40TH ANNIVERSARY
WMOC 2009
provided an old shed in the back that was used as changing rooms and a single shower.
World Masters Orienteering Championships 2009
The media coverage was unbelievable, despite the event clashing with the last round of the VFL home-and-away matches. Both Channels 7 and 9 were there and provided television coverage, plus the Sun, Age and Herald newspapers. The Melbourne scandal tabloid ‘The Truth’ sent their top reporter, Evan Whitton, who took part in the event and wrote a story with photos that ran to a page and a half. One of the participants was MUMC member Annabelle Roth, who competed wearing very brief shorts. Blackberries and bracken left a number of marks on her legs at the end. The Truth’s page 7 headline was ‘The Girl with the Lacerated Legs’. The story continued to page 8, subheaded ‘Shower was Her Reward’. The first event may not have been an outstanding success, judging by the two dozen or so entries, but the interest created by the media and word of mouth from those present laid a sound foundation for subsequent events.
10th – 18th October 2009 Nick Dent - Event Director ndent5@bigpond.com
As the Event Director for the World Masters Orienteering Championships which will be part of the Sydney World Masters Games I would like to firstly provide you with some background as to why we are holding the World Masters Games in Sydney and why Orienteering is part of those Games; and secondly to request your involvement either as a competitor or as a volunteer or as both.
Tom Andrews
Some Background
The Winner Remembers Ron Frederick, a veteran of 24-hour walks and a member of the winning team in the inaugural intervarsity `orienteering’ competition, was the fastest finisher:
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HERE was significant media publicity about a forthcoming ‘orienteering’ event to be held at Beaconsfield, 45 kilometres south-east of Melbourne. As I had enjoyed MUMC 24-hour walks (now called Rogaining), I thought it would be interesting to try participating in a shorter event. The day was fine and on arrival at the assembly area (beside the Beaconsfield Pub) I noticed that Tom Andrews and a number of fellow members from the Richmond Harriers appeared well set up with much bunting and many time-keepers. The controls consisted of four-gallon petrol drums painted red and white. Some had self-inking stamps attached. The map was of course black & white, a scaled-up version of the 1:63,360 army map. One checkpoint was located in an orchard and I was most impressed to find that each tree had an individual dot on the map with the checkpoint being therefore easily located within the orchard. My attire was t-shirt and shorts and Dunlop Volleys. I still have kind thoughts for the organisers as I apparently dropped my control card between the last control and the finish. They recorded my time when I first crossed the line but then allowed me to go back and look for my card which I successfully did. The finish of the event was also beside the Beaconsfield Pub. Such a choice was appreciated by many competitors. On August 23rd this year Bayside Kangaroos will conduct a Victorian State Series event at Ridoni’s Paddock, near Daylesford, commemorating 40 years of Orienteering in Victoria. 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2009
In October Sydney will be the host for the 7th World Masters Games. They have previously been held in Australia twice - Brisbane 1994, and Melbourne 2002. The Games involve 28 sports for competitors 35 years and older. Orienteering is considered a “core” sport and as such it is part of the World Masters Games every four years. Edmonton, Canada was the location for the last World Masters Games in 2005. The International Masters Games Association (IMGA) owns the World Masters Games and awards the right to host the event through an organised bidding process every four years. Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, the IMGA comprises 17 members of the General Association of International Sports Federations and their sports form the core of the World Masters Games competition. The International Orienteering Federation is a member of the IMGA. The NSW government has appointed the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games Organising Committee (SWMGOC) to be responsible for organising the Games. The Orienteering Association of NSW on behalf of Orienteering Australia has therefore been invited to participate in the Games. Since the IOF has stated that the World Masters Orienteering Championship which is held every year must be part of the World Masters Games, OANSW has the responsibility for organising the Orienteering events which the IOF rules say are part of the World Masters Orienteering Championships. The OANSW has appointed a committee to fulfil this responsibility. This means that NSW will have hosted two international Orienteering events (JWOC 2007 and WMOC 2009) in just over two years. This is quite a task especially given the amount of effort that went into JWOC 2007. The organising of this event is unusually complex because the committee is required to work with two organisations that are imposing their particular requirements on the committee. SWMGOC have certain conditions which make the normal organising of an Orienteering event go from the straight forward to the complex. We continually have to negotiate around barriers which would not normally be there. Also we do not control the financial side of the event so we are totally dependant on SWMGOC from a financial perspective. They have decided to set one entry fee for all sports, something over which we had no say. The IOF have competition rules which must be followed and also have established “Guidelines for the World Masters Orienteering Championships (WMOC)”. Sometimes there is a conflict between
