PUNCHLINE
Dandenong Ranges Orienteering Club Inc
www.drocorienteering.com.au
Incorporated Association Registered Number A0003225B
ABN 76 002 329 218
President Peter Hobbs
Vice President Peter Yeates
Secretary Peter Grover
Treasurer Ian Dodd
Memberships Debbie Dodd
Club Coach/BushO Ian Dodd
Park and StreetO Ian Greenwood
Maps Pam King
Committee Members Peter Dalwood, Ian Davies, Allan Miller, Pat Miller, Denise Pike, Tina Smith, Bev Trease, Ilze Yeates
Clothing Peter Yeates
Newsletter/Website Debbie Dodd
Issue 177
June 2016
JUNE IS FOR JUNIORS!
June is for Juniors … DROC has a crop of up and coming juniors, and this issue has a special feature to introduce them to you. Their ages range from under 5s right through to late teens, so their orienteering experiences are very varied, but DROC supports all of them in their endeavours, from representing Australia at JWOC, to finding their very first control.
June is for JWOC … Asha and Lanita Steer have both been selected to JWOC, to be held in Switzerland in July. For Lanita it’s her fourth and final JWOC – it seems like yesterday when we celebrated her first, back in 2013! Asha is making her second trip, after opting last year to focus on year 12. The girls are among five Victorians selected, which is a record, and shows that recent efforts put into junior coaching here are really paying off.
June is for Jam … to help fund all our Junior representatives, jam sales are again in full swing and already sales have been very strong. The last big push will be at our MelBushO on June 19 at Plenty Gorge, where we will also hold a raffle and cake stall.
Keep reading this special bonus issue for more information about our Juniors, JWOC, and Jam! And look out for our full colour poster on display at Plenty Gorge.
DIARY DATES
q Sunday June 19 – MelbushO, Plenty Gorge (course setters Davies family) – this will be our Junior Fundraiser event for 2016 – see ad inside!
q Saturday July 2 (Sat) – EndurO, Boronia Gully (course setter Ilze Yeates) – 120 or 75 min Run or Walk, 40 control Score course
q Sunday October 9 – Victorian Club Relays, Brimbank Park (course setter Ian Dodd)
q Saturday November 11 – Sprint Into Spring –Burwood (venue tbc) (course setter Simon Rouse)
MEMBER NEWS
A big welcome to our newest members Robert Prout, Leo Theoharis, and Mike Whitton. Leo hails from Queensland, and is a highly accomplished adventure racer who also rogaines and mountain bikes. And he’s not a bad orienteer either, finishing with a very respectable time on Course 1 at his first State Series. Mike has been coming along to MelBushO and has also had some great results.
JULY ENDURO
The second EndurO for 2016 will be on Saturday July 2nd at Boronia Gully – a combination of Wattle View, Blind Creek, and Koolunga maps. Ilze Yeates is the course setter.
An EndurO is a long distance park street event, with 40 controls. Competitors have either 2 hours or 90 minutes to visit as many controls, and score as many points, as they can. But be warned – penalties apply for incorrect answers, and for late return. At each control, you must answer a True or False question to earn the points.
Experienced EndurO competitors will note a couple of changes – the short course has been extended from 75 to 90 minutes; and the multiple choice answers are replaced by True or False answers.
The start location is Boronia Park, Park Crescent (eastern end near Dorset Road), Ferntree Gully (Melway 64 K10). The 120 min Run or Walk course starts at 2pm and finishes at 4pm. The 90 min Run or Walk starts at 2.15pm (note amended start time) and finishes at 3.45pm. Entry is a bargain at $5 for adults and $2 for juniors – the same price as a normal Saturday Series event, but twice the map, twice the time, and twice the controls. And if you have a Saturday season ticket – it’s free!
FROM THE FOREST
Bush orienteering is well underway. Apart from the big ticket events at Easter and in South Australia, we’ve been enjoying State Series and MelBushO.
