more articles describing route choice decisions in future magazines.

(Look at pages 32 & 33 in this edition, Ian).

Ian will receive a Victorinox Voyager with 20 tools and features including a watch/alarm/timer; retail value $109.95.

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 31

32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

TECHNIQUE – NAVIGATING

Tales of Legs, short and long at the AUS Champs in Queensland Michael Hubbert (M65)

I

t was the Australian Long-distance Championships at Hidden Glen, near Maryborough, Queensland. We’d been told in the information booklet that good summer rains may have caused a growth spurt in the undergrowth so we might expect it to have become thicker and taller since the terrain was mapped. Visibility may be reduced in certain places. Indeed we had seen thicker undergrowth at ARAMARA State Forest earlier in the week where a poor M12 bashed past me through undergrowth way over his head but mapped as ‘slow - good visibility’.

My M65 course was allegedly 5.5km (not counting the 1.7km walk to the start): Leg 1 – looked pretty simple – over a broad spur and down into some light green along a creek. All fairly easy to begin with – except that the light green proved to be quite dense undergrowth with a lot of forest debris underfoot. The plan was to keep the creek some metres away on the left and the depression should be easy to see in the open forest. Reality was that the creek was difficult to see at all and progress was slow through the undergrowth and debris. I soon found the small gully SW of the depression, proving I had strayed a little to the left, and shortly after found the depression in an area just as green. Doubts about the reliability of the green area mapping began to grow.

Leg 2 – no matter, onward due east to #2. Finding a way through the undergrowth and general debris was becoming more difficult – like wading through sludge. I was forced a little north of my intended line and saw in the distance a control flag on a small round waterhole. The shape of the terrain didn’t look right and I quickly figured #2 was more to the right, though from just 50m away I couldn’t see the waterhole. Got it quickly. Now on to #3 across the creek.

Leg 3 – “holy kilometres Batman”, this leg is close to 2km (counting the ups and downs) in a 5.5km course. I quickly decide the best route will be pretty much direct – across the creek, up beside the watercourse, somewhere over the saddle and down beside a deepish watercourse. Then across the west-east creek and up a shallow spur, keeping that unreliable green on my right until I can veer east, cross the creek and head up the well-rounded spur.

All goes well and I’m soon over the saddle and approaching the west-east creek. I spy a W75 wandering along the creek and totally geographically embarrassed. Now this is a championship event and the principle of The Silent Forest should apply. But all rules must be flexible to cater for those in genuine need of assistance – and she was in genuine need.

I stop to help and soon set her on her way. The stop actually helps me too as I spy the termite mound just north of a small side gully, confirming that I am right on the purple line. I soon cross the second creek and move up the spur, keeping the green on my right. But this light green isn’t nearly as thick as the earlier light green. In fact, a lot of it seems to be just reeds and bracken. So I veer right a little earlier than planned, cross

the creek and into a flattish area which turns out to be loose sand (just like Pittwater Dunes in Tassie). More wading.

The terrain here is very vague, and so is the map. It crosses my mind that rogainers would be in their element here – they seem to thrive on vagueness. I try to find the spine of this spur so that I can contour off it once I reach the rocky area.

The terrain is too vague so I head up on dead-reckoning.

The undergrowth becomes thick but I spy the flag some 50m ahead amongst the unmapped green. Again, the mapping of the green is unreliable.

Leg 4 – down through a lot of debris to the creek then up over the ridge on dead-reckoning and into the broad gully to skirt north of the erosion gully system through the light green.

In fact, there are runnable tracks through this green which is really quite open and I soon come within sight of the main erosion gully, so turn south into #4. #5 was a doddle – across the erosion gully and head SW keeping the southerly erosion gully on my right.

Leg 6 – with doubts about vegetation mapping in mind I decide to skirt south of the erosion gully then swing west across the track to the saddle, then south down the spur and across the creek. As it happened the spur over the creek looked a bit thick and debris strewn so I skirt down the creek, across the west-east watercourse and up beside it to #6.

Leg 7 – retraced my steps to cross the creek and generally follow the purple line north of the gully with the green in it, then turn SE down and across the side gully, avoiding the green as much as possible. That was the plan, anyway.

What happened was that there were TWO green gullies and I skirted the first, but not the second, so ended up in the creek at a wide bend and confronted by a steep earth bank.

Oh well – climbed the bank and followed the unmarked track alongside the obvious creek to #7. The supposed green terrain was actually rather fast.

Leg 8 – retraced my steps and to the main track. Faced with a confusion of green and creek I elected to follow the track up the spur hoping to see the creek bend close to the track.

I saw something like it so crossed the creek but then figured I had crossed too soon, so followed the creek SW through a mass of debris to #8.

Leg 9 – got out of the debris as fast as possible and headed roughly up the gully to #9 and then to the Finish.

Oh boy – mission accomplished, but at what cost? I had fought through large areas of undergrowth and forest debris marked as light green, followed by more light green which was something of a race track (I just wish I could run like I could years ago), then yet more light green which resembled a fight zone on the ground. Hmmmmmnnnn ……

Michael Hubbert collected M65 3rd place badges for his VIC team mates at the AUS Relay Championships.

