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ISSN 0818-6510 Issue4/10 (no. 160) DECEMBER 2010
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, Ph. 0409 797 023 pcusworth@bigpond.com Magazine Treasurer: Blair Trewin Printer: Ferntree Print Centre, 1238 Burwood Hwy Upper Ferntree Gully. Contribution deadline: January 14; Time-sensitive - January 21. 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 - Eric Morris; MTBO - Blake Gordon; Official News - John Harding; Nutrition - Gillian Woodward; Training - Steve Bird; Psychology - Lisa Lampe. 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 – ACT – Philip Purcell philippurc@hotmail.com Vic. – SA – Claire Davill 0411 065 598 clairedavill@gmail.com WA – Tas. – 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 pa. Overseas: Asia/Pacific (inc. NZ) $A49, Rest of World $A58 pa. Delivery is airmail, there is no seamail option. Please send payment in Australian dollars by bank draft or international postal order, or pay direct by Visa or Mastercard. Quote full card number and expiry date. Subscription renewals (direct subscriptions only). The number in the top right-hand corner of the address label indicates the final issue in your current subscription. Opinions expressed in The Australian Orienteer are not necessarily those of Orienteering Australia.
CONTENTS AUS CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL ................ 4 G R E AT L E G S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 T E C H N O L O G Y F O R S T R E E T O .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 JWOC REVIEW...................................... 14 N U T R I T I O N .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6 K O O Y O O R A R O C K S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7 A U S M T B O C H A M P I O N S H I P S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0 L E T T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 5 COACHING........................................... 26 HORSE O............................................. 29 DANUBE RIDE....................................... 30 TOP EVENTS......................................... 35 O - S P Y.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 6 S I L V A N A T I O N A L L E A G U E.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 7 BOOK REVIEWS..................................... 38
Front Cover: Heather Burridge leads Tahlia Kinrade and Kelsey Harvey to a win in the AUS Schools Junior Girls Relay held in SA. DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 3 DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 5
AUS CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL
The Trewin Report Blair Trewin
The Australian Championships Carnival week came to South Australia in 2010. The events were held relatively close to Adelaide, featuring a range of areas which were mostly reasonably familiar to the locals but largely unknown to those coming from elsewhere. On the course, the week was another opportunity for Julian Dent to assert his superiority over the rest of Australia’s elite men. The women’s competition was more even, while in other classes the New Zealanders made their presence felt to a greater extent than usual.
Australian Middle Distance Championships – Lady Alice Goldfield The week started with the Australian Middle Distance Champs, on the one genuinely new area of the carnival, a corner of Para Wirra with some mining detail – not of the complexity seen in Victoria, but still enough to trip some people up. The women turned on one of the best and deepest races seen at this level. Anna Sheldon got a good start and was a minute up on eventual second-placegetter Natasha Key by #6; from there she had her nose in front as the field battled behind her, and ended up 86secs clear. Behind that, though, it was extraordinarily close, with only 93secs separating Key from Jenny Casanova (who deserved better from close to a career-best run) in tenth. Tracy Marsh, Vanessa Round and Jasmine Neve all challenged for the lead before dropping away a little in the closing stages, leaving Shannon Jones to complete the placings. Julian Dent won M21 as expected, although it was a minor surprise that his closest competition came from Grant Bluett rather than Simon Uppill. Dent and Bluett were tight through the technical first section. They were still only 13secs apart at the start of the final section, but Bluett lost any chance when he dropped 40secs at #23. Uppill was third without ever really looking like winning, just ahead of Murray Scown whose fourth was a careerbest result at this level. After six second places in 2010 National League races (to five different opponents), Lilian Burrill broke through for her first win of the season in W20, although she cut it fine, only having five seconds in hand over New Zealander Jaime Goodwin. Heather 4 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
NZ winning Senior Girls Relay team.
Muir started what was to become a breakthrough week for her with third. Oliver Poland had a solid win in M20, dominating the second half to overhaul early leader Kurt Neumann and score by over a minute. Like W21, the next bracket was very close with two minutes covering the next six, led by Ian Lawford and Duncan Morrison. Further down the junior age groups, there were excellent races in both M16 and W16. Brodie Nankervis was 15secs ahead of Nick Hann after a fluctuating race which was decided when the New Zealander lost 1:40 at #6; Max Neumann made up more than a minute in the last few controls but left himself with too much to do. In W16 Rebecca Freese led for most of the course, but dropped 30secs at the third-last, opening the way for Shea-Cara Hammond to score her biggest win so far. Perhaps the pick of the older age groups was W50, featuring several former national team members. The battle for the lead between Jenny Bourne and Liz Abbott was tight throughout, with Bourne eventually winning by 33secs after it was level at halfway. M60 was also typically close, with Paul Hoopmann scoring a win for the locals, 46secs ahead of Bob Allison. Sue Key held on by 15secs over a fast-finishing Carol Brownlie in W55, and there was a double for the McComb brothers through Andrew (M50) and Jon (M40). M50 was also the age group in which a Hong Kong orienteer placed at this level for the first time, with Kwok Keung Yeung in third. Comfortable wins by Geoff Lawford (M55), Hermann Wehner (M85) and Su Yan Tay (W45), and a less comfortable one for John Robinson (M70), started them on the road to a clean sweep
of national titles, whilst another result which set a pattern for the week was the Queensland trifecta in M45, this time led by Mark Nemeth. Robinson was joined as a New Zealand winner by Ian Holden (M75) and Wayne Aspin (M65), but the Kiwis were destined for bigger days ahead.
SA Long Distance Championships – Mack Creek The next part of the week was the SA Long Championships, on often tough physical terrain at Mack Creek, with courses which offered plenty of opportunities for route choice. Whilst not as significant as the national championship races, this was another step towards the business end of the National League, both for the teams and individuals. Julian Dent might have been pushed the previous day but he asserted himself in no uncertain terms here, in a dominant performance in which he won all but five splits (and was only a few seconds behind on those five). By #14, about two-thirds of the way through, he had caught ten minutes on Simon Uppill, and the only real interest left was whether the South Australian would be dragged into second. Dent, though, broke away in the last few controls to extend his lead to eleven minutes, and Uppill was just pipped again by Grant Bluett in a repeat of the previous day’s placings. Another repeat of the previous day came when Anna Sheldon took out the women’s race. She led from the long fourth leg onwards and finished with a reasonably comfortable two-minute margin over Vanessa Round. The battle for third was much tighter, with Tracy Marsh just prevailing after a close contest with Mace Neve and Shannon Jones. There was nothing repetitious about the junior results, with both races featuring 17-year-olds breaking through for their first wins at this level. Heather Muir had briefly impressed at the start of last year’s carnival before breaking an ankle and was underdone at Easter, but by September she had taken a clear step up and was ready to take the win. Not for the last time in the week, her main opposition came from New Zealanders in the form of Jaime Goodwin and Laura Robertson (who lost her chance with a four-minute mistake at the third-last after leading most of the way). Perhaps a bigger surprise was Karl Bicevskis’s win in M20. The Tasmanian led most of the way, although never by much, and ended up 18secs ahead of the fast-finishing Oliver Poland. The two leaders, along with Oscar Phillips and Ian Lawford, were within two minutes of each other.
improving Emily Cantwell in her best run yet. Cantwell got the lead back at #12, but Robertson was the faster finisher and ended up 56secs clear. The sixth control also claimed Heather Muir (4th) and Jaime Goodwin (5th), leaving Selena Metherell in third after a steady run. The two leading teams also filled the junior boys’ placings. Max Neumann led almost all the way, but Tim Robertson was gradually chipping away at the lead after losing a minute at the first control. The second-last control was decisive; Robertson gained more than a minute there which was more than enough to win the race. Jack Oakhill was the only other one really in contention, but lost a bit of time each time he looked like getting to the lead and had to settle for third. It was the ACT which filled the top two places in the senior boys as two JWOC representatives, Ian Lawford and Oliver Poland, had a clear edge on the field in a high-standard race. Lawford got the jump on his team-mate early and was a bit over a minute in front most of the way. He needed that buffer after losing some time at #12, in the steepest part of the course, but still had enough in hand for a 28sec win. Kurt Neumann was third after a steady run, ahead of New Zealanders who filled the next four places. The junior girls’ saw another win for the trans-Tasman visitors. Lauren Turner took control of the race early, was already two minutes up by halfway, and never really looked like losing, carrying that margin through to the end. Her closest challenger was Anna Dowling, one of the younger runners in the field, who showed her potential with a consistent run. Two Canberrans contested the last of the minor placings, with Shea-Cara Hammond just pipping Kate Bowen (who had the possibly unwanted distinction of placing fourth or fifth in every major event of 2010). The competition then moved on to the Relays in the pine forests and rock of Mount Crawford (which included some of the most beautiful sections of forest to be found anywhere). As is often the case, several runners came in closely matched after the first leg of the senior boys’, but what really mattered was happening a few minutes behind – the ACT was sending their best two runners out last and just needed Richard Hyslop to finish within range. He did, three minutes off the pace. Oliver Poland had hit the lead by the spectator control on the second leg, and from there Max Neumann (M16) Qld
Elsewhere, the highlights were a second narrow win by Brodie Nankervis over a New Zealander in M16 (this time the margin was five seconds and the victim was Tim Robertson), and Jenny Hawkins and Kate Fortune being separated by 10secs in W65.
Australian Schools Championships – Vixen Gully/Mount Crawford Queensland won their fifth Australian Schools Championships in six years, building an era of dominance on a par with that of the ACT in the early 1990s (which flowed on into numerous WOC teams of the following decade) and NSW in the late 1990s (which mostly didn’t). They were level with Tasmania after the individual day, but maximum points in three relays saw them through to victory despite a mispunch in the other relay, normally a serious blow in this competition. New Zealand, once again, won the Southern Cross Junior Challenge. New Zealand and Queensland were especially dominant in the senior girls’ individual, held on probably the toughest physical area of the week. Between them the two teams filled the top six places. Laura Robertson made a fast start and was two minutes clear by #5, but lost that at #6, dropping her back into a close race for the lead. Joining her, somewhat unexpectedly, was the DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 5
AUS CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL
the ACT were never really threatened as Ian Lawford stretched the lead to six minutes. Tasmania, within 40secs of the lead at the last change, dropped back into a race for second after Duncan Morrison brought New Zealand through the field, but Tom Goddard prevailed in a sprint finish. There were also twists in the junior girls’. Kate Bowen gave ACT the early lead but they dropped back on the second leg. On that leg, Queensland got back into the race, as did New Zealand after a poor start with Hannah Sampson coming through the field. The Queenslanders took a narrow lead into the last leg and Heather Burridge was the one who held her nerve as the New Zealanders stumbled, with Shea-Cara Hammond’s fast final leg bringing the ACT back into second. Both other relays saw comfortable wins for the favourites. The Queensland junior boys were already three minutes ahead after Matt Doyle’s first leg and stretched that to nine minutes by the second leg. Tim Robertson ran the day’s best time but was only able to take two minutes out of the lead as Max Neumann brought the Queenslanders through with plenty to spare. WA won a close battle with NSW for third. The senior girls, which promised to be a close contest between New Zealand and Queensland, proved to be nothing of the sort as New Zealand dominated throughout on their way to an eventual 16 minute win. Queensland were equally untroubled in second place, with Victoria the best of the rest.
Australian Sprint Championships – Trinity College, Gawler The big guns were out for the Australian Sprint Championships; whilst the elite fields on the preceding weekend were lacking a little in depth, by Friday they were at virtually full strength. For the men, though, there was little change at the top. Again, Julian Dent was the winner, and again his closest challenger was Grant Bluett. It was the closest race of the week for Dent, who was 16secs ahead by #4 but saw that whittled back to five seconds by halfway. He was never headed, though, and ended up 18secs clear. The race for third was even closer. Dave Shepherd, making his first appearance of the week, took third by the narrowest possible margin over Bruce Arthur, after a race in which they were never more than 11secs apart. Shannon Jones had a similar margin in taking out W21, but had to work for it in a see-sawing battle with Rachel Effeney, who was runner-up for the second year in succession. They were level at #10, and it was not until #17 and #18 that the decisive break was made; Jones picked up 14secs over those two controls. Natasha Key took her second placing of the week, recovering from losing 20secs (a lot in a Sprint) at #8 to finish strongly. Pre-race favourite Kathryn Ewels mispunched; a year after coming fifth in the Sprint at the World Championships, she finished 2010 without any top-5 results in domestic National League Sprints. At times during the week Laura Robertson had threatened to blow fields away without quite managing to do it, but the Sprint was where she got it together. She won by nearly a minute, a big margin at this level, and her teammate Jaime Goodwin made it a one-two for New Zealand, with Sarah Buckerfield the best of the locals. M20 was much closer, in a high-standard race where the top three all did times fast enough for top-10 places in the senior race. For the first half Ian Lawford, Oscar Phillips and Oscar McNulty were all right in the race, but Lawford was the one best able to finish off and ended up 8secs ahead of Phillips, with McNulty third. The Australian Sprint Championships are often a place for new names to come to the fore. This year’s candidates for the role of winners previously unknown outside their home turf were Canberran Graham Atkins in M40, and M16 Marius Siaud, 6 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
representing Tasmania but in fact visiting on exchange from his native France. Both 16s races were good contests, as they often are with the deep fields which come with the Schools teams; Siaud was six secs ahead of a dead-heat for second between Brodie Nankervis and Jack Oakhill, while Lauren Turner had just two secs to spare over a fast-finishing Jacqui Doyle in W16. Steve Doyle and Tim Hatley are hardly unknowns, but neither are they regular winners at national level, so their wins in M45 and M50 respectively were significant. Both races were close, especially M45 where only eight secs covered another Queensland trifecta. Other close contests included Neil Schafer’s 12sec win in M80, and Nigel Davies’ 13sec gap over Adrian Uppill in M60. The most commanding winners of the day were New Zealanders. Laura Robertson’s effort in W20 was joined by those of Graham Fortune, over a minute clear of a strong M65 field, and John Robinson, who had double that margin in M70. Jenny Bourne (W50) and Geoff Lawford (M55) didn’t have quite that much to spare but still did the expected, while 2009 WMOC Sprint champion Su Yan Tay was a comfortable winner in W45 against fellow Queenslander Clare Leung.
