DEC EM BER 2 0 1 9
OCEANIA 2019 AUS MTBOC 2019 Melbourne City Race RRP $8.50 inc GST
2020
Round
Date
Location
Events
1
7-8 March
Melbourne, VIC
Melbourne Sprint Weekend and Australian University Championships – 4 Sprints, including a Sprint Relay and pairs head-to-head race (WOC, JWOC and WUOC trials)
2
10-13 April
Orange, NSW
Easter 3 Day – Sprint, Middle Distance, Long Distance, multiday (JWOC and WUOC trials)
3
25-26 April
Gold Coast, QLD
Sprint and knockout Sprint (WOC and WUOC trials)
4
16-17 May
South Coast, NSW
(OACT events) – NOL Final – Middle Distance, Relay (WUOC trials)
NOTE: the exact format of Rounds 3 and 4 is yet to be finalised with event organisers.
All race details can be found at www.orienteering.asn.au
ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
The President’s Page BLAIR TREWIN
W
e’re now at the time of year when another year in the forests is just about finished (unless you’re in somewhere like Canberra which is lucky enough to keep their forest program going all year). Some of you now have your thoughts turned to urban events, whether they’re evening or Sprint, while others are taking a well-earned rest. I’ve spent quite a bit of time this year looking forward to the Oceania Championships, and with good reason. A great deal about the event was very successful. In addition to the excellent terrain (now the rest of you know what the Victorians have been going on about with Kangaroo Crossing for the last 30 years), the numbers were excellent – it ended up being one of the biggest events to have taken place in Australia outside of a WOC and WMOC. It was a very complex organisational task, and I would like to give particular thanks to Stephen Goggs for keeping all the moving parts functioning more or less in sync throughout (as I said at the presentation, it must have seemed like herding cats at times). Many of you also had successes at the event; we managed to regain the Australia-New Zealand Challenge trophy, and even managed to collect a reasonable number of medals in the newly established IOF Junior and Youth Championships (covering the 16-20 age groups). One particularly memorable result was that of Ella Cuthbert, who picked Oceania Sprint Championships day to have her first junior National League win, and beat all the seniors as well.
The Schools Championships also continue to go from strength to strength, both for the participants and for the broader orienteering community (if you’ve never been to a Schools Relay, it’s invariably the best spectator experience in Australian orienteering). New South Wales returned to the top for the first time since 2002, and even though the New Zealand team split into two, both parts still finished ahead of all the States, showing the strength of New Zealand junior orienteering. Some changes were made this year to broaden the event, and more are planned for next year, to engage a wider range of the junior orienteering community while not losing the team component which makes this event special.
Although those of you who weren’t at the event only saw parts of it, the live coverage led by Chris Naunton also reached a new level. I think we can reasonably say that this coverage has now reached a level rarely seen in orienteering outside of WOC and World Cup, and it was much appreciated by those who couldn’t be there (especially the families of Schools team members). The coverage has been nominated for the digital media section of the Australian Sports Media Awards and we wish Chris well in the outcome. At the time of writing, the Mountain Bike Orienteering community are in the midst of their own championships season, with reasonable turnout at those events. The Mountain Bike Orienteering community is small but committed; we are now looking at what we can do to expand that branch of the sport further. A workshop took place alongside the ACT Championships in October to discuss the future development of the sport, and we look forward to being able to take any worthwhile ideas further.
On the administrative front, the next major item on our agenda is the Orienteering Australia Annual Conference in December. In the boring-but-important file is potential changes to our governance and constitution, including what needs to be done to make the transition from an incorporated association to a company limited by guarantee (something Sport Australia are requiring as a condition of recognition). You may have seen in the news that some sports have made more radical governance changes lately – Athletics Australia and Little Athletics have finally merged, and Cycling Australia has merged all its State and sub-discipline bodies into a single organisation. We don’t have anything as dramatic as that in mind, but are certainly open to ideas if States want to pursue changes beyond a change in legal form. More interestingly, we’ll be sharing the best ideas from each of the States, especially in building participation; now that Sport Australia funding has shifted to national projects from distributing money to the States, we’re particularly on the lookout for ideas which have worked well in one State and can be taken to a wider audience. The previous grant structure has helped us to achieve fairly consistent growth over the last few years and we want to continue the momentum under a new structure.
We’re also open to new and innovative event formats; one which came to Australia for the first time this season was a long-form urban race, the Melbourne City Race. (I was definitely on home ground here – one of the controls was across the road from my office – but it doesn’t help you run any faster). This is a format which has been widely used in Europe, giving people a chance to see iconic urban locations in a completely different way, and I can see plenty of potential for it in other centres in Australia, too.
DECEMBER 2019 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, supports 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 2019
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 3379, North Strathfield, NSW 2137 eo@orienteering.asn.au President Blair Trewin president@orienteering.asn.au Director High Performance Stephen Craig stephen@orienteering.asn.au Director Finance Bruce Bowen finance@orienteering.asn.au Director Technical Jenny Casanova technical@orienteering.asn.au Director Media & Communications vacant Director International (IOF Council) Mike Dowling international@orienteering.asn.au Director Bill Jones directorbill@orienteering.asn.au Director Prue Dobbin secretary@orienteering.asn.au Executive Officer Paul Prudhoe eo@orienteering.asn.au National MTBO Coordinator Kay Haarsma mtbo@orienteering.asn.au OA Head Coach Jim Russell headcoach@orienteering.asn.au High Performance Administrator Ian Prosser hpadmin@orienteering.asn.au Manager Coach Development vacant National Sporting Schools Coordinator Jim Mackay sportingschools@orienteering.asn.au Coach & Controller Accreditation Jim Mackay accreditation@orienteering.asn.au Badge Applications John Oliver 68 Amaroo Street, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650
0418 287 694 0413 849 309 02 6288 8501 0427 605 167
0418 287 694 08 8337 0522 0411 125 178 0439 668 151 0407 467 345 0407 467 345
STATE ASSOCIATIONS Orienteering Queensland: PO Box 114 Spring Hill QLD 4004. Secretary: David Firman secretary@oq.asn.au Orienteering NSW: PO Box 3379 North Strathfield NSW 2137. Admin Officer: John Murray, Ph. (02) 8736 1252 admin@onsw.asn.au Orienteering ACT: PO Box 402 Jamison Centre ACT 2614. Secretary: Phil Walker, Ph. (02) 6162 3422 office@act.orienteering.asn.au Orienteering Victoria: PO Box 1010 Templestowe VIC 3106. Secretary: Chelsea Mullavey, secretary@vicorienteering.asn.au Orienteering SA: 1 Windsor Rd, Glenside SA 5065. Sec: Erica Diment 0408 852 313 secretary@sa.orienteering.asn.au Orienteering Western Australia: PO Box 234 Subiaco WA 6094. Secretary: Eleanor Sansom, oawa.secretary@gmail.com Orienteering Tasmania: Secretary: Bernard Walker secretary@tasorienteering.asn.au Top End Orienteers (Northern Territory): PO Box 39152 Winnellie NT 0821. Secretary: Susanne Casanova topendorienteersNT@gmail.com
NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE
Jan 10. Time-sensitive: Jan 17
ISSN 0818-6510 Issue 4/19 (no. 196) DECEMBER 2019
CONTENTS T H E P R E S I D E N T ’ S P A G E.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
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, (100023602 for NSW).
50 YEARS OF ORIENTEERING....................... 6
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 pcusworth53@gmail.com Magazine Treasurer: Bruce Bowen Printer: Ferntree Print, 1154 Burwood Hwy Upper Ferntree Gully. Contribution deadline: January 10; Time-sensitive – January 17. 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; MTBO – Kay Haarsma; Official News – Paul Prudhoe. Contributions welcome, either directly or via State editorial contacts. Prior consultation is suggested before preparing major contributions. Guidelines available from the editor or from state contacts. State Editorial Contacts QLD: Liz Bourne – batmaps.liz@gmail.com NSW: Ian Jessup – marketing@onsw.asn.au ACT: John Scown – scown@light.net.au SA: Erica Diment – ericadiment@adam.com.au – tel: 0408 852 313 VIC, WA and TAS – vacant Subscriptions: State Association members via State Associations. Contact relevant Association Secretary for details. Other subscribers: Write to The Australian Orienteer, PO‑Box 165, Warrandyte, Vic. 3113. Within Australia: $40 pa. Overseas: Asia/Pacific (inc. NZ) $A49, Rest of World $A58 pa. Delivery is airmail, there is no seamail option. Please send payment in Australian dollars by bank draft or international postal order, or pay direct by Visa or Mastercard. Quote full card number and expiry date. Subscription renewals (direct subscriptions only). The number in the top right-hand corner of the address label indicates the final issue in your current subscription. Opinions expressed in The Australian Orienteer are not necessarily those of Orienteering Australia.
AUS SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS.................. 16
2 0 1 9 A U S C H A M P I O N S H I P S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 O C E A N I A J U N I O R I N V I TAT I O N A L TO U R . . . . . . . . . . 2 0 N AT I O N A L O R I E N T E E R I N G L E A G U E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 SPORTIDENT NEWS ................................. 24 M E L B O U R N E C I T Y R A C E.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 6 I M P R O V E Y O U R O R I E N T E E R I N G – PA R T 2 . . . . . . . 3 0 GRAFTON STREET O................................. 33 LOYOLA COLLEGE..................................... 34 “J E F F ” C O M I C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5 2019 WOC............................................. 36 W O R L D C U P, C H I N A .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 8 M T B O N E W S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 9 A U S M T B O C H A M P I O N S H I P S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 0 S I LVA M E DA L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 O A R E P O R T G E N E R ATO R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 L E T T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6 TOP EVENTS........................................... 47
Cover photo: Melbourne City Race (Women 4) – Maya Bennette & Sophie Arthur. Photo: Sarah Love.
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 5
50TH ANNIVERSARY FUTURE OF O
50 Years of Orienteering TEXT: IAN BAKER (BAYSIDE KANGAROOS) PHOTOS: LINCOLN PATERSON (YARRA VALLEY)
W
ith the 50th Anniversary fast approaching, Yarra Valley club took up the challenge and staged not only an event at Cardinia Reservoir but a commemoration of that first event at nearby Beaconsfield and of the many events which followed. Courses were set by Ruth Goddard and an excellent display of historical items was created by Belinda Dale. The guests of honour were, of course, Tom Andrews the instigator of regular Orienteering in Australia, with wife Val. Tom has had knee replacement surgery so did not feel inspired to do a course. He contented himself with socialising and catching up with old friends. Ron Frederick, the winner of the first event, and longtime president of Melbourne’s Nillumbik Emus (Ex Melbourne University Students) club.
David Hogg, also an ex-Melbourne Uni student and fifth in the first event, has lived in Canberra for many years and was a driving force in the growth of Orienteering in the ACT. Dr Sandra Hogg said that David has been compiling a history of O in Australia, “But every time he finishes the last chapter, something new happens!”
Michael Hubbert, esteemed editor of this magazine, was eighth in 1969. Now Australian record holder for the number of courses completed over fifty years. Almost but not quite original orienteers included map guru Alex Tarr with Janet, Kathy Liley, who served as Orienteering Australia treasurer for many years, Peta Whitford, recently retired
Group photo. 6 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
The History tent.
JWOC 2019
Orienteering Australia President, Blair Trewin, wrote: “The August 1969 event in Victoria was the start of a regular series of events and the ongoing establishment of the sport in Australia. There are some aspects of the sport in 2019 which would be unrecognisable to the pioneering Australian orienteers of 50 years ago but the essence of the sport remains one of navigating through terrain and finding controls, and that essence hasn’t changed in 50 years, even if the technology around our sport has. It is especially pleasing that so many of those who played a key role in the early days of Orienteering are still around, many in Victoria, and some who were important in spreading the sport to other States.”
as Orienteering Victoria professional officer, and Don and Fiona Fell.
Amongst the displays were many early event maps, and intriguing course notes by Alex Tarr and David Hogg, in particular. Now, at last, we know how they managed to stay near the top of their classes for so many events and years. Lunch was booked at the Pine Grove Hotel in Upper Beaconsfield, the Start/ Finish location fifty years ago. An excellent meal with reminiscences of times gone by.
The Pine Grove Hotel in Upper Beaconsfield, the start location 50 years ago.
First event veterans – from left: Ron Frederick (winner), Mike Hubbert (8th place), Tom Andrews (Organiser), David Hogg (5th place). DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 7
OCEANIA 2019
The Trewin Report
PHOTOS: PHOTOSBYTOM.COM, MIKE HUBBERT
2019 OCEANIA Carnival The 2019 Oceania Championships week was one of the biggest and most complex carried in Australia. Hosted by three States, there were over 1000 competitors, something rarely seen except when our events are close to a WOC or a WMOC. The events (many of which involved rock of some description) ranged across the Riverina and northeast Victoria.
Zoe Melhuish
Oceania Sprint at Charles Sturt University
Oceania Sprint Championships, 28 September The week started with the Oceania Sprint Championships, at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, mixing some complex building legs early in courses with some sections in mid-course on a granite-covered hill next to the campus, with a long route choice leg over the hill a feature of most of the longer courses.
The senior classes provided unsurprising results, but reached them by different routes. Brodie Nankervis started well and was always in the lead or close to it. Will Gardner and Simon Uppill were in the mix in the first half of the course, but both lost time in mid-course to leave the Tasmanian with a 40-second lead. He then proceeded to lose most of that on what should have been the easiest leg of the day, missing the arena run-through, but had enough in hand to retain a narrow lead, which he held to the end six seconds ahead of Gardner, with Uppill in third.
Time lost at the run-through also played a role in the women’s race, and there it was decisive. Bridget Anderson built a big lead over the first half of the course, especially once Natasha Key had lost a minute at #11, but lost the bulk of it at the arena passage. That brought Lizzie Ingham, who had lost time early at #4 and #6, into range, and she took advantage, overhauling Anderson over the closing controls for a seven-second win – which proved to be the only time the New Zealander was seriously challenged all week. Both junior races brought surprises, with both victors winning at National League level for the first time. Ella Cuthbert ran in the Junior World Championships and has been there or thereabouts for the last couple of years, but this was her breakthrough result, running a consistent race in a close head-to-head battle with Zoe Melhuish 8 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
which was effectively decided when she set up a 20-second break at #12. Perhaps more unexpected than the win was that, by having a clean run when most of the others didn’t, she beat all the seniors as well (which most likely lands her a personal regional champion spot at WOC 2020). Not for the first or last time in 2019, it was a Canberra sweep, with Tara Melhuish making up the placings, dominating the second half after early mistakes left her more than two minutes down at one stage.