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 33

TRAINING

Physique, Body Composition and Performance

Steve Bird

Physique and body composition

To perform well in any sport requires a combination of factors from the realms of physiological fitness, technical skills and mental aptitude. Other factors that have an influence on performance are physique and body composition. Physique relates to height, weight and muscle mass, whilst body composition specifically refers to the body’s proportions of fat and lean tissue, including muscle. The study of physique is known as somatotyping and rates a person’s body in three categories. These are: (i) Endomorphy - roundness and fatness; (ii) Mesomorphy – muscularity; and (iii) Ectomorphy – tallness and thinness.

Physique and sport The demands of different sports often require particular body types. For example, basketball players tend to be tall, endurance runners lean, and weightlifters muscular. And whilst it is possible to participate in a variety of sports at a recreational level without having the ideal physique, it is often essential at an elite level.

For example, people of all shapes, sizes and body compositions complete Marathons, but at an elite level they will all be lean (moderate to high ectomorphy), with a low % body fat (low endomorphy), and moderate musculature.

In other sports the principles also apply, so elite male gymnasts must be muscular and have a high mesomorphy score, whilst also having a low body fat and therefore a low endomorphy score. By comparison male sumo wrestlers need to be muscular and have a high mesomorphy, but they also tend to have high levels of body fat and therefore have a high endomorphy score, but a very low ectomorphy rating because they are heavy for their height. Compare these with male and female high jumpers who tend to be tall and thin (high ectomorphy score), and have a low endomorphy (low body fat), whilst having a moderate muscularity (mesomorphy). Consequently, from a line-up of a basketball player, jockey, weight-lifter, and endurance runner you could probably pick their sports just by looking at them.

34 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

Orienteering physique As covered in previous articles, the overall fitness requirements for orienteers are similar to those of other endurance runners.

These are a high capacity to utilise oxygen, and sustain this use for a prolonged duration. It is therefore not surprising that the physiques of elite orienteers are similar to those of other endurance runners. However, as previously indicated, Orienteering also has some unique elements due to the challenges of the terrain and environment, and consequently an orienteer’s fitness has to reflect this, as does their physique.

At club level orienteering, the participants come in all shapes and sizes, and even at the elite level they vary in height, as well as differing in their muscularity. But what is common at the elite level is the relatively low body fat of the best performers, and this has long been demonstrated in research by Creagh and Reilly1.

The characteristic of a relatively low % body fat amongst successful endurance runners2 is essentially because surplus body fat has to be carried as additional weight, without contributing to our energy needs, or generating the muscular power that’s required when we run. From a practical perspective, this means that if we had two runners with the same VO2 max (measured in litres of oxygen used per minute), and the same muscle mass, the one with more fat has to carry that extra weight, and is likely to be a slightly slower runner. And at an elite level an extra 2 - 5kg is likely to be significant.

If you’re 5kg overweight it’s like running in an O-suit that weighs 5kg.

The importance of a person’s capacity to use oxygen relative to their body weight is why sport scientists express the VO2 max of runners relative to their body weight. Thus it is expressed in units of millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min), and in the example above the fatter orienteer would have a lower VO2 max (~5% lower) if it was expressed relative to their body weight. By contrast, in sports such as rowing, where body weight is supported, it is expressed directly as litres of oxygen per minute (L/min), which is a better indicator of fitness in these non-weight bearing sports.

So for an orienteer, in gross and somewhat simplistic terms, if you’re 5kg overweight it’s like running in an O-suit that weighs 5kg, which is obviously not ideal. However, note that the additional weight associated with carrying a drinks pack during an event is a somewhat different perspective, as although it does add weight and may slow you down minimally, this is more than offset by the benefits of maintaining effective hydration and energy levels; as the failure to do so will slow you down by even more than the additional weight.

Essential and Storage Fat Certain aspects of physique and body composition are inherent, and have limited or no potential for manipulation and change.

For example, training will not affect your height, and whilst muscularity can be altered through appropriate training, the extent of the changes are also constrained by inherent factors.

However in contrast, percentage body fat is highly dependent upon lifestyle, as evidenced by the associated increases in food intake (calories), particularly junk food, reduced activity levels, and the increased preponderance of obesity in the general population. So percentage body fat can be altered through changes in dietary intake and energy output.

This is a sensitive area, as attaining the right level of body fat is a balance between not having too much (which therefore constitutes excess weight), and not having enough, which has adverse health consequences as well as being detrimental to

performance. Within the body, fat can be classified as ‘Essential Fat’ and ‘Storage Fat’. ‘Essential Fat’ is required for normal physiological functioning, and if it becomes depleted the body mal-functions, becomes ill and death can result. In healthy men ‘Essential Fat’ should constitute around 3% of their total body mass (weight) and is found within the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, intestines, muscles, bone-marrow and nervous system.

Women require higher levels of ‘Essential Fat’ (~12%) with the additional amounts being associated with gender-specific fat deposits. These include breasts (~4%)3 and deposits around the pelvic, buttock and thigh regions4. So, as previously indicated, women are predisposed to carrying this additional ‘Essential Fat’, which cannot be reduced without adversely affecting health and performance, and as discussed in previous articles, this is a major factor in explaining the current performance differences between men and women in running events (~10%).

Therefore, whilst ‘Essential Fat’ should not be reduced below normal levels and is essential regardless of sport and activity, the remaining fat - ‘Storage Fat’ is something that we should be aware of when assessing the suitability and idealness of our physique and body composition for competitive success in Orienteering.

