The Australian Orienteer – December 2011

WOC highlights WMTBOC OCEANIA Champs RadiO Champs RRP $8.50 inc GST

SILVA National Orienteering League Event Program 2010

Round

Date

Location

Round 1

March 10-11, 2012

Ballarat, Victoria

Round 2

April 6-9, 2012

Australian 3-days, Stanthorpe, Queensland

Round 2b

April 14-15, 2012

Brisbane, Queensland

Round 3

May 12-13, 2012

WOC trials, Newcastle, NSW

Round 4

August 10-12, 2012

Darwin, Northern Territory

Round 5a

Sept 22-23, 2012

Australian Middle Distance Champs, Tasmania Tasmanian Long Distance Championships

Round 5b

Sept 28-30, 2012

Australian Sprint, Long and Relay Championships, Tasmania

All race details can be found at www.orienteering.asn.au www.silva.se

Silva is a FISKARS BRANDS company. australia@fiskarsbrands.com

SILVA congratulates Tom Goddard for his outstanding results at his first World Junior MTBO Championships in Italy. Tom will receive a Trail Runner headlamp from SILVA

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 3

Winning PartnershiP

The Australian Sports Commission proudly supports Orienteering Australia The Australian Sports Commission is the Australian Government agency that develops, manages and invests in sport at all levels in Australia.

Orienteering Australia has worked closely with the Australian Sports Commission to develop orienteering from community participation to high-level performance.

AUSTRALIAN SPORTS COMMISSION 4 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Orienteering Australia is one of many national sporting organisations that has formed a winning partnership with the Australian Sports Commission to develop its sport in Australia.

www.ausport.gov.au

w w w. o r i e n t e e r i n g . a s n . a u Orienteering Australia PO Box 284 Mitchell BC 2911 orienteering@netspeed.com.au w: 02 6162 1200 President: Bill Jones oa_president@netspeed.com.au h: 02 6258 6362 Director (High Performance): Grant Bluett oa_highperformance@netspeed.com.au Director (Finance): Blair Trewin oa_finance@netspeed.com.au h: 03 9455 3516 Director (Development): vacant oa_development@netspeed.com.au Director (Technical): Robin Uppill oa_technical@netspeed.com.au h: 08 8278 3017 m: 0419 037 770 Director (Special Projects): Robert Spry rbspry@gmail.com IOF Councillor: Mike Dowling oa_international@netspeed.com.au Executive Officer: John Harding orienteering@netspeed.com.au 02 6162 1200 m: 0427 107 033 Manager (High Performance): Robert Preston oa_headcoach@netspeed.com.au m: 0403 296 516 Badge Applications: John Oliver 68 Amaroo Street, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650

STATE ASSOCIATIONS Orienteering Queensland Inc: PO Box 114 Spring Hill QLD 4004. Admin Officer: Frances Powell, Ph (07) 3379 8238 admin@oq.asn.au OA NSW: PO Box 3295, North Strathfield NSW 2137. Secretary: Anthony Darr, Ph. (02) 8116 9848 orienteering@sydney.net Orienteering ACT: PO Box 402, Jamison Centre ACT 2614. Office: Ph. (02) 6162 3422 orienteering.act@webone.com.au Victorian OA: PO Box 1010 Templestowe 3106. Secretary: Don Fell, voa@netspace.net.au OA South Aust: State Association House, 105 King William St Kent Town SA 5067. Sec: Ken Thompson 08 8351 4757 secretary@sa.orienteering.asn.au OA Western Australia: PO Box 234 Subiaco WA 6904. Secretary: Carol Brownlie Ph. (08) 9446 3457 carolnken@ozemail.com.au Orienteering Tasmania Inc.: PO Box 339, Sandy Bay, TAS 7005. Secretary: David Marshall, Ph. (03) 6260 4300 secretary@tasorienteering.asn.au Top End Orienteers (Northern Territory): PO Box 39152 Winnellie NT 0821. Secretary: Emily Prichard emily.prichard@nt.gov.au 0407 180 299

NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE

January 13; Time-sensitive - Jan 20

ISSN 0818-6510 Issue 4/11 (no. 164) DECEMBER 2011

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 13; Time-sensitive - January 20.

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: 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 – Maggie Jones: onsw.communications@sydney.net 0415 214 503 ACT – Philip Purcell philippurc@hotmail.com Vic. – SA – Erica Diment: diment@adam.com.au ; tel (ah) 8379 2914 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.

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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 W O C 2 0 1 1 – Fran ce.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 T H I E R R Y G U E O R G I O U ’ S 3 G O L D M E DA L S.. . . . . 1 0 WOC IN THE FUTURE ............................. 12 W E C O M E F R O M A S P O R T I N G N A T I O N .. . . . . . . 1 4 OCEANIA CARNIVAL............................... 16 URBAN-O in NSW.................................. 24 O - S P Y.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 7 R A D I - O – As i a-Paci f i c Reg i o n 3 Ch amps.. . . . . . . . . . . 2 8 B E N D I G O D O E S I T D I F F E R E N T LY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 T R A I N I N G – Do n’t blame i t o n th e L actate . . . . . . . . . 3 6 W O R L D M T B O C H A M P S – Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 0 OCEANIA MTBO CHAMPS......................... 45 NEW ZEALAND NEWS............................. 46 SPORTident HISTORY.............................. 48 L E T T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 9 TOP EVENTS......................................... 50

Cover photo: Grace Crane finishes the Middle Distance Final at WOC 2011 (photo – Michael Hubbert).

DECEMBER DECEMBER2011 2011THE THEAUSTRALIAN AUSTRALIANORIENTEER ORIENTEER 5

WORLD ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Opening Ceremony

Grace Crane shines in WOC Relay Words & photos: Michael Hubbert

G

race Crane, who has been based in the UK, ran a scintillating last leg for the women’s Relay team, turning what looked like being an ordinary result into something a whole lot better.

For much of her course she diced with Norwegian champion, Marianne Andersen, for 6th and 7th best times on the 4.2km leg, eventually finishing with a time just 4sec slower than Andersen’s and 1min 28sec slower than Minna Kauppi who won the Relay for Finland.

Jasmine Neve, Australia’s first leg runner, was mid-field on the long run up to the start triangle but lost 5:40 to the leading bunch at control #4 and never recovered from there. By the spectator control at #10 she was 8:30 down and running by herself. The following girl, Romanian Maiorescu, went the wrong way after #10, failing to follow the compulsory marked route (and saving some considerable distance). She should have been disqualified, but wasn’t. Jasmine handed over to Vanessa Round in 21st place with a 3-minute gap to the next bunch of six runners up ahead.

Vanessa soon reduced that gap passing three runners by #6 and at the spectator control she was right on the heels of a largish bunch. But #13 was her undoing where she lost nearly 7min and much of the ground she had gained. She passed over to Grace Crane in 21st position, close to 4min down on New Zealand who had been coming back through the field after a very good start by Lizzie Ingham, and a bunch of six other runners.

Grace set out after them with purpose, catching the Chinese by #2, Amber Morrison (NZ) and the Hungarian on the way to #4, the British by #7, Romanian by #8 and the Austrian and Italian by #9. At the spectator control she was 3:36 behind the next placed Spanish team, but gaining fast. By #14 she had cut the margin to 7sec and to just 1sec by #15. A slight wobble by Grace on #16 let the Spaniard get clear to be 22sec ahead at the Finish. But Grace Crane had gained seven places on that third leg bringing the Australian team up to a very creditable 14th place.

6 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Sprint Finish – Grace Crane

Vanessa Round, Relay.

Drama on the Last Leg At the front of the field the lead changed many times with first Finland and Czech Republic vying for the lead, then Ukraine storming through the field followed by Denmark and Norway. But the real drama was saved for the last leg where Minna Kauppi (FIN) and Dana Brozkova (CZE) took over 37sec and 39sec respectively behind the leaders. Tension and urgency created errors with Kauppi going wildly wrong on the way to #2, losing over 2min to Brozkova (who also made a mistake) and over 4min to the Swede Annika Billstam.

It looked like yet another Swedish women’s Relay finish – Kauppi, Brozkova and gold medal as Kauppi and Brozkova Billstam. Photo: Soren Andersson dropped further back. But then Billstam couldn’t find #7 and Norway took over the lead. When Marianne Andersen faltered at #9 Brozkova shot to the lead closely followed by Billstam and Swiss girl Rahel Friederich. Kauppi was motoring but she had a long way to catch up. Then Brozkova and Billstam had trouble with #11 and Kauppi caught a minute on them, then another minute at #13 and Kauppi had the lead by 1sec over Friederich, then some 43sec to Brozkova and a whopping 50sec back to Billstam.

But the “chaotique” French terrain hadn’t finished with them yet. Coming out of #14 Kauppi went the wrong way losing 36sec to Brozkova, and the Swiss girl plummeted out of contention losing nearly 3min by going south instead of west. (Was she blindly following Kauppi ?) Kauppi now had just 7sec on Brozkova and 9sec on Billstam. The last control was crucial and again Kauppi faltered. Though GPS tracking shows all three took the same route Billstam won that leg in 59sec with Brozkova 1:00 and Kauppi 1:06.

Kauppi now led Brozkova by just 1sec and Billstam by 2sec. The sprint to the Finish was all of that with the crowd roaring and Per Forsberg, the commentator, screaming. And that’s how they finished – Kauppi, Brozkova, Billstam – gold for Finland in the closest and most exciting Relay finish the World Championships has ever seen.

Courtesy Suunnistaja magazine

Kauppi Brozkova Billstam

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 7

WORLD ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Men’s Relay was pedestrian by comparison. Frenchmen Phillipe Adamski and François Gonon set up the race sending Thierry Gueorgiou out just 2sec down on Sweden. Everyone just knew Thierry would come through and of course he did. Did he ever – by a margin of over 4min including time to grab a flag and celebrate down the Finish straight. The French crowd went wild and so they should. It was a great conclusion for the French in what had to be “their” world championships.

Back in the field there were other teams competing and the Australians were going great guns, maintaining 12th place until the last leg and eventually taking 16th. Simon Uppill led out. At the spectator control #11 he was just tailing the leading bunch in 9th place. Soon after he made it to 6th on a short forking leg. He had a little trouble with #15 but made up for it with third fastest time for the 16th leg, then lost a couple of places on the frantic run-in.

Julian Dent took over and kept up the fast pace to the spectator control. He was looking really good at that stage but had some problems later in the course handing over to Rob Preston in 12th place just over 8min behind the leaders. Rob had some problems early on but came home strongly to bring the team to 16th place.

Individual Championships Highlights for Australians in the individual races were Grace Crane’s 24th place in the Sprint Final on the streets of Chambery old town and 27th in the Middle Distance Final at La Feclaz, as well as Julian Dent’s 24th place in the Long Distance Final at La Feclaz.

Julian Dent leaves the Relay spectator control.

8 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Results SPRINT - Women 1. Linnea Gustafsson SWE 13:14.3 2. Helena Jansson SWE 13:22.7 3. Lena Eliasson SWE 13:218.5 11. Lizzie Ingham NZL 14:12.3 24. Grace Crane AUS 14:58.3 35. Rachel Effeney AUS 15:35.0

Mace Neve – AUS 19th in Qualifier

SPRINT – Men 1. Daniel Hubmann SUI 13:11.8 2. Anders Holmberg SWE 13:37.8 3. Matthias Mueller SUI 13:41.2 25. Ross Morrison NZL 14:42.8 37. Simon Uppill AUS 15:15.1

Julian Dent – AUS 20th in Qualifier

Rob Preston – AUS 29th in Qualifier

LONG DISTANCE - Women 1. Annika Billstam SWE 1:22:26 2. Dana Brozkova CZE 1:26:54 3. Helena Jansson SWE 1:29:55 13. Lizzie Ingham NZL 1:39:42

Jasmine Neve – AUS 16th in Qualifier

Vanessa Round – AUS 17th in Qualifier

Aislinn Prendergast – AUS 18th in Qualifier

LONG DISTANCE - Men 1. Thierry Gueorgiou FRA 1:47:29 2. Pasi Ikonen FIN 1:51:56 3. François Gonon FRA 1:53:35 24. Julian Dent AUS 2:12:45 28. Chris Forne NZL 2:13:38

Rob Preston – AUS 22nd in Qualifier

MIDDLE DISTANCE - Women 1. Helena Jansson SWE 33:10 2. Ida Bobach DEN 34:26 3. Judith Wyder SUI 35:11 18. Lizzie Ingham NZL 39:08 27. Grace Crane AUS 41:05 35. Vanessa Round AUS 43:59 38. Amber Morrison NZL 47:30 40. Penny Kane NZL 47:51

Jasmine Neve – AUS 25th in Qualifier

MIDDLE DISTANCE - Men 1. Thierry Gueorgiou FRA 34:38 2. Peter Öberg SWE 36:59 3. Olav Lundanes NOR 37:01 29. Chris Forne NZL 43:31

Rob Preston – AUS 18th in Qualifier

Simon Uppill – AUS 19th in Qualifier

Julian Dent – AUS 31st in Qualifier

RELAY - Women 1. Finland 1:42:42 2. Czech Republic 1:42:43 3. Sweden 1:42:44 14. Australia 2:02:28

RELAY - Men 1. France 1:53:48 2. Norway 1:57:52 3. Sweden 1:58:03 16. Australia 2:19:15

This man just wanted to sit in the sun and read his newspaper. Despite orienteers running and jumping the wall all around him he refused to move.

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 9

WORLD ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS

LONG

R E L AY

MIDDLE

3 GOLD MEDALS Thierry Gueorgiou Reigns Supreme Michael Hubbert

T

he French orienteering community were expecting big things from Thierry Gueorgiou and he didn’t let them down.

Gueorgiou dominated each of the events in which he took part, winning the Long Distance event by 4min 27sec, the Middle Distance by 2min 21sec and the Relay by 4min 04sec having taken over the last leg 2sec behind Sweden.

Coming into the 2011 WOC, Gueorgiou had won seven World Championship gold medals – one in Sprint and 6 in Middle Distance events. In fact, he was known as the “king of Middle Distance”. But now he has broadened his reign to include all formats. With his three gold medals this year he now has won gold in each of Sprint, Middle Distance, Long Distance and Relay formats for a total of 10 gold medals – the most ever won by any male orienteer.

In the Relay, Gueorgiou finally overcame the hoodoo which had followed him every year since 2008 when he was stung by a bee and suffered an allergic reaction. In 2009 he stopped to help an injured competitor and in 2010 he missed a control and had to run back to it. In each of these years France could have won the men’s Relay, but didn’t. Finally, 2011 was France’s year and Thierry Gueorgiou brought their Relay team home in grand style with a huge margin over their competitors. Congratulations Thierry – you earned it.

Middle distance

French supporters.

10 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Relay Long

distance

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 11

WORLD ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS

WOC in the Future Elite athletes mount resistance movement to proposed changes in WOC formats Maggie Jones (ONSW Communications)

O

n 13 September 2011, Olav Lundanes (World Champion Long Distance 2010), tweeted ‘Looks like I am supporting the destruction of Orienteering’. What he was referring to was the use of his image on the presentation of “WOC in the Future” sent out by the IOF and presented at the IOF Presidents Conference in France during this year’s WOC in August. This was quickly followed by a petition against the proposed changes, set up by Eva Jurenikova (member of the Czech silver medal Relay team 2011), to the IOF and signed by over a hundred elite athletes.

There are some influential names on that petition; signatories include Thierry Gueorgiou (France), Helena Jansson (Sweden), Minna Kauppi (Finland) and Daniel Hubmann (Switzerland); and Australia’s Julian Dent.

The “WOC in the Future” presentation was the result of work which had been initiated in 2009 with an online survey sent out to athletes and Federations around the world. Some 446 responses from 42 member Federations and athletes were received and a project group was set up to understand the feedback and prepare a proposal for consideration. The project group’s findings and recommendations were sent out in March 2011 to member Federations; this time 14 members replied. Further refinements were made and the proposal “WOC in the Future” was developed and presented at the IOF President’s Conference in Chambéry. It is this last stage which is creating so much noise.

So what are the changes that the athletes are resisting? There were originally two options put to the conference, the first to reduce the number of events to four finals, dropping the traditional Relay and replacing it with a mixed Sprint Relay and changing the Middle Distance race into a Prologue plus Chasing Start Final.

The second was identical except that it was a 5-event format 14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011 12

which allowed the inclusion of the traditional Relay. The 4-event proposal comprised: • Sprint qualifications and Sprint Final • Sprint Relay (mixed team 2+2) • Middle Distance Prologue plus Chasing Start Final • Long Distance Final (no Qualifiers) with individual interval starts Despite the time it has taken to formulate this proposal the IOF is not suggesting that this is the final decision. The proposal is to be put to a vote at the General Assembly in Lausanne, Switzerland, in July 2012 so there is still time for changes including adding back the traditional Relay. Even if the proposal is accepted Blair Trewin, OA Finance Director and member of the IOF Foot O Commission, says the IOF is clear that the new Prologue approach to the Middle Distance race would need to be thoroughly tested in World Cup races before it ever got to become part of the World Championships.

One of the issues with introducing new events into the World Championships is that it would require the removal of some qualification races, as there would no longer be room in the program for them. A number of proposals are currently on the table to determine how many competitors from each country would contest some Finals, including options based on previous World Championships performances, and on national performances in World Ranking Events. The IOF Council’s preferred option is currently a system based on the previous three World Championships results, but with each Region guaranteed at least one place. However, according to Blair Trewin, “it is difficult to implement such a system fairly once countries have different numbers

of runners at WOC; unless done very carefully, this could result in a ‘closed shop’ which is very difficult for new countries to break into”.

Eva Jurenikova

Olav Lundanes

Jan Kocbach-Editor World of O

Daniel Hubmann

Thierry Gueorgiou

Julian Dent

So why did the IOF decide that the current format, which is relatively new in itself with the introduction of the Sprint, need changing?

