The wildflowers were out and so were the competitors at IKO’s major bush event of the year – State League 12 at Belanglo. Natalya set some challenging courses which were enjoyed by some, but a little too long and rugged for others. 192 competitors braved the thick scrubby bush, and most made it back in one piece.
Results can be found here on Eventor and a gallery of photos from the day is below.
Sue, Ian and Salme in the Palace grounds
The World Masters Orienteering Championships (WMOC 2016) is held each year for orienteers aged 35 years and older. This year they were held in the Baltic State of Estonia with the event centre in the beautiful city of Tallinn famous for its medieval old town, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The oldest competitor was a woman in the W95 age group.
Four IKO members joined the 3,500 competitors in Tallinn for the event which comprised three qualifying events and two finals (sprint and long events) held over 6th to 13th August. Competitors had the opportunity of running on two model maps prior to the events to familiarise themselves with the different terrain.
The competition commenced with a sprint qualifier on Sunday 7th August, held in the grounds of the Kadrioru Palace, the original building commenced by Russian Tsar Peter the Great for his wife Catherine in 1718, and later reconstructed into its current form by Tzar Nicholas 1st in 1817. The course took us through beautifully manicured Palace gardens and forested park. Everyone had a control on or near the Palace steps.
The Palace grounds
The area was flat and very fast with the finishers running down the track of the nearby athletic stadium cheered on by their friends in the grandstand. After the race the IKO contingent adjourned to the cafe at the palace to get their carbohydrate loading for the sprint final the next day.
Salme relaxing with coffee and a few cakes.
Two IKO members, Salme (W50) and Margaret (W70), had good runs and managed to make the A final in their respective age groups. Ian (M60) made the C final and Sue (W55) the B final – both in very competitive age groups.
The sprint final was held in the old medieval town of Tallinn where competitors had to navigate the narrow cobbled streets and laneways, dodging many tourists on the way, and making sure they had the right church (there were many) and alley ways. Unlike the previous day there was a hill on the map. It was a lot of fun and winning times were very fast. Even the winner in W90 only took 18:08 for her 1.04 km course.
Ian, Sue and Salme waiting to start in the final of the sprint race
There were two qualifying races for the long final in the forest areas 60 km east of Tallin. Only Salme and Margaret were brave (or foolish) enough to tackle the complicated marsh areas with the Froudes sensibly heading off to visit the beautiful Latvian capital of Riga. Day one went well with both runners making some mistakes but still pleased with their times. Whilst visibility was good in some areas the runnability was sometimes hampered by fallen trees. Some of the course area was also used as a frisbee golf course which made for some interesting, but useful, navigation points.
Day two was much more difficult with everyone having to run through the marsh at some stage on their courses. Unlike Australian marsh northern European marshes come in various forms and range from marsh in forested areas with very soft terrain, to marsh with thick undergrowth, to bog with bad runnability and very bad runnability i.e. impassable.
Salme made it through to the final day but unfortunately was not able to finish her course while Margaret opted out after the 2nd qualifying heat, after not finding the second last control.
A number of Australians attended WMOC 2016 having varying degrees of success including Natasha Key from Victoria winning the W45 A sprint and long event finals. The full results are available from the WMOC 2106 website.
Competing internationally with orienteers of your own ages and similar abilities – they are not all champions – is a very enjoyable experience not only for the orienteering but also experiencing another country’s culture, scenery and their food. Yes we did try the reindeer.
WMOC 2017 is being held in and north of Auckland, New Zealand from 21 – 30 April following the Oceania championships 14 – 17 April. It is a good chance to have the thrill of racing in a large contingent of your orienteering peers and experience some of the delights of NZ.
Following are the IKO team results.
With thanks to Margaret Duguid for this great report.
The challenging sand dunes of Day 1.
State League events 6, 7 and 8 were held over the Queen’s Birthday weekend in and around Coffs Harbour. Four IKO members headed north joining more than 300 orienteers who were keen to explore the north coast with compass in hand. The weekend was hosted by Bush’n’Beach Orienteers.
Day 1, the middle distance event, was held in the sand dunes south of Coffs Harbour Jetty. The map and terrain were challenging with many mounds and depressions. It was easy to misread the map and/or your control descriptions and be searching for a depression when your control was actually on a knoll. Fortunately there were some tracks that made relocating relatively easy.
Day 2 was the long distance event which was held in Bom Bom State Forest near Grafton (the warmest place in the state that day). The terrain was fast running open spur/gully in spotted gum forest with meandering watercourses, waterholes, some erosion gullies and many minor watercourses. There was a complex network of forest tracks and mountain bike paths.
The final day was a sprint event at the Coffs Harbour Education Campus. The sun was shining and the running was fast. Those of us who took the risk of crossing the grassed area and running the gauntlet of the local plovers were spared the usual dive bombing.
Individual start times were not allocated and you could turn up anytime within the allocated 2 hours start time. This worked very well and at no time did we have to queue more than a few minutes for a start. Having the sprint on the last day with starts beginning at 8.30am meant that we could get away at a reasonably early time for the long journey home.
Four IKON members competed over the three days. Congratulations to Vicki Wilmott who secured first place in W55A with a total time of 1:51:36 over the three days, while Margaret Duguid came second in W70A with a time of 2:23:49. Peter Shepherd was 4th in M65A and Julie Mann 6th in W55A.
Unfortunately today’s event at Gunnamatta Bay has been cancelled due to the forecast extreme weather conditions. Hopefully we can re-schedule this event later in the year.
Keep safe and dry everyone.
There was high praise for our South Coast schools champs at Albion Park on Wednesday. As usual Kevin Curby and his team of helpers ensured a wonderful day out for the 64 students at Croom Regional Sporting Complex.
“Thanks Kevin to you and your volunteers for organising an amazing experience for our students,” wrote the Nowra Public School sports co-ordinator.
“Several kids plan to attend the state championships, and orienteering was the talk of the school today, even prompting some of our reluctant writers to report on the day for our newsletter! We certainly would like to attend next year.”
Likewise at Jerrabombera Public School. “I was singing your praises about our day to everyone today,” wrote their teacher.
“It was wonderful. You also have a great bunch of helpers who really understand that they are dealing with children who have very little knowledge of orienteering”.
Congratulations Kevin for another great event. Although we were initially disappointed at the small number of schools involved it seems from the feedback that the day truly was worthwhile and enjoyed by all.