Australian Long Distance Championships – Tanunda Creek Those who looked casually at the old map of the Long Championships area would have wondered where the forest was. It was a change from the usual to have a championship map which was 80% yellow, but there was still more than enough complex rock to make the race a technical challenge; in particular, a steep slope in the northwest part of the map, which most people hit late in their courses, caused some big names to come to grief. Kathryn Ewels had had a Friday to forget but she quickly set about making up for lost time in pursuit of a title defence, leading the race from the start. It took a while for her to establish domination of the race; at halfway she led by two minutes from a close bunch which featured Aislinn Prendergast, Tracy Marsh, Shannon Jones, Jo Allison and Anna Sheldon. The long legs at #16 and #17 made sure that she would not be threatened, and in the end she was over six minutes clear. Sheldon took second to continue a good week, while the race for third between Jones and Allison was not decided until the finish chute, with Jones prevailing by three seconds. M21 also saw a comfortable win for the favourite, with Julian Dent completing his clean sweep of national titles. As in the Sprint, he made a very fast start and was already two minutes up at the 12-minute mark. The lead continued to grow through the course and he went on to win easing up, with a six-minute margin. As at the South Australian Championships, Simon Uppill was in a tight race for second, with Dave Shepherd this time, but Uppill kept his lead – gaining 1:23 on the long leg #21 at the start of the second loop was critical. Rob Walter finished fast, and almost pinched third. M20 was the most up-and-down of the four elite classes. Oscar McNulty, previously noted as a Sprint specialist and affected by an ankle injury during the week, led for much of the race, and was still in a tight contest for second with four controls to go – before crashing all the way to the bottom of the field as things came horribly unstuck at #20. Karl Bicevskis, after spending most of the day showing that the previous Sunday was no fluke and getting to the lead, also lost ground in the later stages, at #18 and #19. Josh Blatchford had always been there or thereabouts, and as others fell back he broke away in the closing stages to what was eventually a reasonable margin of 2:39. Max Neve recovered from a slow start to take second, with Bicevskis steadying at the end to take third.
Rebecca Freese (W16) Qld
John-Joe Wilson (M14) Vic and Graham Atkins (M40) ACT
Michele Dawson (W17) NSW and Emma Campbell (W17) Tas.
Maps with lots of yellow on them are nothing strange to New Zealanders (although having fences marked on them might be), and W20 was largely a Kiwi benefit as they filled three of the first four places. Laura Robertson opened up a two-minute lead early on, and while she lost some of it over the closing stages she was never really threatened; 58secs behind was the luckless Jaime Goodwin, second for the fourth time in the week, while Heather Muir continued an impressive week in third, ten minutes clear of any other Australian.
for the first time, a big winner in W60, while Ian Holden won M75 and Wayne Aspin and Graham Fortune did the double in M65. Their sixth win came in M16. At the Australian Long Championships M16 is almost always a good race, and like most others this week it was close, with Tim Robertson taking the points. At #13 he was only 13secs ahead of Brodie Nankervis, for whom second completed an excellent year, but stretched that to 38secs over the last few controls. Nick Hann might have challenged too, but for a mistake in mid-course.
W20 was one of six victories for New Zealanders as they put up probably their best showing at an Australian Championships. Most of the wins came in the older veteran classes. John Robinson completed a sweep of titles in M70 and Patricia Aspin was, not
One class where the visitors did not have things all their own way was W16, where Jacqui Doyle turned the tables on Lauren Turner. The long ninth leg, where Doyle took 90secs out of the field, was decisive on her way to a two-minute margin. It was a good day
Max Dalheim (M12) Vic
Dante Afnan (M10) SA
Arabella Phillips (W10) Tas DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 7
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Lauren Turner (W16) NZ
Laura Robertson (W17) NZ
for the Doyle family, with Matt’s M14 win making it three titles for the week (and a second place for father Steve in M45). Two younger juniors for whom wins here completed a clean sweep were the Victorians Asha Steer (W12) and Patrick Jaffe (M12). The best races of the older classes came in W65 and M60. In M60, no stranger to good finishes, the first two were the same as they had been the previous day, but this time Nigel Davies and Adrian Uppill were a single second apart, with the lead changing hands in the chute; Uppill had wrested the lead at the last control after trailing narrowly most of the way, but it wasn’t enough. In W65 the top four were within a minute, and second to fourth within eight seconds. Ann Ingwersen led most of the way and had just enough in hand, while Jenny Hawkins could not fully recover Rebekah Sunley, Schools Relay, Vic
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Heather Muir (W17) QldQ
from a slow start and had to settle for second, just ahead of Kate Fortune and Jean Baldwin. Warren Key made one of his occasional excursions into his own age class and was unsurprisingly much too good for a decent M50 field, while Geoff Lawford did likewise in M55. Anthea Feaver was perhaps a less expected candidate for a big win, but a big win – to the tune of ten minutes – was what she achieved in W50; Jenny Bourne had to settle for third after losing ten minutes at #10. In three other classes mid-course errors by the early leaders were critical, with Scott Simson overhauling Paul Liggins in M40, Su Yan Tay completing her clean sweep against Clare Leung in W45, and Sue Mount defeating Maureen Ogilvie in W75.
Hannah Goddard (Relay) TAS
Huon Wilson (M17) NSW
Julie Flynn, Vic
Australian Relays – Rock Oyster The week finished with something completely different – the mallee slopes just west of the Murray, which had a fair bit in common with the steeper parts of the Burra terrain used for Easter 2007. There was no National League climax this year – barring unlikely scenarios involving multiple mispunches, the only significant matter to be resolved was whether the Canberra Cockatoos or Southern Arrows would be the second senior womens’ team – but the races were still worthwhile in their own right. The Cockatoos looked the strongest men’s team on paper and for two legs looked like they would do it easily. Grant Bluett gave them a three-minute lead on the first leg and Dave Shepherd extended that to seven, which looked too much to run down, even with the NSW Stingers having Julian Dent on last leg. It was too much, but it was a reasonably close-run thing. Rob Walter’s two-minute lead at the spectator control looked enough. He gave the crowd some anxious moments with a wobble (in full view) at the second-last control, but had enough in hand to score by just over a minute. While never in the race for the lead, Victoria took third after three solid legs, with Simon Uppill surprisingly unable to make any impression on Bryan Keely, thanks in part to a minor injury. W21 was also close, and unlike the men’s race it was close for much of the way. Jo Allison gave the Cockatoos an early lead, but Natasha Key hauled in a three-minute gap to Mace Neve to send Kathryn Ewels out with a 19sec lead. Ewels and Shannon Jones were together for much of the final leg and a sprint finish was in prospect, but the Victorian broke away on the climb out of the spectator control and pulled away for the win. Queensland never looked like winning, but put together three good legs for a solid third. M20 evoked both the senior boys at the Schools and the senior men on the same day. As they had at the Schools, the ACT put their two strongest runners last, but this time they could not stay as close to the lead on the first leg, finishing it 11 minutes down in seventh place. At that stage New Zealand and Tasmania led through Cameron Massie and Karl Bicevskis. Alistair Richardson (seen several weeks earlier lamenting on Attackpoint that his
Alison Burrill (W16) Qld
Oliver Poland (M17) ACT
mother wouldn’t let him go training on the morning of the Christchurch earthquake) broke away on the second leg to put New Zealand seven minutes clear. That was only just enough as Ian Lawford ran down Duncan Morrison, catching almost all of the gap, but falling 23secs short of victory. It would have come as no surprise whatsoever to anyone following events during the week that W20 quickly developed into a duel between New Zealand and Queensland. Unlike the Schools, for two legs it was a close duel, and the visitors were only 30secs up going into the final leg, but Laura Robertson pulled away from Lilian Burrill and extended the gap to almost eight minutes. Close races in other junior classes were also no surprise given events earlier in the week. It was fitting that M16 boiled down to a sprint finish between the two best orienteers in the field, Tim Robertson and Brodie Nankervis, which was decided in favour of the New Zealander by seven seconds. A minute covered the top three in W16, with Michele Dawson gaining two minutes on the field on the final leg to restore NSW’s early lead and defeat Queensland and New Zealand. It was not just the elite classes where last leg charges fell narrowly short. In W45 Jenny Bourne almost pulled in a nine-minute lead for the ACT but was 47secs away from catching Gayle Quantock (Clare Leung having set Queensland’s win up on the second leg). M55 was not quite as close as that once Ted van Geldermalsen opened up a seven-minute lead for Victoria on the second leg, but David Marshall cut that in half and pulled Tasmania up from fourth to second. Yet another class where the key break was made on the second leg was M65 (this time Phil Dufty for WA); NSW pulled a bit of this back but never got within striking distance. The one successful last-leg comeback was in M35, where Lance Read got Queensland home after NSW had led for two legs. Thus ended a week which saw some new talents emerge (most notably Heather Muir and Karl Bicevskis), and reminded all of us that Julian Dent is good, that the elite women (who had three different winners of the three championship races) have depth, and that New Zealand have some quality juniors and so do Queensland. The next stop for most will be Western Australia, next Easter.
DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 9
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Lachlan McIntyre (M12) Qld.
Queensland’s winning Schools Junior Boys Relay team
Thomas Hyslop (M10) ACT
Emily Cantwell (W17) Qld.
Rosie Dalheim (W14) Vic
Shea-Cara Hammond ACT
Noah Poland (M10) ACT
Angus Robinson (M16) Vic
Aidan Tay (M12) Qld
10 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
GREAT LEGS
Dead Leg or Great Leg? Ross Barr & Ron Junghans (Garingal Orienteers – NSW)
NSW Championships, Lithgow, 12/09/2010 ‘Baal Bone Junction’ is a new area north of Lithgow that consists of two distinct sections. In the south, high sandstone cliff and pagoda terrain contrasts with open spur gully and termite mounds in the north. Interestingly, the Baal Bone Colliery railway line bisects the map.
T
his new area was the setting for the 2010 NSW Championships, with course setter Peter Annetts of Garingal Orienteers making the most of both terrain aspects. All red courses had a long walk uphill to the start to maximise early course legs amongst the rocks, cliffs and pagodas. Then followed a flog northwards and downwards to the open fast spur gully finish country. Competitors on Course 7 had a long 1.4km leg in the middle of their course that joined the intensive pagoda high country orienteering to the fast northern terrain. At first glance, staying high on the east side and then running back through the start (and using it as an attack point) seemed the obvious way to go. However, a wider look revealed the long gully track to the west as another option, one with good attack points as well (the track bend and the large single boulder). The key to this option was getting through the cliff line safely. As times were posted, a third option was revealed – running the red line. Jim Lee (17.37) took this option, finding a gap almost directly under the red line, before a fast run on the contour and checking off the gullies, green areas and, particularly, the scattered boulders about two thirds of the way along the leg. Jim, who was leading early but lost time (and the lead) in the pagodas, regained it here in this bold piece of orienteering. Terry Bluett (16.13) ran the eastern option, and despite ‘visiting’ the control on the higher creek line, was the pick of the eastern brigade and indeed, all the M60/65’s. Ross Barr (18.35) and Ron Junghans (19.39) were slower but essentially ran the same route. Bob Allison (25.58), also to the east, overshot the exit point from the track – with dire consequences. The termite mound below the start tent was the key attack feature that Bobby obviously missed. Dave Lotty (18.52) took the western gully route and had the foot to the floor on the track section. His exit through the cliffs was back near the #5 exit – something he must have noted on the earlier leg. Wayne Pepper (M35AS) had the fastest time of anyone on the leg (13.56). He stayed high initially heading across the plateau and then dropping down and passing below #5 to find the rock faces there quite passable, before contouring around to the spur where the run down was quite fast with little fallen timber or rocky ground. Originally intending to run the track until the 90° bend, he pulled off 150m early, immediately crossing the first water course and heading on a bearing
towards #9, then stopped briefly at the second watercourse, still believing he was on course. Checking the map Wayne saw the vagueness (contour-wise) of the area and the green near the control, and decided to play safe and head uphill more towards the next watercourse to ensure he crossed the actual watercourse. He did this and continued to the next watercourse, turned downhill and found the control about 20m away. So, what initially looked a single option leg without much thinking, proved to be a great leg with multiple choices and very contrasting times (longest in M60/65 being 35 minutes). The quick decisions at the beginning, and care in the triple creek ‘control zone’ at the end, were the keys to performance. DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 11
URBAN-O
Using Technology
for Park & Street Orienteering
Microchip bands
Ian Dodd (Dandenong Ranges OC)
The Melbourne Park & Street Orienteering community is always on the lookout for new ways to improve events for competitors or simplify event management. Having a number of keen competitors with high skill levels in engineering and electronics industries means there are always new ideas being dreamed up, sometimes tested and occasionally adopted.
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n obvious way to start would be using SPORTident at StreetO events (as we affectionately call them). The problems with using SPORTident have reduced with the introduction of new sets (“Schools” sets) that don’t require a laptop, but this hardware is still very expensive. Cheap Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) equipment is now available on the general market and makes this an attractive option, particularly when you factor into account the higher risk of loss of controls in urban environments through vandalism or theft. So why not attach cheap RFID senders and readers to each control plate and each competitor? Whilst the software has been developed (at least in principle) and the hardware tested, the problems of implementation remain unsolved. StreetO attendances in Melbourne vary from around 50 to 250 depending on the event, night, series, location etc. The 50 are probably regulars but the extended numbers are made up of school students, perhaps scouts groups and one-timers. How do you get a tag to each competitor and retrieve it again afterwards all in the space of 15 minutes? An additional issue is the ability of some units to record a “swipe” from some distance away from the control unit. It would make for fast punching but how close would you need to be? And who is going to run the code checking and deal with disputes? So a key question is exactly what are we trying to improve with this technology? Three things: 1. Competitors (particularly younger) like using technology. Anyone who has taken a junior out on a course knows that they like dibbing their SPORTident 14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010 12
stick even more than punching patterns in control cards. And it gives the sport “cred’ that we really need to overcome a dated image (true or not). 2. Safety: determining if all the little Johnnies have returned so (us) organisers can go home.
Microchip reader
3. Automated scoring and code checking. Remember that StreetO in Melbourne is always a mass start event with scatter or score courses (set time to return by for each course e.g. 60 minutes). We record the arrival order and calculate results from this and/or the number of controls obtained. To trial a RFID solution, Geoff Hudson introduced a cut down version using small tags at particular nominated StreetO series that generally attracted lower numbers and a high proportion of regulars. Each competitor gets a numbered tag that is identified as being theirs through a signup sheet. This is used in addition to the standard two-part control card punching system. Competitors bring the tags, swipe on, do the event and swipe as they finish. The main benefit for competitors is that it records their elapsed time (whereas control card systems only record a placing). Time taken is simply return-swipe-time less mass-start-time. The advantage for organisers is that the swipe unit is connected to a uniquely programmed, specific use, battery operated PC (built into an old case) that “talks” back with a list of missing runners. The disadvantages of this system are the need to lug it around and the high customisation to build it (albeit out of old spare computer parts, so it was fairly cheap). A final problem is that its use is
Microchip recorder
currently optional so it is not a reliable method of tracking missing runners (competitors frequently forget their tag or forget to swipe on).