‘Storage Fat’ is contained in adipose tissue, and is found in the fatty tissues that surround organs in the thoracic and abdominal cavities, where it provides physical protection. It is also stored in subcutaneous (beneath the skin) adipose tissue.

‘Essential Fat’ cannot be reduced without adversely affecting health and performance.

It is these fatty stores that we are perhaps most conscious of because they are visibly evident, affecting our body shape and aesthetics. In the average male and female these represent around 12% and 15% of our total body mass, which when combined with the aforementioned ‘Essential Fat’ gives totals of around 15% and 27% respectively. Although with current trends in obesity the values for ‘Storage Fat’ may now be somewhat higher.

Attaining the optimum physique and body composition For endurance runners, such as orienteers, it is the ‘Storage Fat’ that can be reduced below these ‘average’ values to produce the leaner physiques associated with successful performance. And although reports vary, it would appear that ‘Storage Fat’ can be reduced down to 5% or even less in elite males and females, giving total values (when combined with the ‘Essential Fat’ ) of around 8% and 17% for males and females respectively. However, it should be noted that different methods of assessing body composition may produce slightly varying values, so these should not be used as a target.

For most people, the issue is preventing the accumulation of excess ‘Storage Fat’ and/or getting rid of the excess that they already have. In basic terms the best regimen for this is a healthy diet and regular training. Obviously the more you train, the more calories you burn and the more fat you utilize. And if the calorific intake of your food is less than that used by the combination of exercise, general daily living activities and your basal metabolic rate, you will deplete your ‘Storage Fat’.

This has to be a careful and gradual process, as 1kg of ‘Storage Fat’ contains around 7,500 calories (kcal) which is the equivalent to over 80 km of running. And if you reduce your dietary intake by too much, you’ll deplete your muscle glycogen stores as well as your fat, and the lack of glycogen will make training very difficult, as well as tending to make you irritable and grumpy. Indeed, if you are intending to lose weight it is prudent to seek the advice of a professional sports dietician5 who will assess your needs and develop effective strategies that suit your requirements.

Don’t become too lean Based on various studies, it is suggested that for females, if their body fat levels decline by too much, and some suggest that values below 15% are problematic, then they are at increased risk of hormonal disturbances, with an associated risk of irregular menstrual cycles (oligomenorrhea), and the complete cessation of menses (amenorrhea). The hormonal disturbances may also cause long term health problems with an increase in the risk of low bone mineral density (osteopaenia and osteoporosis) and the potential for osteoporotic fractures in later life. So it’s very important to get it right.

The best way to attain a healthy and competitive body composition is through training and a healthy diet.

Summary • Successful orienteers tend to be lean; • The best way to attain a healthy and competitive body composition is through training and a healthy diet; • Don’t lose too much body fat, or you’ll affect your ‘Essential Fat’, which will be bad for your health and orienteering; • A healthy body composition is also a competitive body composition.

References 1. Creagh U, Reilly T. (1995). A multivariate analysis of kinanthropometric profiles of elite female orienteers. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 1995 Mar;35(1):59-66.

2. Bale P et al. Anthropometric and training variables related to 10km running performance. Brit.J.Sports Med. - Vol. 20, No. 4, December 1986, pp. 170-173 3. Katch VL and Behnke AR. Contribution of breast volume and weight to body fat distribution in females. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1980 Jul;53(1):93-100 4. McArdle WD, Katch FI and Katch VL. (2007) Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition & Human Performance (6th edition). Pub: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins 5. http://www.sportsdietitians.com.au

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.

OR I ENTEER I NG PUB LI CATI ONS 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 DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 35

NATIONAL JUNIOR SQUAD

Aislinn Prendergast

Nickname: Kido / Ains-head Attackpoint Name (if you have one): Kido Age: 19. (DOB): 21/07/89 Currently running in which class: W17-20E Club: Eureka Where do you live? Ballarat, Victoria Current status - working/student (where): Working, deferred uni.

Current job/subject studying: Checkout Chick at Officeworks Other Interests: Triathlon, Hockey, Live Music, Movies, Travel.

How did you start orienteering?

My parents started orienteering in the 70’s and used to drag me and my sister and brother to events. I eventually realised I loved it.

Two national Junior training squads have been announced for 2009. Juniors Team Manager, Hilary Wood, has collected a series of profiles of our talented juniors and here we reproduce some of them.

The series will be continued in future editions of the magazine.

Lilian Burrill Photo: Rob Preston

Lilian Burrill

National Junior Squad 2009 Boys: Joshua Blatchford (NSW), Oliver Crosato (Qld), Lachlan Dow (ACT), Leon Keely (Vic), Simon Mee (Qld), Joshua Neumann (Qld), Kurt Neumann (Qld), Max Neve (Vic), Oscar Phillips (Tas), Patrick Watts (Tas) Girls: Bridget Anderson (Qld), Ineka Booth (ACT), Sarah Buckerfield (Tas), Lilian Burrill (Qld), Belinda Lawford (ACT), Krystal Neumann (Qld), Brea Pearce (Tas), Aislinn Prendergast (Vic)

Junior Development Squad 2009 Boys: Aaron Breed (Qld), Ian Lawford (ACT), Stuart Lawrie (Tas), Alex Massey (NSW), Todd Neve (Vic), Tom Palfrey (Tas), Oliver Poland (ACT) Girls: Katie Doyle (Qld), Mary Fleming (Vic), Morgan McIntyre (Qld), Naomi Mitchell (ACT), Melanie Neumann (Qld), Glennie Nottle (Qld), Georgia Parsons (ACT), Rebekah Sunley (Vic)

Nickname: Lily Age: 16. (DOB) 03/07/1992 Currently running in which class: W16 – soon to be running W1720E ahhh!

