The Australian Orienteer – December 2006

Mountain Bike Orienteering in WA

w w w. o r i e n t e e r i n g . a s n . a u Orienteering Australia President: Director (High Performance): Director (Finance): Director (Development): Director (Technical): Director (Special Projects): IOF Vice President: Executive Officer: Head Coach: Badge Applications:

PO Box 284 Mitchell BC 2911 orienteering@netspeed.com.au w: 02 6162 1200 Bob Mouatt oa_president@netspeed.com.au h: 02 6231 2463 m: 0412 312 376 Mike Dowling oa_highperformance@netspeed.com.au h: 03 6244 7173 Blair Trewin oa_finance@netspeed.com.au h: 03 9455 3516 Ben Rattray oa_development@netspeed.com.au m: 0404 781 032 Andy Hogg oa_technical@netspeed.com.au w: 02 6125 9962 h: 02 6251 9777 Robin Uppill oa_projects@netspeed.com.au h: 08 8278 3017 m: 0419 037 770 Hugh Cameron oa_international@netspeed.com.au h: 02 6027 0885 Gareth Candy orienteering@netspeed.com.au w: 02 6162 1200 m: 0402 312 379 Grant Bluett grant.bluett@gmail.com 0433 222 350 John Oliver 68 Amaroo Street, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650

STATE ASSOCIATIONS Queensland OA: PO Box 114 Spring Hill QLD 4004 Secretary: Angela Hoelzl, Ph. (07) 3325 1165 oq@oq.asn.au OA NSW: PO Box 740, Glebe NSW 2037 Secretary: Dave Lotty, Ph. (02) 9660 2067 (w), (02) 9569 2380 (h) orienteering@sydney.net Orienteering ACT: PO Box 402, Jamison Centre ACT 2614. Office: John Suominen, Ph. (02) 6251 3885 actoa@iimetro.com.au Victorian OA: 332 Banyule Rd, Viewbank VIC 3084 Secretary: Warwick Williams, Ph. (03) 9459 0853 voa@netspace.net.au OA South Australia: State Association House, 73 Wakefield Street Adelaide SA 5000. Secretary: Phil Stoeckel OA Western Australia: PO Box 234 Subiaco WA 6904 Secretary: Cath Chalmers, Ph. (08) 9380 4049 (h) catheoin@ozemail.com.au Orienteering Tasmania Inc.: PO Box 339, Sandy Bay, TAS 7005 Secretary: Warwick Moore, Ph. (03) 6248 6405 secretary.oti@trump.net.au Top End Orienteers (Northern Territory): PO Box 39152 Winnellie NT 0821 Secretary: Steven Guthridge, Ph. (08) 8981 3197

DECEMBER ISSUE DEADLINE: January 12 Time-sensitive: January 19

ISSN 0818-6510 Issue 4/06 (no. 144) DECEMBER 2006

CONTENTS A U S T R A L I A N C H A M P S C A R N I V A L .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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

N AT I O N A L L E A G U E.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0

Editor: Michael Hubbert, P.O. Box 165, Warrandyte, Victoria 3113 mikehubbert@ozemail.com.au Phone/fax (03) 9844 4878 Magazine Design & Assembly: Peter Cusworth, 8 View Street, Avonsleigh, Vic. 3782. Ph. (03) 5968 5254 cusworth@netspace.net.au Magazine Treasurer: Blair Trewin Printer: Priden Printing Services, 21 Century Drive, Braeside, Vic. 3195 Next edition: Cover date: 1 March 2007 Contribution deadlines: January 12. Time-sensitive material, January 19.

Deadline dates for contributions are the latest we can accept copy.

Publication is normally planned for the 1st of March, June, September & December. Copies are dispatched in bulk to State associations in the week prior to that date.

Regular Contributors: Badge Awards: John Oliver; Coaching: Grant Bluett; Competition: Blair Trewin; High Performance: Mike Dowling; MTBO: Blake Gordon; Official News: Gareth Candy; Running the Business: Bob Mouatt; Ski-O: Ian Baker; Nutrition: Gillian Woodward; Training: Steve Bird; Psychology: Jason McCrae.

Contributions are welcome, either directly or via State editorial contacts.

Prior consultation is suggested before preparing major contributions.

Guidelines for Contributors are available from the editor or from state contacts.

State Editorial Contacts Qld. – Liz Bourne 07 4683 6374 (h) batmaps@halenet.com.au NSW – Ken Sinclair 02 9639 9675 sicad@ozemail.com.au ACT – Philip Purcell philippurc@hotmail.com Vic. – SA – Claire Davill 08 8226 4381 (w) davill.claire@saugov.sa.gov.au WA – Cath Chalmers 08 9380 4049 catheoin@ozemail.com.au Tas. – Mary Hawthorne 03 6243 8616 (h) editor.oti@trump.net.au 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 inc GST. Overseas: Asia/Pacific (inc. NZ) $A44, Rest of World $A49.

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Opinions expressed in The Australian Orienteer are not necessarily those of Orienteering Australia.

O P I N I O N.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4

2 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

MEET YOUR TEAM – Victoria Nuggets........ 12

A D V E N T U R E R A C I N G .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 6 C O A C H I N G – F e e l i n g y o u r w a y.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8 N U T R I T I O N .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0 M O R E B I G M I S TA K E S AT W O C.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 S P E C TATO R AT T R A C T I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 WORLD CUP MAPS, FRANCE..................... 24 J W O C 2 0 0 7.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 6 PROFILE – Anna Sheldon......................... 27 Y O R K S P R I N T .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8 H I G H P E R F O R M A N C E R E P O R T .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 SPORT PSYCHOLOGY............................... 31 ATA C A M A D E S E R T R A C E.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 TOP EVENTS......................................... 33 O R I E N T E E R I N G D E V E L O P M E N T .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4 TRAINING............................................ 38 MTB-O NEWS ...................................... 40 L E T T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 A PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE .................. 46 O A D E V E L O P M E N T A W A R D S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7

Front Cover: Australia’s Mr MTBO, Blake Gordon, in action at the first Australian Sprint MTBO Champs held at “The Goat Farm” near Perth in October. Photo: Troy Merchant.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL

Great Performances in the West

The New Zealanders were again dominant players with many top-ten results, but Thomas Reynolds was their only individual winner. For the first half of the senior boys he was in a close tussle with Nick Andrewartha and Bryan Keely, but Keely lost three minutes at #8 to drop back into the bunch (recovering with a strong finish to take third), and Reynolds gradually pulled away from Andrewartha over the closing stages to win by three minutes.

Blair Trewin

Heather Harding completed a fine Schools career with her third win in four years – only two New Zealanders in 2005 stopped her from making it four in a row. Only Jo Allison, with five wins from 1989 to 1994, has done better. Harding was never seriously challenged; she had opened up a three-minute lead by halfway and held it to the end. Emma Watson emerged from the bunch with a good second half, whilst Catherine Hewitt recovered from an early mistake to take an unexpected second place.

T

HE carnival started with the WA Championships, a two-day affair at Darkin River, east of Perth, which saw the full range of terrain, from open, fast, vague areas, to steep rocky slopes which provided the week’s toughest physical terrain. A distraction for some (especially the locals) was the AFL Grand Final, which took place during the event on Saturday afternoon.

Jo Allison won both days to open up her National League chances. On the first day her closest rival was Shannon Jones, enjoying her best year at this level, but no-one was able to match her consistently and by the end of the second day she was more than ten minutes ahead. Ten minutes covered the next eight, with Anna Sheldon’s strong second half on the long second day – an indicator of what she was to produce six days later – seeing her take second ahead of Susanne Casanova.

A large part of the M21 field struck trouble at the second control on Day 1 – which was sufficiently doubtful to trigger a (dismissed) protest. Dave Shepherd lost time there and more over the following controls, and withdrew. Julian Dent also lost time there, enough to prevent him from winning the first day (which was taken out by Grant Bluett), but he became increasingly dominant the longer the second day went on, pulling away from Rob Walter over the last third of the course to secure a comfortable victory, with Bluett third and daylight between them and the rest. It was to be Walter’s last race of the carnival, thanks to a bike accident on Rottnest Island the next day.

Ryan Smyth made a slow start on the first day but took control of M17-20E in the second half of the second day, pulling away from Chris Naunton and Murray Scown, who were separated by nine second on the first day and nothing on the second. Vanessa Round also made a slow start, losing time on a long leg on the first day, but she hit the front late on that course, and then held off a fast-finishing Sarah Dunnage on the second day.

Elsewhere, some of the more interesting classes were W45, where Anthea Feaver and Jenny Bourne swapped narrow day wins but Feaver came out just on top; M16, where Lachlan Dow led a group of five within just over three minutes; and M45, where Mark Darvodelsky came from three minutes down on the first day to take victory over Darryl Smith at the last control.

Australian Schools Champs, Peterdine Hill, 3-4 October Queensland and the ACT were equal winners of the Australian Schools Championships after a dramatic Relay day.

It was a repeat of the result from 15 years ago, and once again the result was settled by the protest jury rather than in the forest.

This time, it was the reinstatement of a disqualified Tasmanian team which pushed the Queensland senior girls back to third, and dropped them back into a tie after initially appearing to have won by a point.

There was a fine three-way tussle in the junior boys which was not settled until the very end of the day. Lachlan Dow, Oscar Phillips and Scott McDonald were only separated by seconds at the spectator control, but it was the superior finishing speed of Phillips – a Tasmanian junior cross-country representative – that held sway in the end.

Laura Robertson, only a first-year W14, set the pace for a long time for the New Zealanders. It looked as if she might hold on for the win, but a two-minute mistake at the end proved costly, and she dropped to third. Belinda Lawford was first to finish ahead of her with a consistent run, but Krystal Neumann had been a little ahead of her through the course, and finished off well for her second successive win.

Relays day at the Australian Schools Championships rarely passes without incident, and 2006 was certainly no exception. Four states started it within some sort of range of the title, with a fifth (NSW) within remote reach if they had a very good relay. New South Wales indeed made an excellent start – after the first leg, they were the leading state team in two classes and second in another.

That was the end of their challenge, and whilst the New Zealanders were taking overall control for a second day in a row, the ACT were setting up an excellent position to win the state competition. First Lachlan Dow came from 12 minutes down to run over the top of Queensland and New South Wales in the junior boys (Joshua Neumann outsprinted Thomas Carter to give Queensland second, a result which was critical to the overall score), then their two senior teams got into winning positions.

Heather Harding never looked like letting the senior girls’ slip, but it was a different situation in the senior boys, where littleknown Michael Pfeifer was defending a five-minute lead over the individual winner Nick Andrewartha. Pfeifer did a better job than anyone dared expect, and whilst Andrewartha made some inroads towards the end, it was not enough to stop the ACT scoring an unexpected win.

Queensland’s Bridget Anderson

That gave the ACT the clubhouse lead.

Queensland, who had been the leading state team in the junior girls, still had their two senior teams on the course.

They needed a second and a third to win, or two thirds (or a second and a fourth) to tie, and started the final leg in third (girls) and fourth (boys). At the spectator control Bridget Anderson had moved up to second, after making up a seven-minute gap to New South Wales, whilst Simon DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 3

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL Mee was still in fourth, but only a minute behind Tom Dose for South Australia. The issue was settled at the second-last control, where Mee – who ran the fastest leg of the day – finally caught and passed Dose to take third, and when Anderson came in seven minutes later in second, Queensland celebrated overall victory – until the Tasmanians were reinstated (after mispunching on a pair of controls which were ruled to be illegally close together).

New Zealand were again comfortable winners of the Southern Cross Junior Challenge. They would have won even had the disqualification of their senior boys’ team stood, but once they were reinstated their margin was extended to a commanding 11 points.

Julian Dent made it two wins in a row in the National League, with a comfortable win over Dave Shepherd and Kerrin Rattray, whilst Anna Quayle kept her slim National League hopes alive with a win over Jo Allison in W21E. Ryan Smyth also continued his very impressive form, winning M17-20E in a time good enough for fifth in the senior race.

Australian Sprint Championships, York, 5 October Julian Dent continued his great week with a win in the Australian Sprint Championships, taking the title by the substantial (by sprint standards) margin of 19 seconds as Orienteering took over the main street of York. He set up a useful lead in the first half of the course, and by halfway it was apparent that as long as he could hold it together he was going to win without too much trouble. Dave Shepherd was his nearest challenger, with Grant Bluett in third place.

W21E was a two-way contest between Grace Elson, running her first race of the week, and Anna Quayle, with the pair a minute clear of the nearest opposition. Elson led for most of the first half but slipped behind with a 20-second error at #11. From then on they were only separated by seconds. Elson regained the lead by a second at the third-last and was able to hold on for a fivesecond win. Allison Jones withstood a late charge from her sister Shannon to hold third, whilst Jo Allison’s fifth ended any chance she had of taking the National League.

Ryan Smyth again impressed in taking out M17-20E, establishing a 20-second lead inside the first four minutes and never being threatened thereafter. His closest opposition came from two New Zealanders, Thomas Reynolds and Simon Jager. They both recovered from slow starts to take the minor placings, after Murray Scown lost time over the closing stages to miss out on a chance at second. W17-20E also saw the lead Australian pursued by two New Zealanders. It was a closer contest, in which Vanessa Round was pushed most of the way by Kate Rea. Round led all the way, but at two-thirds distance the gap was only a second, before Rea lost time at #13 and #14 to give Round some breathing space.

Emma Watson was third.

The event was open to all age groups for the first time. Many of the winners were regulars on the podium, but one who wasn’t was John Sheahan, who put his vast Melbourne street experience to good use in winning M65. Probably the best race was M16, a class featuring several with considerable cross-country credentials.

It was won by Oliver Crosato, in a fluctuating race in which five were still in contention before the second-last control.

Australian Long Distance Championships, Hill Park Dale, 7 October Hill Park Dale brought the expected – many, many rocks. It was an area worthy of an Australian Championship, despite its small size – only a couple of square kilometres of forest – and provided a technical challenge sufficient to settle many classes, whilst being less physical than the last three years.

Winners of the Elite Long Dist Champs, Anna Sheldon and Dave Shepherd.

After three commanding wins in a row during the week, Julian Dent entered the race as favourite, and started like one. By the fifth control he was already two minutes clear of the field, but that was as far as his challenge lasted. Mistakes at successive controls cost him five minutes. It was a situation he might have recovered from in another year, but the loss of several months of base training finally took its toll, and he slowly drifted out of contention through the second half of the course.

That left the way open for the other leading contenders, Dave Shepherd and Grant Bluett. Between them they had won the last two national long distance titles. Both were a little wobbly at the start, but once the course entered its second loop it was clear that it was a race in two. Bluett had the edge for a lot of the way, but it was Shepherd who was a little too strong over the final stages, an error by Bluett at #25 extending the margin beyond two minutes.

Rob Preston, who led briefly late in the first loop, completed the placings, whilst it was a good day for the veterans behind that, with Blair Trewin achieving his best result since 1998, and Anthony Scott his best ever at the age of 44.

Jo Allison led the W21E field through most of the first half of the course. Many of her nearest rivals disappeared from contention early on, with Grace Elson losing six minutes at #5, and by halfway it was a race in two between Allison and Anna Sheldon.

Allison still led by a minute at #14, but it was Sheldon who was stronger over the closing stages, pulling away to win by three minutes. It was her first national title at any level. Kathryn Ewels, despite a less-than-optimal pre-event preparation, ran a consistent race to take third.

The best duel of 2006, and one of the best of any year, was fought out in M17-20E. Simon Uppill has long been one of the most technically consistent orienteers in Australia, and once again barely put a foot wrong on a long course in technical granite, but this time Ryan Smyth, who has had an excellent second half of the year, was every bit as good. They were never separated by more than 30 seconds, and for the last third of the course the margin was in single figures. It was not until the last control that the lead changed hands for the final time, as Smyth won his first national title by six seconds in a race for the ages. The rest were incidental to the day, with New Zealander Thomas Reynolds the only one to come within ten minutes.

Vanessa Round had dominated the week in W17-20E, but got a jolt when she lost three minutes at the first control. From there she was playing catch-up as Heather Harding established a useful lead, but Round was the faster and stronger of the two. By halfway she had made up most of the ground lost early on, and finished off well to score by just over a minute. Kellie Whitfield never threatened the lead but ran a solid race for third.

The M/W16s usually turn on good races at the Australian Championships, with the state school teams making for deep DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 5

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL

Vanessa Round, showing the affects of the local vegetation during the WA Champs.

Anna Sheldon on her way to winning the Australian Champs.

Riorden Dose at full speed at the Australian Relays.

6 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

On the way to the Long Champs start triangle.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL

1: 15 000 5m contours

Australian Long Distance Champs 2006 Hill Park Dale, WA W21E 9.5km 385m climb Anna Sheldon 1 My initial thought was to go back up to the yellow, but from the triangle the straight option looked to be quite good running.

Was careful to stay at the same height, and picked up the cliff south of the circle. I realised pretty quickly that the rock was going to be very hard to read on 1:15,000, and that anything that made it on the map was going to be big.

2 Tried to run pretty flat and pick up the big features on the early part of the leg to make the most of the yellow. Found Erin Post on the bare rock looking confused about the presence of an extra broken fence. Came into the circle a bit high and ended up in the rock on the south edge of the circle but relocated quickly.

3 The area coming off the track was a bit vague, so I was careful to stay on my compass line.

Checked a flag on the cliff on the north edge of the circle, but then saw which cliff I needed on the line below.

4 Climbed gradually around the hill and crossed the track just below the green rocks. Came

-------- Anna Sheldon -------- Jo Allison -------- Kathryn Ewels

76.55 79.39 85.54

into the circle just about the big mound with the cliff.

5 Nearly lost it on this one. Ran on compass and was OK until near the circle, but expected the green knoll to the east to be more obvious. Relocated on the flag on the end of the line of rocks.

6 Decided to play it safe after the last one and use the bare rock above rather than risk the rocks and green below, and then found it really easily.

7 Straight across the bare rock and under the big cliff. Paused on top of the northern cliff to pick out the southern-most cliff with the boulder.

8 Across the top of the hill and along the bare rock to the white between the clumps of green and rocks. Dropped straight down the hill from there and picked up the bare-rock and cliff just above the control.

9 Ran to the left to avoid some junk at the start, then along the fence and straight up the hill.

Went to the right coming into the control using the yellow and big

rocks. Saw the control but took an extra 30sec to negotiate the thicket next to the bare rock to get close enough to punch.

10 Above the big rock and below the cliffs. Used the yellow area on the edge of the circle to figure out the line of rocks and the mound with the control.

