Monday, August 15, 2011

Doornpoort

After a month of orienteering in Europe, the first run back home can be a bit boring but the event at Doornpoort was very enjoyable. The courses were tricky and we didn't go over the hill. The ruins, rocks an vegetation make it a great area.

Cobus won in 1:01:40. Below is the map with Alex's (2nd) route in orange, Brian's route is in blue. He was 4th. Garry's (7th) route is in Green. My route is in red. The splits are here.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Hennops Pride

Our first South African orienteering event since being home :)

It was a nice course and a lot of the juniors did well. Timmy won the blue course convincingly, Greg was really fast on brown and had a good result, without mistakes he would have been competing for top spots.

Salome won the womens section of brown course, and I won overall. Here is a map and my route in green, and Alex who came second in orange:


Sunday, July 17, 2011

Sprint event route choice

Here is a pretty interesting route choice from the JWOC sprint event ( at least I think it is :)

When I looked at it during and after the race I was really sure that one route was a lot better but now I'm not so sure. Which route would you choose, Green or Blue?

I went green but the winner went left on the blue route. Which one do you think is better?

Friday, July 1, 2011

We've settled into our accommodation and are getting excited for the first race. We've had some good training sessions. Middle/long model is this afternoon and sprint model and opening ceremony tomorrow.

Check out the RSAjuniors and Brads twitter feed for regular updates.

Also check out the official JWOC site for more info.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

They're in Poland!

I got an SMS from Nic today:
"We arrived at 2am last night at the hostel. Spartan. Typical eastern European - with a matron. 1st training done - nice. Food is stodgy - dumplings. Not much chance of internet."

It doesn't sound like we'll be getting regular blog posts from them. They should get some better connectivity during the competition week. I'll try to keep putting the updates here and on facebook.

The racing starts on Sunday with the Sprint

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Team

This year we've got 3 girls, 2 guys and 1 coach heading to Poland. Stephanie, Salome, Sarah and Bradley will be attending their third JWOC. Anthony will be making his debut. Here's some info about the team:

Stephanie Courtnage
Club: WITS OC
Age: 18
Favourite race: Sprint
Best result at JWOC: 63rd - Sprint, Denmark 2010

Salome van Hoepen
Club: RACO
Age: 18
Favourite race: Middle

Sarah Pope
Club: WITS OC
Age: 18
Favourite race: Long

Anthony Stott
Club: WITS OC
Age: 19
Looking forward to the middle race.

Bradley Lund
Club: RACO
Age: 18
Favourite race: Middle
Nickname: Black Mamba or Baby Smurf

Nicholas Mulder (Coach / Manager)
Club: ROC
Experience: 3rd JWOC as Coach, attending his 10th WOC in August

Monday, June 20, 2011

Great Weekend of O'

With less than a week until the JWOC team leaves for Poland it was great to have 4 events in 4 days.

Our Night Event at Wits was a big success! We had 42 cards and most of them were groups. We put a lot of effort into advertising - handing out flyers and having an interview on Wits radio station. It payed off as we had a lots of new people. If the event hadn't been in the middle of exams we're sure we would have had loads more students.

Thank you to everyone who came to the event! We appreciated your support.

The JWOC team had some fine performances at the Gauteng Middle Distance Champs. Brad won the M21 course, Salome and Sarah came 2nd and 3rd respectively in W21 and Ant came 3rd in the M20 category.On Sunday we had fun in a new area. The map was one of the best I've run on in SA but the area was hilly and slow going. The team won 3 medals.

At prize giving Anthony received his SA track-suit and the team got new kit bags. Thanks to Val for organizing the bags. They are awesome (and even have our names on)!

We're wrapping up the finances after another year of fundraising. We've had an extremely successful year! Thanks to Val for all her organising! Thank you to our moms and dads for all their selling and cooking and carrying! And a huge thanks to everyone who supports the tuck shop.Coming soon: Team member profiles and our schedule in Poland.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Junior National Team

The team to represent South Africa at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Poland in July has been announced:

The team is as follows:
Women:
Stephanie Courtnage
Jessica Hemer
Sarah Pope
Salome Van Hoepen

Men:
Bradley Lund
Anthony Stott

Congratulations!!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Schools League Update

There was a schools league event on the 21st of February at Wits Education Campus. Fourways High continued to dominate with Cian Oldknow, Timothy Chambers and Bradley Lund winning their courses convincingly. Other good performances included a first place for Rebecca Schlebusch from Randpark on the senior girls course. Over 160 children took part in the event!