A second-half surge also swept Ryan Stocks to the biggest win of his career. He was still fifth at #11 in a race which was led at various times by Duncan Currie, Angus Haines and Dante Afnan, but dominated the later stages, having top-four splits on 12 of the last 13 legs. The margin was a comfortable 38 seconds, with Alastair George and Afnan the best of the rest.
The New Zealanders had the best of the younger junior classes, none more so than W16, where they filled the first six places, led by Juliet Frater who had a five-second margin. One of the few Australian wins, in W14, was even closer, with Nea Shingler edging out Ruby Nathan by a single second. James McGuire, Luke Clements and Ayrton Shadbolt in M14, M16 and M18 also took titles back across the Tasman. Sprint events have their share of close finishes, but you can’t get any closer than W75, where Ann Ingwersen and Jean Baldwin could not be separated. (This was one of two dead-heats, the other being between Hayden Dent and Ben Marschall in M10). Greg Barbour was also pushed to the wire by Kenneth McLean in M55. Urban events play a significant role in modern British orienteering, and that experience may have been reflected in the fact that there were four British winners; Keith Tonkin (M60), Richard Gardner
Oceania Sprint W21E, W20 CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY Scale: 1:4000 Contours: 2m
W75 Oceania Sprint – Jean Baldwin, Ann Ingwersen, Valerie Brammall
M55 Oceania Sprint – Kenneth McLean, Greg Barbour, Geoff Lawford
M65 AUS Long Distance – Tim Ashman, Ted van Geldermalsen, Adrian Uppill.
(M65), Hilary Simpson (W80) and Christine Kiddier (W65). Aaron Prince (M40) and John Robinson (M80) both made dominant starts to dominant weeks by putting more than two minutes between themselves and their respective opponents, while in contrast Allison Jones, on former home ground, had only 19 seconds to spare over Sara Prince in W40, with Marina Iskhakova and Tracy Marsh also within a minute of the lead.
Australian Long Distance Championships, 29 September The action moved to the Cootamundra region for the next two days, on an area remembered by 1990s orienteers as Gardiners Lookout (although only the eastern half of it was used this time), a mix of open land, steep granite slopes and not-so-steep granite slopes.
Simon Uppill has been an ever-present feature at the upper end of Australian elite orienteering for more than a decade. Having become the Australian with the most WOC appearances earlier in the season, he became the Australian Long Distance champion for the fifth time, moving him ahead of Dave Shepherd’s four titles. He was never headed once taking the lead at #8. Matt Crane looked his closest threat for much of the way but fell away late, and was passed by Matt Doyle in the closing stages as the younger Canberran claimed second. Tomas Krajca’s consistent run at the start of the day made him the clubhouse leader for most of the day, and still left him in the placings when the dust settled. The women’s race was close early on, with Lizzie Ingham leading Natasha Key by only 41 seconds at #8, but from there the New Zealander became increasingly dominant as her margin stretched
to almost six minutes. Key, Krystal Neumann and Imogene Scott, Ingham’s closest challengers, all lost time in mid-course, with Key emerging as the runner-up – whilst she did not win outright this year, it was still her third successive resident championship, and sixth in all. There were some pleasing results from the younger brigade, with Tara Melhuish and Lanita and Asha Steer (none of whom had been born when Key won her first title in 1995) in fifth, sixth and ninth. The top junior classes were both decided by margins under 15 seconds – part of a remarkable sequence in which 10 out of 12 junior classes were decided (or not decided, in the case of M14) by less than a minute. M20 was close all the way, and at two-thirds distance, only 13 seconds separated Patrick Miller, Alastair George and Alvin Craig. The twelfth control was critical; most lost time there, but Miller nailed it to take the lead, and although George got it back briefly at #15, Miller finished fastest to take the win by 13 seconds. Craig, still only 15, was an impressive third. In W20, Zoe Melhuish led through most of the first half but Tessa Burns was never far away, and got in front when she took two minutes out of her rival on the long leg to #12. From there it was a close race to the Finish, but Burns was able to just keep her nose in front to score by nine seconds. Ella Cuthbert made a slow start with time lost at #3 and #6, but was able to recover well enough to stay in third. There was a litany of close results in other junior classes, none closer than in M14, where Tom Weihart and Felix Hunt fought out the first dead-heat in an A class at this event for 40 years. The margin was barely any wider in W14, where Kelly McKinnon was five seconds ahead of Ruby Nathan, one of two New Zealand sweeps along with W18, where Sylvie Frater took the points. W16 was also dominated by the Kiwis, led by Penelope Salmon (although third-placed Mikaela Gray managed to prevent an all-NZ top six this time). Felix
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 9
OCEANIA 2019
Ella Cuthbert and Arabella Phillips.
AUS Relays (everyone is a winner)
M18 AUS Relay Tiptoe through the flowers.
Williamson’s narrow M16 win over David Stocks was another win which went across the Tasman. The only class between 14s and 18s which didn’t have a New Zealand winner was M18, quinellaed by the Reinbott brothers with Grant ahead of Blake; the days are long gone when granite was New Zealand’s weakest terrain.
had climbed to the top of the hill on the way to the Start, but that isn’t an option for a Relay, and the courses were accordingly steep, with some having almost 100 metres climb to the first control.
There were some familiar names at the top – none more so than Warren Key, who was seven minutes clear of the M60 field – some once-familiar names returning to the action, as Anthony Scott ran Greg Barbour close in M55, and some new names at the front end. Kathie Dent had her best national result yet with a close second to Jo Allison in a high-standard W40 field, while Ana Herceg went one better in W55 as she finished two minutes clear of Paula Shingler.
M20 was also an ACT versus Australia battle, and this time it was resolved in the territory’s favour. It came down to a last leg in which Tristan Miller was trying to close down a four-minute gap on his older brother; it seemed unlikely given Patrick’s form, but it was indeed what happened in one of the day’s closer races, decided by 22 seconds. Five teams finished within just over five minutes. W20 was closer still; four teams were within seconds of each other after the first leg, and even when Queensland and the ACT had dropped away following good first-leg runs by Ellie de Jong and Ella Cuthbert, the two national teams were never separated by more than 17 seconds. Australia led at every change, and Tara Melhuish just held off Briana Steven to see them home.
The masters grades had their share of close contests too. There were four within two minutes at the front end of M45, where Carsten Joergensen inflicted Bruce Arthur’s only loss of the week, and three within 39 seconds in W65 where Robin Uppill just held off Sue Key and Liz Wood. Jenny Bourne’s win over Carey Martin in W60 was also by about half a minute, whilst M70 was noted for late turnarounds; with four controls to go, neither Rob Garden nor Dave Middleton were in the top two, but they ended up fighting it out between them after Paul Hoopmann and Leigh Privett both made mistakes when leading.
Oceania and Australian Relays, 30 September Split Rock also hosted the Relays, which combined the Oceania and Australian Relays (apart from the elite and older junior classes where they were Oceania-only) – an unusual combination which meant that Australian and New Zealand national teams (mostly) dominated the States, and some classes were contested by the two Challenge teams only, with ten-year age groups for the rest. The previous day, everyone 10 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
Third-leg comebacks were the order of the day, with nine classes changing hands at the last opportunity. The most prominent of these was the Australia-New Zealand battle in W21, where Krystal Neumann opened up a two-minute lead on Lara Molloy on the second leg after a close first leg, but that was always likely to be a tenuous margin with Lizzie Ingham on last leg, and so it proved as she ran through Bridget Anderson. Despite being without Anderson, South Australia were the best of the State teams. It was a State versus nation battle in M21 as Australia and the ACT fought it out for two legs, but Matt Doyle pulled out four minutes on Matt Crane to give the national team a comfortable win in the end. New Zealand were never in the hunt but finished up third.
The two oldest classes saw two of the most impressive comebacks. After two legs, the Victorian M65s and the Tasmanian W65s were both in third and over seven minutes behind, but both came
Oceania Relay W21E, M20E SPLIT ROCK Scale: 1:10000 Contours: 5m
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through to win in the day’s closest races. Barbara Tassell saw off Ann Ingwersen, who had also come from a long way back, to score a seven-second win over the ACT, whilst M65 was even closer, with Alex Tarr overhauling David Winters to leave the South Australians three seconds behind.
New Zealand might have expected to dominate the younger Challenge classes but had to settle for a 2-2 split, with Australia winning M16 and M18 and New Zealand W16 (where the second and third NZ teams also beat the Australian one) and W18 (where the second team beat the first one). In M18, Tasmania led for two legs before being overhauled by the two national teams, with Mason Arthur narrowly holding off a fast-finishing Tom Harding. Further down the age groups New Zealand held sway with comfortable wins in both M14 and W14.
Whilst New Zealand were competitive in the younger classes, Australia dominated in the masters age groups; New Zealand’s only wins, all narrow, came in M50, M55 and W60, and M70 was the only remaining age group where the margin was in single digits (and that only just). The best contest was in M50, where the two teams went out together after Mark Freeman had pulled in a four-minute gap on Dave Crofts, but Bill Edwards was able to edge away from Jock Davis in a high-standard last leg. Jean Cory-Wright held on in W60 as Jenny Bourne closed the gap from eight minutes to two, whilst in M55 the New Zealand team’s closest opposition was New South Wales, although the margin was over four minutes throughout.
Australian Schools Championships, 1-3 October After three years when the ACT had held sway, in 2019 it was time for a new winning State – or rather the return of an old winner. New
Basemap: Chris Wilmott Photograme Gardiner's Lookout map 1990 (Rob Plowrig SIX Maps Aerial photos and contours, LIDAR (Russell Rig Fieldwork: Rob Vinc Cartography : Rob Plowright & Rob Vinc
South Wales had won seven successive titles between 1994 and 2000, but their last win came in 2002 (as was noted, the 2019 team was the first winning NSW team which didn’t have at least one Meyer in it). Their star performers were Iida Lehtonen, who returned from Finland only a few days before the event, and Alvin Craig, but it was their depth which was most important, with both their junior teams winning on all three days. South Australia almost, but not quite, broke through for their first title – an impressive testament to their depth, as some of their leading lights had a patchy week – but had to settle for second, six points down, with the ACT third. Splitting New Zealand into two (nominally even) teams didn’t make much difference to the Southern Cross Junior Challenge, except that it meant they filled first and second instead of first (Karahiwi came out top of their two teams).
The championships started with the Sprint at Kildare College, a small but complicated area. Alvin Craig had entered last year as a clear favourite but missed out; this time he made no mistake, breaking 10 minutes on his way to a comfortable 46-second victory. New Zealanders had the best of it after that with four in the top six, led by Liam Buyck and Zefa Fa’avae. New Zealand also had three of the top four in junior girls, including the top two; Zara Stewart had missed out on a potential W16 win at the Oceania Sprint with a one-minute mistake late, but here she was clean, edging gradually away from Emily Hayes in the second half, with Nea Shingler third.
Kaia Joergensen led the senior girls early, but once past halfway it became a question of which ACT runner would come out on top. Zoe Melhuish had made a slow start on the short early legs, in ninth place at #4, but she was in front by halfway and ran away from the field, winning 8 of the last 11 splits. Caitlin Young also finished well to take second, whilst Ella Cuthbert completed an ACT sweep – only DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 11
FUTURE OCEANIAOF2019 O
W16 Oceania Long Distance – Sophie Taverna, Mikaela Gray, Anna Duston
W50 Oceania Long Distance – Cath Chalmers, Jennifer Enderby
W14 Oceania Long Distance – Erika Enderby, Milla Key, Nea Shingler
M18 Oceania Long Distance – Ewan Shingler, Jensen Key, Ryan Gray
Oceania Long Distance W20E KANGAROO CROSSING Scale: 1:10000 Contours: 5m
Patrick Miller
M45 Oceania Long Distance –
Scott Simson, Bruce Arthur, Blair Trewin the second time this has been achieved by a State team. The senior boys quickly developed into a duel between Dante Afnan and Grant Reinbott; Afnan led through the first half but the The Relays, always a big spectator day, lived up to their reputation. Queenslander was never far away. They were level at the second last Not for the first time, the senior boys had a big first-leg pack with control but Reinbott finished faster to score by five seconds. the top seven covered by just over a minute, but things sorted The Long Distance race, on the granite of Connorton, was one of themselves out on the second leg as Ayrton Shadbolt (NZ Karahiwi) the more technical Schools events for a while, and produced a rarity and Toby Lang (ACT) broke away from the rest of the field, and that in recent decades – no New Zealand placings. The senior girls advantage was held to the end as Tom Harding just saw off David were plunged straight into the most technical part from the Start, Stocks. For a time it seemed possible that a final-leg charge might with many time losses, especially on #6 where Mikayla Cooper, see Dante Afnan bridge the four-minute gap to the leaders and keep Kaia Joergensen and Jessica Sewell all lost five minutes or more. South Australia’s title hopes alive, but in the end he had to settle for Ella Cuthbert dropped time on three of the first five, but avoided fourth. disaster and was always in touch with the lead. By the end of the The senior girls, as expected, was a two-way race between the ACT long leg she had overtaken Zoe Melhuish, and a few wobbles from and NZ Karahiwi. Zoe Melhuish took the early lead, but Caitlin the latter over the closing controls stretched the gap to a minute. Young struck trouble on the second leg. Ella Cuthbert went out Once again the ACT had a monopoly on the placings, with Caitlin three minutes down on Kaia Joergensen and was unable to make any Young completing the set. Dante Afnan looked in control of the impression on that, whilst an impressive last leg by Mikayla Cooper senior boys race for much of the way, but almost blew it in the final brought Tasmania home in third. loop, dropping two minutes at #12. That left him just behind Tristan Miller, but he was able to finish well enough to get back in front by With Alvin Craig on last leg, New South Wales only had to stay in seven seconds at the end, with Blake Reinbott in third. touch for two legs to be clear favourites for the junior boys. They did considerably more than that; Sam Woolford led a group of three Alvin Craig was as dominant in the Long Distance as he had been in home on the first leg, and Oskar Mella opened up a clear lead on the the Sprint, having the lead after the first few short legs and extending second. All that was left for Craig to do was to blow a three-minute it progressively to nearly five minutes at the end. It was a much gap out to double digits, with NZ Harua narrowly overhauling South closer battle behind that with a minute covering the next five; Aldo Australia for second. Western Australia were off the back after the Bosman had had Western Australia’s best performance for some years first leg but impressive runs by Riley McFarlane and Aldo Bosman, when he was third Australian in the Sprint, but he went one better particularly the latter, brought them back into the upper part of the in the Long Distance, finishing just ahead of Torren Arthur; Toby field. Cazzolato dropped from second to sixth with a small mistake at the
third-last. The junior girls had largely sorted themselves out by the third control, with many striking trouble early (especially at #2). Nea Shingler and Iida Lehtonen were already a minute ahead of the field by #4; Shingler led for much of the way, but her NSW teammate got to the front at the third-last and stretched it to 37 seconds by the Finish. Sophie Taverna and Zali McComb both kept their heads on a challenging day and were next in line after consistent runs. 12 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
The junior girls had one of the closer races of the day, with four teams within four minutes after the second leg. By then the New Zealand teams had got to the front, and Zara Stewart (Karahiwi) and Juliet Frater (Harua) ensured that they stayed there. The NSW junior girls had to work harder for their points than the boys did, but they still emerged with maximum State points after Nea Shingler pulled in a one-minute deficit and overtook Sophie Taverna on the last leg.
