SILVA MEDAL 2021

DARRYL ERBACHER - OA STATISTICIAN

The 2021 SILVA Medal has been won by Marina Iskhakova (RR-A).

The SILVA Medal competition for 2021 is based on points for participating and placing in the Australian 3-Days Championships (each day considered as a separate event) . In 2021, this award would have been based on the Australian 3-Days, plus the cancelled Sprint, Middle & Long Australian Championships and the Tasmanian Middle Distance Championships. As it is not possible to win the SILVA Medal without attending the Australian 3-Days, the OA Board has decided to make an award for 2021 based on the Australian 3-Days. Points are scored for completing a course as follows: 1st – 4; 2nd – 3; 3rd – 2 and 1 for finishing, 1 point if there are less than 4 starters. Six orienteers won all three days at the Australian 3-Days Championships scoring a maximum of 12 points. To determine the winner of the SILVA Medal a countback based on average winning margins was used.

Orienteers who scored 10 points of more are listed below.

Marina Iskhakova RR A W40A 12 0.31 Greg Barbour BF N M55A 12 0.18 Warren Key* MF V M60A 12 0.14 Jenny Hawkins BS A W75A 12 0.09 Grant Bluett AO A M45A 12 0.07 Chris Brown EV T W60A 12 0.06 Sue Key MF V W65A 11 Steve Flick BN N M70A 11 Milla Key MF V W16A 11 Matt Doyle CC A M21E 11 Jennifer Enderby NC N W50A 11 Gareth Candy AO A M40A 11 Wayne Eliot UR N M35A 10 Tracy Marsh BF N W45A 10 Tom Walter RR A M40A 10 Toby Cazzolato SW S M18E 10 Mikayla Enderby ST N W18E 10 Mace Neve RR A W35A 10 Jock Davis BF N M50A 10 Istvan Kertesz GO N M35A 10 Erika Enderby NC N W16A 10 Emily Sorensen SW S W20E 10 Briohny Seaman WR N W35A 10

*Previous winner of SILVA Medal

Marina with Darryl Erbacher. Photo: John Harding

OA Statistician, Darryl Erbacher, interviews Marina Iskhakova

Statistician: Marina, you have had an outstanding career and now the SILVA Medal. Congratulations.

Marina: Thanks Darryl! S: How does it feel to hold this (heavy) trophy? M: It feels excellent! First the trophy is very beautiful! And it has so much rich Australian orienteering history in it. When I first heard about the SILVA Medal and Trophy back in 2010 in Sydney when we became members of Bennelong Northside, I dreamt one day I might win it.

S: In a year of reduced relevant events you were one of 6 orienteers to gain maximum points but on a countback you blitzed your class by an average winning margin of 31%. Your fitness and navigation skills must be at a peak?

M: 2021 was very disruptive for all, including me. As the competition was only for a few events, I tried to get the maximum from each of them and put on the best possible performance. I love very technical and very complicated challenging terrain where you need to exhibit the highest technical and mental endurance from the start to the finish. The Gumble Pinnacle courses provided that precise challenge. I was in very good shape and managed to keep a very high level of concentration over all days. Yes, when you are in a SILVA Medal contest with such excellent orienteers as Greg Barbour, Warren Key, and Grant Bluett, who all obtained maximum points after 3 events – you also need a little bit of luck to get on a top and secure the trophy.

S: I, and others, had some trouble with the maps at Easter. How did you conquer the maps?

M: In the earliest years of my career I spent a lot of time at the Scandinavian terrain with a lot of boulders and rocky grounds, so really I was very much looking forward to the Gumble Pinnacle Challenge. I did pre-event preparation work at home with route choice exercises, terrain visualisation, routes analysis and tactical planning for each course. Also before each event I intensively worked with the map at home and spend additional time analysing the terrain, thinking about that terrain and making explicit my thoughts and actions for that terrain. Before each start I had a very clear strategy of what I’ll be doing based on my strengths, but the paramount cornerstones for each race for me were a full concentration from the start until finish, a very reliable and quality route choice and a very confident run based on confident constant knowledge of my current location.

S: You were runner up for the Medal in 2018. Now you have your name on the trophy do you think you can repeat the performance? (Ian Hassall’s 9 wins over 18 years is a significant target).

M: Smiles … A great question. In spite the fact I started Orienteering when I was 6 years old together with my twin and knowledge inherited from my parents who brought the sprit of Orienteering to our family since 1963, definitely I got a late start for the SILVA Medal contest. I’ll not be able to repeat the stellar success of Ian Hassall myself, but if I modify the internal criteria, we could try to conquer and host the trophy as result of family efforts, so with the help of my husband Fedor Iskhakov (M40) and daughters Ariadna (W14) and Veronika (W10) there is some potential to host this fascinating trophy on our home shelf for several years in the future. But also my personal very inspiring and uplifting dream is to get the gold medals in the World Masters Orienteering Championships in each age group – W45, W50, W55, W60, W65, W70, W75, W80, W85 and the main W90. So I’ll still will be hoping the SILVA Medal Trophy will return to our home during that journey.

S: You have won medals at World Masters MTBO. Do the two disciplines compliment each other for you?

M: Despite the fact I won 2 Gold Medals and 2 Bronze Medals at the WMMTBOC 2018 in Hungary in W40, my main passion is foot Orienteering. I have been doing foot orienteering courses for 37 years now, and still there is no other thing I love more than foot orienteering. Nothing could compare with that level of joy and full concentration and meditation when you are alone in a very complicated technical terrain only with the map and compass and choosing your own way forward. But with the accumulated injuries many move to MTBO to get a more balanced skeletal load. The strong Foot-O background gives me very much confidence for my MTBO. I developed the technical side of my biking to the level that it doesn’t constrain my route choice. MTBO is much faster, the risk and price for a mistake is much higher, memory skills are much more in demand and discrete instantaneous decision making brings so much thrill into the game. Foot-O made me a much more confident MTBOer, but MTBO so much enriched my Foot-O abilities, route choice techniques, instant map reading, memory and the strategic importance to play from your strengths.

S: You mentioned that you were lucky to have found something you were good at (in addition to your career in Economics). What are your personal characteristics that allow you to be a high achiever?

M: First, I think it is the real zeal for winning. Second, there are so many incredible and so much inspiring people around me now who do more, who constantly develop and learn new skills and who are so much more capable and willing to reach higher in spite of their age. They are a real inspiration for me and I’m just trying to follow their trailblazer steps. And the third one, I really like challenges and all challenging and hardly reachable tasks are thrilling for me. This combination is the essence of my orienteering.

S: You have young children orienteering. What advice do you have for developing orienteers?

M: I strongly believe that to be a very good at something you should love it and you should be really passionate about it. So the main advice for parents and kids – to try to create a very friendly and encouraging environment, where kids would like to return again and again and to steadily work on improvement and building their orienteering techniques and skills from a kid to a junior and then an elite level. Another advice – to ignite a dream in these kids. A 12-years old kid who has a big burning dream and an inspiration to try out for Junior World Champs one day will develop faster and with more joy!

S: Thanks for talking with me, Marina, and congratulations again.