Friday 10 August 2012

10 days to go and the training camp is about to get underway

Welcome to the new look Australian MTBO team blog -- We'll be posting stories, photos and maps throughout the training camp and championships. You can read a little bit about the team using the "Team profiles" link above and there is also a link to the official website of the championships.

The 2012 World MTB Orienteering Champs start in 10 days in Veszprem, Hungary, and Australian team have been arriving in Europe over recent days. At least, those of us who are not already in Europe. I know our coach (Ian) has been soaking up some of the Olympic atmosphere in London and I (Mel) am writing from Cyprus. The team will be taking part in some practice races over the weekend in Budapest - the location for this years training camp.

I thought I'd kick off this blog with a quick overview of the team:

In the elite category we have a team of three men and myself. Steve Cusworth (Vic) is returning for his 4th WMTBOC - he won all three races at both the Oceania Champs last year and at the trials earlier this year and I'm just crossing my fingers that he avoids the mechanicals of the 2011 World Champs. Oscar Phillips (Tas), who rode in the junior championships last year, has stepped up into the senior category and Ricky Thackeray (WA) is racing at his first championships. In the junior team we have 5 competitors this year - it has been exciting to see that this category has become tightly competitive over recent years. Marc Gluskie (Tas) and Chris Firman (Qld) are coming over to their 3rd world champs, having competed in Portugal and Italy, and Tom Goddard (Tas/SA) is returning for his 2nd world champs. These three shared the wins at the trails in April, each taking out one of the distances. They will be joined by Karl Withers (Qld - the youngest member of our team) and Heath Jamieson (Vic).

The team is being coached by Ian Dalton from WA. Ian will also be coaching the team next year and will be taking the opportunity of checking out Estonia at the last round of the 2012 world cup because it will be the location of the 2013 championships. Our managers, Carolyn and Peter Cusworth will also be competing in the concurrently held World Masters MTB Orienteering Championships. The Australians to watch in the Masters categories are: Bruce Paterson (M40), Tamsin Barnes (W40), Peter Cusworth (M50), Richard Robinson (M50), Carolyn Cuswoth (W50) and Carolyn Jackson (W50).
More photos and stories coming soon...

2 comments:

  1. Keep the news coming! Good luck to all for the warm up events this weekend. Enjoy!!

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  2. Thanks, appreciative for modern technology! Keep safe and best wishes to all!

    ReplyDelete