OCEANIA 2019
Oceania Long Distance Championships, 5 October The granite of Kangaroo Crossing came with a big reputation – a tough, physical area with lots of complex rock, which remarkably had never hosted anything bigger than a Victorian Championships or a National League race (partly because of a limited supply of potential major event arenas). The courses were less physical than can be the case at this venue, with few controls in the green or the heaviest rock, but it was still quite physical enough, and the margins blew out accordingly. Whereas sixteen A classes had been decided by less than a minute at the Australian Long Distance Championships, only three were here, whilst 16 had margins of more than five minutes, seven of them in double figures (including normally highly competitive classes such as M60 and M70) – it has a history of being an area where only one person nails it, and that proved true in spades in 2019. No-one really expected the nominal winning times to be achieved in the elite classes, and they weren’t. The women’s race was effectively decided at the third control when Natasha Key, the only one in the field who might have had the speed and endurance to challenge Lizzie Ingham, lost six minutes in the circle on a 45-second leg. By
the end of the long leg at the start of the second loop, Ingham was more than five minutes clear, and significant errors at #14 and #15 respectively eliminated her last two possible challengers, Aislinn Prendergast and Krystal Neumann. Key was left as the last one standing in the battle for second, finishing with Ingham after being caught from nine minutes behind, with Grace Crane’s steady run seeing her home in third.
Brodie Nankervis took his second Oceania title of the week, getting to the lead by #4 and rarely being headed thereafter. Aston Key, back from his European exploits (including some impressive World Cup runs on the preceding weekend), was right in the mix for a lot of the way, and got to the lead briefly after his low route on the long post-arena leg proved to be faster than Nankervis’s high one, but his endurance training base eventually caught up with him and he fell away to fourth in the last 20 minutes. Gene Beveridge was not quite able to defend his title but came through after a slow start to second, DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 13
OCEANIA 2019
Matt Doyle.
Brodie Nankervis. Ellie de Jong. Lizzie Ingham.
while Matt Crane also emerged through the field in the second half to complete the placings.
The junior men found it tough going, in a very spread-out race with only four within 24 minutes of the lead and several prominent DNFs. As he had six days earlier, it was Patrick Miller in first and Alastair George in second, but the margin this time was minutes (six of them to be precise) this time rather than seconds. He had caught the threeminute gap to George by #6, pulled away after #10, and although there were a couple of wobbles in the second half he was never seriously threatened. Angus Haines finished fast to take third, but a five-minute loss on #16 had left him with too much to do. A dominant first half, which left her five minutes up by halfway, secured the W20 title for Katie Cory-Wright. Many of her rivals fell by the wayside early; both Ella Cuthbert and Tara Melhuish had major time losses in the first three controls, and the top five all lost time at #5. Things settled down somewhat in the second half; Zoe Melhuish and Mikalya Cooper both finished the courses well, and emerged with the minor placings.
Big wins were the theme of the day in the older classes; often it took the form of one, and only one, person having a clean run whilst others dropped away. That was certainly the case in M60 and M70, where Rob Vincent and Rob Garden each enjoyed 14-minute margins in classes more accustomed to 14-second ones; in both cases, their closest rival, Jeff Dunn and Reid Moran respectively, stayed more or less in touch for the first half before losing major time at #7. John Robinson in M80, Darryl Erbacher in M75 and Kate Fortune in W75 also enjoyed double-digit margins, as did Aaron Prince in M40, although not before Ben Rattray had held the lead through the first half before fading away later. M40 also saw the return of a name 14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
not seen for a while, Lorenzo Calabro, who recovered from losing eight minutes at #4 to take second. Bruce Arthur was another to dominate, although Carsten Joergensen would have got a lot closer in M45 without losing six minutes at #9. Almost the only close masters races were W55 and W60; Gayle Quantock got to the lead late in W55 and then survived a mistake in the closing stages to hold on from Su Yan Tay and Paula Shingler, whilst Carey Martin gradually overhauled fellow New Zealander Jean Cory-Wright in W60, where Jenny Bourne had fallen out of the picture after a big early mistake. There were more close races in the juniors; M14 was almost as close as it had been the previous weekend, and with the same name at the top, with Tom Weihart not overtaking Oliver Freeman until the last control (the other winner from the previous Sunday, Felix Hunt, was leading until crashing out of contention at the third-last). Zefa Fa’avae concluded a week of promising performances with a fourminute win in M16 but only three minutes separated second and ninth, whilst Milla Key in W14 was another one for whom victory here was the climax of a consistent week. The one blowout margin was in W16, and for once it was not in favour of a New Zealander, with Mikaela Gray dominating the three long legs on her way to a nine-minute win.
Oceania Middle Distance Championships, 6 Oct The final event of the week took place at Beechworth, on the sort of small, rocky area on the north edge of town which wouldn’t have been on anyone’s radar in the days before shorter-distance events. Lizzie Ingham completed a clean sweep for the week, and this was her most impressive performance of all; nearly five minutes is an
Dante Afnan.
Bridget Anderson.
Aoife Rothery.
Oceania Middle Distance – M21E RACECOURSE CREEK Scale: 1:10000 Contours: 5m
imposing margin indeed in a Middle Distance event. She was never seriously challenged, although Bridget Anderson was within a minute or two through the first half before dropping away late. The South Australian’s performance was still enough to give her the National League title; she needed to beat Natasha Key, and did so, with early mistakes again proving costly for Key on her way to fifth. Belinda Lawford finished well to come through for third. It was a much closer affair for the men, with the top five covered by just over two minutes. At the front, it was a two-way race between Aston Key and British visitor Peter Hodkinson. Key had his nose in front for most of the first half, but Hodkinson edged away later in the course to take the win by just over a minute. The battle for third, fourth and fifth was decided in the finish chute; Will Gardner was still behind Matt Crane and Simon Uppill at the last control, but overtook both of them to make it two British runners in the top three.
The junior races both saw runners who had had their share of second places during the week break through to make the top step of the podium. In yet another Canberra sweep, Zoe Melhuish led most of the way apart from a brief wobble at #10, whilst Caitlin Young pipped Tara Melhuish for second after a fast finish. In M20, Alastair George had caught two minutes on Patrick Miller by #4 after Miller had lost time early, and they were together the rest of the way, taking the top two places, with Miller just edging out Scott Smith.
Apart from Ingham, only two others, both New Zealanders, managed a clean sweep of the four individual championship races in contested A classes: Aaron Prince (M40) and John Robinson (M80), with Bruce Arthur (M45) and Anna Wright (W10) collecting a full set of Oceania titles; Arthur was particularly good on the carnival’s final day, putting nearly five minutes between himself and a strong M45 field. Elsewhere, tables were turned from the previous day; Dave Middleton edged out Rob Garden in M70 despite losing two minutes at the first control, Greg Barbour also reversed the M55 result against Tony Woolford, and Jenny Bourne recovered from disappointment on Saturday to score a comfortable W60 win. The closest race of all was W45, a fluctuating contest which was only decided at the last control, with Clare Hawthorne leading three within 11 seconds; a small wobble at the third-last dropped Cathy McComb to third. M16 was one of the most fluctuating races of the whole week; there were six different leaders at different points on the course, with eventual winner Toby Cazzolato (himself on the wrong end of a few close ones during the week) getting up by 17 seconds after David Stocks mispunched when in a winning position. Mikaela Gray did a weekend double in W16, although it was a closer-run thing than the previous day, as she only got to the front at the end. All in all, an excellent Oceania Carnival.
The Oceania Championships will return in January 2021 in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 15
ASOC 2019
5200 M S at A S O C** VALERIE BARKER
PHOTOS: PHOTOSBYTOM.COM
I
t’s all about the numbers, really! At least, that was the theme of one part of the Trivia Night Quiz* and perhaps of the whole 2019 ASOC carnival. Picture the Borambola dining hall full of over 170 Australian Schools students self-organised into teams of six,Sprint with at2019 least four differentSenior States/Countries and Girls-1 2.2 kmat least one of each of the four classes represented in each team. In a week of challenges, this was one of the earliest, met with enthusiasm 1 and 146commitment, as were all challenges, in and out of competition, throughout the 2 101 week.
3 132 (** 5200 Meals Served at Australian Schools Orienteering Championships 4 103 ..… following the theme of a Table Round at the Trivia Quiz.) 5 156
Only one night before, nine teams (171 athletes and 6 141 on Borambola, the NSW 28 officials) had converged Sport and Recreation Centre just out of Wagga 7 122 Wagga, to register for and settle into one very special 8 accommodation 108 week: three different venues, two meal sittings (or three dining rooms) at night, nine 9 145 days of competition, three days of Australian Schools 10of150 Championships, lots team buses, hundreds of kilometres, and an 11 almost 111infinite amount of hard work, commitment, fun and memory making.
4
2
5 3
1
10 6 11
After a warm-up day in the Oceania Sprint at Charles Sturt University (and nine large bottles of sunscreen later), the first Saturday night together was the Trivia Night which included not just General Knowledge but questions about the participants themselves and the 31-year history of ASOC. And the numerical interest? We had four sets of twins, four families of 16 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
14
7
12 161
This year saw some structural changes to ASOC 72 following the shift13 of endorsement from School Sport Australia (SSA) to Orienteering Australia (OA). In 14 74 particular, we were pleased to welcome two teams from 144(hollow/depression) and NZ New Zealand: NZ15 Harua Karahiwi (spur). They were competing 0 m not only against Australia but also against each other in ASOC and in the trans-Tasman Southern Cross Junior Challenge (SCJC). The second significant change has been to have all team members eligible to score points for their State/Country. As there are now no reserves named, up to six members of any one class in a team can be recognised for their contributions to team results.
13
12
9 8
15
Map: ASOC Senior Girls Sprint – parts 1 and 2 KILDARE CATHOLIC COLLEGE & ERINEARTH Scale: 1:2000 Contours: 2m
ASOC Senior Girls Sprint – Caitlin Young, Zoe Melhuish, Ella Cuthbert
19
ASOC Junior Girls Long Distance – Nea Shingler, Iida Lehtonen, Sophie Taverna
20
ASOC Junior Boys Long Distance – Aldo Bosman, Alvin Craig, Torren Arthur
18
22
17/21
24
15
23 25
26
three children, 24 families with two children – in fact 64 of the 171 students had a sibling also at ASOC! Seven birthdays were celebrated during ASOC, although three of these managed to be on the Rest/ Travel Day with only one during the ASOC competition. It is this sort of connection, as well as the opportunity to meet and mix with equally focussed orienteers from around the country and across ‘the ditch’, from the very newest and least experienced first-timers to the seven who had represented Australia or New Zealand at JWOC earlier in the year, which so richly characterises the legacy and goals of ASOC.