11 Over the spur, avoiding the rock, and in around the cliff.

12 Spectator control which we’d all seen already. Bolted down the hill to the yellow area, avoiding the green and rocks.

13 Planned to keep running straight, but the rocks on the west side of the circle looked hard to get through, so round to the north and back in.

14 Careful compass on this leg to work out the different groups of rock. Used the big rocks to the north, and then just ran to the last rock before the yellow.

15 North of the green, then saw the flag as I came around the cliff.

16 The plan was to run along the top of the ridge, but it would have been better running to the east of #13 than the west. Ran to the pair of boulders near the fence and was very careful with my compass from there. Saw the other rocks and the cliff in the circle on the way in. Half-way along this leg I had that awful thought, “I’m nearly finished and I haven’t made any mistakes yet”, that usually means you’re about to fall into a navigational blackhole. Having visited that blackhole quite enough times before, I was extra careful on the last few controls!

17 Across the hill and then looked for the pair of rocks just past the peak of the spur.

18 Decided to run high and avoid the green at the end of the leg.

Saw Briohny Davey and Kathryn as I came onto the bare rock and caught them at the control. Used the big rock in the green to check we were on line.

19 Staggered down the hill to the fence corner and into the last control.

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 7

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS CARNIVAL fields, and this year was no exception.

There were eight within seven minutes of the lead in M16, but at the end of the day it was Lachlan Dow who emerged from the pack, as so often in the last couple of years, ahead of two first-time placegetters in Valentin Gafner and Julian Taylor. Claire Darvodelsky led all the way in W16, but at the end she was taken to the limit by two New Zealanders. Nicola Peat closed to within nine seconds at the end but could get no closer. The one win for the New Zealand juniors was by Laura Robertson in W14, whilst Todd Neve signalled that he might go on to be the best of the Neve siblings with a comfortable win in M14.

The closest and most dramatic of the veteran classes was M60, which, as at Easter, saw some dramatic fluctuations at the business end. For two-thirds of the race it looked like John Brock would mark his return to national events with a comfortable win. He then lost six minutes at #9 to lose the lead, regained it when Tony Simpkins, Dave Lotty and Terry Bluett all had significant losses at #10 or #11, but then lost it again at the second-last control, dropping four minutes and four places.

Simpkins and Lotty were separated by only two seconds at the last control, with the West Australian extending that to five in the chute for his first title.

W45, as in most recent years, saw a high-standard contest featuring several former WOC representatives. Anthea Feaver, on home ground, gradually extended her lead over Liz Abbott in the second half to finish three minutes clear, whilst Jenny Bourne caught Carolyn Jackson late for third. Many of the other veteran women’s classes were dominated by a single individual. There were big wins for two international visitors, Patricia Aspin (nine minutes in W55) and Sharon Crawford (eight minutes in W60), but perhaps the most impressive was Robin Uppill, who put eleven minutes between herself and the rest of the W50 field.

Paul Pacque looked as if he might be on his way to a similarly large margin when he led by nine minutes going into the secondlast control in M50, but almost managed to lose all of it there, just holding on against Eoin Rothery. It was at the other end of the course that Darryl Smith struck trouble in M45, and Mark Darvodelsky took control on the long 12th leg to win by three minutes. There were big wins for Jock Davis (M40) and Clive Pope (M70), Bob Allison led most of the way to score fairly comfortably in a large M55 field, and Hermann Wehner added to his record tally of national titles with his fourteenth win, in M80.

Photo: Troy Merchant

NSW almost lost second as Kerrin Rattray brought South Australia home with a rush and nearly caught Julian Dent at the end.

The Canberrans were as heavily favoured in W21E as in M21E. The only unexpected aspect of the day was that for the first half of the race it was their second team in front, thanks to an excellent first leg by Sophie Barker. By the end of the second leg Anna Quayle had put the first team in front, and they were never troubled thereafter with Jo Allison finishing off with the day’s fastest time.

The most interesting contest was for the minor placings. Anna Sheldon, fresh from her win the day before, produced another fine run to take Queensland from fifth to second, whilst Kirsten Fairfax won a sprint finish with Cath Chalmers to complete the places. It was a good finish to a bad weekend for the Victorian team in general (who lost all their gear when their car was broken into on the Friday) and Fairfax in particular (who ended up in hospital on Saturday night after a draining Championship race).

The elite races may not have seen a repeat of last year’s drama, but once again a race leader took a wrong map – this time it was the Tasmanian M17-20E team on the second leg. The impact was less severe – partly because the map they took was for a non-existent team, and partly because there was a second Tasmanian team, which was ultimately the leading state team against more fancied opposition. The three leaders went out together, with Jack Vincent bringing New Zealand in a minute ahead of the Tasmanians.

In W17-20E, there was a solid win for the home state. Sarah Dunnage gave them a comfortable lead which they then lost to New Zealand on the second leg, but Kellie Whitfield turned the tables again to bring them home with four minutes to spare.

The National League had long been decided by the time it came to Australian Relays day, but even without that context there were still some interesting races in store. Part of the context was the NSW battle with Victoria for second in the National League; Victoria needed to beat NSW in both races, preferably by some margin.

The best of the other races were in the junior classes. In M16, where seven minutes covered the six leading teams, New Zealand and the ACT were fighting it out for the lead after two legs, but Scott McDonald gave the New Zealanders the win, and a great last leg by Oscar Phillips saw the Tasmanians fall just short of second.

New Zealand also won W16 in the day’s closest result. It looked like it might be a Kiwi 1-2 after two legs, but the New Zealand second team dropped away, and instead Catherine Hewitt almost came over the top of both of them for Tasmania, missing out by a mere 11 seconds.

Any chance of that set of results all but disappeared in the first half of the M21E relay. Far from being beaten by the Victorians, who were never in the hunt, NSW stayed with the heavy favourites, the Canberra Cockatoos, for most of the first two legs. Jock Davis showed that he is still very competitive over the shorter distances when he finished the first leg almost level with Gareth Candy, and Rob Preston stayed with Grant Bluett for most of the second leg. It was not until after the spectator control on the second leg that Bluett finally broke away, a break which was to prove decisive. Dave Shepherd took over with a lead of just under two minutes and ran right away with the race; indeed,

None of the veteran classes were particularly close, nor did any see a final-leg lead change – instead the recurring theme was that of a big lead being cut to a not-quite-so-big lead on the last leg – but the honours were spread around, with only Tasmania missing out and only New South Wales winning two classes.

Probably the best performances were turned in by New South Wales in M60 and Western Australia in W45, both of whom won by nine minutes against decent opposition, whilst noteworthy runs included the lead-off legs of Patricia Aspin (W55), Jenny Bourne (W45) and Bob Allison (M55), and Paul Pacque’s last leg which brought the Tasmanians up to second in M45.

Australian Relays, Umuna, 8 October

8 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

Buy yourself a JET for Christmas NUTRITION

“It’s not by chance that the world’s best orienteers run with a SILVA Jet compass.” says Grant Bluett who runs with a Silva 6 Jet Spectra

SILVA 6 JET SPECTRA

For competitive orienteers who prefer the ultimate in thumb compasses. Features the broad fluorescent Jet needle and the unique time saving ‘Spectra’ colour coded ring. Elastic thumb strap and rubber pad for a safe and sure grip. Map scales in 1:10,000 and 1:15,000.

Available in left and right hand models. $138 from your local O-gear shop at events.

SILVA 5 JET

Features a scratch resistant ‘comfort-fit’ curved back-end baseplate and the unique fluorescent red/white, broad Jet needle. Easy-to-grip housing with enlarged dial. Detachable map scales in 1:15,000 and 1:10,000 and silicon baseplate feet to prevent unintentional slipping on maps. $133 from your local O-gear shop at events.

SILVA 1S JET

Same high-performance Jet needle as in above model.

Large magnifying lens in baseplate for enlarging fine map detail. Other features as in 5 Jet. $145 from your local O-gear shop at events.

Buy yourself a Jet at the next event

Photo: Tore Myrberg

JET compasses have the unique super-fast “Rare Earth” broad magnetic needle for the fastest settling and stability when running over rough terrain. Guaranteed to save precious seconds every time you check your bearing.

N AT I O N A L O L E A G U E Championships eliminating her from contention. Julian Dent kept his hopes alive through there, but needed to win the Australian Long Championships, and didn’t.

In the Junior competition, Ryan Smyth also put on a late charge, winning the last four rounds to give himself a chance. He was, however, coming from a fair way back, and Simon Uppill wrapped the title up when he was second to Smyth in his only start of the carnival, the Australian Long Championships. Kellie Whitfield did not put together the strings of victories that the other individual winners did, but she was consistent enough to wrap up the title with a race in hand, despite only winning twice in a season where there were eight separate race winners. Vanessa Round, who won four events out of five in WA, might have got closer had she run more than six rounds.

Cockatoos run away with National League

T

HE Canberra Cockatoos ran away with the 2006 National League, giving them their third win in a row and their twelfth in 13 years. In contrast to 2005, when they took a thin women’s team into the season’s final week and were almost caught by the end, in 2006 they were the only state able to consistently field a full and strong team through the Australian Championships carnival, in which they achieved the maximum possible 140 points, and they finished with a record winning margin of 88 points.

Blair Trewin

Queensland Cyclones win Junior National League

The main issue which was resolved in the final week was the destiny of second place. The Victorian Nuggets started the week 10 points behind the NSW Ultimax Stingers, but were never able to make any real inroads. They might have had a chance had they beaten NSW in both Relays, but whilst the women did the necessary in difficult circumstances, the men never looked like getting close. South Australia’s Southern Arrows climbed to fourth after a solid week.

The Queensland Cyclones took their first title when they were comfortable winners of the Junior division. They were helped by having two rounds at home against thin fields, but their depth, the product of a strong junior program, meant that they would have won even without that home-ground advantage. The ACT Cockatoos edged out Victoria’s Nuggets for second.

Dave Shepherd and Grace Elson took out the senior individual titles, as expected at the start of the week, but both had to withstand strong challenges. In a remarkable coincidence, both competitions featured challengers who had been injured for most of the season, were only going to run the minimum eight rounds (and therefore couldn’t put a foot wrong), and who swept all before them in the early races in WA. Jo Allison was the first to falter, her fifth place at the Australian Sprint

A

T the recent Australian Championships Carnival in WA the young Queensland Cyclones won their first ever JNOL Trophy. This was not a chance event and the Queenslanders hope that it’s the forerunner of many more trophies.

In 2005, as we savoured the success of the Queensland Schools team, we watched the presentation of the JNOL trophy to WA with some envy. Following on from this event the Cyclones Coach (Geoff Peck) and the Manager (Terry Cavanagh) determined to put great effort into taking out the JNOL trophy in 2006.

One strategy was to put in an application for a NOL event, which given previous seasons almost seemed to guarantee success at the junior level.

What we did not realise was that the Queensland NOL event would become a major world ranking event, with high senior and junior participation, and that the other states would increase their participation levels in junior events throughout the season.

Kellie Whitfield, Grace Elson, Dave Shepherd and Simon Uppill, NOL winners for 2006.

10 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

CHAMPIONSHIPS ROUND-UP

QLD Champs – a Neumann family affair The elites provided the bestcontested classes at the Queensland Championships.

Elsewhere, it was mainly a race amongst the locals, with the highlight being the extent to which the Neumann clan made its presence felt. They provided 14 entries, for ten placings and six wins.

The closest A class over the two days was M35. Lance Read and Tim McIntyre were separated by less than a minute on each day, but each time it was Read who came out on top to secure a narrow win.

Arthur, Casanova take out SA Champs Bruce Arthur and Susanne Casanova took out the open classes at the South Australian Championships on 6 August. Both are multiple winners of this event. Casanova was untroubled in finishing 14 minutes clear of her sister Jenny, but Arthur was made to work hard by fellow adopted Victorian Torgeir Watne, who finished just over two minutes down in second. Simon Uppill, slowed by a bruised heel, completed the placings.

W17-20A saw the return to competition of Rebecca Hembrow after a year out with injury. She was a minute ahead of Mallory Hughes, whilst Brett Merchant was four ahead of Tristan Lee in M1720. Close finishes were few and

far between in other classes, with Rob Tucker’s two-minute win over Adrian Uppill in M55 perhaps the best of them.

South Australia took out the SAVictoria Challenge, defeating the small Victorian contingent by 5 classes to 3. This is likely to be a better contest in 2007 when it takes place in conjunction with the Easter carnival.

NSW Champs – first major win for Briohny Davey Briohny Davey took her first major title at senior level when she won the NSW Long-distance Championships, held on a highstandard gully-spur area near Braidwood. She took full advantage after favourites Jo Allison and Anna Quayle both struck major trouble at the second control. Allison recovered to take second place but could not get within six minutes of the winner, with Mace Neve in third.

Returned WOC team members didn’t find the going any easier in M21A, with neither Dave Shepherd (who pulled out at halfway) nor Eric Morris in the placings. Rob Preston won a close battle with Andy Hogg, with Blair Trewin edging Morris out of third. Outside the open classes, perhaps the most significant news of the day was Julian Dent’s comeback; running unofficially on the M20 course, he ran easily the day’s fastest kilometre rate.

Early in the season we were able to balance our NOL/JNOL teams and some excellent performances from Kieran Sullivan, Peter Sheldon, Daniel Stott, Laurina Neumann and Ainsley Cavanagh saw us off to a great start. Easter was a bit of a disappointment for the boys with Kieran and James Sheldon scoring reasonably well and Laurina and Ainsley again keeping the girls at the top of the ladder. However, by the end of Easter week we were beginning to see an unexpected problem emerge. The Senior Cyclones began to disappear through injury and unavailability and for the rest of the season we were left to balance both NOL and JNOL by utilising our growing pool of talented juniors.

In the second half of the season (in addition to our early performers) we managed to gain scores from Bridget Anderson, Grace Burrill, Rachael Effeney (a great newcomer, late in the year), Michelle Cantwell, Erin Wallace, Stephanie Strong, Ruth Burrill, Julia Sullivan, Brooke Pye, Simon Mee, Kelsey Dougall, Ben Freese, Matt McGuire, Julian Taylor, and Gary Flynn – making a team of twenty.

Despite this depth the competition still required top performances in WA. Thanks to the great runs by Ollie, a shared load between Bridget, Grace, Rachael and Michelle

ACT Champs – Dent triumphs in a strong field Julian Dent’s comeback continued when he won comfortably in the strongest men’s field in Australia this year at Honeysuckle Creek.

Eight of the top-12 ranked in Australia were running, including the top four, but none were able to match Dent, who dominated with his speed despite some erratic sections. Grant Bluett was best of the rest, three minutes behind, with Dave Shepherd in third place.

Anna Quayle won a fluctuating battle with Jo Allison. Neither had particularly clean runs and swapped the lead as the other lost time, but they did enough to be clear of the rest of the field. Quayle eventually came out on top, winning by just over a minute, with Allison Jones third in the first race after her return from Sweden.

TAS Champs – 20 years between titles for Paul Liggins Twenty years after his first win, expatriate Tasmanian Paul Liggins took his second Tasmanian title at Littlechild Creek. He was closely challenged by young Tasmanians Lee Andrewartha and Ryan Smyth (who suffered from an overly ambitious route choice through the green early on), but came out on top by two minutes from Andrewartha.

Smyth was another two minutes back in third place. Grace Elson was unchallenged in W21.

VIC Champs – Davey takes second title of season Briohny Davey completed an excellent year with her second state title of the season, when she won the Victorian Championships at Mount Beckworth. Her nearest rival, Kathryn Ewels, got off to an unfortunate start when she took a wrong map and had to return to the start, but after getting within two minutes at #4 she never got any closer. Kirsten Fairfax was third after a steady run.

Adrian Jackson established a useful lead from the start and was never headed. By the end of the first climb up Mount Beckworth, he had caught Jim Russell and the two were together for most of the rest of the race. They took the first two places. Simon Uppill, who had won impressively in Saturday’s Middledistance Championship, again ran well and was in strong contention for second before fading in the last kilometre. Elsewhere, Belinda Lawford, still a first-year W16, achieved a breakthrough result when she upset Clare Brownridge in W17-20A.

and some solid relay performances we managed to achieve our goal.

Both men and women finished 2nd but overall our team strength left us with a clear win by 20 points. This was a great team effort.

Now, what about the future? As we are only “losing” Ainsley and Peter to the seniors next year we aim to be the first state to repeat the win. This will be extremely difficult without a home event and amid the high competition for places in Australia’s JWOC team for Dubbo. It will also take some careful planning and commitment because it is likely that we will be still struggling to field full teams in NOL and the balance will be difficult on occasions. However, it is essential that we keep developing our junior talent to enable us to achieve greater success in NOL in future years and we hope that other states will begin to fill all of their teams to increase the competition and to improve the standard of Orienteering in Australia.

Terry Cavanagh - Queensland Cyclones Manager

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 11

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

Blair Trewin #11 Debut 1993 (CC) 03 Champion Team 3rd 1995 NOL 144 NOL races 1324.5 pts

Meet Your Team

VICTORIAN

NUGGETS Jim Russell #7 Debut 1993 (TT) 03 Champion Team 1st 1994 NOL 138 NOL races 1088 pts Photo: Peter Preston

Natasha Key #1 Debut 1994 03 Champion Team 1st ‘97, 99, 01, SC03, 04 79 NOL races1384 pts

Warren Key #2 (above) Debut 1993 (SL) 03 Champion Team 1st 1993 NOL 105 NOL races 1295.5 pts Kathryn Ewels #23 Debut 1998 03 Champion Team 4th 2003 NOL 73 NOL races 1100 pts

12 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

Clare Hawthorne #19 Debut 1995 (TAS) 03 Champion Team 5th 2005, 1999 87 NOL races 942.5pts

Bruce Arthur #37 Debut 1995 (SA) 03 Champion Team 4th 2003 Spring Cup 125 NOL races 1282 pts

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 Experience and Excitement The Victoria Nuggets have always fielded strong teams in NOL competitions with the luxury of being close to many major competitions, and a good supply of experienced national team members over the last 15 years. With some of these big names now slowing down, there is an exciting group of juniors beginning their elite careers.

Team Highlight Always in the top three contenders for the NOL teams competition, the Nuggets’ highlight was in 2003 when it stole the title from the Canberra Cockatoos in the final race at Beechworth. Significantly, this was the only time that a team other than Canberra had won the NOL title since state teams were created in 1994.

Adrian Jackson #30 Debut 2002 03 Champion Team 7th 2003 NOL 46 NOL races 576 pts

Athletes and Administrators Bruce Arthur manages the team and co-ordinates training activities in Melbourne with the resources of the Melbourne Forest Racers club.

