Latest ONSW News
The World Orienteering Championships opened yesterday with Long Distance Qualifying races. The French team won all three mens heats with Thierry Gueorgiou in impressive form some 6 minutes ahead of the next competitor, Russian Alexey Bortnik. Julian Dent qualified in 13th place but Rob Preston missed out, with a 22nd place in his heat.
There was frustration for the Australian women; Vanessa Round missed qualification by 26 seconds, and Jasmine Neve by an even slimmer margin of 8 seconds. The winners of the womens heats were slower than the expected times for the courses of 45 minutes, with only Czech Dana Brozkova coming anywhere near in 46:33. Well known names qualified at the top of the heats, with Signe Soes (Den), Merja Rantanen (Fin), Helena Janssen (Swe), Mina Kauppi (Fin), and Annika Billstam (Swe) all comfortably through.
Competition continues today with the Middle Distance qualification races. See Australian Orienteering website for more detail on the courses and start times for our competitors.
The NSW Middle Distance Championships hosted by Central Coast Orienteers and held on Saturday 10th September will give competitors a chance to try their skills on sandstone rock and pagoda country in the Ben Bullen State Forest.
Making a double header weekend the Long Distance Championships on Sunday 11th September using the 1:15000 map 'Rydal Showground' will showcase typical spur gully terrain with native bush.
As part of the State League series these races will also have string courses for the youngest runners.
Online entries for both events here close at midnight on the 28th August.
A blinding first leg for Josh Blatchford ensured that even a great run by Jock Davis in the second leg didn't threaten this year's winner of the Big Foot Sprints. Patrick Gunnarsson was close behind Josh in the second leg but the damage had been done and his second place time overall was a minute down on Josh. Greg Barbour was third and Jock Davis's second leg run pulled him up from 6th to 4th.
For the women it was incredibly close, with only a second in it between winner Cath Chalmers and second place Lisa Grant. The Blatchfords showed that there is nothing like a great pair of genes, with Karen third and Nicola fourth.
With expected winning times of 25 minutes for the Middle Distance qualification courses and a field of highly experienced orienteers, any result over 30 minutes in the mens heats was going to struggle to get a place in the final. So it was for the Australian men, whose best effort, Rob Preston's solid 31.33, only managed an 18th place in the heat and no place in the final, with Simon Uppill and a Julian Dent fatigued from the Long Qualification further down the rankings. Rob's heat was won by Peter Oberg of Sweden who held off Frenchman Thierry Gueorgiou by nearly a minute.
There was better fortune in the forest for Vanessa Round who came 8th in winner Mina Kauppi's heat, and Grace Crane who qualified in 13th place. The finals will be contested on Friday.
Next action in the WOC will be the Sprint Qualification and Finals on Tuesday, with the first of the live GPS tracking of the Finals to follow on woc2011.fr
