South African Junior Orienteering Blog

Doornpoort

2011-08-15T19:21:00.004+02:00

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.

Hennops Pride

2011-07-24T13:42:00.004+02:00

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:

Sprint event route choice

2011-07-17T22:18:00.003+02:00

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?

2011-07-01T12:37:00.003+02:00

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.

Welcome to Poland!

2011-06-29T20:14:00.000+02:00

They're in Poland!

2011-06-28T20:37:00.001+02:00

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

The Team

2011-06-22T13:28:00.002+02:00

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

Great Weekend of O'

2011-06-20T14:07:00.005+02:00

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.

Fundraising Event - Night O'

2011-06-08T21:27:00.003+02:00

Junior National Team

2011-04-16T09:56:00.002+02:00

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!!

Schools League Update

2011-03-04T20:51:00.003+02:00

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.

National Squad Time Trial

2011-03-03T16:05:00.002+02:00

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

Schools League

2011-02-18T17:38:00.005+02:00

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.

2011 National Junior and Youth Squads

2010-12-07T12:30:00.002+02:00

The SAOF Selection Committee have announced the Junior and Youth national squads for 2011.

Members of the 2011 Youth National Squad are:
Girls (in no particular order):

Laura Troost (PenOC) and Cian Oldknow (RACO)

Boys (in no particular order):

Roark Robinson (PenOC) and Timothy Chambers (RACO)

Members of the 2011 Junior National Squad are:
Women (in no particular order):

Sarah Pope (ROC), Salome Van Hoepen, Stehpanie Courtnage, Jessica Hemer and Jessica Lund (all RACO)

Men (in no particular order):

Bradley Lund, JP Sissing and Anthony Stott (all RACO)

Team selection announcements will be made in April 2011, after the Western Cape Championships.

JWOC banquet

2010-07-20T15:07:00.005+02:00

At last, some pictures from the JWOC banquet. The girls wore dresses in the colours of the SA flag and the guys wore their Bafana soccer shirts.

JWOC Summary

2010-07-17T08:35:00.004+02:00

I took an idea from Dan Chissick's (Israeli Coach) blog and tried to show the results as a graphic rather than lots of statistics. For the juniors who were at their second JWOC, I compared their performance relative to the winner of the race with the same performance last year. If it was 105% or more then they got a red block with an unhappy face. If their performance was similar to last year they got a yellow block and if they were under 95% a happy face in a green block. For Michael and JP the evaluation was very subjective.

As you can see few unhappy faces and lots of smiley faces!

The I took just the returning juniors and rated the performances as follows:

Slower than last year - red

Less than 10% improvement - yellow

Better than 10% improvement - green

Sprint - disappointing

Long - very encouraging

Middle - good results

Relay - OK (I think we ran out of steam a bit!)

Overall I feel we achieved our objective.

We fielded men's and women's teams for the first time ever.

We improved on last year's results.

Denmark's Not Flat - The Relay

2010-07-10T18:25:00.003+02:00

We headed to Rebild for the relay race. We were expecting a change in terrain, but we didn't think it was going to be that physical! The area had many more slopes and open areas than we have been running on. There were 5m contours for a change and most courses were over had over 5% climb to distance - so they were steep. The area suited us, but it everyone seemed to be comfortable and the terrain didn't cause too many navigation upsets. There were plenty of different route choices.

The girls set off first. Sarah was in the mass start. Jess was 2nd and Salome finished off. They all suffered physically on the steep course and in the heat. The team finished in 22nd place officially, disregarding the 2nd teams. We finished well ahead of Japan and not too far off Germany's pace.

Zoe joined a mixed team of Austria and Bulgaria. They all had very good runs to finish well ahead of our SA girls. Unfortunately the Austrian mispunched, so the result was unofficial. Zoe had a good time on the last leg. Steph sat out to give her hips a chance to recover.

Brad started us off in the guys team. Mike ran the second leg and JP brought us home. Brad had a solid run with a good percentage behind the leg winner. Again, it was an incredibly physical course. Mike was off next. His run wasn't as good as yesterday, but he finished well. JP handled the last leg well and got us home safely. Well done guys. Officially we were 29th without the 2nd teams. Unfortunately we did get Jap'ed and Kong'ed. Neverless, its the first official South African mens team for many years. Well done guys.

In the coaches race, the roles were reversed. The juniors manned the coaching zone with as many containers as they could find to drench Nic and Alex. And it was Nic and Alex's turn to experience the heat and hills. With some good advice at the coaching zone and plenty of water thrown over us, we held on for positions somewhere in the middle of the field. Only two girls beat us.

So now its off to the Banquet. Stay tuned for some more photos and accounts of the trip.

We fly back tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon.

And the top 10 lists seem to be square at 3-3-3.

Mike and Sarah's Middle

2010-07-09T21:31:00.003+02:00

After yesterday's qualifiers, we had all our men in the C-final and all our girls in the B-final. There were lots of runners out there, so there was the possibility of some bunch running.

In the girls race, Sarah had the best run with about 32 min at 29th. Salome was next in 36th. Jess was 42nd and Zoe 46th. Despite a good qualifying run yesterday, Steph sat out to avoid any more damage to her hip injury.
In the men's race, Mike had the best run. He looked strong through the spectator control and hung on for 16th in 32 minutes. Brad also had a steady run to finish in 18th in 33 min. JP performed well for 38th in 58 min.

So we're getting great experience and we've seen some good improvements from last year.

Here are the results

Tomorrow is the relay. We have both a mens and womens team for the first time ever!

In other news, JP, Brad and Jess are tied on 3 top 10 lists each. Its really tight going into the final day.

JP's 3rd Top 10 (and the Middle distance)

2010-07-08T21:20:00.002+02:00

Sorry Brad, JP stole your heading. On a serious note, Brad had the best South African run today with 42nd. He missed the B final by 39 seconds. He beat countries like Ireland, USA and Italy. Mike had 2 bad controls, but limited the damage to post a reasonable time. JP messed up #1 quite badly, but had a smooth remainder of the course.

In the women's heats, Steph and Salome had the best results. Unfortunately we still need to take a big step up to get into the A final, but everyone improved. Salome beat a few decent countries. Steph ran with her hip injury and still posted a decent time. All the girls had relatively smooth runs, but lacked the speed to get into the 20's.

The C final starts at 9h00 tomorrow.

In other news, JP is a hit on the Top 10 lists. He's been on the Swiss, Polish and USA lists. Brad is trailing a bit with just the French list, but is hoping to improve that with his Middle Final tomorrow. He isn't sure whether to go all in and use the rest of his hair product or make it last till Saturday night.

So we're having fun. Everyone is still focussed on having a good race tomorrow.

Rest Day and Relay Model

2010-07-08T21:12:00.004+02:00

We like the look of the relay area – white runnable forest, proper slopes and 5m contours. The open ground is covered in heather. We enjoyed our jog around the controls on the model map.

On the way home we stopped at some chalk mines, made the daily bakery stop for pastries, and finally printed the team poster.

Here it is... we have bucked the JWOC 2010 trend and kept our clothes on for the poster.

Here is a picture of Zoe finishing the long. There weren't many photos with Nic at the start and Alex at the coaching zones. It should be better with the Middle Distance.

Long day out

2010-07-06T21:06:00.002+02:00

Everyone had a long tough day. We had improvements on last years results in the long, so we were happy. Well done team!

Sarah had the best run out of the girls with 1h43 and 99th place. Salome took 1h48. Both felt that they could still improve and feel that 1h35 would have been a good run. Zoe was consistent and came home in 2h05. Jess had a tough day starting late and being out in the forest on her own - she took 2h18. Steph sat out to let her hip recover.

JP was off early. He twisted his ankle on the way to the first coaching zone which was only 4 controls in. He had a long day out with 3h54. This is comparable to the times of the girls in their first long distance race in Italy last year. Mike performed well in his first long distance race. He took 2h29. Brad had the best run of the boys, improving on last year's percentage behind the winner. He took 2h11.

At the front it was Ida Bobach of Denmark taking her second gold. A Czech named Pavel Kubat beat the Danes and Swedes to gold.

The forest was more runnable than we were expecting. The light green was not as difficult as we had experienced in training.