Jim Russell is team coach, and runs his own orienteering ‘academy’ in Bendigo that successfully guides a number of talented juniors towards NOL competition. Orienteering Victoria provides some financial support to help with travel to remote NOL competitions and subsidy of team uniforms.

Recognition and Milestones Upon scoring their first NOL point, team members are allocated a Nuggets number. Natasha Key scored the first number in 1994, and Julie Lawford is latest addition at #56. Nuggets members are now recognised for significant milestones for NOL races and points accumulated.

THE FUTURE Jasmine Neve #32 Debut 2002 03 Champion Team 35 NOL races 427 pts Ilka Barr #28 (left) Debut 2001 03 Champion Team 27 NOL races175 pts Chris Naunton #40 (bottom right) Debut 2003 22 NOL races 118 pts Evan Barr #51 (bottom middle) Debut 2006 8 NOL races 6 pts Bryan Keely #52 Debut 2006 9 NOL races 26 pts Clare Brownridge #49 Debut 2005 8 NOL races 42 pts David Brownridge #46 Debut 2005 14 NOL races 8 pts Torgeir Watne #50 Debut 2004 (QLD) 16 NOL races 69 pts

Kirsten Fairfax #26 Debut 1996 (TAS) 4th 1998 NOL 44 NOL races 396.5 pts

Rob Fell #48 Debut 2005 7 NOL races 5 pts

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 13

OPINION

New Format for Events

and DSQ’s since everyone will always finish their course. There will be no more justification for cancelling courses and protest juries will become obsolete.

An-O-nymous, the Esk Valley Troll

Because everyone can start where and when they want, gone is the need for pre-entry and start draws. There will be no more annoying long walks to the start nor the need to set up a complicated start system. Timing systems will become obsolete as we will all time ourselves. The competition rules will be reduced from the current tome to a few basic rules, easy for all to understand.

T

OWARDS the end of most orienteering seasons various discussions about the coming O-year flare up again.

Orienteers never seem happy with the existing system and year after year we find better ways of doing things, only to change them again the next. The number of available courses, age class groupings, course lengths and climb, recommended winning times, dates for particular events, etc… they never seem fair.

Why should a M55 run the same course as a W18? For some the courses are always too long, for others too short. Or the course setter has no idea what a “moderate” course should look like. And why do “they” always insist on organising important events on Father’s Day or Grand Final Day? At a recent board meeting, Orienteering Tasmania has come up with the perfect solution which should once and for all end all controversy and stop disagreements between OA, the state associations, the clubs and individual members about these touchy subjects.

From next year on, for any Tasmanian event, all that will be provided are a relatively modest number of controls (e.g. 30) of different technical difficulty (from very easy to extremely difficult) scattered throughout the mapped area. So far nothing major changes (bar maybe a significant reduction in controls for some event). However, instead of the usual selection of courses, only master maps showing all controls plus a list of control descriptions will be available at events. Just like a score-O you will say. Wrong! Because now comes the idea that will revolutionarise orienteering.

Using the available controls, competitors will design their own “personal” course of the appropriate length, climb, technical and physical difficulty and with a number of controls of their choice.

That way each individual can take into account their technical competence, general fitness, fatigue levels, motivation and their mood of the day. After all, there is no point running an overly long course with a hangover or after a tiff with your partner. After marking their course on their map, competitors head for their start and run their race.

The advantages of this new system are numerous: The work load of course setters, controllers and event organisers will be reduced: only a few master maps with all controls will have to be drawn up. No more need for hours and hours spent at the kitchen table trying to design courses which will be criticised anyway. In fact course setting becomes so easy and straight forward that course setter courses will become unnecessary. No more bad feelings at events either: since we all become our own course setter there will be no reason to abuse or blame anyone but our self if we didn’t like the course. Pre-marked maps will be a thing of the past.

We will all become winners. No more disappointed and disgruntled faces at events where it is always the same few who win all the medals and badges. We all become orienteer of the year in our own individual class. As an added bonus, this system will promote orienteering enormously: a sport where everyone is a winner every time they participate will attract a lot of people.

If a control goes missing, is misplaced, or if we cannot find it straight away, it doesn’t matter. We simply cancel that control from our course and go on to the next one. That way we haven’t spoiled our whole day (and that of our passengers on the car trip home). Rather than ruining our event it just becomes a good topic for conversation afterwards. There will be no more DNF’s 14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

No more problems with people following us and getting upset about it. Why should we? We’ll be most likely on a different course anyway. Talking on the course could become acceptable.

It won’t matter if we loose a bit of time catching up with a good friend, asking former rivals where we are or helping a youngster in trouble. It makes no difference if we complete our course in one or two hours, so why not get the most out of our entry fee and socialise a bit on the course. We could even take a picnic and sit down by that creek we wanted to have a closer look at for years.

No more need to differentiate between club events, state events, Classic, Middle Distance, Sprint or Badge Events. We decide for ourselves how important every race is and we can all become State Champion at the event of our choice. The OA and state statisticians’ jobs will become very easy: as we’ll all score maximum points at every event we’ll all top the rankings and become Orienteer of the Year.

No more wasted time in long post mortems after the race. We won’t have to pretend any longer to be interested how others went from control 6 to 7 on their course because it will be different from ours. Instead we will now be able to discuss more serious matters like the political climate in Middle Tasbekistan, the value of the Van Diemen Peso on the Kabul stock market, or global warming.

Finally, consider the financial savings: there will be no more need for expensive map overprinting, control cards, Sport Ident equipment, result boards, etc, etc… In terms of human resources, as events will only require a few people to run, the burden of having to volunteer for more than one event a year will disappear.

As a consequence it will become much easier for clubs to fill their rosters. The rest of us will be able to just relax. Orienteering will become fun again and we will be able to enjoy it more instead of taking it so seriously.

DID YOU KNOW?

Orienteers in Australian Cross-Country Championships Two orienteers competed in the Women’s Open Championship held in Tasmania. The event was won by Anna Thompson in a time of 27:45.

Bayside Kangaroo Lauren Shelley finished a very creditable 5th in 28:45 and Tasmanian Hanny Allston came home in 15th place with a time of 30:15.

Lauren has her sights firmly set on the Olympic marathon in Beijing in less than two years time.

OPINION

Wrong + Wrong = Right?

- Wrong!

Rob Crawford (former President, NZOF) (reprinted from his blog site)

A

T this year’s European Orienteering Championships, half of the women’s field in the final of the Long Distance race were issued with control descriptions that contained an error - a wrong control code I believe.

Such a basic error should result in the race being declared invalid. Period. Half of the runners were affected and it certainly had a significant affect on the results to the point that they are meaningless (save for the fact that the winner, Simone NiggliLuder, would still have won), so why are the results allowed to stand and be recorded in history?

Orienteering has a problem in that its competitors are reluctant to complain - it happens in New Zealand, and it seems to happen in international elite events. We all recognise that a huge amount of work is involved in organising an event, and when mistakes occur, while some competitors are left seething, the majority don’t want to penalise organisers for the amount of work they have put in.

Orienteering needs to grow up. Guess what - mistakes sometimes occur, it’s part of human nature. Rather than get embarrassed about how such imperfections can invade our perfectionist sport, and allow sympathy to get in the way of making rational decisions, we need to accept than when mistakes occur, it is not in the interests of our sport to allow meaningless results to stand.

While it would be unfortunate in this case for Niggli-Luder not to be crowned European Champion (there is no question she deserves to be so recognised), a race is not just about one person, it is not held to just find the winner. There were over 50 competitors in the race, half of them were sent on a wild goose chase - their rights are also relevant.

In House-Of-Honcho land, ideally common sense would prevail and someone would make the decision to invalidate the race, but it is probably too late. The IOF Event Advisor should not be in charge of an international event again - not for allowing the mistake to happen, but for allowing the results to stand. Part of his role is to (Rule 31.6) “ensure rules are followed, mistakes are avoided and that fairness is paramount”.

Well, rules were not followed, mistakes were not avoided and fairness has gone out the window. That the Senior Event Advisor allowed the results to stand just because no-one protested the result is wrong, and it is time in such situations that some balls are shown and the correct decision made. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Crystal Ball gazing

Recently retired as President of NZOF, Rob Crawford muses on the future of Orienteering in New Zealand: If I had three things to say “watch out for” to the new President, it would be these: 1. ACCESS In New Zealand, we have been fortunate that getting access to areas we wish to orienteer on hasn’t really been an issue. I’ll never forget my first trip to Europe and talking with people there about the trouble they sometimes have gaining access and the conflicts they have with other recreational groups (e.g. hunters).

However, I fear that may be about to change. The Auckland clubs are reliant on Woodhill Forest and the owners, Carter Holt Harvey, now charge for recreational use and I suspect will also restrict access. The Taupo club had a problem with the Dept of Conservation over one area. We are not blessed with a huge amount of runnable forest here and if forest companies such as CHH start charging for, and restrict, access it will have a negative impact on our sport. It’s one thing we need to be pro-active about.

2. MAPPING To orienteer you need a map and a compass. Well, the compass bit is easy - you just go out and buy one, but the map? These are finely crafted works of art that take an extraordinary amount of time (and usually money) to make. Take a look around at our current stock of mappers - they are few, and more to the point, they are getting old. We can’t rely on the likes of Michael Wood and the Aspins for ever, so unless we can convince some of the younger brigade that mapping might be a good way to earn some dollars (the days of making maps for free are going the way of the Moa), we might find in 10 year’s time we have to use overseas mappers, and that will be even more expensive and a hindrance to the development of our sport.

3. VOLUNTEERS A problem that is not peculiar to our sport – a dark cloud that hangs over us and sport in general. In many respects, Orienteering is more fortunate than most – most of the time the people who voluntarily contribute to our sport in whatever form, are generally competent and extraordinarily generous with their time. Will it last? In some repsects, I think we’ll be OK as I see the likes of Flynn, Addison, Kerrison, Peat, Smith (apologies to any young’un that I’ve missed) already putting back something into the sport - fine young men who will be the role models of the future.

On the other hand, reading the local paper here in Waiuku and seeing soccer teams without coaches, badminton cancelled because no-one is available to organise it, how long before Orienteering has similar problems?

Hopefully never, but it is not something we can ever take for granted.

Patricia Aspin at the Aust Relays – first leg for the winning W55 team from NZ. DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 15

ADVENTURE RACING

CityChase

Place Time 1st

Sydney Orienteers take World Title

Team Name

6:26:13 TEAM AUSTRALIA Ben Rattray & Andrew Hill

2nd 6:26:14 TEAM EDMONTON James Dean & David Quaschnick =3rd 7:10 TEAM TORONTO 1 Erik Woods & Anthony Woods =3rd 7:10 TEAM HALIFAX Bertolo Burnley & Elvis Pye

A

determined and competitive pair of Sydney Urban Adventure Racers, Ben Rattray (27) and Andy Hill (28), have taken out the inaugural World City Chase title held in Chicago in October.

Part urban obstacle course part scavenger hunt, City Chase is a unique urban competition where teams race around a city to complete a series of physical, mental and humorous challenges and return to the finish line in the fastest time. City Chase was created and launched in Canada in 2004 and the concept made an immediate impact, expanding to a national event series in Canada’s nine largest cities in 2005.

The Australian team competed against seasoned international City Chase teams from eight Canadian cities and a London team on a non-stop 33-hour City Chase.

Competitors swam in freezing Lake Michigan, swung on a flying trapeze, jumped out of a plane at 14,000 feet, played golf at 4.00AM, completed a back yard make over, and canoed down a picturesque river for 22 kilometres. Ben and Andy, competing as Team Australia (Stinging Arrows), crossed the finish line in 1st place, just one second ahead of Team Edmonton. In all they covered over 30km on foot as well as using the Chicago transport system.

Rattray and Hill earned their ticket to the Championships after winning the first Australian City Chase event held in March and now, along with taking home the title of World Champions they have won an all-expenses paid trip to a City Chase of their choice in 2007.

“We were completely floored with our win and still can’t believe that we have taken out the World City Chase title”, commented Rattray.

“We are both so proud to be bringing the first ever City Chase World Championship title to Australia and we’re already geared up for an even bigger and better Australian series next year”, said Hill.

In addition to the current eight Canadian cities, Sydney and London, details of new City Chase events have been announced for Singapore, Paris, Lisbon and the US in 2007.

Series Founder, Nick Jelinek commented, “City Chase events push participants to rise to the challenge and compete against all odds whilst promoting a spirit of participation versus competition, camaraderie and a shared experience for all.”

“Ben & Andy represented the true spirit of City Chase with their engaging personalities and determined drive throughout the race and I’m sure both are looking forward to defending their Sydney City Chase title on home soil on 17th March 2007.”

16 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

TEAM Australia: Stinging Arrows Name: Birthdate: Occupation: Height: Weight: Place of birth: Favourite hobby:

Greatest accomplishment:

Greatest fear:

Andrew Hill 08-May-79 Environmental Consultant 179cm 68kg Sydney, NSW Running, Orienteering, Adventure Racing, Watching Rugby League, Aussie Rules and Cricket Finshing 3rd in Australia’s biggest off road marathon while still a junior, having to start 15min behind the lead group because I had never done a long race before.

Sock Puppets

Greatest weakness: Avoiding going out late on weekends Favourite food: Pasta - lasagne, ravioli…….

If you could spend Homer Simpson - he’s 10 minutes with just a funny guy, non-stop anyone, who would entertainment it be?

Something unique At age five I could name or quirky about every capital city in the yourself: world. Probably a bit rusty now.

Favorite City Chase Watching team mate eat a Moment: raw egg

Ben Rattray 09-Sep-77 PhD candidate 178cm 65kg Whyalla, South Australia Orienteering, running, adventure racing, watching tv, drinking coffee Convincing organisations to sponsor me to study for three years / surviving on less than 9 hours sleep some days

Heights, irrational fear of falling when near heights Taking on too much Mangoes Mother nature - I want to suggest a few changes

Nickname – Fat Rat

Sitting on a broken-down train while the presentation was on

ADVENTURE RACING

How we did it Andrew Hill and Ben Rattray

The City Chase Urban Adventure Racing World Championships were held in Chicago, USA on the 13-14th October. Ben Rattray and Andrew Hill from Australia qualified by winning the Sydney race back in March.

T

EAM AUSTRALIA, with the aid of Brooks running attire, arrived in Chicago two days prior to the race to unexpected snow falls (though any weather pattern is normal in “the Windy City”) but adapted well to win the World Championship race.

The race was an exceptional experience for all teams involved where teams were required to get around a course by running or using public transport around the sights of Chicago.

Competitors were expecting two races of approximately 4-5 hours over two days but race organisers dropped a bombshell announcing the race would start early Friday morning and not finish until Saturday night. The course sectors were not known to competitors until they arrived at each checkpoint. The course included skydiving from 14,000 feet, trapeze acts, night golf and landscaping for charity.

The race started at Buckingham Fountain with a scavenger hunt around the famous sites of Chicago to collect various items such as train passes and money which is needed during the course.

Team Australia headed out with Teams Edmonton and Vancouver and finished the first section in the lead group.

Teams then had to get to North Ave Beach on Lake Michigan where we had to uncover one of twelve keys buried in the sand and then unlock a padlock within Lake Michigan, Ben went for the swim in near freezing conditions.

At the next checkpoint teams were required to get to Hubbard Woods Park. Unsure of where to go the teams of Australia, Edmonton and Vancouver eventually headed back into town and after receiving information from some passers-by got directions to Hubbard Park in the west of Chicago by metro train. This turned out to be very wrong since this park was located in the dodgy black ghettos area on the outskirts of town and we were suddenly surrounded by groups of people and hotted up Lincolns pulling up beside us.

After realising that we got this wrong we headed back into town and finally found the right information and caught the train north to Hubbard Woods Park. The challenge was for one team member to perform a trapeze act. Andrew did this task in which he was required to swing high above the ground, turn upside down while swinging, put his arms out in a matter of seconds and be caught by a professional trapeze performer. Luckily this was completed at his first attempt.

A long 25km bike ride back into town was then followed by a train ride south to Harvey where all teams were required to help landscape a new garden for a ‘Habitat for Humanity’ charity. After this task was completed teams headed back into town yet again and by this time night had fallen. Teams then ran out to the west of Chicago and to complete a SAT exam with the team receiving the lowest score being eliminated from the race.

Now it was over 10 hours into the race and we had only eaten very minimal food. Luckily for us the task at the next checkpoint at The Crown Fountain was to eat the whole pizza we had previously made during the first task earlier in the day. Following

Photos: Chris Owen Halper, Odyssey Photography & Video Production

this teams were required to take a walking tour of architectural downtown Chicago and take notes for a short test.

The next checkpoint was a challenge within the ESPN centre, a games arcade. Teams were required to pitch a 55 miles per hour baseball, score 50 points in basketball, score 60 points in gridiron and finish in the top twenty in Daytona car racing game. Once this was finished teams ran to Lucky Strike tenpin bowling and where they had to score a total of 800 points. Australia finished this in first position, waited for Edmonton and together caught the train north and were allowed 2 hours rest.

At 4am Team Australia and Team Edmonton teed off at a nearby golf course in the dark and freezing cold winds. We played four holes with the glowp-in-the-dark balls and scored 6 over par, incurring a 6 minute penalty.

Next step was to catch a train west for a 22km canoe paddle as the sun was rising, followed by a run around Brookfield Zoo to collect moulds of animals.

After the zoo time was stopped, teams were put into cars and driven to an undisclosed location. Our hearts were in our throats as they drove us to Chicagoland Skydiving Centre. Andrew was first of the teams to jump out of the plane 14,000 feet above the ground. This included a 9,000 feet (over 3km) freefall in 60 seconds. Finally, as teams landed back on land we were driven back into the centre of Chicago.

At the final checkpoint consisted we had to use a camera phone which was supplied to us to capture 12 photos of tasks around the city centre then a final dash for the finish line after 33 _ hours of racing. Since we had spent over 33 hours together Team Australia and Team Edmonton decided to finish across the line together with Edmonton winning a Volvo car each and Australia receiving official world champion status and a free trip to any City Chase race in the world next season.

Thanks to Brooks, Ross Wall and Kerrin Rattray for their support during, and before the race. Look out for next year’s calendar which promises Australian races in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. Further details: www.citychase.com DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 17

COACHING

Feeling your Way with Contours Eoin Rothery (WA)

C

ONTOURS are the most useful features on virtually any map, and it is worth taking the time to get to know them. One very helpful thing about contours is that if you have a slope, you have directions – particularly up and down, but other angles can be estimated. This helps many orienteers to navigate without using their compass – in fact some world elites, like Pasi Ikonen of Finland, don’t even bring one with them.

