That's all folks!

Hi everyone,
Well, that's it for another year at the World Champs. Time always flies at these events, and there's no doubt that's because they are a heap of fun, in large part to all the awesome people in our team, so this is a personal thanks to them for being great teammates. A big thanks to all of you around the world who've followed our blog, and I can tell you there were quite a lot of you reading, so thanks :)

This post is also a big advertisement for the World Cup events this January in Australia! If you live in Europe and are thinking about attending, ask an Aussie what they think, and they will only have positive things to say about orienteering and travelling in Tasmania.

One of the great maps in Tasmania: Littlechild creek

The Middle.

Well the week is coming to a close shortly, but before the week finishes we still have 2 more exciting races to go, and in my humble biased opinion the 2 best one's 2 run (really just the 2 that if I was running I would do best in cause I can't sprint!).  So enough blabbering by me lets get down to business.

Today would be the middle.  The distance that is know for it's technical difficulty.  From our run around the middle model maps it should deliver that in some varied terrain.  The terrain has some intense areas of detailed rock in lower visibility forest on one side of the hill but on the other it is relatively clean running with not quite as much detail.  Really it is on big sucker of a hill that will provide a mix bag of terrain as it has some alpine meadows on the top too.

Anyway now onto what you need to know.   Our runners are now Jas, Hanny and Julian.  Yes you might spot a change there.  Vanessa has chosen not to run due to feeling a bit under the weather the last 3 or so days.  So now for start times:  Jas 12:35:30 (only 8:35:30 back home),  Hanny 1:19  and Jules is off at 3:07.

Don't forget to check out the livecenter 

And apologies if facebook doesn't get updated... I'm not sure how much reception/internet I will have out there.

The Long Distance....

Well the long distance is just about to start.  First womens start is at 12.21 I believe.

The rain has currently gone away so it should be a nice day to spectate.  Hanny is the first Australian off at 12:37 so that would be 8:37pm AEST.  Ness won't be too far behind that at just after 1pm.  Simon is our only hope for the boys in this newly arranged World Championship events where there is no qualification races anymore.  He will start at 1:46 over here.

Simon just before I took him to quarantine 30 mins ago.

I ran day 3 of the 5 days of Italy this morning so below is a small snippet of my map which was next to the competition area for today.  So they should expect something a bit like this today!

Part of this mornings map.

Don't forget to tune into the live of results, tv, gps etc.  More details on the WOC website.  Or the swedish TV stream.

Also don't forget to tune into the Orienteering Australia facebook page for all the latest updates about the Aussies direct from my phone at the event!

Celebrating the OA presidents birthday last night at dinner.

Thursday Arvo Picnic

To all our supporters currently in Italy, please join us, this Thursday at 3pm, on the southern shores of Lago di Lavarone for afternoon tea. Normally we the team provide the food and drink, but I am yet to confirm that (will let you all know as soon as possible).
EDIT WEDNESDAY: We will indeed be providing nibbles for all who come (and if the weather is bad we will retreat to the hotel restaurant next door)

Mixing it up

Well that was a exciting evening!  The mixed sprint relay produced a exciting jam packed hour of racing.  If your back home in Australia but were too concerned about tiredness to stay up to watch it - you should have!

The Australia team of Rachel, Jules, Simon and Hanny produced some outstanding runs to come 10th. If you want to know how the race went for Australia I suggest that you jump on the Orienteering Australia facebook page and have a look at the posts which were put up during the event.  But I will still give you a short run down on the race. 

The team after the race

Rachel smashed it, spending a lot of time running in the leading 3 and eventually coming back with the lead pack just 14 seconds down on the lead in 6th place.

Jules was killing it early on to hold onto the lead bunch but eventually the speed of the top orienteers in the world started to get the better of him.  Still he managed to bring us back in 10th 50 seconds down on the lead. 

Simon, like Jules felt the pace of the top guys but still managed to come back in 13th position 2:02 down on the lead.

Hanny then had a good run to bring us home in some challenging conditions due to extra rain (not that it wasn't already slippery enough).  She took us up into 10th position just 2:41 behind the winning team of Switzerland. 

So all in all it was a awesome result from the team and if you have about 1 hour to spare you can now watch the replay of the race on the IOF's livecenter.  Do it!  It will be well worth the time!

Official results here too.

What you need to know about the mixed sprint relay.

