South African Performance at the Junior World Orienteering Championships

In order to determine whether or not high performance initiatives are baring fruit it is necessary to track the performance of our elite orienteers on the world stage.

There are essentially two measures of performance that are recorded here. The first is the athlete’s time compared to the winning time.  This is normalised as a percentage of the winning time to enable comparison across different races.

The second measure is the athlete’s position in the race.  For comparison this is expressed as a percentage of the size of the field.

Since the sizes of fields have changed over time and because the quality of the field may change over time, the preferred measure to use to monitor performance improvement is the athlete’s time expressed as a percent of the winner’s time.

What neither of these measures accounts for is the technical difficulty of the terrain.  This is somewhat of a subjective assessment and is not readily quantified.  Hence this set of records ignores the relative technical difficulty of the terrain.

For each event type, a table of individual results is recorded.  This permits analysis of individual improvement.  The tables are followed by plots of performance, which are useful in assessing team performance.

Performances in JWOC Long

Men

Year	Name	Position	Field	Time	Winner’s Time	% of Winner’s Time	Relative Position %
1996	Gary de Klerk	89	162	01:58:59	01:22:43	144%	54.9%
1996	Martin Terry	133	162	02:57:34	01:22:43	215%	82.1%
1996	Nicholas Mulder	137	162	03:08:15	01:22:43	228%	84.6%
1996	Mark Greeff	DSQ	162
1997	Nicholas Mulder	143	159	01:52:22	01:00:51	185%	89.9%
1997	Andrew Havemann	147	159	02:01:36	01:00:51	200%	92.5%
1998	Nicholas Mulder	73	111	01:17:52	00:56:17	138%	65.8%
2000	Pieter Nieuveld	146	155	02:12:23	01:09:53	189%	94.2%
2006	Dylan Hemer	136	167	02:18:17	01:10:41	196%	81.4%
2006	Alex Pope	154	167	02:34:00	01:10:41	218%	92.2%
2008	Dylan Hemer	119	169	01:47:37	01:12:22	149%	70.4%
2008	Alex Pope	126	169	01:51:05	01:12:22	154%	74.6%
2009	Brad Lund	135	168	02:14:48	01:05:55	205%	80.4%
2010	Michael Crone	142	156	02:29:57	01:20:48	186%	91.0%
2010	Brad Lund	137	156	02:11:55	01:20:48	163%	87.8%
2010	JP Sissing	149	156	03:54:39	01:20:48	290%	95.5%

Women

Year	Name	Position	Field	Time	Winner’s Time	% of Winner’s Time	Relative Position %
1996	Michele Mulder	95	110	02:46:26	01:06:24	250.7%	86%
1997	Michele Mulder	121	138	01:40:10	00:53:36	186.9%	88%
2000	Michele Mulder	129	146	01:43:49	00:59:43	173.8%	88%
2009	Sarah Pope	100	122	01:53:43	00:54:12	209.8%	82%
2009	Jessica Lund	101	122	01:54:14	00:54:12	210.8%	83%
2009	Zoe Brentano	112	122	02:15:59	00:54:12	250.9%	92%
2009	Jessica Hemer	113	122	02:25:52	00:54:12	269.1%	93%
2009	Salome van Hoepen	117	122	02:56:04	00:54:12	324.8%	96%
2009	Stephanie Courtnage	118	122	03:10:31	00:54:12	351.5%	97%
2010	Jessica Lund	114	122	02:18:30	01:01:55	223.7%	93%
2010	Sarah Pope	99	122	01:43:37	01:01:55	167.3%	81%
2010	Salome van Hoepen	108	122	01:49:42	01:01:55	177.2%	89%
2010	Zoe Brentano	113	122	02:05:18	01:01:55	202.4%	93%

The connecting lines track the improvement of an individual athlete.

In the case of the Women there is a clear improvement from 2009 to 2010.  In both years the same athletes participated.  The best performance in 2010 represents the best-ever performance by a woman in the JWOC Long event.

In the case of the Men there is also a clear improvement from 2009 to 2010.  The best performance for the Men was achieved by the athlete who also attended the previous year.  The best performance in 2010 is nearing the best-ever performance of a man in the JWOC Long event.

Performances in JWOC Short/ Middle (Heats)

Men

Year	Name	Position	Field	Time	Winner’s Time	% of Winner’s Time	Relative Position %
1996	Martin Terry	120	165	00:45:33	00:29:05	157%	72.7%
1996	Gary de Klerk	146	165	00:54:07	00:29:05	186%	88.5%
1996	Nicholas Mulder	153	165	00:59:06	00:29:05	203%	92.7%
1996	Mark Greeff	160	165	01:04:49	00:29:05	223%	97.0%
2000	Pieter Nieuveld	41	52	00:35:31	00:25:54	137%	78.8%
2006	Alex Pope	46	57	00:34:42	00:20:17	171%	80.7%
2006	Dylan Hemer	49	56	00:42:28	00:20:26	208%	87.5%
2008	Alex Pope	38	58	00:37:36	00:27:04	139%	65.5%
2008	Dylan Hemer	48	58	00:44:56	00:25:55	173%	82.8%
2009	Brad Lund	55	58	00:47:21	00:26:17	180%	94.8%
2010	Mike Crone	52	53	00:36:14	00:21:38	167%	98.1%
2010	JP Sissing	53	53	00:49:13	00:21:00	234%	100.0%
2010	Brad Lund	42	52	00:30:53	00:21:43	142%	80.8%