Contours can also make good handrails (a line feature that you can follow in the terrain – ridges, gullys, breaks in slope). In fact,

contours are often mapped as a series of line features – and so the orienteer should use them as such. The simplest form of this is “Contouring”, which is to follow a contour, that is go at the same height in the terrain and this is surprisingly effective. However, a bit too careless and you drift downhill, while too fit or anxious and you’ll probably over-correct and go uphill. A rule of thumb would be to alternate uphill or downhill sides of any obstruction.

Contouring relies on a fairly accurate map, so should not be attempted for more than a few 100 metres. Partly this is because orienteering maps are “relatively” accurate, not “absolutely” accurate – and they are better that way. The mapper exaggerates prominent features, putting them in their correct relative position and may have to displace others depending on symbol size.

Where possible it is usually sensible to avoid unnecessary climb during your course. Even if you are not running in a virtual 3D terrain map (like some people are) you should at least know whether the next control is above you, below you, or at the same height so that you can plan your route accordingly. On any route choice, you should be very wary of trying to go obliquely across contours in a straight line – that is probably the most difficult technique to get right.

Sailor’s Creek, Daylesford, Victoria 1:10 000

18 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

COACHING The spacing of contours is a guide to the steepness, but watch out for plateaus! Of themselves, contours cannot show the difference between a series of flat, stacked terraces and a smooth slope. This is one reason specialist orienteering mappers spend many hours in the bush – by using form lines they can show the shape of the slope. In the case of terraces or platforms the mapper can put a form line close to one of the contours to show the break in slope.

Steep slopes are difficult to move on, in any direction, and the steeper they are, usually, the rougher they are. In general, and this applies to mountain bikes too, you don’t want rough going uphill – DO YOUR CLIMBING ON A GOOD SURFACE! A hill top or a saddle between two hills are definite points on the map and worth considering as attack points. Setters often provide a route choice between going over a hill, or around. A tired orienteer will almost always go around, but running a long way around a steep slope is not always that fast, particularly if it is rocky, wet or there are fallen trees. It might be an effort to get to the hill top, but at least you know exactly where you are. Danger – on the way down it pays to be very careful of your direction as you could easily go down the wrong spur – a lot of them start from the top of the hill!

Which brings us to a hairy old anecdote about contours which is worth repeating – “Run up spurs and down gullys”. This is because spurs meet at a definite point going up hill (the hill top), and the same is true for gullys going down hill. Following a creek uphill runs the danger of turning into the wrong branch.

However, going into a creek at any time is usually a bad idea, as the vegetation is usually thicker down there. Another anecdote is “Approach controls from the top” – the point being that you can see more; the jury is out on that one.

A single contour hill is a very good control point and often used by setters. Hills that are not high enough to be shown by a contour (with a 5m contour interval, that would be at least 2.5m, or a generous 2m) are shown with the brown dot – high point, or knoll. So by definition these features are usually between 0.5m and 2m high. The definition does not say what they are made of, so that can be earth or rock. The distinction between a rocky high point and a boulder can get a bit technical – my definition is that a giant could roll a boulder down the hill, but not a high point (because it is “bedrock” or solidly attached to the rest of the ground). The geologist’s term is “float” (from glaciated terrains where ice has dropped “boulder trains”) and float can be distinguished from bedrock by repeated blows of a big hammer – float gives a hollow sound, while bedrock sings! (not that I’m suggesting you bring a hammer orienteering).

The thicker contours are called index contours and are meant to be used as a way of quickly imagining the general shape of the land, especially if combined with major creeks or watercourses.

In general, any closed contour you see on a map will be a hill, unless you are in sand dunes, limestone karst or on a subsidenceaffected area (eg NZ). In most other countries in the world gullys have creeks in them. Unfortunately Australia doesn’t, but helpfully even Aussies mark the bottom of valleys with a blue line. No, it doesn’t mean water, it means where the water would probably be during or immediately after a torrential downpour.

Called a “watercourse” it can be a prominent line of erosion but is mostly a very subtle place where you can trip over. However, some of the best terrain for orienteering is Australian “Gold Mining” which is a result of long-gone water directed through contour canals having formed substantial erosion gullys and other features.

Depressions are just that – very depressing. Notoriously used as places to hide control flags they can be extremely difficult to find, and in fact if there is no corresponding spoil heap beside them, they are not meant to be found with the tools available to an orienteer – compass and pacing are not precise enough

Simon Uppill at the Aust Champs.

at 1:10,000 or 1:15,000 for the job. Worse, they are blatantly obvious when someone drops in or jumps out of them, so giving away the position to anybody else in sight and introducing Lady Luck where she has no right to be. In my view, the best position for a control flag is above the normal ground surface, next to the depression, and too bad if it can be seen from a fair distance.

Contours and cliffs are related, too. If greater than the contour interval, a cliff should have at least two contours running into the ends. On some maps, contours used to be coloured black where they were essentially cliffs or very steep rock. Cliffs are mostly parallel to the contours of the slope they are on – but beware of those that face up the hill (it does happen!)

There have been a few attempts to work out how much extra effort is a hill and therefore how much it is worth going around to avoid climbing a contour. Underfoot conditions and tiredness have a big effect on this, but it is probably in the range 200m300m of ascent = 1km around. At 10 minutes per km, this would be one 5m contour is equal to 10-16 seconds or 35-50m extra distance.

So, you see, there is more to contours than an invisible brown line – get to know them and you will never look back!

Orienteering Australia – National Training Centre DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 19

NUTRITION

Eating before Orienteering Events Gillian Woodward

T

HE pre-event meal is the final opportunity to top-up energy and fluid levels before your run. It is important to choose the right food, but the ‘last meal’ should also make you feel comfortable throughout the event and be based on your own needs and likes. Experimenting in training is important to find out what works best for you. What suits one athlete will not necessarily be right for another, so it is well worth taking the trouble to work out what gives you lasting energy without weighing you down too much. And of course it needs to be easily prepared wherever you happen to be staying before the event.

What to eat?

•H igh carbohydrate foods – for optimal energy stores •L ow/Moderate GI carbohydrates – for slow release of energy •F oods low in fat & low in fibre – to limit gastric discomfort •D rink plenty of fluids – for optimal hydration, especially in warm weather

When to eat?

•3 -4 hours prior to event – a bigger meal •1 -2 hours prior to event – a light snack •< 1 hour prior to event – a liquid meal supplement or sports drink or snack bar

Examples of pre-event foods & snacks – Foods suitable 3-4 hours before exercise: •B reakfast cereal + light milk + fruit juice •C anned Fruit + low-fat fruit yoghurt + muesli bar •S andwich with salad/meat filling + fruit juice •F ruit toast + ricotta cheese + low-fat smoothie or fruit juice •M uffins or crumpets + honey or jam •B anana & honey sandwich •P asta with low-fat sauce (e.g. tomato, vegetables & lean meat)

Foods suitable 1-2 hours before exercise: •F ruit smoothie or milkshake (preferably low fat) •S ports bars or muesli bars •B reakfast cereal with milk •F ruit & yoghurt •H oney or jam sandwich

Foods suitable less than 1 hour before exercise: •S ports drink, cordial or fruit juice •S ports bars, muesli bars or jelly lollies

A few words of warning!

1. Be careful what cereal you choose. Whereas in your normal/training diet you might be having a high fibre cereal like muesli or a bran-rich type, don’t have this on the morning of a competition run. Go for a lower fibre type – flaky cereal or wheat biscuit without all the fruit and nuts that might normally 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

be in your cereal bowl. The last thing you want is to have a sudden stimulation of your bowel half way around the course!

2. Try out some different sports drinks and go with the one that you most like the taste of – you are sure to drink more of it and hydrate better if this is the case. Practise using a sports drink before and after a training run to see how you feel.

3. Use low fat milk products like light milk or light yoghurts.

These are easier to digest before a run. Fat stays in your stomach longer and restricts the release of carbohydrate into your blood stream, so it is best avoided before events.

4. Multigrain breads are lower GI than white or wholemeal, so may give you more lasting energy for your run. Multigrain is not as high in fibre as wholemeal, so shouldn’t create a problem for the bowel, but if it does, there are some new white breads that are also low GI. These may be a good alternative.

5. Remember that what you eat the night before may also influence how you feel and perform the next day. The important thing is to include plenty of carbohydrate foods.

The easiest way to do this is to have either a rice or pasta based meal or simply have extra potatoes and maybe sweet corn with your main meal. If you are eating out, add bread to the menu or have a fruity dessert or some ice-cream to further increase the carbohydrates. Fruit juices and soft drinks contain plenty of carbohydrate too. Don’t go for the deep fried dishes or lots of chips as they will fill you up with fat before you have had enough carbohydrate.

So all in all, it is important to keep those carbohydrates adequate to fuel your muscles for the run, not to mention feeding the brain enough glucose to help you navigate the course. Try to plan ahead what you need to take when travelling away to events. Don’t leave your eating arrangements to chance. Road-side eateries are not well known for their ability to adequately fuel hungry athletes with appropriate food choices!

Gillian Woodward is a Practising Dietician and has been providing advice in the field for over 25 years. She has been an orienteer since 1984.

WORLD ORIENTEERING CHAMPIONSHIPS

BIG MISTAKES at WOC It happens to all of us – that big-180, the 90, or the complete mind explosion. We wonder: “What a simple error - how could we possibly have done that?” Well, rest easy, we are not alone. In October we showed you examples of the simple errors made by some of the world’s elite orienteers at the World Orienteering Championships in Denmark. Here are some more …

Women’s Relay – Minna Kauppi (FIN) She was leading the Women’s Relay by a comfortable 4 1/2 minutes when Minna Kauppi left control #16, just three controls to go and she could already hear the Swedish commentator, Per Forsberg, predicting that “Finland will win – that’s for sure.” On the Big Screen we spectators could see her bounding down the hill to an easy track run towards #17. Then it would be in off a track bend to the control on a prominent spur. But that’s where it all went wrong and Kauppi lost nearly 3 1/2 minutes exploring spurs and gullies way off to the NE. Eventually she returned to her original attack point and found #17, still ahead of Swiss super-star Simone Niggli-Luder. But there were Finnish hearts in mouths for some long minutes before Kauppi eventually reached the last control, bowed to the crowd and ran down to the Finish line to win by just over one minute.

Men’s Long-distance – Anders Nordberg (NOR) Anders Nordberg is often referred to as the King of the long legs, but it didn’t happen that way in Denmark. From #15 to #16 there were many route choice options. Finn Jani Lakanen went south and had by far the fastest time for that leg (and won the event). Swiss Marc Lauenstein took a more direct route but with more climb and was slower by 27sec. Anders Nordberg took a similar route to Lauenstein but was 2 minutes slower and 2 1/2 minutes slower than Lakanen. Somewhere along the way Nordberg slowed down. He finished the race 5min behind Lakanen, half of that time being lost on the long leg.

Men’s Long-distance #16 Finish Place Jani Lakanen

FIN 15:27 1:45:01.0

Marc Lauenstein

SUI 15:54 1:46:10.5

1 2

Anders Nordberg NOR 17:55 1:50:05.2

11

Women’s Relay #16 #17 #18 #19 Finish M. Kauppi

FIN 3:19 7:30 2:14 0:53 1:00

S. Niggli-Luder

SUI 3:17 4:21 2:10 0:56 0:56

H. Allston

AUS 2:54 3:47 2:00 0:48 0:44

Women’s Sprint – Hilary Saeger (US) Hilary Saeger made the Sprint Final but that’s where her day all but ended.

From the Start she headed off far too left and apparently didn’t recognise the major intersection of paths near #2. She saw #2 then wandered around almost back to the Start before heading off in something like the right direction. She found #1 by taking the grand tour around it then, thoroughly demoralised, she roamed around back to #2. After that it got better for Hilary until her big mistake at the spectator control (see AO, October edition).

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER

21

Event arenas – a complete Sight & Sound Experience Erik Borg

SpectatorAttraction There’s no doubt that the major events held in Europe are becoming multi-media extravaganzas with live TV camera feed from the forest to the Big Screen erected in a spectator-friendly assembly arena, GPS positioning of competitors for the audience and instantaneous timing from points around the courses. All this is aimed at providing a spectacle for the audience gathered in the assembly arena.

But where does all this leave lesser events which just don’t have the budget for such grand multimedia productions?

Some say that Orienteering is not a spectator sport and that we don’t need spectator controls, open arenas with long finish lanes, etc – all of the orienteering course should be in the forest. But we must remember that the vast majority of spectators at these major events in Europe are themselves competitors, and it is the same for Orienteering events at any level.

So why shouldn’t we try to provide as best as possible for those Orienteering spectators at our lesser events as well as at our major championships? Who knows – more spectator-friendly events might just attract more Orienteers to the bush events which have been suffering from declining attendances for some years. One important reason for the rise in popularity of the Sprint-O format is the increased level of spectator involvement.

In this article first published in the IOF O-Zine (Sept’06), Erik Borg talks with Per Forsberg, the man behind multimedia event production in Scandinavia, including the recent World Orienteering Championships held in Denmark. Some of the principles of arena design he describes can be applied to most Orienteering events, big or small.

22 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

O

RIENTEERING arenas should be small and compact.

Spectators need to be close to the runners, and the site shouldn’t be too spacious. This is the view of the well-known orienteering commentator Per Forsberg.

Forsberg works full-time as a professional commentator at major sporting events and on TV. The Swede was chief commentator at the World Championships in Denmark and was one of the key people in planning the arenas.

“Overall I always have the ambition to create a compact arena, that is not to spread out the various features but to have them as close to each other as possible. Another key requirement is to use the Big Screen as a major focal point. The ambition at WOC in Denmark was that watchers should be able to see the Screen from both the main spectator areas and the cafes and eating places. A third important point was to have the spectator controls really close to the spectators; it is particularly important that spectators can recognise and hear the runners as they pass”, says Forsberg.

The topography of the area has a considerable influence on how the assembly area can be set out. Forsberg believes that the arenas in Denmark were adequate in the way that one could see everything from one and the same place.

“One could see the spectator control, the last control, the run-in, the finish and the Big Screen without having any need to move”, says Per. It is an enormous task to plan and set up an arena of World Championships class. Many people contribute to planning the layout. Amongst others, the course planners are important; they need to create courses which pass through the arena at a suitable point on each course.

“In retrospect I consider that at WOC in Denmark we were able to build up arenas which were overall of high class, with the spectators kept in focus when we were designing the layout”, says Per. Have you any tips for those who wish to organise spectatorfriendly orienteering events? How do you create atmosphere and excitement?

“The biggest mistake, often made, is to spread the various features out far too much. Think ‘compact’. When we begin to think about atmosphere, it is clear that this depends on more than just the arena layout. The commentary is important,

S P E C TATO R AT T R A C T I O N but also what kind of race it is, the race’s importance and which runners are taking part. In this context I should also say that it is not just the commentary that is important; a good speaker needs a good sound system – often this has not been the case”, says the WOC commentator.

Orienteering is a TV sport!

At the end of April Per Forsberg was the Program Director for the longest ever direct sports transmission in Sweden. He believes in orienteering as a TV sport, and reckons that the sport can have much higher selfbelief.

“In the future we (orienteering) must dare to stand up for our sport much better than we do today. Far too often we stand with our cap in our hands and simply wait for sponsors and TV to come to us, but they don’t do that. We must get out and tell them about ourselves, and sell ourselves too. Orienteering has a modern outlook, it is in many ways a high-tech sport which stands out above the rest. I’m thinking of electronic punching, GPS-tracking and so on”, says Forsberg.

Orienteering has possibilities for TV? “Absolutely. In the last year we have shown that orienteering functions perfectly as a direct-transmission TV sport (Tiomila 2006 in Sweden). So we must continue to work and develop our possible TV projects with care. I believe more than anything that Relays are best suited to TV just now, but Sprint and Middledistance also work”, says Per. Forsberg believes that people experienced in orienteering have to produce the TV programs.

“Orienteering is difficult to produce. Our runners are not specially well-known amongst other than ourselves, which makes it difficult for even a skilled and experienced producer to appreciate everything if he has no knowledge of orienteering”, he says.

Additionally, Per believes that two criteria must be met for orienteering to become a big sport. The first – it must become Olympic. Secondly, we must work to develop further the big events like World Championships and the World Cup.

Winner, Jani Lakanen, punches the spectator control in the Long-distance event at WOC in Denmark.

“Arenas must be professionally designed, we need to have picture production for a big screen, etc. It is extremely important for the IOF and for everyone that this happens”, he says.

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 23

24 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

Men 3.0km 110m

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 F 1 GUEORGIOU Thierry 16:03 0:24 1:25 3:18 3:50 5:21 5:39 6:16 7:24 7:51 8:35 8:59 9:16 9:36 10:03 10:34 10:47 11:06 13:20 13:34 14:11 14:33 14:51 15:10 15:42 15:56 16: 03 France 0:24 1:01 1:53 0:32 1:31 0:18 0:37 1:08 0:27 0:44 0:24 0:17 0:20 0:27 0:31 0:13 0:19 2:14 0:14 0:37 0:22 0:18 0:19 0:32 0:14 0:07 2 HUBMANN Daniel 16:12 0:20 1:27 3:19 3:54 5:24 5:42 6:19 7:31 7:57 8:34 9:01 9:16 9:36 10:05 10:34 10:46 11:04 13:20 13:36 14:16 14:44 15:02 15:20 15:51 16:06 16:12 Switzerland 0:20 1:07 1:52 0:35 1:30 0:18 0:37 1:12 0:26 0:37 0:27 0:15 0:20 0:29 0:29 0:12 0:18 2:16 0:16 0:40 0:28 0:18 0:18 0:31 0:15 0:06 3 HUOVILA Jarkko 16:43 0:23 1:31 3:19 3:58 5:21 5:41 6:20 7:33 8:00 8:40 9:04 9:21 9:51 10:21 10:52 11:06 11:25 13:34 13:49 14:32 15:04 15:25 15:49 16:21 16:36 16:43 Finland 0:23 1:08 1:48 0:39 1:23 0:20 0:39 1:13 0:27 0:40 0:24 0:17 0:30 0:30 0:31 0:14 0:19 2:09 0:15 0:43 0:32 0:21 0:24 0:32 0:15 0:07

WORLD CUP SPRINT, FRANCE – OCTOBER 2006

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 25

Here we show the Men’s and Women’s Sprint courses with routes for each of the place-getters. It’s interesting to see how, given half a chance, they all head for the nearest tracks even if that particular route may be considerably longer.

An eventful round of the IOF World Cup, with one of the Qualifying races stopped mid-way due to 100 km/hour winds and crashing trees. One of the Finnish women was insisting that she should be allowed to carry on when a large tree came down nearby. She soon changed her mind.