Club: Boulecourt Boulder Bounders - BBQ Where do you live? Warwick, Qld Current status - working/student (where): Year 11, Warwick High School Current job/subject studying: Biology, Music, Drama, Maths B, English, Multi-Arts Other Interests: Piano, Clarinet, Netball, Bit of tennis, sport in general, lots of stuff actually.

How did you start orienteering?

Family dragged me along.

One important strategy/skill you apply to achieve orienteering success is: Just keep plodding along.

Orienteering successes: Easter 2008, W16 Champion; Aussie school team 2007.

Orienteering goals for 2009: Go to New Zealand – Tick; Go to Easter in Tasmania.

Future plans: Maybe take a holiday on a JWOC trip one day if it fits into my busy schedule somewhere.

One interesting thing about you is: I hate pumpkin, love icecream and paintball skirmish hurts (but it’s still lots of fun!)

36 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

Championships and win the Australian Champs.

Future plans: Go to uni next year to study Chemical Engineering and begin a career in chemical research. Make WOC in the future, improve my orienteering and be successful. Travel the world or even spend a few years living overseas.

One interesting thing about you is: I have a coach for a dad and a Dietitian for a mum…how could I not be an athlete?

Belinda Lawford

Nickname: Bun, Bee Attackpoint (name if you have one): belindaL Age: 17. (DOB): 29-5-1991 Currently running in which class: W17 – 20 E Club: Abominable O-men Where do you live? Duffy, ACT Current status - working/student (where): yr 11 student, Canberra Girls Grammar School.

Current job/subject studying: studying biology, chemistry, human movement, English, maths methods.

Other Interests: travelling, cross country running, athletics, How did you start orienteering?

My parents took me along to events.

One important strategy/skill you apply to achieve orienteering success is: enjoying competing and training.

Orienteering successes: JWOC 2007 and 2008.

Aislinn Prendergast Photo: Rob Preston

One important strategy/skill you apply to achieve orienteering success is: Determination; you can achieve anything if you work hard enough!

Orienteering successes: Australian Champion W1720E 2007, 48th Junior World Long Distance Orienteering Championships 2008, 3rd Australian Sprint Champs 2008.

Orienteering goals for 2009: To make the JWOC team, make the final in the JWOC Middle Distance and come in the top 10 in the JWOC Long Distance. Also to find success at the Oceania

Belinda Lawford Photo: Ian Dalton

Orienteering goals for 2009: JWOC 2009, learn and improve as much as I can!

Future plans: hopefully as many JWOC’s as I am eligible for and then I would like to compete at WOC as well.

One interesting thing about you is: my favourite food is oats!

Bridget Anderson Photo: Rob Preston

Bridget Anderson

Nickname: biddy, chops Attackpoint (name if you have one): biddy Age: 19. (DOB) 21/04/1989 Currently running in which class: 20E and sometimes 21E Club: Ugly Gully, Qld. Where do you live? The Gap, QLD Current status - working/student (where): Part time Nanny, Newsagent chick and Student at UQ and full time orienteer.

Current job/subject studying: Studying Bachelor of Speech Pathology.

Other Interests: watching movies and The Simpsons…that’s pretty much it.

How did you start orienteering? I started Orienteering at Coromandle Valley Primary school in Adelaide through David Tilbrook who was a teacher there. I also did it because my big brother Ian did it. That was way back in 1995 I think.

One important strategy/skill you apply to achieve orienteering success is: Don’t let the bad times bring you down. Just pick yourself up and work harder towards goals and your achievements will be that

much sweeter…wow that sounds pretty inspirational.

Orienteering successes: Most memorable: 28th in the Middle Distance for JWOC 2008; being selected for the 2007 JWOC team; 1st at Easter in 2005 and 2008; being selected for the Australian Honour team in 2005 for Senior girls and winning the Timberlight trophy for W10 back in 1999.

Orienteering goals for 2009: solid runs in W21E; to make the top10 in the Middle Distance for JWOC and to have fun as a last year of being a junior.

Future plans: After I finish my last year of juniors I want to continue training and hopefully improve my fitness and skills to make it into the WOC team. I also would someday like to finish my uni degree…but you never know what the future holds, I could drop out and become a beauty therapist.

One interesting thing about you is: At one of my first orienteering events in Adelaide, I put my legs backwards through a baby swing.

Evidently I couldn’t get them out and mum had to get a fireman to free me. One of the most embarrassing moments of my life and I have never stepped foot near a baby swing since.

Lachlan Dow Nickname: Lachy

Attackpoint name (if you have one): Big D Age: 17. (DOB): 24/08/91 Currently running in which class: M17-20E Club: Bushflyers ACT Where do you live? Ainslie, ACT Current status - working/student (where): student year 11, 2008, Dickson College.

Current job/subject studying: no part time job; studying physics, chemistry, biology, maths, jazz, classical music.

Other Interests: them things called mountain bikes; getting outside any way possible; the natural world.

How did you start orienteering?

A work friend of my mum’s (Anna Booth) recommended it to me in 2003.

