Henry and o bags?

Hello again!
Today we have a quiz for you. Can you correctly name the o-bag to the person in the house.
Your options are Simon, Bridget, Henry, Belinda, Krystal and Jim.
Write your answer in the comments.

Athlete profile: Henry!

Name: Henry McNulty

Nick name: Fenry

Age: 20

Number of wocs: 2

Disciplines: sprint, sprint relay

State of origin: Western Australia 

Coffee or tea: Coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon

Favourite orienteering map: Hill Park Dale

What do you do in your non-orienteering life?: I think about numbers

Favourite quote: you'll have to speak up I'm wearing a towel

Why do you like orienteering?: I was forced into it and now it's too late to get out

Training Camp - Day 1

Into the forest

So we've been checking out what low visibility means by Estonian standards... it looks a bit like this...


Estonian forest

The area was on a map called Paidapalun, south of where the Middle Distance competition will be held. The forest was really nice underfoot - but really low visibility!!    Fun running.

Paidapalun

 

Introducing  Belinda, one of our two Boomerangs debutants ...



Belinda Lawford

Name: Belinda Lawford
Nick name: Bun
Age: 26
Number of WOCs?: 1
Disciplines in 2017: sprint and middle
State of origin: ACT
Coffee or tea?: tea
Favourite orienteering map: Cascades and Pittwater
What do you do in your non-orienteering life?: PhD, that's pretty much all I do.
Favourite quote: It's a moo point, it's like a cows opinion, it's moo.
Why do you like orienteering?: cause it's different every time.


We are in Estonia!

Hello everyone! The Aussies have arrived in Estonia. We are currently on our training camp in a small BnB farm called Hallivarku which we just learnt means Grey Hill. We have seen no grey or hills yet.

Cosy Training Camp Accommodation



The impressive shoe rack!

Here are some photos of our accommodation and our wonderful shoe rack which will ever increase once Brodie arrives.

 

All is well here and we will try to keep you updated on our training. We are heading out to a map near the middle this afternoon. 

We hope you enjoy following us on the team blog..sorry the full blog site is not up to date, but we'll  work on that when we are not out training, or eating or tidying the shoe rack!


Each day we'll introduce one or two of our Aussie WOC Team members to you, as they answer a few quirky questions.
Firstly, Boomerangs regular...Simon Uppill.

Simon Uppill

Name: Simon Uppill

Nick name: Bun

Age: 29

Number of WOCs?: 9

Disciplines in 2017: sprint, sprint relay, middle

State of origin: Queensland

Coffee or tea?: neither

Favourite orienteering map: I don't know, lots of maps?

What do you do in your non-orienteering life?: works, cats and games.

Favourite quote: Rachel’s not here, so I'm right.

Why do you like orienteering?: I go places.

WOC 2017 Estonia

The countdown to WOC has started...

Boomerangs team members have started to arrive at the team training camp near Tartu, to commence final preparations for the World Orienteering Championships. All the action begins on Friday 30 June. Keep up with the inside team information here on the Boomerang's blog, as well as the OA Facebook page.

Middle Distance

The WOC Middle Distance final held today at Darnaway Forest featured four Aussies – Hanny Allston, Anna Sheldon, Lachlan Dow and Simon Uppill.

Anna finishing in front of Darnaway Castle

Hanny 

Our best result was posted by Hanny, who finished in 21^st position. She lost time early in the course - getting stuck in thick vegetation on the way to the first control and taking some time to convert to forest navigation after the previous sprint days. However she ran very strongly and made up significant time during the mid and late parts of the course. Anna made a return to WOC level competition with a 54^th place. Anna commented that she thought the map and course were good but didn’t have the legs for racing today.

Overall, in the women’s event it was the experienced athletes that dominated. The 5.3km course was won by 39 year old Annika Billstam from Sweden, defending her title from 2014. Second place was taken by Merja Rantanen from Finland and third by Emma Johansson from Sweden. The Great British crowd enjoyed cheering Catherine Taylor into 5^th position.

Lachy

The Australian men were both satisfied with solid runs over the 6.2km course. Lachlan was one of the early starters and had a clean run, coming into the finish as the course leader. He finished in 56^th position. Simon came 35^th, less than 5 minutes off the winning time. He did not lose any significant time over the entire course – a remarkable performance in this terrain.

The men’s 6.2km race was won by Daniel Hubmann of Switzerland, repeating his victory from the middle distance World Cup race in Tasmania in January. Second was Lucas Basset of France and third was Olle Bostrom of Sweden.

Simon

Tomorrow is the relay, also to be held at Darnaway Forest. The Australian teams will be made of the runners from today along with Brodie Nankervis and Laurina Neumann.

Hanny 5th in WOC Sprint Final!!

Tomorrow is a rest day for the Australian team but we are still going to be very busy. In the morning most of the team will be heading out into the forest for the middle model. In the afternoon the team will be hosting an afternoon team for our dedicated supporters here in Inverness.

The afternoon tea will be held at our accommodation, at Achnagairn Lodges in Kirkhill (just 15 minutes west of Inverness), between 3:30 and 4:30. Everyone is welcome and tea/coffee will be provided. Please bring a plate of food to share. When you get to Achnagairn Lodges we are the last lodge on the left, La Belle France Lodge, with an Australian flag out the front (see map below).

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/La+Belle+France+Lodge/@57.477737,-4.4028458,14z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0000000000000000:0x6b27f04cbc8b7413

In the evening there will be a medal ceremony at the event centre at Eden Court from 6:00pm until 6:30pm. Come along and cheer for Hanny and her amazing achievement of 5th place in the WOC Sprint Final tonight.

Sprint Final

The Sprint Final is tonight and if the previous sprints are any indication it should be fast paced and very exciting. Australia have two runners competing, Rachel, starting at 4:53pm local time and Hanny, starting at 5:21.

The competition area consists of a complex old town with many small lanes and several small areas of parkland and housing. To watch live, visit http://www.woc2015.org/info/sprint-final-forres

For those of you getting up early in the morning to watch the sprint final, here are a few photos from training earlier in the week to get you in the mood for some sprint racing. See if you can match the photo of the terrain with a location on the map except. Good luck and happy sprinting!