State Series 1 – Nerrina, Ballarat
The season got underway with the Eureka Challenge, this year a Middle Distance race on complex gold mining terrain. Simon Rouse and Peter Hobbs earned top 10 finishes on course 1. Martin Steer placed 3rd on M2, while Lanita took second place on W2. Janine Steer was third on W3. DROC had two winners on course 6, with Peter Yeates taking out the Mens, and Sarah Davies outracing the Women. Luca Bogdanovits also earned a Challenge prize cup by winning course 8, with sister Arika second - a great job by our junior girls.
State Series 2 – Balt Camp, Gisborne
Being on the same weekend as the SA Ultralong, numbers were down, but DROC was ably represented. Peter Hobbs was 5th on course 1, despite his map disintegrating (I have no idea how he completed the course at all!) New member Leo Theoharis showed he has talent and fitness by placing 8th on course 1, his rogaining and adventure racing background standing him in good stead.
Andras Bogdanovits and Ian Dodd also scored top 10 results on M2. Denise Pike was second on W3, Peter Grover 5th on M4, and Debbie Dodd confounded the bookies by winning course 6 outright. Arika and Luca were 3rd and 4th on W8.
Victorian Middle Distance Champs, Borhoney Ghurk
DROC members handled the technical terrain well, resulting in plenty of podium finishes:
Champions: Lanita Steer, Janine Steer
Second placegetters: Asha Steer, Sarah Davies
Third placegetters: Andras Bogdanovits, Martin Steer, Luca Bogdanovits, Peter Dalwood, Ian Davies
MelbushO 1 – Westerfolds Park
Melbusho goes from strength to strength, and over 200 people came to this event! Thirty of those were DROC members, a massive turnout. Peter Hobbs smashed course 1 to win by 3 minutes – very impressive in a field of over 40. Ian Dodd was 6th and Ian Davies 9th. Course 2 was even more popular with over 50 competing. Andras Bogdanovits placed 8th, and Sarah Davies, Mike Whitton, Ryan Davies, Peter Grover and Simon Ryan all finished in the top 20. Of 50 people on Course C, Eric Louw was 2nd, and junior James Love was 9th, a great result for both in a field of over 50!
MelbushO 2 – Cardinia
DROC organised this event, and also set a record attendance for the venue. Pam King set excellent courses which really challenged those on Course 1 and 2, and allowed those on course 3 and 4 to practice their skills and progress in difficulty. Course A saw Lanita Steer in 4th and Peter Hobbs in 5th. Janine Steer won Course B, Andras Bogdanovits was 7th, and Wayne Love and Mike Whitton both had places in the top 15, as did Peter Yeates. Debbie Dodd was the best placed on Course C, in 8th.
MelbushO 3 – Eaglemont
Another massive day with well over 200 people, and 25 from DROC. Each course had around 50 starters. Peter Hobbs blitzed the long and tricky Course 1 to take third place. Ian Davies, Ian Dodd, Asha Steer, Jarrod Harris and Lanita Steer were all in the top 20. On Course 2 (which was also quite long and also quite tricky!) our highest placed finishers were Mike Whitton, Andras Bogdanovits (photo) and Sarah Davies. Wayne and James Love also gave Course 2 a shot, stepping up the navigational difficulty and finishing with large smiles on their faces. Shawn Mitchell had a great run to finish second on Course 3, with Jen and Kimberley close behind in 5th.
There are plenty more MelbushOs between now and September – visit www.melbusho.com for details.
PREZ SEZ – Peter Hobbs
This edition of Punchline is jam-packed, with particular emphasis on the club’s growing junior ranks. Not very long ago I was virtually the only junior in the club, so it is great to see new families and juniors joining DROC and participating in events.
It makes me think back to my early orienteering days. I liked street-O because I could run fast which meant I could compete with the older and more experienced orienteers [yes, Mark Phillips, you are still my arch rival!] It took several years until my first bush event, preferring to stick to the streets and later the sprint orienteering format. The reason for this is that I simply preferred to “run”; I was not very keen on the technical navigation aspect of bush orienteering. I also had a couple of ankle issues, which I thought I was protecting by not running in the uneven bush terrain.