The results are here

Tomorrow is a rest day. We will got to the relay model event and try to have a relaxing day.

Steph's Sprint

2010-07-05T21:47:00.003+02:00

Aarlborg University was the area for this years sprint race. Amongst the South African's, this years race belongs to Steph. Mike also had a great run at his first JWOC.

Steph is running with her hip injury. She managed to run through the pain to finish 63rd - half way down the girls leader board. She's really sore now, so she's going to sit out the long distance race to recover for the middle. Well run Steph!

It's Mike's first JWOC and he finished best of the SA guys in 109th place out of 160 guys. He ran a consistent race. Well done. Showing a lot of potential!

Brad was having a good run until he skipped a control and had to backtrack. JP had a smooth start to his JWOC with no big mistakes and a steady run.

Zoe finished early in the day. She says she messed up #1 but had a steady run after that. Salome, Jess and Sarah were all not happy with their runs, but produced steady results.

Everyone felt that the area was not overly technical, but did have some surprises if you weren't reading ahead.

At the front end, the Dane's got 2 golds on home turf. The Swedish guys were very strong, with 4 in the top 6 I think.

Tomorrow is a big one - the long distance will be tough.

Some links:

Results

Splits

Route Choices of the Winners

Start Lists and Live Results

2010-07-05T08:02:00.001+02:00

Start Lists

Live Results

Good luck team!

Svinklov Long and Middle Model

2010-07-04T12:00:00.002+02:00

The Long and Middle events are close to each other so they shared a piece of map for the model event. We got 2 maps showing the same area but at 1:10'000 and 1:15'000. The model event is supposed to allow competitors to get used to the mapping style and the mapper's interpretation of symbols. We were generally happier on this map than we have been on the other neighboring coastal maps. The vegetation was very up to date and consistent. The contour features also seemed to be more distinct. We've had problems in the large blocks of forest with many difficult to read undulations - there weren't any of these on this map.

This afternoon (Saturday) there was a 'Technical Model', a 1.5km course around the barracks to demonstrate the Emit equipment. This was for both the competitors and the organisors. Many of the competitors haven't used Emit before. It was also a chance for the organisors to try everything out before Monday. They even had the commentators babbling and the results board functioning.

Emit is being used at this JWOC. Interestingly, the Emit system we use isn't as reliable as I thought it was. Events using Emit above a certain level (World Champs and World Cups for example) require an additional timing method. Our Emit cards are known to drift by 1 or 2 seconds over a long event. So at JWOC, the Emit card is used to record visits to the controls and to give splits, but an EmiTag is used for timing. The EmitTag is a separate device worn on the top of the arm.

Here is the model map:

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the Sprint Model Event at the Aarlborg University and the opening ceremony. Monday is the Sprint Race.

Rold Relay Training

2010-07-04T11:47:00.000+02:00

Friday was the last of our proper training sessions. We have a model event before each of the races. For our last session we used the relay-speficic Rold map. It had a lot of runnable white forest and contour features that suited us. There were larger re-entrants and spurs, or more slope features, than we've had on the coastal maps. We did 3 x 6 control intervals. Everyone had a good session.

Team photo

2010-07-03T08:29:00.003+02:00

Found one with everyone off the ground...

Its getting serious

2010-07-02T19:52:00.003+02:00

Bulletin 4 was released today. It has the schedule for the competition.

This is our rough schedule...

Saturday: Long and Middle Model

Sunday: Sprint Model

Monday: Sprint

Tuesday: Long

Wednesday: Relay Model and rest day

Thursday: Middle Qualification

Friday: Middle Final

Saturday: Relay

O-suits!!

2010-07-02T19:13:00.003+02:00

Our O-suits were couriered in today! Now we look like a team when we train.

We did take some serious photos - we used Nic's fancy camera for that. I'll get them off him soon, but for now to prove we have them here are my team photos.

We weren't trying to do a Mexican jump... Everyone was supposed to jump at once.
Not sure how to explain this one...

Legoland!

2010-07-01T20:18:00.002+02:00

Legoland is a theme park in Billund. It was the destination for our rest day. The highlight was the amazing Lego creations. Here is a Lego airport, with lego planes and buildings.

And here is Amsterdam in Lego. There are lots of recreations of European towns, complete with moving trains, boats, cars and trucks. The city in the picture below is made of 2.1 million Lego bricks.
There were also lots of rides. Mike and Brad aren't looking too phased by this one... The best one was the 'Power Builder' - a robotic arm that holds 2 people. You can program it to throw you around and scare yourself a lot. You set the 'power level' and choose from a set of pre-programmed moves. Different to the usual rollercoasters and water rides.

Vester Torup and Bilbjerg

2010-06-30T20:09:00.001+02:00

We went north west again to the two areas we visited last Thursday. This time the scales were switched around: Vester Torup at 1:15'000 and Bilbjerg at 1:10'000. Vester Torup was difficult at 1:15. The detail was hard to read. We set off in pairs and close together on the Bilbjerg training – it was fun to run under pressure at higher speed.

Fredrikshavn

2010-06-30T20:05:00.000+02:00

On Tuesday afternoon we drove to the coastal town of Fredrikshavn. We walked and cycled around town. They had bicycles available for tourists.

On the way back we visited one of the 30 blue flag beaches in the province. The brave ones swam in the North Sea...

Barracks Sprint Map

2010-06-29T12:20:00.002+02:00

Today was almost a rest day. Everyone has worked hard over the weekend. We had an easy run on the barracks map. It wasn't very technical. The focus was on the 1:4'000 scale and having a trouble free run.

We'll have the afternoon to do some typical tourist things – we're off to the east coast.

The rest of the week will look like this: Middle and Long training on Wednesday, LEGOLAND on Thursday, Relay training on Friday, Model events over the weekend.

Monday - Lundby Bakker

2010-06-29T12:11:00.003+02:00

On Monday we ran on the Relay specific Lundby Bakker. We missed the warning about the new mountain bike tracks, so we were all a bit confused on the way to number 2. After adjusting to the new paths everyone enjoyed the slopes and large contour features. We all felt more at home here.

Teams are starting to show up at the barracks. America, Australia, Great Britain, Japan and Spain are here. There's lots of space to play soccer and frisbee.

2 Day event Results

2010-06-28T20:22:00.000+02:00

The results are here

Back to Aarlborg

2010-06-28T20:10:00.004+02:00

We drove back from the event along the north west coast. We had to catch a ferry across a river mouth.

Denmark is really flat. We've heard that the highest point is 170m and the average height is 30m. So the country-side looks similar on most of our trips. There are lots of wind turbines - 19% of their electrical energy is from wind. The final fun fact for the day is the population is 5.5 million in an area of 43 000 (43 thousand) square km. South Africa is 1 200 000 (1.2 million) square kilometers.

We have moved into the Aarlborg military barracks. The Danish army has fancy accommodation so we're living comfortably. There is also lots of good food.

Husby Day 2

2010-06-28T20:05:00.002+02:00

After a solid day 1 we were looking forward to the courses on day 2. Everyone ran the same distances as the previous day. We were expecting to be sent in the unused marshy areas of the map.

We ended running along the beach dunes for a good portion of the race. The 5 and 8km courses were thrown off by an incorrect control number. Apart from that, everyone seemed to have less solid runs than the day before.

The Black 10km course is above (sorry - the link should be fixed)

The 2 day event was good preparation. It is good to get some pressurized running in amongst the training.

Gravers Graversen

2010-06-28T20:02:00.002+02:00

The event organisors arranged for us to stay with a club member. His name was Gravers Graversen. He stayed in a big log cabin in the town of Vemb. He was in his late 70's. He is a pilot, sky-dives, sails and orienteers. He runs 10km in 71 minutes. And his English is not so good. Here's an email from him after we left:

"Hi from Danmark
Tanks befor you viset my kontri and my home
Gravers Graversen."

He was awesome and we were really lucky to stay with him. He let us sleep on his floor and use his kitchen.

