National Teams Announced

Congratulations to the athletes chosen to represent South Africa! The Junior team will be going to the Junior World Orienteering Champs in Slovakia. The Youth team will be doing the spectator events at the World Masters Orienteering Champs in Germany as well as at the Junior World Champs in Slovakia.

The junior team includes: Stephanie Courtnage, Jessica Hemer, Sarah Pope, Salome van Hoepen, Bradley Lund and Anthony Stott.
The Youth team includes: Jessie and Cian Oldknow, Christie Courtnage, Laura Troost, Sarah Dutkiewicz, Timothy Chambers, Dylan Barry, Greg and David Avierinos and Roark and Miguel Robinson.

Squads for 2012

The SAOF Selection Committee have announced the Junior, Youth and Development national squads for 2012:

Junior Squad:

Men: (In no particular order)

Bradley Lund

JP Sissing

Anthony Stott

Greg Avierinos

Women: (In no particular order)

Stephanie Courtnage

Jessica Hemer

Sarah Pope

Salome Van Hoepen

Youth Squad:

Boys: (In no particular order)

Roark Robinson

Timothy Chambers

David Avierinos

Dylan Barry

Miguel Robinson

Girls: (In no particular order)

Laura Troost

Cian Oldknow

Jesse Oldknow

Christie Courtnage

Sarah Dutkiewicz

Development Squad:

JP Sissing

All the athletes listed above will be expect to show steady improvement, commitment and fitness throughout the year. Included in this, the above athletes will be required to attend any squad trainings held in their respective provinces as well as 3000m track fitness assessments on dates to be advised. Team selection announcements will be made in March 2012.

Doornpoort

After a month of orienteering in Europe, the first run back home can be a bit boring but the event at Doornpoort was very enjoyable. The courses were tricky and we didn't go over the hill. The ruins, rocks an vegetation make it a great area.

Cobus won in 1:01:40. Below is the map with Alex's (2nd) route in orange, Brian's route is in blue. He was 4th. Garry's (7th) route is in Green. My route is in red. The splits are here.

Hennops Pride

Our first South African orienteering event since being home :)

It was a nice course and a lot of the juniors did well. Timmy won the blue course convincingly, Greg was really fast on brown and had a good result, without mistakes he would have been competing for top spots.

Salome won the womens section of brown course, and I won overall. Here is a map and my route in green, and Alex who came second in orange:

Sprint event route choice

Here is a pretty interesting route choice from the JWOC sprint event ( at least I think it is :)

When I looked at it during and after the race I was really sure that one route was a lot better but now I'm not so sure. Which route would you choose, Green or Blue?

I went green but the winner went left on the blue route. Which one do you think is better?

We've settled into our accommodation and are getting excited for the first race. We've had some good training sessions. Middle/long model is this afternoon and sprint model and opening ceremony tomorrow.

Check out the RSAjuniors and Brads twitter feed for regular updates.

Also check out the official JWOC site for more info.

Welcome to Poland!