WORLD CUP - France, October 2006

Women 2.7km 95m

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 F 1 JUKKOLA Heli 17:23 0:28 1:53 4:18 5:01 6:41 7:02 7:58 8:31 9:43 10:55 11:33 12:00 12:39 14:02 14:42 15:24 15:45 16:10 16:58 17:14 17:23 Finland 0:28 1:25 2:25 0:43 1:40 0:21 0:56 0:33 1:12 1:12 0:38 0:27 0:39 1:23 0:40 0:42 0:21 0:25 0:48 0:16 0:08 2 ENGSTRAND Emma 17:30 0:26 1:46 4:37 5:21 7:01 7:18 8:12 8:41 9:50 10:55 11:32 11:58 12:45 14:12 14:54 15:41 16:06 16:30 17:06 17:22 17:30 Sweden 0:26 1:20 2:51 0:44 1:40 0:17 0:54 0:29 1:09 1:05 0:37 0:26 0:47 1:27 0:42 0:47 0:25 0:24 0:36 0:16 0:08 3 GEMPERLE Sara 18:00 0:28 1:57 4:24 5:09 6:52 7:11 8:05 8:36 9:53 11:09 11:49 12:17 13:04 14:32 15:15 15:53 16:25 16:51 17:35 17:53 18:00 Switzerland 0:28 1:29 2:27 0:45 1:43 0:19 0:54 0:31 1:17 1:16 0:40 0:28 0:47 1:28 0:43 0:38 0:32 0:26 0:44 0:18 0:07

JWOC 2007

Paul Prudhoe and Western Plains Zoo’s Life Sciences Manager Maria Finnigan announcing the Western Plains Zoo as the location for the JWOC Sprint Distance event.

Promoting JWOC in Dubbo Ron Pallas

Organisers visit May ‘06.

Basil Baldwin and Julian Dent (JWOC Long Distance Course Setter) in the foreground, David Shepherd and David Meyer (Sprint Distance course Setter) in the background.

Photos: Paul Prudhoe

I

T was way back in 2002 when I walked into the Dubbo Tourism Building one September afternoon and first chatted about JWOC and Dubbo. Whilst Dubbo has a pretty proud record for attracting State and Australian championships in a variety of sports, including touch football, Golden Oldies rugby and the like, Matthew Colohan, Manager Dubbo Tourist Services, believes that JWOC will be the largest, longest carnival to come to town.

So how do you promote JWOC in a town where the sport of Orienteering is unknown?

As with many rural regional centres Dubbo is covered by local print, television and radio and they are playing a crucial role in taking the event to the public. Then OA President John Brammell fronted the press in December 2003 to announce that JWOC 2007 was coming to Dubbo. This announcement was extensively covered by all media.

From that initial announcement Marketing Director, Paul Prudhoe, has ensured that the Carnival is kept in the news. Each milestone is celebrated – Presentation of the JWOC Program to the Mayor (in Jan ‘06), Visit of the International Events Advisor (in May ’06), The Sprint Venue in The Western Plains Zoo (in Oct ’06); all have been important in keeping JWOC in all forms of the news – print, radio and TV. Local radio station, 2DU, has been fantastic in providing airtime for interviews with JWOC Committee members. Radio works!

Paul and I have been approached in the streets, as people have recognised our JWOC 2007 shirts, to find out a little more.

For Dubbo it has been a two-way street. At JWOC 2006, in Lithuania, a large swag of Australians wore “I ❤ Dubbo” T-Shirts to events (Oct’06 Edition, The Australian Orienteer). Dubbo Tourism brochures, postcards and posters promoting Dubbo and JWOC2007 were also distributed to overseas teams and to interested spectators and team supporters.

Those orienteers who attended this year’s national championships in Western Australia would have found copies of the Dubbo City

Candidates for AUS Team 2007 Junior World Orienteering Championships – call for nominations Orienteers interested in being candidates for selection for the 2007 Junior World Orienteering Championships are asked to express their interest.

This year there will be two sets of selection trials: the Australian 3-Days in South Australia (including the prologue), and the National League events on 19-20 May in New South Wales. Candidates for selection will be expected to attend both sets of selection trials.

Nominations should be sent to the Chair of the Junior Selection Panel, Blair Trewin, at b.trewin@bom.gov.au or 2/53 Darebin St, Heidelberg VIC 3084.

26 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

tourism brochure and promotional material created for the event in their registration bags, with further material on display at the events.

Dubbo City Council, as well as providing financial support for the event, has provided a Liaison Officer who is working with the Committee providing local focus and contacts.

Dubbo has two organisations that support local businesses. The Chamber of Commerce is complemented by the Dubbo City Development Corporation. These two organisations have been great supporters. From our initial discussions they have been very positive in providing assistance to get the word out.

At a recent “Business before Breakfast” meeting run by the Dubbo City Development Corporation Paul Prudhoe and myself addressed a crowd of 50 local business owners. The interest generated and contacts made during this meeting certainly made the ten hour round trip invaluable.

A similar roll up is expected at the next meeting of the Dubbo Chamber of Commerce at the end of November where Paul and I will again present JWOC and Orienteering to local businesses.

In addition to the aim of ensuring that the Dubbo community becomes familiar with JWOC and all that it will bring to Dubbo in July next year, OANSW also has the objective of establishing a viable Orienteering club in Dubbo. Approaches have been made to schools in Dubbo and it is anticipated that early in 2007 “Come and Try It” events will be held for school students and for the public.

For up to date information of the progress and latest news of JWOC 2007 the event website can be found at www.jwoc2007.orienteering.asn.au while information on the associated “public events” (NSW Championships, Australian Schools Championships, Western Plains Challenge, Australian Individual Championships and the Australian Relay Championships) can be found at www.westernplainscarnival.asn.au

INVITATION TO ATTEND MAPPING WORKSHOP BEFORE JWOC A mapping workshop will be conducted by Queensland mapper, Eric Andrews, near Molong in central NSW on the 4-6 July 2007. The first day will be devoted to GPS mapping including a practical exercise. The final two days will be practical fieldwork in the field on photogrammetry of the “Gumble Pinnacles”, which is a granite area of medium complexity.

Nominations and Inquiries: Nominations should be made direct to Eric Andrews at 07-4683 6374, at PO Box 863, Stanthorpe, Qld. 4380, or by email to batmaps@halenet.com.au before 1st June 2007.

PROFILE

Anna Sheldon compiled by Wendy Read

Photo: Bob Mouatt

AKA: Bomb (SMS predictive text for Anna) Club: Ugly Gully Orienteers, Queensland Age: 25 Education: Completed high school at St Peters Lutheran College, Brisbane. Is currently a full time student completing a PhD in Soil Science at the University of Queensland, with honours in gaining funding extensions to support her athletic (oops – academic) career.

Past Sports Achievements: Gymnastics – competed in both Rhythmic and Artistic until finishing high school.

Orienteering – Queensland Schools Orienteering Team 1996 – 1998; JWOC - 1998 France; 2000 Czech Republic; 2001 Hungary; Bushrangers team 2003, 2004, 2005; MTB WOC 2004 (Relay Bronze medal); MTB WOC 2005 (6th Middle-distance) When did you first take up Orienteering (and why?)

Mum (Joan) orienteered and took me to events as a child, participating initially just in local events in Queensland.

Photo: Troy Merchant

But in 1996, the Queensland Schools Orienteering team was going to Tasmania for the Australian Champs. Aged 15, I really wanted to make the team so I started doing some training. Not only did I make the team, I had heaps of fun and some good results too. That started my life as a competitive orienteer.

Describe big breakthroughs (MTBO and Foot-O) After moving up from juniors to elites, my next goal was to make the WOC team. I worked really hard towards this goal, and had some occasional successes, but it seemed like a long four years of not really going anywhere.

My first breakthrough came by improving the physical level at which I could race.

While always training consistently, injuries limited the intensity of my training efforts and I could never train really hard.

By switching from running to cycling for MTBO in 2004 and 2005, I found I could train much harder and achieve a much higher level of fitness than before. I also

realised how much more I could achieve by structuring training properly over the whole year. Smarter training plans enabled me to cope with a much higher training load than ever before.

Typical training week & Diet Plan

The other breakthrough I had this year was in being able to race in Foot-O much more consistently. In past years I had some good runs, but twice as many bad ones – with races often characterized by usually one big mistake. Learning to take a calmer approach to racing, controlling speed and improved concentration have seen my results really improve.

FRI: Recovery run/ride & coffee

(Anna’s most recent breakthrough in Foot-O was to win the 2006 Australian Championship in WA.) What’s next?

My main focus for 2007 is the Long-distance race at WOC in Ukraine, and also being selected for one of the other race formats at WOC. Also, I would like to compete in as much of the World Cup season as possible.

MON: Recovery run/ride & coffee TUES: Long terrain run & coffee WED: Intervals & coffee THURS: Hills & coffee SAT: Long run with ‘Bomb Squad’ * (followed by big breakfast & coffee) SUN: O Race & beer Favourite activities outside Orienteering Mountain biking, adventure racing (with teams Mountain Designs and Geronimo!), bushwalking.

Favourite music, books, whatever I’m really looking forward to reading anything that’s not to do with salinity levels in soil. I always enjoy reading someone else’s fresh newspaper and doing the crossword before they get to it. There’s usually a pirated ‘Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ album sitting in my D Drive, too. *Bomb Squad = female members of Qld Cyclones NOL Team

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 27

U R B A N S P R I N T- O

Old York Town & Avon River Shire of York 2006 Australian Sprint Orienteering Championships

John Sheahan (BK-V) won M65 at the York Sprint.

28 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

U R B A N S P R I N T- O

York is a world beater!

John Sheahan

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STABLISHING a precedent, Sprint-O in the small country town of York, during the Australian Championships Carnival, showed that this concept can be equally exciting in a whole range of locations. For this particular event, despite what would seem to be a very limited range of options, the organizers used every aspect of the venue to present a spectacle that showed the Sprint-O event to maximum advantage, helping to establish it as a legitimate arm of a national carnival. It was great fun for both spectators and contestants.

The Location - one block of the historic York main street was closed to traffic and contained: the start; the finish; as well as a couple of controls, and a range of cafes and coffee shops for leisurely spectator viewing. The infrastructure around the competition area injected an element of excitement - a buzz - as you became aware that this event was going to be something special - something out of the ordinary.

The Start - what better way to start the Elites than from the top of a Vintage Tray truck (from the York Museum) where the next starters were clearly seen by all. No craning of necks, no crowds impeding your view. The announcer’s introduction could be followed by all.

From the truck tray there was a ramp to the ground where added interest came as the speedsters had to contend with a rapid angle change just as they were trying to get a first glimpse of their map.

Interesting! Then off at speed up the main street, with a rapid decision required almost at once.

mixture of rapid reading, hasty route choice and several direction options. The hardest part for some was finding their way back through the narrow lanes and the old buildings of York.

Double Action - after 10 -15mins the first starters were returning looking for one or perhaps two controls in the main street. This factor moved the action up a further notch. You had finishers and starters going in all directions in full view. There was never a dull moment!

The Finish – with a 100m sprint from one end of the main street to the other backed by the encouragement of an excellent commentary by Neil Simson from the back of a Vintage Bus we were provided with a great finale to an event that showed SprintO at its best.

Some who had recently completed similar events overseas in Zermatt, Lausanne, and Aarhus agreed that this event had a flair that certainly gave it an edge.

The First Control - for some! The action started 50m from the Start. For some contestants their first control was in the main street, for others it wasn’t. Some ran too fast and overshot it.

Some missed the first lane and had to come back. All of this was happening in full view of the spectators. It was action full on.

The Awards - these were presented from a dais on the back of the same Vintage Truck that was used to start the Elites. Again it was very well done. All could see clearly what was happening and because of the narrow band of start times everyone stayed for the presentations.

Out the back - once the competitors had found the exit lane(s) it was then out onto the rest of the course which required the usual

The event had ATMOSPHERE.

New Theory on Muscle Fatigue It’s not often that researchers re-write the textbook, but La Trobe University Muscle Research Laboratory scientists have done just that.

The latest edition of the Biology 1 text book for VCE students published by Heinemann carries a full page story about research led by Professors George Stephenson and Graham Lamb. The research overturned a widely-held but incorrect theory that acidity, through a build up of lactic acid, was a major cause of muscle fatigue.

The organizers are to be congratulated.

Bananas popular in Switzerland With bananas at $12/kg in Aussie supermarkets it’s no wonder that Australians competing in the Swiss O Week were amazed to find them selling for just $2.50/kg in Zermatt. It was too good an opportunity to miss – so much so that the Swiss orienteering magazine, OL-fachschrift, carried an item entitled “Banana plundering in the Zermatt Migros”. Apparently the rapid disappearance of bananas from the shelves of the Migros supermarket each day was a source of wonder to the Swiss. No names were mentioned.

Professors Stephenson and Lamb discovered that the opposite is true – that acidity helps prevent muscle fatigue – and they discovered and explained the complex mechanism involving the role of chloride, by which this happens.

Because many biology books had over the years espoused the incorrect facts, Professor Lamb requested textbook publishers to correct the error. Heinemann’s Biology 1 is the first to do so.

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 29

HIGH PERFORMANCE

Changes have brought Success Mike Dowling, OA Director, High Performance

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T is now three years since I took on the role of Director, High Performance on the Board of Orienteering Australia. It is three years that have flown by and in that time we have seen a number of great things happen on the high performance front in Australia. We have seen Australians achieve gold medals in all the three World Championships we contest through the brilliant efforts of Adrian Jackson and Hanny Allston; we have seen a highly successful hosting of the 2004 World MTBO Championships; we have seen the successful adoption of regular trans-Tasman competition with our Bushrangers team; we have seen the development of the junior division as a part of our National League; we have seen a number of our former elite orienteers become involved in coaching to pass on their vast depth of experience to the next generation of elite orienteers and we are all looking forward with a sense of great anticipation to what promises to be a superb Junior World Championships in Dubbo next year.

In order to build on our successes over these last three years I believe there are some fundamentals we as an Orienteering community, with a stake in seeing our young competitors prominent on the world stage, need to continue to work on.

Among these are building a desire for more of our younger orienteers to take on the sport as a lifestyle choice with a strong interest in being a high performance competitor; building the number of our JWOC representatives who move into senior ranks and become regular members of their state National League teams as a basis point for their potential as future national representatives in either the Bushrangers or WOC teams; building the depth and participation of state teams in the National League; continuing to build our coaching infrastructure at all levels as an underpinning support mechanism for individuals to improve their Orienteering; building the number of people keen and enthusiastic in wanting to take MTBO on as a pathway to international representation; and most importantly continuing to seek out extra financial resources to lessen the load on both individuals and member states in the high performance arena.

Many of these areas are not the sole domain of any one person or organisational group within the Australian orienteering community. It requires a shared community partnership between stakeholders from the Board of Orienteering Australia, our member state associations and down to the local orienteering community through their individual club members and structures. I believe this sense of shared community is growing as I see our National League continuing to develop as a key plank in continuing to build our international competitiveness.

National League Developments An important aspect of the continuing development of our National League program is a number of proposals that will be considered at the Orienteering Australia National Conference as this edition hits the streets. One of these will be a proposal to rename the current National Orienteering League the Australian Orienteering Series.

What does this mean? Existing individual-based divisions will still exist but within this there will now be four national league team competitions of open men, open women, junior men and junior 30 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

women. What are the advantages of this? It enables states that have greater strength in part of their high performance group to gain greater recognition for those athletes through their successes.

For example, Tasmania is very strong in open women but not so strong in open men thus allowing the women to gain recognition in their own right; and Western Australia is strong in junior women but not so strong in junior men. It mirrors the structures of National Leagues in other sports where teams are based on gender. It will provide states that have particular strengths in a group to use this as a means to promote those successes in the media rather than for it to be subsumed within the existing broader team structures.

With consolidation of all national championship formats into one week from 2008, this provides an ideal opportunity to have a fresh look at the structure of the National League (Orienteering Series) program. The national program has two principal aims in my view; one is to provide a high level domestic competition for our high performance orienteers and the other is to showcase the athleticism and challenges of high level orienteering to both the broader orienteering community and the wider general public This second point is one where we have an opportunity to reinvigorate the existing ASC Galaxy Sprint race that is an annual feature of the existing National League program. The aim is for it to become a Cup type event held over two races on consecutive days post Easter 3 Days. In some ways it would be like a mirror of the highly successful Swiss Post Finance Cup in Switzerland. The focus will be on fast paced visible orienteering, in a readily media accessible area, the offering of a level of prize money not yet seen in Australian orienteering and the maximising of participation by our best orienteers.

MTBO National Series In 2007?

With the changes to the National League structures MTBO is making some great strides as well. In 2007 we will have the inaugural Oceania MTBO Championships hosted by Victoria in March. That is a sure sign of the growing maturity of MTBO as a separate discipline within the wider Orienteering community.

Recognition should be acknowledged here of the central role Victoria’s Blake Gordon has made in the development of MTBO. In addition, it is hoped there will also be the introduction of a formal national MTBO series that mirrors that of our well established foot-o National Series in 2007. As I write the MTBO High Performance Management Group is beginning the process of formulating the exact nature of the Series but it would be likely to encompass the Oceania Championships, national championships events and possibly one of the state championships series.

Identity For Our JWOC Team We have the Bushrangers and the Boomerangs but our JWOC team is yet to have an identity. With Australia hosting JWOC in 2007 what a great time to launch an identity for our team. Have a bright idea just waiting to burst out!!!!

Send your suggestion by December 31st to your HP Director via email at mdowling@tassie.net.au.

The nominee of the successful team identity will receive a $50 open order on their local orienteering gear shop.

SPORT PSYCHOLOGY

How to get the Best out of Yourself when competing Overseas Jason McCrae – Psychologist

E

VERY year more and more Australian orienteers are choosing to travel internationally to orienteering events. In the past few years from my club alone we have had members compete in Switzerland, France, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Kazakhstan and Japan. Whether it be a ‘world’ level event such as the World Masters, or mass-participation competitions such as the Swedish O-Ringen, travel can make competing more difficult.

An orienteer may have to contend with long-haul flights, jet-lag, accommodation or dietary difficulties before they even start, and unfamiliar terrain, mapping standards or general conditions once in the forest.

This article is designed to give you some general tips that will help you arrive to compete at an international event feeling fantastic and hopefully compete at your best.

Before flying • Ensure your general health is good. Have a medical and dental screening to alleviate any problems that may occur. Best to do this at home than to have to try and seek help in a foreign country.

• Get travel insurance. Orienteering Australia has a policy that all competitors in their WOC & JWOC teams must take out travel insurance and many a competitor has been thankful for it when the unexpected has occurred.