16
ASOC Senior Boys Long Distance – Tristan Miller, Dante Afnan, Blake Reinbott
The three days of ASOC are, of course, the three most important days of the Orienteering year for all of the participants, and were the culmination of three years of planning and preparation by the organising committee. Following open national competition on Sunday (Australian Long Distance Championships) and Monday (Oceania/Australian Relay Championships), the ASOC Opening Ceremony, complete with introductions by the 18 team-captains, a traditional Maori powhiri (welcome) by twenty NZ girls and a haka by the twenty NZ boys, was highlighted by the presentation of the Start Draw for the first event, the Sprint. This event took place at Kildare College and the adjacent garden area, Erin Earth, the next day (Tuesday 1st October). Start intervals were at two minutes rather than the usual oneminute but the staggered starts and great vantage points at the arena promoted an exciting atmosphere. This year all three ASOC events enjoyed the provision of the large screen in the arena; nominated athletes in all classes in each of the Sprint and Long Distance
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 17
ASOC 2019
individual events wore GPS trackers, and in the Relays all Senior Boys and Girls wore trackers. This meant that there was not only the opportunity to view the events from carefully planned arena vantage points, but also spectators could watch both real-time and delayed course progress. It was exciting to view lively footage of competitors as they navigated buildings and staircases in the Sprint, rocks and gullies in the Long Distance event at ‘Connorton’, and managed the distractions of the Mass Start or followed their other leg runners in the Relays at Pomingalarna Reserve. Large, supportive and enthusiastic crowds of families and friends were at all events, especially the Relay, which we believe is the most exciting spectator day of the annual Orienteering calendar. Nineteen pairs of matching striped socks for the South Australians, numerous cans of hairspray, and head after head of carefully created braids with matching ribbons served to emphasise the keen rivalry, competition and excitement that is always a feature of the ASOC Relays. Blair Trewin provided a lively commentary, drawing upon his vast experience and knowledge of the history of ASOC. While the results were available instantaneously on screen, Blair also provided up-to-date points calculations for the two competitions running simultaneously (ASOC and SCJC). At the end of each of these days, progress points were carefully calculated, and presentations made to the first three place-getters in each class. The culmination of ASOC is the Presentation Dinner where we celebrate the commitment and hard work of all participating athletes, as well as the teams’ successes in the Individual Events. This year our guest speaker was Eliza Ault-Connell, a Paralympian who lost both legs and many of her fingers to meningococcal disease when she was a teenager – the same age as many of our participants this year. Her message of resilience and striving to meet the challenges of what might otherwise be seen as setbacks in life resonated well. And the numerical interest? This year we presented a record 271 medals; we had a tie for first place in the Junior Boys Team Sprint award; Australian runners only took out the first three places in all four classes in the Long Distance event (the first time since NZ joined us in 2003); the Rob Simson Memorial Shield for the ‘Best Newcomer’ made its debut; two long-serving past team managers, Stephen Bird (Victoria) and Joan Sheldon, (Queensland), were presented with OA
Service Awards for their combined service of over twenty years; all seven States/Territories were represented in the 2019 Honour Team; and NSW took the ASOC Shield for the first time in 17 years. For the seventeenth successive year New Zealand (NZ Karahiwi) took out the Southern Cross Junior Challenge. Congratulations to all award recipients! The final weekend saw all of the teams move in together at The Old Priory in Beechworth: dating from 1867 it is an historic rabbit warren of every combination of room arrangements from tiny single rooms to dormitories sleeping up to 32 people, at least four different floor levels, and numerous recreation areas. And it is only five minutes walk from the famous Beechworth Bakery! Moreover, we were in close proximity to the final two Oceania event sites: Kangaroo Crossing and Racecourse Creek. After six days of serious competition, and a travelling rest day, all participants then competed in the third leg of the Oceania Carnival on these challenging and demanding maps, again with outstanding performances.
And then there were none! By mid-afternoon on Sunday 6th October, teams had dispersed to return home: perhaps a drive to Albury or Melbourne to join connecting flights to NZ or WA, or just a long 860km drive across the plains to SA. There is little doubt that all team members took home ten days’ worth of memories: their commitment and support of each other in their teams; the friendships made and renewed; fun at the ‘beach’ and the disco; enjoying the activities at Borambola; and striving to achieve as many points as possible in the Scavenger Hunt as they made giant chocolate freckles at Junee, posed for photos at tourist sites around Wagga Wagga and found the oldest competitor or largest family at the Carnival. ‘Going to ASOC’ means representing a home State or Country, being part of a team, sharing successes and supporting each other when there are challenges, and creating lifetime friendships. Yet, amongst so many numbers, the most important outcomes of all are those that we cannot count or quantify: the experiences, selfgrowth and memories that so tangibly remain when we are indeed none.
Iida Lehtonen.
Congratulations go to all students who participated in ASOC 2019 and thanks to their families, Team and State officials, and all course setters and controllers, who made it all possible. It was a wonderful experience for us all.
Winners
2017
2018
2019
State
ACT
ACT
NSW
Senior Girls
Sprint – Tara Melhuish (ACT) Long – Tara Melhuish (ACT)
Sprint – Joanna George (SA) Long – Joanna George (SA)
Sprint – Zoe Melhuish (ACT) Long – Ella Cuthbert (ACT)
Senior Boys
Sprint – Aston Key (VIC) Long – Aston Key (VIC)
Sprint – Aston Key (VIC) Long – Aston Key (VIC)
Sprint – Grant Reinbott (QLD) Long – Dante Afnan (SA)
Junior Girls
Sprint – Zoe Melhuish (ACT) Long – Joanna George (SA)
Sprint – Niamh Cassar (NSW) Long – Iida Lehtonen (NSW)
Sprint – Nea Shingler (NSW) Long – Iida Lehtonen (NSW)
Junior Boys
Sprint – Alvin Craig (NSW) Long – Alvin Craig (NSW)
Sprint – David Stocks (ACT) Long – Samuel Garbellini (QLD)
Sprint – Alvin Craig (NSW) Long – Alvin Craig (NSW)
Senior Girls Relay
ACT
SA
ACT
Senior Boys Relay
ACT
ACT
ACT
Junior Girls Relay
ACT
ACT
NSW
Junior Boys Relay
Queensland
ACT
NSW
18 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
ASOC HONOUR TEAM
The 2019 Australians Schools Orienteering Championships Honour Team is as follows: Junior Girls: Mikaela Gray (QLD), Milla Key (VIC), Iida Lehtonen (NSW), Nea Shingler (NSW) Junior Boys: Torren Arthur (VIC), Aldo Bosman (WA), Alvin Craig (NSW), Sam Woolford (NSW) Senior Girls: Mikayla Cooper (TAS), Ella Cuthbert (ACT), Zoe Melhuish (ACT), Caitlin Young (ACT) Senior Boys: Dante Afnan (SA), Jensen Key (VIC), Grant Reinbott (QLD), David Stocks (ACT)
ASOC Junior Boys Long Distance CONNORTON Scale: 1:10000 Contours: 5m
Milla Key was the inaugural recipient of the Rob Simson Memorial Shield for the Best Newcomer. This was presented by Neil Simson on behalf of the Simson family, to acknowledge the work done by Rob Simson 31 years ago (in 1989) in establishing and championing what we now know as ASOC. DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 19
JUNIORS INVITATIONAL TOUR
Oceania Juniors Invitational Tour High quality packed program is oversubscribed TONI BROWN
Belinda Lawford addresses a group.
A
map jigsaw.
t the Oceania Carnival all eyes are on the competition. The spectacle of the big screen, live commentary, GPS tracking and hairline finishes is enthralling the spectators with breathtaking excitement. But ‘running’ alongside the ‘big guns’, almost as a clandestine operation, some would say subversive, is a particularly complementary sort of activity.
Final numbers were around 150. It proved so popular most sessions had to be repeated at a second sitting. Some came for all sessions, some attended just one or two. Registrants included orienteers from Taiwan, Canada, New Caledonia, and most States in Australia. As in previous years, New Zealand juniors and their support personnel were strongest in number.
Because of the publicity afforded by the carnival organisers this year’s “Tour” was noticed by more than just the juniors. Indeed it grew in popularity beyond all predictions. As the week progressed it became apparent that orienteers of all ages love to learn and many adults were knocking on the door wanting to be part of it. What could we say?
The Tour Talks provided focused orienteering skills development. Greg Barbour - Big Rock; Stephen Craig - Race Structure (you do have time!); Marina Iskhakova - MTBO to improve foot orienteering skills; Cathy Hogg - Running technique to minimise injury risk; Asha Steer - Women in Orienteering; Belinda Lawford - Your coach and you, dare to be YOUR best!
Originally conceived as a “training camp” opportunity for Juniors it would normally not rate on the radar of ordinary orienteers but this year that perception changed in a way only a few predicted. Modelled on the previous two years (Adelaide and Bathurst), the Juniors Invitational Tour ( JIT) was held in conjunction with this year’s Oceania Championships. In part due to the support provided by the carnival management team and in part due to the dedicated work of organisers Toni Brown and Barbara Hill this year’s activity started to take on a life of its own.
Cathy Hogg on Running Technique to Minimise Injury. 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
The evening talks brought together all sorts, from beginners to the very experienced, the young and the more mature. We were able to conduct tour talk sessions in the local church hall whilst the carnival was centred around Wagga Wagga (thanks Wagga Roos). Other sessions were conducted at local parks, restaurants or at the events. And the activities enabled many to meet, learn and laugh and to leave the carnival with more than just a memory of the races. Importantly, as the slogan implored us ........ we had fun (on the A41).
Jacob Miller - Bushflyer and Aurelie Valais – Western Hills.
Marina Iskhakova - MTBO vs FOOT-O.
The fun stream enmeshed a bit of comedy and purpose. Given that the entire Carnival was to be using touch-free timing, it seemed appropriate that our young ones be reminded of how to drop a dibber into a timing unit. To warm up we started with the Swedish pen in a bottle race. This proved a great icebreaker! Other games included O jigsaws, an acrostic poetry competition (winner NZ Anna Wright took home a Trimtex top for her efforts), a lucky draw of entries to the Tasmania Turbo Chook 3 Days (congratulations NSW Savannah Sweeney, ACT Tessa Radajewski, ACT Ken Mansell). World Champion Aston Key dropped in to share insights (including a couple of Str8 compasses – lucky NSW Helen O’Callaghan and ACT Haydon Dent).
It would be fair to say that the mobile nature of the Oceania Carnival posed some challenges in drawing people together but overall, registrations and subsequent attendances spoke for themselves. From (some of the) participants themselves:
• All families of kids who have nominated for State Teams would benefit from knowing about this program at the time of nominating so that the parents can plan for the family to make the trip regardless of the outcome of the nomination.
Seth Sweeney (Western Hills) looks up at the camera.
Marina Iskhakova on MTBO.
• Having two times for tour talks made it harder to have a common meal time. Having an official start time for the 12 and overs was remarkable in increasing their motivation!! A surprising and welcome impact. • The coaches were fantastic and extremely helpful. It was our first Carnival of this kind and we were able to reach out to the coaches often to help us with the details to feel more comfortable.
• Really liked the interactive physio one but just hearing from experienced orienteers was great, also loved seeing the GPS tracking of an event and having someone talk through it. The working with a coach done by the Elites was inspiring for the kids and the handout was a good idea, maybe could provide an idea of a training plan – possibly age/stage based. Tour Convenors Barb Hill of Bold Horizons, and Toni Brown (for Orienteering ACT) are considering options for future ‘Tour’ possibilities at future national events. Any ideas, or offers of help are welcomed.
Packed house at evening talk. DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 21
NOL UPDATE
BLAIR TREWIN
T
he Canberra Cockatoos were again the dominant team in the 2019 National Orienteering League, winning three of the four divisions. The Junior Women got a perfect score, winning every event, and the Senior Men also had the title wrapped up long before the end of the season. The Junior Men had to work harder, as it came down to the last event of the season against the NSW Stingers, but they had a good Oceania Middle Distance Championships to win by five points. Only the Senior Women missed out on a clean sweep, and it was a close-run thing, with the Cockatoos and Victoria swapping the lead through the season before the Victorians edged away in the final week to win by nine points. The South Australian duo of Simon Uppill and Bridget Anderson took the Senior individual titles. Uppill always had the edge, with three wins and eight top-three results, and scored by 12 points over Matt Doyle and Brodie Nankervis. It was his seventh title, moving him ahead of Natasha Key’s six at the top of the all-time list, and his fourth in a row. In contrast, Anderson had never previously been in the top three; she only won once, but had five second places and secured the title by beating Key at the Oceania Middle Distance. The pair led the Southern Arrows to a good year with three 3rd places; the Senior Women were always within striking distance of the lead, whilst the Junior Women were edged out for 2nd by the Tassie Foresters by a single point. The Western Nomads also had their best team placing for years with a third in the Senior Men, led by a dominant Easter week from Henry McNulty.
Simon Uppill. 22 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
Bridget Anderson.
The Victorian Senior Women’s team.
It was a Melhuish sweep for the Junior Women. Tara set up her third successive title with six wins in a row in mid-season, while Zoe finished the season well, with a win in the final round securing 2nd place. Ella Cuthbert made it three out of three for the Cockatoos by edging out Mikayla Cooper. The Junior Men’s standings fluctuated through the year, with Alvin Craig hitting the lead at mid-season, but Patrick Miller dominated the final week to surge to the title, with Alastair George behind him after a win on the final Sunday.
Patrick Miller.
Tara Melhuish.
O C E A N I A 2 0 21 IN NEW ZEAL AND Hosted by Peninsula & Plains Orienteering Club, renowned for producing high quality Orienteering events across the South Island. Covering all disciplines (Sprint, Middle Distance, Long Distance and Relay) and including the Australia / New Zealand Challenge. Full event information is on the way – save the date: 9-17 January 2021. Plan that holiday now! The website has a newsletter sign-up form so event news can be sent to you http://oceaniao.nz/
The NZ’ers would like to thank everyone in OZ for a great OCEANIA 2019 event. And, they would like to invite everyone to the next OCEANIA which will be held in New Zealand in 2021. The 2021 OCEANIA Orienteering Championships is a weeklong international Orienteering extravaganza in January 2021, based out of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Australian WOC, JWOC and MTBO teams are outfitted by
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 23
SPORTident News Do you have a SIAC?
T
he SPORTident-ActiveCard “SIAC” is a combined active/ passive transponder card. It works in the classical SPORTident direct punching mode, as well as for contactless punching, when the SPORTident AIR+ system configuration is used.
SIAC contains a battery and will always work in direct punching mode even if the battery is empty. Direct punching provides a fallback option to register at controls. In contactless punching mode the SIAC’s optical and acoustic feedback signals confirm that a control code and timestamp have been successfully written to the card. SIAC features extremely low power consumption. The estimated battery lifetime is about 3-4 years if the card is used about 40 times a year in Orienteering events. SIAC’s battery can be replaced in a qualified service process.
SIAC is generally worn on a finger but MTB orienteers please note: SPORTident AIR+ mode can be compromised by disturbances caused by third party equipment. The active antenna of some GPSwatches can significantly reduce the SIAC’s sensitivity. As a general rule a GPS-watch and SIAC should not be carried on the same arm.
What is a Battery Test unit? For contactless punching it is very important to ensure that the battery in the SIAC has sufficient power before it is used at an event. The station “SIAC Battery Test” can be used to perform a straightforward test. The station indicates sufficient battery reserve with a normal beep and a warning message if the battery is low. The battery check should be carried out in the Event Centre and not immediately before the Start. When not in use at an event SIAC’s AIR+ features are not active so that power consumption is minimised. AIR+ functionality is enabled at an event by the “CHECK” process after the chip has been “CLEARED”. If you have any questions ask Colin Price (Aussieogear) or your local club SPORTident buff. Colin Price – Aussieogear.com
Rob Prentice (NSW) listens for the beeps on his SIAC stick at the Aus MTBO Champs in Victoria.
