Australian JWOC Team for 2013

The Boys Team 

Oscar McNulty absent

The Girls Team

Michele Dawson absent

Middle Qualification Day

The Middle Qualification Day offered some relief to us all with a slightly cooler day than the previous week and a half.  Still a little muggy buch much better conditions.

Ian was the star of the day qualifying in 6th place for his heat.  He said he still made errors so with a clean run anything is possible in the final.
Kas had the heart break of watching his 10th place slide down the board to eventually end up at 22nd.
Olle had a very competitive run and looked like qualifying easily until a 4min error on one control cost him a place in the final.  His wiskers were looking blacker than normal until later in the afternoon when he bounced back and began to be more like the Olle we know.

Oscar is still struggling with health issues and struggled to put a clean run together. Both Alex and Brodie had a mixture of competitive legs and errors as they stuggled to come to terms with the low visibility and green sections.

Michele and Heather were the best of the girls with mostly clean runs but some wobbles and uncertainty saw them narrowly missing a qualifying place.  A good run by Michele to bounce back and show some signs of what she is capable of.
Lilian decided to compete today despite a bruised and swollen ankle.  Some rigid taping and she was able to perform well until she came across a section od fallen logs and green marshes that made it difficult for her to move easily through the terrain and as a result slowed considerably towards the end.
All we could get from Amy was her nervous smile and a coment along the lines that it was a day where nothing seemed to go right.  Maybe tomorrow Amy.

Profile Time!

We've noticed that the boys have been updating the blog, and as much as we love Olle's, um, interesting descriptions and Ian's photos, we thought it was time the girls take over for a bit! Since the boys have covered the events quite well though, we've decided to put together the team profiles so that those following this blog can find out a bit more about the team. :)

Alex Massey (NSW)

Age: 20

Years in JWOC: 1

Favourite elite orienteer: Josh Blatchford

Sprint, Middle or Long?: Long

Long run, hills or intervals?: Hills

Danish, Swedish or Finnish girls?: Finnish

Longest ever split time: 28mins

When I'm not orienteering I am... running

Best orienteering pick up line: "I want to navigate my way around you"

Favourite catch phrase: "I don't know"

Aim at JWOC 2012: top half

Lilian Burrill (Qld)

Age: 20

Years in JWOC:4

Favourite elite orienteer: Glennie Nottle

Sprint, Middle or Long?: Middle 

Long run, hills or intervals?: Hills

Buff, lean or in between?: in between

Longest ever split time: I don't want to think about it...

When I'm not orienteering I am... studying at uni and working at an Irish pub

Best orienteering pick up line: "Can I see your SI stick?"

Favourite catch phrase: "oh, Oscar" (shakes head)

Aim at JWOC 2012: Enjoy my last JWOC and maintain complete focus during middle

Kas Gregory (NSW)

 Age:19

Years in JWOC: 1

Favourite elite orienteer: Ane Linde

Sprint, Middle or Long?: middle - in the hope of a good run tomorrow

Long run, hills or intervals?: Hills

Danish, Swedish or Finnish girls?: 3 Danes and 2 Finns

Longest ever split time: 1 hour+ ish, unless you count Catching Features which is 2 hours (catching features time) 

When I'm not orienteering I am... living without purpose

Best orienteering pick up line: "what's ya number?"

Favourite catch phrase: "How you doin?"

Aim at JWOC 2012: Clean runs, and be injury free by the relay and win the beer mile

Amy Buckerfield (Tas)

 Age:19

Years in JWOC: 1

Favourite elite orienteer: Sarah Buckerfield

Sprint, Middle or Long?: Long

Long run, hills or intervals?: Hills

Buff, lean or in between?: in between

Longest ever split time: about 50 mins

When I'm not orienteering I am... swimming across a lake singing

Best orienteering pick up line: "I like the way you move... in the forest"

Favourite catch phrase: *massive gasp of anticipation*

Aim at JWOC 2012: Not get distracted by the really fast girls 

'Yan' Lawford (ACT/Sweden)

 Age:19

Years in JWOC: 3

Favourite elite orienteer: Oscar McNulty

Sprint, Middle or Long?: Long

Long run, hills or intervals?: Long run

Danish, Swedish or Finnish girls?: Finnish

Longest ever split time: don't know

When I'm not orienteering I am... picking up ;)

Best orienteering pick up line: "I like your body contours"

Favourite catch phrase: "rookie error"

Aim at JWOC 2012: Top 20 result. All top 10 lists

Heather Muir (Qld)

 