The people of Vemb were very keen to organise a Denmark – South Africa soccer match. The 10 of us took on 20 kids of all sizes. We think we drew 1-1

Husby Klitplantage Day 1

2010-06-28T19:35:00.004+02:00

Into the Husby Forest for day 1 of the 2 day event. The girls ran Black 5km; boys Black 8km and seniors Black 10km. There was a complex path network which helped the South Africans. Sarah was 4^th on the 5km. Everyone else was consistent without any big mistakes. It was a good for the teams confidence.

Brad leading Julia of Britain in...
JP looking good
And the Black 10km course. The shorter courses staying on the path networks in the centre.

Lemvig Sprint Race

2010-06-28T19:35:00.002+02:00

We arrived at 17h00 for the 18h00 start. We drove around town for half an hour with lots of other orienteering cars looking for the event centre. We knew we were in the right place because the controls were out. The organisors casually rolled in after 18h00 and said the starts would be from 19h00. They made Witsoc look organised.

We also thought it was a prologue/final format. Apparently no one updated the English instructions, so we all ran the first course keeping some in reserve for the final. We couldn't figure out why everyone was leaving after the first course... no final!

Stephanie won course 3 and all the girls had good runs. Brad won course 2 with Mike and JP close behind. The coaching staff were far from winning course 1. Here's the map of course 1:

Vester Torup

2010-06-25T08:26:00.002+02:00

We drove for an hour to the north coast to run on Vester Torup. We did a morning session on a 1:10'000 and an afternoon session on a 1:15'000. We found the light green and green hard going. And the 2.5m contour details is sometimes hard to pick up.We watched the Denmark Japan game in a 'fan park' in the centre of Aarlborg. The Danes were grumpy about losing.

We're doing a light sprint training exercise this morning. We'll drive 2 hours west to the Juteland Sprint race this evening. A prologue at 18h00 and a final at 20h00. It will still be light at 20h00! Tomorrow and Sunday will be 2 proper long distance forest races.

Team Photo

2010-06-23T23:05:00.003+02:00

Sarah, Steph, Salome, Zoe, Jess

Brad, Mike, JP, Alex

Coach Nic was already on holiday/training in Switzerland

First Training

2010-06-23T22:44:00.003+02:00

The A OK Club House (Aarlborg Orienteering Klub) is situated on a school ground. The schools finish on Friday for summer holidays. Playing playground soccer looks like hard work:

We drove 40 minutes North to the town of Blokhus. The map shows part of the town, the dune forests, the grassy dunes on the coast, and the beach. The forest was thick and light green was hard going. The contour detail is generally small and hard to pick out with 2.5m contours. The grassy dunes were very technical and you can run fast. We did a short line course and an 8 control course.

We have two black stallions, complete with South African mirror socks.

Tomorrow's a double session... should be fun!

The journey

2010-06-23T11:19:00.004+02:00

We went into Amsterdam during our stop over and watched Bafana's last soccer match in a restaurant. It was great fun except that we paid 5 Euros each for a coke or glass of water.

We also found a foozball table in the Airport which provided a few hours of entertainment. We finally arrived in Billund just after ten in the evening. Nic came through a few minutes later. We got our hire cars, then drove to Aalborg and found the clubhouse easily. After a quick shower we got to bed at about 3.

Start of our trip

2010-06-21T23:32:00.003+02:00

We'll be in Billund, Denmark, 24 hours after leaving OR Tambo. We're going via Nairbo and Amsterdam. We'll meet up with Coach Nic in Billund and drive through to Aarlborg. We're staying in the Aarlborg Orienteering Club House. From there we'll have a few training sessions before heading to the west coast for a 2-day competition.

How to follow us

2010-06-21T23:26:00.003+02:00

Follow this blog - we'll try to post our maps, results, routes and photos here.

We'll also use twitter to send out quick updates. Click the links in our tweets to view the photos. Follow us

We'll let you know about live results when the competition gets closer.

Action in the Cape

2010-06-21T18:13:00.004+02:00

It's exciting to see how well Roark Robinson, a junior squad member in the Cape, is doing. Check out the Peninsular Orienteering Club website and take a look at some recent results. Roark is still under 16! Laura Troost is also doing well by the looks of things. Keep it up guys.

Long-O

2010-06-21T10:52:00.002+02:00

The Long-O was lots of fun and all the juniors did superbly.

On the Blue course Brad won with Michael not far behind. J.P also had a very good run. Sarah was the first lady on the course. Check out her map. Zoe ran impressively taking 2nd place.

On Green Steph showed everyone how it's done by winning the course by over 3 minutes. Jess Lund was 2nd lady and Salome was the 4th lady home. It was also good to see Jess Hemer and Anthony Stott doing well on Green.

There were some notable performances from upcoming juniors with Timothy Chambers winning the Light Green course and Christie Courtnage winning Orange. Well Done!

So we're off to Denmark for the next 18 days. We'll update the blog as much as possible and will probably tweet quite a bit so follow us on Twitter. We'll be doing a 3 day event and lots of training for the first 2 weeks. JWOC officially starts on the 4th of July.

Sprint Training

2010-06-12T15:19:00.002+02:00

We headed to Wits Education Campus for out last team training in South Africa. Nicholas is already in Europe so Michele planned the session.

The first exercise was a 1.4km course which focused on in the circle navigation and reading control descriptions. Multiple flags were placed in the area of the control without numbers. The aim was to identify which one was on the right feature and punch it. It was fast and tricky with only 3 people getting all 12 correct.

The next exercise was about 1.8km. It was an interval exercise with some good route choices.

Thanks to Michele for a great session!

There are only 10 days until we leave for Denmark! Unfortunately the team seems to have quite a few injuries at the moment. Hopefully by the start of JWOC we'll be running at full strength.

Looking forward to the Long O' next Sunday!

Laurentia

2010-06-12T14:55:00.003+02:00

The second colour coded event of the season was on Sunday the 6th and the juniors had some outstanding performances.

Sarah won her first brown course, beating Tania by 30 seconds. Michael also had a great run on Brown finishing 3rd behind Coach Nic and Manager Alex. Jess Lund finished 11th on the course.

On Blue Salome was the first Lady. An accurate run by her meant she finished 10th on the course despite taking it easy to look after her knees. J.P had a solid run on blue to finish 9th.

On Green Brad, running with a sore knee, finished 2nd by only 2 seconds. Zoe was the second lady on the course.

If you want to read what some team memebers wrote about their races visit their Attackpoint logs. The links are on the right of the blog. Also take a look at Sarah's map and Nic's map with their GPS tracks. The splits are also really interesting.

Moon O'

2010-06-01T14:52:00.001+02:00

The Moon O' fundraiser was a great success.

It was loads of fun racing round the Zoo in the dark! The moon wasn't much help as it was hiding behind the clouds, but everyone seemed to make it around the course okay. The soup and hot dogs provided by the moms went down very well as a cold front moved in.

Thank you to the Pillings for helping to organise the event and Richard for printing the maps.

Junior Squad Training - Protea ridge

2010-05-25T13:28:00.004+02:00

On Sunday, 23rd of May the juniors had an afternoon training session at Protea Ridge. We did a contours only control picking exercise followed by corridor O'.
Below is the map with Sarah's GPS track from the corridor O'

Thanks to Nic and Alex for putting on a worthwhile session.

Gauteng Champs- Long

2010-05-17T20:54:00.004+02:00

We were back at Hennops on Sunday morning for the long. Running on 1:15'000 maps and a few tired legs made the day rather interesting. The juniors had some superb results, but there were also a few casualties and non-finishers.

There were no Juniors on the M21 course so it was up to Coach Nic and Manager Alex to do well. They did just that taking 1st and 3rd place respectively.

On M20 J.P took gold to finish off a great weekend and gained some valuable experience on his course.

The junior girls impressed on the W21 course with Sarah only a minute behind Tania and Jess L a few seconds behind in 3rd.

Steph continued her good form winning W20 by a fair margin. Zoe finished 3rd.

It was also great to see strong competition in the younger categories with Heather Wimberly, Christie Courtnage, Laura Troost, Josh De Klerk, Roark Robinson and Timothy Chambers all doing well.

Once again, THANK YOU to everyone who supported the fundraising efforts.