There seem to be a number of reasons. The push to make the sport more saleable to the media is clearly an important consideration for the IOF, though in their own words ‘The need for live quality TV broadcast from WOC is seen differently – highest priority for some, no priority for others’. Making it more media friendly supports the push for Orienteering to become an Olympic sport, not an inconsequential aim.

But there are others. Mike Dowling, Australian IOF representative and member of the 2011/12 IOF Council, explains ‘the current format produces a heavy load on the competitor who races in more than one discipline. It was thought that reducing the number of events and qualification races would offset that and allow for more quality orienteering.’ Norwegian newspaper, Aftenposten, covering the reaction of the Norwegian elite runners on the 5th October, reported Astrid Waaler Kaas, member of the IOF and mother of 2010 Middle Distance World Champion Carl Waaler Kaas, as saying ‘it has turned out that the Sprint is the only distance where new Orienteering nations are competitive. A Sprint Relay could contribute to more countries wanting to participate in the World Championships’.

Reduced load on competitors, more spectator friendly races and the potential to use the new format to push for Olympic inclusion.

All sounds pretty good. So what is it that the athletes dislike so much? Eva Jurenikova, instigator of the athletes’ petition to the IOF explains ‘there are two main problems with the proposal but both are about reducing the Orienteering value of the WOC. The changes made to the Middle Distance race mean that there will be a large number of people, maybe as many as 150, running in the Prologue and then the top 30-40 will run in a chasing start. When athletes start that close together they end up running in a kind of train. If you are the first runner out, even if you have a perfect run, your chances of winning are reduced as everyone else is just running in a big bunch behind you. It is not such a testing format from an Orienteering point of view. The second change, that of dropping the traditional Relay in favour of the mixed Sprint Relay, means we lose the most exciting discipline in favour of a race that is too short.’

Eva also disagrees with the view that the proposed races make for better television. Her discussions with Czech TV producer, Karel Jonak, who produced the TV coverage for the 2008 WOC and the recent World Cup races in Liberec, indicate that in fact Sprint is the least interesting of the disciplines to broadcast. This may be because of the difficulties with using GPS in urban areas, and because the races are just too short to develop a feeling for how the

race is unfolding. However the Sprint Relay has been tested a number of times as this is the format used in the World Games. Mike Dowling’s view? ‘Being present at the last World Games and watching the live TV coverage on the big screen at the event showed that it was, in my view, the best of the TV coverage of the three races and made for great and exciting viewing which was affirmed by informal feedback from the IWG and IOC representatives present.’ Whatever the truth of the matter, it is clear that the assumptions underpinning some of the decisions for change may need to be reassessed.

Fundamentally it seems the athletes are objecting to what they see as the commercialisation of the sport at the expense of the spirit of Orienteering. From the buzz on the internet, on Twitter, on World of O, on Attackpoint, it seems that athletes feel this proposal will fundamentally change the nature of the sport, favouring the runner over the technical orienteer. The argument is that this would produce a dumbing down of the sport over time as funds would be diverted to produce future champions of Sprint rather than the more technically demanding Middle Distance. Mike Dowling says ‘the commercialisation of the sport tends to polarise views’ and in this case it is quite clear; traditionalist vs. moderniser. There is also the truism that change will never be easily accepted by those who are successful in the current formats as they have much to lose.

Jan Kocbach, editor of website World of O, thinks this conflict is useful. He believes that the choices being made are hasty and based on flawed assumptions; the discussions generated by the athlete revolt can only help to clarify what is really required and why. In particular, he explains, the proposed disciplines of Prologue and Sprint Relay have not been properly tested for TV. Jan believes that there is room for two forms of WOC, a Sprint WOC and a forest WOC, which could be alternated year on year.

‘I am not sure how this conflict will play out but I believe the IOF will listen to the views of the athletes. In fact they will have to listen. They can’t ignore this.’

The petition has been passed to Björn Persson, Sports Director of the IOF Secretariat who has World Championship matters as a key responsibility. His initial reaction has been ‘if this is not what you want, tell us what you do want.’ Eva Jurenikova now has the lengthy task of contacting as many athletes as she can to collect opinions to give him a sensible answer.

It should be noted that whenever and whatever comes to be approved at IOF Congress next year, it is not the IOF who will be voting, but the member Federations. Australian Elites should watch their mail boxes and the rest of us will watch the outcomes with interest.

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 13

COACHING

We come from a sporting nation Hanny Allston

Hanny Allston won the World Orienteering Championships Sprint distance in Denmark, 2006, after winning the Long Distance title at the Junior World Championships just three weeks earlier.

Three years on she returned to the sport to win the World Games Middle Distance in Taiwan, 2009.

Concentrating on athletic training, Hanny developed into an elite distance runner in Australia with personal best times of 2hrs40mins for the marathon, 33mins07sec for the 10,000m, and 9mins16sec for 3000m. Since retiring in 2010, Hanny established her own athletic coaching and life coaching business called Find Your Feet. Working as a sole trader, she uses her studies in Medicine, Teaching and Life Coaching to assist individuals of all ages to sustainably integrate sport into their daily lifestyles. The road hasn’t always been easy and burnout was a hugely real factor for Hanny. Looking back to look forwards, Hanny now works at the Australian Institute of Sport looking after Athlete Welfare within the residences, including the athlete with disability program. Her ambitions are to complete a PhD focussing on the recruitment of athletes with disability into elite sport as well as to begin working as an elite level coach in Orienteering and athletics.

T

he starting quarantine area is nearly empty now. I check: the strapping on my ankles; that the laces on my Inov8’s are still tightly taped; my spare compass is strapped onto my lower back; my description holder; the SPORTident on my index finger is tight… I am ready. I look down at the three words written boldly on my left hand – CONTROL, COMPASS, GO! I am ready.

Leaving the start gate I feel like there is a string tied around my middle and holding me back slightly. My legs want to bolt but I am conscious of this requirement to remain in CONTROL. I look again at my compass then look up as far as I can, picking out the bush that I am aiming for, looking left then right to double check, checking the compass once more, then opening up my speed. I repeat this again and again, breaking down each leg into fiftymeter chunks so as not to get too far in front of myself.

My exit directions are critical. No time for error. I slow into the control as I see a long, long leg coming up. I have not looked at the whole course because I know I must take each leg one at a time, as if each leg is an individual course in itself. I cast my eye from where I am now all the way along the red line to the next 14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

control. I am looking for impassable obstacles or where I will have to deviate great distances from the red line. Left looks best. I now cast my eye back from the control to that which I am at now, planning the optimal route as I imagine myself running smoothly.

Then COMPASS! I hit each break in the fence smoothly and without error. I am running strongly, feeling rested and powerful after a planned day of recovery. Vaguely aware that I am passing runners, I use this as a cue to look again at the map, the compass and the terrain.

I enter the ‘final ten controls zone’. Danger time. There is commentary, the colour of the crowds and venue, the noise, noise, noise. This is my cue to curb my speed. I change down a gear and feel that string holding me back even tighter. As I run through the remainder of my controls I am only aware of my thought processes. CONTROL, COMPASS, NEXT CONTROL. Suddenly the Finish chute is upon me and I draw on all that pent up energy to move me along the finish line. The result is irrelevant.

There is no reason that Australians need to take a back seat in Orienteering any more. Our results speak for themselves.

Masters orienteers winning World Masters Championships.

Elite orienteers beginning to consistently bring home podium results. Junior World Championships hosted in Australia with outstanding performances from technical staff, coaches and athletes alike. We almost have what it takes to be a leading nation in Orienteering. The only thing we lack now is confidence in ourselves.

In conclusion, we come from a sporting nation. Our history as Australians is marked by outstanding successes across so many sports that we frighten our competitors before we even reach the starting line. Through tailoring our preparations, keeping our sport enjoyable, uniting in our ambitions and learning from our fellow athletes in other sports, we can become formidable.

Unlike physical performance or technical skills that take years and years to mature, I believe confidence is something that you can choose and put into action overnight. It is a trait of a champion that comes from a deep belief in one’s preparation. It is a BandAid that you can pull out to bring you back from the jaws of error in a race. It is the rocket fuel you need to power yourself over the hills and up the Finish chute. It is the difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

I now live and work at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. I am surrounded by staff and athletes from all regions in Australia participating in a wide range of sports: boxing to aerial skiing; walking to volleyball; basketball to tennis. Many of these individuals know what it is like to compete, volunteer or work in minority sports. Yet all of them feel supported by the performances of their colleagues and Australian Team members from all the other sports. When Cadel Evans won the Tour de France his performances were celebrated by every member of the Institute and his result inspired many athletes to perform personal bests within the next two weeks.

If we are to begin to consistently show the world our capabilities as orienteers I believe that we need a united effort to develop confidence and use the sporting achievements of other sports to learn from and inspire our Australian Orienteering Community.

Our junior orienteers need to be lead to believe from the very moment they enter our sport that, if they wish, they can be the next international champion. Our masters orienteers need to be respected as the elders of our sport and opportunities for them to share their perfect runs created. Technical staff and coaches should be integrated into the broader Australian coaching community so that the science and knowledge driving this great sporting nation seeps into our very own orienteering.

As confidence becomes second nature our athletes, coaches and technical staff can begin to hatch preparation plans that we know will hold us in the lead. We can turn up to our Orienteering events with the knowledge that we will enjoy the experience because we are fit, technically trained, have prepared on excellent well-regarded maps, have practiced with the best event equipment and are supported by a cohesive community.

Over the course of a regular column in this magazine, I will begin to break down the methodology behind planning and preparation. Although I am no longer competing at the highest level but instead enjoying shuffling out the door when the sun is shining and the frost has melted, I speak these thoughts with the confidence that comes from being exposed to the amazing performances of other athletes. Just the other day I was eating my breakfast with a nineteen year-old male who lost his leg just eight months ago in a water-skiing accident whilst on post in the Army in Townsville. Two months into his rehab the Army asked him what he wanted to do with his life. His answer… ‘to be an Olympic Champion in Athletics’. As I sat contemplating the horrific nature of his accident and marvelling at his quiet confidence, I asked him what distance he wished to specialize in. ‘Oh, I don’t know that much. I’ve never run before but I thought it might be a bit of fun.’ There it is, confidence and fun.

Without confidence we cannot fully revel in the fun of our sport.

And without making the sporting experience fun, we cannot feel completely confident in who we are as orienteers.

You can contact me, Hanny Allston, AIS Residences, PO BOX 176, Belconnen, ACT 2617. m: 0409 176 967 email: hanny@findyourfeet.com.au www.hannyallston.com.au

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OCEANIA CARNIVAL

Oceania Long Distance Championships and Individual Challenge, Warby Ranges

The Trewin Report Blair Trewin

The 2011 Oceania Championships carnival took the presentation of Orienteering in Australia to a new level. The Oceania Long and Middle Distance Championships featured a big screen and GPS tracking, familiar to those who have been World Championships spectators but being used for the first time in Australia. They were seen at their best at the Middle Distance Championships held on a new, intensely technical, goldmining area at Yackandandah. The remainder of the week was a more conventional Orienteering experience, but still one which was enjoyed by most involved.

The week started with a return to Warby Ranges which hosted the 2009 Australian Long Distance Championships. Since then drought has been replaced by flood and an area which was already challenging became more so, with lots of low vegetation, often low visibility, and slippery rock with rain falling for most of the day.

This made for the most physical race of the week and many of the classes were quite spread out. The physical terrain clearly suited New Zealanders as they came closer than they ever have before to winning a Challenge on Australian soil. The result was still in doubt with only the two open classes to come, with the final margin being nine classes to six.

Rob Preston achieved his most significant result yet when he took M21 by the comfortable margin of nearly three minutes. After a good start he had caught Grant Bluett by #6 and was near him for large parts of the remainder. Simon Uppill was competitive, and briefly led in mid-course before drifting out of it to finish fifth.

Thereafter Dave Shepherd was Preston’s closest rival without ever really looking like challenging for the lead. Preston broke away from Bluett over the closing stages, and in the end Bluett was just unable to hold off the fast-finishing Bryan Keely, little-sighted in Orienteering this year, for third over the closing stages.

Jo Allison has been a race winner plenty of times before, but not at this level in the last couple of years. Lizzie Ingham, so impressive at the World Championships, was an early leader but lost her chances with a six-minute loss at #9 (another three minutes at #18 scuttled a late bid for third). That left Allison with a big lead over everyone except Aislinn Prendergast, who was less than a minute behind through most of the first half. Both Allison and Prendergast lost two minutes at #16, which brought Vanessa Round back into the race after some mid-course wobbles. Allison had just enough in hand, despite a final glitch on the secondlast control which meant she finished with only 33 seconds on Round.

Lachlan Dow, Australia’s best overall performer at JWOC, was consistent in M20 and never really looked like losing. Matt Ogden was his only major rival with an equally consistent race, with Brodie Nankervis not quite recovering from an uncertain

Warren Key interviews winner Lizzie Ingham Photo: Peter Yeates Dick Ogilvie.

Photo: Peter Yeates

AUS Relays – Gordon Wilson Photo: Paul Prudhoe 16 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

start. Belinda Lawford also converted her favouritism into victory, building up a five-minute lead before losing most of it at #14 (a control which claimed several other victims, most notably Laura Robertson who crashed from second to seventh there). Selena Metherell was close but not close enough.

M60, as usual, was close at the top with less than two minutes covering the top four, and Michael Wood coming out on top by 26secs over Gordon Wilson after a race which saw four leaders during the course. Another class with depth was M40, a stronger class than usual because of the Challenge. The top four were within three minutes there and the top three within one, with Rob Jessop emerging on top over Eddie Wymer.

W55, the closest margin of all, was more a two-way race in which Lynn Dabbs beat Carol Brownlie by 14secs, after trailing narrowly for most of the race and taking the lead for the first time at the second-last control. The lead also changed hands late in M55, where a high-standard contest was resolved in Paul Pacque’s favour after Geoff Lawford lost three minutes at the third-last.

At the other end of the scale, several recorded very impressive margins. Two usual suspects in this regard were Patricia Aspin and Jenny Bourne, who enjoyed double-digit margins in W60 and W50 respectively. Tim Robertson showed that the New Zealand juniors would once again be a force to be reckoned with when he took M16 out by eleven minutes, whilst the often-competitive W45 was a no-contest this time as Nicola Dalheim opened up a nine-minute break over her nearest rival, Sue Hancock. Robertson led a 1-2 for the visitors, a performance matched in M45 in which Greg Barbour marked his return to Australian soil with a comfortable win over Alistair Cory-Wright.

Oceania Middle Distance Championships, Yackandandah The Middle Distance Championships were widely expected to be the highlight of the week, and did not disappoint. Even without any of the extras, the area was something special – intense goldmining detail of a sort found in some other Victorian areas, but without any of the bland gully-spur to give people a chance to relax. Combined with the best arena experience yet seen in Australia – and plenty of action to show on the big screen (no-one blew it quite as spectacularly on screen as Minna Kauppi

did at WOC, although a couple tried) – it was an event which will not be forgotten in a hurry.

Vanessa Round, who has been Australia’s leading middle-distance orienteer for a couple of years now, led for the first half of the course, not doing too much wrong through the tricky early stages.

Lizzie Ingham, though, is well-credentialed at this distance – but for a mistake at the last technical control she would have a WOC top-10 to her name – and was not too far behind. Close enough to pounce when Round’s run fell apart, with a threeminute mistake at #14. The New Zealander inherited the lead at that point, and finished off very strongly. Jo Allison and Susanne Casanova both had consistent runs on an area which placed a premium on that, and their battle was not decided until the Finish chute. It’s not the first time Casanova has come second in a big race, but this time she could at least claim to be the leading Australian for the first time at this level.

Rob Preston started out on Sunday where he left off on Saturday and was a minute up on the field by the fifth control. The race settled down after that, with Dave Shepherd emerging as the closest challenger and eventually getting to the lead early on the second loop. Whilst neither of them ran into serious trouble, Preston was unable to make much impression over the closing stages and had to settle for second, 39secs behind. Simon Uppill was third, whilst Nick Hann impressed for a young junior in such technical terrain, leading the New Zealand contingent in fourth place.

There is a lot of depth in Australian junior mens’ orienteering at the moment and it showed on the day, with just over five minutes covering the top nine. The terrain opened the door for others than just the fastest runners, and Kurt Neumann took advantage of it, getting to the lead early on and never letting it go. Max Neve and Oscar Phillips filled the placings, whilst behind that, Aaron Breed achieved a career-best fourth, and Olle Poland showed signs of what was to come later in the week with very fast stretches through the middle after stumbling badly at the first control.

Elsewhere the ultra-technical terrain made for a wild ride in many classes, and few classes had a wilder ride than W20, in which twelve different people shared 17 split wins. Heather Muir only had one mistake of any size, a one-minuter at #14, and that was enough for an emphatic victory. It was by no means the only

Clive Pope.

Photo: Felicity Crosato

Asha Steer.

Photo: Peter Yeates

AUS Relays – Sophie Jones. Photo: Paul Prudhoe DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 17

OCEANIA CARNIVAL

class where holding one’s nerve and having a reasonably clean run was more than enough to swamp your opposition; others who achieved large margins that way in normally competitive classes included Rob Vincent (M50) and Matt Doyle (M16).

In some classes nobody had a good run; at least three winners survived errors in the 8-15 minute range, which under normal circumstances would condemn one to midfield or worse in a Middle Distance event.

Muir. After injury ruined her JWOC hopes earlier in the year, she showed her return to fitness with a commanding run and a margin of nearly nine minutes, a gap only previously bettered in this event by Hanny Allston in 2003. That gap was inflated by two errors from second-placed Selena Metherell, but even without those Muir would have emerged as the winner. With several more fancied contenders stumbling, there was a breakthrough result for the South Australian, Olivia Sprod, who completed the placings.

There were a couple of thrillers, not least in M45 which saw one of the more astonishing Finish-chute turnarounds in living memory, Andy Simpson somehow managing to win by two seconds after trailing Martin Wehner by 18 at the last control.

