Orienteering Australia's High Performance Program and Athlete Development Pathway covers the elite junior, senior and mountain bike activities in Australia.

The High Performance and Athlete Development Pathway Strategic Plan 2014-2018 encompasses all levels of the sport from beginners through elite orienteers excelling at the World Orienteering Championships. See HP and Athlete Development Pathway Strategic Plan 2014-2018 

National Teams/Squads

National League
  • Boomerangs - Australia's World Championships team
  • Bushrangers - Australia's Test Match team against New Zealand.
  • Junior World Championships team
  • Mountain Bike Orienteering World Championship team
  • Competitions
  • State Teams

      SUCCESSFULL ATHLETES

      Orienteering Australia congratulates the success of:

       Hanny Allston  Adrian Jackson - MTBO

      2009 World Games:Gold in Middle, Silver in Sprint.
      2006 World Champion - Sprint (WOC)
      2006 World Champion - Long, Silver in Sprint (JWOC)

      2005 Bronze in middle (JWOC)

      2010 World Champion -Sprint Distance.  Silver medal in Middle & Long Distance
      2009 World Champion- Sprint & Long Distance

      2008 World Champion - Middle  

      2006 World Number One

      2005 Bronze - Long distance
      2004 World Champion - Middle distance.  Bronze in long distance & relay.
       

       

       

      Grant Bluett - 2001 World Games - Gold medal in Individual event.

      Troy de Haas - 1999 JWOC - Bronze medal in long event.

       

      Other medallists

      2004 - Bronze in relay = Carolyn Jackson, Anna Sheldon, Mary Fien, Tom Walter, Alex Randall, (Adrian Jackson)

      2004 - Belinda Allison - Silver in Middle distance.

      2002 - Emily Viner - Silver in Long distance.

      Smartplay

      Smartplay is a sports safety and injury prevention program. Their website has tips to reduce the risk of injury and now has a section specific to orienteering!

         

      Ricky Thackray, Patrick Higgins & Marquita Gelderman win Australian MTBO Championships.

      Monday, 29 July 2013

           

      Photos: Callum Fagg, Gaby Withers, Ricky Thackray, Kath Hepplethwaite

      An excellent weekend of mountain bike orienteering was held near Gympie, Queensland to decide the Australian Middle and Long distance championships titles.  A contingent of 30 New Zealanders, who had incorporated the previous weekends NSW Championships into a 10 day mountain biking tour, added great competition to the races.

      The two events were held on vastly different areas.  The middle was at Corella Forest, with several crucial long route choice legs interspersed by two areas of complex single track.  In the women elites Marquita Gelderman had a narrow one minute win over a very fit and fast Carolyn Jackson.  Twenty four year old Patrick Higgins navigated well to take the men’s elite title by two and a half minutes over Greg Barbour.   Patrick is actually British but currently residing in New Zealand.  Unfortunately Australian WOC team members Ricky Thackray (tyre trouble) and Callum Fagg (puncture) had mechanical troubles.

      The long event was held in Toolara pine plantation, on a huge area that required the elites and top three courses to have a 1:25,000 map.  Despite its size the area was a detailed maze of roads and tracks which demanded intense navigation at all times.  Several long legs gave numerous route choice commutations, while some short legs at the end saw some come unstuck.

      WA’s Ricky Thackray took out a well deserved elite championship, managing to withstand the efforts of young Tasmanian gun Callum Fagg by a mere two minutes on the 38 kilometre course.  This followed Ricky’s win in the WA state championship the week before.  NSW’s Gary Sutherland showed consistency to take out third place again.

      The outstanding ride of the weekend was undoubtably from Kiwi Marquita Gelderman who raced around the women’s 30 km course so speedily that she bettered the times of the M40’s and M17’s on the same course.  In fact, Marquita’s kilometre rate was only beaten by the two top elite males!  There will be great interest to see where she actually went on route gadget!  Carolyn Jackson was joined by Jenny Enderby (NSW) on the podium.

      The Queensland based Withers family dominated the junior ranks with Gaby winning both W14 titles and Karl the M17 races, though pushed in both by Tim Jackson.  Karl is off to his second Junior World Championships in Estonia soon.   Promising Ballarat rider Declan Dickson won both M14 races, but was more pleased by his navigation in the long.

      The veteran classes had both quality and quantity and all wins were hard earned.  Ann Scown (W60), Malcolm Roberts (M50) and Peter Cusworth (M60) won both titles, albeit Peter’s win in the middle was by a mere 1 second over over NSW’s Paul Haynes.   Over the four NSW and Australian Championship title events both Marquita Gelderman and Peter Cusworth managed to remain unbeaten – a tremendous feat of navigation.

      Many thanks must go to the Queensland organisers, notably course setters Graeme Hall and Liz Bourne and mappers Craig Steffens and Eric Andrews for the enormous amount of time and effort they put into making the events not only possible but highly enjoyable.  Also thanks to Rob Croscato, Wendy Steffens, Debbie Gordon and other Multi-Terrain Bike Orienteers and QOA who assisted the running and promotion of the event.   This included a lovely meal and quiz on the Saturday night.

      Full results are available on eventor.