Gauteng Champs-Middle

2010-05-17T20:53:00.003+02:00

On Saturday afternoon we headed out to Hennops Farm; a new map by Dave Peel. The terrain was very rocky and few enjoyed the slow going. There were some smooth runs from the juniors in their various categories.

Steph led the W20's home with Jess H in 2nd and Zoe 4th.
In the M20 category J.P had a very good run to take gold.

Jess L, Sarah and Salome did W21. Sarah was 2nd, just over a minute behind Tania. Jess L was 4th on the course. Salome is walking at the moment due to her injuries.

Nicholas, Alex, Mike and Anthony were on M21. Nic and Alex finished in the medals. Mike was 9th and Ant was 13th.

Check out Nic's map and route here.

Thanks to the mom's who spent the whole day fundraising and to everyone who supported us!

SA Sprint Champs

2010-05-17T20:50:00.004+02:00

Pretoria Boys was a great venue for the first South African Sprint Championships. The course planning was also good making the event a huge success.

Results on the men's course:
1) Dylan 18:58
2) Nic 19:32
3) Alex 19:39
10) Mike 22:26
12) J.P 23:14
13) Ant 23:59

Women's results:
1) Tania 22:16
2) Margaret 22:54
3) Sarah 23:21
4) Steph 23:48
5) Jess L 24:31
7) Jess H 25:47
8) Zoe 26:27

Junior Training Camp

2010-05-10T21:01:00.003+02:00

The juniors and a few seniors headed to Belfast from the 7th to 9th of May for a great weekend of training.We all arrived quite late on Friday so just had a quick refresher theory session before heading to bed. Saturday saw us doing 2 morning sessions: Traffic light O' at Vlakplaats then we ran a course we had planned at the Ruins. Jeremy gave a talk on Periodisation and Training after lunch then we headed to Langkloof for a Window O' / control picking exercise. We also did some night O' at Middeldam. Supper was followed by a talk from Garry on Thierry's 'Visionary Head-Start' approach.
On Sunday we did a map memory course in pairs. The annual star relay was next. Jess H won for the second year in a row, this time with Nico as her team mate.

If you want to have a look at the maps, here is a link to Nic's AP log.

Thank you to Nic for a great weekend of training and to the seniors who put out controls and helped us out. Thanks to the SAOF for making the weekend possible.

A HUGE thanks to Denise for feeding us all!

Dullstroom weekend

2010-05-04T20:03:00.003+02:00

The Green family put in the highest bid to secure the weekend away. Thank you to Jeremy for the support and to everyone else who put forward their bids.

A huge thank you to Glen Comins and Glen Terry for donating the weekend away to the Junior squad to raise funds. We really appreciate it!

Protea Ridge

2010-05-04T19:54:00.003+02:00

The colour coded season got off to a great start at Protea Ridge. The long grass and magnetic rock made the challenging courses all the more tricky.

Sarah won the blue course. Here is her map. Salome, Steph and Jess H also did blue. Mike had a good run on Brown finishing 6th and Zoe was first lady on Green. J.P also did the green course. It was good to junior squad members of the future doing well. Christie and Heather has good runs on their courses.

Another win for Steph

2010-04-18T17:39:00.005+02:00

The Quarry at Stirrup Glen was the venue for the Short Course final. It proved to be rather tricky with lots of people making big mistakes. Steph did brilliantly in the tough area to win the womens course over a minute ahead of Tania. Salome had a good run coming 3rd. Jess L also did well to finish 4th. The splits are here.
On the mens course Nic took the win. Alex was 2nd and Brad finished 5th. Mike had a good run coming 7th.

There was plenty of post race analysis to be done:
Thanks to everyone who supported the fundraising.

Western Cape Champs

2010-04-17T19:35:00.007+02:00

Most of the JWOC team travelled down to the Cape for WCOC. We stayed in a hotel in Hermanus and hired 2 small cars. Our Ferrari Red Hyundai Atos was sponsored by Jeremy Green. Thanks Jeremy!

It wasn't all about running in the forests. We went to the beach, did a bit of shopping and had a braai.The Orienteering, however, was the highlight of the weekend. The team had some great results and gained valuable experience. Both days were at Lebanon South
The middle event was fast with a winning time of 32mins on the 5.2km M21 course. Coach Nic was 2nd behind international Tobias Tritschler. Manager Alex was 3rd. Brad did well coming 4th. The ladies ran a 4.5km course. Margaret won. Sarah had a good run coming second. J.P ran M20. He took gold in his category. Roark won M16 and Laura won W16. The splits are here. Nic's map is here and Sarah's map is here. Jess was snapped running in the forest by Alvin Ward:
The long distance event was on Sunday morning. The girls decided to run W21 which was a 9.2km course. Salome had a great run to come second. Jess and Sarah weren't too far off the pace. The 10.6km M21 course was won by Nic. Alex was 4th and Brad finished 5th. Roark once again won M16 and Laura won W16. The splits are here and Nic's map is here.
So all in all it was an awesome weekend. PENOC put on a super event and we all gained some more experience.

Junior Squad Training in the Cape

2010-04-14T20:24:00.003+02:00

The squad had a training session in Nuweburg Forest. It was great to have Roark Robinson and Laura Troost at the training.

The tricky area and exercises designed by Coach Nic made it a brilliant session. We warmed up with a line course. Then did a course on a contours only map. The 3rd exercise was a window O', distance judgment and bearing exercise. On the way back to the cars we did a relocation exercise. Here is the map:Thanks to Cindy, Martin Terry and Eugene for helping out. Thanks to Alex for putting out controls and a huge thanks to Nicholas for organising the training.

Boksburg Stadium

2010-03-28T15:01:00.002+02:00

There were some great performances from the juniors at Boksburg stadium.

Bradley had a superb run to win the mens course by 9 seconds. Stephanie came 2nd on the womens course with Zoe coming 3rd. Jess L also had a good run finishing in 4th place. Well done guys! Check out the splits here

The junior fundraising competition was based on the fastest split to the 1st control. Steph did a great job getting over 50 people to enter. She then went and beat most of them to win the chocolate on the womens course. Kevin Reeves had the fastest split on the mens course followed by Dylan and Garry. They had all gone home so Craig was next in line. Thanks to everyone who entered.

Thanks to some hot weather and a good turn out we had a great day of fundraising. Thanks for buying raffle tickets and supporting the tuck shop. Hope you enjoyed your egg and bacon rolls.

Next up is Western Cape Champs. Some of the Junior squad is heading to the Cape on the 9th of April. Keep a look out for the results.

Junior squad Training - Hennops

2010-03-28T14:30:00.007+02:00

The juniors had a training session at Hennops 4x4 on the 27th of March. Coach Nic was out of town, but manager Alex put together a good session.
The first exercise focused on attack points and traffic light O'. Exercise 2 was a course on a contours only map and the last exercise was a window O' to work on compass skills and distance judgment. Brian took some cool photos while we were training.

Thanks to Garry for putting out controls and helping us out. Thanks to Alex for a good session.

Derdepoort

2010-03-14T19:26:00.003+02:00

The junior squad didn't have their finest day at Derdepoort. Quite a few juniors had other commitments so didn't come. And those that were there were either injured, sick, got disqualified or had average runs. Great runs by the senior women didn't help.

Steph managed 3rd place with Salome coming 5th.

The sprint finish competition was well supported. The aim was to get the 5th fastest time, out of the people that entered the competition, on the 70m finish sprint. On the mens course Ian was 5th. Jenny got the chocolate on the womens course which just shows that you don't have to be super speedy to win. Thanks to everyone that entered!

Once again thank you to everyone who bought food and drinks. And a BIG thanks to our mommies and daddies for their continuous effort to raise funds.

TUT

2010-03-12T15:50:00.002+02:00

The juniors did superbly at the Tshwane University of Technology.

The open gate which was marked as uncrossable on both the mens and womens courses caused a bit of debate but it was decided that, that split should be removed. This was good news for most of the juniors as quite a few would have been disqualified. The final results can be found here.

On the mens course Brad took his first short course win. Mike wasn't far behind in third. Coach Nic managed 6th.

On the womens course Salome came 2nd with Steph coming 3rd. Sarah finished 6th. Jess H was 7th. Jess L was 8th and Zoe finished 9th.