W16 was almost as close, although there Brianna Massie successfully defended a narrow lead against Anna Dowling, after a race which was tight most of the way except where they traded roughly equal errors at #8 and #9. M65 was one of the closer classes at the top, the top five finishing within three minutes, and saw the successful return of Darryl Erbacher from injury problems, on a day when being forced to slow down was (in most classes) no bad thing.

The senior boys looked to be a very strong event, featuring three members of the Australian JWOC team and some good transTasman opposition. Early mistakes put the New Zealanders out of the picture early on, making it a three-way race between Olle Poland, Oscar McNulty and Ian Lawford. McNulty lost time at #6 before getting it back with an outstanding long leg at #7, but Poland edged away thereafter, with the result sealed when McNulty lost a minute on the last technical control, ending up 11secs ahead of Lawford.

The only negative was that the heavens opened with some vigour at the end of the day, spoiling the presentation ceremony, but after such an exciting day no-one was going to complain.

Australian Schools Championships and Australian Relays, Burngoogee Queensland’s recent dominance of the Australian Schools Championships was broken, when a deep Tasmanian team took the title with room to spare. The southerners would have been challenging to beat even under optimal circumstances, but a knee injury in the Individual event to one of Queensland’s key team members, Heather Burridge, was a blow from which they were unable to recover. New Zealand, though, once again dominated against the State teams and took the Southern Cross Junior Challenge easily.

The granite of Burngoogee was more technical than some recent venues for this event and the times were spread out, especially in the Individual where there were some large blowouts. For those who were equal to the challenge, though, the reward was often an impressive result. None were more impressive than Heather AUS Relays – they’re off.

Photo: Paul Prudhoe

Every Schools Championships turns up at least one unknown who gets a big result and this year’s was Winnie Oakhill (although the old hands know that younger siblings of previous medallists are often worth watching). She had some problems early, as did the New Zealander Brianna Massie (who eventually finished third), but from three minutes down at #3, she gradually pulled Anna Dowling in and took the lead over the closing controls. The junior boys were more predictable; Easter M16 winner Ashley Nankervis won by two minutes over Callum Herries, one of three New Zealanders in the top six, with Matt Doyle in third after a steady run.

The highlight of the Schools Relays was the only class not won by New Zealand, the senior girls. Jacqui Doyle gave Queensland an early lead, with New Zealand in third place, but Cosette Saville brought them through the field and sent them out with a 39-sec lead on the last leg. That last leg brought together the top two from the previous day, Muir and Metherell. They went through the spectator control together, and Metherell pulled out a narrow lead at the far end of the final loop, but lost that advantage with a small mistake. That meant a sprint finish which was narrowly won by the Queenslander.

The two junior Relays followed a similar pattern with New Zealand holding off final-leg challenges from Tasmania. Winnie AUS Relays Men’s start. Photo: Peter Yeates

Oceania Relays – Tim Dent.

Photo: Paul Prudhoe 18 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Oakhill followed up her individual win by being the first back in the Relay. The Queensland team drifted back after that (although they hung in longer than expected and eventually came third), and New Zealand started the last leg two minutes in front. Anna Dowling cut that in half but Brianna Massie was able to hold on.

In the junior boys, Shamus Morrison gave New Zealand a fourminute lead which they held through the first two legs. Ashley Nankervis did his best to cut into that but still fell just over a minute short.

The senior boys’ field was deep, especially on the first leg, and seven were within six minutes of the leading New Zealand team at the first changeover. The ACT, with their best two runners on the last two legs (not the first time such a strategy has been used to good effect in this event), were at the back of that bunch, but by the spectator control on the second leg, Olle Poland had taken the Canberrans to the lead. They seemed the likely winners when he handed over 90secs in front, but New Zealand were not to be denied, and the impressively fast Nick Hann was able to overhaul that lead and take the win. Also impressive were Western Australia, who achieved their best Relay result for years when Oscar McNulty overtook Queensland on the last leg to take third.

With the packed program something had to give, and that something was the Australian Relays, run as a midweek event with a disappointingly small field. The greatest drama was in the two open classes, both of which had only two competitive teams, which had dramatic reversals in the closing stages. At the final spectator control New Zealand had a lead of several minutes over Victoria in M21, and Queensland over New Zealand in W21, but in both cases the leaders faltered in the final controls and were overtaken by their rivals. No other class had a close finish, although W55 was competitive for two legs before Lynn Dabbs ran away from the field for NSW on the third.

Oceania Sprint Championships, Badja The Oceania Sprint Championships was a forest sprint, something becoming increasingly rare on the international scene. Sections of intense control-picking provided plenty of room for error and some more erratic results than might sometimes occur in an urban Sprint, with three (Matt Doyle M16, Rob Jessop M40, Eoin Rothery M55) missing controls altogether when leading.

Grace Crane marked her long-term return to Australia – she had arrived only during the week – with an ultimately comfortable win in W21. She duelled with Lizzie Ingham early on but was never seriously challenged after Ingham lost 36secs at #5. It was close beyond that with five within 20secs. For much of the race Clare Hawthorne threatened to turn back the clock with her first major event placing since her 2004 Australian Championships win, but she could not quite hold on for third, which was shared

by Vanessa Round and Jo Allison. Bridget Anderson’s sixth was also a career-best at this level.

M21 was rather erratic with few getting through the race unscathed. One who did was Chris Naunton, who looked like he might break through for an unexpected win when he led at #11, but Grant Bluett and Matt Ogden had managed to minimise the damage during their mid-course wobbles and were close enough to take control over the closing stages. Bluett ultimately prevailed by 12secs, with the New Zealand junior finishing second ahead of Naunton.

Olle Poland built on his Schools result with a reasonably comfortable 21sec win in M20. He took control from the start, although a small error at #8 brought Lachlan Dow back into the race for a time. Ian Lawford, always very competitive in Sprints, also threatened through the first half before losing a minute on the long #7, which gave New Zealand a podium position through Tim Robertson. If 21secs is a comfortable margin in a Sprint, three minutes – which is what Belinda Lawford’s W20 margin was – is an eternity. She was already over a minute ahead at #7 before her two closest rivals, Selena Metherell and Heather Muir, both lost significant time at #8.

The closest result outside the elite classes was in M50, where Rob Vincent led almost all the way until Hamish Goodwin pulled level at the second-last control, and sprinted the Finish chute fast enough to take the title by the narrowest possible margin. Other close victories included those of Ashley Nankervis, who followed up his Schools win with an 8sec win over Henry McNulty in M16; Sue Key, who overhauled Lynn Dabbs in the last third of the course to take W55 by 12secs, and Gayle Quantock, whose fast start was enough for her to survive an error at #5 in W45.

One interruption to normal service was that Patricia Aspin was not a placegetter; she lost six minutes at the second control and

Winnie Oakhill.

Photo: Peter Yeates

Schools Relay NSW change Photo: Paul Prudhoe DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER

19

OCEANIA CARNIVAL

finished seventh in W60 behind Val Hodsdon. A bush Sprint does not provide the same opportunities for newcomers in the placings as an urban Sprint – where those with a metropolitan park/ street background sometimes emerge – but there were still a few unexpected results. These included a rare Sprint defeat for Su Yan Tay when Linda Sesta edged her out in W40, and Greg Morcom’s most significant win since mid-1980s Australian Schools Championships when he took out M40 over Scott Simson.

Australian Long Distance Championships, Badja

hot streak was rewarded with a national title. He held a narrow lead through the early stages, but lost ground in mid-course and had slipped to fourth by #12. By #19, though, he was back in front, and he dominated the closing stages to extend his margin beyond a minute in the end. For a time Brodie Nankervis, whose reputation has advanced considerably this year, looked as if he might add a Long Distance title to the Middle Distance one – a shock result at the time – that we won in WA, but he faded a little late and lost second to Max Neve, while Ian Lawford had to settle for fourth after not quite recovering from early time losses.

After an initial taste of a small pocket of Badja on the Friday, it was time to launch into the terrain for real on Saturday. As expected, there was rock throughout and some rough forest in the back blocks of the area, although logging in the state forest limited the use of the rougher sections. As a result it turned out, on the longer courses at least, to be probably the easiest Australian Long Championships physically since 2002, and the results were not as spread out as they often are on this day.

W20 was also a reasonably close race, in the absence of Belinda Lawford who was running up (and this time it was close because a number of people had decent runs). Not for the first time this week the main battle was between Selena Metherell and Heather Muir, but this time it was the New Zealander who prevailed by a couple of minutes, and this time they did not blow the opposition away, with Michele Dawson and Jacqui Doyle both within striking distance after slower but essentially error-free runs.

After Grace Crane’s successful return to Australia the previous day, this time it was Matt’s turn. It was a tight battle of the top four through the first half of the course, with little to choose between Rob Preston, Rob Walter, Crane and Simon Uppill. As the course emerged into the easier country around halfway it looked like Preston was building a small but significant lead, but successive one-minute misses at #19 and #20 dropped him to fourth and he did not threaten the front again. For most of the rest of the way Crane held a narrow lead over Walter. Walter looked for a time as if he might pull off his biggest win for several years (which would have been a very popular result) but Crane nailed the tricky second-last to secure the win.

Olivia Sprod enhanced her reputation at the Schools and enhanced it some more at Badja, winning her first national title when she took W16 by a minute over the week’s perennial bridesmaid, Anna Dowling (whose scoreboard for the carnival was second place in four individual events plus a relay). In M16, Matt Doyle recovered from the frustration of a Sprint mispunch, winning quite easily in the end over Ashley Nankervis and Henry McNulty.

The top three women established themselves early in the race, and just like the preceding Saturday, it was Jo Allison who was the pick of them. She took the lead after Lizzie Ingham lost a minute at #6 and was not headed the rest of the way; the margin never blew out, but nor did it ever get closer than 36secs, and ended up at a minute. There might have been an opportunity when Allison lost time at the second-last, but the other two leaders did too.

Grace Crane was another minute further back.

Close finishes were commonplace elsewhere with four veteran classes being decided by less than a minute. Closest of all was W45, where Nicola Dalheim repeated her win from the previous weekend but in totally different style; this time it looked as if she might have blown her chance at the third-last, but she was close enough to overhaul Karen Blatchford in the chute and win by four seconds. Adrian Uppill overcame injury problems during the week to take M60 by 29secs from another perennial runnerup of the week, Gordon Wilson, while two New Zealanders also managed narrow wins, with Dave Middleton beating Tony Simpkins in M65 and Ian Holden coming from behind to pip Pauli Piiroinen in M75.

The junior men, once again, turned on a good race with the top four within two minutes, but in the end Olle Poland’s continued

Two other high-standard contests where the margin was only slightly larger were M40 and M55. Turning the tables from

Oceania Sprint – Toby Wilson (GO) & Tavish Eenjes (BG). Photo: Peter Yeates

Angus Robinson. Photo: Steve Bird 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

the previous weekend, this time it was Geoff Lawford’s turn to overturn a narrow lead which Paul Pacque had held through most of the course. In M40, a cut head which required post-race stitches was not enough to stop Warren Key from successfully stepping up a couple of age groups, just over a minute ahead of Rob Jessop and Jock Davis; Eddie Wymer was in the mix too until a late mistake.

Jenny Bourne and Patricia Aspin resumed normal service with big wins in W50 and W60 respectively, and Jenny Hawkins joined them in the group of those whose margin approached double figures, with some help from her opposition. Graham Fortune made it a good day for the older New Zealand men by taking M70, whilst Peter Swanson’s two-minute win over Mark Nemeth in M45 was another title chalked up for the visitors.

Oceania Relays and Australia-NZ Relay Challenge, Badja Australia took the Relay Challenge with a bit more ease, in the end, than had been the case in the Individual. The eventual margin was eleven classes to four. Australia set the win up by taking out three of the four elite classes. Simon Uppill gave the M21 team a two-minute lead after the first leg and the result was never really in doubt after that, with the national team ending up four minutes ahead of the Canberra Cockatoos and NSW Stingers.

New Zealand was not really in the picture there; nor were they in W21, where Grace Crane came back two minutes in front but the real battle was between Australia and Queensland, the only competitive State team. They were together at the first change but Jo Allison edged away from Bridget Anderson after that, and the final margin after three legs was seven minutes.

One of the better races in prospect was M20, which featured the national teams and a competitive second Australian team. That second team proved to be more than competitive; Olle Poland gave them a two-minute lead on the first leg, and although that was trimmed to 25secs at the final change, Ian Lawford was able to extend that lead running against Lachlan Dow. New Zealand might have been serious challengers, but Nick Hann lost six minutes halfway through the second leg to put them out of contention. The visitors did prevail in W20, which was close for two legs but ended up being a no-contest because Laura

Aston Key. Photo: Steve Bird

Robertson was the only last-leg runner who was able to hold it together.

The two classes where New Zealand will be thinking what might have been were M70 and W60. In M70 they took a seven-minute lead into the final leg. That had disappeared by the first control, then John Robinson regained a break as Clive Pope lost time on #2, but another error on #4 saw the advantage swing back to the Australians, this time decisively. Patricia Aspin gave the W60 team a big lead early and New Zealand still led by four minutes into the last leg, but a mispunch on that leg handed victory to the locals. None of the other Challenge classes were particularly close, with the next-smallest margin being the five-minute Australian win in M60.

New Zealand did take both of the youngest classes, no surprise after their results at the Schools. In W16 they were so dominant that they fielded the first three teams, although the Australian team was competitive apart from a second-leg mispunch, while in M16 they took first and second. The other NZ victory was in M45, not in doubt from the second leg onwards; the main interest there was in the race against the Australian M40 team on the same course, a fluctuating contest which was eventually resolved in the visitors’ favour by 18secs.

Outside M20, three other non-Challenge teams were able to beat both Challenge teams, although all benefited from fielding two of three members who were unavailable for Challenge teams for various reasons (mostly involvement in event organisation earlier in the week). A Victorian W40 team which wouldn’t have been out of place in W21 (Nicola Dalheim, Clare Hawthorne, Natasha Key) was more than 20mins clear of the Australian team. In M55 and W50 the Australian team led into the final leg but were overrun by outstanding final legs by Geoff Lawford and Jenny Bourne respectively.

Two of the closest finishes were in non-Challenge classes. Gayle Quantock held off Felicity Crosato to give NSW a win by just under two minutes over Queensland. In M65 NSW were the pursuers as Terry Bluett tried to run down Western Australia on the final leg, but in the end the big lead that Tony Simpkins gave the westerners on the first leg was enough for them to hold on by just over a minute.

David Shepherd.

Photo: Steve Bird

Oscar McNulty takes third for WA in Senior Boys Relay. Photo: Ian Dalton.

Heather Muir sprints to win Senior Girls Relay. Photo: Ian Dalton.

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 21

NEWS

AUSTRALIAN 3 DAYS 2012 Easter in Queensland: 6 - 9 April 2012

P Cockatoos and Nuggets triumph Blair Trewin

A

fter an uncharacteristic absence of two years, the Canberra Cockatoos returned to the winner’s circle in the SILVA National League when they took out the men’s competition for 2011. The NSW Stingers, champions for the last two years, led the way narrowly for much of the season, but in the end they were not able to cover the absence of Julian Dent from the closing round and had to settle for second.

In contrast to the men’s competition, a third successive title for the Victorian Nuggets women never looked in doubt. They took a big lead in the early part of the season and maintained it all year.

The Cockatoos, whose depth was severely tested at times during the season, ended up second, with the Southern Arrows in third.

Simon Uppill took the Individual title for the second time, his consistency seeing him through despite failing to win any of the races. He came second eight times during the year, to six different opponents. Rob Preston’s good finish to the season was not quite enough, while Grant Bluett needed one more good result. Vanessa Round took her first overall title; it was theoretically in doubt until the last race of the season but in practice she looked the likely winner from midseason onwards.

Both junior team titles were decided long before the end of the season. The Cockatoos junior men and the Queensland Cyclones junior women both had three JWOC team members and some additional depth besides, which was more than enough to secure their wins. For the Cyclones it was a fifth junior women’s win in succession. The junior men did provide the closest individual contest of this year, although a potential grandstand finish was spoilt a bit when Lachlan Dow, one point ahead going into the final race, missed the Australian Long Distance Championships. This meant that Olle Poland only needed to come fifth to overtake Dow’s score; as it turned out he went four better than that. Belinda Lawford was an overwhelming leader, winning ten times from twelve starts, and only missed out on the maximum possible score because she ran up in class at the Australian Long Distance Championships.

22 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

reparations are well underway for next Easter’s Australian 3 Days to be held in Queensland which last hosted this event in 2004.

The 3 Days will be centred on the Granite Belt region of southern Queensland, an area well known to orienteers for its challenging rock terrain. On the following weekend, there will be three events held in Brisbane as part of the National Orienteering League series.

The event centre will be Stanthorpe in the heart of the Granite Belt, 220km south west of Brisbane on the New England Highway and about three hours drive from the airport. There is a wide variety of accommodation available from hotels and motels, B&B’s, caravan and tourist parks. Visit www.granitebeltwinecountry.com.au or www. thegranitebelt.com.au for details about attractions and accommodation or contact the Stanthorpe Tourist Information Centre on (07) 4681 2057.

We will also be offering camping (powered and unpowered sites) with basic facilities at the Stanthorpe Showgrounds on the edge of town.

Bookings for this campsite can be made on the entry form.

The 3 Days will start on Easter Friday with the Elite Prologue, Public Prologue and Family Relays on flat, open grazing land with areas of scattered granite and some mining detail just 15mins north of Stanthorpe. Day 1 of the 3 Days will be held on an adjoining map with undulating gully/spur terrain and scattered to complex granite outcrops. Competition then move to a new area, 45km west of Warwick (99km from Stanthorpe) which is open, undulating to steep gully/spur terrain. Day 3 returns to a grazing land and eucalypt forest area north of Stanthorpe containing scattered granite areas.

For those wishing to stay in Queensland for the remaining events, a local club event will be held on The Cascades map, 15km west of Stanthorpe on Wednesday 11 April. This map is rated as one of the most challenging granite areas in Australia. On Thursday, the Brisbane mid-week group will conduct a low key event at a venue close to Brisbane.