      Middle                                                                 Long

      W21       63.22     Marquita Gelderman (NZ)           102.39   Marquita Gelderman (NZ)

                      64.36     Carolyn Jackson (VIC)                     115.42   Carolyn Jackson (VIC)

      69.21     Rachel Drew (NZ)                             135.35   Jenny Enderby (NSW)

      W14                       Gaby Withers (Q)                                             Gaby Withers (Qld)

      W40                       Kim Beckinsale (Qld)                                       Kath Heppelthwaite (NZ)

      W50                       Deb Bain (NZ)                                                    Roz Clayton (NZ)

      W60                       Ann Scown (ACT)                                             Ann Scown (ACT)

      W70                       Dale-Ann Gordon (VIC)                                 Yett Gelderman (NZ)

       

      M21       65.42     Patrick Higgins (Great Britain)     120.51   Ricky Thackray (WA)

                      68.28     Greg Barbour (NSW)                      122.49   Callum Fagg (TAS)

                      73.07     Gary Sutherland (QLD)                  146.45   Gary Sutherland (QLD)

      M14                       Declan Dickson (VIC)                                      Declan Dickson (VIC)     

      M17                       Karl Withers (Qld)                                            Karl Withers (Qld)

      M40                       Peter Swanson (NZ)                                       Greg Barbour (NSW)

      M50                       Malcolm Roberts (NSW)                                     Malcolm Roberts (NSW)

      M60                       Peter Cusworth (VIC)                                     Peter Cusworth (VIC)

      M70                       Blake Gordon (VIC)                                         Graham Fowler (NSW)

      M80                       Graeme Cadman (VIC)                                  -
       
         
      Bulletins
      ASADA Anti-doping annual updates needed. Thursday, 27 March 2014 As part of Orienteering Australia's aim in keeping our sport drug and doping free all national squad athletes are required to undertake annual updates via ASADA's anti-doping online education courses. These need to be completed by Easter.
      Nominations closing for JWOC Team. Monday, 3 March 2014 Nominations close for Australian JWOC team on March 9th.
      MTBO World Championship Selection Criteria & Announcement of Team Officials. Tuesday, 11 February 2014 2014 World Championship selection criteria and nomination details for MTBO WOC & JWOC. Also announcement of team officials for these teams.
      Sprint Canberra Entries Closing Soon Wednesday, 15 January 2014 Entries for Sprint Canberra closing Saturday January 18th
      Sprint Canberra is Coming! Friday, 3 January 2014
      Details of 2014 Selection Trials and High Performance Squads. Thursday, 5 December 2013 List of High Performance squads & details of selection trials for 2014 WOC, WUOC, JWOC, Bushranger teams, and 2015 World Cup.
      JUNIOR WORLDS SELECTION CRITERIA Tuesday, 29 October 2013 Summary of selection criteria for the Australian team for the Junior World Orienteering Championships (foot) for 2014.
      JWOC selection criteria for 2014 Wednesday, 16 October 2013 The selection criteria for the 2014 Australian team for the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) have been announced.
      Bushranger team announced for September tests. Friday, 13 September 2013 Announcement of Australian and New Zealand teams for the Test match races in September 2013.
      January 2014 - AUS v NZ MTBO Challenge Team Nomination Tuesday, 3 September 2013 Details of MTBO Australian Team for Aus v NZ Challenge in January 2014.
      Tom & Alex do well in MTBO long championships Sunday, 1 September 2013 Summary of 2014 MTBO long distance championships from Estonia.
      World Games Summary Wednesday, 31 July 2013 The 2013 World Games orienteering Championships were held in Cali, Colombia on August 2-4th.
      Ricky Thackray, Patrick Higgins & Marquita Gelderman win Australian MTBO Championships. Monday, 29 July 2013 Summary of 2013 Australian middle and long championships held in Queensland.
      Qualification allocations for WOC 2014. Wednesday, 17 July 2013 In 2014 the WOC program will change to include a sprint relay and to eliminate the qualification races for middle and long titles. Below are the allocation of places for 2014 based on international results.
      Australian Women 13th, Men 20th in World Champs Relay Sunday, 14 July 2013 The Australian Boomerangs had a strong finish to their World Championship campaign in the forests of northern Finland Saturday. After a storming first leg from Simon Uppill the men's team placed 20th. While the women's team finished strong to place 13th.
      Simon Uppill and Hanny Allston 33rd in Middle Final Saturday, 13 July 2013 Australia had four starters in the WOC middle final today in the Vuokatti hills. Starting near the top of Vuokatinvaara the courses had many tricky downhill legs in thick rocky forest. With many mistakes by all runners even the medalists, it provided some great entertainment for the large crowd in the arena.
      Four Australians Qualify for World Championship Middle Final! Thursday, 11 July 2013 Today in the tough Scandinavian terrain of Vuokatti, Australia got four out of six runners into the middle distance final Friday.
      Hanny Allston 22nd in WOC Long Final! Wednesday, 10 July 2013 Hanny Allston made her WOC final return, after a 4 year hiatus, in the forests of Vuokatti with a solid 22nd place in the women's WOC Long Final.
      Successful Sprint Final for Australian Boomerangs! Tuesday, 9 July 2013 Australia had three top 35 placings in the World Championship Sprint Final today in Sotkamo.
      Four Australians Qualify For World Championship Sprint Final! Monday, 8 July 2013 Four Australians Qualify For World Championship Sprint Final!