Age:18

Years in JWOC: 1

Favourite elite orienteer: Rachael Effeney

Sprint, Middle or Long?: can't decide - like them all

Long run, hills or intervals?: Intervals

Buff, lean or in between?: In between

Longest ever split time: 30mins at Cascades

When I'm not orienteering I am... being super cool and studying

Best orienteering pick up line: "Trenujem Delfinov" - Slovak for I'm a dolfin (Dolphin - nice spelling girls!) trainer

Favourite catch phrase: "rightio"

Aim at JWOC 2012: To see where I'm at against the others and improve for next year

Michele Dawson (NSW)

 Age:18

Years in JWOC: 1

Favourite elite orienteer: Julian Dent

Sprint, Middle or Long?: Middle

Long run, hills or intervals?: Hills

Buff, lean or in between?: in between

Longest ever split time: about an hour

When I'm not orienteering I am... at school

Best orienteering pick up line: "My compass is pointing north, but I want to head in your direction."

Favourite catch phrase: "um"

Aim at JWOC 2012: To enjoy and learn from the experience

Oscar McNulty (WA/Sydney)

 Age: 17

Years in JWOC: 2

Favourite elite orienteer: 'Yan' Lawford

Sprint, Middle or Long?: Sprint

Long run, hills or intervals?: Intervals

Danish, Swedish or Finnish girls?: 1/3 of each please

Longest ever split time: don't know

When I'm not orienteering I am... taking a shower

Best orienteering pick up line: "what number are you looking for, 'cause I'm looking for yours" (when on the course)

Favourite catch phrase: "Oh, Lilian" (rolls eyes)

Aim at JWOC 2012: To improve on last year's results

Brodie Nankervis (Tas)

 Age:17

Years in JWOC: 1

Favourite elite orienteer: Glennie Nottle

Sprint, Middle or Long?: Long

Long run, hills or intervals?: Long run

Danish, Swedish or Finnish girls?: Danish

Longest ever split time: 66 mins - Easter long race

When I'm not orienteering I am... recieving massages and making sandwiches

Best orienteering pick up line: "you're... um.... good at orienteering. No one uses pick-up lines!"

Favourite catch phrase: "Filthy"

Aim at JWOC 2012: Experience competition for future JWOCs

Olle Poland (ACT)

 Age: 17

Years in JWOC: 3

Favourite elite orienteer: Olav Lundenes

Sprint, Middle or Long?: middle

Long run, hills or intervals?: Hills

Danish, Swedish or Finnish girls?: Danish

Longest ever split time: 5 mins

When I'm not orienteering I am... playing Catching Features

Best orienteering pick up line: she says- "How was your run?"

I say - "Not so great, I got lost... in your eyes"

Favourite catch phrase: "I'm so ridiculously good looking" *Zoolander face*

Aim at JWOC 2012: Top 20 in middle

---- the girls ------

JWOC Finals Have Begun

The team has just completed its second day of competition with the usual mixture of good, fair and dissapointing results.

Not a lot to report from the sprint and no photos taken of the day.  The points of interest revolve around the weather(stinking hot) and the dissapointingly easy courses that resulted in a race taylor made for the very fast runners.  Decisions were easy with no traps or complex route choices.  Results can be found on the JWOC 2012 web page.

Ian was the best performer on the day with 20th place (only 54 seconds separated 1st from 20th) Oscar was badly effected by the herat and was almost stageering at the end.  It took some time for him to get his body temperature back to normal. Heather was the best of the girls with a spot well within the top 100.  All, in general could point at one or two small errors that cost them dearly with such a blistering pace set by the runners.

Michele was the most upset as she punched the boys control that was 15m away from her control.  "Have not done that since I was 12!" she said.

More to come from Olle!!

Maps can also be seen here

 The Long

The long was very much a day of mixed fortunes and mixed weather.  The day turned out fine, and as usual hot and muggy.

A 6:30 bus meant that a few had to rise and eat in time to catch a bus for the 80min trip to the event area.  Buses then continued to deliver athletes to the start area at intervals throughout the morning.  Our first starter was Brodie at just after 9:00am and our last starter was Olle at just after 2pm.  The first 7 of our squad started in very hot conditions and when they ventured into the open sections of the map found it oppressive at the very least.  Our last thre starters, Lilian, Ian and Olle found themselves orienteering in a thunder storm, lightening, thunder and pissing rain.  When they ventured into the open aseas it was freezing cold.  The ground became very slippery and treacherous on the rocky sections of the map and the forest so dark it was difficult to see their maps.