Events on the weekend of 14 & 15 April will start with two urban Sprints held on university campuses in the Brisbane area. On Sunday, there will be a badge event in Toohey Forest, an undulating gully/spur area with moderate visibility and some rock detail.

The event website www.easter2012.com.au will provide regular updates and entry information with online entries available from 1 January 2012.

Plan now to join us in Queensland for a challenging week of Orienteering and make certain you book your accommodation early, especially in the local caravan parks in Stanthorpe.

Abby, Max, Luca and Zoe gathered around the control. We all had to have a turn at punching. With 8 kids each having to punch all of the 13 controls, one can imagine control flow was not optimised.

OCEANIA CARNIVAL

Toughening them up Story adapted from Nat Smith’s blog Photos by Nat Smith and Al Jones

S

aturday 8 Oct was the Australian Long Distance Championships which for Andy (Hogg) and Rob (Walter) was a 13km course in thick granite forest which translated into about 85+ minutes running for the boys. So to keep the kids entertained Al and I decided to enter the easiest course. The only catch was that it wasn’t that easy.......

We decided to take some of their friends, and in the end the gang consisted of Makhaya Talbot (5), Ella Hogg(4.5), Max Walter (4), Luca Talbot (3.75), Abby McCrae (3.5), Zoe McCrae (3.5), Katy Hogg (2.25) and Mira Walter(1.75), Al Jones (who is 37 weeks pregnant) and myself, Nat Smith. With Katy and Mira in backpacks, the plan was for the rest of the kids to ride their bikes around the course.

Ready to head to the start! Ella Hogg, Abby McCrae, Max Walter, Zoe McCrae, Luca and Makhaya Talbot.

and another toilet stop - we were starting to contemplate and appreciate the carers at our childcare centre!!)

We had started to rotate carrying bikes giving the kids a break from trying to negotiate the rocks, bumps and bracken. It was obvious with several falls and some tears that they were all getting tired. The final third of the course was in relative friendly bush again adjacent to a fence but his time following a little sheep track so the riding became easier. We also came across several hay bale crossing and although we didn’t need to cross them, the kids were keen to test them out!

As we approached our 12th control (we only had 13), some familiar faces appeared. Apparently several of the parents and our loved ones were concerned with our absence (we’d been gone for over 2 hours!). They’d whipped themselves into a worried state thinking that I was delivering Al’s baby with eight kids looking on!! Thankfully that wasn’t the case.

Now, like I said, there were a few things which made this course challenging. First one was the fact the Start was located just over 1km from the assembly area and mostly uphill. So it took us approximately 45mins to get there (an average length of time usually taken to complete a blue course!) On arrival we decided to remove some of the warm layers, have a drink and nibble as well as a toilet stop. Then we were off....

The bracken hills.

Exciting times - moving through the ‘official’ start procedure.

We were about one third of the way around when our course deviated from the bumpy track to follow along a fence line. With the adjacent track overgrown in bracken the going got tough. We had no option of taking any short cuts with the lack of tracks and dense forest and so we forged on. The kids were great taking it all in their strides.

With the next third of the course following this fence line, we came across a bare rock surface positioned about halfway along this tricky section - the perfect place for a picnic and rest (oh

Technical riding terrain.

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 23

URBAN O

Urban Orienteering in NSW Maggie Jones - ONSW Communications

Urban Orienteering keeps the bush athlete from despair when the heat of the summer months prevents any serious events being staged out in the forest but it is not only for desperate and hardened orienteers. There are increasing opportunities to provide a new form of the sport to people who enjoy running, want a challenge but who are hesitant to make the transition to the State League events, and are very happy that way.

L

ast year the numbers of participants at bush events in NSW was comparable to the numbers at urban events. Considering the greater number of urban events conducted in Sydney and NSW it meant that there were far more urban orienteers than traditional bush orienteers. Consequently this year the NSW Board, with the support from the Australian Sports Commission, has initiated and supported a participation expansion of the urban events program through the summer months in Sydney to new areas in the capital. And the regional areas are also growing.

A 12-page promotional brochure for the 2011/12 summer season developed by the Promotions Director Barbara Hill and Marketing Officer Ian Jessup shows the breadth of urban Orienteering in NSW. It is also hoped that in addition to an increase in participation, membership numbers will also grow.

Sydney Series is growing again Ross Barr is the godfather of the Sydney Summer Series, the oldest series of urban events in NSW. Hosting some 26 events which attract over 200 people per event, this is a series which has proven its popularity over the last 20+ years. The Summer Series races are 45-minutes score events which this year will be almost entirely contested using SportIdent, a long term goal of the NSW Orienteering community. Full colour maps are used, mapped to bush conventions, to remove one more barrier for those who might be tempted to try their luck on bush events. Running from mid-October right through to mid-March the Series awards prizes to the placegetters in a number of age categories with the 24 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

best 12 scores counting. Competitors can check their progress as cumulative results are displayed at each event.

Due to its success the Series this year has been supplemented by a new pre-Christmas Southern Summer Series in the East and South of Sydney, and a Western Series from Castle Hill to the Hawkesbury River which will take place from late January through to March. These Series are all score events but there is another series which occurs in January and February which uses traditional line courses - the Sydney Sprint Series. Run by Terry Bluett since he took over the format from the NSW Stingers, the Sprint Series courses are around 3 - 3.5km long and use Sprint maps. The Sprint Series has been using SportIdent for nearly two years now, and uses the SI software which allows the results to be captured by a download unit, with no computers needing to be taken to the event. A 10-event series, the Sprint Series is unlikely to expand any further as its main purpose was always to give some technical training for orienteers over the summer and it finishes as the winter program restarts.

Out to the west, drawing from Camden, Campbelltown and Liverpool areas, Southern Highland Occasional Orienteers (SHOO) have a 6-event series which happens on a Saturday in the early part of the year. A recent addition to their club calendar, Lyn Malmgron describes the Series as ‘one of the best things we have implemented for the club.’ The Series has brought a raft of benefits, not only in attracting new runners and new members to the club, but also providing a welcome weekly social event. ‘We get a lot of people along as well as the orienteers from the club.

People bring picnics and stay around to chat afterwards.’ It has also increased the skills of the club members; all the organisers have been trained in OCAD for setting courses, and two members are now trained as new mappers. An event kit was developed which is passed from organiser to organiser making the whole Series run smoothly. “We use a diversity of maps, from Sprint to Street and Park maps, and even have a city farm mapped. This year we have had Mount Annan mapped so we are looking forward to adding that to the events soon.’

Coastal races cooled by sea breezes Central Coast has been running a Summer Series since 2006.

Initially a Tuesday evening event series it became clear that commuting orienteers were struggling to get along, and the series

was moved to Sundays. This year the series expands to 10 events, starting in mid-November and finishing just before the O’Shea 2, the two day pairs Orienteering event in late February. Nick Dent, a co-founder of the series with Colin Price, has produced a number of new maps this year including Wyoming, Lake Haven and Davistown which will be used in the 2011/12 series. With more maps still in the pipeline Colin says that they would like to see the series grow further. ‘Another innovation we have made this year is the cash prize on offer for male and female winners over the series. We thought about different ways to encourage people along and decided that this might be a good way to access athletes who might not have considered street Orienteering before.‘

Hot races out west and in the south Beyond the Blue Mountains Goldseekers run a street series for five weeks on Friday evenings. A 45-minute score event supplemented by a line event for newcomers to the sport will generally bring in around 40 runners, although the top turnout in the past has

ienteerin Te 22nd Street Or

g Series

t #1: Warm Up Even th October 2011 5 Waratah Rail

NAME:

To the South, the Waggaroos have been running a summer series of around 8 - 10 events from the first week in December to the end of February for nearly 10 years. Another score event format, the Waggaroos offer a 30-minute and a 45-minute race which allows runners to take the shorter option when the temperatures are really hot in mid-summer. Maps are taken from council maps and are currently black and white although the club is gradually converting these to full colour maps. There are no prizes for the series but the events do feature in the annual Orienteer of the Year which takes the best 8 results scored of which some can be street series events.

Finish: Start:

ROLS 1 POINT CONT n 4968???? l TV Receptio 1A #5 Digita r ou col x bo r 1B #56 Lette name 1C #11 House r box colour tte Le #19 1D name 1E #8 House name 1F #9 House de of r box stand ma tte Le #71 1G me na use Ho 1H #28 ty firm , W side, Securi 1J Building nd sta x r bo 1K #29 Lette ce at front entran 1L #16 Pots er ild use 1M #33 Bu ce, N side of ho rn on front fen 1N #25 Patte ember ????”

“M x bo ter r on let 1O #16 Sticke ROLS 2 POINT CONT ??? e pole 75 JUZ 2A Telephon box ter let of r lou 2B #11 Co nt yard 2C #6 In fro garage old car next to of r lou Co 2D me na 2E #31 House name 2F #6 House er 34 on fence r of the numb 2G #34 Colou ROLS 3 POINT CONT ool entrance to sch 3A Name of or & gutters r of garage do y 3B #18 Colou gates to railwa on k loc ters on 3C Bigger let ral mu of ht on bottom rig 3D Number 25 Controls/ 40

been as many as 100 people. Showcasing different parts of Orange Goldseekers use five colour Orienteering maps. Mapping urban areas to bush conventions is used to aid the conversion of urban orienteers to bush Orienteering and Goldseekers look for that conversion from these summer races in a way that some other areas, such as Newcastle, do not. The last night of the season is barbeque night with presentations to series winners going to top male, female and junior. No handicapping system is used to work out the results but there is a Best Family award given, to allow groups to participate in the awards.

Newcastle summer series draws in the crowds 1189

1A

Blue

1B

Mayfair White

1C

Harrow Downsize

1E

0066

4355

Orange Carnley

Black Borewater

Red

Silver Sweet Home Clarkson

Dartmouth Roseglen

Park View Chubb

Wembly BNP

Barrel

Chain

A Huntley Shell

1G 1H

Seahorse 6

1K

P Howard Bird

1M

2011

1O

W.A.T. Blue

2A

S Norton Lizard 2009

2007

R.T.M Green Flagpole Blue

B.F.G Cream Windmill Red

Woodlands

Hartley

Emoh Ruo Blue

Rosemar Red

Royal Red SL 651

Main Blue AT 922

1F

Sanctuary NCE

4

2

1D

Wood

Chain

Brick

Newcastle races are in their 22nd year and draw large numbers of local people each year, with 70 to 100 runners competing at any one event. Multiple prize categories ensure that there are opportunities for people to achieve with a cup for the Overall Winner (Male and Female), and cloth badges for Time Management for whoever is consistently closest to the 45-minute

1J 1L 1N

2B

Birdbath 2C 2D White The 2E s Meadow 2F en Ruthergl 2G Gold

Memorial Yellow

3A

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points

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 25

URBAN O

time limit, Handicap and Team event awards as well as A,B,C race grades.

Newcastle races differ from most other NSW Summer series races as the maps are black and white and no controls are set out. Clue sheets are used with multiple choice answers to prove that a runner had visited the right control site. This has several major advantages; control sites cannot be tampered with by the public, sites can be reconnoitred some weeks in advance and clue sheets set up, and the effort of putting out and gathering in control flags is completely avoided. A set of standards has been developed over the years to give course setters consistent guidelines. One important one is that these races are not scavenger hunts. The simpler and more unambiguous the clue the better; it is not the intellect of the runner that is being tested, but whether or not the runner has visited the control site. Malcolm Roberts who heads up the series is clear that this orienteering is not about aiming to convert urban orienteers to bush Orienteering. ‘There are some people who are summer specialists, urban orienteers only, and that’s alright.’

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE This is a popular Park & Street area first mapped in 2001. There are 15 differences between these two otherwise identical map sections. CAN YOU FIND ALL 15 ?

26 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

O-SPY In addition, the IOF Council agreed at its meeting in August that the strategy relating to their efforts to get Ski Orienteering included in the Olympic Winter Games would need to be reconsidered in order to reach the goal.

WMOC 2013 in Doubt ?

Always Show Support for Sponsors When Finland’s Pasi Ikonen crossed the finish line in silver-medal winning position at the 2011 World Championships Long Distance event he was drenched with sweat and water he had tipped over his head. As he moved toward the media mix zone one of the Finnish Team ‘minders’ stopped him, reached into her bag of goodies, and handed Pasi a fresh headband carrying a sponsor’s logo.

No interviews or photos before the sponsors can be acknowledged !

The IOF requires that the 2013 World Masters Orienteering Championships be organised within the World Masters Games to be held in Torino, Italy. However, at the IOF Council’s August meeting President of the Italian Orienteering Federation, Sergio Grifoni, reported difficulties in dealing with the WMG organisers because their planning for the event was behind schedule.

The 2013 WMG web site is now up (www. torino2013wmg.org/sport/ orienteering) but it appears that the venue proposed for Orienteering is a large city park, Parco della Rimembranza, “the largest green area of the city, more than 90 hectares (0.9 km2), and inside there are 45 kilometres of roads and pathways.”

At press time there was no listing for WMOC 2013 in the calendar of events on the IOF web site, though there were listings for WMOC 2012 (Germany) and WMOC 2014 (Brazil).

Sports shortlisted for 2020 Olympic Games The International Olympic Committee has advised the IOF that the IOC Executive Board has shortlisted eight sports for possible inclusion in the 2020 Olympic program. The shortlisted sports are baseball, karate, roller sports, softball, sports climbing, squash, wakeboard and wushu – but no sign of Orienteering.

“Masters Olympics” The IOF has been told that a major reason for keeping WMOC within the World Masters Games program structure is that a Masters Olympics is being proposed.

We note that the past two World Masters Games, as well as the recent European Masters Games, have been subtitled “Masters Olympics” by some sports. Would this be a means of conferring Orienteering with a quasi form of “Olympic Sport” status? Albeit for older orienteers only. The IOC may be reluctant to allow use of the “Olympic” term in this context. A search of the web site of the International Masters Games Association has revealed no information on a Masters Olympics proposal.

Next Swiss O Week to be in 2014 Staging Swiss O Week every two years has become too difficult according to Carmen Blank, Secretariat in Chief, so the next Swiss O Week will be held in late July 2014.

2012 NT Champs & NOL Races Fri 10th August Sprint: Uni & sand dunes Sat 11th Aug Daylight Score & Night Event: Stromatolites Sun 12th Aug Long: Granite Mon & Tues 13-14th August Organised training Sat 18th August Rogaine

www.topend.nt.orienteering.asn.au DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 27

RADI-O

Asia Pacific Region 3 Championships 2011 Ian Dodd (Dandenong Ranges OC, Victoria)

Liliya Glushchenko (AUS) Adam Scammell (AUS)

I did my level best to avoid competing in the 8th Region 3 ARDF Championships, held around Maldon, Victoria, in late September. I really did.

ARDF is, of course, the proper name for radio sport or Radio Orienteering and the Region 3 Championships are the equivalent of foot orienteering’s Oceania or Asian Championships. The 8th running of this event was held in Victoria just prior to the 2011 Oceania carnival, allowing keen orienteers from overseas to compete in both events in one trip.

ARDF (Amateur Radio Direction Finding) is a relatively small branch of Orienteering in Australia, and the Victorian ARDF Group is the only ARDF club affiliated to a State Orienteering association. The club is also affiliated to the Wireless Institute of Australia - the official hosts for the events - who appointed the Victorian club to run the event. There were large teams coming from Japan, China, Korea, three competitors from the USA, two Malaysians and even a Kazakh who ran (and won) unofficially because Kazakhstan is not part of Region 3.

I knew many of the ARDF club members through Melbourne Park & Street Orienteering. Being a relatively small club, they needed help organising the championships so that as many members as possible could also compete. So my wife Debbie, and I, offered to help with our experience organising major foot Orienteering carnivals (you probably saw us in the Finish tent at the Victorian Oceania events).

28 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

However my offers of help fell on deaf ears (for once). “No”, they said. I should enter the event. But I had never actually done a proper ARDF event. My experience was just a few come-and-try-it days at weekend Park & Street events. So began the argument that went on for some weeks. I tried all the usual excuses and ruses. It went a bit like this: “You need help organising.”

“No, we need more team members to compete for Australia.”

“But you have enough guys in my age group.”

“We need you to run down.”

“But I’ve never run up, let alone down. It’s a major event.”

“It’s like foot champs – it’s all in age groups and anyone can enter. We need three to make up an Australian team in each age group.”

It was explained to me that the competition is for both individuals and for national teams. The best two results of the three team members in each age group are combined for the team score. With a little jiggling of teams the “selectors” planned to ensure anyone entering from the host nation would be in an official Australian Team.

I was clearly losing the argument but I had other tactics up my sleeve. A few weeks passed and I was helping run a club bush event close to Melbourne. I had helped set courses and put out controls so couldn’t enter the foot competition but the ARDF club was running a practice Radi-O event on the same map. So I

The Australian Team

Author Ian Dodd

Fox-Or mini control

Bryan Ackerley, Gold medalist in M35

Pipped for a medal – the Editor took 4th Region 3 M65 place in both the 2-metre and 80-metre wavelength events

had my first proper ARDF experience. There were 8 entrants and I made my first big mistake; I came 4th.

“See, you can do this.”

“But I knew the map pretty well. I had an advantage.”

“But you still found the TXs.” (“Transmitters” or controls to us bush orienteers).

More days passed. The Australian Team was selected. I was running M35A for Australia. Unfortunately I am not actually M35 any more. And I hadn’t actually filled out an entry form. Score “1” for the selectors.

control placements by course setters? No, in fact it meant that all competitors had to use headphones on their sniffers so other competitors couldn’t hear your equipment beeping.

Sniffers are very important to committed ARDF folk. They talk about them… endlessly. I don’t understand a word they are saying. Fortunately, I had discovered that you don’t need to be able to understand a sniffer any more than you need to know how your SI stick actually works.

“What are all these buttons for?” I had asked.

“Programming the sniffer.”