Kevin Reeves and Zoe won the finish sprint competition. Kevin's time of 46 sec for 160m (I think) uphill was really impressive.

Thanks to everyone who supported the fundraising efforts.

Junior Squad Training 2

2010-03-05T17:04:00.003+02:00

On the 28th of Feb we had a training session at Wits University. Nicholas planned 3 fun exercises.

The first used a campus map with a course of 8 controls. We had to look at an individual leg for 10 seconds, then draw from memory what we thought was important on blank paper about 20 meters away. It tested our memory skills as well as the ability to recognize the important information off the map. Then to we had to run the course using our self-drawn map! Lots of fun for those who could decipher their scribbles.

Next was a map memory exercise in pairs. 1 person leads for a leg, the other follows with the map and memorises the next leg, passing the map to other person at each control.

The last exercise was Micro-O control picking around the Wits Club. Nic created a continual loop around the buildings with 14 controls. This meant that 4 people could start at a time at a line cross-over. The exercise was good speed work and quick map reading training.Thanks to Nicholas and Alex for a great session and to Michelle for helping out. It was also good to have Cindy, Brian, Derek and Christie training with us.

Steph continues to fly - Zoo Lake

2010-02-22T16:12:00.004+02:00

Stephanie dominated the ladies course at Zoo Lake, winning by over 2 minutes. Salome also had a good run finishing 3rd.

Brad had a great result on the mens course finishing only 25 seconds behind manager Alex. Coach Nic also had a good result finishing 4th. Check out his GPS track and analysis here.

The Sprint Finish Competition was introduced at Zoo Lake. This time the aim was to run the fastest splits for the last 2 controls. Salome and Nico were the chocolate winners! Thanks to everyone who entered. And don't worry, we'll make sure that the fast people don't always win:-)

Brescia House

2010-02-22T15:51:00.003+02:00

The rain stayed away on the 14th of February and so the third short course event was very enjoyable. Once again the juniors did well. Steph came 2nd, Salome was 3rd, Sarah came 4th, Zoe finished 6th and Jess Lund was 7th. On the men's course Brad would have finished 3rd, Michael was 6th and J.P finished 13th. Here's a picture from the RACO website that Pat took of all the junior girls:
Thanks to everyone for supporting the tuck shop and raffles.

Junior Squad Training

2010-02-21T16:48:00.005+02:00

The juniors had their first squad training at Golden Harvest on Saturday, the 6th of February. Coach Nic organized some fun exercises. We started with the usual line course to get into the map. Next we had to transfer a course from a Danish map to a blank one which was 10m away. The 2.5m intricate contour detail made it tricky. The last exercise was interval O'. We were paired up and raced our partner to the finish of each interval. Here's the map for the line course and intervals:
Thanks to Nic and Alex for organizing the session and thanks to the seniors who helped out.

Short Course 2 - WEC

2010-02-04T16:16:00.003+02:00

The juniors had another good showing on Sunday. The fast area suited speedy Steph who won the womens course for the second week in a row. She beat Tania by over a minute. Salome had another good run to take third place and Sarah managed 5th.

The mens results were close at the top of the board. Bradley was less than 30 seconds behind winner Garry. Coach Nic and Mike were 2 seconds apart in 4th and 5th place respectively.

Next weekend is MTB-O at Groenkloof and on the 14th of Feb we head to Brescia House. See everyone there!

JHB Zoo

2010-01-31T19:47:00.003+02:00

The juniors had a good showing at the Zoo.

Steph certainly didn't stop to look at the animals as she raced to victory on the womens course. She won by a minute and a half. Salome came 2nd beating Tania by just under a minute.

On the mens course Mike had a good run to come 5th in the competitive field and J.P managed 10th place. Manager Alex won the course.

So a good start to the Short Course Series for most of the JWOC team. Exciting times ahead...

Sabie/ Dullstroom

2010-01-22T21:59:00.003+02:00

2010 got off to a great start with 2 days of Orienteering on the 9th and 10th of January. Saturday's training was held at Klipkraal in Sabie and the South Africans performed well. The Senior men including Coach Nicholas and Manager Alex weren't far behind some big names.It was great to have most of the junior team at the training. Brad had a good run on the Blue course. Jess H, Sarah, Anthony, J.P and Mike also completed the Blue course. Salome and Zoe ran the green course.Sunday's training was held in Dullstroom and the Finns and Swiss cruised around town. The juniors had decent performances, but had to rely on the lucky draw for a snack for the journey home.

Sprint Cup

2009-12-31T09:30:00.003+02:00

The juniors finished the year on a brilliant note.

Salome and Brad were the top South Africans. Brad started the Final about 4 minutes behind some experienced seniors, but passed them to finish just ahead of team manager Alex. Salome started the Final about a minute behind Sarah, but caught her quickly and cruised into the finish with Jess L, who had a great run, close behind. Steph and Mike also tackled the courses at Kloofendal Nature Reserve.

Three Finns came to the event and blitzed round the courses. Wow!

Thanks for supporting the tuckshop!

Happy Christmas!

2009-12-06T15:34:00.004+02:00

The annual Christmas event seemed to be enjoyed by everyone!

We arrived at 6:30 to set up and with 9 juniors working together we were ready in no time. Brad put together a map memory course which worked well.

Thanks to everyone who came. Hope you enjoyed your present.

See you at the Sprint Cup.

Christmas Event

2009-11-28T17:49:00.002+02:00

The juniors are organizing the Annual Christmas event.

It's at Fourways High School on Sunday the 6th of December.

Don't forget to bring a present to enter.

Our mommies will be selling lots of delicious Christmas treats.

The event sheet will be out soon.

GOC relay

2009-10-28T20:24:00.007+02:00

AR club organized a brilliant inter-club relay. The spectator control made it fun to watch and Saint Stithians was a great venue. It was fast but had a few tricky sections.

In the junior category Josh, Zoe and Jess H were the fastest team. The second junior team contained Jess L, Heather and Christie. Salome and Steph were in the winning woman's team:
Mike ran a good first leg to help the Witsoc team come 2nd overall. Sarah ran for the ROC open team which came third and Brad ran the last leg for RACO's open team:

It was good to see the mothers fundraising, preparing for next year. Denise was also a rather active supporter:
So a good showing from the juniors at the last major O' event of the year. Hope to see everyone at the GOC lunch, Rogaine, MTB-O and most importantly the Christmas event!

Photos from Sabie

2009-09-30T11:43:00.013+02:00

A picture of the dam and event center at Klipkraal:
A photo from the Pope's accommodation:
The Juniors in action: Peter Hemer managed to get shots of Stephanie, Salome, Zoe, Sarah, Jess H and Bradley.

The Relay briefing:

SA Champs

2009-09-28T17:34:00.007+02:00

Klipkraal near Sabie was the venue for the 2009 South African Orienteering Championships. Most of the junior categories were hotly contested. It was brilliant to have so many juniors at one event!

Middle Distance Results:

W21E - Jess L and Salome ran the elite women's course. Salome had a good run to take the bronze medal.

W20 - Jess H, Sarah, Steph and Zoe ran in this category. Steph had a superb run to take the gold medal with Zoe coming second.

W12 - Christie, Heather and Micaela tackled the 1.4km course. Christie continued the Courtnages success by taking gold.

M21E - Brad ran the elite course and came an impressive 9th place out of 19.

M20 - Nicholas de Klerk, Michael Crone, JP and Ropafadzo did well on the M20 course. Ropa had an smooth run to take his maiden SA champs title.

M12 - Josh de Klerk blitzed round his course in 10 minutes.

Classic Distance Results:

The juniors certainly kept things interesting with only one junior managing to win both a middle and classic title.

W20 - All 6 girls were competing on the 6.2km course. Salome had another solid run to take gold, Steph took silver with Sarah finishing 3rd.

W12 - Heather Wimberly managed to out do her competitors to take gold.

M21E - Brad tackled the 11km course and had a great run. Way to go Brad!

M20 - Michael took gold with JP not far behind on the M20 course.

M12 - Josh was the champ on his course.