Barcoded control card
On the other hand, an almost foolproof system of tracking missing competitors has been introduced at larger events. Again this is an addition to the standard control card system but it is very easy to use and saves considerable effort in tracking returnees at events with 100 plus attendees. Designed and built by Ian Davies, it is essentially a barcode system tacked onto the original control card system. It does not record times or places but is merely a substitute for manual reconciliation of runners out and runners back. The advantage for competitors is that events are, in theory, safer. It is the advantages for organisers responsible for safety that is the key factor in its use. Missing runners can be determined in mere seconds, leading to the situation where, say, a concerned parent or teacher walks over and says “I think little Johnny is still out there” and the organiser replies “Yes, we already know. We are just working out what action we should take/see if anyone has seen him…” etc. It reassures the parents/teachers that the event is being managed properly. The barcode system works as follows. Every two-part control card has two related barcodes: one “out” and one “in”.
Barcode reader
After a competitor fills the registration (bottom stub) part of the card, they put it in the box as usual. Whilst they are out on the course all the “stubs” are scanned into a small portable reader (built from a PDA and about the size of a certain popular mobile phone). It takes about 10 minutes to scan them all in and do a manual count as a double check. As runners return, the top part of the card (with the punches of course) is also scanned, and the reader matches the ins and outs and reports on its little screen who is missing (by control card number). The stubs are designed to be manually flick viewed in literally a few seconds to identify the missing persons. All the finish staffer needs to be able to do is scan cards, so it is all but idiot proof. At larger events however it takes a little more organization to put 200+ cards through without a big queue developing so organisers always need a helper or two to manage this (which they did before the scanner anyway). Before this system, it could easily take 15 minutes to work out exactly who was missing, so the result is organisers now get their dinners a bit earlier.
that you need someone to look after the scanner and bring it along fully charged to each event. However, it is small and easy to carry. The other drawback is that the price of the PDA Scanner alone is around the $800 mark as it is still a custom unit. It will be a while before a viable scanner for this system is found on the more popular mobile devices. The software app and build was free, courtesy of Ian. Hopefully he will build us a second device soon. So what about scoring? Well, in Melbourne we do a lot of Score events at StreetO. Bryan Ackerly has built a prototype piece of self-scoring hardware. The idea is that when you return you punch your details into a keypad-like device that adds your score and then lists the finishers in order of points scored. Instant results at small events before you go home. At larger events, multiple devices would be synched to a PC by the scorer to avoid the hour or so now spent combing through cards to tally the scores after each night. Of course this system will rely on competitor honesty. But then it is StreetO and cheating is pointless – we already know roughly how fast each regular competitor is and there are no prizes. Many competitors come for the social interaction and a little exercise and don’t care about results five minutes after they are back. Most competitors are really interested in their placing only as a measure of their performance against particular rivals and whether they are improving etc. So the incentive to cheat is low and you would eventually be found out when someone got suspicious of unlikely performances. This technology has yet to be trialled. Melbourne StreetO will always be looking for ways to improve using new cheap tech. To be successful (i.e. get used more than a few times) it needs to work very easily and have a clear benefit or it will be another idea that didn’t take off. So far only the Excel based scoring software (developed by Geoff Hudson based on Wally Cavill’s original design) and Ian Davies’ scanning system have become a regular part of the StreetO use of technology but I am sure in the future more ideas will be implemented, most likely a registeredmember-only RFID system for regular attendees.
The drawbacks to this now highly refined system (including some custom software that accounts for competitors who fail to complete a stub, and other hiccups) is DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 13
JWOC 2010 REVIEW
Managerial Musings Valerie Barker (Team Manager)
Selection in a JWOC Team is keenly sought after and the highest goal for many of our young orienteers; for that reason, having the opportunity to manage the Australian team on their tour in Denmark for the 2010 Junior World Championships was a role that I took on with much anticipation this year. Three months later almost all of the team are back in Australia: some had to return immediately because of school and university commitments while others continued to travel, train and compete overseas, in events as diverse as O-Ringen in Sweden, the World Masters Championships in Switzerland and the WOC Tour in Norway.
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or many of us, meeting up again at the Australian Championships in October demonstrated the diverse range of orienteering commitments we have; several of the team (Kurt, Georgia, Ian and Oliver) were representing their States in the National Schools Championships, Brea was also at the Schools Championships, but this time as the coach of the Tasmanian team, Josh was also seen coaching the NSW Schools team, and others were resuming their Australian competition, perhaps as respite from their examination and assessment schedules. The 2011 JWOC event, to be held in Poland, is now on the horizon and already we have been approached by the continuing stream of enthusiastic, keen and focussed young orienteers, looking forward to training opportunities at a national level as they pursue their dreams of Australian representation. This time of the year brings the opportunity to reflect on the past twelve months and to anticipate the coming year as the manager of the JWOC Team, a perspective which is a little different from that of the coach and team member. I was fortunate, in coming into this role, that I had worked with many of the team previously, as the manager of the ACT Schools team at several Schools Championships, and as the manager of the Australian Schools teams on their tours here in Australia and in New Zealand as part of the Oceania Championships in 2007 and 2009. Knowing families is an important first step in the process of establishing a national information network of training squads, then the actual team members and official personnel. Many of the team have highly developed social on-line networks anyway (Attackpoint and Facebook come to mind) which I have had to become more familiar with and link into. The establishing of links with the JWOC organisers was the next aspect of my role – working with the Danish team, all of whom spoke excellent English, was certainly a help for me as I learned my way around my responsibilities. There seemed to be so many things to think about over several months (as well as the organisation of two training camps, one at Belanglo in January and the second in Tasmania in April). There were the JWOC training camp options: 14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
accommodation – what standard and at what cost?; maps – how many? which ones?; the organisation and costing of our transport; individual travel arrangements and insurance options (fortunately these young people were all experienced international travellers); booking of hostel accommodation in Copenhagen, and The Budget! Oh – and uniform! In true form with several previous JWOC events, this provided me with more excitement and stress than I would have liked. I was to be seen at 1.00am on the morning I was due to fly out from Australia still packing uniform items that had arrived only a few hours earlier – a not unfamiliar experience for previous JWOC team personnel. It was with much excitement that many of us converged on Copenhagen on Saturday 26th June, and I really felt that I had begun my own journey as manager. I left Roch, and later Aislinn (whose recent JWOC experience was invaluable to all of us) to attend to the wide range of technical aspects of the fortnight such as planning and realising the training programme, performance issues, start blocks and relay teams, to develop my own role. Collecting our vehicles in Copenhagen and driving north five hours to Aalborg (pronounced “All-borg”) on Sunday 27th June (and then getting lost once we got there, having to ask locals where the military barracks were!) was the first local task. Did anyone mention the 18km long bridge we drove over en route, and all of the windmills that dotted the landscape? Our JWOC accommodation was excellent – we stayed in two-bed rooms with ensuite within the local barracks for the entire fortnight, and had plenty of delicious food available at every meal in the large and modern canteen. That still did not deter us from forays to local supermarkets to find elusive muesli bars, sports drinks and chocolate! Keeping everyone well fed and rested was a key component of my task; one especially pleasing shopping excursion was the secretive purchase of delicious chocolate cakes, plus fresh strawberries, raspberries, and of course candles, so that we could celebrate Lilian’s birthday!
Arranging team meetings, getting everyone to meals and the buses on time (especially Last Minute Lilian, and Closely Followed By Claire), and managing loads of laundry were amongst the other tasks to be done. There was lots of driving (Roch and I each attempted to drive on the wrong side of the road only once!), and even more photography. These tasks provided many unexpected and interesting moments such as watching the very tame resident hare at the barracks, who was seen playing in the sand under the volleyball nets when the team was out around the barracks at a sprint training session; going for my own run in the woods next to the barracks, or completing part of a training exercise with the Team, and meeting up with team members in Aalborg as we were all shopping and sightseeing. As with so many European towns, there was a beautiful old quarter with buildings dating from the 16th century, which begged to be explored on foot. Most of us developed an elementary understanding and use of the Danish language, although locals all used English with us effortlessly. A highlight of the training camp week was our day trip to Legoland, to see the creativity that comes with millions of Lego pieces replicating small scale versions of famous landmarks, historical buildings and entire streets, townships, harbours and airports, with working cranes, locks and vehicles on land and water. As other countries’ teams began arriving at the barracks for part of the training camp and then JWOC itself, I soon met up with other team managerial staff, and shared stories: the American team also had horror stories about uniforms not arriving; the Turks lost luggage; and the Danish team (with whom we shared a building) brought their own physiotherapist, freezer and massage table, moving us out of the small common room in which we had previously held our meetings (and watched the Tour de France on the large screen TV!) Fortunately we all had wall mounted plasma screen televisions in our rooms; there were the local city bikes to be found to enable quick circuits of the barracks or trips to the supermarket; and the Kiwis were always ready starters in the endless football, touch and frisbee games which materialised on the common grassed areas. The Opening Ceremony on the evening of Sunday 3rd July, while a relatively low-key event, was a fitting moment to emphasise to all of us the importance of our commitment to our representation at this international event. Having so many parents watching as we walked around the arena proudly wearing our uniforms and bearing the Australian flag, demonstrated the commitment that it takes to bring a team of young people around the world for this
special week. Our parental contingent was a great support over JWOC – they waved flags, cheered and encouraged the Team in a wonderfully partisan way! For a number of the team, results were at times disappointing, for a variety of reasons – that too added a further dimension to my role. Supporting the disappointed, encouraging the focused, getting through another day, nurturing hopes and ambitions, commiserating with those who made errors, and after allowing people their private space to deal with those disappointments, bringing them back to focus on the next day, the rest of the team and the coming event is always a delicate balancing act, and served to develop the very strong sense of team cohesion and rapport that we had. We experienced all sorts of weather throughout the week – but wet or fine there was always laundry to be done – I was often to be found late in the evening reading by the washing machines as I shuffled loads between the washers and driers, so that we would look smartly turned out the next day! Fortunately, there were few medical issues: a few checks for ticks, an occasional thistle and a couple of residual injuries that the athletes managed themselves were the most I had to deal with. The very long summer twilights meant that we had to work hard to watch the time, and ensure adequate sleep was had; fortunately, most of the team were responsible athletes in that respect. Apart from the long daylight hours, the main reason for late nights was getting internet access – there was rather limited access around the main administrative area, but creativity soon showed itself in many ways, and team members were able to get onto their emails, the team blog and their social networks in the main canteen and recreational area. It seemed no time that the excitement of the preparation for the banquet and party to celebrate the end of JWOC 2010 was upon us – the girls went shopping for their gumboots and guerilla outfits, the boys having already organised their surf-lifesaver theme several months before! The last team meeting outside on the grass gave us the chance to celebrate the week before we officials enjoyed our banquet, as did the Team theirs. It was a huge fortnight, physically and emotionally – the junior world orienteering stage is a very big one! Competing at this level is exhilarating, humbling, inspiring and challenging to us all. Uniform tops were exchanged, friendships were made - in spite of, or perhaps because of, the ‘Top 10’ lists and team profiles that were produced, often extremely creatively and wittily, over the week. I consider myself privileged to have been part of the experience for these young people; being their manager allowed me to support, encourage, and nurture them, even as I produced invoices and itineraries, took them to Legoland for the day, washed clothes, and shopped for food, took photos, and cheered, waited anxiously at spectator points, handed out water to runners, then ran to the next spectator control to take more photos, mended torn uniforms, woke people up, sent them to bed, shared birthday celebrations and supported the disappointed, dressed wounds and drove the mini-buses. I learned a great deal myself, of course, while having a wonderful time, and valued the opportunity to work with such a committed group of young people as well as my colleagues over the past year. This JWOC 2010 retrospective also invites me to think ahead to JWOC 2011 in Poland – and yes, I’ve got the maps out, and am checking websites as I look forward to the event enormously! DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 15
NUTRITION
Gillian Woodward is an Accredited Practising Dietician and has been providing advice in the field for over 25 years. She has been an orienteer since 1984.
Gillian Woodward
Getting the truth out of the ‘NIP’ I
f you read last month’s tale about the truth behind nutrition claims, you will be aware that interpreting the Nutrition Information Panel (NIP) is the key to success in choosing a healthier food product from the supermarket shelf. So let me set down some guidelines to help you in the process. Before you get to the NIP, somewhere on the packet you will find a list of ingredients. By law, it must list the ingredients contained in the product in order of quantity, from most to least. It can be useful for identifying sources of added fat, sugar and salt. BUT beware, these can be listed under a variety of different names eg there are about 25 words meaning sugar including anything ending in ‘ose’ – lactose, sucrose, maltose, glucose, etc. On the NIP itself, the manufacturer must list the major nutrients, including the amount per 100 grams of solid product (or 100ml of liquid). This ‘per 100g’ column is a useful standard to compare products with each other, eg which one is lower in fat or higher in fibre. It is helpful in choosing one brand over another.