Women

Year	Name	Position	Field	Time	Winner’s Time	% of Winner’s Time	Relative Position %
1996	Michele Mulder	101	113	00:52:10	00:26:32	196.6%	89%
2000	Michele Mulder	36	49	00:30:49	00:24:19	126.7%	73%
2009	Salome van Hoepen	34	42	00:37:07	00:25:19	146.6%	81%
2009	Zoe Brentano	38	42	00:48:04	00:27:20	175.9%	90%
2009	Jessica Hemer	38	42	00:45:18	00:25:19	178.9%	90%
2009	Sarah Pope	35	40	00:45:24	00:23:53	190.1%	88%
2009	Jessica Lund	36	40	00:47:37	00:23:53	199.4%	90%
2009	Stephanie Courtnage	39	42	00:58:35	00:27:20	214.3%	93%
2010	Salome van Hoepen	36	42	00:34:57	00:23:20	149.8%	86%
2010	Jessica Lund	37	42	00:37:14	00:23:21	159.5%	88%
2010	Zoe Brentano	39	42	00:41:11	00:23:21	176.4%	93%
2010	Stephanie Courtnage	37	41	00:34:34	00:22:45	151.9%	90%
2010	Sarah Pope	39	41	00:38:58	00:22:45	171.3%	95%

The connecting lines track the improvement of an individual athlete.

In the case of the Women there is a clear overall improvement from 2009 to 2010, although the best performance of 2009 was not improved upon in 2010. In both years the same athletes participated. There is still some way to go to attain the best-ever performance for a woman in the JWOC Middle event, which was achieved in 2000.

In the case of the Men there is also a clear improvement from 2009 to 2010. The best performance for the Men was achieved by the athlete who also attended the previous year. The best performance in 2010 is nearing the best-ever performances of a man in the JWOC Middle event. These were achieved in 2000, closely followed by 2008.

The worst performance in 2010 was at a comparable level to historic performances for first-time participants at JWOC.

Performances in JWOC Sprint

Men

Year	Name	Position	Field	Time	Winner’s Time	% of Winner’s Time	Relative Position %
2006	Dylan Hemer	130	162	00:15:38	00:11:45	133.0%	80.2%
2006	Alex Pope	136	162	00:15:59	00:11:45	136.0%	84.0%
2008	Dylan Hemer	121	173	00:16:48	00:13:21	125.8%	69.9%
2008	Alex Pope	130	173	00:17:14	00:13:21	129.1%	75.1%
2009	Brad Lund	143	169	00:20:40	00:14:43	140.4%	84.6%
2010	Michael Crone	109	153	00:16:30	00:13:04	126.3%	71.2%
2010	Brad Lund	137	153	00:18:40	00:13:04	142.9%	89.5%
2010	JP Sissing	142	153	00:20:12	00:13:04	154.6%	92.8%

Women

Year	Name	Position	Field	Time	Winner’s Time	% of Winner’s Time	Relative Position %
2009	Stephanie Courtnage	82	120	00:17:31	00:13:34	129.1%	68%
2009	Salome van Hoepen	84	120	00:17:49	00:13:34	131.3%	70%
2009	Jessica Lund	93	120	00:18:46	00:13:34	138.3%	78%
2009	Sarah Pope	97	120	00:19:25	00:13:34	143.1%	81%
2009	Jessica Hemer	108	120	00:22:27	00:13:34	165.5%	90%
2009	Zoe Brentano	110	120	00:23:36	00:13:34	174.0%	92%
2010	Stephanie Courtnage	63	118	00:16:58	00:13:36	124.8%	53%
2010	Jessica Lund	92	118	00:19:01	00:13:36	139.8%	78%
2010	Sarah Pope	101	118	00:20:33	00:13:36	151.1%	86%
2010	Salome van Hoepen	103	118	00:21:03	00:13:36	154.8%	87%
2010	Zoe Brentano	104	118	00:21:40	00:13:36	159.3%	88%

The connecting lines track the improvement of an individual athlete.

In the case of the Women there is a clear overall improvement from 2009 to 2010, with a new best-ever performance for a woman in the JWOC Sprint event.  In both years the same athletes participated.

In the case of the Men there is also a clear improvement from 2009 to 2010.  The best performance for the Men was achieved by an athlete who attended JWOC for the first time in 2010.  The best performance in 2010 was fractionally the best-ever performance of a man in the JWOC Sprint event, previously achieved in 2008.