The coming week...

It is about to begin!

The Aussies have been resting up and fine tuning their skills for the coming week. It all begins with the Long Qualification tomorrow morning. The terrain is best described as super fast, super open with contour detail. The biggest challenge will be keeping the speed under control and finding that Long Distance rhythm.

Susanne making final preparations for the Long Qual

In action Sunday (with start times) the Aussies have Susanne Casanova 16.40 AEST, Aislinn Prendergast 17.04 AEST,  Hanny Allston 17.37 AEST,  and Lachlan Dow 17.03AEST.

Lachlan 'tuning the pins' for the Long Qual

Follow live on the OA Facebook page, Twitter and from the official WOC live site.

Today the expectation has been building in the event center here at Vuokatti Sports Institute with an Olympic Village feel. Almost all teams are eating and sleeping in close proximity combined with 6000 competitors arriving for the spectator races it should be a cracker week for all.

Part of the Aussie team spent the morning checking out the Sprint model events in the pouring rain. With the organizers wisely choosing not to mark hedges as impassable the biggest challenge for many teams was working out their hedge jumping techniques.

Sprint Qualification model map with the entertaining hedges

The Sprint final will be a typical urban affair but with the added uncertainty of the possible construction of fences 'somewhere' in the terrain by the organizers. Just to add that little bit of complexity. Certainly taking Sprint orienteering to that next level!

To spice things up Bryan Keely was testing out his sliding technique in the wet conditions and ended up with a nasty gash in his knee. After some fast action by Team Physio Elin and Swedish Team doctor Mia Jodal, Bryan was quickly cleaned and stitched up with seven stitches all the while providing some afternoon entertainment for the queezy Swedes. I'm happy to report though that Bryan will be ready to race and it will not effect his plans for the week.

Bryan receiving his stitches from Swedish Team doctor Mia Jodal!

This afternoon was spent prettying up for team photographs and Aislinn, Susanne, Hanny and Lachlan were resting up and preparing for their Long Qualification race tomorrow morning. Cheer them on tomorrow!

Hanny is 'pretty relaxed' about her return to international competition Sunday!

WOC 2013 - Vuokatti

Welcome back for another year of action with the Australian Boomerangs. The World Orienteering Championships 2013 in the northern Finnish town of Vuokatti will be a tough and exciting championships with Scandinavian terrain and thousands of spectators expected to attend.
The Australian team is currently in Vuokatti and familiarizing themselves with the terrain in the final week leading up to the competitions.
So who are the Boomerangs team of 2013? It is a great mix of old and new with many runners making their WOC debut. But the big news is the return of World Champion Hanny Allston to the international orienteering scene. It is great to see Hanny return to international orienteering.

In the coming days and throughout the championships this blog will provide the inside news from within the Boomerangs team here at Vuokatti, so stay tuned for updates throughout the next ten days and leave comments to support the athletes.

Firstly, let's get to know all the team a little more...


Name: Hanny Allston 
Age: 27
Attackpoint: Nup
Born: Hobart, Tasmania
Lives: Canberra, Australia
Occupation: Running and Life Coach
Disciplines at WOC: Middle/Long/Relay
Favourites...
Orienteering Location:  Bay of Fires and; St Helen district of Tasmania - Did you know there is a World Cup coming there in January 2015!!
Shoes - The North Face Hiace
Food - Homemade fresh bread with Jalsberg cheese. mmmm
Training...
Long Run or Intervals: A long run that isn't 'training' but rather a 'mission'. Heading off and exploring new regions and mountains - there is nothing more exhilarating.
Cross training: Mountain biking. I love speed and single track.
Group or alone: I'm a bit of a loner but I love hitting the trails with my partner Graham. Somehow we never feel like we are training when we are playing on the trails together. However, I have really loved training with the Aussie group here in the lead up to WOC. Their energy and enthusiasm for the forest is infectious.


Name:Vanessa Round 

Age: 25
Attackpoint: 007
Born: 10 Dec 1987
Lives: In Switzerland near Zurich
Occupation: Working in a Costume hire shop and an Octoberfest-Style (Dirndl & Lederhosen) shop..although trained as an Environmental Scientist
Disciplines at WOC: Sprint, Middle and Relay
Favourites...
Orienteering Location: In the bush in Australia, especially granite. Some scandinavian forests are just heavenly for orienteering though, and high in the swiss alps can be great if the steepness is cancelled out by technicall difficulty.
Shoes: my super speedy new inov8 shoes for sprint Orienteering
Food: oh...too hard to have a favourite...mangos, berrys, artichokes, nuts, marinated things, (all categorised under 'compost' according to the boys)
Training...
Long Run or Intervals: Long runs in the hills
Favourite cross training: Would love to do alot more cross country skiing next winter..loved the few hours I did at the beginning of this winter, until a Toboggoning accident kept me away from the snow..
Group or alone: Enjoy running alone, though with a group for better training benefit.


Name: Aislinn Prendergast

Age: 23
Attackpoint: kido (unused recently)
Born: Ballarat
Lives: Melbourne
Disciplines at WOC: Long
Favourites
Orienteering Location: Petticoat Gully (Creswick)
Shoes: Asics / inov8
Food: Cereal
Training...
Long run or intervals: Long run
Favourite cross training: Triathlon!
Group or alone: Love groups, but don't get the chance very often.