Further debate followed at Street O.

“What! I have to program it??”

“I don’t own a sniffer.” (A sniffer is used to find the controls.

Actually a radio receiver comprising an antenna and other bits I don’t understand. I often wish I had one handy when I’m standing in the control circle at a bush event, unable to find the control flag.)

“No, you just need to turn it on. That’s the On/Off button.”

“We can lend you one.”

The roster for officials was issued. I wasn’t on the list. I was clearly losing the battle.

The date for late entries came and went. Finally another email “reminding” me of my overdue entry form. In a moment of weakness I caved in and sent off the entry fee. I was now a member of the WIA (for the next 4 months) and an official competitor. Further instructions issued regarding quarantine and silence-in-the-forest rules – oh dear! Had they heard me at bush events commenting in “colourful” language about

“Good. Don’t explain any more please. I don’t want to get confused.”

The Championships week was fast approaching. The competition part consisted of two events: the 2-metre and the 80-metre. I was told that the difference between the events, in practical terms, was that each event used a different sniffer model. I was accustomed to using the 2-metre “TV antenna” sniffer. Now I had to learn another one! Fortunately, the night before the 80-metre event they put out a practice control and I had a chance to learn the new sniffer. It had a different On/Off switch but I figured I could cope.

At least it was smaller and easier to carry. Many regular orienteers would think that running with a sniffer was a bit much. They look at the sniffers and, thinking they are ever so witty, make the same old jokes about getting TV reception. But, as a former fun runner, I had learnt to run carrying a map, compass and SI stick DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 29

RADI-O

and now it was second nature.

The same applied when you added a sniffer. You just need to learn to run more cunningly.

My days of brute force running through the ‘green’ were long over anyway.

The quarantine rules applied to all competitors, not just elites. This meant that everyone had to show up at the event centre (ridiculously early if you were to ask me) and take buses to the secret event site where all the sniffers were impounded until your start time approached. If you had a late start time you had better take a book as you had a long wait in the quarantine zone. For the overseas competitors this secret business was probably a bit of fun. For the Victorians it meant an ongoing series of bets on which map we would be running on. (Greg Tamblyn won. He knew all the maps in the area from foot orienteering).

My wife knew the secret map the day before but wouldn’t tell me. I didn’t care much as I couldn’t see any advantage in knowing the map. The control sites were still a secret as in ARDF events they are not printed on the map.

I knew that we would get a map at the Start showing just the Start triangle and the Finish circle. There would be five TXs somewhere on the map sending out the beeps to my sniffer. As an M35 I only had to find four of the TXs in the allotted 150 mins maximum time. But I had to find a specific 4, not just any 4 of the 5. It all depended on your course (age group).

I needed a strategy. So the night before the first event I found an old copy of The Australian Orienteer (March 2006) and read an article on how to find radio controls. It talked about bearings, special equipment, mapboards, chinagraph pencils and compass roses. It said something about being well prepared. Clearly I was not. Panic!

The next day I got out my lucky rogaining pencil, a plastic bag and a copy of the latest The Australian Orienteer to use as a mapboard. Not exactly the preparation recommended but enough to fool the other competitors into thinking I actually had the faintest idea of what I was doing. My team mates were noted long distance runner Bryan Ackerly and rogainer Grant Jeffrey. In the quarantine area Bryan was a bit tense - he clearly had ambitions on first place. Grant and I were along for the ride and some fun.

As part of the start procedure you get your map with a few minutes to go – it’s like MTBO. You have time to fold your map and get your pencils and gear sorted. I had a good peek and was happy to see that the start was on the edge of the map. This made 30 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Map for Fox-Or demonstration event

it possible to predict that all controls would be east of the start, either NE, E or SE. The Finish was on the other side of the map in the SE corner. Even better, a track led east from the start. Already I knew where I would head from the start triangle. Due to ARDF using 5 controls, they also use 5-minute starts so you don’t see where the runners in front of you have gone.

Now, I have read that some ARDF competitors stash the map in their pocket and just use the sniffer to find the controls and the home (finish) beacon. I figured that the only advantage I had was that I could read Orienteering maps so I had to make the map help me. But how to keep map contact when running flat out for 5 minutes towards a control that isn’t marked on the map? Fortunately I had one skill. As a bush orienteer who dreams of one day maybe being as “average” a navigator as regular The Australian Orienteer columnist and golfer, Russell Blatchford, I had one oft-practised ability - relocation. I would use this to keep map contact and pick the good route choices (usually tracks) to the next control vicinity.

Suzanne O’Callaghan

Greg Tamblyn

Gary Panter

Bruce Paterson.

Now, the catch to ARDF comps is that the TXs only beep for one minute in every five. So TX#1 goes off during minutes 0, 5, 10 etc.

TX#2 beeps during minutes 1, 6, 11 and so forth. So the first task is to quickly find a known spot (e.g. track junction) and sit down for 5 minutes getting bearings on all 5 TXs, drawing these on your map. Then you select the order you plan to get the controls and head off to the first, taking more bearings as you go. Easy! Except you have to figure from the signal strength which controls are near and which are far away. It’s really just practice listening to the beeps and figuring the quieter ones are probably further away.

M35A was listed as around an 8 or 9km course. On Day 1, I ran nearly 15km before collapsing at the finish with 15 minutes to spare. Bryan had won the course about a week faster than me. The ARDF folk debated if I could have run a worse course in terms of control order selection. Ha ha, very funny I thought but at least our team had done well, Bryan putting us in first with a good lead going into Day 2.

Now, I’m not going to ignore the elephant in the room. I can see the woolly mammoth and I know what you’re thinking: this Radio Orienteering is just a bit too geeky. Sport for nerds who are no good at ‘real’ Orienteering. But consider this. Coming down the Finish chute at the end of each day of competition, practically all the competitors who had already finished from all nations would cheer the finishers in, especially their own team mates. It did not matter if you were winning or hadn’t found any TXs or were dead last to finish, you still got a cheer. Perhaps it was a cheer because you had actually found the Finish and hadn’t fallen down a mineshaft or been eaten by ‘drop bears’

(OK we may have spooked the overseas visitors just a bit but we had good intentions and didn’t tell them about snakes). Still, I didn’t see much of that sort of cheering at Oceania! And it may have been because they didn’t all speak English but afterwards the competitors didn’t seem to spend all their time whining on about how they lost so many seconds at the whatever control or about alleged ‘bad’ course setting. They were all here to have fun – some expected to do well but many were here to see kangaroos and have a good holiday.

The second event was two days later following the group sightseeing train trip to Bendigo. It had a similar course design and format to Day 1. This time I took just one set of bearings before heading off to the nearest control. My strategy was simple: don’t run in circles like Day 1. With a bit of luck (actually a lot of luck) I picked as good an order as anyone else and only ran about 11km. So I arrived at the Finish in good time and not totally spent. As the event progressed, I held third place in the individual results for that day. Bryan won again and so our M35 team became Gold Medallists at an international event.

So that’s the story of how I won a gold medal whilst trying not to! Upon reflection it makes all that bush orienteering seem a waste of effort with nary a decent placing to my name at Oceania comps. Mr Blatchford can stick to his golf – I’m going to ARDF! Now, if only I had the slightest idea as to how I can build myself a faster sniffer…

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 31

EVENT PROMOTION

Bendigo does it differently Neil Barr

Making the most of what you are given Evan Barr and Bruce Arthur – Orientshow.

Isobel Wymer at Orientshow.

Chris Creely.

Bendigo Sprints Thirty or more years ago Bendigo Orienteers started making specialist Orienteering maps. The first Bendigo Orienteering maps were based upon the larger areas of spur-gully forest surrounding the town. Bendigo is blessed with terrain of this type. It is open, with a high ratio of gully junctions to contours meaning you have a greater decision to grunt experience. Back then one of the criteria used to choose areas to map was the capacity to hold classic length races. This meant we mapped areas such as One Tree Hill, Mandurang and Wildflower Drive. But we overlooked some quality technical areas because they were seen as being too small.

Since that time the format of Orienteering events has proliferated.

We now have three (or perhaps more) individual disciplines at WOC - Long, Middle and Sprint. Outside the sanction of the IOF, even more formats have emerged, and in Bendigo we have been playing with variants of the Sprint discipline in particular.

The Sprint format developed in the Park World Tour. These events were held in the parks and old towns of Europe. You can get a sense of the adventure to be found in these early Sprints by watching the YouTube video “Thierry Gueorgiou in Cervara”.

There you can see intricate navigation through a maze of alleys, stairways and passages.

In Australia the best we can do to replicate this style of event seems to be our University campuses. However, there aren’t many campuses to choose from and not all are open to events.

32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

In Bendigo we have one campus. After that we have a few parks which provide a navigational challenge suitable for our Space Racing events. They are not going to offer high class Sprint experiences. So Bendigo is not a likely venue to regularly host the modern Sprint format.

But Bendigo has something few other towns have. Within and around the town are many small areas of very detailed mining terrain. These have previously remained unmapped as they were considered too small even for a Middle Distance event. Now they are being mapped at 1:5,000 scale or finer and are being used for a different form of the Sprint Orienteering. Those who attended the Easter Prologue on New Saint Mungo in 2005 encountered one of these new areas. That event was designed to look like a normal Sprint.

But the events on the local fixture are quite different. Though the courses are still Sprint length, the course setting style is now more akin to Middle Distance than the Sprint formats. There is a much greater emphasis upon fine navigation mixed in with the speed and route choice normally found in Sprints. A number of race formats have evolved to take advantage of this terrain, and each places a different emphasis upon the mix of fine navigation, speed and route choice. And there is rarely just one race. Our Sprint events come in herds. Normally there will be three or four for the afternoon. This means everyone gets a fair number of kilometres under their belt as well as ample time for socialising after each race.

Rob Preston at Orientshow.

Orientshow – Peg Leg Gully.

Peg Leg Gully.

course, those on the wrong side of the impending field split will be encouraged by the proximity of the cagey lead pack to make a final big effort, leading to last minute panics at the back of the lead pack.

Bendigo Ironman

Ironman event – Peg Leg Gully.

The Bendigo Skins This format was adapted from an idea learnt from Esk Valley.

There are three races. Each course is a standard line course with no splits or variations. The first race is a mass start. The runner needs to finish in the top half of the field. That means he (or she) starts in the Semi-Final mass start. Those who finish in the bottom half of the field for the first race start a minute after the first mass start of the second race. The second race splits the field into three groups, with the second fastest group having a minute disadvantage in the Final and the slowest group having a two minute disadvantage. The winner is the first over the line in the Final. Positions in previous races count for nothing once the Final has started.

This race encourages tactical running and the formation of packs as runners aim to finish in the upper placings of the first two races, but to expend as little energy as possible in doing so. Of

The Ironman is based loosely upon the surf event of the same name. There are four Sprint races. The first is easy navigation, the second is hard, the third moderate and the fourth is hard. Courses are again line events with no variations. Each race is a chasing start based upon handicaps devised to create a mass finish. Final results are based upon the best three or two placings according to class. Each race commences with the starter calling a progressive count down and runners start when their handicap comes up.

There are tactical decisions as to which, if any, race to drop and which to run. This decision is made any time until your start time is called.

Once away, you can assume the handicapper believes you have the potential to run down everyone in front of you, but he also believes anyone behind can do the same to you. The result is running at full speed with pounding heart from start to finish.

Elite competitors often record their highest heart rate for the year in this event. Less experienced younger runners get to run against the elite of the sport on an even playing field. To make the event even more interesting, obvious failures by the handicapper can be corrected between races based upon a vote of all participants.

The winner has his or her name added to the perpetual Ironman trophy.

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 33

EVENT PROMOTION

Kathryn Ewels – Orientshow.

Bendigo Orientshow

John Chellew surveys his options.

The Orientshow is loosely based upon the French experimental Orientshow format, but as with the traditional Sprint format, liberties have been taken. There are three mass-start races. The first has an emphasis on longer legs with route choice to split the pack. The second is a hageby with many options so each competitor has a unique course. The final race is a course with multiple butterfly formations to provide another unique course for each runner.

This year the Orientshow was held on an area of mining terrain named Virginia Hill. The terrain lies within suburban Eaglehawk, a suburb of Bendigo. For this event there were 55 controls in less than half a square kilometre of terrain. Competitors made 70 control visits over 70 minutes of competition. The runners traversed or crossed major mullock heaps, wended their way through old mining settlement ponds and reef mining and sluice erosion. The navigation task was made more challenging by recent regrowth after a record wet year. Jim Russell was the overall winner, although Robbie Preston won two of the three races. The first event was decisive this year, with the lead pack making an error and missing a control.

Ian’s Micr-O This one is completely different. Every year around his birthday, Ian Johnson organises a scatter course on a detailed microOrienteering map near Harcourt. Black Jack Gully provides a setting for the less confident to get a taste of Sprint mining terrain at less than Sprint speeds. Everyone still finds navigational challenge in the event, and then gets to eat a piece of Ian’s birthday cake. Not bad to be mapping and course-setting into your 80s!

Virginia Hill.

Virginia Hill.

34 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Peter Virginia Creely Hill.in the scree-Napoleon Gully.

The future We currently have six mining Sprint maps. None is larger than half a square kilometre. There are a few more areas to map around Bendigo. That is just the start. There are at least twelve similar small areas around or near other mining towns in our region. The arrival of LIDAR data for some of these areas will speed the task of mapping. We can also extend the formats to granite areas such as Kooyoora, Korong, Tarrengower and some smaller granite outcropping scattered across the region.

We will not run out of terrain. But neither do we expect to take over the world. These events will always be boutique Orienteering.

Those wedded to solitude in the bush will find little attraction in a furious Sprint in urban wasteland. But for the minority after fast and technical events, a chance to beat an elite in a finish sprint or a great social scene will continue to enjoy this unique experience.

Bendigo:Ironman-New Saint Mungo.

Orienteering Service of Australia www.osoa.com.au

SILVA congratulates Neil Barr for his work in promoting Orienteering in Bendigo. Neil will receive a JET Spectra compass from SILVA.

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TRAINING

Don’t blame it on the lactate Steve Bird (BKV) Professor Steve Bird is at RMIT University, Melbourne. Steve worked with the Great Britain National Orienteering Squad for over 10 years and is now assisting the Victorian Junior Squad.

Introduction Lactic acid is probably the most well known muscle metabolite. Sports commentators will commonly mention it, and almost everyone who undertakes exercise knows that it’s associated with the sensation of fatigue. In Orienteering it’s often blamed for the burning sensation we feel in our thigh muscles as we struggle to keep pushing-on up a steep hill.

However, it now appears that lactate may have been falsely accused. And whilst early research implicated it as a likely contender for the cause of muscle fatigue, over the past 20 years evidence has been accumulating to question whether it really is the ’villain’. So within this article I’ll briefly set out why exercise physiologists are moving from the historical stand point of ‘lactic acid causing muscle fatigue’ to a revised position of: ‘whilst lactic acid is associated with fatigue, and may have some indirect influence on our perception of fatigue, it does not directly cause the fatigue in our muscles’.

Indeed there is even some evidence that it may help to prevent the onset of muscle fatigue. For reference this article is largely based on the papers by Cairns (2006), McKenna et al. (2008) and Westerblad et al. (2002), and for anyone interested in pursuing the topic in more detail, the review paper by Cairns is particularly good.

36 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Fatigue To discuss the topic we first need to define what we mean by fatigue. In essence fatigue is the inability to maintain a particular exercise intensity; such as a running speed or force of muscle contraction. There are many potential sites and causes of fatigue, including: (i) the central nervous system, which sends the nerve impulses to the muscles instructing them to contract; (ii) within the muscles where the processes involved in the provision of energy in the form of ATP may be compromised; (iii) biochemical processes within the muscle that stimulate the muscle fibres to contract, and (iv) the actual process of muscle contraction within the muscles.

When exercising the precise the cause(s) of fatigue will differ, depending on the intensity and duration of the exercise. In maximal contractions, such as holding a very heavy weight, the cause of fatigue is likely to be located within the nervous system, which becomes unable to continue to stimulate the muscle to maintain its maximal force of contraction, and the speed of very short duration sprints becomes slower as the muscle’s stores of Creatine Phosphate becomes depleted. Whereas at the other extreme, in exercise lasting over 90 minutes, the fatigue is likely to be due to a combination of glycogen (an essential muscle fuel for strenuous exercise) depletion and dehydration. Between these extremes is high intensity exercise lasting a few minutes, such as running as hard a possible for distances of 400m to several km, or high intensity intermittent bursts such as running up a hill. And it is the fatigue encountered during this duration and intensity of exercise that has traditionally been attributed to lactic acid.

In Orienteering we endeavour to sustain a speed that is at the limit of this threshold, since running any faster would cause us to fatigue rapidly and slow down. Although we are inclined to exceed this threshold for short bursts as we run uphill and then recover in the following section of the race. Also, since Orienteering involves running (or cycling) at a speed that we can sustain for a prolonged duration, the fatigue we experience towards the end of the event is likely to include aspects of dehydration and glycogen depletion. But in this article I’ll focus on the causes of fatigue that have previously been attributed to lactic acid, rather than glycogen depletion and dehydration.

In essence I’ll focus on what causes the fatigue that limits the speed that you can run at even in the early stages of an event, i.e why you can’t sprint the whole way around a course of several kilometres, and why the fatigue occurs that prevents you from doing so. And for those who prefer their Orienteering on two wheels, this basic physiology can be applied to mountain bike Orienteering as well as running.

Muscle metabolism and lactic acid So why do we produce lactic acid? In reality, lactic acid exits in the body in its dissociated form of ‘lactate’ and hydrogen ions (H+). Lactate is produced when muscle glycogen (a polymer of glucose) or glucose is broken down to produce ATP – the molecule that is linked to the process of muscle contraction (See figure 1). During this process, the glycogen (or glucose) is broken down into pyruvate, and during low to moderately high exercise intensities (such as sustained running or cycling) the vast majority of this pyruvate is broken down further to generate more ATP, in processes that require oxygen and generate the carbon dioxide we exhale. So at these intensities only a small amount of pyruvate is converted to lactate, and the levels of lactate are kept low as it is: (i) oxidised by neighbouring muscle fibres, (ii) distributed around the body in the blood to be converted back into glucose in the liver, and (iii) used as a fuel by the heart. As a consequence, at rest and during low to moderate intensity exercise there is always a low level of lactate within the muscle and circulating in the blood, but it doesn’t increase substantially above resting levels.