St Stithians was the venue for the 4th schools league event. Cian Oldknow and Timothy Chambers had good runs to win their courses once again. Greg Avierinos from Cornwall Hill took the win on the senior boys course. Nicoletta Andrea from Fourways High was the fastest senior girl.

The final is on the 7th of February at Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens. Hopefully we'll seem some great performances.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

National Squad Time Trial

Members of the Youth, Junior and Senior National Squads did a 3000m time trial in February. We met at various tracks around SA. The time trial was set before the start of the orienteering season to set a base mark to compare our fitness through the season. There are 2 more time trials this year.

Name
Gender
Squad
Altitude
Time
Ake Fagereng M
NOR
Coast
10.06
Michael Crone
M
Senior
Altitude
10.27
Garry Morrison
M
Senior
Altitude
10.50
Martin Kleynhans
M
Senior
Coast
11.08
Alex Pope
M
Senior
Altitude
11.18
Timothy Chambers
M
Youth
Altitude
11.26
Cian Oldknow
F
Youth
Altitude
11.29
Bradley Lund
M
Junior
Altitude
11.29
Colin Dutkiewicz
M
Senior
Coast
11.34
Nicholas Mulder
M
Senior
Altitude
11.57
Jeremy Green
M
Senior
Altitude
12.00
Roark Robinson
M
Youth
Coast
12.20
Nico Van Hoepen
M
Senior
Altitude
12.27
Anthony Stott
M
Junior
Altitude
13.16
Tania Wimberley
F
Senior
Altitude
13.37
Sarah Pope
F
Junior
Altitude
13.39
Zoe Brentano
F
Senior
Altitude
13.45
Margaret Archibald
F
Senior
Coast
13.58
Jessica Hemer
F
Junior
Altitude
15.26
Laura Troost
F
Youth
Coast
16.25
Salome Van Hoepen
F
Junior
Altitude
Injured
Stephanie Courtnage
F
Junior
Altitude
Injured

Friday, February 18, 2011

Schools League

It's always exciting to see so many keen children at the Schools O' events. About 8 schools with over 180 children took part in the events in the past 2 weeks

Not only are the children racing individually to make it through to the final, they are also fighting it out for the Schools trophy. Each runner is given points according to their times on the courses with the winners receiving 1000 points. The best 5 runners from each school count towards the log

After 2 events defending champs Fourways are in the lead. Randpark is in second and St Davids is third.

There were some great performances at Zoo Lake, the first event of the series. Timothy Chambers and Christie Courtnage (both club orienteers) were winners of the junior courses. On the junior girls course Michaela Bramhall and Shannon Denton both did well coming 2nd and 3rd respectively. On the boys course Devon Els and David Avierinos had good runs to make it into the top 3

Bradley dominated the senior boys course in 12:10 with Michael Wilson in second and Alpheus Ramphele in third. The senior girls course was dominated by Fourways High. Nicoletta Andrea, Raffaella Montali and Thabile Sithole made up the top 3.

Heron Bridge on the 14th of February was an exciting event! The organizers had learned how to deal with the large number of people and the courses designed by junior squad member Steph Courtnage were nice and tricky.

Once again Timothy Chambers from Fourways had a great run on the junior boys course but David Avierinos (Cornwall Hill) wasn't far behind him in second place. In third also not far behind was Brandon Inkley from Randpark.

On the junior girls course Cian Oldknow showed why she was selected as a national youth squad member for 2011 and young Kirsten Chambers had a very good run to finish second. In third was Shalom Chitanda from Randpark.

The senior boys course was hotly contested. Brad took the win once again but was almost beaten by Greg Averinos who managed the fasted time on the course but missed the last control. Jason Georgiou was in 2nd and Rowan Terry from St Davids was in third.

The senior girls only had 18 finishers with Nicoletta Andrea winning once again. Jessica Thiels was second and Kim Caboz was third.

It's encouraging to see such great performances but more importantly the enthusiasm shown by all the competitors. Hopefully we'll see lots of these talented girls and guys at a few of the club events.

Few people realize the amount of effort required to pull off these events smoothly and the massive role the league plays in the development of orienteering in SA. Many of our top juniors are a product of the schools league. So a huge thanks to everyone who makes these events possible!!

In the next few weeks there are events at the Wits Education Campus and Saint Stithians. The final is on the 7th of march at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens.

Check out the blog after next weeks event for results and hopefully a few pictures.