Example of a label:
“Oat & Fruit Biscuits”
NUTRITION INFORMATION Servings per package – 24 Serving size: 10.4g (1 piece per serve) Energy
per 10.4gm per 100g serve serve 177kJ 1700kJ
Protein
0.72g
6.9g
Fat, total
0.86g
8.3g
- saturated
0.11g
1.1g
- monounsaturated
0.6g
5.8g
- polyunsaturated Carbohydrate, total
0.14g 7.7g
1.4g 74.3g
- sugars Dietary Fibre
4.3g 0.22g
41.2g 2.1g
Sodium
33mg
320mg
Ingredients: Wheat flour, Sugar, Rolled Oats(11%), Currants (10%), Wheat starch, Sunflower Oil (5%), Golden Syrup, Skim Milk Powder, Whole Egg, Emulsifiers (Soy Lecithin, 476), Raising Agents (500, 503), Salt
Serving size: This is the average serving size of the product according to the manufacturer (who of course wants you to eat plenty of his food!) However, this may not be the same amount as you eat in a serving. You may in fact eat twice this quantity or half of it, so often it is not a good guide for every individual. Energy: This is a measure of how many kilojoules (or calories) the food will provide. Protein, fat and carbohydrates all contribute to the energy total, but fat provides more than twice as much energy as protein or carbohydrate per gram. Protein: There is no set amount of protein to aim for: animal foods will contain most of course. Anyone eating a balanced diet in Australia will be obtaining more than enough protein for their needs. We only need less than 1 gram of protein per kilogram that we weigh and most of us eat at least twice this quantity on a regular basis. Fat total: Choose the product with the lowest amount of fat per 100g. Less than 10g fat per 100g is advisable. But less than 3g fat per 100g is classified as “low fat”. This may be backed up by a claim on the packet stating ‘97% fat-free’. Saturated fat: Again choose the product with the least grams of saturated fat. If the saturated fat is only a small fraction of the total fat (say 1/4 - 1/5), then that is preferable. However, if saturated fat is 50 - 75% of the total fat in the product, then leave it on the shelf. Saturated fat raises your cholesterol level and can elevate blood sugar levels. Carbohydrate total: This includes both simple carbohydrate (sugars) and complex (starch) and is what affects your blood glucose level. So it is important to look at this rather than just ‘sugars’. One teaspoon of carbohydrate weighs about 5 grams. If the product contains 15 grams of carbohydrate per serving, this is what is called an exchange (previously portion) for those with diabetes. If one biscuit contains about 7.5 grams of carbohydrate, then two biscuits would be a serve. Dietary fibre: Choose high fibre products with at least 2 - 5 grams of fibre per serve. Aim for a total of 25 - 30 grams of fibre per day. Many Australians only eat half of this amount. Sodium: Another name for salt. Where possible, choose products with reduced or at least no added salt. Only foods with less than 120mg sodium per 100grams can be labelled as ‘low salt’. Unfortunately, there are not many foods that meet this guideline. If you use these guidelines and remember just a few numbers like 3 (<3 grams for low fat), and 15 (15grams for a carbohydrate serve), then you are well on the way to choosing better foods.
16 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
KOOYOORA ROCKS
How to Orienteer at Kooyoora by Ella
A light-hearted look at how to get from A to B in the most technical terrain that Victoria has to offer, without getting waylaid to C or having to relocate off D (if you can find it).
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o, how DO you orienteer at Kooyoora? After many attempts and numerous DNFs in this terrain, I believe that I have finally come up with the magic answer:
V.e.r.y.
c.a.r.e.f.u.l.l.y.
See all those black dots up there? They’re called rocks. Aka “fly dirt”. Kooyoora is covered with them. There are round dots, triangular dots, and unclimbable black squidges consisting entirely of large impenetrable dots jammed together so tightly that they become impassable. Another thing you will notice about Kooyoora is that it is covered in green. Some bits are dark green; others are splodges of pale green on a white backdrop. Some of this green is actually green, while a large percentage of it is dead and brown. It is, however, still standing upright. It does not bend gracefully as you flow through it, but instead grabs at your ankles, stabs your legs, and attempts to ensnare you around the waist and chest as you barge your way through. One well-known Bendigo Orienteer was moved to write: “I remember at one point being tripped by some tangled saplings or vines at ground level, and while thinking... this is going to hurt, was caught in the semi upright position by the next lot of tangled stems and vines, so no impact.”
DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 17
KOOYOORA ROCKS
The third distinctive feature of Mount Kooyoora is its wriggly brown lines. Often people will instruct you to ignore the black dots and focus on the wriggly bits instead. As if. These brown lines do not form neat orderly spurs and gullies, but instead look like an untidy pile of wholemeal spaghetti never seen in a MasterChef kitchen.
Given that it’s always more entertaining to look at other people’s mistakes, here are some GPS examples from recent events at Kooyoora. How not to do it:
Rule No.4: know when enough is enough. Develop a sense of distance, and become aware of when you have gone too far. Know when to fold.
No matter how carefully you pick out the chopped up bits of black olives, there is still a very undignified pile of brown worms in which to try and identify Up from Down. And to follow the foodie theme, the final piece of the pie is the grey pancakes that litter the map. These are usually quite obvious large rock slabs at, or near, ground level. Sometimes, however, they are covered in damp green moss, and the only way you know that you are running across one is when your feet suddenly give way beneath you and you make painful contact with what is left of the surface covering.
Rule No.3: know your ups from your downs. This was brought home to me rather sharply a few years ago when M55 and I were poking around in a gully looking for a control. Another M55 ran across the top of us and yelled that the ground was sloping the wrong way. Obvious really, when it’s pointed out.
So how do you do it?
Actually, this can be quite amusing when you see it. Meerkat Manor has nothing on the Kooyoora Knockabouts.
Rule No.2: the Bingo control. The main trick is to recognise that it is, in fact, a Bingo control, and treat it with respect. This is a classic bingo control:
How would you do this one? Take a careful bearing and bounce from dot to dot and hope like hell. The attack point is actually hidden under the purple line just to the north of the control.
18 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
Rule No.5: catch your catching features. Here’s one from my own archive:
Rule No.1: keep your thumb on the map at all times. You must never ever lose contact with the map or all hope is lost. You cannot simply run to the top of the nearest rock and hope to identify which particular rock you have landed on. The only thing that you are likely to see from the top of your rock is other people standing on the top of their rock doing the same thing.
Mr Red has navigated to the wrong pancake, and presumably kept going “just in case”. Mr Blue has missed the pancake altogether and wandered down the spur. However, he has recognised that he “should have found it by now” and bounced back to have another go.
Here, our intrepid explorer has failed to recognise that she is running in circles on top of a hill, instead of looking for the control on the north-facing slope.
KOOYOORA ROCKS
The plan was to wander down the hill (too vague to be called a spur) until the watercourse and then follow it north. As I splashed through the water I thought how great it was to have wet stuff in the watercourse, so you could identify when you were actually crossing one. Ah, FAIL. Another one from the pointy end of the field on the same control:
That watercourse was so obvious, yet there was clearly some brain fade going on after fighting through the green crud. What was she thinking?! I’m sure I could go on (but I’m nearing my word limit). To wrap up, here is a conversation about control #5 from some more people involved.
feature I was using as an attack point, and in green those metres make a big difference.” In reply, from the organiser: “Had an awful time looking for 5 (spent ¼ of my total time on this leg), not helped by the purple line having been drawn over a very large boulder which changed the whole appearance of the
“#5 was one of the hardest half a dozen controls on all the courses set…. But there were still 6 major features in the circle and the purple line was likely to cross something out of it. I don’t think
you can, in practical terms, expect a course setter/print checker to somehow correct for every rock under the purple line in Kooyoora. I stood on one of the rocks nearby for 5 minutes before I could confirm this control site as absolutely correct. It is simply too tough to be mapped without a lot of artistic licence and I still don’t know how Alex does it.” And rebuttal: “6 major features in the circle” - that was the challenge - identifying the location of the circle within the green. You couldn’t see the features in the green and it was a fight to move around to find them.” Ah yes. Wouldn’t it be great if you could actually see the purple control circle on the ground? Along with brown lines that you could follow, and black dots you could see, and blue lines that … oh, Hang on. Why are my feet wet? Anon, dear readers. Until next time. (routes stolen from RouteGadget, with many thanks to those unwitting GPS contributors)
DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER
19
AUSTRALIAN MTBO CHAMPS – VICTORIA
Fitting conclusion to the MTBO season Kay Haarsma
The Australian Championships in Victoria was a fitting conclusion to the MTBO season. The scene was set with three races in the weekend; new maps; fields in the mid 130s; cool but good riding weather, not to mention the presence of 19 New Zealanders aiming to take a few trophies home.
A
• CH
LIAN
USTRA
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AM S P
David West (NSW) single-speeding through the Middle race at Castlemaine. photoworx.com.au
R IA
FORD
• CHE
D
VICTO
AYLES
•
W TON
S
aturday saw us assembled at the Chewton velodrome (Wesley Hill Sportsground) with the Middle Distance event on Old Quartz Hill followed in the afternoon by the Sprint on Clinkers Hill. Old Quartz Hill had been used in the 2004 Worlds but this time it had been extended to take in the Chewton foot-O area to the south. Mapped at 1:15,000 it also utilised more single track than normal, adding another complexity to the navigation time and distance conundrum. Exit to the big roads as soon as possible was the lesson learnt. There was a remote finish out in the bush giving us a 3km warm down before downloading back at the velodrome. Adrian Jackson (AJ) simply rode too strongly throughout the course, being fastest on 16 of the 18 splits. However he seemed to choose the slower route choice on the long leg across the map (to #10), taking the southern route and losing 42secs to Alex Randall on this leg and being just a few seconds ahead of 4th placed Tony Clark. In the women’s race Marquita Gelderman (NZ) made a rare mistake on #1, losing 30secs to 2nd placegetter Thor Egerton on this leg but Marquita steadied to take 13 of the fastest 16 splits. Thor lost 2mins by taking the single track option on the way to #9.
The Sprint on the new Andrew Slattery produced 1:10,000 Clinkers Hill map was partly on the foot-O map of Wattle Gully Diggings. The one minute starts caused some confusion for the early starters as the recorded start instructions couldn’t be heard and some of us presumed that we were already at the start triangle which wasn’t so. The courses had a bush section, followed by two or three controls in a school, then a fast roadie section and finally had us sprint three quarters a lap of the velodrome to finish. Some of the 600 professional photos by Michael Brown at www. photoworx.com.au show MTBO’ers emulating track riders on the banked run in to the finish. Heath Jamieson (M20) adopted the superman position to good effect. The contour channel which had a control on it had never seen so much traffic for many years. See the action on You Tube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mz27x0yP_4) thanks to Thor Egerton’s head mounted video. Being a semi-suburban area most controls had their SI units locked to trees about 1 metre above the ground making ride-through punching a mite difficult.
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9
3 2
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1 MIDDLE CHAMPIONSHIP “Old Quartz Hill” – 1: 15 000
W21 – Control 8 to 9
–– –– Thor Egerton................ 7:12 Marquita
10
Gelderman.... 5:11
20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
6
1
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MIDDLE CHAMPIONSHIP “Old Quartz Hill” – 1: 15 000
M21 – Control 6 to 7 Jackson......... 4:26 –– Alex Randall. ............. 4:54 –– Adrian
7
The 64sec win by Steve Cusworth over reigning world Sprint champion AJ was a real credit to the increased training and commitment he has shown. At the 2010 World Champs Sprint Steve had been headed for a top10 result before a mistake within sight of the finish, Marquita Gelderman so the potential (NZ) – a clean sweep was obvious. The in the 3 elite races. trio of AJ, Steve photoworx.com.au and Alex Randall all were leading at various times in the first half of the race but Steve powered through the long street leg in 4min 15sec gaining over 30secs on his rivals and was never headed after that.
Dowling. We gratefully parked and finished in the beautiful lawn grounds of land owner Peter Rogers. The elite men had 35kms. After AJ’s recent win in the rugged Tour de Timor there were few betting against him despite the good form of the other leading riders. He did win by four minutes but didn’t have it all his own way winning just 5 of the 14 splits, with Alex taking 4, Steve 3 and Grant 2. Adrian took the lead at control #5, putting 2:30min on Alex and 3:11 on Steve on this leg. Many courses had the route choice decision of going around the eastern or western side of Babbington Hill (see map section on page 23). There didn’t appear to be much in it, with many, including AJ, choosing the slightly shorter eastern route. However this track was full of big puddles and several unmarked fallen trees making it the slower route. AJ lost 75secs to Alex (who took the western route) on this leg but the time loss for others was even greater. Hayden Lebbink recorded many very good splits and looked to be set for 3rd or 4th overall but unfortunately had one control missing on the read-out. Marquita again stole most of the winning splits (10 out of 14) and won by seven minutes, despite losing almost 2mins heading up a wrong track from the Bullarto reservoir. Mary Fien rode extremely well. She recovered her composure after a 4min error en route to #6 and lost little to Marquita over the second half. Of the girls only Mary, Marquita and Steve Cusworth powered Carolyn Jackson through the Sprint to take his first elite Australian title. chose the faster route photoworx.com.au around Babbington Hill, with all the others being 5-6mins slower on the water sodden eastern track.
Marquita again navigated consistently well winning 11 of the 14 splits, while Mary Fien displayed good form and speed to take 2nd. Foot orienteer Vanessa Round, making one of her first forays into MTBO, was an impressive 3rd. The Long Distance was on a brand new 1:25,000 map just outside Daylesford, called Wheatsheaf. Jonathon Sutcliffe had created this from a Cyclic Navigator map made originally by Ken
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1 1 Steven Cusworth 28:38 1:54 BKV 1:54 2 Adrian Jackson 29:42 2:00 MFV 2:00
2 5:48 3:54 5:58 3:58
3 8:37 2:49 8:28 2:30
4 9:24 0:47 9:13 0:45
5 10:38 1:14 10:39 1:26
6 12:57 2:19 12:40 2:01
7 14:58 2:01 14:59 2:19
8 16:47 1:49 17:21 2:22
9 18:00 1:13 18:23 1:02
10 18:28 0:28 18:53 0:30
11 18:48 0:20 19:16 0:23
12 19:28 0:40 20:03 0:47
13 23:43 4:15 24:54 4:51
14 24:43 1:00 25:52 0:58
15 25:44 1:01 26:43 0:51
16 27:11 1:27 28:12 1:29
17 27:49 0:38 28:55 0:43
F 28:38 0:49 29:42 0:47
11 9
Clinker Hill 1:10000
8 6 5 7
4 Steve’s route shown in yellow. Adrian’s route shown in light red where it differs from Steve’s.
SPRINT Australian MTBO
3 2
DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 21
AUSTRALIAN MTBO CHAMPS – VICTORIA
The assembly area for the Long race at Musk. Photo: Peter Cusworth
Marquita won all 5 races she contested in AUS this trip. How to interpret this? Firstly she is a fine navigator and has her own purpose built MTB tracks on her hilly farm in NZ. Then there’s her fine record at her last WMTBOC in Poland (2008), finishing an agonisingly close 4th in the Sprint, 5th in the Middle Distance and 11th in the Long Distance. So Marquita is certainly a class act to measure our girls (and junior boys) against. This year Marquita’s parents, Yett and Chris, whom she had introduced to MTBO, were enticed to visit and race in AUS. 67y.o. Yett has to race against the W40’s in NZ and didn’t realise how competitive she would be in W60. She emerged with two AUS Championships to her credit. Her answer to failing eyesight is to carry a humongous magnifying glass! Yett said, “I thought we were coming on a holiday but they had us racing or training every day. But all that hard work certainly paid off this weekend.” Chris Gelderman was amazed that he was racing against 19 others in M60. The 10 day NZ visit had again been masterminded by “squad mother” Di Michels who had them racing in Mt Gambier the first weekend, then a visit to the Grampians, followed by training in Maryborough and the Creswick region. It was not without incident with M50 Dave King fracturing his sternum at Maryborough. He tentatively rode the Sprint and managed to finish midfield! Then M50 Steve Pyatt survived a horrific 12 metre fall down a cliff from a small track near Hepburn Springs and emerged with just a torn finger tendon!