Figure 2: Blood lactate levels recorded during an incremental test of increasing running speeds, with each stage (speed) lasting 4 minutes. For this runner, the lactate levels increase substantially when running faster than 15 km/h. This can be termed their lactate threshold, and indicates the maximum speed that they can sustain for a prolonged duration. At faster speeds fatigue ensues rapidly, and the faster the speed the sooner fatigue occurs. Whilst this increase in lactate may not be the direct cause of muscle fatigue, it still provides a good indication of the running speed at which fatigue will occur as it indicates the balance of metabolic processes occurring in the muscle, and may also reflect the change in blood acidity that will be registered by the central nervous system.

The association between lactic acid and fatigue

Figure 1: The breakdown of muscle glycogen or glucose to pyruvate, which produces the Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) that is used in energy-requiring reactions within the muscle, such as muscle contraction. The pyruvate may then be broken down further via aerobic metabolism to produce more ATP for muscle contraction, or converted to lactate. The rate of ATP production needs to be proportional to the intensity of the exercise, and the breakdown of glycogen and glucose is accelerated to meet this demand. During high intensity exercise the breakdown of glycogen to pyruvate exceeds the rate at which the pyruvate can be broken down further by aerobic metabolism, and as a consequence more of the pyruvate is converted to lactate, which accumulates.

However, during high intensity exercise, energy (ATP) is required at a much faster rate, and therefore, the rate of muscle glycogen breakdown increases. A consequence of this is that more of the pyruvate is converted to lactate. There are a number of proposed reasons for this, and they relate to limitations on the speed of the aforementioned processes that result in the ultimate breakdown of the pyruvate into water and carbon dioxide, and a greater reliance on muscle fibres that are better suited to high intensity bursts of exercise and less suited for aerobic (oxygen) metabolism. Initially the build up of lactate was thought to be due to a lack of oxygen in the muscle (hypoxia), but even this hypothesis is in doubt, and it may be a combination of factors.

However, regardless of the causes, the consequences of this are that during sustained high intensity exercise, such as running uphill or fast through terrain, the level of lactate in the muscle and blood increases in proportion to the severity of the exercise.

And this is something we routinely measure in the laboratory (see figure 2) as it provides an indication of the metabolic processes occurring in the athlete’s muscles and can be used as a measure of ‘fitness’.

This association between increasing levels of lactic acid and increasing fatigue resulted in the hypothesis that the fatigue was caused by the lactic acid. However, one of the principles of science is that an association does not prove cause and effect. And by way of illustration I’ll use an example I was given as an undergraduate.

This was that there was a correlation between alcohol-related deaths & injury in American cities and the prevalence of Methodist priests, with cities in which there were many alcoholrelated deaths having a high prevalence of Methodist priests. So, based on this association, would you conclude that it was the priests causing the alcohol-related injuries and deaths? Probably not, and the same applies to the association between fatigue and lactic acid.

So whilst associations may provide indicators of potential causes of fatigue, they do not provide irrefutable proof of cause and effect. To provide this proof, intervention studies are required, which is where a factor, such as the level of lactic acid, is manipulated and the effect that this has on fatigue is assessed.

This is obviously difficult to undertake, and it’s only relatively recently that the techniques have become available to perform these studies with isolated muscle fibres (in-vitro) and/or with human subjects (in-vivo).

It’s not the lactate During very strenuous high intensity exercise that causes significant fatigue, the level of lactate can increase to ~40 mmol/L within the muscle and ~25 mmol/L in the plasma (resting levels are typically < 1 mmol/L). But in in-vitro experiments when isolated muscle fibres are bathed in a solution that contains a high concentration of lactate, muscle force production does not appear to be affected. Conclusion – muscle fatigue is not caused by the increased level of lactate.

It’s not the acidity As mentioned earlier, lactic acid occurs within the body mainly in its dissociated form of lactate and hydrogen ions (H+). And therefore another contender for the cause of muscle fatigue is the increase in H+, which results in an increase in acidity DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 37

TRAINING

(reduction in pH). There is some logic to this as many enzymes are sensitive to pH changes, including two of the key enzymes used in the breakdown of glycogen (Phosphorylase) and glucose (Phosphofructokinase). So if these enzymes are inhibited by the reduction in pH that occurs with the accumulation of lactate and H+ during strenuous exercise, it would restrict the rate of ATP production, and hence the energy available for muscle contraction would be impaired, thereby resulting in fatigue within the muscle.

Likewise, other processes such as the mechanical processes of muscle fibre shortening may also be inhibited by an increase in acidity.

In reality, resting muscle has a pH of ~7.0, which becomes slightly acidic during moderate exercise and can decline to as low as pH ~6.6 during strenuous high intensity exercise, such as a hill climb or 10-minute maximal run to fatigue. At the same time as the muscle pH is declining, so is the pH of the blood. It should be noted that a slight increase in acidity within the muscle and blood is beneficial during exercise as it promotes the delivery of oxygen to the muscles; but it was thought that the greater increases in acidity that occur during strenuous exercise caused fatigue. Indeed, some early studies generated evidence to support this hypothesis.

But there was a problem with these in-vitro studies, as they could only be conducted at relatively low temperatures (~15°C), which are well below the normal physiological temperatures occurring within our exercising muscles. Also, some of the in-vitro studies used increases in acidity that were far in excess of those recorded within fatigued in vivo muscles, and therefore beyond the realistic levels encountered when we exercise. In contrast with these older results, more recent studies that have been conducted at close

to physiologically realistic temperatures, have failed to show any substantial reduction in the force of contraction or speed of contraction with increases in acidity (reduction in pH). Also in human studies, post strenuous exercise, force production has been recorded to recover more rapidly than the restoration of pH; and both of these findings suggest that increased acidity is not the cause of muscle fatigue. Conclusion – at physiologically realistic temperatures and pHs, muscle fatigue is not due to an increase in acidity within the muscle (intramuscular).

Acidosis and Central Nervous System (CNS) fatigue However, as noted above, during strenuous high intensity exercise, not only does the muscle become more acidic but so does the blood plasma, dropping from resting plasma pH ~7.4, to pH ~6.9, and recent studies suggest that whilst acidosis within the muscle may not directly cause muscle fatigue, it does appear to cause fatigue indirectly via the CNS. Evidence for this comes from in-vivo studies in which the ingestion of buffering agents such as sodium bicarbonate, which ameliorate any increase in plasma acidity, are shown to enhance performance in events lasting from 1 - 10 minutes (Bird et al. 1995), and conversely induced acidosis has been shown to impair performance.

The ergogenic (performance enhancing) effect of alkalising agents such as sodium bicarbonate was thought to be due to the bicarbonate, which increased the rate of H+ efflux from the muscle thereby ameliorating the drop in intramuscular pH, and reducing the intramuscular acidosis. But as previously indicated the slight drop in intramuscular pH is no longer believed to substantially inhibit the force or speed of muscle contractions.

So the ergogenic effect is now considered to be due to an amelioration of the decline in extracellular (blood plasma) pH, which thereby reduces the perception of fatigue by the CNS, and consequently reduces the loss of CNS drive that would normally occur with an increase in plasma acidity. Additionally the acidity may also activate sensory nerves within the muscle that send information to the CNS and thereby further contribute to the sensation of fatigue and discomfort. So whilst the acidity may not affect the muscle directly (as demonstrated in in-vitro studies), it does appear to have an indirect effect when assessed in-vivo in exercising humans.

Alternative causes of fatigue So if it’s not the lactate or the increased acidity that causes muscle fatigue, what are the alternative culprits? Well, recent studies have focused on a disruption to the levels of Phosphate (Pi), sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) ions within the muscle.

Firstly Pi, which increases in muscle during high intensity exercise due to the breakdown of creatine phosphate and ATP during strenuous muscle contractions. This increase in [Pi] within muscle has been demonstrated in in-vitro studies to inhibit force production by affecting the muscle contraction process. However, it is difficult to assess this in-vivo with intact muscle, which makes its contribution to fatigue in real-world exercise scenarios difficult to determine.

Then there are perturbations in the muscle K+, Na+ and Cl- levels.

The levels of these ions must be maintained within certain limits within the muscle cells, and in the fluid surrounding them.

Differing levels must be maintained within and external to the muscle, so that there are ion gradients, as these are essential for the transmission of the nerve impulses (action potentials) into the muscle to cause contraction. During this process Na+ and Cl- enter the muscle fibre, while K+ leaves it. But during very high intensity exercise the K+ within the muscle (intracellular) can become too low, whilst the K+ in the fluid surrounding the muscle (interstitial) becomes too high. And conversely, muscle interstitial 38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Na+ becomes too low, while muscle intracellular Na+ becomes too high. These perturbations in ion gradients then inhibit the action potentials and other reactions that are required to stimulate muscle fibre contraction. And as a consequence the muscle contracts more slowly and with less force.

Lactate/H+ - as an ergogenic As previously indicated, during strenuous exercise the level of K+ in the extracellular fluid surrounding the muscle can become elevated (hyperkalaemia). And in in-vitro studies this has been demonstrated to impair muscle performance. But when acidosis is induced at the same time (as occurs when exercising strenuously in-vivo) the adverse fatiguing effects of hyperkalemia on the speed and strength of muscle contraction are ameliorated, which suggests that the acidosis has a protective effect against fatigue.

And likewise, when lactate is added to the fluid surrounding the muscle it also prevents the fatiguing effects of hyperkalemia.

These potentially beneficial effects of increased lactate are supported by in-vivo studies in which sodium lactate ingestion improves performance during intense exercise in humans; all of which points to lactate helping to reduce fatigue rather than causing it.

Lactate, acidosis and training effects So should this change in our understanding of the underlying physiology of fatigue during sustained high intensity exercise, such as Orienteering, affect the way we train? The answer is probably no. Fitness training for Orienteering should still focus on the three main components of: 1.Developing a high capacity to utilise oxygen (VO2 max), which will reduced dependence on anaerobic metabolism at any given running (cycling) speed; 2.Improving running economy, which means a more effective use of the available oxygen, which in Orienteering has particular and specific significance when endeavouring to run, swiftly and smoothly through terrain; 3.Increasing the running speed at which our lactate threshold occurs (the speed above which lactate accumulates and we fatigue rapidly). Whilst this level of lactate and associated acidification may only have an indirect effect of our level of fatigue, it continues to be a good indicator of the balance of the metabolic processes that are occurring within the muscle, and continues to be a good indicator of the running speed that we can maintain for a prolonged duration. Which makes it a good indicator of fitness, and useful for monitoring the effectiveness of training.

Additionally, training with elevated lactate and H+ (hard 30min runs and interval training) may enable orienteers to ‘learn’ to cope with the discomfort of the acidification of the muscle and blood, even if in-vitro studies suggest that isolated muscle is not significantly affected by these changes.

Conclusions • Fatigue may be due to a combination of metabolic and physiological perturbations occurring within the muscle, in the surrounding interstitial fluid, and in the extracellular fluid (blood). These have an impact at various sites including the muscle, blood and CNS, with effects on the speed of muscle contractions, force of muscle contractions and our perception of fatigue.

(intramuscular) and the sodium and potassium ion levels in the surrounding interstitial fluid.

• Whilst not directly impairing muscle contraction, the acidifying effect of the lactic acid within the muscle and blood, may cause the sensation of fatigue through the change in pH being detected by the CNS. And this may then inhibit our ability to recruit the muscle fibres and thereby reduce the speed and force of our muscle contractions.

However, the exact details of these metabolic processes and physiological mechanisms require more research before a clearer understanding can be obtained, and it may be many years before the standard exercise physiology text books catch up with this radical shift in our views on the causes of muscle fatigue.

References •B ird SR, Wiles J, and Robbins J (1995). The effect of sodium bicarbonate ingestion upon 1500-m running. Journal of Sports Sciences, 13 (5), 399-403.

•C airns SP (2006). Lactic acid and exercise performance. Culprit or friend? Sports Medicine, 36:279-291.

•M cKenna MJ, Bangsbo J, and Renaud J-M (2008). Muscle K+, Na+, and Cl- disturbances and Na+-K+ pump inactivation: implications for fatigue. J Appl Physiol, 104: 288-295.

•W esterblad H, Allen DG, and Lännergren J (2002). Muscle fatigue: lactic acid or inorganic phosphate a major cause? News Physiol Sci, 17: 17 – 21.

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• Far from being the cause of muscle fatigue, lactate and the acidifying effect of lactic acid, may help to ameliorate muscle fatigue.

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• The current contenders for muscle fatigue are disturbances in the ionic gradients and perturbations in the concentration of phosphate, sodium and potassium ions within the muscle fibre DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 39

WORLD MTBO CHAMPIONSHIPS

MTBO Worlds in Italy

– Rookie Tom leads the way Words: Kay Haarsma (Coach) Photos: Kay, Steve, Tom & Lizzie

Our team this year consisted of four junior boys racing JWOC and three elite riders in WOC. The profile sheet given to other countries answered the question I knew I would be asked by everyone: “Where’s AJ? … Home finishing his PhD !” The next question (in my mind) was “who was going to step up with some high quality AJ-like performances?” The answer came from an unexpected source, being Tom Goddard, the 17 year-old making his international debut whilst in the middle of Year 12 studies.

Start for four hours, not knowing he had a late start. Finally, Tom appears after a 7km ride to the start area and I tell him that his family is here, would he like to say hello. “No,” says the nervous rookie and goes about his planned routine. His parents aren’t surprised when I convey the news and later I get a photo of Tom having tunnel vision in the start box with his family standing two metres away behind the bunting! The Italian riders didn’t get so much say, with their top riders often being interviewed in the minutes before they started.

Tom Goddard in the Long final about to punch the last control at the historical covered bridge – Ponte Vecchio.

The trials and tribulations of travelling orienteers are often huge.

Travelling with bikes overseas these days is always difficult, often incurring excess baggage charges and sometimes bike damage.

However Melanie Simpson had an even bigger problem this year – a visa issue. She had relocated with her partner to his native Norway and was completing her Norwegian internship as a doctor. I was already in Italy when I received this email - “I have very frustrating visa issues and may be unable to come to Italy. I found out last Friday and have in the meantime tried

Ponte Vecchio.

Tom recorded an outstanding 9th in his first Final, the Long Distance, despite the course being 20-30 minutes over the specified winning time and dealing with 38+ degree temperatures.

This is the best result by any Australian on debut at World Championship level. What was impressive was his closeness time-wise, being just 2 minutes off a podium place – making him regretful of a mistake when leaving a drinks control incorrectly.

Tom followed up with a 10th in the Middle Distance; then a sizzling Relay ride and finally a 17th in the hurley burley of the Sprint where 1-minute starts created added pressure.

Tom adapted quickly to the vagaries of Italian maps and was a master of controlling the controllable. One funny situation occurred at his first start, the Long Distance qualifier. His parents, Rob and Jenn, and younger sister Hannah had been waiting at the 40 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Melanie Simpson riding up through the main square of Bassano del Grappa to the Long finish.

several different avenues to sort out this, but so far it is unclear and I am potentially banned from the Schengen area. …” Wow! This sent me to Mr Google to find out that the Schengen area is a borderless zone of 25 European countries (including Italy) that co-operate on passport issues. If Melanie was “ejected” from Norway due to her family immigration visa not being renewed this would probably preclude her entering Italy! So Mel spent many hours emailing and phoning various embassies, immigration authorities and the EU commission and finally got an email confirming that she could enter Italy. Even at WOC she still needed to email authorities to provide evidence for her Norwegian visa request.

We arrived 10 days before WOC in order to train and acclimatise.

From Venice we immediately drove north to Trento where we participated in a local event the next day at Sella Valsugana. The map and courses were set by Giuseppe Simoni, who was a course setter for the Sprint and Long Distance, so it was relevant. The scenery in this lower area of the Dolomites was spectacular, and there was plenty of climb on courses. Here we first encountered the new mapping symbol of orange stripe on yellow, indicating the only way to ride across open ground. The trouble was it was obvious on the map but not the ground, and this was similar in the Model event, Middle Distance and Relay. We then moved back south to Arcugnano, just 10kms from Vicenza, but situated in a very quiet rural hilly area. Here we had two apartments and a swimming pool – the latter important given that the temperatures were always in the high 30’s.

Enjoying a Gelati break during the training week.

From left: Marc, Alex, Oscar, Chris, Steve, Tom and Lizzie.

Many Italian shops close down for some weeks in August, so the locals can enjoy summer. This includes bike shops, with only two of six or so in the vicinity being open. We arrived in Arcugnano immediately before a public holiday meaning that the supermarkets were closed for two days. We learnt this about 1 hour before they closed, and as we were self-catering, we had a very hurried major shopping expedition. Three “teams” were sent off with a list of goodies to find and the results were often a mystery as Italian labelling is not always what one would think. The junior boys only realised that they had to weigh and price fruit and vege when they reached the check-out and had to do a return to base. The cheese tasted like smelly socks and the bread was hard!

Lizzie Hollingworth (Steve’s partner) had volunteered to be our chef (and second official) and was amazed at the quantities that the team could consume. Lizzie did a fantastic job creating gourmet style meals, often with little time and limited facilities.

Her sister Penny also came on board for the last half of WOC week, providing massages and physio advice.

The best training map was literally right on our doorstop, so that was convenient. We scheduled only one session a day because of the heat and a highlight was visiting a gelato shop afterwards. There was also a bar that sold good coffee within riding distance. Getting used to riding on small tracks through people’s backyards was interesting. Steve didn’t know what to say to the guy chopping wood with his axe, nor Melanie to those having a picnic! Many of the yellow areas were planted with corn, while figs and peaches also abounded. We joined in with the Italians and Russians for a Middle Distance event mid-week which got people planning and decision making at race speed.