24 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
10 Days – 8 Top class events! Fabulous technical rock terrain. What are you waiting for? BOOK NOW!
April 10 - 13
EASTER 2020 Australian 3 Days
www.onsw.asn.au/easter2020 Good Friday Saturday Easter Sunday Monday -
Charles Sturt University, Orange New Map, Molong area Gumble Pinnacles, Molong area Gumble Pinnacles, Molong area
April 18 & 19
NSW Championships Info and entries via Eventor
Saturday - Middle distance, Eugowra Sunday - Long distance, Eugowra
But wait, there’s more! Wed April 15 - Public Sprint, Central Orange Thur April 16 - Public Score, Macquarie Woods Info and entries via Eventor (sorry no steak knives)
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 25
MELBOURNE CITY RACE
MELBOURNE City Race 2019 DEBBIE DODD
T
he first Melbourne City Race Weekend was a huge success, with world champions, international representatives, and local heroes racing toe-to-toe with plenty of eager newcomers. We were aware that we clashed with the Melbourne Marathon, but we wanted to encourage orienteers who were here for Oceania to add a few days to their holiday, and that seemed to work well. One in six competitors travelled from interstate (ACT, NSW, TAS & WA) or overseas (NZ, UK, Russia, Sweden & Switzerland), and we welcomed about 30 first time orienteers. The weekend kicked off with our first Friday “Sunset Sprint”, at Edgewater. Footscray was recently dubbed the coolest place in Australia; and everyone clearly agreed. Judi Herkes gave us a great challenge, making full use of the terrain mix of campus, park and street. In City Race style, courses were longer than usual, with winning times at 20-25 minutes, and providing a sample of what was to come.
We’ve been itching to sprint at Kensington for ages, and finally we got our chance; not surprisingly there was a record turnout. The dynamic duo of Ted and Fred (van Geldermalsen and Johansson) created both map and courses. This urban maze lived up to its reputation, with many coming unstuck in the cluster of controls in the historic stockyards. The hill climb leg was not just a test of leg strength, route choice was also important. And the final legs kept us thinking as hard as we were running. The arena was buzzing as route choices were debated and splits compared to see where those valuable seconds were gained or lost!
And on to Docklands for the main event – the first Melbourne City Race. An unscheduled bridge closure caused a bit of consternation, but was quickly resolved; urban racing often means quick thinking for organisers as well as competitors.
Course planner Jayne Sales was well credentialled as a former London City Race planner, and she used her experience to show us what City Racing is all about. Peter Dalwood, assisted by Pam King, presented us with a top quality map – no easy task given the complexity of the Docklands area. 26 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
Map printed here at 71%
Women 3 winners
Early legs took competitors out of Docklands Park and on a quick tour of Victoria Harbour. Longer courses ran past Marvel Stadium up to Waterfront and the Star Observation Wheel, via the confusing two-level District shopping mall. Courses converged again in Batman Hill, where multiple stairs and ramps caused mayhem; varying street levels are a feature of the newly revamped Docklands precinct. Then it was south to the river and across a bridge (take your pick) to Southbank. Around Polly Woodside and the Convention Centre, it was urban racing European-style as we mingled with, and entertained the crowds. Back across the river and a bit of 2006 Commonwealth Games nostalgia at the Fish (remember when there were 50 magical, shimmering fish floating in the Yarra for a glorious two weeks), before the final gut busting bridge crossing, then up the grassy slope and into the Finish! DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 27
MELBOURNE CITY RACE
Men 1 winners - Brodie Nankervis - Peter Hodkinson - Aston Key.
Women 4 winners - Maya Bennette - Sophie Arthur.
Winning times were generally 35-40 minutes, and reflected the difference between a classic Sprint and a City Race. Great Britain’s Peter Hodkinson took out Course M1, beating Junior World Champion Aston Key by just under 2 minutes, with WOC team member Brodie Nankervis third, a further 8 seconds behind. The seemingly unbeatable Tash Key won W1 by almost 5 minutes, with international visitor Yulia Shutkovskaya second, and multiple Victorian Sprint Champion Liis Johanson third.
Ranges Orienteering Clubs. The weekend would not have gone ahead without invaluable assistance from the City of Melbourne, Orienteering Victoria, and Orienteering Australia.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, so we’re delighted to announce that the next Melbourne City Race Weekend is pencilled in for late November 2020. Keep an eye on our website and your weekly e-news for updates – www.melbournecityrace.com.au
We saw some fantastic performances by our juniors, notably Callum White (1st M2), James Love (2nd M3), Joshua Feuerherdt (2nd M4), Matthew Layton and Joel Crothers (1st and 2nd M5), Sarah Davies (2nd W2), Milla Key (1st W3), Sophie Arthur and Maya Bennette (1st and 3rd W4) and Lydia Stott (1st W5). It was such a pleasure handing out prizes to so many stars of the future. We were most appreciative of sponsorship received from Yarra Valley Vans, in the form of two awards for the best junior newcomers, which were presented to Joel Crothers and Lydia Stott.
I’d like to thank everyone who made this weekend happen – mappers Peter Dalwood and Pam King, Warwick Davis, Ted van Geldermalsen and Fredrik Johansson; course planners Judi Herkes, Ted and Fred, and Jayne Sales; and support crew James Robertson, plus the members of Bayside Kangaroos, Yarra Valley and Dandenong
Stuart McWilliam directs the starters. 28 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
Women 2 winners - Katherine Turner - Sarah Davies - Heather O’Donnell.
5 reasons to put the Australian Championships on your bucket list for 2020 You’ll be missing out if you don’t head on down to Tasmania next October. n What’s not to like about St Helens? The forests are open & the terrain makes you think. Maybe you’ve been to St Helens before. Maybe it will all be new. But one thing’s for sure. The orienteering is amazing. The terrain features granite boulders, intricate erosion detail, spur gully landscapes and just for fun, we’ve thrown in a dash of stunning coastline. There’ll be at least two new areas to explore (mapped by Rob Plowright). Plus, iconic maps used for previous national and international competitions. n You can feast on an indulgence of events, with 11 to choose from over 9 days. Crazy right! But add them up. There are the Australian Sprint, Middle & Long Distances, and Relay Championships. Then there are the Australian Schools Sprint, Long Distance and Relays. And at the same time and place, for everyone else, we’ve thrown in the Turbo Chook 3 Days. Plus, for those who just can’t get enough, there’s Long Distance sample terrain.
the Tasmanian Middle Distance Championships. You can enter, even if you’re new to orienteering. There’ll be entrants of all ages, genders, and fitness levels. There’ll be elites vying for world ranking points, and age group competitors fighting for championship titles. But most of us will take part for fun and a personal challenge. n You’ll stay in one place for 8 nights, making St Helens your local town. How great will it be to stay in one place for an entire carnival? And not just any place, St Helens is a laid-back fishing town on Tasmania’s stunning east coast. Once you arrive, you can move in and play every day. After Orienteering in the morning your afternoons are free. Take yourself mountain biking or surfing. Be a tourist. Explore St Columba Falls, the Blue Tier and the Bay of Fires. Stroll on the beach. Sit in a café. Eat fish ‘n’ chips. Also, feel free to simply enjoy the luxury of an afternoon nap.
n It’s an adventure to share with your family & you’ll have time to catch up with friends. You probably know Orienteering is a sport your whole family can do. Yah! And based in one town – you’re going to have heaps of time to catch up with friends. And make new ones. We’ll bump into each other a lot. n You’ll spot wallabies and wombats & take on the Kiwis. You’re guaranteed to come across Tasmanian wildlife – out in the bush and at the pub. Plus, there’ll be a flock of New Zealanders here, fielding teams in the Schools Championships. There’s also a test match between the Aussies and Kiwis in other age groups. Can you believe the Kiwis are already booking out accommodation? Smart eh. Make your travel plans now. You can get a 10% discount renting a car with our sponsor AutoRent Hertz. For details and tips from a local visit our website: aoc2020.tasorienteering.asn. au/travel-advice/ Middle Distance sample terrain.
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 29
TRAINING
Improve your orienteering: Part 2 – Identifying why you orienteered well and why you lost time STEPHEN BIRD
Stephen Bird (VIC).
I
n this series of articles I’m suggesting a systematic way to improving your orienteering, which involves a series of steps, these being: (i) Analysing your performance (which controls went well and which did not); (ii) Identifying why some controls went well whilst others did not; (iii) working to improve on the factors that caused you to lose time; and, (iv) putting it in to practice at events.
The first of these was covered in The Australian Orienteer – Sept 2019 (pp41-43), with the options for your analysis of your performance ranging from a simple subjective impression of each control, to a detailed analysis of split times. Whichever option you chose, the basic goal is to identify good and bad control legs. This then leads into the next stage, which is to identify why a leg went well, or why a leg went badly, and this is what will be covered in this second article of the series. If you can identify the ‘why’ and are aware of it, you are already on the way to improving. Simply knowing why you went wrong should sensitise you to not doing it again, or conversely knowing why doing something resulted in a good leg should reinforce your habit of doing it for every control. I say ‘should’, as we’ve all made the same mistake on more than one occasion and it’s not that simple, which is why we need to practice. The element of practice will be covered in a future article, so before we get ahead of ourselves we need to come back to identifying the ‘why’.
Identifying why you orienteered well and why you lost time I suggest the best way to identify what to keep doing well and what to work on is with a table, such as the one below (Table 1). For clarity and consistency with the previous article I’ve used yellow highlighting for ‘good’ or typical legs and ’pink for ‘problematic legs’. With a classification of a good or bad leg being derived from either your subjective assessment of each leg or a more detailed analysis of your split times. In Table 1 I have included a column for ‘time lost’. The purpose of this column is to get some indication of how much time you lost and hence how much difference it would make if you could prevent this from happening. You can simply estimate your time loss from your own recollection and reference to your split times. However, in this example I’ve referred back to the previous article in which our orienteer expected to be about 40% slower than the best orienteer for each leg on their course, even when they’d navigated well to that control. So the baseline is set at 140% of the fastest time for that leg (see previous article), with anything much slower than this suggesting a problem with that leg. In Table 1 our example orienteer has summarised in the left column what happened on each leg and in the right column their thoughts on what went well and what they need to work on.
Table 1 Leg
What happened
1
Was eager to get away from the start area. Rushed out of the start into a complex area. Did not have a plan. Did not read my map properly and couldn’t find my first control.
2
3
4
Annoyed about stupid error. Rushed out of control and ran hard in general direction of next control through wooded area, but did not formulate proper plan. Drifted off my bearing and lost contact with the map. Had to relocate. Out on to track and after 300m droped into large gully intersecting with the track. Continued down large gully and into intersecting small gully with complex area of gold mining features. Was running with others, but ignored them and focused on identifying the key features in the goldmining area.
Time Time lost behind above 140% benchmark benchmark
Comment and either what to keep doing well or identified area to work on
239 s
197 s
When I saw a complex area on th map I should have made a plan and navigated carefully, even if it meant pausing at the start triangle. Need to suppress the urge to get away from the start, and have confidence to slow down to a speed at which I can navigate rather than running faster than can navigate.
282 s
250 s
When I make a mistake I must not try to rush, but need to keep focused on my navigation. Need to take extra care after an error, not less care.
23 s
-8 s
Obvious route and clear features, went well
62 s
4s
Pleased with my ignoring others and sticking to my navigation plan using key features in complex area.
5
Navigated around hillside, but got too high. Saw the control below me.
70 s
13 s
Need to look more carefully at the contours on the map and note whether I need to climb, stay level or drop down, and by how much.
6
Used dry manmade gully that contoured around the hill and after 200m could see 50m higher up the hill the knoll next to the mineshaft.
20 s
-4 s
Good plan and good use of line features to get close enough to see the control feature
30 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
TRAINING
7
Tried to go straight on bearing, but hit dense vegetation which was slow going. Would have been quicker to go out onto the path, along and back in.
111 s
54 s
8
Ran up the track ontop of ridge and dropped into gully in which control was located.
13 s
-6 s
218 s
~ 146 s
30 s
-2 s
57 s
16 s
37 s
-7 s
9
10 11 12
13
14 15 F
Bad exit from previous control, as was distracted by others heading out of the control, followed them and didn’t read my map details carefully.They were on a different course and heading for a different control, when I realised I had to go back to previous control and navigate properly. Compass bearing to hit perpendicular ditch, aimed off by 50m to ensure hit ditch to left of control feature, turned left and hit control. Took compass bearing aiming off to hit earthwall, ran to bend and then took compass bearing to gully. Back out onto track, ran 300m pace counting and saw collecting features to clearing adjacent to track. Cut out onto track, through woods on bearing to hit another track. Then compass bearing into control, but didn’t hit it. I think this was due to my hitting the track 100m further left than I thought and so my bearing missed control by 100m. Had to sweep the area looking for it and saw others going in to the control. Exited onto track, long run to path junction where cut in on bearing. Started to think about my rivals and how they would probably beat me today. Lost count when pace counting and cut in too late. Straight run in to finish, which was visible from last control
Mental Skills
Concentrating Focusing Coping with stress Pre event preparation Psyching-up Relaxing Self-confidence Imaging Positive thinking Self-talk
Technical Skills
Map reading Compass work Feature identification Route choice and planning Simplification Distance judgement Relocating Contouring
Physical Fitness
Cardiovascular/aerobic fitness Muscular endurance Muscular strength and power Speed Rapid recovery
Should have studied the next route and features as approached the previous control. Need to ignore others, have a plan and do my own navigation.
Good leg, aiming off worked well, good plan. Good plan, worked well. Must continue to navigate using key features Good plan, worked well. Must continue to navigate using key features
146 s
-108 s
Need to use good attack points, paths are not a point. So need to find an attack point or collecting feature visible from the path. Should have gone along track to knoll so that I knew exactly where I was, and then taken compass bearing.If no attack point, need to look for other collecting features on route.
