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ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
Executive Matters
Kay Grzadka – OA Executive Officer
THE 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. 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 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. 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. Again, thank you all.
ORIENTEERING 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
ORIENTEERING 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)
Athlete of the Year for 2008 – Adrian Jackson
ADRIAN 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.
Award for Services to Orienteering
THE Board of OANSW nominated Ron Pallas for the inaugural David Hogg award of OA Medal for Services to Event Management, for his leadership role as Event Director and Organiser of the JWOC 2007 and Easter 2008 carnivals in Dubbo, NSW. JWOC 2007 was arguably the largest international Orienteering event run in Australia since the WOC in 1985. While many orienteers both from NSW and other States were involved, it was Ron’s leadership role which provided a central focus and impetus for the planning and event management. As Chairman of the Organising Committee, Ron led and guided the Committee in all aspects of the event planning. He ensured that regular meetings were held and that all foreseeable requirements were identified and addressed. He was active in identifying actions and persons responsible for those actions, and followed up to ensure that they were carried out. Having directed the JWOC carnival, Ron immediately volunteered to continue in the role for Easter 2008. Coming so soon after JWOC, the Easter events threatened to stretch the resources of OANSW but by utilising the previous planning work, Ron and his team were also able to carry out this program successfully. The success of the Easter carnival was critical for NSW in helping to recoup the cost of the professionally‑produced JWOC maps and other expenses of JWOC. In addition to his role as leader of the organising team, Ron was heavily involved in organising two critical aspects of the events: (1) landowner and community liaison; and (2) SportIdent timing. The first task required numerous long drives from Sydney to Dubbo for meetings with Dubbo Council, the local community, private landowners and the Western Plains Zoo. In relation to SportIdent, Ron was involved in planning and setting up the timing system and was always to be found in the Finish tent during events making sure that the system worked seamlessly.
2009 Silva Award for Services to Orienteering
NICK Dent and Hilary Wood, started orienteering in the mid 80’s, and quickly became part of the driving force behind the original Mountain Devils orienteering club based in the Blue Mountains, initiating the Rhododendron 2 Day event, and kept orienteering alive in the Blue Mountains until they moved to the Central Coast in the 90’s. During their time in the Blue Mountains Nick started mapping areas in the mountains, while Hilary became involved with organising and controlling events. In 1993 Nick was the organiser of the National Championships held at Evans Crown, and also supported the event by mapping the Relay area. In 1998 Nick and Hilary became managers of the NSW Schools team and assisted in continuing NSW’s position as the top State at the annual school’s competition by extending NSW’s then unbroken 5‑year run for a further two years. In 2002 they said goodbye to the Schools team with another victory at the School’s competition. Towards the end of this period the “Dent‑Woods” moved from the Blue Mountains to the sea and surf of the Central Coast and become members of Central Coast Orienteers. Throughout the 90’s as members of Mountain Devils, and even until today as members of Central Coast Orienteers, one or both of them has been involved in some way in the organisation, course planning or controlling of a NSW State League event, O’Shea 2‑day, Metro League or club event. 2004 saw them both become involved in the 2004 National Championship Carnival week as part of the organisation of the 2004 Schools Championships held at Dungeree near Mudgee ‑ Nick being Controller for the Schools events and Hilary being the Schools Liaison Manager. The last five years has seen Nick and Hilary move into roles at a national level, initially as co‑managers of the 2005 Australian JWOC team in Locarno, Switzerland, and again for JWOC 2006 in Lithuania. In 2005, with Australia being awarded the 2007 Junior World Championships to be staged in Dubbo, Nick took on the role as Teams Liaison Officer for the event. This involved Nick in promoting the event while overseas, contacting, arranging and taking entries from participating national teams before the event, conducting briefings for teams and managers during JWOC, and being available to, and assisting, the overseas teams during the whole period of the highly successful championships. Prior to the actual event Nick and Hilary were also involved with the 2006 Xmas 5 Days and with organising the two JWOC training camps in Australia in January and in July. With Nick involved as part of the 2007 JWOC event organisation, Hilary took on the role of Manager of the 2007 JWOC team in Dubbo. JWOC 2008 in Sweden saw the partnership resume with Hilary as Manager and Nick as Coach, and they will continue in these roles for the 2009 JWOC in Italy. This continued high level of involvement by Nick and Hilary with the JWOC teams since 2005 has had a significant influence both on the general conduct of the team and on the team’s results in competition. Continuing their on‑going commitment to the sport, late 2007 saw Nick take on the role of Event Director for the World Master’s event to be staged later this year in NSW on behalf of Orienteering Australia, while Hilary took on the role of Arena Manager for each of the events. In 2008 Nick also accepted a position on the OANSW board as Planning Director. With this sustained involvement in Orienteering initially at a State level and more recently at a national level, the Board of the Orienteering Association of NSW was pleased to nominate Nick Dent and Hilary Wood jointly for the 2009 Silva Award for Services to Orienteering.