• Obtain as much knowledge about the terrain and maps you will be competing in as possible. This might include downloading maps from the competition website, talking to someone who has competed in the country before or obtaining some photos of what the forest looks like.

• Ring airlines early if you want to request special meals.

• Have a travel checklist to help with stress-free packing and be organised early to avoid a last minute rush.

• Prepare in advance for how you want to perform while you are away. Think about it and set some goals for yourself.

While flying • Hydrate as much as possible. Typically humidity is 10-15% on a plane, which is very dry. Your body will try to increase the humidity of the air you breathe, and you may dehydrate quickly.

Dehydration significantly worsens the effects of travel and will have very negative effects on performance. Try to drink at least 300ml of water per hour. Take your own (non-leak) drink bottle and keep it handy to remind you to drink regularly. It is much better to drink bottled water than the communal water in the plane.

• Avoid tea, coffee, cola drinks and alcohol as they are diuretics and will stimulate water loss.

• Stretch, and walk as much as possible.

• If possible, elevate your feet and do some foot and ankle mobility exercises.

• Take books, magazines, music, games, etc, to help minimise boredom.

Things to Consider When Travelling (in general) Often when competing and travelling to international races orienteers will be sharing accommodation and/or travel

arrangements with other Australian orienteers. While in the main this can enhance the enjoyment of travelling and save costs, it can also create friction as you share day-to-day life with people you might normally only see at most once a week. A lack of privacy and being away from home can be stressful for some people. Try to be considerate and tolerant of your travel companions. Have a philosophy for how you would like to be perceived while you are away (e.g. I want to be seen as a positive ambassador for Australia). Most of all, endeavour to be flexible and adaptable in your dealings with other people and plan to do your best in spite of any disruptions or distractions.

Also: • Poor accommodation: not every country will have “5 Star” hotels for you to stay in (assuming you can afford them!). Most Aussie orienteers return from travel overseas with at least one ‘classic story’ of accommodation that wasn’t quite up to their expectations. Endeavour to accept the way things are and make the best of an uncomfortable situation. Learn from the experience about other lifestyles and cultures and reflect on how lucky we generally are in Australia.

• Transportation: be prepared for inconveniences associated with local travel services, bad roads or traffic jams. Take some magazines, music, travel games etc, to help pass the time and allow additional time to get there – especially when gong to the event.

• Very important items such as your o-shoes, compass and o-gear, and any medications should ideally be taken in your hand luggage in case you have to compete straight away and your luggage is delayed. And don’t forget you need a northern hemisphere compass if competing, unsurprisingly, in the northern hemisphere.

• If you find your sleep is a little disrupted for a couple of days upon arrival, keep in mind that it will not negatively affect your performance provided you do not stress about it.

• A blow-up neck pillow can be invaluable for helping you get some sleep on the plane.

• Lip balm is a useful thing to have as dry chapped lips can be very painful and annoying, and dehydration and climactic changes can bring this on fairly easily.

• If you are sleeping in air-conditioned rooms, make sure you keep some water by your bed and drink regularly to avoid dehydration. It is better to be getting up in the night to go to the toilet than to be dehydrated.

• Do not share water bottles and make sure yours has your name on it to avoid confusion.

Something on your mind?

This column has been appearing in the AO for approximately two years now covering a range of sport psychology topics such as goal setting, overcoming distraction, focussing on processes and recovering from mistakes. One of the things I’ve tried to do is provide action plans and tips that can be implemented by orienteers in their training, competing or technique generally.

Is there anything, however, “on your mind” when you compete that you find challenging? If so I invite you to drop me an e-mail and see if we can address it in the next or subsequent columns.

I’m happy to keep your details anonymous if you wish. Please e-mail me on the address below at least a fortnight before AO submissions are required (see submission date on page 2 of this edition).

Jason McCrae works as a Sport Psychologist at the ACT Academy of Sport which is also Orienteering Australia’s National Training Centre. He is a keen orienteer himself and has worked with many of Australia’s top elites and can be e-mailed on jason.mccrae@act.gov.au DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 31

ADVENTURE IN THE ANDES

At Melbourne suburban night events during the winter Greg Tamblyn was a regular entrant in the Power Walker category, but there was a difference. He carried a backpack full of rice. This was part of his training for an epic race across a high altitude desert in the Chilean Andes.

The Atacama Desert Race Greg Tamblyn (VIC) Greg crossing the finish line

A

RE you mad?” “It’s a desert and it’s the driest place in the world and you are planning to race 250km across it?” I had comments like this for months before I left for the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.

and the potential for injuries and blisters goes way up. It is important to keep telling your body to keep going and going and going. Finally you get to camp and then have to do it all again the next day.

In July this year I joined 130 individuals from around the world on a seven day 250km race across the Atacama Desert. Rules were very simple you had to carry all your own food, equipment and sleeping gear for the entire race. The organisers would only supply a place in a tent and water at the checkpoints each day.

Days Five and Six were one long stage. It included a night stage and covered a total of 86km. The first 25km was a crossing of the salt flats. This was made doubly hard by the headwinds, which would not let up.

“

The Atacama Desert is an amazing area with enormous contrasts. The high Andes Mountains are always on the horizon with a couple of active volcanoes gently pumping steam into the sky. It has areas of weathered rock, soft sand, low scrub and grasses and about 100km of soft and horrible salt flats (the area is renowned for them).

Due to the hours on the move each and every day, the days became a blur of impressions, rest and photo stops. Some I will really never forget.

Some areas looked like walking through snow; the surface was actually covered with thick layers of salt. During the night stage we walked through the Valley of the Moon an area of amazing shapes and rocky outcrops that were all highlighted by a full moon.

Day One started at 4,600 metres, heading down the only river valley in the area. Over 40 km and 50 freezing river crossings later we finally reached the campsite.

The most memorable part was running the last 5km to the finish line with everybody from the local village cheering me on.

Day Two had the last water we would see as we started by moving through 3km of slot canyons. This quickly changed to a long rocky ridge that lead to some enormous sand dunes.

It was the toughest race I have ever been in both physically and mentally and yes I am really glad I completed it. My recovery has encouraged me to try again and I have even entered the next race at Kashgar in the Gobi Desert of China in June next year. You can keep track of my progress at www.racingtheplanet.com

Days Three and Four were more and more sand and more rocky ground. It seemed endless, somewhere in this period your mental training has to kick in and it becomes more important than the physical training. You really get tired 32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

Advertise your event in The Australian Orienteer

TOP EVENTS 2007 2007

Dec 24 - Jan1 APOC 2006 Hong Kong www.apoc2006.hk

Jan 3-7 Ultimax 5 Days, Orange NSW www.nswstingers.com

March 23-25 Oceania MTB-O Champs, World Ranking Event, Vic MTB-O Champs Shelley, Northern Victoria. www.vicorienteering.asn.au

April 6-15 “Burra to Barossa 2007” Aust 3Days & Middle-dist Champs, SA www.oasa.asn.au/2007

June 4-9 European MTB-O Champs, Tuscany, Italy www.ecmtbo2007.org

June 27-30 Arctic Midnight Orienteering Ilulissat, Greenland www.iog.gl

June 30 Midnatssolgaloppen - July 4 Arctic Norway www.mg-norway.no

July 2-7 5 Days of the Fortresses Trentini Highlands, Italy www.montagnaconamore.itUkraine

July 7-14 WMOC 2007 Kuusamo, Finland www.wmoc2007.fi/

July 7-15 JWOC 2007 Carnival, incl NSW Champs, Aus Champs & Schools Champs, Dubbo, NSW. http:// jwoc2007.orienteering.asn.au/

July 22-27 O-Ringen Östergötland, Sweden www.oringen.com

August 5-11 Spey 2007 Scottish 6 Days Cairngorms National Park www.scottish6days.com

August 5-12 MTB-O World Champs 2007 Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Rep www.mtbo.cz/woc2007/

August 16-26 WOC 2007 Kiev, Ukraine e-mail: info@woc2007.org.ua www.woc2007.org.ua

October 4 Australian Sprint Championships, Canberra ACT

October 1-7 Oceania Championships, Canberra ACT

November 3-4 Australian MTB-O Championships, NSW

Dec 27-31 Christmas 5 Days, NSW

You can have a 6 x 8 cm event ad for just $50.

In colour, if we have room, otherwise black and white.

Send artwork to The Editor: mikehubbert@ozemail.com.au

3RD OCEANIA CHAMPIONSHIPS CANBERRA – OCTOBER 2007 Orienteering ACT will be hosting the 2007 Oceania Championships.

The program is: • Saturday 29 September: Training event - Tharwa Tor • Sunday 30 September: ACT Long Distance Championships - Antills Creek • Monday 1 October: Oceania Middle Distance Championships (wre) and ANZ Schools Test Match Classic - Honeysuckle Creek • Wednesday 3 October: ANZ Schools Test Match Relays in the morning, followed by a public team event - Kowen Forest • Friday 5 October: Oceania and Australian Sprint Distance Championships (wre) - Canberra (tba) • Saturday 6 October: Oceania Long Distance Championships (wre) - Namadgi National Park • Sunday 7: Oceania Relay Championships - Antills Creek

Note these dates in your diary

2008 June 28 WMOC 2008

-July 5 Marinha Grande, Portugal www.wmoc2008.fpo.pt

2007 ORIENTEERING CALENDAR

July 10-20 WOC 2008 Olomouc, Czech Republic www.woc2008.cz

July 21-25 O-Ringen 2008 Dalarna, Sweden www.oringen.com/dalarna2008

This A3 size full-colour 2007 calendar has been produced

by Orienteering photo journalist Lucie Navarova using her photos from the 2006 Jukola Relays in Finland. Jukola is the world’s largest Orienteering relay race involving some 15,000 competitors.

September 1-7 MTB-O World Champs 2008 Ostróda, Poland

Available for $20 from The Australian Orienteer, PO Box 165, Warrandyte, VIC 3113; or contact Mike Hubbert.

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 33

ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA

Orienteering Development Ben Rattray, Director (Development)

L

AST edition (which seems like yesterday), I wrote about some of the challenges that face Orienteering reaching larger audiences. This time I will address some of those challenges and offer solutions. The solutions are by no means exhaustive, and will hopefully provoke thought that will assist overcome the challenges further. Specifically, here are my thoughts on:

Groups Appeal / Issues Fitness / health Alternative to running/ conscious walking (boring) or gyms (expensive); May be time poor (think about event(s) timing and location)

Events Predominantly metro; Park/street areas; Shorter events; Mid-week.

Day of activities/teambuilding for corporate groups Environmental Enjoy nature; Predominantly bush; Outdoors types Opportunity to continually May like mid-week explore new areas training/alternative Weekends away Competitive May be orienteers Avoid clashes with other Sports looking for training major events where opportunities; possible.

Cross-training tool; Consider: fun-runs; adventure races; MTB Training tool for championships; Mid-week adventure racers; events; Street and park Consider group to be time poor (close events) events; Cross-training at bush event - may want a long run, but not hard navigation Families / Perhaps the main group Younger families limited all-ages for orienteering; mid-week Social aspects; Bush events – need to cater for all ages – different Everyone takes part (trans-generational sport) scale maps, different difficulty levels, string course, split times, etc.

Weekends – may be good, although high accommodation expenses Students Adventure – based sport; Mid-week – day or morning through schools programs; Mental and physical challenge; Younger children limited mid-week after-hours Perceived interference (transport issues); with social life may be an issue Bush – transport assistance through clubs/ associations, similar to Tasmania

Growth solutions: How can we improve the product for newcomers?

The Challenges The Challenges posed in last episode; Awareness, Knowledge and Interest, and Perceptions are largely dealt with through advertising and provision of information.

Advertising Possibly the hardest aspect of them all. Orienteering Australia is continually investigating avenues for widespread advertising and cross-promotion with other organisations. There is however much that States, Clubs, organisers and individuals can do to assist.

Advertising is about creating interest, and without knowledge of the potential market, these is little hope for success. Here are 5 potential market groups worth considering for directed marketing: • Individuals seeking to keep healthy – both mind and body • Individuals who are prepared to travel to pursue their sporting interests • Individuals who are environmentally conscious and spend time outdoors • Individuals who are involved in competitive sport • Individuals who are social covering the full range of age-classes, the old and the young (typically from 8 to 80 years old) Below are some suggestions on where and how to advertise to different subgroups.

34 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

Reaching the audience Through: Children; Workplace; GPs and health groups; Fitness Centres/Gyms; Media (best for newspaper advertisements?)

Through: Workplace; Outdoor websites/ magazines (e.g. Outdoor magazine) At events (fun-runs, adventure races); On sporting websites (see October edition); Orienteering means – effective e-newsletters etc

Through: Children/school; Workplace; GPs, health groups; Children’s activities (scouts etc); Media (good for newspaper advertisements?)

Through: Internet; School (directly or PD of teachers); Children’s activities (scouts etc); Other sports/events

Provision of Information Attracting interest through advertising should be assisted by the availability of further information. While some information is provided in advertising material, the bulk can be supplied through reference within advertisements. Information should be available to address the challenges, as well as general information about the sport, what to expect at an event and event schedules.

Orienteering does a reasonable (sometimes excellent) job through State and Club websites providing information on event schedules and general information, i.e. what to expect at an event, what you need to orienteer. Perhaps we can do more to address the other challenges such as expectations and perceptions identified last issue.

The provision of information does not end at a website of course; some can be dispersed through newcomer packs and in crosspromotional material with other organisations. Orienteering Australia is also looking at developing an information pack for media use, as well as looking at ways of re-invigorating the information and materials provided to schools programs.

The provision of information, whatever the form, is key to ensuring knowledge, interest and perceptions about the sport are optimised.

Event location and timing Event programming is a large issue and one that is continually debated within States, Clubs and at Orienteering Australia level.

No doubt I will pick this issue up at another time, but in terms of newcomers we must consider any barrier that prevents people

ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA show newcomers a glimpse of what the sport involves at a national level. A suggestion for the contents of a newcomers pack: • General Orienteering information/website etc • Club and membership details • Event guide and major event flyer • Coaching tips • Guide to finding their results • State newsletter •T he Australian Orienteer (back issue) • Feedback form

Post event from trying the sport in the first instance. Making the assumption that newcomers are time poor may not be a bad start. Consider the time and location that events are held; no doubt everyone appreciates these considerations anyway.

At the event A number of factors within the organisers’ control will influence the experience of newcomers at events. Many of these factors are intuitive, but worth discussing.

Hospitality: The friendliness and helpfulness of organisers and members is crucial. Procedures may not be intuitive to newcomers and it is important that this is considered when aiding them through registration and course selection. Selection of personnel at registration and helpers is also important. People skills range within volunteers and individuals with good people skills (patience, understanding, etc) should be utilised wherever possible.

The ease of registration and following procedures: As alluded to, the initial event can be daunting. Clear information explaining the registration and course selection process is important. Clear signage of the location of this information is equally important.

Signs hung high (above head height) and in large font are visible from a distance, and will assist the newcomer immensely in those initial steps to entering an event.

The quality of the map and event: This is one of my pet hates – why are many of the maps close to major cities, that are used very often, afforded fairly poor mapping standards? We use them a lot, so that should be justification enough we ensure we map them well. As importantly, they are part of our “frontline product”. If we ask beginners to try Orienteering on a sub-par map we just do ourselves a disservice. Please consider the quality of the maps that we use regularly, and that newcomers are likely to participate on, not just the maps used for national events.

The appropriateness of the course: Generally a regular pointto-point orienteering course will allow the simplest understanding for newcomers. Newcomers generally require navigationally easy courses. This may not dictate that they require a short course as competitors from other sports may still want a “good workout”.

A compromise may be setting 2 or 3 easier courses with not too much overlap allowing those keen to run a few courses on the day. This will depend on the area and resources of the organising club.

Further information provided to newcomers – a newcomers pack: A newcomers pack should be designed to enthuse and provide information for further participation. Everyone likes going away from an event with something to show family and friends, and the newcomer is also likely to share their experience with other non-orienteers. Information about future events and membership, as well as State newsletters are obvious candidates for a newcomers pack. Back issues of The Australian Orienteer (often held by States) may also be used as an opportunity to

Post-event there are a number of aspects we can do to ensure the newcomers appreciate their experience fully. Timely distribution of results (such as posting on a website) is important. If results are not up by mid-week at the latest (after a weekend event), the event will often be forgotten, and the newcomer loses the glow they feel when they see their name up in the results and can show their friends. As well as posting results online, there may be a case for sending out results, just to newcomers.

Many States and some Clubs will follow-up newcomers to events.

This generally involves a phone call in an effort to maintain interest, and provide further information if they are interested.

Many of the potential barriers to people attending events may be overcome by strong Club support programs. I would be interested to hear details of Club support programs and this could be an area that Clubs nominate for the Club Development awards (see last page of this edition).

That’s all for now. Enjoy the Summer!

Development Tips – Newcomers at the event 1. F riendly, courteous and helpful – ensure newcomers are comfortable. The first time trying anything can be confusing and intimidating. Ensure registrars and helpers have good people skills.

2. E nsure a quality experience – good courses and maps will leave a good impression. No-one likes poor quality, but for the newcomer the first impression is crucial. Ensure local (metropolitan) maps are of high quality, they are used the most, and deserve higher standards than often afforded.

3. I nformation and signage – ensure there is clear information for registering, choosing your course etc in an obvious place. Also ensure signage for registration location, information, start and finish are obvious.

4. N ewcomer packs – give them something to go away with.

Everyone likes a reminder of an experience and to relate their experience to friends or family. Extra information is great too. Potential offerings in a newcomer pack are discussed above.

5. T ake down newcomer details and follow up their experience post event as appropriate. Ask them if they are interested in joining e-newsletter distributions.

If you have any tips, please email them to: oa_development@netspeed.com.au Good tips will be published with acknowledgements in subsequent editions.

Development Resources Orienteering Australia is creating development resources.

Everyone can access them through the Orienteering Australia website: www.orienteering.asn.au/promotion/devel/ Please take advantage of them and check regularly for updates.

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 35

Sports Au s t r a l i a n

CLASSIC INJURIES Sue Neve

C

OMPETING in the Victorian Middle-distance Championships at Sailors Creek, Sue Neve was running strongly through open terrain thickly littered with dead branches, twigs and leaves, when she did a “Lisa Lampe” – she stepped in a hole and heard a sharp cracking sound. In excruciating pain she lay there for a while wondering what to do. Then, in true orienteering style, she struggled to her feet and started off in search of the next control. It was pretty obvious something was radically wrong with her ankle and some passing competitors eventually persuaded her to give up and go back to the assembly area where people came from all directions with ice and bandages to treat the injury.