6s
-12 s
Had a plan with a good attack point. All went well.
98 s
58 s
Need to keep focused on navigation and not worry about previous mistakes until after the event.
13 s
1s
Steady run in
When completing the table, the most important column is the one on the right, where you identify why the leg went well or why it did not. From this you can start to determine your orienteering strengths and weaknesses. To provide some assistance I’ve listed some important orienteering attributes in Table 2. These may help you to identify why you may be losing time and what you need to work on. Everyone’s list will be slightly different and yours will be specific Table 2. List of attributes needed by orienteers
Not much I could do about this, as I wasn’t expecting the vegetation to be so bad – similarly marked areas on the map had been fairly easy to run through. Pleased with this leg, as I’d spotted that there were 2 parallel controls leading away from the ridge, and I was careful to get into the correct one on the left. Need to continue to watch out for potential parallel errors.
to you, but if you analyse several events you may start to see some commonalities and from these analyses you will be able to identify issues that occur repeatedly. These are likely to be the reasons why some of your control legs are good, and conversely the reasons why you lose time on others, the latter being the issues that need your attention.
What to focus on Based on your analyses of several events and what you put in your comments column you should be able to draw out some important attributes to focus on. For example, when analysing your ‘good legs’ you may list: ‘always having an attack point’, or ‘good identification of features’. Then when looking at the legs where you lost time you should firstly identify why you lost time, and then when listing what you need to focus on you should flip it into a positive that you need to do. So for example if what went wrong was a ‘loss of concentration’, then the positive to focus on is ‘to maintain concentration throughout the event’, or if what went wrong was ‘followed others’ then the positive to focus on would be ‘to focus on my own navigation’.
This way, when you do focus on each of these during an event they are all positive thoughts that are constructive about things that you should do and are in control of, rather than being a mixture of positive and negative things which during the ‘stress’ of an event can be confusing and put your mind in a jumble. You can also start to list these under: Mental, Technical and Physical.
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 31
TRAINING
What works well and what I need to work on
What to do now
In Table 3 I’ve gone back to the example in Table 1 and from there I’ve extracted what our example orienteer may need to work on.
Now that you have identified what you need to work on you can incorporate these into your event preparation. One way to do this is to make a list of what you must do. Don’t try to take on too much, so 3 or 4 priority items should be enough. Using the above example this could be: (i) staying calm at the Start and have a good plan for control #1; (ii) staying calm after a mistake and navigating even more carefully to the next one; (ii) read the contours between controls, and (iv) run hard when the navigation is easy. You can then read through these before an event and go through them in your mind in the Start area.
Table 3 Mental Issue identified from analysis
Positive attribute to work on
Lose time when rush out of the start without a plan.
Focus on staying calm and specifically focus on having a good plan for navigating to control #1.
Getting confused in a complex area and not knowing what features I’m looking at.
If my course goes into complex area on the map, take extra care to navigate to the area, so that I know exactly where I enter it and make sure I can identify the major features as I enter the area, rather than just hoping to find the control.
Making another mistake and losing time on legs when I’ve just lost time on the previous leg.
Concentrate and navigate even more carefully after making a mistake
Distracted by other orienteers
Focus on my own navigation throughout. Focus harder and navigate more carefully when others in my proximity.
Thoughts drift from navigating to thinking about other orienteers or nonorienteering matters
Keep concentrating on navigating throughout the entire event. If my mind drifts I need to focus it back on navigating.
Technical Issue identified from analysis
Positive attribute to work on
Always have a good plan, controls go well when I do and badly when I don’t.
Always have a plan by the time I leave the previous control
Getting confused in a complex area and not knowing what features I’m looking at.
Recognising key ground features in complex areas (picking out the important ones and ignoring all the extraneous lumps and bumps)
Poor route choice which means that I don’t know where I am when I get in the area of the control.
Identifying a good route with an obvious attack point and/or good collecting features on route.
Not being at the correct elevation for the control.
Focus on the contours between controls or key features, and carefully identify the amount of height I need to gain or lose.
Physical Issue identified from analysis
Positive attribute to work on
Not running fast enough when the navigation is simple
Push hard when the navigation is easy.
32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
Say to yourself what you are going to do today. You can even reinforce this during the event by saying them out loud when you recognise an upcoming scenario that you have identified as an issue. For example, if you have a couple of controls on a hillside, say out loud as you leave the first of these “How many contours up or down” – and then make sure you navigate accordingly. Once you have incorporated these positive attributes into your event and they start to occur automatically you can then do a reanalysis and identify what next to focus on. It’s a continuous process. If you’re really serious about working on these issues you should also practice them several times a week. Training events are ideal but you can also do some very effective training without leaving your living room, and this will be the focus of the next article ‘armchair training’.
STREET O
All aboard the SS Grafton ! T he northern NSW city of Grafton hosted an unusual event to start their monthly summer season of STREET-O – it included a boat trip to Susan Island in the middle of the Clarence River. The brainchild of ex-Newcastle member Gavin Rayward, the nautical interlude was part of the “53 Islands” celebration www.53islandsclarence.com.
Four wonderful SES volunteers shuttled participants the 400m across the mighty Clarence, giving locals the opportunity to explore the island that many often view from the riverbank but have never actually been on. Due to the extra time taken to get over to the island and back, and the bottleneck getting back off the island, they chose to waive the usual time penalties for this event (one point for each minute late beyond 45 minutes). Gavin tells the story of the Susan Island adventure here: “I’ve always had in the back of my mind to run a mini adventure race around Grafton, which would include paddling to Susan Island and an Orienteering course on the island. Then a few locals had an idea to celebrate the 53 islands of the Clarence Valley. One of them who has participated in STREET-O and knew that I was involved in the local Big River Canoe Club asked if I would be interested in holding an event on the island. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity.
“The 53 Island guys had already approached the SES to help out and, the Copmanhurst branch needed no convincing. They are always willing to help with the canoe marathons we organise. The driver had just spent two days on the river for the Clarence 100 (www. clarence100.com.au). They are just keen to get out on the river and assist their community. It also helps when the head of the branch is
your neighbour’s dad. The SES guys had not heard of STREET-O and are keen to give it a go next month.”
Almost 70 people took to the course, making up 21 teams. The field was a mix of seasoned regulars and quite a few first timers (including a few celebrating birthdays!). Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with teams particularly enjoying the opportunity to explore Susan Island. You can see a few pics, the map and a brief video of the launch arriving at the island on the Grafton’s STREET-O Facebook page. The map is also posted in this article. Special thanks to Maurice Anker from our Northern Tablelands club for doing the map work for Grafton, especially while he was preparing for the annual Armidale Schools Championships held that same day and that attracted 782 students!
Grafton STREET-O is all about the local community. Local businesses donate goods and vouchers for random door prizes at the final event for the season. In return, they get their logo on every clue sheet, promotional posters put up in key locations around town, and a 3-point control at their place of business. The clue is something that the community may not know about that business to give them a little extra advertising. A big thanks to Gavin Rayward for his hard work putting the series on each summer, and for this great story. This is the 7th season of Grafton STREET-O. Gavin brought the idea from Newcastle when he moved up nearly eight years ago. Julie Irvine, an avid orienteer from the Central Coast, was quick to jump on board to help. Steve Todkill from Newcastle set the very first course, showing where to place the controls. And the rest is history. ALL ABOARD !
3A
2F
3H
3E
3C
2H
3G
1F
3D
1G
2E
2D
3F
1D
2C 2G
1E 3B 2A
Boat shuttle
1H
1A
Boat Shuttle
1C
1B
2B
EMERGENCY CONTACT 0467 819 769 DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 33
MAP MEMORY
School Orienteering Project Loyola College ROB EDMONDS
L
oyola College is a secondary co-ed catholic school in Bundoora, an outer suburb in northern Melbourne. Approximately 225 students in Year 7 undertook an orientation program with an activity inspired by their Humanities Coordinator, Rachael Patrick. Rachael contacted Orienteering Victoria in 2018 with an idea to run a unit of work which combined environmental awareness and map reading skills.
The school already had a B&W map, made 10 years earlier by Adam Scammell. Building works meant Loyola was ready for a new map. Rob Fell, executive officer for Orienteering Victoria, asked me to produce a new colour map. There was also the possibility the school would want me to run an introductory Orienteering program. School grounds are very intricate and typically drawn at scales of 1:1000 to 1:2000. Special symbols are used for features such as drinking taps, basketball rings, rubbish bins, bench seats; even individual trees and bushes are mapped in a differentiated way. I used Nearmap images and a digital copy of the previous map and OCAD2018 for drawing the map. This latest version of OCAD has given mappers many new tools which proved very useful on this project.
Students were given the task of drawing an A3 sized map of the Loyola College Campus, from memory. Rachael provided students with a booklet for the unit which built up the students’ understanding of SPICESS and map skills. SPICESS is an acronym for the seven
34 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
geographical concepts of place, space, environment, interconnection, sustainability, scale and change; the key to understanding the places that make up our world. These are different from the content-based concepts such as weather, climate, mega cities and landscapes. The map was to include buildings, paths and gardens. Students had to include all six elements of BOLTSS and a grid referencing system of their own choosing. BOLTSS is an acronym for: Border, Orientation, Legend, Title, Scale and Source. It helps us to remember the 6 essential features of a map. The title tells us what the map shows.
Students had to annotate the map around the edge and include written directions explaining how to move from their Mentor room to the iCentre with directions and distances. It also needed to include photos of the facades of five Campus buildings or classrooms with their name and grid reference location and indicate them on the map. Students were also asked not to look at a map or aerial image of the College. Students were asked to write a report comparing their mental map to the OCAD map they used for their Orienteering sessions; looking at similarities and differences and why maps are important in our lives. Students completed two courses over two sessions and showed great enthusiasm and capability in map interpretation and navigation skills. The first session was a Star course and the second a combination of line courses. The final version of the map was printed at a scale of 1:1400 on A3 size paper. A 1:2000 version would fit on A4.
Loyola College
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 35
2019 WOC
Australians at 2019 World Orienteering Championships at Sarpsborg, Norway Patrick Jaffe Matt Doyle Simon Uppill Henry McNulty Brodie Nankervis Bridget Anderson Aislinn Prendergast Krystal Neumann Belinda Lawford Mary Fleming
Middle Distance Qualifier (Heat) Q= to Final 26th (1) 18th (2) 11th (3) Q
Middle Final
Long Distance
30th 39th 50th
12th (1) Q 13th (2) Q 20th (3)
47th 42th
Relay Team place 15th 15th 15th 19th
45th 47th
19th 19th
Middle Distance F - Bridget Anderson.
Women’s Long Distance map. 1:15000
36 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
Middle Distance F - Simon Uppill.
Relay - Henry McNulty - Tim Robertson.
Long Distance - Brodie Nankervis. Middle Distance Q - Belinda Lawford.
Middle Distance Q - Matt Doyle.
Long Distance Aislinn Prendergast.
Middle Distance Q Krystal Neumann.
Middle Distance Q - Patrick Jaffe. DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 37
WORLD CUP
Australian Team at World Cup Round in China BLAIR TREWIN REPORTS:
T
he final round of the 2019 World Cup took place in China at the end of October. This was the first time a World Cup round had taken place in China, and the first in Asia since Japan in 2000. The events were a Middle Distance, a Sprint Relay and the Sprint, with the Sprint taking place in a highly complex traditional Chinese village. Australia was represented by a full team of six men and six women. The best results were achieved by Aston Key, who was 21st in the Sprint and 46th in the Middle Distance. Krystal Neumann (53rd) was the best Australian woman in the Middle Distance, and Mary Fleming (60th) in the Sprint. The first team was 14th in the Sprint Relay. Henry McNulty was affected by injury and had to drop to the third team. The Middle Distance suffered from controversy after eight runners (including Aston) were initially disqualified for crossing a forbidden area but were reinstated after the jury ruled that the area was not sufficiently legible on the map.
Aston Key. Women’s Sprint Place 1 2 3 26 60 64 69 70 76 78 85
Name Shuangyan Hao Simona Aebersold Sara Hagstrom Lizzie Ingham Mary Fleming Belinda Lawford Laura Robertson Krystal Neumann Alice Tilley Bridget Anderson Anna Sheldon
Men’s Sprint Country China Switzerland Sweden New Zealand Australia Australia New Zealand Australia New Zealand Australia Australia
Time 13:18 13:28 13:34 15:15 16:43 16:50 17:09 17:10 18:04 18:09 19:53
Diff +0:10 +0:16 +1:57 +3:25 +3:32 +3:51 +3:52 +4:46 +4:51 +6:35
Women’s Middle Distance Place 1 2 3 41 53 56 58 61 64 72 75
Name Tove Alexandersson Natalia Gemperle Julia Jakob Lizzie Ingham Krystal Neumann Natasha Key Laura Robertson Bridget Anderson Anna Sheldon Belinda Lawford Alice Tilley
Mary Fleming.
Gustav Bergman and Tove Alexandersson secured overall World Cup victories. Alexandersson had already secured the title before arriving in China, but missed out on a chance of a 100% season record when an early mistake dropped her to 7th in the Sprint, whilst Bergman wrapped it up with a win in the Middle Distance, with Yannick Michiels taking the Sprint. China’s highlights came in the Sprint, where Shaungyan Hao, 10th in the Sprint in WOC 2009 before shifting her focus to athletics, took advantage of Alexandersson’s early errors to claim China’s first World Cup victory, while Li Zhouye was third in the men’s race.