 It is reasonable to say their performances were significantly affect.  For Lilian it resulted in a sprained ankle (we will wait and see how she for the middle) and Ian ended up with a wet section of his map he could not read.

Of the earlier runners Oscar and Kas struggeled badly in the heat.  Most of the rest had solid performances and posted reasonable results.  Heather was the best of the girls with another steady run.

Brodie was our star of the day.  He was the first to cross the line of the whole field and was snapped up for an interview by the comentator.  His time of 88min sat at the top of the leader board for some time but eventually her saw it slip down to 41st place.  Frustrating to watch but a great result Brodie.

A rest day now and then the middle qualification day.  More news then.

The I of the Storm - And Top 20 for I-an Lawford

JWOC SPRINT - T'was Good!

After an 'exciting' opening ceremony the team was ready to race the first JWOC race, The Sprint!

Like an open bus to a man with empty pockets, anything was possible in the sprint. The mood was tense as the quarantine time drew closer and closer to go time. The sweat pours began to open in the rather stuffy quarantine zone. Provided, the bananas were soft, the grapes, un-seeded, the toilet queue - unbearable. 

Not actually the Toilet queue - close enough.

Walking out the door like a spring lamb stepping into the sunshine, we were handed a small, tiny, petite, minuscule, miniature, micro, petite, nano sized orienteering memo. What could possibly be secluded on the other side of this petite piece of felled timber that had undergone pretuitious processes of paper production? Our minds were open, our palms sweaty, knees, not so weak, Arms ready. The wind of the eastern shore blew slightly, like a breath of life to a dying man. Suddenly, a harsh western mountain gush blew, and all was revealed! BOOM! The piece of processed timber was not a model map! But a Warm-up map. 

Chapter 2

The pitter patter of racing flats on the Slovakian cobble stones was creating angst amongst the team. as the clock ticked. heart beats stopped, then started, then stopped then started again. Nerves were crawling around like worms on the pavement after a heavy rain. Tick, Tick, Tick, and Tick. It continued until the first recognisable Monica arose. 'Yan Laywfaywd' was the sound that was expelled from the local Kosician starters mouth. The run from the SI security check to the control descriptions was memorable. A long straight taped route along a back road was like running the bulls in Spain. Finally, the time had come. The JWOC 2012 sprint, it had begun!

Chapter 3 - Control One

The course opened with a moderate level of difficulty. the excitement of the first day of JWOC cause few distortions to runners times. Other runners suffered immemorial explorations of incorrect controls (not from the team of Australia however) and caused their times to dissipate in to thin air. As if a small black hole had been created and any sort of time was a precious commodity. As the rest of the course drew nearer and nearer memory was lost and time, again was essential for all those showered by the light of memorabilia and members of public, onlooking as not a form of interest, but rather a form of Excitement!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomasdrencak/7530059148/in/set-72157630484161836

Chapter 4 

The race of the day was so exciting that all recounts were lost in translation. Hence, the only possible way to describe 10 members runs with one central theme was in the form of a contemporary poem. It was written in the early moments of the conclusion of the sprint by several amateur poets of whom go by the name of 'Aussie Boys'

As chests crossed the finish line,

Moments drew closer,

To the final finish time,

The speaker talked, 

Like a commentator, for a world championships sprint.

'Yan Lawford' was the only winning time hint.

Until, along came Russia and claimed the gold,

And some fine results from Aussie, Was not so cold. 

Epilogue

How does one continue to perform over 5 stages of world standard racing in a foreign environment? The answer is not always so simple. Training will always help increase the chances of reaching this goal. However, as the last two days have shown us, having a reputation as one of the best in the world will not guarantee world class results. In many other sports, the one who has been training the hardest and fastest is the one who will win. A sprinter will run 10 seconds in one race, and then come back a week later and run 10 seconds again. This is were our sport is different, we continue to push towards the 'Perfect Run' where everything works just the way we wanted it to. One day you can be 2% off the perfect race and the next, 50% off. All Aussie runners must be admired for being able to come out of a 50% race, turn around and aim again for that perfect run within 24hrs. Stay tuned for the Middle Novela that will be coming your way in just 3 days after the Australian Junior Orienteering Team will race the Middle Distance Final and once again aim for that 'Perfect Run'

JWOC 2012 Training Week

JWOC 2012 has arrived and so excitement is at the usual yearly high. Kas and I arrived in Slovakia on Tuesday the 19th fresh and energised off the boat after a tough weekend racing at Jukola, and sailing.. We met up with Matt Ogden and made our way out to Rožňava where we spent the next week training on the long distance maps situated around the area. Life was good! Training and sleeping were the only things on our daily plan. We were making the most of the cheap life - staying in a pretty classy hotel with full board for less than we would have paid for a campsite back home!