One important strategy/skill you apply to achieve orienteering success is: super-simplifying, i.e. ignoring rocks in granite, vegetation, and piddly little contours until I get to the circle or when I’m planning route choice.

Orienteering successes: third in 2008 AUS Sprint Champs; 84th in JWOC Sprint; actually making the JWOC team.

Orienteering goals for 2009: NOL league top 3; JWOC rep; run Middle Distance A final.

Future plans: keep orienteering, getting outside, becoming a hectic scientist, drinking some nice orange juice.

One interesting thing about you is: had to deal with a cop in Maryborough due to a complaint some locals sent to the police station that went along the lines of “A bunch of kids are mucking around with a phone booth”. That’s what scavenger hunt dedication is.

Simon James Mee

Nickname: Simee Attackpoint (name if you have one): Slimes Age: 18. (DOB): 29/12/89 Currently running in which class: M20E Club: Toohey Forest, Qld Where do you live? Mt Gravatt, Brisbane, QLD Current status - working/student (where): Full time student.

Lachlan Dow Photo: Rob Preston

Simon Mee Photo: Rob Preston

Current job/subject studying: work at Woollies, study business at QUT. Other Interests: Bodyboarding for sure.

How did you start orienteering?

Uncles got me into it. Thanks Tim and Dave.

One important strategy/skill you apply to achieve orienteering success is: For me personally, not to over analyse situations.

Technically, compass. Physically, run up every dam hill you can.

Orienteering successes: 5 Qld and 2 Aussie Schools teams.

Orienteering goals for 2009: JWOC (top third in all races); place at Easter; win JNOL. Future plans: Finish Uni, surf as much as possible, get a job that pays better than the minimum wage.

One interesting thing about you is: I can’t get enough of bodyboarding; it is my escape, passion, keeps me going and would trade anything to surf every day.

Orienteering Australia – National Training Centre DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER

37

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annual subscription (4 issues) = 31.50 NZD ≈ 13GBP or 28AUD 38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

Scottish 6-Days Orienteering www.scottish6days.com

2-8 August 2009 Entries open Dec 08 Photo copyright David Thompson Photography

2009 WORLD MASTERS ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS

WMOC Sprint — Sydney Saturday 10th Oct - Sprint Qualifier Sunday 11th Oct - Sprint Final WMOC Long — Lithgow Tuesday 13th Oct - Model Event Wednesday 14th Oct - Qualification 1 Thursday 15th Oct - Qualification 2 Saturday 17th Oct - Long Final

Australian East Coast ‘O’ Tour – 2009 19th and 20th Sept - Queensland Championships 26th Sept to 4th Oct - Australian Championships Carnival 6th and 7th Oct - Canberra 2 Day 24th to 26th Oct - Dunedin, New Zealand

www.2009worldmasters.com www.wmoc2009.orienteering.asn.au

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 39

40 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

TOP EVENTS Oct 10 - 17

2008 Dec 27 - 31

Xmas 5-Days Central Victoria www.vicorienteering.asn.au

2009 Jan 3 - 11

April 10 - 13

June 6 - 8

June 13 - 14

June 22 - 28 July 3 - 5

July 3 - 5

July 5 - 12

July 7 - 12

July 12 - 17

July 16 - 26

July 19 - 24

Aug 2 - 8

Aug 2 - 8

Aug 9 - 16

Aug 14 - 16

Aug 18 - 23

Aug 17 - 23

Aug 23 - 30

Sept 26 Oct 4

Oceania Championships 2009 South Island, New Zealand www.oceania2009.co.nz Australian 3-Days 2009. The Royal Easter O Launceston, Tasmania www.tasorienteering.asn.au AUS MTBO Championships 2009 (Sprint; Middle; Long) Mt. Gambier, SA Jukola Relays Mikkeli, Finland www.jukola2009.net JWOC/MTB Farum, Copenhagen, Denmark Northern Territory Champs Coomalie www.topend.nt.orienteering.asn.au 3 Days of Belgium Genk, Belgium www.orientatie.org JWOC 2009 Primiero, Italy www.jwoc2009.it 5 Days of Dolomites Primiero, Italy www.jwoc2009.it Fin5 Hameenlinna, Finland www.fin5.fi World Games 2009 Kaohsiung, Taiwan www.worldgames2009.tw O-Ringen 2009 Eksjö-Småland, Sweden www.oringen.com/smaland2009 Scottish 6-Days Tayside, Scotland www.scottish6days.com Swiss O Week Muotathal Switzerland www.swiss-o-week.ch WOC/MTB 2009 Ben Shemen (20km from Tel Aviv), Israel 3 Days of the Kempen Leopoldsburg, Belgium www.kempen-ol.be WOC 2009 Miskolc, Hungary http://woc2009.hu Hungaria Cup (6 Days) Miskolc, Hungary hungariacup.woc2009.hu Portugal ‘O’ Summer 2009 (6 Days) Cantanhede, Portugal www.ptosummer.com AUS Champs Carnival 2009 Victoria www.vicorienteering.asn.au/

Dec 27 - 31

WMOC 2009 Lithgow, NSW. www.wmoc2009. orienteering.asn.au/ Xmas 5-Days Southern Highlands, NSW

