JUNIOR WORLD ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Junior Team tackles the Italian terrain JWOC 2009 – July 5-12 – Primiero, Dolmiti, Trentino, Italy The Australian Junior Orienteering Team was made up of some ‘old’ hands, Bridget Anderson, Belinda Lawford, Krystal Neumann, Aislinn Prendergast, Lachlan Dow, Leon Keely and Oscar Phillips and some new young blood: Sarah Buckerfield, Lilian Burrill, Josh Blatchford and Max Neve. We arrived in Venice on the Friday and spent a good day in the ‘City of Canals’, even going for a little run around the streets of the old city on the Orienteering map of the area, ending in St Marco’s Square.
Text and Photos: Hilary Wood (alias ‘Hill Top Woods’) – Team Leader
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UCH gelato was consumed and we finished the day with a visit to Lido on the beach and some sampled the sea - a vast flat expanse of water which was pleasantly warm and inviting. Some spectacular thunder and lightning storms made for an interesting sleep that night. The Team commenced its ‘Italian job’ in the hills near Asiago, staying at La Pineta, a guest house in Cesuna. The Danish senior team shared the accommodation and we shared the kitchen with them. Some delicious meals were prepared and enjoyed by the Team and they could go for training runs right outside the door in a mapped forest. Ian Anderson kindly helped out with some massages and with training in the forest. With plenty of garlic in the food most remained healthy although Lilian Burrill had a cold early in the week followed by Oscar Phillips coming down with a cold leading into the competition week. Bridget Anderson had suffered with a bout of tonsillitis leading into the training week but was raring to go and compete come the JWOC week. We had several good maps representing the Primiero terrain to train on nearby. The Team visited Primiero on the Wednesday prior to the competition week and did some training on Dismoni after we got some inside info about it being similar to the Middle Distance terrain. We enjoyed a hot chocolate afterwards at a conveniently located restaurant on the map. We then travelled up the mountain and had a peek at the Dolomite peaks on Passo Rolle snapping a team picture (just off the Long Distance map). Then on to Tonadico to practice some Sprint training through the winding streets of an old town mixed with some cross country running. The setting for JWOC this year was undoubtedly a most beautiful and spectacular part of the world. The towering pinnacles of rock above steep slopes of alpine meadows and pine forest dotted
WOC Team at Passo Rolle. From left: Sarah Buckerfield, Callum Fagg, Lilian Burrill, Max Neve, Belinda Lawford, Lachlan Dow, Bridget Anderson, Leon Keely, Krystal Neumann, Josh Blatchford, Aislinn Prendergast, Oscar Phillips.
with a mix of rock features made for a challenging set of maps to be conquered by this year’s contestants. One would think the terrain is very similar to the Swiss terrain of 2005 when JWOC was in Locarno. The similarity stops at the steepness of terrain as Locarno had mostly deciduous forest and this year’s JWOC was more pine and coniferous fir trees interspersed with rock of different types. The clinking of cow bells as one negotiated the alpine meadows was a familiar and pleasant sound. The team settled into some very nice 3-star hotel accommodation, Hotel Eden, located between the event centre and the bus stop - a most convenient place. Shops within walking distance and the town square very close too. The event attracted over 3000 public entries to the Dolomite 5 Days and a very substantial Australian presence of parents and others. In fact over three quarters of the Team had a relative attending to lend their support and barrack for the Aussies!
The Sprint Race - Mezzano-Imer The arena for this was the athletics track in Mezzano. It made for a very good arena with good weather for this first race. The stand was full of Aussie supporters and the team were somewhat nervous for their first race. The arena was very spectator friendly with views over the back of the stand to controls and four controls visible from the Finish. This put pressure on the competitors to be on guard for the correct control at the end of their courses with different controls for the men and women being close to each other. Unfortunately Oscar Phillips fell victim to the pressure at the third last control and punched the girls’ control rather than his own. Aislinn Prendergast was very happy to be the best performing girl in the Aussie Team and although she had some hesitations was pretty happy with her run. Lachlan Dow was also a good performer for the boys and that gave him a good confidence SEPTEMBER 2009 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 19