Long training at Plesivec from Kas

On the 26th we packed up and made the move to Košice and met up with the NZ team fresh off the plane. A couple of days spent on some middle focussed maps and seeing the sights in the city ( ;) ), and the rest of the Aussie team arrived keen to get in some training!

Middle training on great area Zelený Dvor from me

Monday

To start the official training week we travelled over an hour to Dievcenska to get experience in the technical sink hole terrain that replicates the area where the long race will be. It was good to experience the sink hole terrain early on in the week and we all came away with a much better understanding of how to orienteer well in the terrain.  -  Oscar

Tuesday

On Tuesday we travelled out to Zeleny Dvor as shown above for some short sharp interval training. The idea was to run hard for about 300m on a track to get the HR up, then some short controls in terrain for recovery, training our ability to process and make decisions when tired. The map and area was amazing, with great visibility and intricate detail. A few of us did a small jog around after just familiarising ourselves with the terrain. The afternoon was spent out at the lake near Bukovec, cooling off from the sweltering heat of the day. Birthday cake was had in the evening to celebrate Lilian's 20th birthday.  -  Alex

Wednesday

Michele's 18th!!!! however the celebrations were stalled by some sickness and not the greatest way for Michele to spend her 18th. breakfast was followed by an eventful 1hour drive out to Torzo and Jastericie Jazero. the negative terrain was a treat just like the sweet sweet nectar of a spring plum! A quicky 30 minute jog  around was enough to excite the team (minus Ian and Kas who were chilling in their beds back at camp) enough to travel across to the more forested map of Torzo - Great Area! Heading home was even more of a journey being stuck behind a truck/trucks for the whole 1.15 hrs. Overall, the day of training was worthwhile. As the sun beamed down across the buildings of Kosice, the team lay in bed thinking of what possible joys the following day had in store for them...as well as sweating like a fat pig, as usual.  -  Olle

  

Thursday

Bankov - 9am - Relay training, short mass start intervals, continental terrain with areas of complex erosion/landslip detail. Great training under pressure, whilst barely tiring the legs over the short distances. Michele disappeared with Valerie early on to find a doctor to deal with her bug, and gladly we saw her improve enormously as the day progressed. Most of the team went out to Baziny in the arvo to have a short walk around the area which we'd down some technical exercises on at our previous team meeting. Plenty of teams began arriving today, which built some excitement. Following dinner Susanne set us up with an interesting group exercise where we had to describe a course in words then see if the other groups could draw the course accurately on there map. Finally we made a trip into the town to have a look around which was a first for most of the team. Pizza's were also had by most, as the earlier dinner which was a huge 'apple and curd' slice felt much too like a huge dessert.  -   Kas

T minus 2 days now and Olle & I have just completed a quick track session. Bring on the sprint!!

damn we look good

So now we are nearing the end of the training camp and teams are starting to roll in. This has brought about a much more serious, deep pondering within the boys - how shall we present the much anticipated 'Top 10'...? At least we can rest easy knowing there wont be a top 10 without our names on it....

picking up 101

------------- IAN

The Next Few Days

Wednesday began with that dreaded part of the camp that is never loooked forward to by the Squad. The 3Km time trial.



On a rough grassy oval in Dixon, with an uphill, into the wind back straight it proved difficult to produce good times. Max Neuman was our standout performer posting a time of 9:58.



The rest of Wed. was spent concentrating on sprint technique. Josh set some great courses on a simple map of the camp. He ran a knockout style competition that culminated in a final for the best 4 qualifiers. Controversy was the order of the day for the final with a control on the inside of an uncrossable fence. Competitors either reached over the fence to touch the flag or opened a gate that was maped as uncrossable and ran to the control. As a result all bar about 5 of the squad were disqualified. Brody was crowned the winner even though he swam across the pool to get to the flag. The winner of the girls was less clear and is still pending an appeal.

Wed. evening was then off to ANU to run the ACT twilight sprint event.

The offending Sprint Course

Thursday was spent AM at Kowen Forest with a map memory, simplification exercise in pairs followed by a 3 loop course where each person started on a separate course and passed through a common control before finishing.

A great talk from Shannon Jones in the arvo on sprint orienteering proved to be valuable to all. Her story of her road to success and her techniques used in sprint orienteering held the interest of all and generated some probing questions.

It was then off to the pool for another of those dreaded group sessions. The swim sets. This was then followed by a BBQ at the pool. It seems that a lot was learnt from the day.