MTBO World Championships In Israel
Photo: Dan Chissick
Mountain Bike Orienteering in Israel – expect the unexpected. Team Jackson (Carolyn and Adrian) represented Australia at an event where competitor numbers were lower than usual because of recent violence in the region and alternative major events in Europe. Despite this, most of the top guns were there so fewer competitors didn’t help Carolyn or Adrian, both of whom were expected to finish well up in the field. Kay Haarsma travelled with Team Jackson as manager/ coach and she takes up the narrative:
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DRIAN JACKSON stamped himself as arguably Australia’s best orienteer ever, by winning gold in the two extremes of the Sprint and the Long Distance, and getting a podium finish of 5th in the Middle Distance at the MTBO Worlds in Israel. His win in the Sprint slightly shocked his rivals but his dominant (almost 3 minute) win in the Long Distance had everyone shaking their heads in disbelief. One of the attractions of international Orienteering is the different countries you visit. Although Israel hadn’t been on my “must see” list I am glad I saw this unique country. I had early misgivings based on:- that only 3% of the country is covered in forest; predicted temperatures were in the high 30’s; and with Israel MTBO riders lacking both quantity and quality at major events I wondered whether Israel could host a high standard WOC. Then, a three week long conflict from Dec 27th between Israel and the Gaza Strip saw approximately 1300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis killed. Israel bombarded the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of stopping rocket attacks from and arms smuggling into Gaza. A “special bulletin” from the WOC organisers declared that competitors had nothing to worry about as the range of the rockets was at least 5 kilometres from where we were racing! This didn’t exactly allay my fears. However the fighting stopped and IOF confirmed Israel as the host. Nevertheless many of our top riders chose not to be available for selection and ultimately only “Team Jackson” were named. Both are experienced competitors but Orienteering Australia decided to send me as coach, so our Team only had to think about riding. Before departure, email communication from Israel was slow and answers vague, leaving me extremely worried. Initially they didn’t want to email me copies of the training maps, as we should have 6 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2009
Sprint podium. From left: Lasse Brun Pedersen from Denmark, Adrian and Ruslan Gritsan from Russia. Photo Kay Haarsma
come to the training camp in February! Strange logic. Then I had to call on the controller and the IOF to ensure that previous copies of the event maps were posted on the website, as the rules demand. The weekly emails from Hertz querying whether I really wanted the specific car for that particular fortnight was also troubling. The hassles of MTBO travel included trying to fit three bikes, four people, bike boxes and luggage into one big car. I deliberately arrived in Tel Aviv several days before the others so I could assimilate to the Israel psyche, get a hold of good copies of the training maps, check out the accommodation, ensure we had a car booked, locate the best bike shops etc. I was helped immensely by staying with a couple of young touring cyclists who explained things and immersed me in the local culture and food. I found them via the “Warm Showers” list of cyclists who put up other cyclists, of which I am a member. Finally I picked up the hire car and navigated out of Tel Aviv by myself, driving on the wrong / right hand side of the road in the dark to pick up AJ at 11pm. Embarrassingly, I then had trouble locating the car in the huge airport car park. Then it was into the forest for eight days of training before the Championships began. During the pre-WOC training what did you think of the maps and terrain? AJ: The training camp was good to just focus on the process of orienteering after doing hardly any O races all year. It was hot which was nice after having spent the previous seven weeks racing and working in a wet Europe. More importantly I got used to riding in the heat again. Really it was no different to an Australian summer when I do a lot of MTB races, so I knew that I could handle it. Kay: Most of our training was done 100kms north of Tel Aviv where we stayed in guestrooms at Ramat HaShofet kibbutz. This community was established in 1941 mainly by immigrants from Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland. It has a resident population of about 570 people. Here there were five maps at our disposal. Steep hillsides with many tracks contouring around made for interesting decisions when to “cut” through the forest. Riding or walking bikes through the forest was allowed in all races, except the Sprint, where you had to carry your bike if diverting from tracks. The Russians were also based here. They were doing it tough having to ride to and from the three closest maps. Here we first met Sakiko, the sole Japanese female rider, who was doing WOC on a background of just one MTBO race. Saki’s main sport is multi-day adventure racing, so she was super fit. After two weeks training in Israel she did remarkably well placing 37th, 23rd and then 21st.