2010 April 2 - 5 tba June 19 - 20 June 27 July 4 July 4 - 11

July 11 - 17

July 12 - 17

July 24 - 30

July 24 - 31

July 31 Aug 7

Australian 3-Days 2010 ACT www.act.orienteering.asn.au AUS MTBO Championships 2010 (Sprint; Middle; Long) ACT Jukola Relays Kytäjä, Finland www.jukola2010.net 6 Days of Tyrol 2010 Karersee, Austria / Italy www.tyrol2010.com JWOC 2010 Aalborg, Denmark www.jwoc2010.dk WOC/MTB & JWOC/MTB 2010 West Alentejo, Portugal Fin5 Imatra, Finland www.fin5.fi O-Ringen 2010 Örebro, Sweden www.oringen.se/987.php Tour O Swiss 2010 www.tour-o-swiss.ch

Sep 25 Oct 3

WMOC 2010 Neuchatel, Switzerland www.wmoc2010.org WOC 2010 Trondheim, Norway www.woc2010.com AUS Champs Carnival 2010 – SA www.sa.orienteering.asn.au

Dec 27 - 31

Xmas 5-Days NSW

July 24 - 29

O-Ringen 2011 Halsingland, Sweden www.oringen.se WOC 2011 Savoie Grand Revard, France www.woc2011.fr

Aug 7 - 15

2011

Aug 13 - 20

National Merit Badge awards The National Merit Badge Awards aim to recognise orienteers who achieve a consistent orienteering standard relative to their age-group peers and to be a fund raising activity for Australian Teams to World Championships.

An orienteer can qualify for a Badge when three Badge credits have been earned within a two-year period. Badge credits can be earned at all Championship and Badge events, including AUS 3-Days.

For further information contact: John Oliver, 68 Amaroo St, Wagga Wagga 2650 Tel: 069 226 208 ; e-mail: oliver.family@bigpond.com.au Badges awarded during July – October 2008: DARYL FLEAY BG.V M60 JOHN HODSDON SH.N M65 VAL HODSDON SH.N W55 LYN MALMGRON SH.N W55 DAVID MEYER SH.N M21 GLENN MEYER SH.N M21 IAN MEYER SH.N M21

PETER MEYER ROBERT PRENTICE BRIANNE STEWART GARRY STEWART LAUREN STEWART SANDRA STEWART

SH.N M55 SH.N M50 SH.N W16 SH.N M45 SH.N W18 SH.N W45

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 41

ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA

Executive Matters Kay Grzadka – OA Executive Officer

Government Review of Sport In August, the Minister for Sport, the Honourable Kate Ellis MP, announced the appointment of the Independent Sport Panel to investigate and report on ways of ensuring that Australia’s sporting system remains prepared for the challenges of the future, at the elite and grassroots levels.

Representatives of the Board met with the Sport Panel in October to discuss Orienteering Australia’s views. The Board, with the invaluable assistance of Dennis Trewin and Bob Mouatt, also prepared a submission to the Panel on behalf of Orienteering Australia.

Dispute The Board has been working to resolve a dispute between an orienteer and Orienteering Australia. The dispute went to mediation in September at considerable cost to the organisation. Unfortunately the mediation was unsuccessful and the dispute is ongoing. The details of the dispute remain confidential.

Annual Conference The Orienteering Australia Board and Council meet in Canberra each year on the first weekend of December for the Annual Conference. The minutes of the 2008 Annual Conference will be posted on the Orienteering Australia website when they become available. The Board will formally meet before and after the conference.

NT Junior Orienteers Discussions were held between School Sports Northern Territory (SSNT) and the Board regarding the current ineligibility of junior orienteers from the Northern Territory to compete in the School Sports Australia Championships.

The Top End Orienteers provide quality Orienteering events in the Darwin region and this year successfully organised their first Schools Orienteering Championships. It is most unfortunate that their juniors cannot compete in the School Sports Australia Championships due to the fact that Orienteering is not part of SSNT’s program. For a sport to be currently on this program and approved by the Department of Education it needs to be a sport that is played in schools in all Clusters across the Northern Territory.

SSNT discussed an option to work towards building a competition base of orienteers in some Clusters in the school system. This would require considerable resources. SSNT have indicated their willingness to continue to work with the School Sport Secretary for Orienteering, Ian Dalton, and local Top End orienteer Susi Bertei about further options.

Embargoes: VICTORIA The areas covered by the following maps are embargoed until after the 2009 Australian Orienteering Championships Carnival; September 26th - October 4th.

• Chewton Diggings (Castlemaine) • Castlemaine Goldfields (Castlemaine) • Crocodile Reservoir (Castlemaine) • Browns Reef (Bendigo) • Warby Range (Wangaratta) • Jubilee Creek (Wangaratta) • Triptera (Wangaratta) Jim Russell – Carnival Coordinator

QUEENSLAND The area north of the Biggenden to Maryborough Road, including in the orienteering maps North of Aramara, Aramara State Forest and Hidden Glen, is embargoed from 1 October 2008 to all orienteers and rogainers. This embargo will gradually be lifted between 2010 and 2012.