The junior and elite team combination was again a success with the antics of the juniors keeping the oldies entertained.

Girlfriend liaising was a major pastime, with skyping, letter reading and even a daily chocolate for one lucky fella. Then there were the bloopers, like “this salad is actually nice!” In return the elites provided many free lessons on bike repair and coffee drinking. We had two cars and a big van for the bikes.

Alex actually loved driving the van, as it not only had quite a bit of grunt but had the best air-conditioning!

The event centre accommodation at Montecchio Maggiore was very bland and was on a major road but it’s always fun to stay with everyone else and much easier for the coach to attend the daily meetings. One problem encountered was finding ice for the “cool vests” that riders wore before and after events. They don’t sell bags of ice but we managed to go to the meat area of the supermarket each morning and get given some!

The Model event was mapped at both 1:7,500 (for the Sprint) and 1:15,000 and featured an elevated start platform that riders had to roll down. From the village to the bush above was a 200 metre climb, a sign of things to come.

Races were often started in one town and finished in another to involve more communities and to enhance sponsorship opportunities. Many police were utilised in traffic management in the areas through which the riders raced. A new tradition, the world championship jersey, was introduced for winning riders. I was confident in the controlling duo of Maurice Ongania (Italian) and Antje Bornhak (IOF/Germany) but they had to work flat-out to manage a lot of last minute hassles.

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 41

WORLD MTBO CHAMPIONSHIPS

Alex Randall gained an excellent 20th place in the Long Final.

However the boys were 20–30 minutes slower and the women 10-20 minutes. Thankfully our boys all came into the race very fit. Tom’s great 9th was the obvious highlight. After being 13th in qualifying, Marc Gluskie suffered two punctures and also had the misfortune to lose a full water bottle early on a rough descent.

Melanie rued several route choices that increased her climb and had to ride the last few kilometres on a half deflated tyre Chris Firman lined up for the Junior Relay start.

Maurice is a former Canberra resident and Aussie foot O WOC competitor, whom many older orienteers will remember fondly.

Antje won three bronze medals at the first WOC in 2002, gained another in Ballarat in 2004 and finally gold in 2005 and is still competing at international level in Ski O. Antje volunteered six weeks in total to this one event.

The Italian organisers were big on ceremony with 26 pages of welcome in the event booklet and 115 people listed on the committee of honour! There was “a stone laying ceremony” commemorating the Championships in the host town which we were required to attend. The opening ceremony included a march through the historical centre of Vicenza to the square, where we were welcomed as “the countrymen of Cadel Evans.” Nice! A special “orienteering song” was written and sung at the opening and at events. Nick Manfredi performed live at the closing party.

Nordic walking, golf, villa tours and a concert were extra activities offered to officials! A big screen at the finish displayed the riders out in the forest. However the commentary was mostly in Italian leaving us at a loss as to what was happening.

The Long Distance qualifying was only really tight for the elite men where just half, the top 20 in each of 3 heats, advanced.

Alex Randall rode a steady race to finish 10th. In contrast Steve Cusworth’s effort came to a grinding halt halfway around the course with a broken derailleur bolt after catching a stick. Russian reigning world champion Anton Foliforov also suffered a race ending mechanical.

The Long Distance Final started in the picturesque square of Marostica and riders punched the last control at the historical covered bridge (Ponte Vecchio) and then rode up to the Finish in the main square of Bassano del Grappa. The bulletin had warned that “both technical and physical skills will definitely be tested.” While route choices featured some bitumen roads, it also included some horrible cobblestones and some downhill single track. The JWOC boys and elite women had similar course lengths – 28km and 750m climb with a winning time of 85-95 minutes.

42 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Alex Randall’s appearance at his eighth WOC was in doubt for many months due to an injury from a stick spearing into his leg.

He trained hard to recover fitness but had few races under his belt. However he reasoned that the really hot conditions and hills would suit him better than some of his rivals on the 37km course that included 1350m of climb. Alex paced himself and was well pleased with his 20th place. However the effort took its toll and he felt flat for the remaining races but still managed to ride well in the Relay.

Chris Firman had a brilliant Long Distance qualifying event placing 5th outright. Both his endurance and power have been improved remarkably by having a dedicated coach and doing both road and mountain bike training. The expectations of those waiting at the Finish were dashed when a somewhat wobbly Chris was pictured on the big screen at the second water station. In the 40 degree temperatures it had been imperative to refill at the first water station but Chris had ridden past it before noticing. Chris made the hard decision to retire with heat stress, and with his temperature being measured at 39+ by on course paramedics, it was a wise move. Interestingly we were asked to retrieve Chris via a car while his bike came back to the Finish via the paramedic jeep! After a short stay in hospital to receive an intravenous drip Chris was fine but thankful that the rest day was next.

The Middle Distance event at Pozzolo di Villaga saw Czech Krystof Bogar win. At 17 years he is the youngest ever WMTBO winner and went on to win the Sprint as well. He is a real talent, having already won in the elite class at the Czech 5 Days. Tom lost several minutes on one control but otherwise was extremely happy with his ride for a dazzling 10th. For the rest of the Aussie team it was largely a day to forget. Chris Firman and Oscar Phillips had messy rides, with trouble in some of the more detailed areas. Mountain biking can be so cruel sometimes, ask Marc Gluskie. He crashed heavily onto concrete ten minutes before starting due to a chain slip. He hurt a shoulder but also damaged his derailleur. He thought his race was over before it started! However the event mechanics were nearby and they fiddled and fiddled with his gears and just a minute before his start declared, “it’s not good but its rideable.” So for Marc to achieve his best ever result of 19th was really commendable under

Steve Cusworth scored a top 20 finish coming 18th in the Sprint (left) and 34th in the Middle (right) having ridden the last half of the course without a seat after a very expensive carbon seat post snapped.

Oscar Phillips at the Long Qualification start.

those circumstances. NZ junior Greg Bradshaw competed just in the Middle Distance, being in Italy for cross-country races, and placed 69th but thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The men’s elite had double disappointment for our two starters.

Steve Cusworth busted a seatpost and rode the last 20 minutes or so standing up, so his 34th was pretty amazing. After an uphill climb Alex Randall had a rare brain fade and punched a wrong control. Samuli Saarela, a 22-year-old student of mechanical engineering in Tampere, grabbed his second gold in Italy. Before him only Ruslan Gritsan had won Long and Middle Distance at the same WOC, in 2005. The strong Russian was second, almost 3mins behind Saarela. Melanie made a major mistake early on and then navigated quite well, but with the depth now in the women, this cost her some 20 places. The win went again to popular Austrian Michi Gigon, giving her the seventh gold medal of her career, five of which have been in Middle Distance.

The Relay amongst the depression forest and vineyards of Alonte again saw riders battling sweltering heat. However the shorter nature of the courses made for exciting racing, as did the spectator loop. The latter had riders zipping in and around village shops and restaurants, including a stair descent with a sharp turn.

Both Australian teams were determined to do well and didn’t disappoint. The juniors were hoping to podium like last year and got so, so close. Chris and Marc both rode strongly but with a mistake or two while the in form Tom Goddard had very little

time lost. In racing the final leg Marc caught the Czech team and had a head-to-head duel with Krystof Bogar, the Middle Distance champion. Coming down the last vineyard track there were elbows flying to gain the front position for the steep rise and corner into the last control. The bigger Czech guy won out but Marc valiantly closed the gap in the final metres to just a wheel length.

Our elite guys all had pretty consistent rides and were relatively happy. Oscar Phillips stepped up against the big boys doing the anchor leg and navigated carefully to ensure we came in 11th, with two teams within a minute just ahead. Denmark´s elite men’s team (Bjarke Refslund, Lasse Brun Pedersen, Erik Skovgaard Knudsen) transitioned to their second leg rider in 12th place, and impressively worked their way through the field to take the gold medal by a two minute margin. Czech Republic and Finland took silver and bronze. Switzerland (Maja Rothweiler, Ursina Jäggi, Christina Schaffner) won the elite women with a thrilled Lithuanian team in second and Slovakia in third. Many of the placegetters were separated by small time gaps. None more so than the JWOC women, where Russia beat Finland by a mere second.

The Sprint, the final event this year, provided much excitement.

Riders did the first 40% of the course through a village specifically closed off to cars and then climbed the hills behind the assembly area in full view of the crowd before finishing through a complex vineyard section. Our Aussie team did really well, as the improved depth of the competition was demonstrated by the closeness of the results. Melanie Simpson rode with only some hesitations and Marc Gluskie starting his relay leg.

The Aussie contingent. From Left: Kay Haarsma (coach), Melanie Simpson, Alex Randall, Tom Goddard, Steve Cusworth, Oscar Phillips, Marc Gluskie, Chris Firman, Lizzie Hollingworth (official).

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 43

WORLD MTBO CHAMPIONSHIPS

RESULTS Sprint

Long Distance

Middle Distance

Senior MEN 1. Anton Foliforov RUS 2. Jiři Hradil CZE 3. Erik Skovgaard Knudsen DEN 18. Steve Cusworth AUS 65. Alex Randall AUS Junior MEN 1. Krystof Bogar CZE 2. Martin Tisnovsky CZE 3. Matti Vainio FIN 17. Tom Goddard AUS 21. Oscar Phillips AUS 34. Marc Gluskie AUS 44. Chris Firman AUS Senior WOMEN 1. Gaëlle Barlet FRA 2. Marika Hara FIN 3. Michaela Gigon AUT 30. Melanie Simpson AUS Junior WOMEN 1. Svetlana Poverina RUS 2. Eeva-Liisa Hakala FIN 3. Tatiana Repina RUS

Senior MEN 1. Samuli Saarela FIN 2:00:12 2. Erik Skovgaard Knudsen DEN 2:04:47 3. Ruslan Gritsan RUS 2:06:27 20. Alex Randall AUS 2:21:46

Senior MEN 1. Samuli Saarela 2. Ruslan Gritsan 3. Tobias Breitschädel 34. Steve Cusworth

FIN RUS AUT AUS

55:56 58:42 59:37 67:54

Senior MEN 1. Denmark 2. Czech Republic 3. Finland 12. Australia

Junior MEN 1. Andreas Proschowsky DEN 1:55:24 2. Riccardo Rossetto ITA 1:57:35 3. Grigoriy Medvedev RUS 2:02:21 9. Tom Goddard AUS 2:06:15 22. Oscar Phillips AUS 2:20:06 29. Marc Gluskie AUS 2:25:43

Junior MEN 1. Krystof Bogar 2. Vojtech Ludrik 3. Kare Kaskinen 10. Tom Goddard 19. Marc Gluskie 27. Chris Firman 33. Oscar Phillips

CZE CZE FIN AUS AUS AUS AUS

54:56 58:58 59:00 63:18 66:53 68:48 71:10

Junior MEN 1. Denmark 2:11:05 2. Russia 2:11:53 3. Finland 2:15:23 6. Czech Republic 2:28:04 7. Australia 2:28:05

Firman (50.16); Goddard (45.47);

26:28 26:59 27:14 28:39 34:27 23:21 23:40 23:47 25:50 26:12 28:11 29:41 26:36 26:38 26:43 29:55 23:00 23:20 24:02

Relay 2:40:51 2:42:59 2:43:59 3:03:11

Cusworth (57.41); Randall (59.31); Phillips (65.59)

Senior WOMEN 1. Rikke Kornvig 2. Ingrid Stengård 3. Laura Scaravonati 26. Melanie Simpson

DEN FIN ITA AUS

1:47:59 1:54:12 1:57:25 2:23:56

Senior WOMEN 1. Michaela Gigon 2. Anna Kaminska 3. Rikke Kornvig 40. Melanie Simpson

AUT POL DEN AUS

58:02 58:17 59:04 76:11

Senior WOMEN 1. Switzerland 2. Lithuania 3. Slovakia

2:42:57 2:46:02 2:47:58

Junior WOMEN 1. Svetlana Poverina 2. Tatiana Repina 3. Marie Brezinova

RUS 1:27:21 RUS 1:27:32 CZE 1:30:19

Junior WOMEN 1. Svetlana Poverina 2. Tatiana Repina 3. Marie Brezinova

RUS 48:46 RUS 48:57 CZE 52:16

Junior WOMEN 1. Russia 2. Finland 3. Czech Republic

2:10:59 2:11:00 2:17:02

her 30th place was only 3mins behind the winner. Russian road star Anton Foliforov took out gold in the elite men, with Steve Cusworth’s 18th place being just 2mins down. The Czech dynamo Krystof Bogar grabbed gold in JWOC men, with “Mr Consistent,” Tom Goddard doing well again for 17th and Oscar Phillips being close behind in 21st. Marc and Chris had several smaller errors, and although they themselves were disappointed, rode into very respectable positions of 34th and 44th respectively.

Controversially all the Polish junior team were disqualified from the Sprint after being found in the Sprint embargoed area the day before! Russian junior girl Svetlana Poverina took out her 4th gold of the Championships and will be a force in the elite ranks next year. Russia emerged as the most successful medal winner overall.

After taking out the trifecta of individual M20 titles at the 2011 AUS Championships, against quality opposition, Oscar moves confidently into the M21 ranks. He will continue to do some foot Orienteering also.

Next year the Worlds are in Hungary from August 20-25th (www.mtbo.hu) and knowing the organisers I believe they will be excellently run. They also will be conducting the World Masters MTBO at the same time so keen mountain bikers should consider attending. I’ve been involved in MTBO Worlds since their inception in 2002, firstly as a rider and then coach from 2004. There have been many outstanding memories – Emily Viner’s initial silver in 2002; the great 2004 Worlds in Victoria; Adrian Jackson’s many medals and his professionalism; the well organised Israeli Worlds; the outstanding JWMTOC Relay 5th last year; and now Tom Goddard’s great debut this year. I’m sure there are many more success stories waiting to happen and I move on happy in the knowledge that WA’s Ian Dalton will lead the team in future years.

The introduction of juniors to our team over the last two years has been a great success. Chris and Marc came back much fitter and faster this year after getting individual coaches and racing cross-country events. Newcomers Oscar and Tom also sought out individual coaching and were rewarded with sponsorship by their local mountain bike club. The Tasmanian boys did remarkably well with limited MTBO races available in Tassie.

The Juniors stop for photo during training week – After winning M20 at Oscar, Tom, Marc and Chris. the 2010 Australian Championships Oscar Phillips set himself to make the WMTBO team but realised at the time that both his riding fitness and technical ability were quite poor. With the help of a Launceston mountain bike coach, Phil Leslie, he made a huge improvement.

His 21st in the Sprint, despite some time loss, was a really good result and he followed this up by anchoring the elite Relay team well with a safe and controlled race.

44 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Gluskie (52.02)

OCEANIA MTBO CHAMPIONSHIPS

Oceania & Australian MTBO Champs 2011 – Big SUCCESS in Beechworth

Top Performances Steven Cusworth (left) dominated the elite men winning all three individual titles while New Zealand’s Marquita Gelderman did similiarly in the women. Tassie’s

J

ust to top off a great year of MTBO Albury-Wodonga’s trio of Rick Armstrong, Leigh Privett and Norm McCann teamed up with ACT’s Bob Allison, Ann and John Scown to stage an exciting, event-packed long weekend in Victoria’s high country. The highlights were numerous!

• 4 events in 3 days including a 3-person relay at Indigo Winery •2 social events – a bush BBQ and a sit-down dinner complete with ‘Ned Kelly’ • a bicycle street parade through Beechworth •4 different terrains – from goldmining, to town streets, winery rows and pine plantations • head cam coverage of the day’s ride at both social events • biggest Long and Sprint distance entry numbers • great social atmosphere including over 30 New Zealand riders If you missed it – try a national MTBO event in your state in 2012 and enjoy the navigation and social experience of MTBO.

Oscar Phillips also took out the trifecta in M20, but had Chris Firman, Tom Goddard and Heath Jamieson all close behind.

The New Zealnd contingent did well in the veteran classes also, with their W50 riders even filling all places in the Long.

All races were run on excellent maps well suited to the specific disciplines.

Victoria took home the interstate trophy with New South Wales being second.

Find the results, splits and Route Gadget on the www.oceaniamtbo.com.au website. words: Blake Gordon

photos: Tomas Tannvik

Damian Welbourne coming into the finish of the Sprint at Beechworth Primary School.

The Middle Distance Champs at Yackandandah featured a good deal of technical riding through the old gold mining terrain, and riders had to finish off their course by crossing this bridge that organisers built just for the race. Here Angus Robinson (left) and Kathy Liley (right) show how it is done. Many more walked across than rode!

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 45

NEW ZEALAND NEWS

TransTasman Tales

by Mick Finn

Lizzie shines N

ew Zealand sent a strong team to WOC 2011. Rocky forests and searing temperatures made for a tough week.

Outstanding men, Chris Forne and Ross Morrison, were at their best in the Finals they ran, equalling previous bests or setting new (Ross’s 25th in the Sprint), and the women were superb in the Middle Distance to qualify all three to the Final.

The benchmark performance for New Zealand was undoubtedly that of Lizzie Ingham. She qualified for all three Finals, a rare achievement, then ran all of them as well as any countrywomen had previously run in a single Final. And followed up with another world-class performance in the opening Relay leg, coming back in 6th. To quote a fellow team-mate “the rest of us were green with envy.” We talked to Lizzie at her academic base in Canberra …

Congrats on your WOC results Lizzie - You’ve been quoted as being “surprised, stuffed, shattered and stoked” after the Sprint, Long, Middle and Relay races; can you explain?

Thanks. I was really happy with how the competition week went!

My aim was to qualify for three Finals, and for two top-30 results from there. I was confident that if I kept my head and didn’t worry about what the competition was doing around me, I should qualify for the Finals fairly comfortably. Then it was a matter of staying calm, running my own race and not letting the hype get to me too much, as it has at JWOC in the past.

