Tasmania's Hanny Allston last night won the World Orienteering Sprint Championships in Denmark, beating reigning World Champion Simone Niggli from Switzerland.
This was a fantastic win, as Hanny is still a Junior (she won the Junior World Champs long distance event in Lithuania at the beginning of July), and previously Niggli was though to be almost unbeatable.
For the uninitiated, Sprint Orienteering is approximately 2.5-3.5kms, with competitors having to find up to 20 control points at high speed. The winners take 12-13 minutes, so allowing for the stops to punch control points, they are running at 9 (men) and 10 (women) minute 3k pace, over uneven and unknown terrain, whilst reading a map to navigate.
Today, Hanny (together with Anna Sheldon from Queensland) will be competing in the final of the Long Distance World Champs, which will be over 10kms in much more rugged terrain.
Hanny is an all-round runner - she is a well-known mountain runner, and currently holds the record for the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair run.
Details of the World Orienteering Champs are on the following web sites:
http://orienteering.asn.au/home
http://woc2006-aus.blogspot.com/
http://live.woc2006.dk/
On the live.woc site you can watch the long distance event live from 8Pm EST.
Full Version: New World Champion For Australia
CoolRunning Messageboards > Specific Running Categories > Triathlon, Cycling, Swimming, CrossTraining etc
Fantastic news. Aussie Aussie Ausiee, Oi Oi Oi.
Can't work out how the get the live site to work
Can't work out how the get the live site to work
Hi Sportsman
You can watch/listen to the races, but you must have the latest version of Real Player. The visuals include various control points on the course and the Finish. It's a bit like the Tour de France where the screen shows how the runner is doing compared to the fastest time.
The live tracking gives you a map where you can follow the progress of selected runners - you need javascript for this. You can download Java and Realplayer for free - just google them, go to their site and follow directions.
Live results gives progress times at various points on the course and the finish - just select either men or women.
The next races are the Middle Distance Finals on Friday at 10am Denmark time - that's 6pm EST and 4pm in Perth. There are 3 Aussie women and 2 Aussie men in the finals.
There is also the Relay on Saturday at 1.30pm Denmark time. Australia will have teams of 3 men and 3 women. Hanny Allston will be in the women's relay team, which has a chance of top 6, maybe a medal.
Simmo
You can watch/listen to the races, but you must have the latest version of Real Player. The visuals include various control points on the course and the Finish. It's a bit like the Tour de France where the screen shows how the runner is doing compared to the fastest time.
The live tracking gives you a map where you can follow the progress of selected runners - you need javascript for this. You can download Java and Realplayer for free - just google them, go to their site and follow directions.
Live results gives progress times at various points on the course and the finish - just select either men or women.
The next races are the Middle Distance Finals on Friday at 10am Denmark time - that's 6pm EST and 4pm in Perth. There are 3 Aussie women and 2 Aussie men in the finals.
There is also the Relay on Saturday at 1.30pm Denmark time. Australia will have teams of 3 men and 3 women. Hanny Allston will be in the women's relay team, which has a chance of top 6, maybe a medal.
Simmo
Congratulations Hanny super effort.
Australia finished 4th in the WOC Women's Relay - fantastic effort by Jo Allison, Grace Elson and Hanny Allston! Hanny ran the fastest time of anyone on the last leg, bringing Australia from 9th up to a clear 4th. The girls were less than 5 minutes behind the winning Finnish team, after over 20kms and 2 hours of orienteering.
The previous best by Australia in a WOC Relay was 7th (I think), back in the days when Czechoslovakia was the only strong Eastern European team, and there was only one team from USSR. I doubt any Australian team has ever before finished a WOC Relay less than 10 minutes behind the winners.
The men's team (Rob Walter, Dave Shepherd and Troy De Haas) finished in 20th place, 25 minutes behind the winning Russian team.
The previous best by Australia in a WOC Relay was 7th (I think), back in the days when Czechoslovakia was the only strong Eastern European team, and there was only one team from USSR. I doubt any Australian team has ever before finished a WOC Relay less than 10 minutes behind the winners.
The men's team (Rob Walter, Dave Shepherd and Troy De Haas) finished in 20th place, 25 minutes behind the winning Russian team.
This World Champs was easily the most successful ever for Australia, and all due to the great performances by Hanny Allston.
Let's hope Hanny can inspire more people, and especially women, to take up this great sport. Next year Australia will host the Junior World Champs in Dubbo, and maybe we can find some new talent to follow in Hanny's steps.
For all you runners out there, your ideas about what orienteering is are probably mistaken - why not give it a try to find out just how demanding it is - both mentally and physically.
Let's hope Hanny can inspire more people, and especially women, to take up this great sport. Next year Australia will host the Junior World Champs in Dubbo, and maybe we can find some new talent to follow in Hanny's steps.
For all you runners out there, your ideas about what orienteering is are probably mistaken - why not give it a try to find out just how demanding it is - both mentally and physically.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.