Hello everyone again. Sorry we havn't been posting much we are having difficulty getting internet in the middle of the country. We have just been training, sleeping, eating and preparing for our races strating on saturday with the sprint. Here are some more photos of our accomodation in Dizy and training. 

pictures of Lausanne and below of the view from our accomodation in Dizy

The Australian team has arrived to Switzerland!

Hello everyone! most of the team has arrived at our training camp in the very small town of Dizy, outside of Lausanne. Our accommodation is very laid back and we are enjoying the country atmosphere. So far we have been out to 3 different maps consisting of long training, middle training and sprint training in the city centre. We will be adding team profiles throughout the week so you can get to know our amazing team alot better!
Bridget

Tips for making the most of your Easter Experience- from Boomerangs coach Wendy Read

Tips for making the most of your Easter Experience – from a few of the locals…

After many years of drought, SEQ has now had two very wet summers, and plenty of rain in the seasons in between.  We have only just had a hint of autumn in the last few days when the humidity has dropped below intensely sticky and there has been a sense of freshness in the air – but you have to be up early to notice.  Hence vegetation is lush, creek lines actually contain water (sometimes even flowing), and wildlife/ insect life is abundant. Your week of orienteering in SE Queensland will guarantee you 3 things for sure:

A great variety of terrain – from complex, granite rock detail to deeply,  eroded creek systems
 Lantana  and
Spiders!

Don’t be put off though – there are plenty of ways to successfully navigate your way through the carnival.
Let’s deal first with the events located in and around Stanthorpe where granite boulders dominate the landscape.  (Prologue, Day 1 & Day 3) Although patches of very complex rock will require intense concentration, much of the terrain is pleasant running forest, with hill sides of moderate rock detail. Being able to ‘look through’ the scattering of black dots and read the contours can help simplify the navigation.  Use the large, obvious features in the rock or other distinctive features for attack points. Sometimes areas of ‘nothing’ are a useful feature to use. Also look for the handrails, like creeks, ridgelines or bands of rock, that show the ‘lines’ through the complexity.  It’s worthwhile checking that you know the difference between what is a boulder, a mound, rocky ground and boulder cluster, both on the legend on your control descriptions.

The event at Shanty Gully (west of Warwick) provides a great contrast to the granite rock areas.  Apparently it is fairly featureless and steep. There are small areas of erosion and old, gold mining but not highly technical like the Victorian gold fields. Route choice and careful, speedy execution of it will be the key.

The events following the Easter Carnival also provide good variety:
Cascades – an iconic granite map, its reputation precedes it – enter at your peril! Not really – it’s one of those great challenging maps where you’ll need all your navigational tools working for you.  Map contact, map contact, map contact!
Hardings Paddock – an area typical of outer Brisbane, our orienteering bread and butter.  Hilly, well vegetated, some interesting rocky sections, but you’ll enjoy the experience a whole lot more if you wear full body protection and avoid the lantana. (More about lantana later)
QUT (Kelvin Grove Campus) & UQ (St Lucia Campus) – classic, university style, sprint maps and courses. If you’re really serious, get onto NearMap & do your homework.


Collins Creek – a few notes from the course setter, Geoff Peck who has a favourite wisdom, “Contours are for navigating, vegetation is for route choice!”:  The terrain at Collins Ck is undulating spur-gully with some detailed erosion, and a LOT of lantana. Most of the lantana is in small patches which are quite 'passable' and have reasonable visibility (hence the use of green stripes), but it's not easy to keep 'straight'. As the terrain is quite 'vague' it's easy to get well off line, and difficult to relocate. The classic 'aiming off' works well in these areas. It is mostly fast running, but some denser areas of lantana need to be avoided; it's not a pleasant experience to get stuck in it! The fact that it's a looping race means that relay 'tactics' are important. Runners can get a considerable advantage by 'slipstreaming' as long as they are sure they are on the same split! (Is that split-streaming? – a new O term?)

Coach Read in action

Since it has featured a bit in these notes - a word about lantana (an invasive, woody  plant with a pretty, dainty flower).  Don’t try and run through solid clumps of it – you won’t win. When in areas where it is extensive, keep your head up, look for clearer sections and you can usually avoid the worst of it. If you do get into thicker sections, look for small animal paths (on ground level), put map in mouth and scurry through on hands and knees.

A final note about the local wildlife – especially spiders.  Golden orb spiders and their sticky webs are still prolific in some patches of forest.  Whilst the females are big and scary, the smaller males won’t present any problems. On a recent training weekend, Queensland Cyclones practised the following technique (the three Ds:
             1. Duck under the web – does require you to look ahead and not only at the map.
             2. Adopt the defensive position – arms and map in front of face to fend off spidery tangle.
Failing steps 1 & 2

3. De-web one’s body – running hands spread wide from chest, up neck, over face and through hair, flinging spider and web far away.

It’s a good tip to quickly check you still have some idea where you are going after such an encounter, as all the head and body shaking can be dis-orienteering. (Oh – also check you actually got rid of the sticky little sucker!)