42 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

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 5645 Daniel 2 5516 Thierry 3 5481 Andrey 4 5453 Matthias 5 5450 Anders 6 5362 Michal 7 5330 Jamie 8 5322 Francois 9 5316 Martin 10 5315 Mikhail 80 4858 Julian 136 4463 Simon 138 4445 David 191= 4064 Rob 217 3894 William 223 3833 Robert 227= 3809 Kerrin WORLD RANKING FOR WOMEN Rank Points Forename 1 5646 Minna 2 5631 Heli 3 5583 Anne Margrethe 4 5462 Helena 5 5382 Marianne 6 5379 Dana 7 5361 Signe 8 5299 Merja 9 5285 Annika 10 5265 Tatyana 44 4814 Jo 47 4787 Kathryn 62 4683 Grace 86 4433 Vanessa 122 3929 Jasmine 127 3902 Anna 131 3861 Susanne 139 3711 Mace 173 3298 Kirsten 178 3279 Rachel

Surname Hubmann Gueorgiou Khramov Merz Nordberg Smola Stevenson Gonon Johansson Mamleev Dent Uppill Shepherd Walter Hawkins Preston Rattray

Nation SUI FRA RUS SUI NOR CZE GBR FRA SWE ITA AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS

Surname Kauppi Jukkola Hausken Jansson Andersen Bro_ková Søes Rantanen Billstam Riabkina Allison Ewels Elson Round Neve Sheldon Casanova Neve Fairfax Effeney

Nation FIN FIN NOR SWE NOR CZE DEN FIN SWE RUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS AUS

RADI O

2008 World ARDF Championships Korea Namyang scale 1:15,000 contours 5m

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 43

RADI O

Bryan Ackerly 6th in M40 at World Radio Orienteering (ARDF) Championships, Korea 2008 Bruce Paterson (ARDF, VIC)

A small Aussie contingent attended the Radio Orienteering (or ARDF - standing for Amateur Radio Direction Finding) World Championships held in early September in Korea Rare Regional Opportunity This year is only the second time the World Championships have been held in our region, which is largely Asia-Pacific. Though the seasons are still opposite due to the Northern hemisphere, there is no jet lag due to the convenient one hour time difference, and comparatively less travel time for us antipodeans. This was an opportunity not to be missed !

Location Hwaseong city is a mere 50km SW of Seoul. As a large industrial and accommodation town it isn’t particularly pretty, but we were accommodated in La Vie D’Or Country Club, a golf retreat on the outskirts of town, which was picturesque. There are some striking differences between a large orienteering championship and an international ARDF championship. One of these is the ARDF is a much more packaged event. Your pre-entry fee basically covers everything, from when you land at your nominated Korean airport to when you leave. Accommodation, board, transport and even tours are all covered and organized by, in this case, the Korean Amateur Radio society. Of course you are free to do your own thing on non-competition days if you wish, but sometimes it’s nice to have it all done for you.

The weather was pretty warm (28-30 oC) but very humid. Similar to the recent Australian Championships at Maryborough, but even more humid. With only one day to acclimatize this was a bit of a shock to the system.

Typical Format There is a pretty standard four-day format to the World ARDF Championships: • Morning - Practice/Model event; Afternoon - Opening Ceremony • VHF (144MHz band) competition • Tour Day • HF (3.5MHz band) competition; Closing Ceremony Dinner Each country is allowed only three competitors per age-group, so attendance at a World Championships is limited by how many countries compete and how many have “full” teams. This year a very impressive 452 competitors attended from 31 countries, plus many other team leaders, jury members and trainers. Particularly encouraging for ARDF in the future was the record number of junior class (U19) entrants, the largest age-classes, with some as young as 14.

Practice & Model Event For bush orienteering, a model event is an optional adjunct that allows competitors to see what terrain they might be running in. This is true of ARDF also, but there is another, more critical task to check out how your receiving equipment works with the actual transmitters that will be used for the championship events. Has your receiver withstood whatever the various baggage handlers could throw at it? What strength does your receiver show when you pace 100m away from a transmitter? Can I tune in the actual frequency being used? (There unfortunately can’t 44 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

be an international standard ARDF frequency(s) due to differing Amateur radio band plans in different countries).

Bryan Ackerly was experiencing all sorts of problems with his VHF gear, until later discovering, to his acute embarrassment, he had assembled it backwards. I came across a receiver failure mode on mine I hadn’t seen before that we later diagnosed as a cracked battery holder inside. We were both very glad there was a practice event !

Here were some of my impressions at the time: Yesterday we all trooped onto the buses for the practice event. The area is a mix of mainly dark green (jungle) and what appealingly looks like open land (orange) till you check the legend which tells you it’s “cultivated land” - read mainly rice paddies. This one was largely a matter of sticking to the tracks and making a short excursion off the side right near a transmitter.

Live Translation !

A clever addition to what can be long winded opening ceremony speeches was the supply of live translation receivers to everyone.

This cut the speech time nearly in half as they could be delivered in Korean and English at the same time. Two flag bearers were called for, so the whole Aussie team was required, and, since this time the English alphabet was used, we were out on stage first without having a clue what we were meant to be doing.

The post-speech entertainment mix of modern and traditional turned out to be good fun: See: http://au.youtube.com/ watch?v=iwPounUSohw

Sorry, remind me how this ARDF thingy works ?

Another difference with Radio Orienteering from Bush-O events is that all competitors must be at the start and surrender their receivers to an equipment quarantine till just before their start.

Only then are the transmitters at the controls out in the forest turned on. No-one may leave the starts quarantine area unless they aren’t coming back. Though this may be similar to Sprint quarantines for elite orienteers, in Radio it applies to everyone. It means an early morning, but, at least all transport is provided (in fact in theory no competitor even knows where the event is to be located), so all that is needed is to have breakfast and get on your bus.

