Keeping in Contact (e-Bulletin 20 April 2020)

Although we are not currently offering orienteering events, you might like to get in some exercise by doing a permanent course local to your area. But please, follow all the social distancing and other rules in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (including park closures). And do not touch any of the controls. You simply have to spot them to call them found. In other words, now is the time for eye spy orienteering.

If you are an orienteering club member 16 years or older as of 31 December 2020, we ask you to find 15 minutes to complete this survey.

The survey is about your experience as a competitor and coach. ALL your answers, regardless of how frequently or infrequently you compete, and irrespective of your experience working with a coach or coaching another athlete, will assist in the establishing the priorities of the OA National Manager of Coaching and Development during 2020 and beyond.

One lucky person will WIN either:

Back in carefree March we kicked off the 2020 OST with two excellent events on the Golden Fleece maps. The wheels have since fallen off the series, but with luck we'll string together some events later in the year and have some good contests on the points tables. For now you can view the tables after those first two events, in the usual place: OST and Excellence.

Those people who represented Tasmania at the Melbourne NOL events instead of going to St Helens will be excited to hear that organiser credits are now also available to competitors for events missed due to competing in Tasmanian or Australian representative teams.

Hanny is Australia's most successful athlete ever at the international Elite level. She made her debut on the Australian team in 2004 at just 18. 

Hanny won gold at the World Championships in 2006 in the Sprint and anchored the women’s relay team to 4^th place. Earlier in the 2006 season she had won gold at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in the Long and a silver in the Sprint. Hanny won gold again in the Middle at the 2009 World Games.

In addition to her performances in the forest, she fulfilled the role of coach and/or manager at JWOC in Australia (Dubbo), Bulgaria, Finland and Norway. She was Tasmanian Athlete of the Year for Orienteering in 2006, Tasmanian Athlete of the Year for Athletics in 2007, and Tasmanian of the Year in 2006.

Hanny is now best known for her amazing trail running achievements. She sets herself challenges that for most of us seem completely nuts. Like running Tasmania’s 92km rugged South Coast Track in 12 hours and 20 minutes (most people take a full 5 days). Recently she completed a 19 day solo traverse for 700km across the French Pyrenees Mountains.

Along the way Hanny has also established her own business Find your Feet. Originally Hanny focused on the provision of performance coaching for people to improve their trail running. But now the business has grown, as a partnership with her husband Graham Hammond, to also include a boutique outdoor adventure and trail running store (based in Hobart and Launceston, but also with online sales. There is a 20% discount available for Tasmanian orienteers by using the discount code TasO). They also offer trail running tours in wild places in Tasmania, Australia and around the world.

Here is a complete list of Hanny’s international achievements in orienteering:

• WOC 2015 - 5th Sprint & 9th Long (Scotland)
• World Games 2009 - 1st Middle; 2nd Sprint; 4th Relay (Taiwan)
• WOC 2007 - 6th Long (Ukraine)
• WOC 2006 - Gold, Sprint (Denmark)
• WOC 2006 - Relay, 4th (Denmark)
• JWOC 2006 - 2nd Sprint (Lithuania)
• JWOC 2006 - 1st Long (Lithuania)
• WOC 2005 - 6th Long (Japan)
• JWOC 2005 - 3rd Middle (Switzerland)
• JWOC 2005 - 2nd Sprint Demonstration event (Switzerland)
• WOC 2004 - 24th Long (Sweden)