Relay:

As always the inter-club relay was lots of fun. Brad ran the last leg for the winning Raco team and Michael ran the first leg for the Witsoc team which took Silver. The other juniors showed off their skills in the nice, runnable forest and did their teams proud. Below is a pic of the winning Raco team being sprayed with sponsored aquelle water:
The area was beautiful, the food on sale at the event centre was great and the calenders and mugs we got made it even more memorable. Thanks to Raco for a well organized event.

After the Classic races on Friday Dave Peel, former British coach, had a session with the juniors who went to Italy. We discussed our experiences at JWOC and how we can improve at future JWOCs. It was interesting to hear his ideas.

Sarah's route and analysis

2009-09-19T18:24:00.005+02:00

I had bad runs at the two events preceding the Mountain Marathon so I picked up my map without a lot of confidence.

I took #1 easy and made sure I concentrated until I punched it. Was a bit confused going into the circle by all the rocks but saw the flag as I approached the boulder cluster.

#2 was easy. Could almost see the flag from #1.

#3 involved crossing the river then heading up the small hill. First real intro to the thorns. Easy feature to spot once you got close.

#4: Ouch! No choice but to go through the wall of thorns. Got quite distracted by the thorns so lost focus. I stopped short and was uncertain in the circle.

#5: A big route choice leg. My plan was good but I didn't execute it well. First objective was to get down the hill as quickly as possible ie avoiding the thorns. Next I had to get across the river. Then I ran along the path parallel to the river, turned right at the junction. The plan was to leave the path and head up the hill after the big kink in the path. I lost concentration while trying to figure out a route to #6 and I stopped short. Felt like I'd been running for ages and wondered if I could trust the 'old' map. Headed up the hill with not a lot of confidence. Got to the top eventually and stood around for a bit before realizing it was dead simple.

For #6 I tried to contour and avoid green. Paths were helpful. Wasn't 100% sure which thickets were marked.

#7: Ran on a bearing. Got to the flat bit and headed to where I thought the control would be. Wasn't there, but I spotted the flag to the right.

#8: Path took me right in.

#9: Bit of a wobble. Ran round the east of the ruins planning to run along the out of bounds area but plan changed when I saw the thorns. Stayed on the path for as long as I could before heading in. Bare rock was further down the hill than I expected.

#10: Bit uncertain as the long grass hid the wall, but hit it okay.

#11, 12: Relatively straight forward and my legs were feeling surprisingly decent.

Was relieved that I had an enjoyable run. Had lots of hesitations though. I'm still stopping short a lot due to loss of concentration and then lack of confidence.

Ian ran the same course in about one hour and 10 minutes I think. Almost 20 minutes faster than me! Crazy. I've got a lot to work on. Doing a leg by leg analysis definitely helps identify where I can improve.

Mountain Martathon

2009-09-15T19:44:00.004+02:00

The juniors had some good performances at Klipriviersberg. The old map, thorns and extra climb made the courses challenging.

Sarah won W20 by just over a minute with Salome coming second. Micheal Crone won the M20 category. Christie Courtnage did well on the W12 course and Josh de Klerk whizzed round his course. Other juniors who tackled the mountains were Jess H and Zoe on W20, Micheala De Vallier on course 4 and Olivia Bamford on the short novice course. Below is a pic of Mike looking finished:

Steph's winning Doornpoort route

2009-09-15T19:34:00.003+02:00

Below is Steph's route from a few weeks ago:

Doornpoort

2009-09-02T20:25:00.006+02:00

The last normal colour coded race of the season was a tough one. The planners put on some good courses, but a few misplaced controls and the maze of ruins made it challenging. Stephanie handled the conditions brilliantly and was the first lady on the blue course. Well done Steph! Sarah and Salome also tackled the blue course but neither of them were very successful. Mike had a reasonable run on blue finishing in the middle of the field.

Jess H and Zoe ran the green course. Jess H was the first lady home.

Nicholas, who has just returned from WOC , won the brown course. He was wearing his cool new GPS so we can see exactly where he went. Check out his route below and read what he thought of his run here .
Next up is the Mountain Marathon and in 3 weeks time it's SA champs!

Gerotek

2009-08-18T21:03:00.003+02:00

The middle distance courses at Gerotek East were tricky but fun. The long grass, thorns, steep banks and the odd speeding vehicle make it interesting. The juniors, who made it to the event, had good performances.

Salome was the first lady on Brown. She ran a good time of 1 hour 18 minutes. Jeremy was the first male on Brown in 48 minutes. Jess L was the first lady on Blue. Micheal Crone had a brilliant run to win the Blue course. He even beat some of the pro's like team manager Richard and Pat. Zoe did green and was the first lady. J.P and Ropafadzo also successfully completed the green course. Christie did well on Light Green and was the second female not far behind Kim Raban.

Below are pictures of Salome and Mike getting their prizes. Salome opted for the usual chocolate while Mike got a well deserved packet of chips:
So the juniors dominated the courses taking quite a few wins. Well done guys!

Thanks to everyone who bought hotdogs.

Hope the sick juniors get better soon, good luck to Jess for her Prelims and hope to see EVERYONE at the next event.

Garry's route

2009-08-18T20:31:00.003+02:00

Garry wasn't far behind Jeremy on the Brown course. He also drew his route and did an analysis of his race. Hope you can gain some tips from reading how the good guys approach different controls. Here' Garry's route:
And here's Garry's analysis:

I was pretty happy with my run and didn't make too many mistakes.  At
the moment I am down on fitness and could feel it in my legs on the long
climbing legs during the second half of the course.

I tended to use my compass quite a lot.  I also focussed on reading the
contour detail.  The vegetation was generally usable.  However, I think
you had to make sure you'd identified the specific vegetation feature
from a long way off.  In other words, when you were on top of the
vegetation it was very difficult to make sense of where you were. 

2) I probably should have taken a more direct route to the road.  It was
tough in that long grass.
3) I didn't push hard enough to my attach point - the boulders to the
left of the embankment.
4) I lost contact with the map and went left through the vegetation for
some reason.  Only managed to relocate when I saw the road.
5) I decided to run hard on the road - tired of that long grass.
6) A minor mistake - I should have headed for the road to the right of
the enclosed fence.
7) Used my compass here.  Focussed on my contour height, being careful
not to drop down. Then round the bottom of the light green.  I couldn't
really make sense of the scattered trees, but watched carefully for
boulders.
9) I struggled to "feel" right here.  I made sure I got to the right of
the gully.  I should probably have run down the middle of the gully.
Because I didn't do this I missed the re-entrant and had to relocated
off the path and dry ditch.
10) Used my compass and read the contours, passing to the right of the
form-line area.  Vegetation was clear from the angle I was approaching.
11) I got caught by the boulder cluster (which I circled!) I then went
further up.  I felt the boulder was much closer to the vegetation than
depicted.
12) Attacked the wide road.  I was trying to use the end of the
embankment as my attackpoint.  It definitely carries on far further than
shown on the map.  Eventually I turned up and climbed the embankment!
Because I was quite a bit further along it took a bit of time to
reconcile the vegetation.
13) I ran too long in the grass. I should have made straight for the
oval track.
14) After the T-junction, I aimed to hit the small path before the nice
bend, from which I attacked.  Fine nav let me down as I didn't realise
the control was well over the erosion gully.
15) I thought it would be easier to attack the clearing from the right.
Worked hard to get up that hill (and finally won my only split of the
race!)
16) & 17) A little too tentative to both, but wanted to make sure.

Jeremy's Route

2009-08-18T16:18:00.005+02:00

Jeremy had another great run to win the brwon course. Here is a link to his Attackpoint Log where you can read his race analysis. Check out his route below:

Ian's run at Hedianga

2009-08-07T17:24:00.004+02:00

Ian won the Blue course by over 10 minutes on Sunday. His time was 49:26 on the 3,24km course. Here's his route:
Ian's analysis:

"I lost around 2 minutes at control 3; probably
30-45 seconds at control 4; 1:30 at control 5; 45 seconds at control 12 and the rest were pretty clean.  I reckon a "perfect time" should have been
around 45 minutes for me."

