Profiling Oliver Poland

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Name: Oliver "Olle" Poland

                     At Mandurah Marina WA 2011

Age: 18            Years Orienteering: 13         Australian Club: Bushflyers (ACT)         Overseas Club: OK Nolaskogsarna (Sweden)

First Orienteering Memory: Saturday morning event at Mr Rodgers. I got so completely lost on a Blue course. I didn't even know what the black dashed lines were on the map (the tracks).

Running for Canberra Cockatoos Easter 2013 and at Glendale 2010

Best Orienteering Memory: Running through the spectator control at JWOC 2012 in 6th place. The crowd was so loud that it was impossible not to soak up the atmosphere. Also finishing that race to put the Australian team into 10th place was such a great feeling.

Worst Mistake: 15 minutes on a 100m leg at JWOC 2012 long distance. I still cannot figure out where I went during those 15 minutes of running around. Mind was completely blank. The winning time on that leg was 2 Minutes.

With fellow bushflyers Paul DeJongh , Parawangian Richard Hyslop, & Patrick Miller

 Favourite Orienteering Map: The Australian War Memorial (training map)

Orienteering Career History: ACT Schools team 2006-12, JWOC team 2010 -13 plus Oceania Team

When JWOC came to Dubbo in 2007 it was an inspiration for the boy helping on the stadium as well as his brother Luke and fellow bushflyers Lachlan Dow, Georgia Parsons, and Snowy Haiblan.

Family Orienteering story: David Poland (dad) has always been very involved in bushwalking but it was mum (Toni Brown) who first took me and my older brother Luke orienteering. Luke went on to place his team 5th in the relay at JWOCMTBO in Portugal whilst my little brother Noah is on his way to challenge my two consecutive NOL titles when he is old enough. Mum and Dad are both pretty competitive in their age groups and showed great form in NZ at Oceania and Sprint The Bay this year.

Orienteering Plans for 2013: Training and racing in Sweden, Racing in events such as TioMila and Jukola (both massive night relays in Scandi) as well as racing at JWOC in Czech Republic in July.

Life outside Orienteering: Huge love for music and mixing music. Planning on Moving to Melbourne for bachelor of Environments at Melbourne Uni next year

Orienteering Legend: Grant Bluett has been in my mind the best orienteer in Australia. Its been a huge honour to have had him help and guide me in my progression to elite orienteering.             ( photos thanks to John Harding and others)