Skip ahead 15 years to 2013 … This was all very good until something prompted me to take up the challenge of bush orienteering. Perhaps I was not finding streetO enough of a technical challenge. Perhaps I had long ago realised that it is in fact the streets and pavements that cause more niggles/injuries than the soft and varied bush terrain [yes, Gary Rook, Peter Grover and Denise Pike, you were right all those years ago]. I now do a lot more bush orienteering and am enjoying the challenge. The only thing is: I wish I had been doing this 20 years ago. If I had, I would now have 20 years of bush orienteering navigation and experience to draw upon; whereas I have only three. I would definitely be a better bush orienteer now if I had done more of it as a junior. And who knows how far I might have progressed in the sport.
So, my advice to juniors (and parents) is to firstly do whatever events you please with the main focus being to have fun and enjoy orienteering. Should you find yourself in a position like I was all those years ago – where orienteering is a bit of fun and you keep coming back for more – this is the perfect opportunity to experiment a little and give bush orienteering a go. Whether it be MelbushO, State Series or even Bendigo Space Racing [if you happen to be in Bendigo on a Tuesday afternoon], getting out of the streets and into the bush exposes you to the next-level of orienteering where the maps and land features are more technical than in streetO.
With just a little persistence – especially in the junior / easier courses – it is not too difficult to learn some techniques and skills to navigate in the bush. From here, so long as it is still fun and enjoyable, it is quite achievable to be selected in Victorian schools and junior squads. After a few years, so long as it is still fun and enjoyable, it is quite achievable to compete for Victoria in the national competition.
f only someone had sat me down and told me this 20 years ago! Happy orienteering
TECHNIQUES AND TIPS FOR POWER WALKING – Alicia and Lauren, aka The Girls
Following on from Prez Pete’s techniques and tips for A and B grade scatter events, we were asked to put together some tips for power walkers. This seemed rather comical to us as our aim at each and every event is to 1) have fun; 2) catch up with each other, 3) do a bit of fitness, and 4) try not to walk past controls because we’re too busy talking!! Anyway, writing this piece gave us a chance to reflect on the subconscious techniques we use during power walking events. Like Prez Pete, we start with a disclaimer that these tips work for us, typically attending Wednesday night events, but other techniques may be equally as helpful for events on other weeknights.
Firstly, before the event have a quick look at the sample map. Check out where the start is, any exits particularly if starting in parkland, and where any railway, creek or freeway crossings are located. This will help you plan an efficient route around the controls. Also, if walking with a friend, have a plan of what you’d like to talk about before time starts, so you can concentrate on talking and the map without getting lost!
At the start of the event, orientate your map. We tend to like to do this using main roads around us, but as Pete suggested, facing north and pointing your map north at the start can help too. Our strategy thereafter depends on whether the event is a scatter or score course for runners. Whilst technically it makes no difference to power walkers as the power walking courses are all score events (except Monday winter events), and the aim is always to get as many controls as possible, our planning varies depending on the type of course for runners.
Scatter courses require runners to run for a certain distance. For example, A course in Wednesday Summer series is set to be 9.5 – 10.5 km, whilst B course is set to be 7.5 – 8.5 km. We know that we can typically walk about 8 km in 65 minutes, which is the equivalent to B course. Therefore, before the start of the event we check how many controls B course needs to collect. If for example it is 14 controls, we can turn over our map and immediately look to drop 6 controls. We then look at the outlying controls on the edges of the map, which generally have lower values, as a good place to start dropping controls. After competing in a few events you’ll be able to identify the length of course you can complete, and use this to calculate how many controls you should be aiming to collect by looking at the number of controls required in the running courses.
Score courses in winter and autumn are typically more challenging to predict, as running courses do not need to be set to a particular length, but have a maximum of 11 – 12 km on Wednesdays. A technique we use is to head out and do a length of the map (or put distance between ourselves and the start). We then assess how far we have travelled after 15 minutes and how much of the map we’ve covered, and how much we think we’ll be able to cover. We then re-evaluate every 15 minutes and drop controls and sections of the map as required.
Some other general guidelines we find useful:
q When starting, look for easier controls that won’t lead you straight into the middle of the map so you have some time to plan.
q If possible, leave lower value controls around the start to collect at the end if you have time. This way if you're back early you'll have extra controls to pick up.