On a positive note regarding wildlife, there are plenty of beautiful wallabies and kangaroos in the forest making the most of the good conditions and, families of wedge tail eagles have been seen frequently near some of the Stanthorpe maps.

Hopefully these tips will keep you navigating cleaning at all the events over Easter.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

Wendy Read,
Australian Boomerangs Coach and Queensland Cyclones team member.

Australian Rachel Effeney wins Sprint the Bay in New Zealand

A record number of competitors contested the Sprint the Bay orienteering series in Hawkes Bay New Zealand last weekend with Australians Rachel Effeney and Matthew Parton taking out 1^st and 3^rd respectively in the elite categories. The series took place over the Waitangi long weekend with 2 sprint races each day (6 in total) with the winners determined through cumulative time for the series.

Stage 1 was a mass start race that took place around a school, a cemetery and some parkland and would determine the pecking order for the weekend. The racing was fierce as it soon became apparent that some levels of ‘physicality’ were acceptable in getting to a punch first and those runners at the front of each field were able to put valuable seconds between themselves and those further down in the train by getting in early on the first few controls. Rachel Effeney was one of those to punch first early and in a sprint finish managed to shade Lizzie Ingham by 2 seconds to gain the yellow leaders singlet for the first race. In the elite men’s race Tim Robertson won on the line to get hold of the leaders jersey which he would hold until Stage 5. Bryan Keely was the best of the Australian men in the Stage placing 5^th, 4 seconds behind the leaders with Hanny Allston scraping into the top 6 in the women’s elite race.

Winners of the various jerseys

Stages 2-4 were all urban sprints with reverse chasing starts (leaders starting last) and the competition through these races was super tight. Oscar McNulty scored 2 impressive stage victories at Napier Central in Stage 2 and Frimley in Stage 4 to move into second overall at this point, just 11 seconds behind Tim Robertson in the competition for the outright series lead. Stage 4 also saw the only Australian trifecta of the weekend with Matthew Parton and Lachlan Dow rounding out the top three which enabled them to move up into 6^th and 7^th overall, with Bryan Keely also running well into 5^th place for the stage. Rachel Effeney was dominant through these races placing 1^st in every one and with some big winning margins was able to take her lead to 1 minute 41 seconds by the end of Stage 4.

Bryan Keely gets air

Stage 5 was the only forest sprint of the series and as expected had a huge impact on the overall result. For the first time Rachel and Tim both lost their leaders jerseys dropping back to 2^nd and 4^th overall. Toby Scott won the elite men’s race by a massive 35 seconds to leapfrog from 5^th into 1^st overall and Angela Simpson moved from 2^nd into 1^st overall with her stage win. Of the Australians, Matthew Parton was fortunately placed in the start list to take advantage of Toby’s phenomenal run and after being caught 1 minute midway through the course managed to hold on for the 3^rd fastest time of the day. Lachlan Dow’s 6^th place enabled him to hold onto 6^th overall.

Stage 6 took place on the Arataki map which comprised two schools separated by an oval with every course having two loops each with each loop running through both schools. To make more interesting head-to-head racing, starts were in pairs for this race with each competitor completing one loop first and their starting partner completing the other, before swapping. As a result of this Rachel Effeney and Angela Simpson were the last pair to start in the women’s race and since only 9 seconds separated them the winner of this race could well win the series. Rachel, who needed to catch the 9 seconds, had a good race and came into the finish chute a few seconds ahead and with a big crowd screaming it was clear it was going to be a nail-biter. Unfortunately, as the dust settled it became apparent that Angela had missed a control and so was marked as a miss-punch, although Rachel had done enough to take the lead away from her anyway. 

Aislinn Prendergast

The final standings for the elite women were: 1^st Rachel Effeney, 2^nd Lizzie Ingham, 3^rd Kate Morrison. The men’s race was less wide open with big gaps separating the top 6 which meant that a mix-up in the results was unlikely based on Stage 6 racing. Despite this Matthew Parton appeared to do his best to cede his 3^rd position and after starting the race with a 35 second buffer to Tim Robertson in 4^th only held on by a meagre 6 seconds at the end of what he described as a sloppy race on tired legs. Lachlan Dow was the best placed of the Australian men on the stage in 5^th which meant that he retained 6^th place in a super competitive field. The overall results in the elite men’s division were: 1^st Toby Scott, 2^nd Tom Reynolds, 3^rd Matthew Parton.

Women's podium- First Rachel Effeney (AUS, Queensland Cyclones), 2nd Lizzie Ingham, (NZ and Canberra Cockatoos), 3rd Kate Morrison (NZ)

Men's podium- 1st Toby Scott (NZ), 2nd Tom Reynolds (NZ), 3rd Matt Parton (AUS and NSW Stingers)

A great video teaser of what Sprint the bay is all about.