For ARDF events, there are 5 transmitter controls in the forest, and a 6th one at the start of the finish chute. All controls have SI punches. Only M21 attempt all 5. Others attempt a specific 4, or even 3 pre-specified for their age group. The positions of the transmitters are not marked on the map – that would make it all just too easy. The specified transmitter controls must be found within a maximum time limit.

The 5 transmitters take turns transmitting for a minute each on the same channel. You can tell which one you are listening to on your receiver as each identifies itself with morse pips. The orienteering comes in when you have to relate the bearings you measure to the map, so you need to know exactly where you are on the map, as well as making route choice decisions once you begin to build up an idea of where the transmitters might be, and re-locating

yourself after a mad dash to find a close transmitter before it turns itself off again for 4 minutes.

questioning, the organizers admitted it could be dropped down to a little over A4 for the important area.

The 6th transmitter is on a different channel, runs continuously and isn’t really required unless you are truly lost and need to find the Finish.

More rice paddies again, but perhaps of less impact on the event this time. The hills were certainly more punishing though.

Rice anyone ?

The VHF competition map indeed turned out to have large areas of rice paddy fields, with hills covered in green in between. There were two start corridors to spilt up the age groups. Unfortunately the M40 corridor was badly chosen as it took us away from any of our required 4 transmitters and towards the one we didn’t need to get ! We weren’t allowed to run back down the corridor to the start, which would have in fact been the best route choice.

Since I figured out I wasn’t anywhere useful, and I felt I had a reasonable but rough grasp of where the transmitters seemed to be, I chose to not go to the closest transmitter to the start, but instead go to one a bit further away in order to later take advantage of a main road to get around a large chunk of green between me and the finish.

As it turns out, it was a pretty good strategy, but marred a bit by the difficulty I experienced getting across paddy fields. The little mounds between the ponds just never seemed to go the way I wanted to go, so a bit of time was spent zig-zagging around.

Parts of the dark green shown were indeed nearly impassable jungle with clinging creepers and plants that deposited fine white powder all over me, but others were quite passable and you could run in a dodging sort of way. Unfortunately the map wasn’t going to reveal to me which was which. After finding my first two controls and taking the main road option, the signals from the remaining transmitters started to get very weak as a hill was in the way. I started to have terrible doubts. Was I doing the right thing or would I have to fight my way back through the jungle I was attempting to sidestep? I got past the green and was well on my way back into the map when my transmitter #2 came on, bang ahead ! WhooHoo !! Bag that one quickly and only one more to get.

Despite being exhausted at the finish due to the interminable 500m+ finish corridor, I was happy to see I had probably my best result in a World Championships so far. It got cooler due to some cloud as the day wore on, so I wasn’t surprised to see my place gradually dropping, but I was still happy with my 15th place.

Due to some confusion at the start line resulting from accidentally cutting the North arrow off the enormous map, I did one of my transmitters badly out of order, affecting my time significantly for a 23rd place.

Bryan Ackerly had his turn for a good event, the extra steep hills suited his running and he picked up the transmitters in one of the better orders to give him 6th place.

This great result and my middling one pushed our team result up to 6th. Not a ‘podium finish’ in ARDF, but if we had both done well in the same event we’d be in with a chance. To do consistently well you’d need a 3rd team member.

And for Afters No championship event is complete without presentations, a final banquet and extensive gift-swapping between competitors.

I’d swear there are some competitors who come only for these occasions, loaded down with little (and some not so little) gifts.

We became well familiar with the Russian, Ukranian and Slovakian national anthems at the two presentations, with occasional showings from Czech Republic, Germany, Kazakhstan and Lithuania. The dinner was served in the garden, like many of our evening meals which was a beautiful setting.

I’d have to say except for the difficulty with the paddy fields and the minimal grading of the forest green, the Koreans put on an excellent world championship event and are to be congratulated for their first World Championships.

The next Region 3 (Asia Pacific) Championship will be, for the first time, Thailand, in November 2009. The next World Championships will be in Southern Croatia, 2010. Some competitors keep asking us when will Worlds be held in Australia?

And There’s More !

For more details check out my report made during the championships at: http://www.ardf.org.au Full results/splits/tx-order analysis best viewed at: http://www. darc.de/ardf/english.htm

Bryan Ackerly, also doing M40, was mucked up a bit more by the bizarre start corridor and took a wildly different route, but the same transmitter order as me, coming in 26th.

Together this gave us a team result of 8th out of 16 countries in M40.

Palaces, Tombs and … Memory ?

The tour day, which is all organized by the host radio society, commenced with traditional tour fare of a palace, with a live show of ancient weaponry followed by the tomb of a king crowned posthumously [!]. Hmmm, so those perfect grass mounds we’d be standing on in small oases in the jungles were in fact the tombstones.

A promising tour of the Samsung electronics giant, who are based in their own little-city within Hwaseong, was a bit disappointing because they couldn’t actually show us anything other than PR videos and presentations. Still, it’s all a chance to meet with other competitors in a more relaxed environment than at the events.

Mega Map At the team leaders meeting the night before the HF event, we were told the map would be 52cm long. Whoa ! I couldn’t even hide that under my pillow. Luckily, after some careful

Bryan Ackerly finishing in 6th place in Korea.

DECEMBER 2008 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 45

RADI O

Bryan Ackerly

Bruce Paterson

46 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2008

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