Marquita Gelderman’s mum, Yett came over from New Zealand as well and took home plenty of trophies winning the W60 Sprint and Middle races.
22 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
Oscar Phillips (Tas) showed great MTBO form winning all three M20 races. photoworx.com.au
New Zealand’s Di Michels comments: Dave King had a nasty crash when a branch bounced up into his front wheel. We are very used to the more bendy stuff back home so this was a bit of a wakeup call for the rest of us. He spent a bit of time in Maryborough Hospital before being transported by ambulance to Ballarat for CT scanning and xrays. Diagnosis was fractured sternum and a cracked rib. He was pretty keen to ride but it was a painful experience for him. Steve Pyatt was our team crash-a-holic! Steve has an uncanny ability to survive over the bar crashes on a regular basis! We even suggested he wore Dave’s neck brace. Rob and Pete Swanson took us out for a ride at Daylesford along a nice stream which proved to have quite a bit of up and down. After I left with a few others to do some geocaching the rest continued along this stream until they got to a narrow part. Steve was leading and as it happened he got to this rocky overhang first. He decided to stop to alert the others and ended up going off the bank when the edge gave way when he put his foot down! He took quite a tumble and Rob was a bit shaken up as it was so similar to the accident Erin had when they were on a remote ride earlier this year. Steve ruptured a tendon in his finger so he was all strapped up for the racing on the last weekend. The Kiwis had booked out the Hepburn Springs YHA which was convenient as a Saturday night dinner, attended by 90 people was held in the Savoia Hotel, just across the road. Presentations for the Middle Distance and Sprint events were held and photos and videos of the day’s events and also from the World Champs in Portugal were displayed on a big screen, making for a nice evening.
1 2 3 4
SPRINT M21 = 9.4 km 135m Steve Cusworth (V) Adrian Jackson (V) Alex Randall (V) Grant Lebbink (V)
28:38 29:42 30:29 32:40
MIDDLE M21 = 16.8km 390m Adrian Jackson Alex Randall Grant Lebbink Tony Clark (V)
53:30 55:47 66:05 69:50
LONG M21 = 35.8km 720m Adrian Jackson 97:15 Alex Randall 101:54 Steve Cusworth 104:22 Grant Lebbink 107:20
1 2 3 4
W21 = 7.8km 100M Marquita Gelderman (NZ) Mary Fien (NSW) Vanessa Round (SA) Thor Egerton (V)
30:27 34:16 35:52 36:08
W21 = 14.5km 325m Marquita Gelderman Thor Egerton Christine Browne (NZ) Vanessa Round
53:23 60:39 65:48 67:58
W21 = 30km 570m Marquita Gelderman Mary Fien Thor Egerton Carolyn Jackson (V)
103:25 110:53 117:56 119:50
1 2 3 4
M20 = 7.8km 100M Oscar Phillips (T) James Robertson (V) Heath Jamieson (V) Chris Firman (Q)
28:28 29:14 31:33 33:27
M20 = 14.5km 325m Oscar Phillips Heath Jamieson James Robertson Chris Firman
50:35 51:37 58:00 63:34
M20 = 30km 570m Oscar Phillips Chris Firman James Robertson
92:59 101:11 117:48
W20 = 6.2km 80m 1 Jasmine Sunley (V) 2 Mary Fleming (V)
37:55 45:42
W20 = 12.4km 265m Jasmine Sunley Mary Fleming
73:25 87:49
W20 = 25.5km 500m Jasmine Sunley 174:05 –
5 000 contour interval 10m 1
2km
presents 250m on the ground
MTB Orienteering Heath Jamieson (Vic) on the final ships 2010 velodrome lap in
Tim Hatley scaring off Mapies for us all. No swoops reported. photoworx.com.au
the sprint.
photoworx.com.au & Daylesford, Victoria
ce
Thor Egerton (Vic) second W21 in the Middle race. photoworx.com.au
The successful overseas foray to JWMTBOC this year by three boys encouraged some new talent to successfully race the nationals. Jasmine Sunley took out all W20 titles, despite the presence of speedy foot orienteer Mary Fleming in the Sprint and Middle Distance. Four junior girls from Braemar College competed on Saturday in W16 or W20 but they had to study on Sunday with year 12 exams commencing on Monday. The timing of this event is a problem for older secondary students.
Cooper. Other key officials were: Course Setters: Dion Keech (Middle); Cormac McCarthy (Sprint); Jonathan Sutcliffe (Long). Controllers: Jonathan Sutcliffe (Sprint and Middle); Kathy Liley (Long). Event Treasurer: Ruth Goddard. Commentary: Blake Gordon, Blair Trewin. Bruce Paterson was the SportIdent guru with assistance from Greg Tamblyn. Bruce spent most of Saturday quite high up a gum tree – something to do with reception!! What we do in the name of Orienteering!
The M20 class had four very competitive riders but it was Tasmanian and JWOC foot orienteer Oscar Phillips who took the “gold” in all three races. For someone so inexperienced in MTBO his performances were outstanding and to substantiate this his times were significantly better than Marquita in W21 on the same courses. In the Sprint Oscar won 7 of 14 splits but James Robertson led for over half the course and finished less than a minute behind. Heath Jamieson, after receiving his map late at the start, lost 2 minutes on leg one but managed 3rd. In the Middle Distance Oscar won 11 splits and Heath Jamieson 6 but it was a close tussle that wasn’t decided until Oscar got ahead at the very last control. The Long Distance race saw Oscar dominate by winning 11 of 14 splits and he had an 8min win over Chris Firman who had been out of sorts in the earlier races. James Robertson faded somewhat in the second half of the course, but he could be well pleased with his shorter race results.
Route gadget is especially informative for MTBO and all courses have been uplifted there. You can select several riders at a time and watch them make their way around the course noting each other’s speed from leg to leg. Use this link http://www. eurekaorienteers.asn.au/routegadget/cgi-bin/reitti.pl.
There were many great races and rivalries in the very competitive older classes. The “Handyman” of the year award has to go to James Lithgow who used fencing wire to successfully repair David West’s bottom bracket on his single speed machine!
The Victorian Long and Middle Distance MTBO Champs will be held early next year on 9 & 10 April, south from Daylesford on a new MTBO map. This will be the Australian WMTBOC & JWMTBOC team Selection Races, plus the first round of the 2011 Australian MTBO Series. The World Champs are in Italy next year. Plans are underway for the New Zealanders to conduct an Oceania Champs over their way soon, perhaps even in the summer of 2012 – stay tuned.
LONG CHAMPIONSHIP
“Wheatsheaf” – 1: 25 000, 10m
M21 – Control 7 to 8
–– Randall.............. 9:25 –– Hayden Lebbink...... 10:19 –– Adrian Jackson....... 10:40 Alex
Three events in a weekend is always a big ask. Many thanks to Event Coordinator Peter Cusworth for pulling it all together and also being a day organiser, as was Toby
OTHER AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONS SPRINT MIDDLE Emily Hennessey W16 Emily Hennessey (V) Kay Haarsma W40 Kay Haarsma (S) Susie Williams (Q) W50 Lyn Stichbury (Q) Yett Gelderman W60 Yett Gelderman (NZ) – Joyce Rowlands (V) W70
E1
M14 M16 M40 M50 M60 M70
Eddy Prentice (NSW) Tim Jackson (V) Craig Steffens (Q) Rob Prentice (NSW) Michael Wood (NZ) –
BO symbols
Eddy Prentice Tim Jackson Peter Swanson (NZ) Tim Hatley (V) Rick Armstrong (V) Graham Cadman (V)
LONG – Chris Browne (NZ) Lyn Stichbury Dale-Ann Gordon (V) Joyce Rowlands – Tim Jackson Craig Steffens Heinz Leuenberger (SA) Peter Hill (V) Graham Cadman (V) DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 23
alian MTB Orienteering AUSTRALIAN MTBO CHAMPS – VICTORIA mpionships 2010
maine & Daylesford, Victoria
Distance
LONG CHAMPIONSHIP
“Wheatsheaf” – 1: 25 000, 10m
M21 – Control 4 to 5 Mary Fien (NSW) coming in second in the Sprint. photoworx.com.au
Adrian Jackson.. 11:40 Alex Randall....... 14.16 Steve Cusworth.. 14.51
SA MTBO Championships
The men’s elite also saw the same three placegetters each day. Victorian and Australian team mates Steve Cusworth and Grant Lebbink took the quinella both days while Western Australian Ricky Thackray was rewarded with 3rd. Steve had a commanding win in the Long Distance of 105mins for the 36km, compared to 117 and 119. It was a far closer race in the 19km “Middle Distance” with Steve’s 74mins just being two minutes quicker than Grant, while Ricky finished on 93mins.
Kay Haarsma
T
he SA MTBO Champs, held near Mt Gambier, attracted a 75-strong field for the 2-day carnival. Being a week before the AUS Champs there were many Victorians, some other interstaters, a Kiwi squad and several Estonians. Luckily the dire weather predictions failed to materialise and though coolish, riding conditions were great.
URSE 1
The Long Distance courses on Caroline Forest (next to Donovans) were excellently set by Lee Merchant. The Middle Distance courses at Mt Richmond, master minded by Andrew Slattery, mainly utilised the complex track network in the hilly section of the map. With the minor tracks often being deep sand this added another factor into the navigational equation. On Course 3 several riders went back through the start to access a harder fire road to #1 – a route choice not even the setter had contemplated. This section of the map represents one of the best MTBO areas in Australia, in my opinion.
o MTBO symbols The women’s elite field consisted of
6 New Zealanders, 2 Victorians and a lone South Aussie. On the Long Path Distance course Marquita Gelderman took 106mins for the 29km, with easyEgerton ridingjust 6mins behind Thorlene and evergreen Carolyn Jackson slow riding (126min) held off the other Kiwis for 3rd. The Middle Distance very15.5km slow riding event zig-zagged through the sandy area difficult resultingto in ride long winning times. Marquita adapted best to the conditions, taking 78mins, with Thor 2nd (93mins) and Carolyn again 3rd sealed road (95mins). obstacle
Michael Wood (NZ) approaching the last control at Mt Richmond. Photo: Peter Cusworth
The closest race of the weekend was in the M50 Long Distance which Peter Cusworth won by 1 second over NZ’s David King with SA’s Heinz Leuenberger only 30secs further back.
2010 SA MTBO Champions
Carolyn Cusworth leading Jenny Sheahan out of the forest.
M14 M16 M20 M21 M40 M50 M60 M70 W21 W40 W50 W60 W70
MIDDLE Eddy Prentice (N) Tim Jackson (V) – Steve Cusworth (V) Ruhi Afnan (S) David King (NZ) Peter Hill (V) John Sheahan (V) Marquita Gelderman (NZ) – Heather Leslie (V) Jenny Sheahan (V) Joyce Rowlands (V)
LONG – Angus Robinson (V) Ben Davis (S) Steve Cusworth (V) Ruhi Afnan (S) Peter Cusworth (V) Keith Wade (V) John Sheahan (V) Marquita Gelderman (NZ) Kay Haarsma (S) Heather Leslie (V) Kathy Liley (V) Joyce Rowlands (V)
24 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
forbidden route
Based on the “No Name” Cyc
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.
Great Reading
H
aving returned home from the Australian Champs and with a renewed enthusiasm for Orienteering generated by a mixture of the great people, the challenging and interesting courses, and the need for my own improvement (demonstrated by my results) I picked up the latest “The Australian Orienteer”. I reread Rex Niven’s article about course setting which had so interested me a couple of weeks ago and considered it in the light of the recent courses I had run. I agree that the fun challenge of the navigation rather than just hard work is certainly what makes a great course for me as a competitor. I would love to see other articles on course setting for those of us inexperienced in such arts. Is there anyone out there prepared to share the process that they go through when setting? What are the things that need to be considered and in what order do you think about them? How often and at what stages do you actually set foot on the map? Are there good resources out there for those who are setting to use? Then I turned the page to p28 and continued reading “A view from the 19th” by Russell Blatchford. Boy- why didn’t I find the time to read that before the champs? It would have been a great opportunity to practice a pre leg routine, and really start turning it into an automatic process. I am working on an acronym of my own which will include consideration of route choices and possibly looking for the traps (I made a parallel error at the relays which could have been avoided with a better consideration of the possible traps). Yes please Russell - If you are able to submit a few more articles like this to the magazine I will be avidly waiting to read and use them. Articles such as these two are the reason that I get excited when I see that my latest issue of “The Australian Orienteer” has arrived in the post. Please keep them coming.
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Fieldwork & cartography by SUTMAP, June - July 2010
clic Navigator map by Ken Dowling
Bruce Paterson up a tree at the Aus MTBO Champs. A missing lead in the SI trailer was no obstacle for Bruce in his attempts to get reception for the Radio Control. He strapped the laptop up the tree as well !! DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 25
COACHING
A view from the 19th… Russell Blatchford (Newcastle OC)
The 7th hole (pictured left) is a 475 metre dogleg right par 5. On a quiet midweek afternoon, I stood at the desired front of green position for an uphill putt and proceeded to walk the hole from the green back to the tee. I was looking to identify three locations that I could realistically find with three average shots the majority of the time I played the hole. My Geoff Ogilvy inspired strategy for the 7th hole has been embedded in my game for a couple of years now.