Hedianga

2009-08-05T21:08:00.005+02:00

The juniors produced some decent results in the tricky area. Salome and Sarah tackled the brown course while Zoe and Jess H did Blue

Jeremy was first on the Brown course. He had a great run with about 3 minutes of mistakes. Below is his route and analysis of his run:

Pre-amble: in looking at the previous map and based on the discussions at Garry's training (which I got second hand) the important things to use on the map were the contours and the two tree symbols for conifer and deciduous. I didn't use the tree symbols enough and was too preoccupied with the contours during the race. I also didn't choose attack points well, especially when I had to cross a road just before the control (7,13,20). my average heart rate was 176 with a max of 187 and a climb of 180m. the dip in heart rate just before the end is where I broke my compass, and then ripped my trouser pocket trying to put the pieces of the compass into it.

this was how my race went:
copying: I battled to work out which map I had to copy - I think I was expecting a big BROWN in black pen,and I never noticed the control descriptions- so I wasted a good 25 seconds faffing.
2min45 was my copying time.
start - 1: I then went up the path and didn't quite get the distance tight to I turned off a thicket too far - I climber onto a boulder to look around, and spied a control to my left. I was expecting to see mine to my right, but I thought best check it out anyway. it was the wrong number. I headed back to the boulder direction and past it to the thicket. I went too low and saw the control off to the left. cost about 30 seconds
1-2: I should have cut straight down the hill, but I contoured a bit and battled through the green. I had to keep fighting the urge to head up hill and kept reminding myself that the control was near the bottom of the valley. I an still not sure if I went left or right round the thicket before the control. lost 15 sec
2-3: I wanted to use the fence as a hand rail so I aimed off right to intercept the fence earlier and make sure I went up the gully to the top of the hill. I hit the control spot on.
3-4: I caught up to Garry and he pulled me off to the right. I didn't see him punch the control and assumed that he was having a shocker of a run and was doing a grid search for the control. (he started 6 mins ahead of me). I went to the wrong re-entrant and then had to head back down the hill to the correct one. cost me about 30 sec
4-5: I took off after Garry to try and catch him and didn't concentrate too hard on the exit angle. I used the rocky ground and two trees on my right as a hand rail and then headed for the gap in the vegetation. it did feel that the control was too far round the vegetation, perhaps on the curved wall rather than the straight one.
5-6: I miss read my copying here and headed for number 15, which was just beyond number 6.I wanted to go high round the vegetation and then onto the path, and I think I went a bit too high. Garry was off to my left down the hill and seemed to make better progress, but I ran away from him on the path. I only realized my mistake in heading for the wrong control when I hit the valley, way too far down the road. I cut left and followed the river till I saw the control on my left, with Garry busy punching.
6-7: I took off after Garry (again) and passed him at the path junction when he stopped to consult the map. I cut left down the rd and then went right off the path just before the form line. Unfortunately I lost contact with the map and when I hit the road I veered left up the hill instead of right into the re-entrant. lost another 20 seconds realizing my mistake, allowing Garry to catch up, again. I think he punched before me.
7-8: Garry went right and I went left over the small spur. The small spur between the controls seemed bigger, but I hit the control well. it seemed obvious and I passed Garry, again.
8-9: I went left again and followed the vegetation round the spur and up the next re-entrant. in hind sight (and looking back to see where Garry was) I should have gone down to the path and used it as a hand rail.
9-10. I went a bit further up the re-entrant and then over the hill between thickets. I kept the dense vegetation on my right and saw the control from a distance. it felt like it was on the wrong side of the cliff, but I didn't have a chance to actually read the full control description. I need more of Garry's Control memory exercises it would seem.
10-11. in hind sight I should have kept to the right and gone round the thicket and along the fence as a hand rail. but I battled though the green and then used the fence as a handrail. cost me a several seconds I think. Ian was punching as I neared the control so I didn't need to think about the micro-nav.
11-12: I wanted to use the fence as a hand rail again, so aimed off right. a bit too far however so I ran further than I needed to. I saw Uge limping though the green and assumed he was on a path so I cut back to him, I never did see the fence. the control was higher up the hill than I was expecting, I thought it would be at the base of the hill. I think that a straight route choice would have been about 20 seconds quicker.
12-13:possibly my worst leg of the race. I ran hard to try and drop Garry, but it meant that I was not really in touch with the map. I ran past 8 and was surprised to see a ridge between me and the road, such that when I got the the road I was not sure where I was and had to re-locate, complete with a jog off to the right. By that time Garry caught back up (again) and I had sorted it out and could traverse round the vegetation and then up to the boulder. lost about 30 seconds
13-14: Cindy and somebody appeared out of a re-entrant that looked like the right one so I took off to where they emerged from, expecting to see the control in the re-entrant. when it wasn't there I had to re-locate again and overshot the control in my correction. Garry caught up (again) and led me into the control.
14-15: I used the power line pylon as a gate, and then the vegetation boundary just before the road as another gate. I followed the road for a short distance then decided to cut the corner. I left the road a bit early to climb the ridge, realized my mistake and went back the the rd, I needed to follow the rd until it curved (Attack point), then I cut directly up the ridge and attacked the control from the back.
15-16. I was lazy and headed back to the road, I ran down the road looking right for where the wall came through the rocks. I saw the control before I saw the wall. it would have been quicker to run straighter.
16-17: my exit angle was off and I stayed in the re-entrant which drew me off to the left. I was running too fast to keep in contact with the map to see that it was on a spur, not a re-entrant. Garry ran straight and caught up (again)
17-18: I went round the first hill and then headed for the second one. I misjudged the distance the control was from the hill and stopped on the hill to study the map before seeing that it was in the re-entrant to the right. I had to Race Garry to the control. he caught up (again) with my two mistakes in two controls. It was beginning to feel like I was leading him to all the controls.
18-19: I headed left straight down the hill without looking too hard at the map. I knew from reading ahead that I needed to run down to the road, turn right and then cut the corner. I crossed the second road as I exited the forest and then headed for the hill (my attack point). I was not sure how high up the hill to contour round. but I am sure that the control was further round then indicated. I didn't see the spur that it should have been on. I saw the control form a distance.
19-20: I ran for the road and bolted down the road, again trying to get away from Garry. I cut the corner, and crossed the rd heading uphill and contouring. I didn't see the form line indicating a hill on the spur and I went round the wrong side of it and dropped into the river. I had to re-locate to work out if I needed to go up or down the river. I got the the control as Garry caught up (again). I missed the hill as an obvious attack point.
20-21. straight up the hill and round the thicket (my attack point) then up the re-entrant. I saw the control from a distance and felt it was a bit high.
21-22. I started off down the hill fast to try and drop Garry, who was now out of sight. I tripped and broke my compass on a rock (and lost some skin) and then headed off right to the wrong cliff. looking back I saw the control and the correct cliff. I punched just before Garry. he caught up (again) (30 sec lost) I didn't have an attack point here and relied on my compass, which didn't make it to the end of the leg.
22-23. close to the end now I slowed down a bit and let Garry lead me into the next control, it was a very circular route that we took, and definitely not the best route.
23-24. I knew where to go now and didn't even look at the map. I should have as I would have seen that I needed to head off left to avoid the thicket on the hill. I lost 10-15 seconds here again having to go round.
24-fin. interference by Garry, who had again caught up cost me the run in.

So I could have been almost three minutes faster without the mistakes, but to not make them I would have had to run slower. not a bad run, and I think I would have been close to Nick, maybe even good enough to have beaten him.
Thanx Witsoc for a cool course, and to the lotto Ulf and Pieter for a cool map.

Thanks to Jeremy for such a detailed analysis. Hope everyone found it interesting and learnt something.

JWOC wrap-up part 2

2009-08-02T19:38:00.020+02:00

At last some interesting photos from our trip:

Our 9 our stop over in Dubai not only saved us some money, but it also produced some funky photos:

While in Venice we came across some extremely friendly pigeons:

It rained at least once a day:
But the sun would come out soon after, giving Jess and Salome a chance to work on their tan
Salome bought a ball (the orange thing in the picture below) which she called Bruce. Bruce provide us with hours of entertainment.
On our rest afternoon during the training week we found plenty to do. Stephanie's hair straightener worked overtime:
An example of the breathtaking sights that we saw:

A compass made of flowers! This was outside the library were the opening and closing ceremonies took place as well as the medal ceremonies.

