A great day for two of our JWOC debutants-both just 17 years of age, Winnie Oakhill and Patrick Jaffe have both qualified for the A final in the JWOC Middle Distance along with Matt Doyle who had a very good run in the qualification to finish 13th in his heat. Winnie followed up her good effort in the sprint with another impressive performance to finish 18th in her heat. Patrick demonstrated impressive technical skills to finish 20th in his heat.
Here is a report from Karen (Manager) from what was a tough day for all with very cold weather and rain.
“Extremely pleased with Australia’s overall results following the middle qualification race today. Very technical race with three very different courses for both men and women. The top 20 from each heat move through to the A final, the next 20 to the B final and remaining to the C final.
Weather conditions were tough, going from 26 degrees on the sprint day to 6 degrees today and constant rain during the race. Most athletes had positive comments about their races despite some not being so happy with their final placings. Very pleasing to have three athletes qualify for the A final and even more pleasing to have a total of 3 girls and 3 boys in the top 26 of the heats meaning unfortunately three have only just missed out on the A final.
Our top placing results were:
MEN
Matt 13th
Patrick 20th
Henry 23rd
WOMEN
Winnie 18th
Nicola 21st
Anna 26th
The Middle Final is tomorrow with the same finish arena as today and similar terrain with perhaps more variation.
Our athletes start times as follows:
C FINAL
Aidan 10.43
B FINAL
Lanita 10.35
Simeon 10.39
Jarrah 10.46
Hannah 11.06
Olivia 11.09
Anna 11.13
Henry 11.24
Nicola 11.30
A FINAL
Pat 11.48
Matt 12.28
Winnie 12.59
Results, Splits and maps*
Some analysis of the Australian performances- three athletes in the A final
Quote from the World Of O about the Middle Qualification
“The terrain in today’s JWOC Middle Qualification required a lot of experience in Scandinavian terrain – and thus the Scandinavian and Swiss runners had a significant advantage.”
So this makes the performances of both Winnie Oakhill and Patrick Jaffe very impressive as this was their first event in Scandinavian terrain, after only a few days training in similar terrain last week. To make the A final in the middle distance at their first JWOC is something that not many Australians have achieved. Also the steady improvement that Matt Doyle has been making with all aspects of his orienteering are clearly indicated by his performance today. Matt was 46th in 2013, 30th in 2014 and was a very impressive 13th this year.
Matt lost about 30 seconds on the short leg 15 just before the run into the finish, but apart from this control he had a very consistent performance and was only 14% behind the winner.
M20A Course
Patrick also was very consistent throughout the course except for Control 13 where he lost nearly a minute. This was the same control that Matt lost time on but Patrick was coming from a slightly different direction.
M20B Course
Winnie again demonstrated her very good technical skills to have a consistent run except for Control 2 where she lost just over a minute but quickly recovered to be the fastest on Leg 3.
W20A Course
So between them they had many, many good legs and so will certainly be able to take a lot of positive thoughts into the A final tonight. It is all about being smooth and consistent and not trying to run too fast. Use the strategies that worked in the qualification again in the final as the terrain should be similar.
An interesting point about the heats where the top 20 go through to the A final is that in the men’s heats the 20th place was 21%, 22% and 21% behind the winner in each heat, whilst in the women’s heats the 20th place was 28%, 34% and 50% (W20C) behind the winner. So the time gaps in the women’s heats especially W20C heat were quite large.
Good luck to all athletes and remember to stay focused as there are still three events to go.
Simeon Burrill
Anna Dowling
*website no longer available