Junior national team orienteers converge on Whitehorse

Nothing separated orienteers Graeme Rennie and Lee Hawkings on the middle distance course of the Yukon Orienteering Championships yesterday.

Nothing separated orienteers Graeme Rennie and Lee Hawkings on the middle distance course of the Yukon Orienteering Championships yesterday.

The two junior national team members tied for first place in the male 21-34 age group with a time of 29 minutes and 37 seconds over 5.3 kilometres of the Mount Lorne map.

The two, panting at the finish line, were surprised when the results showed the tie.

Hawkings, of Whitehorse, called the terrain among the fastest he’s ever run.

“It’s a really flat, open forest, so you can see way ahead where you’re going and you can just hammer it. No climbs either, no big hills,” the 20-year-old said.

Rennie, who hails from Vancouver, said the sand was the biggest environmental obstacle.

The 19-year-old took first in the male 17-20 group in the sprint event the previous week with a time of 12:22 on the 1.7-km map at MacPherson.

“It’s a lot more forest orienteering than we get at home. Most of the orienteering we do is in our city parks, so for us to come up here and have the opportunity to get out on good forest maps like this so many times a week is just great.”

Rennie and Hawkings are two of the seven athletes prepping for the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) in Poland from July 2-9.

Of those seven athletes, six are currently training at the National Summer Training Centre in Whitehorse.

Hawkings and Kendra Murray – who was recently named to Cross Country Canada’s National Talent Squad for 2011-2012 – will represent the Yukon at the JWOC and are currently training at the national centre. The other three include New Brunswickers Graham Ereaux and Emily Ross, and Alberta’s Tori Owen.

Hawkings said this influx of national team talent is helping to raise the bar at the Yukon Orienteering Championships.

“This is the best competition there’s ever been at Yukon champs,” Hawkings said.

Rennie added, “It’s great because we all have each other to run against. When I’m in Vancouver, I’ve only got the adults in the club; but here I got my teammates and we really push each other.
It’s a lot better competition.”

Being a Yukoner, Hawkings is used to having to leave the north to link up with the best competition in the country.

This time, the competition has come to him – a welcome change.

“It’s good having competition for six weeks before a big race, racing other fast people. Before I’ve traveled down to Kamloops for races; this year I’ve been able to stay at home, so hopefully that helps in Europe,” Hawkings said.

Yukon Orienteering Association coach Brent Langbakk is responsible for spearheading the national training centre.

Well. Sort of.

Due to the growing reputation of the Yukon Orienteering Team, Outside athletes approached Langbakk asking to come train in Whitehorse.

That Whitehorse will be hosting the Canadian Orienteering Championships (July 22-24) and the Western Canadian Orienteering Championships (July 16-18) was another draw, Langbakk noted.

A board member with the sport’s national governing body, Langbakk then brought the idea of creating a more formal training group to the Canadian Orienteering Federation’s High Performance Committee.

“It just sort of morphed into this thing,” Langbakk said. “These are the best young orienteers in the country, so it’s really exciting to have them here.”

The national centre includes four organized training sessions each week, which includes three technical training sessions on various maps around Whitehorse and one physical training session on the ski trails at Mount McIntyre.

“It’s probably better training than any of us have ever done in Canada,” said Hawkings, who has competed at the JWOC last year in Denmark, 2009 in Italy and 2008 in Sweden.

Rennie’s best finish at the JWOC was 87th in Denmark.

The national training centre is necessary to gain on the Scandinavians, who are masters of the sport.

“To train to be the best at orienteering you really have to get that (training) down, because that’s what the Europeans have over us, they race like this,” Rennie said.

“For us, it’s a really important combination of physical and mental abilities. Anyone can train to be a really, really good runner, but it’s important to practice your navigation skills as much as possible, which is why it’s really important for us to get out on these complicated forest maps as often as possible. Four times a week is just great; like (Hawkings) said, it’s more than we’ve ever done here in Canada.”

Results from the YOC middle distance are as follows:

F12 (2.4 km)

1. Amanda Thomson 14:55

2. Hannah Jirousek 17:54

3. Sonjaa Schmidt 24:24

4. Taylor Mitchell 26:01

F15-16 (3.9 km)

1. Pia Blake 36:37

F17-20 (3.9 km)

1. Jennifer Mackeigan 43:31

F21-34 (4.1 km)

1. Kendra Murray 33:09

2. Pam James 35:28

3. Emily Ross 39:42

4. Kerstin Burnett 55:07

F35-44 (4.1 km)

1. McNeil Philippa 33:12

F45-54 (3.9 km)

1. Barbara Scheck 34:10

2. Sabine Schweiger 1:07:07

F55-64 (3.5 km)

1. Karen McKenna 35:34

2. Nesta Leduc 1:45:43

M12 (2.4 km)

1. Nichollis Schmidt 18:39

2. Finn Matrishin 25:24

3. Mettias Schmidt 29:21

4. Jake Trimble 29:23

M13-14 (3.1 km)

1. Leif Blake 31:54

M21-34 (5.3 km)

1. Graeme Rennie 29:37

2. Lee Hawkings 29:37

3. Graham Ereaux 32:29

4. Forest Pearson 33:35

5. Eric Kemp 34:10

6. Brent Langbakk 35:49

7. Nansen Murray 37:45

M35-44 (5.3 km)

1. Ryan Kelly 55:29

M45-54 (4.1 km)

1. Craig Brooks 1:40:05

M55-64 (3.5 km)

1. Grant Abbott 37:39

2. Jim Hawkings 40:14

Open 1 (2.4 km)

1. Savannah and Steve Cash 15:37

2. Kaitlynn Mitchell 26:44

3. Alliya Thomson and Fran Nyman 27:25

4. Colleen and Marshal Latham 35:43

5. Sennett family (4) 40:53

6. Phineas Pearson 40:54

7. Laina and Laura Prentice 55:10

8. Diane and Sophia Billingsly 55:12

Open 2 (3.1 km)

1. Jeremy Johnson 22:40

2. Deb Kiemele 40:20

3. Tracey Taylor 49:33

4. Sherri Cooper 57:09

5. Mabel and Ian Usher 1:01:11

6. Anne Tayler 1:25:08

Open 3 (3.5 km)

1. Cheylsea Mitchell 52:18

2. Wendy Tayler 52:21

3. Kristina Gardner 56:46

4. Doug Hitch and Junko Akiyama 1:01:54