F o u n d a t i o n

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www.orienteering.asn.au Support our sponsors and support your sport

Next day, at the Long-distance Championships, Sue was seen getting around with a walking stick. Not a good look but we trust it was only temporary. By now Sue should be well on the way to recovery.

National Badge Awards The National Badge Scheme aims to recognise orienteers who achieve a John Sutton Rr.A M65 Gold Marc Gluskie Al.T M12 Gold Karl Bicevskis Al.T M12 Gold Stuart Lawrie Al.T M14 Silver Tom Marshall Al.T M14 Gold Bill Butler Al.T M16 Bronze Peter Kleywegt Al.T M16 Silver Nick Andrewartha Al.T M18 Gold Louis Elson Al.T M18 Gold Luke Topfer Al.T M20 Silver Nicola Marshall Al.T W10 Gold Sophie Warren Al.T W12 Silver Jessie West Al.T W12 Bronze Claire_L Butler Al.T W16 Bronze Liz Butler Al.T W16 Bronze Jane Cusick Al.T W16 Bronze Kylee Gluskie Al.T W16 Gold Lara Haas Al.T W18 Gold Sonia Lawrie Al.T W18 Gold Eleanor Haas Al.T W18 Gold Emma Warren Al.T W20 Gold Anthea Barrow Al.T W20 Silver Les Dawson Sh.N M45 Silver Les Dawson Sh.N M45 Silver Tim Dawson Sh.N M16 Silver Tim Dawson Sh.N M16 Silver Claire Dawson Sh.N W20 Bronze Dot Denham Sh.N W45 Silver Dot Denham Sh.N W45 Silver Sarah Denham Sh.N W16 Silver Sarah Denham Sh.N W16 Bronze Tim Denham Sh.N M18 Gold Tim Denham Sh.N M18 Silver Neville Fathers Sh.N M70 Bronze John Hodsdon Sh.N M65 Silver John Hodsdon Sh.N M65 Gold Val Hodsdon Sh.N W55 Gold 36 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

consistent orienteering standard relative to their age-group peers and to be a fund raising activity for Australian Teams to World Championships. An orienteer can qualify for a Badge when three Badge credits have been earned within a two-year period. Badge credits can be

earned at all Championship and Badge events.

Val Hodsdon Doug Jay Doug Jay Chris Livingstone Emily Livingstone Emily Livingstone Jayde Livingstone Jayde Livingstone Krystal Livingstone Krystal Livingstone Vicki Livingstone Vicki Livingstone Lyn Malmgron Lyn Malmgron David Meyer David Meyer Glenn Meyer Ian Meyer Ian Meyer Peter Meyer Peter Meyer Robert Prentice Robert Prentice John Russell Brianne Stewart Brianne Stewart Garry Stewart Garry Stewart Lauren Stewart Lauren Stewart Sandra Stewart Sandra Stewart Stephan Wagner Merran Warlters Merran Warlters Trevor Diment Erica Diment

Ted Mulherin Wh.N M60 Gold Kevin Williams Wh.N M60 Gold Lynn Dabbs Wh.N W50 Gold Andy Vesey_Wells Wh.N M60 Bronze Chris Crane Wh.N M55 Bronze Elliana Hope Wr.T W14 Bronze Joyce Jones Wr.T W80 Gold Pat McGuire Wr.T W65 Gold Jess Smith Wr.T W17 Gold Mike Smith Wr.T M16 Gold Ryan Smyth Wr.T M-2 Gold Jana Vitesnikova Wr.T W18 Silver Nick Woodward Wr.T M18 Silver Nigel Dobson-Keefe Ya.S M40 Bronze Thomas Fotheringham Yas M14 Silver Zebedy Hallett Ya.S W20 Gold Doug Mcmurray Ya.S M55 Silver Peta Johannsen Ya.S W18 Bronze Shannon Nicolson Ya.S W16 Gold Nadia Velaitis Ya.S W-1 Silver Bill Chalmers Nc.N M65 Silver Bill Chalmers Nc.N M65 Bronze Carolyn Chalmers Nc.N W60 Gold Carolyn Chalmers Nc.N W60 Bronze Carolyn Chalmers Nc.N W60 Bronze Cath Chalmers Lo.W W21 Gold Cath Chalmers Lo.W W21 Gold Cath Chalmers Lo.W W21 Silver Cath Chalmers Lo.W W21 Silver Eoin Rothery Lo.W M45 Silver Nadine O’Dowd Nc.N W21 Silver Nadine O’Dowd Nc.N W21 Bronze Sean O’Dowd Nc.N M21 Silver Sean O’Dowd Nc.N M35 Bronze Maurice Patten RR.A M40 Bronze

Sh.N W55 Gold Sh.N M21 Silver Sh.N M21 Silver Sh.N M35 Silver Sh.N W14 Gold Sh.N W14 Bronze Sh.N W18 Gold Sh.N W18 Gold Sh.N W14 Bronze Sh.N W12 Gold Sh.N W35 Bronze Sh.N W35 Bronze Sh.N W55 Silver Sh.N W45 Bronze Sh.N M-2 Gold Sh.N M20 Gold Sh.N M21 Silver Sh.N M21 Gold Sh.N M21 Gold Sh.N M55 Silver Sh.N M55 Bronze Sh.N M50 Gold Sh.N M50 Gold Sh.N M45 Silver Sh.N W14 Gold Sh.N W12 Gold Sh.N M45 Silver Sh.N M45 Silver Sh.N W16 Silver Sh.N W16 Bronze Sh.N W45 Silver Sh.N W45 Silver Sh.N M35 Bronze Sh.N W65 Gold Sh.N W60 Bronze Tt.S M40 Bronze Tt.S W40 Gold

For further information contact: John Oliver, 68 Amaroo St, Wagga Wagga 2650 Tel: 069 226 208 ; e-mail: oliver. family@bigpond.com.au

IMPROVE YOUR MAP TRAINING WITH OCAD

SwissGame In the last part of the ‘Improve Your Map Training with OCAD’ we dealt with estimating distance. We will deal with the same subject even in this part of the series, though a different type of training will help us to reach the desired skills, the so-called ‘Swiss Game’.

Swiss Game is a very popular type of orienteering training spread all over the world. The training consists in covering nearly the whole map with a piece of non-transparent foil or paper. The map is then revealed only through small sections cut in this paper, in the surroundings of the controls. Runners have to run an orienteering course through these sections, just following their compass and estimating the distance until they reach the area revealed on the map. There they have to relocate themselves, find the control and continue further on across another ‘no man’s land’ before they reach another area revealed on the map. This is one of the most difficult orienteering trainings and those who master it end up with very few challenges, which could surprise them on an ordinary orienteering course.

Again with introduction of OCAD, preparation of such training becomes much faster and much more effective. Again it saves coaches hours of work they would otherwise spend cutting holes into non-transparent paper or foil with which they would cover the maps later on investing lots of effort and time into activity which still would not, in majority of cases, guarantee 100% result.

This time we will show you how to easily prepare such training in OCAD 8: 1) In OCAD 8 create a new Course setting file (do not forget to select the same scale as that of the original map). In this newly created file upload the original .ocd file of the map as a template – click the ‘Template’ option in the upper Menu bar, then click open.

5) In the upper Menu bar, select the ‘Symbol’ option and select ‘Colors’. Here move the colour White background below the colour Purple transparent. You will do this by selecting the colour with a mouse and then clicking the Move Down button.

By doing so you will be able to see the control numbers later on (see Picture 2).

6) Click the ‘File’ option in the upper Menu bar and select ‘Print’. There select the name of the course you created and which you want to get printed.

Final Tips: • The smaller the area of the map you leave uncovered the more difficult the course, the same obviously applies to the length of individual legs.

The longer the distance between two controls, the more difficult the ‘game’ gets.

• Try to avoid long legs with impassable or uncrossable barriers in the areas of the map hidden by the cover. Such legs do not help, often they disturb the athletes when they get caught somewhere from where they cannot find a way out as they can’t read the situation on the map.

• Make sure the training is not too difficult. Preparing such training poses huge demands on the coaches who should thoroughly consider orienteering abilities of their trainees. Making the training too easy makes it worthless. On the other hand, when you make the course too difficult, you often discourage the trainees who may abandon it after half-way unfinished. You should do your utmost best to find the right balance.

• Same as with the previous training, Swiss Game is aimed at teaching orienteers to estimate distance, keep direction, and relocate on the map, which are skills more than useful even on ordinary orienteering courses.

Jan Skřička – Reprinted from Orienteering Today

Download OCAD 8 Demo at www.ocad.com

2) In the Object bookmark set the course using the course setting symbols in the Symbol box on the right.

3) Create a new course in the menu under the Courses bookmark using all the start, the controls and the finish. You have to name your course.

4) Then switch back into the Object bookmark and select the symbol 760.0 Background Control Description. OCAD will now switch into the Rectangular mode. In this mode, using the Rectangle symbol, cover all the areas of the map you want to remain hidden and leave the map revealed only in areas surrounding the controls (see Picture 1).

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER

37

TRAINING

Running Hot Steve Bird

T

HE warm weather provides a great time to be out enjoying the environment. And as evidenced by full Summer-fixture lists, many of us will be competing in bush and street orienteering, as well as continuing to train throughout the hottest part of the year.

However, whilst participating in regular exercise all year round is strongly advocated for health, as well as fitness, we must be aware that when exercising in hot and sunny conditions we need to take extra precautions, in order to do so safely.

Obviously, some of the key concerns with exercising outside during the Summer are the risks associated with sunburn and exposure to UV. These are well known, highly publicized, and relevant whether we are exercising or not. So I won’t dwell on these, as the necessary precautions are equally well publicized.

Therefore, the focus of this article will be on the specific issues associated with exercising in the heat, and what to do to reduce the risks of dehydration and hyperthermia: which may not only adversely affect our performance, but also pose a health risk.

This is a perennial topic and one that has been given excellent coverage in previous articles by Gillian Woodward1-4 and Adrian Uppill5. However given recent incidents, including those reported in this magazine6 it is one that warrants revisiting.

Temperature control In order for our bodies to function effectively, our temperature needs to be maintained within a specific and narrow range. To be more precise, it is our internal organs and muscles that need to be maintained at around 37oC (normal range 36.1 - 37.8oC). This is our internal or core temperature, and whilst small increases in muscle temperature of around 2 - 3oC are beneficial and enable our muscles to work more effectively, large increases tend to have the converse effect on our performance, and we get into difficulties if it rises above 40oC. If our core temperature rises too high we become hyperthermic, which is a serious and potentially fatal condition. Fortunately our bodies have a number of physiological responses that are very good at preventing this from happening, which means that we can comfortably exercise in quite a range of environmental conditions. But in extreme conditions such as exercising when its very hot (> 30oC), these thermoregulatory responses may struggle to keep our core temperature at the desired level, and we therefore need to be aware of the risks and minimize them through appropriate behaviour.

Maintaining a balance Our ‘normal’ body core temperature of around 37oC is maintained by balancing the heat produced by our body’s metabolism with how much we lose. We lose heat mainly through the skin, with some additional losses via the air we exhale from the lungs. Incidentally, dogs don’t perspire in the way that we do and therefore they have to lose their excess heat via their exhaled air, which is why they pant when hot. For us, we lose heat through the skin via four processes: Radiation, Conduction, Convection and the Evaporation of Sweat. The first three of these mechanisms are dependent upon a substantial temperature difference between our skin and the external environment in order to be effective. Which means that they work quite well on cold days, but on hot days, when the temperature of the environment is quite close to that of our skin, these processes make very little contribution to our heat loss. So in hot 38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

conditions we are almost entirely reliant upon the evaporation of sweat for losing heat. This means that on hot days, even at rest, our thermoregulatory mechanisms are challenged with the task of evaporating off the heat we produce from normal resting metabolism in order to keep us cool. However, when we run strenuously, our metabolism can increase by about 800%, and therefore so does our heat production and we may struggle to lose this extra heat and risk increasing our core temperature.

It’s good to sweat When our core temperature begins to rise, we start to sweat and more blood is sent to the skin, carrying with it the excess heat from our muscles and the core of our body. The evaporation of sweat off the surface of the skin, in which the liquid water is converted to water vapour, requires heat energy that it gains from our skin. The evaporation of 1 litre of sweat removes 580kcal of heat from the body and as it does so it cools the blood, which then returns to our core. So we have blood being heated up as it passes through our exercising muscles and core, it then loses this heat due to the cooling effects of evaporation as it passes through the skin, and then returns back to the core and muscles to once again collect excess heat. It is important to emphasise that it is the process of evaporating our sweat, or any other fluid on our skin, that cools us, not the process of sweating on its own. Sweat that simply drips off you has no cooling effect.

To have a maximum cooling effect the sweat should be free to evaporate and not restricted. To aid the process of evaporation on hot days, clothing should be light and whilst also needing to protect from UV, should not restrict evaporation. If we are not able to lose heat in this way, our core temperature will increase and hyperthermia will rapidly ensue.

Conflict in the blood So on hot days there is competition between the muscles that require large volumes of oxygenated blood in order to fuel their aerobic metabolism, and the skin, which also demands large volumes of blood, in order to effect cooling. Consequently the muscles may receive a reduced oxygen supply on a hot day, which is why endurance events, such as orienteering, are affected and times are generally slower on hot days.

Dehydration During strenuous exercise on hot days, sweating rates can be between 1.5 – 3.5 Litres an hour whereas, even with the most assiduous drinking strategies, we cannot absorb fluids into our body at such a high rate. Note that the fluid needs to be absorbed from the gut into the blood before it can be of benefit, so just because you’ve drunk a litre of fluid doesn’t mean that its all in your system. Indeed we can only absorb around 150 ml every 15 minutes whilst exercising, so it will take a while for it to all be absorbed. Which is one reason why we should take lots of small drinks very frequently on hot days: in order to keep our system replenished and constantly absorbing the fluids that we need into the blood stream. (For details of what to drink and when, see the aforementioned articles by Gillian and Adrian).

Dehydration is associated with a reduction in blood volume. This has two major implications. Firstly a reduction in the capacity of the blood to deliver oxygen to the muscles, thereby further impeding performance. Studies have shown that losing just 1.5 litres of body fluid will impair your running performance by about 4 – 5%, and that’s not counting any additional navigational errors caused by being less able to concentrate.

And secondly, when the body becomes dehydrated, further sweating is impaired, and as a result there is an increased risk of overheating. This will again detract from performance or in more extreme cases may result in hyperthermia, collapse or even permanent damage to organs such as the kidneys.

Hot and humid The risk of dehydration and over heating (hyperthermia) is greatly increased when the weather is humid as well as hot. This is because in humid conditions the sweat cannot evaporate very easily and hence its cooling effect is greatly reduced. So your temperature is liable to remain high and you sweat even more in order to try and compensate.

Take on fluids Since sweating is the major means of temperature control on a hot day and we can lose several litres of fluid, it is important to be fully hydrated before you start an event. You will also need to drink during an event to try and reduce the risk of dehydration and on this point remember that the feeling of thirst is a relatively poor indicator of dehydration so you should drink on a hot day even if you don’t feel thirsty. This particularly applies to the early stages an event where you may be inclined to refuse a drink. Then thirdly, after an event competitors should drink copious amounts to replace the lost body fluid. Indeed on a hot day competitors may need to drink several litres of liquid in the hours following the event (so bring plenty with you).

This post event drinking is essential because although the body can absorb water at a rate of about 150 ml every 15 minutes, in hot conditions your rate of fluid loss (sweating) will have greatly exceeded this and you may have lost several litres of sweat during an event. As a result you may complete an event in a semidehydrated state. For best effect and to avoid a ‘bloated feeling’ drinks should be taken ‘little and often’ both during and after an event.

they should be given plenty of fluids to drink. Slightly salted water is often recommended and should be given in preference to very sweet drinks. In serious conditions medical assistance should be sought.

Finally as a note of warning, there are certain misconceptions about the wearing of excessive amounts of clothing whilst exercising in hot conditions (often in an attempt to lose weight).

This includes the wearing of ‘sweat suits’. It must be emphasised that the wearing of such clothing in hot conditions can result in excessive water loss and dehydration, which is potentially harmful and therefore cannot be recommended. Indeed there have been a number of fatalities caused by individuals dehydrating and overheating whilst exercising in such clothing.

On a similar note: and whilst I wouldn’t want to rely upon the physiological accuracy of this incident it may serve as a precautionary warning about needing to sweat in the heat; some may remember the James Bond film Goldfinger, where the woman was covered in gold and died. My diagnosis - likely cause of death being hyperthermia due to the fact that she couldn’t sweat to keep herself cool in the hot conditions.

Adaptation

Although liquids may need to be drunk after an event, as a general rule alcohol is not recommended since it has a diuretic effect upon the kidneys (causes the production of more urine), which will counteract the rehydrating effect of the fluid. Therefore I suggest that as an initial means of replacing lost body fluids non-alcoholic drinks are most effective.

Exercising regularly in warm environments will enable your body to adapt and become more able to cope with the conditions.

The reported adaptations included a more sensitized sweating response, in which you will begin to sweat sooner and at a lower temperature. This provides a more effective response to an initial increase in core temperature. So it’s a fallacy to think that sweating is an indication that you are unfit. Indeed quite the reverse. It’s also a fallacy to think that if you deprive your body of water during training you will be more able to deal with hot conditions. There is no research evidence to support this, indeed the reverse appear to be true, and you should apply the same hydration principles of drinking before, during and after training, as you do in an event.

What to drink?

Summary

There is no absolute answer to this question. Water is good, but water containing a combination of electrolytes (salts) and some glucose (to replace used energy stores) is often better. But the best concentration of these will depend upon the individual, the environment, their state of hydration, the length of the event, and whether they are drinking, Pre-, Post- or during the event, indeed even how long they are in to it will affect what some people function best with. It also depends on whether your main concern is the replacement of glucose energy or fluid to prevent dehydration.

Our bodies are capable of adjusting to and coping with a whole variety of climatic conditions and our ability to run in all weathers is largely due to the very effective temperature control mechanisms that we possess. However it is important that we do all we can to assist these mechanisms in their task to keep us at the correct temperature with the most important consideration being the wearing of appropriate clothing, ensuring a proper state of hydration, and sensible behaviour, such as training during the cooler part of the day if the temperatures, solar radiation, and humidity are extreme.

The inclusion electrolytes helps to replace the salts lost through sweating. And as has been reported previously, excessive sweating over an extended period and fluid replacement with just water, can result in a lower than normal concentration of blood sodium (hyponatremia). This is not a common occurrence in a single event but can occur 6. Most sports drinks contain a small amount of electrolyte, and the amount lost in the sweat is around 1.5 g of sodium per litre. In most people’s diets there is ample sodium to replenish this, but if additional amounts are required then about a third of a teaspoon of salt in a litre of water should be adequate.