…… as an Orienteer, I make a reasonable ‘B’ grade golfer
1st shot - drive to left centre of fairway
FOR THE GOLFER IN ME Coping with the ‘long’ hole
3rd shot - 8 / 9 iron or wedge to front right of green
T
here are three obvious explanations as to why I am destined to remain a ‘B’ grade golfer - a distinct lack of ability, I just don’t hit the ball far enough and my chipping and putting is absurdly inconsistent and unpredictable. It is therefore a great source of amusement to me to consider what I would recognise as the first golf strategy I ever developed. It was an approach to the longest holes - the par 5’s. It was a simple strategy. Smash the ball off the tee as far as possible, smash my second shot as far as possible. From the resulting extremely close position to the green following these two career best shots (rare occurrence indeed), play a delicate pitch or chip and two putt for a par at worst. To quote Forest Gump - “I am not a smart man”.
Such a dumb strategy, yet I persisted. And then one day, whilst scanning a golf magazine in a futile attempt to endure the torture of yet another family friendly shopping experience, Australian touring professional Geoff Ogilvy entered my golfing world and changed my strategy forever. He had played a par 5 for this particular golf article. It was great stuff. He wrote of the need to identify where his tee shot had to finish in order to get on the green with his second shot - the red circle in image 1 above. This picture became the significant influence on the change I was to make to my par 5 strategy. Not just the red circle, but the view from the green looking back. I knew right then exactly what I had to do next time I went out to my home course. 26 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
2nd shot - 5 or 6 iron to left centre of 90m to 120m range
4th / 5th shots - straight uphill putts I make more pars (that is, better my handicap) on the 7th hole now. Just as important is the belief I have developed in my ability to make nothing worse than a six, the score my handicap expects I will make.
FOR THE ORIENTEER IN ME Coping with the ‘long’ leg: To quote Forest Gump again, as he sat on that bench seat at that bus bay with life’s box of chocolates in his lap - “it’s funny what a young man recollects”. I have no trouble remembering Day 1 of the Easter 3-Days, 2002, and I had no trouble remembering that an article from Rob Lewis (WOC Coach 2009/2010) titled ‘Four legs and a funeral’ was one of the most fascinating AO articles I have read. On that day I remember facing the longest leg I have ever encountered on an Orienteering course. And it was the first leg of my course! My first leg was a tad shorter than the one featured in Rob’s article, but I will never forget that day. I took 58 minutes to get control #1, and I took less time than that to complete the rest of my course!! My fear of the long leg was born!!! Rob Vincent – “I picked a final attack point, the last large saddle, and thought, “How do I get there?” I wanted the most direct route and made a mental line joining the intervening saddles back to the start. I like to make lines out of features, inventing handrails out of the terrain.” Geoff Lawford – “The ridge looked easy to navigate and likely to be fast running. I saw the options left of the line, but it looked too up and down, steep gullies and clinging to hillsides. I feel I made the best choice.” Jock Davis – “My initial instinct was to take the ridge route. I nearly took this, but when I stopped at the triangle I changed my mind”…………I spent 40 seconds standing at the
triangle pondering alternatives, which was probably longer than the advantage I would have gained running the quickest route”. I was fascinated to read how some of the great Orienteers that I have come to know and respect had tackled that first leg. I really started to appreciate the significance of route choice, and how it was important to find a solution to the challenge of the long leg that represented a best fit for my ‘B’ grade skills.
Fast forward to Maryborough, Queensland, 2008. Nick Dent, former JWOC coach and newly appointed Director of Coaching OANSW and NSW Schools Coach 2010 was the stand-in coach for the NSW Schools Team. It was the night before the Australian Long Distance Championships, and in a team briefing Nick was emphasising the need for squad members to be ready for a longish / long leg, and was encouraging them to consider what their mental strategy might be. He spoke of the possibility that the leg could be divided up into two or three shorter legs. Squad members could imagine that there was an additional control at key points along this imaginary break down of the leg, and spike those imaginary controls. I sat up even straighter in my seat - this seems to be ringing a bell. Then Nick spoke about the possible strategy of viewing the leg in reverse, tracing back from where you need to be to where you are at the previous control, and considering what that might reveal about route choice options and an attack point. Right there and then it hit me, smack bang between the eyes. “It’s just like playing a par 5”. Geoff Ogilvy had become Nick Dent, and my ‘B’ grade strategy for the long leg on an Orienteering course was born. • Have a plan for the long leg - don’t just run and hope; •W hen planning, don’t be afraid to consider the leg in reverse; •B reak the leg down into a number of shorter legs if it helps; • Commit to your plan, and trust it is the best plan for you.
Easter 2010 Day 2 Kowen Forest East (1:10,000) Course 7 control #9-10 1.25 km
DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 27
COACHING
Tale of the tape no. 1 ACT Long Champs. 2009 - Awoonga (1:10,000) / Course 4 / control #1 / 2.2 km My split .......................................................................................... 17:15 My class winner’s split / quickest split – Martin Wehner......... 15:18 Overall course winner’s split – Aislinn Prendergast................. 15:25 Broke the leg into three parts - *1.1 (track bend); *1.2 clearing/watercourse junction); *1.3 (gully/watercourse bend). My strategy worked and I spiked the control. This was a thrilling outcome for me. When I first picked up my map thoughts of Easter 2002 at West Inverary flooded my mind. The fact that Geoff Lawford was the course setter, and he was such a big part of the Rob Lewis article, enhanced my anxiety and sense of deja vu! Over this leg my split was 2nd quickest in my class, and the 5th quickest overall of the 50 odd competitors who started Course 4 that day. My effort on this leg I regard as a big step forward for me as a ‘B’ grade performer.
Tale of the tape no. 2 AUS Long Champs. 2009 - Northern Spurs (1:10,000) Course 10 / control #7 - #8 / 1.9 km My split............................................................................. 26:06 Winner’s split/Quickest split - Geoff Lawford.............. 18:23 Broke the leg into three parts - *7.1(track-watercourse junction); *7.2 (track junction); *7.3(track bend). Drifted south of *7.1, but my strategy worked and I spiked the control. 4th place in this event was my best AUS Champs result ever. Geoff is in a completely different league to me - he is an ‘A’ grader. He beat me by 12 minutes on this day, and I was very happy with that. But despite my 4th place, it was a little distressing to realise almost 8 minutes of that time was on this leg! In fact, one third of the field had a quicker split than me on this leg! My kids get a laugh out of a movie called ‘Fired Up ‘, a send up of cheer leading in the USA. A famous, very corny, but highly relevant quote from that movie is “you’ve got to risk it to get the biscuit “. When I reflect on this leg that is what I hear. I did spike the control, but I was way too defensive! Such is the life of the ‘B’ grader!!
28 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
Tale of the tape no. 3 SA Long Distance Champs. 2010 - Mack Creek (1:10,000) Course 6 / control #1 - #2 / 1.6 km: My split..........................................................................13:17 Winner’s split / Quickest split - Warren Key..............10:09 Broke the leg into three parts - *1.1 (dam - east side); *1.2 (knoll/clearing); *1.3 (rocky knoll). My strategy worked and I spiked the control. Warren won by over 9 minutes on this day, and smashed me by 19 minutes - he is a World Masters Champion and the best of A graders. I finished 6th, but my split on this leg was 5th quickest, and only 1-2 minutes or so behind the 2nd and 3rd quickest splits. The length of this leg was 1.6 km, of a total course length of 6.4 km. That’s 25% of the course, and my 3:08 behind Warren on the leg was well under 25% of the time he smashed me by. I feel good about my effort! As a long time ‘C’ / ‘B’ grade Orienteer I am absolutely certain that I continue to lose more time, proportional to the length of a leg, and as a percentage of the leg time run by the ‘ A ‘ graders I compete against, on middle and shorter length course legs. But it is still the long leg that I fear the most. I feel I cope better with my ‘par 5 ‘ mentality, have improved my execution of the long legs on my courses, and have gained confidence and self belief from getting things right on a more regular basis. It is the built-in rewards within the long leg (spiking those imaginary controls), and that fantastic feeling resulting from running a huge distance in unfamiliar bush to spike the actual control, that keeps bringing me back to our wonderful sport.
HORSE ORIENTEERING
O
n Sunday May 23rd, Jan Mitchell and Paul Pacqué of the Esk Valley Orienteering Club (EVOC) organised a horse Orienteering event at the Four Springs Reserve near Launceston. To our knowledge, this was a first for Tasmania and possibly even for Australia. The event was organised to provide the volunteers of the Tasmanian Mounted Search & Rescue Group (of which Jan is a member) with an opportunity to improve their map reading and navigation skills, useful when looking for lost souls in Tasmania’s dense bush. An existing MTBO map of the area was used and its classification of tracks and paths as easy riding, slow riding or difficult to ride proved surprisingly accurate for horseback riding. Control flags with punches were hung so as to allow the riders to punch without having to dismount. The 13km course (see map) took the fastest riders just under 90 minutes to complete. Along the way up to 20 bonus minutes could be earned by answering a series of (cryptic) questions to test the riders’ First Aid knowledge. At the half way mark, refreshments (port, soft drinks & nibbles) were provided. The day was rounded off with a BBQ during which it didn’t take the riders long to engage in the traditional post-mortem and “what if” discussion which seems to be part of every Orienteering event.
The winning team of Matt and Tam Howard.
Even though all the usual mistakes were made it was obvious that most of the riders picked up a few skills along the way. They certainly seemed to enjoy the experience and it is hoped this experiment will become an annual event. Paul Pacqué (EVOC) DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 29
DANUBE RIDE
World Masters
Merely A Warmup For Some Ann Scown (ACT)
For ten hardy souls from the ACT, arriving at the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Switzerland in late July meant time for hard work to begin. The training was all over and now things became very serious.
I
t was essential that no-one pushed themselves too hard and that no-one got injured. There were more important and challenging adventures to come. Consequently, the only ACT people to take home medals from the event were Jenny Bourne and Herman Wehner who, incidentally, were not included in the 10. Perhaps the story should begin with QBIII in 2008, when Judy Allison, Sandra Hogg and Ann Baylis decided that they were going to start some cross training with a bicycle ride each week. Luckily for Pat Miethke, Ann Ingwersen and Ann Scown, they were free on the designated day, Tuesday, and were readily included in the bunch, which became affectionately known as “The Grannys”. In need of one other real Granny to balance the two “associates”, Kerryne Jones joined the group a few weeks later.
Bicycle Pickup
From a lowly 15km per week (about the distance around east and central basin of Lake Burley Griffin), to excursions of over 40km both north and south of Canberra city, the Grannys readied themselves for “The Danube”. Once again it was Judy who had the idea when wondering how it would feel to sink a pint in a quaint bar on the bank of the Danube. Not long after, Sandra was organising a trip in her best German text via email and the occasional oral test by phone. The others, well, they planned the training rides and even thought that perhaps the girls should actually invite partners Bob, David, Frank, John and Bill along for the ride. Unfortunately Ann B and partner Alan were unable to join the group. And so it came to pass, after a successful but not world shattering WMOC 2010, that the 10 met up with Pat in Passau, Germany, on the evening of August 10th to share the beginning of a true adventure, cycling down the Danube, over 380km, to Vienna. Couples had begun 30 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
Judy Celebrates
Not the Tow Path
So this set the scene for the rest of the ride – breakfast, morning tea, lunch, beer, dinner, bed, with the day’s ride somewhere in between and many options of extra side excursions. As you can imagine the ride was mostly very, very flat. John calculated that there was a fall of 50cm every kilometre down the river towpath. Unfortunately almost all of the side trips were up hill, sometimes with a gradient of 14%. One of the most impressive days was between Linz and Grein. Sandra had drummed into each and everyone that we needed to reach Grein by 5pm to catch a shuttle bus up to a village further out of town. We would all get to ride down the hill the following morning. Ann and John were feeling fit after an amazing impression of Fabian Cancellara time trialling down the Danube River Road from Wilhering into Linz the previous afternoon.
arriving at the Achat Hotel in Passau from all points of the compass. As was to become quite the norm during the ride, the Scowns were the last to arrive. So, with an evening meal shared in good company and a hearty celebration of Pat’s birthday, we all prepared for the collection of our trusty bicycles the following morning. As is the want with hired bicycles not everything went to plan. Pat’s first bicycle refused to change gear when requested and she immediately insisted on another. The “girls” were all offered ladies bikes and Ann S was not going to have that. Nor was she interested in the 56cm men’s bike produced. Finally she settled on a 50cm frame – much safer!! We had all received panniers and a handlebar bag the previous evening and also a Danube cycling guidebook. The guide was written in German. Observing that a Spanish couple had received an English version of the guidebook, Sandra asked if we all could get one too. No problem said the man, and we all readily exchanged our copies. This proved to be a great asset, as there were several extra pieces of information which may have been missed by all if we had stuck with the German reference. After a few more adjustments and loading of panniers and handlebar bags we were off on our 6-day adventure. Departing Passau at 09:25, with a minimum of 40km to the overnight stop everyone was in high spirits. There were a few highlights along the way including the confluence of the three rivers, Inn, Danube and Ilz. A halt was called at the “border” to produce passports and take pictures of the German/Austrian border marker. Our destination of Niederranna was reached just after lunch so the search was on for food. After all, we hadn’t had a coffee since 11:00 !! Some chose to stay and dine at Gasthof Draxler. Scowns, Ingwersens and Pat discovered two blokes in lederhosen serving up bratwurst, sauerkraut and bread at a cafe just a little further down river.