Having avoided the disqualification fiasco of the Sprint qualifiers I was really looking forward to racing the Final in Chambéry.

We’d walked around the town the previous week and the technical nature of the area with all its small alleyways really had me excited. It’s the technical Sprint racing with plenty of fast decision making that I really enjoy. Crossing the Finish line I was happy knowing that I’d carried out my plan and run my natural race with no real mistakes. But to watch the results come in and see myself at 11th really was a surprise! I knew the Sprint was probably my best chance for a top result, and knew I was capable of top-20, but to be so close to the top-10 in my first WOC Final it’s something I hadn’t seen myself doing for a couple of years yet.

Backing up next day for the tough Long Distance Final, after racing two Sprints, was really hard. I cramped in the Sprint qualifier, so wasn’t looking forward to 90min+ in the physical French forest! My aim was to keep a positive attitude, stay mentally strong and get through the course. I figured at least half the field would struggle mentally with the tough terrain and course, so if I kept pushing all the way I’d have won half the battle. I started pretty slowly, but got the difficult #1 cleanly - I later learnt a lot of girls made a mess of it. I made a 4min error on #4 and was caught by Heidi, from Norway. From there we leapfrogged each other for most of the course. We’d take slightly different routes but kept popping out at the controls at the same 46 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Lizzie Ingham – WOC Middle Distance Final (photo Michael Hubbert).

time. She got away from me when I lost a minute or so in the highly technical area around #18 and #19. By the Finish I was all but dead physically. It did register deep down somewhere when told I was currently in 6th, but all I really wanted to do was lie down in the shade! To finish off in 13th was a surprise, but reassured me that I’d taken the correct approach to the race.

By the Middle Distance Final, I knew that a top-10 result was within reach if I kept the right attitude and executed my race plan correctly. The Middle has always been my favourite distance, although I also find it the toughest, and past results probably show it as my weakest. The terrain was insanely detailed, even more so than the rest of the week. For most of the race it was a matter of stopping and checking you knew where you were every 50m or so! I was really happy with how I went in the first part of the course, though I noticeably tired after the longer leg to #8, and was losing time on running speed alone. My problems really started when I caught Dana as we headed into the spectator area. Until then I’d been running my own race as I’d managed to do all week, but having one of the best orienteers in the world unexpectedly pop out of the forest in front of me broke my concentration.

Then I heard the loudspeaker calling me in 2nd, and to top it off, I poured sports drink on my face at the coaching zone rather than water! I managed to pull it back together once we re-entered the forest, but heading out of #13 Dana was 10m ahead and quickly out of sight in the thick bush. For the first time that week I headed out of the control without a plan for the leg ahead, and that’s all it took. I miscounted re-entrants and even though I relocated pretty quickly, 2.5-3mins were gone and so was my top10 result. I really had mixed feelings at the Finish. If you’d told me I’d come 18th in the Middle before the week started, or even before my race, I’d have been pretty stoked, but to know it could have been so much better...it was hard.

After that, I just went out to enjoy the Relay. My only worry was that the mass start would be too fast for me after six hard races, but it was actually the opposite! Obviously the others were just as tired, or their coaches had warned them to hit the forest at an appropriate speed! One of the highlights of the race for me was opting for the left hand route choice to #2, along with Finland, while the others all went straight. To pop out at the control and realise that we were the first two through was an amazing feeling, especially as it was a TV control! From there I had a pretty clean race, and really enjoyed racing head-to-head with the top countries, especially racing Helena around the last few controls!

To come into the changeover in 6th felt amazing, and made up for the disappointment lingering after the Middle Final.

You got injured just before the World Champs last year and spent several months getting your ankle back to full strength; what kept you motivated?

Yeah, as any athlete will tell you, being injured was one of the worst times of my life! I just about went insane not being allowed to run for three months, and to be injured a month out from WOC was particularly painful. The best decision I made was to join the NZ team in Trondheim for WOC 2010. Just seeing the atmosphere and experiencing the last couple of races as a spectator, firstly gave me a taste of what WOC would be like, and secondly convinced me that I never wanted to just spectate at WOC again! My fracture cleared up in three months off running, but I still had a lot of pain in my ankle from bruising, right up until Easter. That was tough to deal with. It was an awesome day in July when I had my first full paced run without any pain!

Almost exactly one year on from the injury, and good timing a month out from France!

You’re not based in Europe like Chris Forne and Ross Morrison, but you had valuable build-up in Italy. How much did that help?

I had no races between leaving Australia in May and running Swiss O week in August. So I’m forever grateful to the Roman orienteers who were more than willing to help me with technical trainings during my time there. Having to train in the heat of Rome helped me, along with finding the mental energy to get out training at 8pm every night, after an 11-hour stint working in the lab! They truly have some amazing maps, especially up in the mountains - Sprint training on Cevara di Roma is some of the best training I’ve ever experienced!

Orienteering is a merciless sport - a second here or there can drop you several places and your whole race is visible to spectators around the world (via GPS). How do you keep focused day-in day-out over the seven races of WOC knowing that your every move is on show?

Mentally the WOC week was incredibly tiring and by the Relay I was finding it harder and harder to get into the right mind frame before racing. I’ve had a few races with GPS tracking, and you try and put it out of your mind that others can see exactly where you are, especially when you’re not so sure yourself! I actually find it’s good motivation when you make a mistake; you don’t want people back home to see you circling around like a headless chicken, so you get out and relocate faster!

What will you do differently next time to gain those vital seconds to make the top-10 and better? Will you need to live in Europe?

Overall the most pleasing part of my WOC week was that I pulled off my race plans as well as I think I could have. This year was meant to be about gaining experience, so next year I may look at cutting a race to concentrate more on one or two distances. There were only three or four girls running all the Finals this year and I found it an incredibly tiring schedule. But it would be a tough choice on which distance to drop!

Race wise, looking back it was route choice rather than mistakes which cost me in the Sprint final, and that just comes down to practice and experience. Being able to identify different routes and judge which will be faster, all in a second or two, is something I’ll be working on. I also have trouble keeping the high level of concentration required in a Middle Distance for the full 30+mins, tending to make mistakes in the last 3-4 controls. It’s a weakness I’d identified prior to WOC, but unfortunately it came to the fore again in the Final!

It will come with more race practice, which is certainly easier to get in Europe, but I don’t think a move is vital. With the high quality elite fields in NZ and Australia at the moment, and the talented Juniors we have coming through, I’m looking forward to us pushing each other to better and better results on the world stage!

The WOC week that was for Lizzie Ingham: Saturday – Long Distance Qualification 5.8km - 6th heat A. Sunday – Middle Distance Qualification: 3km - 8th heat C. Tuesday Morning – Sprint Qualification: 2.6km - 6th heat C. Tuesday Afternoon – Sprint Final: 2.2km - 11th Wednesday – Long Distance Final: 10.3km - 13th Friday – Middle Distance Final: 3.8km - 18th Saturday – Relay: 3.9km 1st leg - 6th Best ever result for a New Zealander at WOC is 10th, by Katie Fettes in the Long Distance in 1991. Best ever for the Sprint is now Lizzie’s 11th.

DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 47

TECHNOLOGY

SPORTident timing system

– The Beginning

Siegfried Ritter

I

n 2011 we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the first Orienteering event which used SPORTident. To be exact, in the year 1996 we managed the first event but the idea to start the project came up a bit earlier. As always, a number of different things had to come together, not everything was planned exactly in advance and there were some little coincidences.

I have been orienteering for nearly my whole life but I have never been a very good orienteer. But in orienteering everywhere it is the same - you are married to a woman doing the same sport and then quite often there will be some children. In such families the children have little choice of what to do in their spare time, they have to follow their parents – orienteering.

We have three children and the youngest daughter, Freya, started orienteering at age 5. Winter time in Germany can become quite cold and young Freya was not able to press the paper punch at low temperatures. A lot of power is needed to punch successfully.

OK, there was a problem.

At that time I was a consultant with Philips Semiconductors. We developed the world’s first RFID-solution for car authentication by implementing a chip into the car key. This was the technology.

Then it was my old friend and colleague Diethard who proposed to use this technology to solve my daughter’s punching problem in Orienteering.

We developed SPORTident from scratch. We did not look at other technologies but only at our understanding of such an identification process at check points. This is not so difficult because Orienteering in Germany is not so famous. If Orienteering in the world is a niche sport then in Germany it is even less than that.

One basic element was that we defined the “responsible user”, able to manage and to control the action. To do that there has to be a feedback system for him. The pictures show the first prototype system from 1996. The chip was mounted into a plateliked holder and the station looked quite different, but it worked.

We redesigned it and by 1998 all the key features of the present SPORTident system were designed in. Key characteristics are the unique SPORTident finger stick and the punching hole in the SPORTident station.

So SPORTident became an international project from the very beginning. SPORTident had the chance to be implemented into the International 5 Days Orienteering event in Val di Non, Italy, in 1998. To be honest, nobody knew what would happen, not the organisers nor ourselves. The whole company moved to Italy.

My colleagues Christine, Diethard, me and also Stephan Krämer, the author of Orienteering software. The outcome of the races was absolutely great.

From the beginning SPORTident offered this unique value for Orienteering - split-times for participants. And this feature was available just after having crossed the Finish-line by means of a printed quick result sheet. By using this result sheet the discussions by the runners after the race achieved a new quality.

OK, nowadays this feature is quite normal but in 1998 it was a new experience for all participants and their feedback was unbelievably positive.

I never became as excited about my own work results as at that time. There was a small consequence for me. I am not a fat man but in that week I lost 2kg of body mass. The stress level was too high.

In the same year SPORTident got the chance to present the system to the organisation staff of O-Ringen in Sweden - at that time an event with about 20.000 competitors each day. In the presentation we offered a number of important data security features. SPORTident stores data both in the chip and in the station. In addition SPORTident card data readout is also stored in the SPORTident readout station. So SPORTident could offer three independent levels of data security. But the final decision was not only because of these security features. Again, a young girl played a key role. The daughter of the technical director liked the beeping and blinking of the SPORTident stations.

After these two milestones in the start-up phase the SPORTident system grew up pretty fast. There are several reasons. First of all the system design met traditional behaviour in Orienteering events. Identification at checkpoints was called “punching” for a very long time. Main parts of the SPORTident system are the finger stick and the SPORTident station featuring the hole.

For the user it is quite an easy action and not much can be done wrongly – all you have to do is put the stick into the hole. This process is also a punching process so we have an identity by word. And it is even better. This identity by word in the punching process is the same in almost all languages in the world. The punching process in the SPORTident system is independent of the direction the user approaches the station. It is a fair multidirectional process. SPORTident offers very simple criteria for the “point of identification”.

To be continued in the next issue ……

48 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

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.

T

Orienteering should be FUN

he article by Rex Niven about Orienteering FUN is what some people should understand. FUN for the Seniors is not like that of the galloping and flying young. Neither is it a descent into Trudge O. Trudge Orienteering is what some older orienteers do. It is about keeping up a pace along bearings, up gullies and, of course, along tracks.

When I was a youngster of 65 it was thought that is what 65 and older orienteers wanted and some wanted it as far as 10km. But us livelier old folks do not have petrified brains and, in spite of what all the hospitals aver, we can fall over and not break bones although our muscles become stiff and our feet hurt.

The Trudgers buy expensive shoes so they can run on hard pebbly tracks and on very long but featureless terrain and might use a ski stick which old women hikers are prone to use to assist on not-sovery steep hills.

I am not a Trudger, which is not fun orienteering unless it is fun to stop. Old people who do cryptic crosswords and the like prefer navigation problems that are far more complex than those which the elite see as problems. We must go the BEST way from control to control and selecting the best is not going down to the track and running fast, as elites might do. It is finding the easiest gradients and the least overgrown places and, if possible, avoiding water races and the worst parts of erosion gullies.

Unlike the advice given about never changing the course direction I do that all the time, although the young people do that in error in directions far from the best route, but they are keeping up with the usual 7 minutes/km pace.

We don’t mind having a careful look at the map and the country to determine the easiest route and we use all the features on the map. Our bugbear is inaccuracies in contours on the maps. We have methods of climbing steep banks like those of Primary School boys.

We climb them like half vaulting over a wall and lie on our side as we do it. We are not too dignity conscious.

We cannot bound over water races but we are good at walking across on a fallen tree. We care little for thickets to walk through as our feet do not rise high and we trip over sticks. Our glasses could be brushed off and our finger end electronic doodah can be swept off into a density of blackberries or, in my case, into a muddy creek where I spent 20 minutes (on a course that the elites do in 12 minutes) fishing for it in the murky water. This was an Iron Man course.

We are the ones, particularly Old Ladies forever W35A, who notice orchids and unusual wildflowers and seek more information on the age of old abandoned trucks from the 1920s. The elites are far more interested in TIME. The Trudgers, also, are far more interested in time and some think that if they arrive at the Finish not sweating like a fountain and hardly mobile they did not try hard enough.

Most orienteers are neither trudgers nor elites, even when little kids.

A few with overly interested parents may be too interested in time, but others like to mentor their parents and do a bit of calling out for them to go their way.

Our club (Bendigo Orienteers) has had a great success in making O interesting, and mentoring of all sorts, both official and generalised, is used. Our events are not to win some prestigious award or to get on TV and in the newspapers so that we are always on the News, like footballers. We are not much of a multi-hundred competitor addicted mob. That seems a horrible fate (population crisis?)

Ian Johnson, Bendigo Orienteers

FOR STOCKISTS CALL 1800 209 999

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VICTORINOX AWARD The Victorinox Award goes to Kay Haarsma for her work in promoting Orienteering in Australia.

Kay will receive a Victorinox Handyman which includes 24 tools and features – retail value $119.

OR IE NTE E R ING PUBLICATION S IOF Publications

Australian Publications

International Specifications for‑Orienteering Maps . . . . . . . . . . $11.00 Competition rules for IOF events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $11.00 Control Descriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . $11.00 Simple Maps for Orienteering . . . . $11.00 Trail Orienteering (BOF book) . . . . . $30.00 Trail Orienteering (booklet). . . . . . . . $8.25 Trail O (leaflet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $0.70

Elementary Orienteering Instructors‑Manual. . . . . . . . . . . . . $13.20 Level 1 Coaching Manual. . . . . . . . $22.00 Level 1 Coaching Syllabus . . . . . . . . $3.90 Level 2 Coaching Syllabus . . . . . . . . $4.40 Level 3 Coaching Syllabus . . . . . . . . $4.40 Among the Best Orienteers (video).$19.75 Sponsorship & Advertising, 1996 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . available from states Club Guide, available on disc.

Prices include GST and postage within Australia for single copies.

Prices for bulk orders available on request. Orders should be addressed to Orienteering Australia, PO Box 284 Mitchell BC 2911, with cheques made payable to Orienteering Australia. Email: orienteering@netspeed.com.au DECEMBER 2011 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 49

TOP EVENTS Oct 1-12

2011 Dec 24-27

Dec 27-31

30th Anniversary Commemorative Orienteering, Hong Kong www.oahk.org.hk Xmas 5-Days, Central Coast NSW nickdent7@gmail.com

Oct 19-21

Oct 27-28

2012 Jan 8-14

AL I AUSTR

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Easter 2012 3 Days

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3 DAY CHAM ANASTER 2012 P

April 6-9

Granite & G ra pes ST AN D THOR PE QL

April 28-29

May 14-20

June 7-9

June 16-17

July 1-8

July 6-8

July 7-14

July 9-14

July 12-27

July 14-21

July 15-20

July 22-28

July 24-29 Aug 10-12

Aug 20-25

Sept 22-30

Otago MTBO Carnival, NZ Christchurch & Queenstown www.otagomtbocarnival.co.nz Australian 3-Days, Stanthorpe, Queensland www.easter2012.com.au Victorian MTBO Champs & Australian Team Selection Trials Newstead & Maryborough, Vic. European Orienteering Champs Falun, Sweden www.eoc2012.se World Trail-O Championships Dundee, Scotland. www.wtoc2012 @britishorienteering.org.uk Jukola Relays Vantaa, Finland WMOC Bad Harzburg, Germany www.wmoc2012.de ICE-O 2012 Reykjavik, Iceland www.rathlaup.is JWOC Kosice, Slovakia Fin 5 Teuva, Finland 2012.fin5.fi Tour de Halland inc O-Ringen 2012 Halmstad, Halland, Sweden, www.oringen.se WOC Lausanne, Switzerland www.woc2012.ch Swiss 5 Days 2012 Lausanne, Switzerland www.woc2012.ch/swiss5days/ CROESO 2012 Aberystwyth, Wales www.croesomultiday.org.uk CROATIAOPEN2012 www.croatiaopen.net Northern Territory Championships & SILVA NOL Round 4, Darwin, NT www.topend.nt.orienteering.asn.au MTBO World Champs MTBO Junior World Champs MTBO Masters World Champs Veszprem, Hungary www.mtbo.hu/mtbwoc2012.php Australian Championships, East Coast, Tasmania www.auschamps2012.com

50 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2011

Nov 10-11

Dec 27-31

Five + Five Days of Sicily Selinunte / Taormina, Italy www.orienteering.it North American Orienteering Champs, Delaware Water Gap Pennsylvania, USA. www.naoc2012.org Australian MTBO Championships Taree NSW mountaindevils.com Venice City Race Venezia, Italy. www.orivenezia.it Xmas 5-Days Beechworth, Victoria

2013 Jan 4-13

Mar 29 Apr 1 June 29July 6 July 14-22

July 20-26

25 July – 4 August Aug 26-31

2013 Oceania Carnival – NZ Wellington & Hawkes Bay areas www.oceania2013.co.nz Australian 3 Days JWOC 2013 Hradec Králové, Czech Republic www.jwoc2013.cz WOC2013 Vuokkati, Finland www.woc2013.fi O-Ringen 2013 Boden, Lapland, Sweden www.oringen.se 2013 World Games Cali, Colombia worldgames2013.com.co MTBO World Champs MTBO Junior World Champs West-Viru, Estonia

Advertise your event 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

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