Likewise for energy replacement a general recommendation is 4 - 8 g of carbohydrate per 100 ml, drunk as 100 – 150 ml every 15 minutes. Although as expertly outlined by Gillian 1 - 4, the exact content will depend upon the individual and the circumstances.

References

Fast and loose

Professor Steve Bird is Director, Centre for Population Health, Sunshine Hospital, Melbourne. Steve worked with the Great Britain National Orienteering Squad for over 10 years and is now assisting the Victorian Junior Squad.

When heat exhaustion and hyperthermia do occur as a general rule the victim should be quickly removed to a cool shady environment, clothing loosened or removed to aid heat loss and

1. G illian Woodward; Fluid: your secret weapon. The Australian Orienteer, March 2002 p26.

2. G illian Woodward; Preventing Fatigue During Long Workouts. The Australian Orienteer, March 2005 p29.

3. G illian Woodward; Summer: time to think Fluids. The Australian Orienteer, December 2005 p47.

4. G illian Woodward; Hydration – There’s more to it than fluids alone.

The Australian Orienteer, March 2006 p10 5. A drian Uppill; Hydration. The Australian Orienteer, September 2003 p40.

6. J ulie Flynn; Too much of a good thing. The Australian Orienteer, March 2006 p8-9.

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 39

AUSTRALIAN MTB-O CHAMPS Paul Darvodelsky won the Men’s Open Long Champs, was 2nd in the Middle and 3rd in the Sprint.

Mark Lawson from NZ won the Men’s Open Middle Champs, was second in the Sprint and third in the Long.

All photos: Troy Merchant Salme Fuller (Qld) on her way to winning W40 in the Middle Champs. She was 2nd in the Long Champs.

Lee Merchant trying to get a fast punch at the Middle Dist Champs. Lee was 2nd in M50 in all three Champs.

Anna Sheldon on her way to winning the Middle Champs.

She won the Sprint and was 2nd in the Long.

40 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

The MTB-O pages supported by Warren and Tash Key from The MELBOURNE BICYCLE CENTRE, CLIFTON HILL – ph. 03 9489 5569

MTB-O NEWS

A tale of three totally different days in WA

Blake Gordon

T

HE first day of the Australian Championships east of Bunbury was warm with the hint of smoke in the air (from CALM controlled burns). We drove through a bit of smoke haze up the hill into the Wellington State Forest and parked in a disused quarry that served as start and finish for the day. On stepping out of the van we talked with a geography teacher about the round red pebbles that covered the ground. The ball-bearing nature of the “gibber gravel” made walking a bit difficult and took some getting used to on the bike! But with the start on single-track in the forest, most competitors started confidently. Riding to the start triangle (at a track crossing) I failed to orient my map and got confused as to exactly where I was on the map. Then there was a log jump – wow what a start – but I still was not sure – until I came to a T-track junction and realised I’d have to take two legs of the triangle to get to the control (already 2 minutes lost).

Lesson learned. I managed to ride most of the course without another major blunder, but ended up losing by the narrow margin of 3 seconds. The food and drinks at the WA catering tent were excellent – as they had been all through the carnival. Lively discussions sprung up at the finish about route choices and the difficult surface of some tracks. But with the sun streaming down we enjoyed the atmosphere of the finish, the presentations and the drive back to Bunbury.

That night we had dinner with friends and went to sleep a bit late under starry skies. About 2 am the wind started to pick up and by 6 am woke me – time for an early shower. Then the wind turned to pelting, almost horizontal rain. After breakfast we threw the bikes aboard and headed east again but this time on wet roads. As we got close to the event the smoke and isolated stump or fallen tree trunk on fire appeared on both sides of the road. But with rain continuing we pressed on to the start area at Bussell Brook – primarily a large pine forest in steeper terrain than yesterday. The warm-up consisted of a few hundred meters of splashing along pine needle covered tracks and waiting in the rain for a start. Once the map was on my board I was off – into the teeth of a strong westerly wind – and did the compulsory uturn from the main track to the start triangle in the pines. I was soaked to the skin before I reached the first control – and wearing glasses was definitely a disadvantage with mud and rain. But we made it back – only to find that one bad route choice cost me a place, relegating me to 4th. There was a protest against a poorly represented track intersection in the young pines which several people could not find and others passed noting it was pretty vague – not a good choice for the next leg. Lesson to be learned – if course setters note a bad intersection, either make it ‘obvious’ by driving in and out several times with a car or leave it off the final map. Marking with a tape will only confuse riders. Tapes are suitable only for marking the required route to the start triangle or to mark a required crossing or route through a fence gate.

Intersections are the most important feature on a mtb-o map – the feature that guides our route choices - so mappers and course setters must get them right.

experienced some difficulty with the 1:5,000 map scale – things just came up so quickly – but it was fun and did test both bike handling and navigation skills. At the presentations, the MTBO shield was handed over to WA, with Victoria a close second, followed by Queensland and New South Wales. For the first time all states were represented with Tasmania scoring 8 points while SA managed 3 and ACT 1.

Oceania Championships on World Calendar Mark your calendar for 23-25 March and plan to attend the inaugural Oceania MTB-O Championships in the Albury area.

The event will feature two WRE (World Ranking Events) races for the regions elite men and women and three great events in three days for the juniors and masters riders. The website www. oceaniamtbo.org will keep you up to date. Rick Armstrong and his crew in Albury promise a great atmosphere and fun social activities surrounding the campsite at Shelley so book early. We hope to have riders from New Zealand, Japan and perhaps China as we try to extend the discipline to the region. Australia and New Zealand have staged several AUS/NZL Challenges as part of other carnivals – but this one will be mtb-o only. The event will serve as one of the selection trials for the 2007 MTB-O World Championships in Czech Republic.

Note the following dates for 2007 March 23-25 Oceania MTB-O Championships (incorporating the 2006 Victorian MTB-O Champs) August 5-12

MTB WOC in Czech Republic

September 8-9 Queensland MTB-O Championship October 27-28

NSW MTB-O Championships

November 3-4

Australian Championships in NSW

November 18

SA MTB-O Championship

ACT, TAS and WA Championships – TBA As 2006 draws to a close – the first year all states have held state mtb-o championships, what lies in store for 2007?

•7 -event summer series in Victoria from mid-January to late March • schools mtb-o championships in several states • sprint mtb-o in Victoria, NSW and other states •2 006 Australian MTB-O Ranking in Junior, and Masters classes based on 3 championship events So keep up the kilometres in the bush and on the roads and see you in the new year.

Blake

Sprint MTB-O a Success in WA The final day – the first time three mtb-o events had been held in three days in Australia – was at Greenmount on the northern outskirts of Perth at the ‘The Goat Farm’. Showers and sunshine alternated throughout the day, but the courses were unaffected in the intricate track-network on the mountainside. Everyone

Sarah Dunnage competing in the Women’s Open class in the Aust Champs.

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 41

42 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

Grant Lebbink was 3rd in the Middle, 2nd in the Long and 1st in the Sprint.

Anna Sheldon (left) and Brett Merchant (right) soaked and muddy in the finish tent at the Long Champs.

Photos: Troy Merchant

Stewart Greig from WA at the Goat Farm Sprint

– Spey2007 Welcome to the

Highlands of Scotland f o r

–

6 Days of Orienteering 5 -11 August 2007

Welcome to our spectacular area for more than just the orienteering.

The 6 days of competition based in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park in the North of Scotland offer you excellent orienteering terrain and much more. Family event with classes from M/W10 - M/W80 plus top class Elite competition To enter on-line visit our website.

Entry forms can also be obtained by writing to: Scottish 6 Days 2007 PO Box 28780 Edinburgh EH14 5WT or email: info@scottish6days.com At the Victorian MTB-O Champs at Linton in November, Rob Davis towed his young daughter around on the short course in this trailer, accompanied by his father. Three generations in the one entry! A real family sport.

Photo: Peter Cusworth

scottish6days.com

www.

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 43

LETTERS

No letters were received for this edition, so we are taking the opportunity to raise an issue which seems to be pretty common across all States – declining attendances at Bush-O events. A strategy for turning this trend around is proposed.

Perhaps it will prompt you to put pen to paper, finger to keyboard, and write in with your own views for the next edition of The Australian Orienteer in March.

A STRATEGY FOR BUSH-O In Victoria attendance at Bush-O events has been declining for years. Gone are the days when we had over 500 competitors at a minor club event (560 at a Red Kangaroos event at Macedon Pines on August 1, 1976 is believed to be the record). And the decline in attendances appears to be common across most States. Yet membership of State Associations is healthy and rising in some States.

Clearly Orienteers are voting with their feet and choosing other forms of the sport. Far more than half the participations in Orienteering events in Victoria are in the Park & Street-O form, and more than half the events conducted in Australia are now in that format. It seems that we need to redesign our Bush-O program.

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.

Of course, we would also need to retain our major events in the bush, like Championship and Badge events, which would feed off the growth in participation at the simple events. What would be eliminated would be the regular but distant State League (or OY) events which hardly anyone attends now.

I used to say that a minimum attendance for a Bush-O event was 250 participants. Any less and the time and effort spent by organisers to put on the event wasn’t warranted.

Well, there hasn’t been more that 250 participants at a nonchampionship event in Victoria for some years now (and even recent Victorian Championships haven’t reached that level), yet attendances at events like the Easter 3-Days and Xmas 5Days remain high. I believe a similar situation exists in most other States.

Not having so many distant events on the calendar would make the major events more special and thus attract more participants.

It’s time for a major re-think of Bush-O. Mike Hubbert (BK-V)

Most Courses Completed THE record for the most courses completed by an Australian continues to climb. At publication date, Mike Hubbert had reached a total of 2255 and is on track to pass 2270 by year end, and 180 for the year – just two courses short of his total of 182 in 2005.

If Bush-O is to grow it should follow the very successful formula employed for Park & Street-O, particularly in Victoria – a large number of very simple events (which almost anyone can course-set with a minimum of time commitment) at locations which are close to the population base. The large number of events offers participants variety and flexibility for attendance and the close proximity of locations means that getting there is not a major commitment. Participation in these simple events should grow with time (as has been seen in Park & Street-O) creating a critical mass for this form of the sport.

BOOKS ON ORIENTEERING There are a great number of books on all aspects of orienteering. For a list and prices contact:

Orienteering Services of Australia

44 Alexandra Parade, Clifton‑Hill VIC 3068 Phone (03) 9489 9766 Email info@macson.com.au

VICTORINOX AWARD The Victorinox award goes to Hanny Allston for her excellent articles in recent editions of The Australian Orienteer and for being such a great ambassador for Australian Orienteering. Hanny receives a Victorinox Voyager with 20 tools and features including a watch/alarm/ timer; retail value $109.95.

44 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 45

A PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE

I thought that you could fix it Bob Mouatt

“I thought that as you are the President of Orienteering Australia you would be able to do something to fix it.”

T

HIS is a comment that often comes towards the end of conversations I have had with a number of people.

They have a misguided view that I have superior powers to override decisions by others. Well in most matters I haven’t and even if I did I wouldn’t want to unless it was critical to the future of Orienteering Australia. Even though I can be very forthright in expressing my views, if I find that my views are in the minority I will normally back off, and that is because of both my personality type and my background.

For the 40 years before I started ‘working full-time’ for Orienteering I worked in two large organisations that were ‘organic systems’, with ‘organic’ meaning self-contained or self-supporting and system meaning well-connected and controlled units. While I had many changes of jobs, every task to which I was assigned was governed by standard operating principles and procedures. Most of my jobs in the last 28 years were in policy or managerial positions and I soon learnt that there was no point in trying to introduce policies that were not popular. I also learnt that management by consensus and delegation of authority were the best ways to achieve results.

I see the role of President of Orienteering Australia as providing leadership and being a figure head/spokesperson for the organisation, while supporting the actions of the functional directors. The President must be seen and heard at major gatherings to demonstrate support for those activities, but should not dominate proceedings. As to the day-to-day operations of Orienteering Australia, the President is the chair of the Board and with the Executive Officer has specific responsibilities, but much of the responsibility for managing the organisation must rest with the functional directors. So if in the future you want a matter considered by Orienteering Australia be prepared to put the matter in writing and send it to the Executive Officer, the functional director or me and it will be considered by the most appropriate person(s). By all means feel free to raise any matter with me, but please don’t expect an instant fix from me, as I am not likely to oblige you.

2007 Will Be A Busy Year You might not have given the matter much thought yet, but 2007 will be a very busy year with three week long carnivals, Australian 3-Days and more in South Australia during Easter and afterwards, JWOC and the Australian Championships in Dubbo in July and the Oceania Championships in Canberra in October. I hope that most regular orienteers get to at least two of the three carnivals.

I have no doubt that despite the best of intentions some things will go wrong, as we all know mistakes happen.

Competitors will be disappointed and officials will become distressed. I ask competitors to show some understanding and appreciation of the tough job of being an official, and not to berate them if things do not go your way. Think of the cricket analogy, when the umpire puts up the finger, you are out and you must accept the decision. Such is the same in Orienteering, when a jury has made a decision, it’s final.

And I would like officials to be as accommodating of all competitors as possible, but I acknowledge that there are times when people just have to be disappointed. I have seen circumstances where officials have tried to help somebody, and there have been undesirable consequences. All officials have my utmost sympathy and support, as I have been caught in some very difficult situations that were not of my making, but I had to accept responsibility.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year and enjoyable Orienteering in 2007.

IOF WORLD CUP

Gueorgiou, Niggli-Luder take out World Cup Blair Trewin Two familiar faces were at the top of the World Cup points table after the final series of events in France in early October.

Thierry Gueorgiou (FRA), on home ground, won all three races to come from behind after a relatively disappointing World Championships. Simone Niggli-Luder (SUI) led into the final series, and while she only won one of the three races, Marianne Andersen’s win in the last round was not enough to bridge the gap. Finland took out all three women’s Relays, while Sweden led the men’s tally. Eddie Wymer was the only Australian representative, with a best placing of 60th in the three races. Hanny Allston was scheduled to attend but missed the event through injury.

The most memorable event was probably the Middle-distance qualification, which was stopped mid-race because of dangerous conditions caused by extreme winds of over 100 km/hour. The event was rescheduled to later in the week and run as a straight final.

2006 was the last World Cup in its present form. From 2007 it will become a series based on existing major events. The proposed system for allocating national places, based on the total points earned in the world ranking by each country’s 20 leading runners, has caused much controversy. Australia does quite well (at least this year) with four male and nine female places, but countries which have a small number of highly ranked competitors but few others, such as Ukraine, will be severely disadvantaged.

Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority 46 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2006

ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA

Orienteering Australia Development Awards Club Development Awards Orienteering Australia wishes to award clubs for their development initiatives. Applications are invited for the Awards. Awards will be based on activities conducted within clubs aimed at developing the sport in their local area.

Applicants should detail: •A brief summary of the club (e.g. location, member base, recent events, social activities) •T he aims of their development project •S uccesses and set-backs along the way •S tep by step summary of running the project •T he outcomes of the project •T ips for the future •A n idea of their project budget •P hotos of the project in action • I mage of their club members and logo

Awards Awards will be decided by a member from each state on the Orienteering Australia development committee (a member from the Top End club (NT) included) and the Development Director.

Awarded clubs will have their story appear in The Australian Orienteer and the Orienteering Australia website. From 2008, Orienteering Australia hopes to reward winning clubs with $1000 towards their development project. The financial incentive would be reimbursed up to $1000 against receipts relating to development project after provision and approval of receipts. Two winners will be awarded per year.

Applications close: end-January and end-June each year, forwarded to the Director Development.

IOF World Rankings The International Orienteering Federation World Ranking Scheme is based on points scored at World Ranking Events, full details of which can be found at http://www.orienteering.org/. The current standings for men and women are given in the following tables: Men – Foot-O 1 Thierry Gueorgiou 2 Daniel Hubmann 3 Emil Wingstedt 4 Valentin Novikov 5 Jani Lakanen 95 David Shepherd 100 Rob Walter 203 Robert Preston 221 Eric Morris Men – MTB-O 1 Mika Tervala 2 Tönis Erm 3 Margus Hallik 4 Adrian Jackson 5 Tuomo Tompuri 21 Alex Randall 41 David Simpfendorfer 49 Paul Darvodelsky 49 Grant Lebbink

FRA SUI SWE RUS FIN AUS AUS AUS AUS FIN EST EST AUS FIN AUS AUS AUS AUS

Women – Foot-O 1 Simone Niggli-Luder 2 Marianne Andersen 3 Minna Kauppi 4 Heli Jukkola 5 Kajsa Nilsson 8 Hanny Allston 68 Jo Allison 92 Anna Sheldon 96 Grace Elson Women – MTB-O 1 Michaela Gigon AUT 2 Ksenia Chernykh RUS 3 Christine Schaffner SUI 4 Ingrid Stengård FIN 5 Maija Lång FIN 20 Marquita Gelderman NZL 25 Anna Sheldon AUS 32 Carolyn Jackson AUS 43 Barbara Hill AUS 43 Melissa Thomas AUS

SUI NOR FIN FIN SWE AUS AUS AUS AUS

Volunteer Development Recognition Orienteering Australia wishes to further recognise state and local volunteer awards and recipients for their contribution to development of the sport. Nominations are invited for the OA recognition to individuals winning volunteer awards/recognition specifically in the area of development.

The recognition aims to raise awareness of state and local recognition schemes at a national level as well as the individual awardees and their great work. Selection of the OA recognition will be based on contributions from individuals towards developing our sport.

Nominations should detail: •N ame of the volunteer recognition scheme •D etails of the scheme (e.g. awarding party, nomination guidelines, scheme aims) •A brief summary of the individual (e.g. location, club, orienteering class normally run) •A justification for the award •P hotos of the volunteer in action (where possible)

Awards Winners of the Services to Orienteering award are ineligible.

Awards will be decided by a member from each state on the Orienteering Australia development committee (a member from the Top End club (NT) included) and the Development Director.

Awardees and the volunteer recognition scheme will appear in The Australian Orienteer and on the Orienteering Australia website.

Two winners will be awarded per year.

Applications close:End-January each year, forwarded to the Director Development Ben Rattray – Director Development

OR I ENTEER I NG PUBL I CATI ON S IOF Publications

Australian Publications

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

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

Prices include GST and postage within Australia for single copies.

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

Or ienteer ing Aus tr alia photo ar chiv e Photos that appear in The Australian Orienteer can be made available in a digital format for press releases or special promotional projects.

Contact Peter Cusworth on 03 5968 5254 or cusworth@netspace.net.au Any material costs will be passed on to users.

DECEMBER 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 47

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