Name: Felicity Brown

Age: 29
Attackpoint: Fel
Born: Sydney, Australia
Lives: Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation: Facilities Manager, Skype Sweden.
Disciplines at WOC: Sprint
Favourites...
Orienteering Location: Venice
Shoes: Inov8
Food: Berries
Training...
Long run or intervals: Intervals
Cross training: Cycling
Group or alone: Group

Name: Susanne Casanova 

Age: 36
Attackpoint: SusC
Lives: Darwin, Australia
Disciplines at WOC: Long
Favourites...
Orienteering Location: Flinders Rangers, Australia
Shoes: VJ Bold
Food: Dried Fruit
Training...
Long run or intervals: Intervals
Cross training: Deep water running
Group or alone:  Both

Name: Jasmine Neve

Age: 27
Attackpoint: none
Born: Melbourne
Lives: Melbourne
Occupation: Public servant
Disciplines at WOC: Sprint and Middle
Favourites...
Orienteering Location: Kangaroo Crossing, Australia.
Shoes: Flimsy cross country flats..
Food: Finnish summer berries, and my housemates lentil pie.
Training...
Long Run or Intervals: Intervals
Cross training: Bike

Group or alone: Mix





Name: Simon Uphill

Age: 25
Attackpoint: Simon87
Lives: Adelaide
Occupation: Engineer
Disciplines at WOC: Sprint, Middle, Relay
Favourites...
Orienteering Location: Flinders Rangers, Australia.
Shoes: Oroc Inov8
Food: Schnitzel
Training...
Long Run or Intervals: Intervals
Cross training: None
Group or alone: Group






Name: Byran Keely

Photo: Graham Hammond

Age: 25
Attackpoint: Keely
Lives: Woodend, Victoria
Occupation: Student
Disciplines at WOC: Sprint, Middle, Relay
Favourites...
Orienteering Location: Kooyoora, Australia
Shoes: Inov8
Food: Lasagna
Training...
Long Run or Intervals: Long Run
Favourite cross training: Gym
Group or alone: Group



Name: Lachlan Dow 

Age: 21
Attackpoint: Big D
Lives: Canberra
Occupation: Studying Science at ANU
Disciplines at WOC: Long, Middle, Relay
Favourites...
Orienteering Location: Venice or Namadgi National Park in the ACT (they're both equally glamorous)
Shoes inov-8's for orienteering, Vans for chillin!
Food: Pancakes
Training...
Long Run or Intervals: Intervals
Cross Training: Commuting to uni as fast as possible
Group or alone: Group

Long final!

Today was the long distance final at grand jurat, north of lausanne. It was a very fast, technical course and both Aislinn and Julian ran very well to place a very respectable 35th and 30th. After we had a supporters afternoon tea for all the Australians who came to watch woc.

Middle Qual and final

Hello everyone. Sorry for the long delay in posts. Yesterday we had the middle final up in the beautiful mountains north west of Lausanne. Vanessa was the only aussie to qual for the finals after the girls came a bit stuck with navigational errors and Murray sprained his ankle. Vanessa ran solidly but made a few errors. She was happy with her run but believes she can do much better in placings. We all think she ran amazingly! Tomorrow we have the long final with Aislinn and Julz running. Go Australia!

Sprint and Long qual days

So yesterday we had the sprint qual and sprint final. Unfortunatley none of the girls made it through but we were super excited when BJ and Julz qualified. The final in the afternoon was super exciting and both our boys did well. The coverage was amazing and the small drone helicopter camera was awesome.
Today we had the Long qual. It seemed to be quite fast with less green then the modle maps. Julz and Aislinn made it through to the final which is really impressive! Rachel and Vanessa only just missed out.

Hello everyone again. Tomorrow is the big day of the sprint qual and sprint final. We have Rachel, Susanne, Bridget, BJ, Julian and Simon running. Today we have been relaxing and running around the sprint model event. Here are some pictures of our accomodation at the yha and of the sprint model.

More team profiles

Susanne
 Place of Birth: Glenelg, sa
 Hometown: Darwin Nicknames: Sus
 Attackpoint name: SusC
Coke or Pepsi? Yuck
 Drive or Ride? Ride
Nike or Asics? Asics
 Mountains or Beach? Mountqins
 Coffee or Tea? Coffee
Toast or Cereal? Toast
 Abbott or Gillard? Omg
Public or Private? Home school
City or Country? Country
Sprint or Long? Long
 Long Run or Intervals? intervals

 Vanessa
 Place of Birth: Montacute, sa
 Hometown: Adelaide
 Nicknames: Ness,V
 Attackpoint name: 007
Coke or Pepsi? Grapejuice
Drive or Ride? Ride
 Nike or Asics? Barefeet
 Mountains or Beach? swiss mountains
 Coffee or Tea? Tea
 Toast or Cereal? Toast
 Abbott or Gillard? Trying to ignore both
 Public or Private? Public
 City or Country? Country HILLS
 Sprint or Long? Middle
 Long Run or Intervals? Long run