We had all taken a side trip to Steyregg Castle led by Ann S who managed to gain entry for us all to view the magnificent 12th century frescoes which are now not open to the public!! Then we were hit by a thunderstorm before morning tea after which most missed the small turnoff to Mauthausen, a Nazi concentration camp. This meant a steep climb up a fairly dodgy road in need of major repair. Ann and John took the proper turn heading for a 10% climb but managed to avoid that by another circuitous route. After the beauty of the frescoes, the camp was very sobering although its position, on top of a small plateau, gave it some magnificent views. Time trialling was the name of the game for most by late afternoon. While Hoggs and Allisons were coasted into Grein, the rest were pedalling to the limit on both sides of the river. Ann and John had separated from the others after Mauthausen and had taken the north bank, through sunflower and corn fields for what seemed hours. The rest had stayed on the south bank. Being Friday the 13th, they had decided to take on cars and trucks on a motorway, not to mention other antics at a roundabout whilst forgetting which side of the road they should be on. A few kilometres from Grein, with time running out, Ann let out a “Coooeee” in the hope that the group on the other bank were Aussies. Back came the response confirming at least that Pat was there. The race was on to the finish line at Cafe Schinakel. John and Ann got in first with the others making it with 15 seconds to spare. Highlighting day four of our ride was Kerryne finding a great cafe offering “real” hot chocolate and apple strudel with cream and ice-cream!! It was becoming a competition to see who could find the best place enroute to eat. Once a cafe was identified, most of
The finish
Everyone made the excursion to Schlogen to check out the magnificent meanders of the Danube. We had to walk a steady climb of just over a kilometre which took about an hour all up. The views were magnificent. Unfortunately for some, they took a much more difficult trail and never found the lookout. Hoggs determined to put this to right the following day. Returning to Niederranna, Allisons were to be found enjoying a quiet ale on the banks of the Danube, just as Judy had imagined. It didn’t take long for the rest to join in. Pat was heard to comment that she would follow Bill anywhere to find a good coffee !! Scowns were late again while Ingwersens and Joneses found a nourishing place for dinner. DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 31
DANUBE RIDE
the group managed to meet for some time to share experiences of each day. Lunches were generally a picnic affair with supplies bought at town markets or street stalls. We also received some lovely chocolates and wine from sponsors along the way. Day 5 found us all riding to Melk to see the impressive Benedictine Abbey with its amazing baroque architecture. Ingwersens stayed for the service while the rest pressed on down river. Amazingly, Ann and Frank were the first to arrive in Durnstein and had consumed numerous ice creams before the bunch arrived. Here we were to collect our wine and also visit the 11th century castle ruins where Richard the Lion Heart had been imprisoned in the winter of 1192-93. Later, while in Croatia, Joneses were to come across his exploits in Dubrovnik. Where didn’t that man go? Our final day found everyone with at least 80km to cover. Although most of this was flat, only a few of the group had covered this distance in one day before. Breakfast was a carbo load affair with everyone eating “seconds” of their favourite fare. Scowns once again headed off to shop before heading out of town. Joneses and Allisons also hit the bakery for supplies. The others being more organised were already in possession of their rations. Things began to unravel after it became obvious that there was bridgework interrupting the free flow of the tow path. This required about 5km of what can only be described as “farm track”. Luckily a cafe was found for a refreshing morning tea and everyone enjoyed a picnic lunch somewhere along the river before the bunch came back together just outside Vienna. Hitting the traffic of a major city at 3pm on a Monday afternoon did nothing to raise the spirits of some in the group. With pretty vague instructions as to the location of the final hotel, Ann S took the lead and powered the group through the suburbs before Bob spotted our destination. We all arrived, well almost. In the haste to cross traffic lights we had lost the Hoggs. Pat and John took off in a pincer movement to search for them, spotting the pair simultaneously not far from the Hotel. We had all arrived. The final day of about 85km for all was a resounding achievement. Time to celebrate and time to reflect. The Grannys and their partners had made it through some 380km of riding, not to mention some great breakfasts, dinners and morning teas, fabulous scenery, countless villages and towns, sunflower and corn fields and just a small part of the river Danube. We celebrated with a last group dinner of schnitzel, strudel and beer.
So, what did we learn – • You can never see too many castles, churches, villages and stonewalls – Kerryne. • You should never forget you backpack – Frank • You can always find a cafe although the coffee might be not quite what you expect – Bill • You can blend in with the locals at the Sunday cookups at village festivals – Bob • You should check the road signs before heading off to lookouts – Sandra • You can always gate crash a stranger’s wedding – Ann I • You can find cheap strawberries, apricots and peaches at roadside stalls – Judy
Welcome to
July 23–29th
Welcome to the 47th O-Ringen – the worlds greatest orienteering event – in Mohed (Sweden)! We are offering accommodation which suits you best; tent, caravan, cabin or hotel. The O-Ringen Town is situated 14 km from Söderhamn and 28 km from Bollnäs, two pleasant towns with plenty of restaurants, cafés and shops. And the terrain is offering technical, varied orienteering in a short distance from the O-Ringen Town.
S1 – long distance S2 – long distance
1,2
The area has varied terrain with two main characteristics: fine detailed and hilly terrain and closer to the arena a pine area.
S3 – long distance S4 – middle distance
3, 4
The terrain for the long distance stage 3 is in general easy running, detailed, flat terrain whist the middle distance stage 4 takes place in moderately hilly, runnable pine forest.
ARN
S5 – long distance
5
The stage takes place mainly in the fine detailed and demanding hills near the O-Ringen Town. The area is the same as for the first stage in 2006. Chasing start.
NYO
GOT
CPH
MMX
e Read mor and make tyour regis r ou ration at ! webpage
• You must always keep your alcohol and caffeine consumption constant – Pat • You can always ride further than you ever thought you could – David • My friend will pay........ – Ann S • I’ll just follow her................... – John S 32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
www.oringen.se
FRAZZLE ROCK CARNIVAL UPDATE
Start planning your trip to Easter 2011 in Western Australia
T
he next major Australian Championship carnival is just 6 months away so now is the time to start planning your travel to attend the Be Active Australian 3-Day Championship at Easter in 2011. The popular Be Active Australian 3-Day Championship is just part of a feast of events, including 2 World Ranking events, in Western Australia that will form the Frazzle Rock Carnival. Information on the dedicated event website will help your planning and acting now will make sure that you benefit from early bird entry fees. The website can be found at www.aus3days2011. orienteering.asn.au and entries are now open. Carnival dates are the 22nd April till the 1st May 2011 so get in early for flight deals to Perth and to secure your accommodation. York is the event centre for the Easter weekend with events located no more than 40 minutes drive from York. For those opting to stay in Perth plan on a daily 90 minutes drive each way. Day 1 of the 3-Day Championship is a World Ranking event for elite entrants.
event. “The area will offer some great route choice decisions for all competitors,” commented Tony. “There is quite a mix of street, park and foreshore development which is going to make for some fast racing, all in a fantastic setting for spectators too.” The Be Active Middle Distance Championship will be held on a favorite area for one of West Australia’s best performed orienteers, current Australian Long Distance Champion and controller for the Prologue event, Anthea Feaver. “I’m really looking forward to finishing the carnival in classic West Australian terrain that suits the twists and turns that middle distance racing offers,” said Anthea. Event Director, Nicole Davis, noted “The event website had all the details of the range of events we’ll be offering. You can also sign up for email alerts so you don’t miss entry deadlines and follow us online for carnival news.” Any enquires can be directed to the Frazzle Rock Carnival team at easter.twenty11@gmail.com
The second weekend of the carnival will see the Be Active Australian Sprint and Be Active Middle Championships held. A mid week event in Bunbury, on the Thursday afternoon, will provide competitors with the opportunity to tune up the street navigation skills. Just in time for the Be Active Australian Sprint Championships in the urban environment of the Mandurah foreshore, on the coast 70km south of the centre of Perth. While Mandurah is an easy 55 minute drive, or a 40 minute train trip, from the centre of Perth those returning from exploring the beautiful south west of Western Australia could stay and enjoy the seaside area before heading back into Perth to be ready for the action at the Be Active Australian Middle Distance Championship. This event will be held in the well loved Xanthorrhoea dotted gullies of the Helena Valley just east of Perth. From the Middle Distance Champs to the airport is a 1 hour drive making it possible to pick up an afternoon or evening flight for interstate travelers. But aside from travel logistics what else do you need to know to tempt you to Western Australia? Richard Matthews, Carnival Technical Director from Orienteering Western Australia, reports that mapping completed and setting well underway. “For the Australian 3-Day we’ve selected an area just south of York, east of Perth, which offers a variety of terrain on the one map. Recent feedback at the South Australian event was very encouraging as many people commented to me how much they enjoy the challenge of orienteering in West Australian wheat belt granite,” said Richard. Tony Simpkins, who set the Australian Sprint Championship in York in 2006, will once again take on the challenge of setting in the complex urban terrain for this World Ranking DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 33
TOP EVENTS
AMAZING New Zealand
tales
Advertise your event in this space You can have a 6 x 8 cm event ad for just $50 In colour, if we have room, otherwise black & white Send artwork to The Editor: mikehubbert@ozemail.com.au
The MTBO photos in this issue were supplied courtesty of Michael Brown from Photoworx. Please visit photoworx.com.au to see the full galleries from the Australian MTBO Championships and to purchase images.
34 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
New zealand orienteering in full colour drama % action % passion % thrills & spills magazine subscription via www.nzorienteering.com or email nzof@nzorienteering.com
annual subscription (4 issues) = 31.50 NZD â&#x2030;&#x2C6; 13GBP or 28AUD
TOP EVENTS
2010
2012 Dec 27-31
April 6-9
Xmas 5-Days Armidale NSW www.nsw.orienteering.asn.au
June 16-17
2011 Jan 22-23
Australian Rogaining Champs Tasmania
March 12-13
A Weekend of Orienteering in Canberra. Middle, Sprint & Long www.act.orienteering.asn.au Australian 3-Days West Australia www.aus3days 2011.orienteering.asn.au MTBO World Cup & World Masters. Dalarna, Sweden www.mtbosweden.se Jukola Relays Virolahti, Finland www.jukola2011.net
July 1-8
April 22-25
June 17-21
June 18-19
July 1-9
July 1-8
July 10-16
July 11-16
July 23-29
July 30 – Aug 6 July 31 – Aug 6 Aug 13-20
Aug 20-28
Sept 23-28
Oct 1-9
Oct 14-16
Nov 12-13 Dec 27-31
JWOC Wejherowo, Poland www.jwoc2011.pl WMOC Pecs, Hungary www.wmoc2011.com 6 DAYS OF AUSTRIA Wiener Neustadt, Austria www.6daysaustria.com Fin5 Lohja, Finland www.fin5.fi O-Ringen Halsingland, Sweden www.oringen.se Swiss O Week 2011 Flims, Switzerland www.swiss-o-week.ch Scottish 6 Days Oban & Lorn www.scottish6days.com WOC Savoie Grand Revard, France www.woc2011.fr World MTBO Champs & Junior World MTBO Champs Vicenza, Veneto, Italy RadiO Asia-Pacific Champs 2011 Region 3 ARDF, Bendigo district, Victoria. www.ardf.org.au Oceania, Australian & Schools Championships VIC, NSW 7 ACT Oceania/Australian MTBO Champs Beechworth, Victoria www.orienteeringalburywodonga.org Venice Orienteering Meeting Italy. www.orienteering.it Xmas 5-Days NSW www.nsw.orienteering.asn.au
Australian 3-Days, Queensland www.aus3days2012.orienteering. asn.au Jukola Relays Vantaa, Finland WMOC Bad Harzburg, Germany www.wmoc2012.de JWOC Kosice, Slovakia
July 7-8
Dates tba (July 6-13)
Tour O Swiss 2012 www.tour-o-swiss.ch
July 14-22
WOC Lausanne, Switzerland www.woc2012.ch MTBO WOC & MTBO JWOC Veszprem, Hungary WMOC/MTB 2012 Australian Championships, Tas
Aug 19-25 Dates tba Dates tba
Orienteering Australia – National Training Centre
2011 Australian MTBO Series Announced The High Performance Management Group of Orienteering Australia announces the 2011 Australian MTBO Series program. The 2011 Australian MTBO Series will consist of 9 races conducted over four rounds. The Series rolls away in early April in Victoria followed by Round 2 in Queensland. In October the MTBO Series heads to Beechworth, Victoria for the National MTBO Championships followed by the NSW MTBO Championships the following weekend. Full details below. Round 1 April 9 & 10 Victorian MTBO Championships Selection Trials for WMTBOC and JWOC Race 1 Sat April 9 Long Distance Daylesford, Victoria Race 2 Sun April 10 Middle Distance Daylesford, Victoria Round 2 July 30 & 31 Race 3 Sat July 30 Race 4 Sun July 31
Queensland MTBO Championships Long Distance Yarraman, Queensland Middle Distance Yarraman, Queensland
Round 3 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7
Oceania & Australian MTBO Champs Middle Dist (WRE) Beechworth, Victoria Sprint Dist & Relay Beechworth, Victoria Long Dist (WRE) Beechworth, Victoria
October 14-16 Frid Oct 14 Sat Oct 15 Sun Oct 16
Round 4 October 22 & 23 NSW MTBO Championships Race 8 Sat Oct 22 Middle Distance Duckmaloi, NSW Race 9 Sun Oct 23 Long Distance Jenolan East, NSW The four classes in the 2011 Australian Elite MTBO Series are: M21-E, W21-E, M-20E, W-20E, and the eight classes in the 2011 Australian Masters MTBO Series are: M40-, W40-, M50-, W50-, M60-, W60-, M70+, W70+. Blake Gordon Australian MTBO Committee Convenor DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 35
O-SPY
Funding Boost for Orienteering Queensland
O-Spy
Orienteering Queensland’s application for funding under the Queensland Government’s State Sport and Recreation Organisation Development Program for 2011-13 has resulted in a grant of $210,000 being made available over the next three years. The organisation was one of 78 State sporting organisations to receive funding under the $27million program. This grant represents a significant increase from the $150,000 funding received for the 2008 -2010 period. Priorities for funding identified in OQ’s funding submission included increased support for Orienteering development in regional areas, especially Townsville, Bundaberg, Maryborough and the Sunshine and Gold Coast regions. The employment of a junior development officer to provide support and resources for teachers in developing Orienteering programs was another identified priority in the submission as was improved information via the website for members and the public as well as better capture and management of participation and membership data. The submission also asked for support for on-going technical and coaching courses to improve the skills of our volunteers and for a new program to develop coaching training for Mountain Bike Orienteering.
Orienteer in Australian Bobsleigh Team Queensland Orienteer Aaron Simson-Woods has found success in a winter sport. He has been selected in the Australian men’s Bobsleigh team to compete in North America this upcoming season. Aaron has been orienteering since the age of four. He remembers competing on the string course at the 1991 Australian Championships in Amiens. He went on to represent the Queensland Schools Orienteering Team from 2001 - 2004. He has been Bobsleighing since he was 21. While working as a ski instructor in Park City, Utah, in December 2008 he was approached by a member of the American Skeleton Team to try Bobsleigh. Aaron was breakman on a four-man sled and after the first run he says he was hooked. He was selected into the Australian Bobsleigh team in 2009. He attended two bobsleigh driving schools in Igls in Austria and Lake Placid USA during the 2009/2010 season. The team trains for bobsleigh using a push sled to practice starting. They have 2-man and 4-man sleds in Brisbane which run on wheels, so they can simulate how it is to start a real sled on ice. The team train at the athletics track at the University of Queensland. Aaron says he is an avid snow sports enthusiast. He has been a ski instructor in the United States and at Perisher Blue, and he is also a recreational cross country skier. We wish him the best in his endeavours for the upcoming season.
