ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
Executive Matters Kay Grzadka – OA Executive Officer
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HE Orienteering Australia 2009 Annual General Meeting, held in Launceston on Saturday 11 April 2009, brought about changes to the composition of the Board. Directors Mike Dowling, Andy Hogg and Ben Rattray stepped down from their positions and Robin Uppill and Eric Morris were appointed as Director (Technical) and Director (High Performance) respectively. There were no nominations for Director (Development) but the Board hopes this important position will soon be filled. A staggered rotation of Board directors was also introduced. Other appointments made at the AGM were Jennifer Binns and Jenny Casanova to the Misconduct Tribunal and Cath Chalmers to the Selection Appeals committee.
section 1.1 of the Operation Manual on the OA website www.orienteering.asn.au/administration/op_manual/ The Annual Orienteering Awards were announced at the OA Presentation Dinner held during the Australian 3-Days Carnival in Tasmania. The 2008 Athlete of the Year award was won by World Mountain Bike Orienteering Champion, Adrian Jackson. The 2008 Silva Medal was awarded to Alex Tarr. The 2009 Silva Award for Services to Orienteering was presented to joint recipients Nick Dent and Hilary Wood. The inaugural David Hogg Medal for Services to Event Management was awarded to Ron Pallas. There were no nominations for the coaching award. This is my last article for The Australian Orienteer as I will be vacating the position of Executive Officer in June. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all directors, officers and State Association members with whom I have worked over the past two years for their invaluable support and assistance. It has been a revelation for me to see how much work is done at the national level for the advancement of Orienteering in Australia.
Changes to the OA constitution were introduced to make it more robust and to bring it into line with Australian Sports Commission recommendations for the governance structure of sporting organisations. The new constitution is available as
I also would like to pay tribute to the vast number of orienteers who voluntarily contribute many hours to promoting this wonderful sport in their communities.
Australian Team for 2009 World Games Orienteering Championships
Athlete of the Year for 2008 – Adrian Jackson
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RIENTEERING Australia has selected the team to compete at the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The World Games is a multi-sport festival consisting of non-olympic sports. Over 4,500 competitors from 100 nations will attend. Australia is one of only 21 teams competing in the Orienteering races. The team is: Men: Julian Dent, Simon Uppill Women: Kathryn Ewels, Hanny Allston The Orienteering races will be held from 17-19 July 2009. There are three races - Sprint, Middle Distance and a mixed Relay consisting of all four team members. With such a strong team, we have high aspirations that someone may repeat Grant Bluett’s Gold Medal at the 2001 World Games in Japan. Futher information can be found at http://www. worldgames2009.tw/
Australian Team for 2009 JWOC
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RIENTEERING Australia has selected the team to compete at the 2009 Junior World Orienteering Championships to be held at Primiero, Italy, from 777 – 12 July. The JWOC team is: Men: Josh Blatchford (NSW) Lachlan Dow (ACT) Callum Fagg (TAS) Leon Keely (VIC) Max Neve (VIC) Oscar Phillips (TAS)
Women: Bridget Anderson (QLD) Sarah Buckerfield (TAS) Lilian Burrill (QLD) Belinda Lawford (ACT) Krystal Neumann (QLD) Aislinn Prendergast (VIC)
Reserves are Kurt Neumann (QLD), James Robertson (VIC), Catherine Hewitt (TAS) and Brea Pearce (TAS). 44 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2009
Again, thank you all.
DRIAN Jackson has been named Orienteering Australia’s Athlete of the Year for 2008 in a unanimous vote. This follows an outstanding season, highlighted by his second world title, when he won the Middle Distance event at the World MTBO Championships held in Poland last August. Adrian also finished on the podium in the other two World Championships events, placing sixth in both the Long Distance and Sprint events. He finished the year as the world’s top-ranked mountain-bike orienteer, with wins in four World Ranking Events on top of his successes at the World Championships. He also won all three distances at the Australian Championships held in Queensland in October. As well, Adrian has been steadily improving as a mountain bike racer. He won two major multi-stage MTB races in 2008, the Alice Springs Enduro in May and the Wildside in Tasmania in January, and was highly competitive in the Crocodile Trophy in Queensland in October. He also took out a National Series round late in the year. Adrian was presented with his award at the MTBO WOC selection trials (and Victorian Championships) near Woodend in April.