So the WOC week is well and truly under way.  A very scenic sprint happened in Venice on Saturday.  Today saw the opening ceremony in the mountain town of Asiago and tomorrow all eyes will turn to the first ever WOC mixed sprint relay.  And what a race it is expected to be.

Here are the details of how this race works.  The team consists of 2 women and 2 men, with the women running the first and last leg, which leaves the blokes to run the middle two legs.  Each leg will take somewhere around 13 minutes to complete, so the race will be all done and dusted with in hour.  Like all sprint races it is expected that the winning team will be just a few seconds in front of the rest, so it is definitely a race not to be missed.

The Australian team will be wearing the number 1 bib, yes that’s right we also hope to keep it at the end of the day.  The team will be Rachel Effeney out first, Julian Dent second; Simon Uppill Third and Hanny Allston will bring home the team on the last leg.  The team has prepared well and is looking forward to some good racing around the streets of Trento.

The relay will start at 5:30pm here is Italy, so that would be 1:30am on Tuesday morning for all you back home on the east coast of Australia.  If you’re keen for a late night I’m sure it will be worth every ounce of tiredness later that day!  You can follow all the action on the WOC website.  There will be live results for free, if you want more than that you will need to pay for access for the IOF’s new live center, which will give you access to gps tracking and the live TV stream.  

We will be also posting news and photo updates to the Orienteering Australia Facebook page about the progress of the race as things happen so check that out as well. That should about be enough to look at but if you so desire more then you can always check out World of O or Attackpoint for many discussions and updates about the races.

Toph

The day is here

Well I would have given you a little bit more of a race preview yesterday if the internet at our hotel was able to handle the amount people that were trying to use the internet... I think the Russians, Lithuanians, Irish, Americans, French, Czech and Hong Kong were all hogging it cause no Australian were able to get on it. 

Simon and Lachy getting checked off by Wendy in preparation to leave.

So now instead of getting a good race preview I will give you a basic run down and then point you to some places where you can find more information.

So the day has started.. the girls left 30mins the boys have just left.  They are on the way to the ferry which will take them to Burano Island for the Sprint qualifier.  (Bridget there is no gps tracking for qual)

Burano will look something like this.. 

People that qualify for the final will then have an hour and half of freedom before going back into quarantine.  They will then be moved over to Venice.   Meanwhile spectators and the rest of us have to negotiate the ferries to get to Venice in time for the final.  

After the final the flower ceremony happens and then were finally get back here to the hotel probably around 12 hours after we left!  So it will be a bit of a long day!

So where can you find real information??? 
WOC website - http://www.woc2014.info/woc.php
Next best source I would say would be World of O - http://worldofo.com/
Nick Dents write up on OA page.  - http://orienteering.asn.au/
Lizzie Inghams blog preview - http://lizzieingham.blogspot.it/2014/07/woc-2014-antipodean-guide.html
And attackpoint usually has some discussions even if they are based around Americans - attackpoint.org

Anyway I need to leave for a ferry... enjoy watching.

A Day in the Life of an Aussie Training Camp

While Toph and I are chilling in our beautiful hotel in the mountains, we thought we'd share with you a typical day of an orienteering training camp. It's days like these that make me want to quit my job, but I don't think my funds would last very long...

First thing in the morning is breakfast, accompanied by a great view of the mountains.

Morning View

Then it's training time! we made our way out to Platabek, an intense map near the town of Asiago. The terrain around here is rocky and usually quite steep, with sections of limestone making awesome karstic formations.

After training we met up with Rachel and Wendy, and a contingent of the New Zealand team, all of whom had been doing their respective trainings in the area. Some lunch in the town square was in order.

Yummy!! And people were preoccupied by Grahams Venice Sprint Video

With training and eating done it's back to the hotel for a siesta! When in Rome right? Later in the afternoon we donned our uniforms for the more official business of team photos and the annual team competitions. This is a multidisciplined, highly competitive set of games that continue through our time together. The first event? Cherry seed spitting! Yours truly suspects Tom and Wendy thought up this game on the spot...

Vanessa cherry pip spitting technic.

The team posing for a timer photo - minus our phyiso Elin.

Dinner is provided by the hotel (and is delicious!) where the accompanying view is as usual spectacular.

Evening view.

Tomorrow the team head to our accommodation in Jesolo near Venice for the Individual sprint race on Saturday. More info available on our Facebook page , and Live results and GPS tracking should become available on the official WOC website

Sweet lookout!!