Country Sweden Russia Switzerland New Zealand Australia Australia New Zealand Australia Australia Australia New Zealand
Place 1 2 3 13 21 31 59 69 71 89 102
Name Yannick Michiels Maxime Rauturier Li ZhuoYe Tim Robertson Aston Key Tommy Hayes Brodie Nankervis Matt Doyle Martin Dent Jarrah Day Devon Beckman
Country Belgium France China New Zealand Australia New Zealand Australia Australia Australia Australia New Zealand
Time 15:18 15:20 15:23 15:56 16:09 16:26 17:26 18:01 18:07 19:42 21:43
Country Sweden Switzerland France New Zealand Australia Australia Australia Australia Australia New Zealand New Zealand
Time 40:12 41:25 41:53 46:17 48:06 49:13 50:25 55:45 1:00:43 1:01:59 1:02:27
Diff +0:02 +0:05 +0:38 +0:51 +1:08 +2:08 +2:43 +2:49 +4:24 +6:25
Men’s Middle Distance Time 41:33 42:03 42:28 53:58 59:47 1:01:21 1:01:50 1:03:02 1:03:23 1:07:45 1:09:03
38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
Diff +0:30 +0:55 +12:25 +18:14 +19:48 +20:17 +21:29 +21:50 +26:12 +27:30
Place 1 2 3 27 46 52 57 79 91 93 95
Name Gustav Bergman Joey Hadorn Lucas Basset Tim Robertson Aston Key Brodie Nankervis Matt Doyle Jarrah Day Martin Dent Tommy Hayes Devon Beckman
Diff +1:13 +1:41 +6:05 +7:54 +9:01 +10:13 +15:33 +20:31 +21:47 +22:15
AUSTRALIAN TEAM Women Bridget Anderson Mary Fleming Natasha Key Belinda Lawford Krystal Neumann Anna Sheldon Men Jarrah Day Martin Dent Matt Doyle Aston Key Henry McNulty Brodie Nankervis Team manager: Ian Prosser
MTBO NEWS
Carolyn Jackson wins WMMTBOC Gold
C
arolyn Jackson claimed another gold medal in the recent World Masters Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships in Germany. Despite inclement weather with 5 degrees temperature and rain that had the bike tracks resembling rivers, Carolyn was able to bring home gold in the Long Distance event and bronze medals in both the Sprint and Mass Start races in the W55 class.
Carolyn has ridden in W60 in recent World Masters Championships, but decided to ride down in W55 this time. She is used to riding W21 in events in Australia and New Zealand and sometimes finds the W60 courses in Europe to be too short, especially after travelling all the way from Australia for these championships. Despite dropping down a class she still achieved terrific results with three medals. She missed out on the Middle Distance with a MP after suffering from a failed SIAC stick. Carolyn’s great navigational ability has been well demonstrated over the years. She has amassed 16 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze medals from the 7 World Masters MTBO championships she has attended since her debut in Hungary in 2012.
Carolyn has formerly represented Australia in both foot and MTBO disciplines in the elite world championships, a feat that only a few other orienteers have managed. She also races nationally in mountain bike cross country, endurance and stage races and usually dominates her age class.
Combined W55 and M55 podium for the Long Distance medal presentations with Carolyn on the top step.
A muddy WMTBO Championships in Germany
F
ive Australians braved the rain, wind and mud of eastern Germany for the World Masters MTBO Champs held in the first week of October. Victoria’s Carolyn Jackson (riding W55) and Bill Vandendool (M65) were joined by WA’s Ben Coetzer (M55) plus Queensland’s Tamsin Barnes (W50) and Richard Robinson (M60). Also from the Antipodes were NZ’s Jim Sutherland (M60) and London based Kiwis, Rachel (W40) and Liam (M45) Drew. The program said it was statistically the driest time of year in the area but of course statistics always have a good scatter on them and the carnival was subject to an unseasonably cold and wet period which was a great pity for both competitors and organisers as the conditions seriously marred some of the races. First up was the Middle Distance. The rain held off for the race but the tracks were very muddy. Rachel rode into 4th and Tamsin 6th. Carolyn had her SIAC fail early in the event, fortunately the organisers had provided everyone with a back-up stick, but the failure led to a short loss of concentration and she missed one control and thus finished as an MP.
The Long Distance was very physical but the mud not too bad and there was very little rain during the event. Courses were very well set with lots of route choice. Carolyn came through for a win and Tamsin got a 4th.
and Carolyn and Rachel each getting a 3rd and Tamsin a 5th.
Over the course of the week the remaining Antipodeans managed to prop-up the middle and lower portions of the field, just to help make the rest of the competitors feel good about themselves!
Mud – there was quite a bit of it!
The Mass Start event was one that will go down in the annals! The Assembly Area and Start/Finish was an open carpark at 1,150 metres elevation on the top of a ski field. It was 2ºC, raining and with a very strong wind. Almost no-one had brought the gear to ride in such conditions. Added to this was many of the tracks that simply turned to quagmires, particularly around the several butterfly pivot controls. Bikes bogged to the axle, shoes pulled off feet and maps so muddy as to become unreadable, seemed the order of the day. As might be imagined the attrition rate was massive with many choosing to live until the evening rather than risk death by hypothermia. Still some were strong with Carolyn grabbing a 3rd, Rachel a 4th and Tamsin a 5th. It was a real pity as the area and the courses would have been brilliant in good conditions.
The last day dawned very cold but with glimpses of sunshine and no rain for the Sprint which was primarily in an urban area. Again a brilliant map with excellent courses
These Champs were also the final races in the 2019 MTBO World Masters Series. NZ’s Marquita Gelderman topped the rankings in W40, despite only doing six races (your best seven count), Kathy Liley (Vic) and Ann Ingwersen (ACT) were 2nd in W70 and W75 respectively, Rob Garden of NZ 3rd in M65 and 4th places to Tamsin Barnes (W50), Peta Whitford (W70) and Dale-Ann Gordon (W75). Richard Robinson and Tamsin Barnes
Cold, wet and bleak conditions for the Mass Start. DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 39
AUSTRALIAN MTBO CHAMPIONSHIPS
a u s tr a lian
c ha m pionsh ips 2019
Maryborough, VIC
2 5-2 7 Oc t ober 20 19
M50s head off on the Mass Start event.
Ricky Thackray and Alex Randall provided an exciting finish in M21 at the Mass Start event sprinting from the last control (above) to the finish line. Both recorded the same time but Ricky was awarded the win by a tyre width.
The Sprint start.
BY KAY HAARSMA. PHOTOS: JASON ROGERS PHOTOGRAPHY, KAY HAARSMA
The AUS MTBO Championships Carnival promised a lot and certainly delivered. Perhaps the best ever! A real credit to event directors Peter Cusworth, Kathy Liley and Blake Gordon and all the courses setters, advisers, organisers and helpers.
M
aryborough in Victoria was historic in many ways. It saw a practice event run using the MapRun phone app technology. The Saturday night dinner was in the picturesque Maryborough railway station. The first event, the inaugural Mass Start Championship was raced on an updated Mosquito Flat map, which was the site of the 2004 World Championships Relay. Fond memories there for returnees Carolyn Jackson and Alex Randall who both won bronze medals that day. Also for coach Kay Haarsma, Eoin Rothery who raced under the Irish flag, and Blake Gordon and many of the other Victorian organizers. The whole carnival had an European feel to it – being able to ride to events and then back to a coffee shop afterwards! With the three new maps Maryborough now has five maps adjacent to town and another some 24 kms away at Dunolly – what a resource! The Mass Start organizer, Peter Cusworth, sensibly had divided riders into five mass starts and given us a whole oval to ride across whilst sorting out initial route choices. The highlight was a sprint finish in M21 between Ricky Thackray & Alex Randall. Although both recorded the same time, Ricky was awarded the win by the width of a tyre! The AUS v NZ Challenge score 4-all – a tight contest as expected. Sadness for Craig Steffens who broke the frame on his almost brand new bike when a stick hit it! 40 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
The Flat Creek Sprint map was a new area that included the grounds of the Maryborough Education Centre for the longer courses. People loved the courses but the map should have been better, especially in the school area. A breakout win in W21 for Kiwi junior Tegan Knightbridge, ahead of Marquita Gelderman & Marina Iskhakova. Ricky Thackray took his 2nd victory with Bendigo’s James Robertson grabbing the silver. The closest finish of the day was a two-second win in W50 to Tamsin Barnes ahead of Carolyn Matthews. However, Carolyn took the honours in the Middle Distance event held in the afternoon by 13 seconds! AUS v NZ Challenge – 4-all again! The Middle Distance event on Tullaroop Forest was well set by the indomitable Kathy Liley. However Kathy was wearing a “pirate” eye patch due to the ongoing effects of concussion suffered from a fall whilst course checking. Amazing dedication for her to see the event through to completion! The big M60 field provided the highlight with Daryl Smith stealing a four-second win from Eoin Rothery, with Rob Vincent only another 8 seconds back! An exciting result from Tassie 16-year-old Will Whittington (M20) who took just 50 mins for his 15.5km course. This was within a minute of both the W21 (Marina Iskhakova) & M50 (Stephen Hanlon) winners on the same course. Exhilaration for the Aussie Challenge team with a 5-3
Tamsin Barnes (QLD) and Dave Armstrong (NZ) closely checking their maps during the Middle Distance event. Jason Rogers Photography
Another promising MTBO junior from Tasmania, Will Whittington, won M20 at all four events.
Tegan Knightbridge (NZ) had a great win in the Sprint race over her more experienced rivals.
Jason Rogers Photography
Jason Rogers Photography
The Australian and New Zealand teams for the ANZ Challenge. Right: NZ’s Steve Pyatt presents the Challenge banner to AUS Team Manager Andrew Power.
win over New Zealand for this race, but victory still possible for both teams going into the final event.
Dunolly Forest was the site of the Long Distance event where Keith Wade created many interesting route choice legs. Newcastle’s Tim Doman showcased his riding power here with a dominant 7 minute win over Ricky Thackray in M21. Marina Iskhakova found out the hard way that “it’s never over until the Finish,” when she lost 20 seconds on a wrong turn to the Finish flag and gifted Marquita Gelderman the win by 3 seconds! The advantage of E-bikes was on display on Course 2 where Lee Merchant (Ebike2) was the fastest on course (over W21, M40 & M50) with a speedy 2.37km rate time. The AUS v NZ count saw another 5-3 win to Australia, to give us victory overall 18-14. Very nice to have the Kiwis hand the challenge flag over to Australian manager Andrew Power. Well done to two riders who were very determined and got value for money in Ariadna Iskhakova (W12) and Helen Alexander (W80) who each spent 7 hours on the shortest courses over the four events! Perhaps we need to look at increasing the number of courses? Juniors Kyla Moore (W14), Rhiannon Prentice (W20) and Will Whittington (M20) rode some good km rates in winning all four events; while Patrick Cooper (M12) and Anakin Trotter (M14) won the three events they contested. Well done to Cathy Hogg (W40) & Ann
Ingwersen (W70) who won all four events despite strong opposition. Outstanding performances also from Hamish Mackie (M50), Carolyn Matthews (W50), and Rob Garden (M60) for winning three events each. The Elites shared the spoils with Ricky Thackray and Marina Iskhakova doing best with two titles each. Fedor Iskhakov’s great results of a 2nd, two 3rds and a 4th in M21 demonstrates that organizing events such as the ACT Championships the week before is beneficial to one’s navigation.
Comment from Rose Campbell (Wangaratta), long time orienteer: “I enjoyed taking my hybrid e-Bike out on the relatively flat Middle Distance course, even though I got drenched in the thunderstorm! The e-Bike class really opens up MTBO to a range of older or injured people and I would certainly encourage others to give it a go.”
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 41
AUSTRALIAN MTBO CHAMPIONSHIPS
A star of the future – Ariadna Iskhakova with 4 wins in W12. Jason Rogers Photography
Cathy Hogg won all four championships in W40. Photo: Don Cherry
Anthony Jones (M40) during the Sprint. Photo: Don Cherry
First Interstate MTBO Experience Harrison Waugh – M21
I
was one of twelve South Australians who made the trek to Maryborough to participate in the Australian MTBO Championships. I have been participating in MTBO in SA for the past two years, and when I heard the AUS Championships were only a short drive away (for Australia!) in the Goldfields region I was keen to give it a go. Coming to MTBO from a cycling background and limited Foot O experience, I was interested to see how my map-reading skills would go in a completely foreign location. My limited exposure to MTBO events meant I had only ever done Long Distance and Score events, and so I was also looking forward to my first foray into the Mass Start, Sprint and Middle Distance formats. The Mass Start on the Friday afternoon was certainly a high-stress start to the weekend - only 15 seconds to look at the map and then everyone was sprinting across the oval towards the Start flag! I finished 7th in M21, less than 10 mins behind the winner on the 26km course, with my SA mate Jack Allison just ahead in 6th, so we were pretty happy.
26 participants attended Australia’s first ever IOF MTBO Event Advisor clinic, conducted by Hungarian expert Sandor Talas over 2 days at the end of the AUS MTBO Champs. Attendees were from most States, plus 3 from NZ and 2 from Great Britain & Ireland. The clinic was generously funded by the IOF for which Orienteering Australia is very grateful. Having more people with greater technical knowledge can only be beneficial to our sport.
Perhaps my most anticipated event was the Sprint on Saturday morning, simply because I didn’t know what to expect. A much more reasonable 1-minute map viewing window was still not enough, as I made a wrong turn almost immediately! Despite this, the Sprint was my favourite event of the weekend with control flags everywhere you looked and an interesting foray into a school campus. The Middle and Long Distance events more closely resembled the events we have in SA. My “Middle” course had me flipping the map a couple of times (time for a bigger mapboard) and finishing amidst a thunderstorm! My parents also competed, both also keen recent converts. They thoroughly enjoyed riding on the new maps and using SI-AIR, and can’t wait to do more. After the Carnival, I also attended the IOF Workshop presented by Sandor Talas where I learnt heaps about the organisation and mapping for bigger and even international-level MTBO events. I am looking forward to putting that knowledge to use by organising some local events here in SA. 42 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
World Masters MTBO Series convenor Keith Dawson and wife Karina Hanley had come all the way from Europe for the carnival so were on hand at the Presentation Dinner to make series awards to riders from “downunder”. From left: Ann Ingwersen (ACT) 2nd W75, Karina Hanley, Kathy Liley (VIC) 2nd W70, Keith Dawson, Rob Garden (NZ) 3rd M65 and Marquita Gelderman (NZ) 1st W40. Eino Mueronen from ACT was not present but came =2nd in M80.