One of the best action shots:

Brad having just punched the last control in the Sprint.
That's all for now. I still haven't seen everyone's photos so there might be some good ones to come. Thanks to Zoe who took a million photos. She didn't miss anything, except as far as I know no one managed to get a picture of us in our party outfits.

JWOC wrap-up part 1

2009-07-20T20:45:00.004+02:00

Well we’re home.

We all had a wonderful time and learnt lots. We know that we wouldn’t have had this opportunity without the help and support of many people.

Thank you to the SAOF for the contribution to our expenses and for the O’suits.

Thanks to our sponsors. We appreciate your support.

A huge thanks to our parents. We appreciate your hard work throughout the year and your continuous support.

Thank you to the orienteering community. We value your support of our tuck shop at every event.

Thank you to Richard and Heidi. You helped make our first JWOC an amazing experience!

A big thanks to Nicholas. It was great to have someone with so much experience on our team.

Keep an eye on the blog for the next few weeks. We’ll put up some unseen photos as well as some other fun posts.

Womens Middle Final

2009-07-15T13:50:00.004+02:00

Below is the map from the womens B final. Sarah's route is drawn in red.

Relay

2009-07-13T14:28:00.005+02:00

The South African Juniors produced outstanding results in the final race in Italy.

The first leg runners set off in the pouring rain. Brad was in a team with Christoph and Matthias of Germany. Their team got off to a flier, with the first leg runner coming in, in ahead of Germany's 1st team. Matthias ran a decent second leg to set Brad off ahead of Germany's 1st team and with some other fast teams. Brad kept his cool and ran a great time. He was only past by Germany 1 with a km to go. The team came home in 30th place.

Salome and Zoe set off in the rain ten minutes after the men. Salome had a solid run to bring her team in, in just over an hour. Zoe also ran well coming back in a time of 1:07:15. Both the Jessica's were off next. Jess L took over from Salome and was chased down by Jess H, who was having a great run. Jess Lund managed to pull it together towards the end though and set Sarah off ahead of Steph. Sarah had a solid run and was pleased with her time of 58:54. Steph had a great run to bring her team home in 33rd place. Unfortunately Salome, Jess L and Sarah's team was disqualified.

The course was interesting with a very technical first section, two coaching zones / spectator controls and a map swap over. Below is the map with Sarah's course on it:

Once the relay was over there was a Team Leaders Race. Nicholas ran against some tough competition and some sneaky Germans. Not sure exactly how he did, but he looked hardcore running down the finish straight and wasn't too far behind some world champs so we assume it went well.

After some insane swapping of clothes (our O' suits were popular) which left Bradley with nothing South African to wear we headed back to the hotel to have supper and get ready for the closing ceremony and the party.

Middle Final

2009-07-10T13:57:00.004+02:00

The SA squad had a great day at San Martino today. The coaches had it easy this morning as all the juniors started within 15 minutes of each other. Steph was off first. She had a decent run and did us proud passing a few guys on the finish straight. Jess H was second to start and Zoe was hot on her heals. Jess L was off next. She had a smooth run to take 34th place.

Next off was Sarah. She saw all the SA girls out in the forest, but remained focused and had a smooth run. She finished in 35:57 and in 22nd place with Salome only 2 seconds behind in 23rd place.

Brad had a good run to finish 22nd in the C final.

Here's a picture of our number one fan:-)

Relay Teams

2009-07-09T22:04:00.002+02:00

The teams for the relay on Saturday are as follows:

Team 1:
Zoe
Jess H
Steph

Team 2
Salome
Jess L
Sarah

Brad will be running with 2 German guys. He will run the 3rd leg.

Middle Qualification

2009-07-09T21:38:00.004+02:00

The star of the day was Salome. She had a awesome run on course 1, finishing in a time of 37 minutes. Jess H also on course 1 enjoyed her run of 45:18. Sarah's time was 45:49 on course 2 with Jess L not far behind in a time of 47:37. Zoe on course 3 ran a time of 48:04 with Steph taking 58:35 minutes on the same course.

The SA girls made history as all 6 are through to the B final although there are only 6 runners in the C final :-).

Brad ran a time of 47:21 and will run in the C final tomorrow.

Snow!!!

2009-07-08T20:55:00.004+02:00

Today was a rest day. We went in two cable cars to the top of Rosetta mountain. We had snowball fights and lots of fun.

Long Final

2009-07-07T22:51:00.003+02:00

A dry start to the day turning into a wet stormy afternoon. The 2 fortunate early starters (Zoe and Steph...this didn't stop Steph falling in one of the many rivers in the area) managed to skip the rain. Jess L and Salome got a cold but dry start with the rain catching them at half way. Myself, Sarah and Brad were the very unfortunate lot and had to start in the pouring rain, arriving at the pre-start 5 seconds before needed.

The girls course was 5.7km with 275m climb (which was less than in training, to our delight). All the girls did very well and seemed to enjoy it. Sarah had an awesome run with a time of 1:53:49 (putting her first out of the SA girls...and putting a well deserved smile on her face). The rest followe as so: Jess L - 1:54:14, Zoe - 2:15:59, Jess H - 2:25:52, Salome (not DSQ. She had a prpblem with her sport Ident, but did punch in the reserve block) - 2:56:04 and Steph - 3:10:31.

The mens course was 9.7km with 440m climb (a complete shock to the system for any orienteer). Brad did us proud with an amazing result for his first ever long distance. His time was 2:14:48. He even had a chance to see snow and made a snowball...fortunately for the runner behind he decided not to throw it.

All in all, it was a very good day with great results from everyone. The weather...well that is another story, we are just hoping it clears up a bit for our trip in the cable car tomorrow and for the middle races.

Posted by Jess H

Great Sprint Results

2009-07-07T22:01:00.006+02:00

The weather cleared up nicely. It was hot by the time the last people started. The courses were tricky and fast. We team had good results all round with 2 exceptional ones.

Steph had a brillint run getting the fastest time of all the SA girls. She blitzed round in 17:31 and came 82nd. Salome was not far behind in 17:49. Jess Lund ran 18:46. Sarah finished in a time of 19:25. Jess H took 22:27 and Zoe's time was 23:36. Here are some nervous people before the start:

Brad ran a good time of 20:40. He said he made a 2 min mistake.

We'll put up the maps with our routes as soon as we can.

The results are here.

Sprint

2009-07-06T11:05:00.002+02:00

This afternoon is the sprint. So far it's been a dull, rainy day. Hopefully it will clear up a bit.

The mens course is 3.1km with 90m of climb and 24 controls. Brad starts at 16:44

The womens course is 2.5km with 85m of climb and 21 controls. Our start times are:
Jess L 15:19
Zoe 15:27
Salome 15:38
Steph 15:48
Jess H 16:29
Sarah 16:49

Training Maps

2009-07-04T17:43:00.007+02:00

Here are some of the maps we have been training on.

Sprint Maps:

Middle Maps:

A long map:
Relay map:

Downhill rock training map:

Training

2009-07-03T15:30:00.002+02:00

On Wednesday we did some training in an area relevant to the long. We had a rest afternoon which was greatly appreciated. On Thursday we did a sprint in Fiera di Primiero followed by some interesting downhill rocky training in Caltena on a 1:2 500 map. On Friday morning we did a course in an area adjacent to the relay area. We all enjoyed the map.

On Sunday we move to our Hotel.

We've had some awesome games of frisbee and volleyball with the Germans, Canadians and Americans.

We will post maps as soon as we can.

Italy

2009-06-30T11:36:00.003+02:00

The juniors arrived in Italy on Friday after a stop over in Dubai.

We stayed in Camping Fusina for two nights. On Saturday we spent the day in Venice. We are now staying in a house near the training areas. The Germans will be joining us in our house shortly and the Canadians and Americans are staying just down the road.

We are doing two training sessions a day. Yesteray we did two middle sessions. The climb to the start of the second session was insane. The views are spectacular and we can see snow on some of the mountains.

This morning we did a sprint session followed by a middle training this afternoon.
We are having a great time and are getting to know some of the other teams.

We'll put some maps up as soon as we can.