"New" official team transport.

Pre WOC Training

Well we are now just 3 days before WOC 2014 starts,  so you might be wondering how the preparation is going?  Well this week not much is happening.  The whole aim of this week is to relax as much as possible while doing a little bit of fine tuning.  This relaxation has only been possible to due to the previous training weeks and races that the team has been involved in. 

A few weeks ago Jules, Lachie and Vanessa participated in the 3 Days of Trenches races.  This gave them some great experience in the terrain.  It also gave them some great competition as a many of the top runners were in Italy for the official training camp and the races.  These races were also used as selection trials for their respective countries.  Feel free to check the results and GPS tracking on the website.

So what have the rest of us been doing?  Well the answer is lots of different things, but most of us were in Italy sometime last week or the week before.  With many of us meeting up with each other (or some kiwi's) at various times in different places.  One of these places was Venice, the place where the sprint final will take place on Saturday afternoon.  The training there was fun, real fun.  The rain we had one day made things even more interesting to say the least.  I could tell you more but rather than do that I suggest you watch this video that was put together by Graham Hammond (Hanny's partner). 

Maps of these training and others will slowly appear on my DOMA page when I get around to it. 

Alpe Adria

The weekend that has just passed saw all of the WOC team head to Cansiglio for a 3 day event, Alpe Adria.  The weekend provided some interesting competitions in tough terrain, which was quite ideal preparation for next week.  With the events being so close to WOC many people opted to not run some races or to take some sections easier.  That being said there was still some pretty good results being put on the board during the races, especially in the relay, but before we get onto the boring statistics of the event have a look at the view from the place we stayed at!!

Not bad choice of place Vanessa.

The Long race provided some good times out in the forest, by good times I mean long km rates - Simon did about 9 min/km.  The forest also provided lots of interesting navigation but also lots of tracking due to a storm that came though about half way though the day. The best results of the day were from Hanny (5th) and Simon (7th).

Jas taking off in the mass start.

The relay was a chance for Australia test out some possible running orders for the WOC relay. This was a pretty good outing with both the Girls and Guys slowly pulling away throughout the race to win the goodies.. in true Italian style that would be pasta, wine and cheese.

Jules at the Relay spectator control

The evening saw a sprint race take place at Conegliano.  In true Italian style the start times were late with many of us starting after 8pm.  This still didn't stop some people making their way onto the podium to collect more Italian goodies. These were presented at the Gala that evening after the event where everyone was provided with a feast of pasta, strawberry risotto, wine and cheese.

I think they are happy!!

Sunday brought another tough race in the middle race.  Slow km rates, super detailed sections of the map and more stinging nettles just to make it as interesting as possible.   Even so there was some more good results with more people on the podium.  So after the weekend the Italian goodies count is around 4kg of cheese, lots of pasta, somewhere around 10 litres plus of wine and a random 2 litre beer, not to mention the random books and other things in the bags.  Some would say it was a successful weekend but I will let you decide that for yourself.  Full results can be found here. 

A selection of the M21 Middle map.. 13 confused a heck of a lot of us..

Anyway now the weekend is over we are currently at our pre-camp accommodation in Luserna,  which once again has a ripper view out the front door!!

Look at that!  Don't think I can complain.

WOC 2014!

G'day everyone, and welcome to the Australian WOC team blog for another year.

Our athletes and coaches are in preparation and soon will be making their way to Italy. For some, this is just a short flight or train trip from their homes in Europe. For others, the travel time is a bit more taxing: flying to Milan from Australia is about 20 hours of flying plus layovers!

So what's been going on this June? Julian, Vanessa and Lachlan made the trip to the '3 Days of Trenches', an event at the start of June in similar terrain to WOC, held near Asiago. These races were selection trials for many European teams, so the competition was world class. 

There was still quite a bit of snow around! something not seen often while orienteering back home...

At a training map near the town of Lavarone. The beautiful European beech forest was nicer to look at than to run through! 

Along with world class competition, Northern Italy is well known for it's world class food and scenery! This makes racing in Italy all the more fun:

decisions decisions...

Fantastic roads (read: crazy) are a theme of the Alps. Many of them in this area were built during WWI as supply routes.

The view from the above road in the opposite direction (where we had come from)...

...And what the road went up. Unreal!