Why we orienteer Quote from Lynden Hartmann in the August’10 issue of CompassSport magazine – “We choose to orienteer not because it is easy – but because it is hard.”
36 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
As part of the funding submission process, OQ had to also develop a new Strategic Plan and this document will guide the activities and expenditure for the next three years. OQ expresses its appreciation to the Queensland Government for making this funding available to support the continued development of Orienteering throughout the State. Liz Bourne
Sailor mistakes tiny island for UK A man who thought he was sailing along the coast of southern England had to be rescued by emergency services after his motor boat ran out of fuel while repeatedly circling a small island in the River Thames estuary. The man, who had no nautical guides and only a roadmap by which to navigate, had been trying to sail from Gillingham, about 35 miles east of London, to Southampton on April 19 by following the southern coast of England. But he ended simply doing laps of the Isle of Sheppey, about 93 square kilometres in area, in the mouth of the Thames. Eventually a lifeboat and coastguard were sent to rescue him after he used up all his fuel and ran aground. He told officials he had been trying to navigate by keeping the coastline to his right. “He was attempting to travel around the UK from Medway to Southampton and had somehow lost his bearings and ended up travelling around the Isle of Sheppey,” said Robin Castle, a member of the local lifeboat station. “It seems he didn’t have the usual maritime charts or navigational equipment.” (Reuters)
Oceania Embargo The following areas are embargoed until the 2011 Oceania Championships Orienteering Carnival: All forest areas within 5km of Yackandandah, and Warby North map, last used for the 2009 Australian Championships in Long Distance and Relay.
SILVA NATIONAL LEAGUE
Stingers, Nuggets take SILVA National League again Blair Trewin
T
he NSW Stingers and Victorian Nuggets repeated their efforts of 2009 to take out the senior titles in the SILVA National League. The Stingers, led by Julian Dent, were almost as dominant in the first half of the season as they had been last year. They struggled a little for depth in the later rounds, but still had more than enough in hand and wrapped up the title with one round to spare. For most of the season the Canberra Cockatoos and Southern Arrows sparred for second, but a good final week saw the Cockatoos break clear. The senior women’s was a four-way contest early on. Queensland started well but never quite recovered from being unable to field a full team on the post-Easter weekend, while the Cockatoos left themselves with too much to do after a slow start (due in part to the loss of some key people to Easter organisation). For most of the season the Arrows were the closest challengers to the Nuggets, but they never got to the lead, and in the end the Nuggets were 23 points clear. The Cockatoos finished well to take second, settling it by beating the Arrows in the Australian Relays. It is interesting to note that had the men’s and women’s competition been combined as was the case up until a few years ago, we would have entered the Australian Relays with only 14 points separating the top four teams (although the Cockatoos would have ended up winning with a bit to spare). Julian Dent totally dominated the senior men’s competition, winning 15 of the 16 individual rounds – only Grant Bluett’s win in the Long Distance WOC trial stopped the clean sweep. Simon Uppill, with eight second places, kept Dave Shepherd at arm’s length and made sure of second with his result in the Australian Long Distance Championships.
The women took a while to sort themselves out with the first five rounds producing four different winners. The post-Easter week proved to be important; Shannon Jones took a win and two seconds from those three races, giving her an edge which she never surrendered. She followed up with two wins out of three on the WOC trials weekend, and wrapped up her title by winning the Australian Sprint Championships. Vanessa Round started the season very well but tailed off in the final week to end up 24 points behind, while Anna Sheldon’s good final week saw her through to third, ahead of Kathryn Ewels, who was unbeatable on her day but did not get enough good scores on the board. The Queensland junior girls were not quite as dominant through the first two-thirds of the season as they have been in recent years, and both the Tassie Foresters and Cockatoos had their chances, but the emergence of Heather Muir and Emily Cantwell at the end of the season increased their already considerable depth and they once again finished with maximum points, ahead of the Foresters and Cockatoos. The junior men also started the year as a three-way competition featuring Canberra, NSW and Queensland, but the Cockatoos pulled away over the later rounds. Ian Lawford put together the most consistent season of the junior men and was rewarded with the individual title. Lachlan Dow might have challenged him had he not been overseas for the Australian Championships week, but had to settle for second place at the head of a bunch of five within 10 points (all of them members of the JWOC team). An overseas absentee who did hold on was Belinda Lawford. She only posted the minimum nine scores (thanks to the aforementioned absence, running seniors on the first weekend and an Easter prologue mispunch), but seven successive wins set a target for the others to chase down in the final week, and none of them were able to do it. Lilian Burrill, who came second six times (to five different opponents) before finally breaking through for a win at the Australian Middle Distance Championships, got the closest, ahead of Sarah Buckerfield who also suffered from only having the minimum number of scores.
2010 Silva National League Champions – Julian Dent, Shannon Jones, Ian Lawford and Belinda Lawford. DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 37
BOOK REVIEWS
History Created at AWOC
This Way Up
he small Canberra contingent at the Albury Wodonga Orienteering Championships helped create history at the recent AWOC Sunday event. Braving floods which cut the Hume Highway and snow over the Kiandra plain the few intrepid participants from the floriade city of Canberra who made the journey to Granite Gulch (a top class Alex Tarr map) were no match for the fired up locals - who cleaned up the honours. The Canberra contingent comprised the Ingwersons, including their grandson Dylan, recovering invalid Hugh Moore and the “evergreen” Michael Burt, as the locals referred to him.
by Lindsay Wood
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On the challenging and tough (but fair) 8km course the course setters, Liz Wood and Leigh Privett, did such a good job that a number of locals and visitors failed the test. The setters described the course as consisting of “a mix of intricate rock detail with a long leg across an unfeatured plain which may have some struggling.” This was typical understatement as History was made when no less than four competitors managed to run off the map on this long leg – surely a record. Not only that, but in what may well be a first in the annals of Orienteering in Australia (for Blair Trewin to confirm), one “walking” competitor managed to walk off the map. We believe this to be the first such recorded instance as it is usually the faster but foolish runners who achieve this distinction. We will leave the reader to work out who. Hugh Moore, ever keen to take on a challenge, decided the granite navigation needed enhancing, thereby dispensing with his compass halfway around the 8km course. It remains somewhere near control number 6 for subsequent orienteers to use if they come across it. Unfortunately Hugh was unable to rise to the challenge he had set himself and after a few more controls explored a distant corner of the map where he nearly added to the contingent of map hoppers until he was stopped by finding a pine plantation. His recent travel had been all downwards until this point, so it was to his consternation that he discovered his return to the finish required the ascension up no fewer than 20 x 5 metre contours. This may also be an item for the record book for the greatest height penalty for a single mistake, and perhaps also for persistent stupidity. Despite the adventures encountered, the Canberra contingent can report that a top quality event was put on, and competitors in other States might be jealous that it cost only $5 entry for a full SI event. We recommend interstate orienteers keep a lookout for any future events run by these people. Hugh Moore (Red Roos – ACT)
AWOC footnote: The recent 34th AWOC club championships lived up to its tradition for a club whose members have always been enduring runners as well as navigators. Such names as Danny (European marathon champion), Charles, Rob, Norm, Clive, Leigh, Tony, Liz, Michelle and Andy, (the latter two who have been record holders on the 85km Cradle Mountain run, and Andy’s time may never be beaten), have always ensured that the annual club champs are an endurance test. Life member Lester after which the men’s trophy is named ran in the first event and recently in the 34th - be it on a shorter course. Age has wearied those members but the tradition continues. Young guns Daniel and Matt have taken over and been recent winners. This years men’s course was described as having one ‘killer leg’ - if you had bad route choice. Orienteers from afar have ventured to our event, never won it, but been very complimentary of the small sociable event on one of the excellent maps in the area. It’s a challenge for elites to veterans to complete the Long course but there are always shorter easier courses for the faint hearted and there will always be a hot drink and cake around a fire to chat over after. Oh, and winners one year are always setters the next, that’s another tradition. Look out late next October when Rick and Emma will be out to test members and ‘you’ if you are up to it. That’s an invitation! 38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2010
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arperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) has recently released a book by orienteer Lindsay Wood. Aimed at children of all ages (and some adults as well), the story is loosely based on the author’s lifetime involved with the outdoors, and especially his own self-confessed ‘undistinguished’ orienteering experiences — including mishaps that many orienteers will recognize. Corey Roberts is a young high school student whose life seems to be going nowhere. He is grossly overweight and does no physical exercise, preferring to spend most of his leisure time playing computer games. His mother is very concerned about Corey’s health and after much talking and cajoling has no affect she finally threatens to cut off the broadband account if Corey doesn’t join one of the sports activities at school. Corey doesn’t believe it. How could his mother do such a thing? Sullenly he peruses the list of activities available – rugby? soccer? – no, too physical. But so are most of the others. Then he spies Orienteering. He’s heard something about Orienteering that suggests it doesn’t necessarily need much effort. He has to try something to protect his broadband access. Orienteering will be the one. The book traces Corey’s introduction to Orienteering, the difficulties he encounters and the ways in which he overcomes them. He soon finds himself well outside his normal physical and mental comfort zones. Not only does he have to learn how to navigate through the terrain, he needs to deal with his total lack of fitness and also with the attitudes of some members of the school team. In This Way Up Lindsay Wood has created a fast moving tale of adventure which will attract readers of all ages. It is an inspirational story about a boy overcoming the odds and recognizing that life can be much more than junk food and computer games. Along the way he finds new ways to relate to his peers and, most importantly, to his mother. “Creative, well written, it tugs at the emotions”, wrote Olympic gold medallist and Masters Orienteering champion Sir Peter Snell. For further information contact: Sandra Noakes, Publicity Manager, HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand); email: sandra.noakes@ harpercollins. co.nz www. harpercollins. co.nz - tel: +64 9 443 8954 – (NZ RRP $18.99)
Radio Orienteering, The ARDF Handbook by Bob Titterington, David Williams & David Deane published by RSGB (Radio Society of Great Britain) 2007
If you are new to Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) or Radio Orienteering, you may be interested in the Radio Orienteering Handbook developed by the Radio Society of Great Britain. This handbook gives a basic introduction to the techniques and the history of ARDF, and how to set your own event.
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he 106 page book is arranged under reference chapters, but for the newcomer it can simply be read as a narrative. Reading it this way means you are dumped unceremoniously at the end of the technical section, but since it is published as a handbook the lack of a conclusion can be excused. The history is mainly from a UK perspective, but is nonetheless very interesting and answers the question how the sport came about, and why it is so popular in the Eastern Bloc countries. Black and White photos of ARDF are sprinkled through the book, and though not always relevant to the accompanying text, give a bit of visual input also. The overall explanation of ARDF is good. The description of Fox-oring differs a little from our Australian definition (they use small normal O circles with a transmitter “nearby” somewhere) but it has the same effect. The section on event preparation for your first event has some UK specific references and contains much general orienteering preparation with which orienteers would already be familiar, such as compass instruction and SportIdent, but worth a quick browse through for the helpful information on the RadiO aspects. Similarly the later chapter on fitness training would be covered better by reading the many excellent articles on the subject in The Australian Orienteer. Plotting bearings is where we get into some real RadiO specific techniques, but interestingly doesn’t mention the simple technique I use myself. In The Australian Orienteer, some issues ago, I describe this technique fully, as well as others covered in the book. Briefly, it avoids the mechanical complexity of the rotating disc method described, but with a similar, only slightly less accurate, outcome. It’s important to have a technique that works regardless of the exhausted /dehydrated state of your brain and doesn’t require much mental effort. On HF 80m band it assumes the reader would be using Null bearings. A Null bearing is where you work out the direction by absence of signal, rather than maximum signal. If you think of a figure-8 pattern, there are two Nulls where the 8 lines cross to each side. The maximums are at the top and
bottom of the 8.Locally we dispense with this possibly confusing and slower method at the expense of a little accuracy. It can be confusing because the Null direction is always 90 degrees to the peak, which means there are two possible ways to hold your receiver, depending on the method. There are always two Nulls, so you then have to work out which of the two is correct using a separate peak method afterwards. Since our local sniffers all have a “whoopee” mode of operation, where a small variation in pitch is much easier for the ear to discern than a small variation in volume, the accuracy lost is not significant and more than makes up for the possibility of error, especially in the heat of competition. Possibly the best chapter to read for the budding RadiO orienteer are the top-10 tips. Many are obvious in retrospect, but sometimes it is something basic we’re missing that everyone just assumes you know already. The tip on attenuation isn’t directly applicable to our receivers which use ‘whoopee’ mode and again 80m assumes NULL bearings which we choose not to use. Interestingly the ‘organising an event’ chapter mentions co-siting an event with a bush-O event which has become common in Victoria, for pretty much the same reasons; we can build on the expertise, infrastructure, publicity and permits on the existing bush-O event, and give back to this in turn with our own technical capabilities. A highlight of this chapter is the guidelines for transmitter siting which all ARDF course setters should read. Another highlight in this chapter in particular, but also spread throughout the book, are lovely British sayings which offer a lot of amusement for the Australian reader. We could try some of the ARDF training exercises, especially handling reflections, but some are a bit peripheral. The international perspective covers a lot of ground I have also described in my various blogs and emails whilst overseas, but worth a read for the explanation of the organisational bodies, how they came about and why they are different from the orienteering with the IOF. Lastly, the extensive technical section is a bit disappointing, not with the technical content itself, but the reliance, especially with the receivers, on through-hole, rather than the now almost universal surface-mount, componentry. This has a limited future, and the handbook admits as such when stating a particular part is only available from an obscure Chinese manufacturer. The transmitters at least contain some token surface mount parts, but they are still basically through-hole designs. All our local ARDF devices designed this century have been surface mount. This method doesn’t preclude home construction, and offers potential benefits in smaller devices. The receivers are pretty basic designs, but could be used as an entry point. Read this chapter mainly for the antenna basics. Overall a good reference, and praise must be given to the authors for putting it together. Despite a few assumptions and a UK focus in places there is still plenty there for ARDF beginners or enthusiasts everywhere. And the best bit ? They included our club’s web address www.ardf.org.au ! You can order the book from the RSGB online store at www. rsgbshop.org Bruce Paterson (ARDF – Victoria) DECEMBER 2010 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 39
Olivia Sprod (W16) Tintookies, SA. Photos: Mike Hubbert and OASA.
The Australian Orienteer
the national magazine of Orienteering Australia w w w. o r i e n t e e r i n g . a s n . a u / a u s t r a l i a n o r i e n t e e r /