Anthea & Steve Williams – W/M60 Rhiannon Prentice sporting a pair of AUS MTBO CHAMPION socks during the Long race. She won 4 pairs of socks over the weekend! Jason Rogers Photography
C
oming off the back of an eightweek cycle trip in Europe, Steve and I decided that we would put that acquired fitness to use in the AUS MTBO Championships. We booked ourselves into a delightful B&B, centrally located in High St. From there we were able to ride to the practice and first three events. The practice event was a very rideable eucalyptus forest, with gentle hills, but we realized that we needed to pay very careful attention to the maze of tracks. It was important to be aware of track direction. With good visibility through the bush, it was also important to use natural features, such as creeks and knolls to assist in navigation. My experience over the next three days reinforced that. And oh, if only I had listened to my advice, I could have avoided some silly, but costly errors! The riding was fabulous - lovely forest, manageable hills and mainly fast tracks. At times I rode faster than my brain could navigate. Comparing the splits post event showed that many riders made similar silly errors. The riding, though, was so much fun that it was easy afterwards to forgive oneself for the navigation errors and just enjoy the euphoria of a nice ride. From our accommodation we walked to a variety of pubs, restaurants and cafes. The food at each of them was excellent. We also followed the historic walking route around the town and visited the historic settlements of Clunes and Talbot. All up it was a fabulous event!
Tullaroop Forest – Middle distance
scale: 1:10000 (reduced to 80% here), contours 5m DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 43
SILVA MEDAL
2019 SILVA Medal DARRYL ERBACHER - OA STATISTICIAN
The SILVA Medal for 2019 has been won by Stephen Craig (NC.N). Congratulations Stephen.
T
he SILVA Medal competition is based on points for participating and placing in the AUS Championships (Sprint, Middle & Long Distances), the AUS 3-Days (each day a separate event) and the Oceania Championships (Sprint, Middle & Long Distances) - Elite & A classes in M/W16 and above. One’s best 6 events counts towards this award. Points are scored for completing a course as follows: 1st – 4; 2nd – 3; 3rd – 2; 1 for finishing, and 1 point if there are less than 4 starters. Four orienteers won at least 6 of the 9 events scoring a maximum of 24 points. To determine the winner of the SILVA Medal a countback based on average winning margins was used. Orienteers who scored 20 points or more: Stephen Craig
NC.N
24 0.244
Bruce Arthur
MF.V
24 0.210
Jenny Bourne
EU.V
24 0.076
Robin Uppill
OH.S
24 0.019
Clare Hawthorne AL.T
23
Darryl Erbacher
PO.A
22
David Stocks
BS.A
22
Zoe Melhuish
PO.A
22
Alex Tarr
YV.V
21
Cath Chalmers
BF.N
21
Craig Feuerherdt BG.V
21
Martina Craig
NC.N
21
Natasha Key
MF.V
21
Paul Hoopman
TJ.S
21
Alastair George
ST.N
20
Eoin Rothery
BF.N
20
Judi Herkes
NK.V
20
Mikaela Gray
UG.Q
20
Simon Uppill
SW.S
20
Tara Melhuish
PO.A
20
Warren Key
MF.V
20
Statistician: Congratulations Stephen on an excellent set of orienteering performances this year and winning the SILVA Medal. Stephen: Thanks, Darryl.
Stat: You won all three days in the AUS 3-Days and the Sprint & Middle Distance AUS Championships in M50 and the AUS Long Distance Championship in M35. What a wonderful performance. Stephen:Thanks. We had a relaxing holiday in WA at Easter, and I think that helped the orienteering. Stat:Some of your winning margins were spectacular – 43, 38, 24 & 23 %. Was your field weak in the west or were you on fire?
Stephen: Some people went to NZ instead of WA and that probably had an impact. I was in decent shape early in the season but had problems with a calf injury later on. Stat: Given the size of your wins what advice can you give our up and coming orienteers?
Stephen:Practise orienteering! Get f it and do it with map in hand. Stat: You must control your mistakes while running and navigating hard. What is your secret?
Stephen Craig
2019
MAPPIN G & COURSE SETTIN G SOFT WARE Mapping alone over the holidays? Garmin InReach (or Spot) can give your family comfort & even save your life. We have used InReach satellite emergency communicator for years & are about to buy a 2nd. Check out my post at tinyurl.com/inreach4o Australia & NZ OCAD reseller
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Interview with Stephen Craig
Ph. 03 5348 3792
44 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2019
info@ocad.com.au
Stephen: I spent many years in Sweden where the training environment is good and you quickly get punished in the results list if you’re off your game.
pretex Jim Russell
Ph. 0411 125 178 jymbois@gmail.com
With practice you learn how to structure and simplify to be able to run fast without creating risk. Stat: This year, the SILVA Medal was conducted around buildings and in granite. Do you orienteer differently in different terrains?
Stephen: Yes, I think so. What is best to focus on varies with the type of terrain although aspects like good direction are always important. I’m still f iguring out how to do Sprint.
Stat: I have been orienteering for a long time and it’s disappointing that I don’t get better at navigating as my feet slow down. Have you reached your peak in navigation skills yet? Stephen:I don’t know. The f ine detail certainly isn’t getting any easier to read over time! These days I actually f ind it’s mainly about doing in a race what I know I should do, and that’s usually mental rather than physical or technical.
Stat: Martina also scored highly in the SILVA Medal (21 points with 3 wins). Do you coach her or …. ? Stephen:Ha ha – I reckon I’m the last person she would listen to … She does just f ine as is! Stat: Thanks for your time Stephen and once again congratulations on a wonderful year.
A new shipment has arrived. Get in early to secure your Pretex for 2019. https://goo.gl/t81zFf
ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA
OA Report Generator PAUL PRUDHOE – OA EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Background
T
individual club lists can be selected and downloaded. Lists of new members can be obtained by selecting ‘New members in 2019’ from the ‘Membership history’ field.
In his role as chair of the Eventor Working Group, Ian was familiar with Eventor and was fully aware of the need to be able to more easily generate membership and participation reports which OA needs every year for reporting purposes to Sport Australia and the States need for reporting to their State Offices of Sport, and when applying for grants.
State Stats Reports
hanks to the devotion and hard work of Orienteering Tasmania’s Ian Rathbone, while most members were enjoying the first weekend of the Oceania Championships carnival, Ian was providing access to the State Associations to a new report generator which uses member and competitor data from Eventor.
Earlier this year Ian discovered a Joomla/WordPress plugin called Tabulizer. Tabulizer is an extremely powerful plugin that eliminates the need for pushing the data into a database and also eliminates the need for a separate reporting interface. Tabulizer can be pointed at a data source and present the data in a tabular and graphical format on a webpage. From there the user can filter, sort and search to create a sub-set of the data, and then simply press a button to download or email that data sub-set in csv or Excel format. If you would like to find out more about the workflow and technical details of the OA Reporting Website check out: https://reporting. orienteering.asn.au/help-faqs/about-this-reporting-system
Current Status The system is up and running and the President, Secretary and other key administrators of each State and the ACT have been provided with a username and password and have been asked to nominate other people to be given access. After they login they will be able to see all the reports available for their State. They will also be able to see the stats reports for other States and the ACT.
Participation & Results – lists all results for all competitors in all events held in each State. Fields include Event ID, Event Name, Date, Type, Eventor ID, Firstname, Lastname, Sex, YOB, Club, Event Class, Finish Positon, and Finish Time. The amount of data is massive so separate files are selectable for State Events, Local Events Jan to Jun and Local Events Jul to Dec. For the larger States these files contain over 10,000 records. In next edition of this magazine the Stats Reports will be explained further. In brief these are: Membership Age/Sex Stats Membership Type Stats Participation Age/Sex Stats Participation Class Stats
Next OA e-Bulletin In the next issue of this e-bulletin, we will be discussing the rollout model; who sees what data; help and FAQs; and future plans for developing more reports on the reporting website. We will also outline the session on reporting that was held at the OA December Conference. Sample screenshot (below) from the OA Reporting website:
State General Reports There are four general reports available for each State:
Contact Details – lists all registered orienteers for a State. Fields include Firstname, Lastname, sex, YOB, SI, Club, address, phone, mobile, email. There are filters available on many of these fields and this, for example, allows a user to filter on the club to obtain and download a club list. Contact Details and Other Info – includes all the fields in the Contact Details report plus membership details for the current year and other fields used for The Australian Orienteer magazine, and emailing results. Again, individual club lists can be selected and downloaded. Membership Details – lists all registered members of clubs for each State. Fields include Firstname, Lastname, sex, YOB, SI, Club, Membership 2019, Paid Date, Family Group Number, and Membership History. Again,
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 45
LETTERS
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.
F
Follow the red needle
ifty years since the first event in Australia on 23 August 1969. I’d actually started a bit later in winter 1970. My event number one at Gembrook, east of Melbourne, was a DNF. I had a loan compass to navigate the forested area with a couple of minutes’ instruction in how to use it: measure the bearing on the map, deduct eleven degrees for magnetic deviation, line myself up: march ahead.
Indomitable, I followed the red needle; this always points to magnetic North. It was not long until I realised I was utterly lost. I just kept going in the hope of I know not what. Eventually I was trudging across a muddy field. The farmer saw me and kindly loaded me into his ute to drive me to the Start. Louie the Fly (John Lewis) welcomed me back, “We were just about to have another beer before setting out to look for you.” This year it was Cardinia Reservoir, the nearest terrain to the original map; the original area was mostly unusable due to suburban sprawl and construction of the big water reservoir. At that time I was a novice M35. Now I was M85 with 2364 events behind me in all forms of Orienteering – bush, park & street, and ski-O in several different countries. True to form I succeeded in DNF’ing again. My athletic powers let me down trying to jump over a muddy ditch. Shaken and muddy, I cut short my course. Ian Baker (Bayside Kangaroos – VIC)
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This issue’s Victorinox Award goes to Toni Brown (ACT) for her work in organising the highly successful 2019 Junior Invitational Tour which was part of the OCEANIA Carnival. Toni will receive a Victorinox Handyman which includes 24 tools and features – retail value $139.
Top Events 2021
2019 Dec 27-31
January 9-17
Xmas 5 Days, NSW www.onsw.asn.au
April 2-5 Easter May 14-30
2020 Jan 24-27
Lonely Mountain Sprints New Plymouth, New Zealand lonelymountainsprints.weebly.com
Jan 24Feb 2
Australian High Performance Sprint Tour to NZ eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/ Show/9226 2020 Melbourne Sprint Weekend Melbourne, Victoria www.vicorienteering.asn.au/msw
March 7-9
April 10-13 (Easter)
AUS 3 Days Orange, NSW
June 13-14
2020 Arctic Circle Jukola Relays Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland. www.jukola.com/2020/en/
June 10-18 June 19-20 July 5-18 July 15-25
July 18-24 July 11-18
June 26 - Jul 3
JWOC 2020 Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey jwoc2020.org/
Aug 28-29
July 5-10
Fin 5 Kuusamo, Finland www.ruka.fi/en/fin5
Sept
July 6-11
Sprint WOC 2020 Denmark (near Velje, Jutland) woc2020.dk
July 19-24 July 21 - Aug 2
O-Ringen Uppsala, Sweden California O Festival San Francisco & Lake Tahoe www.cal-o-fest.com
August 7-15
WMOC 2020 Kosice, Slovakia www.wmoc2020.sk August 17-23 WMTBOC & JWMTBOC 2020 Jeseník, Czech Republic Sept 9-13
Sept 29Oct 1
World Masters MTBO Champs Lahti - Heinola, Finland 2020 Australian MTBO Champs Kuri Kuri, NSW, ausmtbochamps.com 2020 AUS Championships Launceston & St Helens,Tasmania www.aoc2020.tasorienteering.asn.au 2020 AUS Schools Championships St Helens,Tasmania
Sept 29Oct 1
2020 Turbo Chook 3 Days St Helens,Tasmania
Oct 10-17
Alice Springs Masters Games
late November Dec 27-31
MELBOURNE City Race 2020 www.melbournecityrace.com.au Xmas 5 Days NSW www.onsw.asn.au/
Sept 18-20
Sept 26Oct 4
OCEANIA NZ 2021 Canterbury region, New Zealand http://oceaniao.nz/ AUS 3 Days, Queensland WMOC & World Masters Games Orienteering near Kobe, Japan www.wmg2021.jp/en/ World MTBO Championships Finland 2021 Jukola Relays Mynämäki, SW Finland Forest WOC 2021 Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic 2021 World Games Birmingham, Alabama, USA www.theworldgames2021.com/ O-Ringen Are, Sweden JWOC 2021 Aguiar da Beira, Portugal 2021 Australian MTBO Champs Brisbane, QLD ausmtbochamps.com AUS Championships Victoria
2022 July 9-13
Sprint WOC 2022 Edinburgh, Scotland
Aussie Supporters Shirts If you are going overseas or just after a great looking casual Orienteering Shirt that promotes our sport and gives that team appearance, then you can order now. The shirts are made by Trimtex, very comfortable and they look great (even after several years of wear). The design is a polo shirt in women’s and unisex sizes. Colin will help with sizing but it will be similar to your current O top (if a Trimtex or Siven). Note that the Trimtex sizes are smaller than what you might buy normally! There is a minimum order and you can also get a jacket or vest in the same design. Prices are: Shirt $53, Jackets $100 and Vest $80. Orders will be taken up until the first week in February. The aim is to distribute the shirts at Easter 2020 but if you are not attending I can post to you. Enquiries to Colin Price: colin@aussieogear.com
DECEMBER 2019 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 47
aussieogear.com
CHRISTMAS IDEAS SPORTident ActiveCard The SPORTident ActiveCard (SIAC) registers the time and code number of an AIR+ compatible SPORTident Station in a proximity range of 0.5 to 3 meters and at a maximum passing speed of 40km/h.
• Pants • Shirts • Socks • Gaiters • Map Boards • Compasses • Spectacles • Flags • Punches
AUSTRALIAN AGENT FOR
SPORTIDENT & TRIMTEX SUPPLIER OF: ORIFIX, VAVRY, SIVEN, VAPRO, MOSCOMPASS mobile:
0415 210 339
email: colinp53@yahoo.com.au
www.aussieogear.com