For full results and splits go to http://www.sprintthebay.org/results/2012/overall.html

(Aussies in Red)

Men's Elite (61)

1	Toby Scott	1:34:35
2	Thomas Reynolds	1:35:53
3	Matthew Parton	1:36:36
4	Tim Robertson	1:36:42
5	Chris Forne	1:37:00
6	Lachlan Dow	1:37:31
7	Carsten Joergensen	1:39:30
8	Ian Lawford	1:40:00
9	Tane Cambridge	1:40:23
10	James Bradshaw	1:40:41
11	Bryan Keely	1:40:58
12	Oscar McNulty	1:41:34
13	Nick Hann	1:41:45
14	Beat Zimmermann	1:42:16
15	Bruce Arthur	1:42:25
16	Jourdan Harvey	1:43:49
17	Murray Scown	1:44:26
18	Eugene Campbell	1:47:57
19	Stefan Zingg	1:48:56
20	Alistair Richardson	1:50:22
21	Kasimir Gregory	1:50:56
22	Greg Flynn	1:51:10
23	Al Cory-Wright	1:55:29
24	Michael Smithson	1:56:21
25	Oliver Mitchell	1:59:19
26	David Hunhammar	2:02:12
27	Liam Paterson	2:02:45
28	Mathieu McGuire	2:06:44
29	Kieran Woods	2:07:57
30	Thomas Eatson	2:11:46
31	Luis Slyfield	2:17:57
32	Mikko Ruokolainen	2:24:27
33	Cairn Coghill	2:25:19
34	Bradley Ivory	2:29:12
35	Gergo Verhas	2:29:29

Women's Elite (37)

1	Rachel Effeney	1:32:56
2	Lizzie Ingham	1:34:11
3	Kate Morrison	1:38:04
4	Georgia Whitla	1:38:26
5	Laura Robertson	1:40:06
6	Hanny Allston	1:41:34
7	Aislinn Prendergast	1:42:58
8	Tessa Ramsden	1:48:23
9	Lisa Grant	1:50:28
10	Mace Neve	1:50:43
11	Cosette Saville	1:52:19
12	Belinda Lawford	1:54:11
12	Selena Metherell	1:54:11
14	Ilka Barr	1:58:29
15	Shannon Jones	2:00:27
16	Katelyn Effeney	2:00:30
17	Anna Gray	2:02:15
18	Renee Beveridge	2:03:00
19	Sara Bailey	2:03:49
20	Jula McMillan	2:04:31
21	Karin Geissbuehler	2:05:21
22	Heather Muir	2:06:42
23	Emily Cantwell	2:11:05
24	Katie Bolt	2:11:31
25	Sarah Gray	2:13:11
26	Miina Ruokolainen	2:15:12
27	Emily Dinsdale	2:20:04
28	Sarah Davidson	2:31:40
29	Katalla Kramer	2:55:28

Thanks to Sprint the Bay organisers for the photos, and Matt Parton for words of wisdom

Beechworth 2012 elite training camp

The first elite training camp for 2012 was held around Beechworth in Victoria last week. Sessions were attended by up to 18 people which was a great turn out. The Beechworth region is famous for gold-mining history, a bakery, and plenty of good orienteering terrains. The Christmas 5-days will be held around this region this year from December 27-31 and will be a great lead up for any international orienteers heading down-under  for the World Cup races in New Zealand.

		Beechworth 2012 photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Monday evening- Sprint training at Beechworth's Latrobe University Campus.
This was a rerun of the 2003 Australian Sprint Distance Championships (prior to IOSSM)

Tuesday morning- Kangaroo Crossing

Tuesday evening- Beechworth

4 x 1km intervals, run as a variety of chasing starts.

Wednesday morning- Barambogie North

Relay training with 6km course and some splitting. Really nice forest and some good competition.

Wednesday evening- easy cycle for some, running intervals for some, or getting two stitches in your leg puncture if your name is Bridget.

Thursday morning- Barambogie South

Tough session with 4x 1km courses. First leg was a brutal uphill leg to be run at max effort, followed by 6 or 7 downhill diagonal legs and a good break in between each course.

Thursday evening- Beechworth

Short 3km hagaby around the best parts of the local beechworth map.

Friday morning- Warby Ranges

Route choice exercise run in pairs.

Friday evening- Warby Ranges

Relay training exercise

Saturday morning- Rowdy Flat

Started with a map work over the first part of the men's Oceania Middle Distance course.

First course 2.4km, followed by 2.1km chasing start.

Bruce Arthur's GPS route

Saturday afternoon- for some a relaxing afternoon at the Dederang Picnic races, followed by a 1650m foot race around the track. Congrats to Jasmine Neve and Vanessa Round for placing 1st and 2nd in the women's, and Ratsky for 2nd place in the mens race.

It was a great start to 2012 for the squad, and finished off a tough two weeks a training for those who attended the National Altitude training camp at Falls Creek the prior week. The next event on the national squad list is the Sprint the Bay event in New Zealand which is also followed by a training camp.

Thanks to Jim Russell for his help with the camp, and to Albury Wodonga Orienteering Club and VOA for access to the orienteering maps. The Rowdy Flat and Kangaroo Crossing maps are now embargoed until the Victorian Championships later in 2012.