Tough start to State League season
- Last Updated: Monday, 19 March 2018 17:57
Diehards will tell you that the orienteering season only really starts with the first State League of the year - and, boy, was that the case at the weekend when we travelled east of Canberra for a cracking double header.
ACT club Bushflyers hosted us on Saturday at Collector; a map not used since the 2010 Easter carnival. Pretty much the entire map was strewn with dead wood, making the going tough and slow. On the plus side there was wildlife galore: hundreds of kangaroos, a large red fox, a deer, and even a shingleback ambling its way through the assembly area.
The course difficulty was reflected in 56 people mispunching or not finishing, and temps that reached the high 20s but thankfully not the 33C predicted. Kudos to teenagers Andra Leung (Garingal) and Niamh Cassar (WHO) for completing their first Hard courses. Quite a baptism of fire and congratulations to them.
Thanks to ACT junior Patrick Miller for setting a great challenge for everyone. It certainly sharpened us for the next day.
Sunday's event was on Big Foot's awesome Snows Hill map between Bungendore and Braidwood. This is a huge area of forest with very few guiding features - just thousands of accurately mapped termite mounds which meant you could 'pinball' among them en route to each control.
With temps again forecast to hit 34C, and strong winds, competitors were allowed to start early and soon found themselves on typical Long courses, with few controls and lots of complex navigation providing a true test. Expertly set by Simon George and controlled by Cath Chalmers.
Newcastle prodigy Alvin Craig bounced back from an mp on Saturday to blitz Sunday's 5.5km Hard 5 course in just 42m43s - that's a km rate of under 8. Wow!
All the weekend results, Winsplits and Routegadget can be found on our SL web page. Please fill out the very brief Course Setter survey for Sunday, and you can provide feedback on Saturday's ACT courses here.
2018 Schools champs dates announced
- Last Updated: Thursday, 15 March 2018 20:27
One of the highlights of our year is the annual regional and NSW schools orienteering championships. These events are a terrific promotion of our sport.
In 2018 we will be putting on a record 12 regional champs and gala days, plus the two-day state schools championships which this year are in Sydney's Hills District on September 1-2.
You can view the schedule here and download the flyers.
Last year we hosted almost 2,500 students across these days, run by our member clubs and partner organisation Bold Horizons.
The Sydney West primary champs are so big we'll be conducting two days for them - after last year we had 600+ entries!
We rely on a small army to conduct these days - and with up to 400 students at each event, plenty of help is needed and appreciated!
Volunteers assist with putting out and collecting controls, introductory level coaching, SPORTident timing, traffic and course marshalling as well as start and finish help. If you have some time during the week preceding or after the event but not on the day, you may also be able to assist with timing stick sorting and equipment collection.
Events and dates that we would appreciate help for are:
June 20 - Sydney West Primary Schools day 1 at Castle Hill
June 21 - Sydney West Primary Schools day 2 at Castle Hill
June 27 - Sydney South West Primary Schools at Camden
June 29 - Sydney West Secondary Schools at Castle Hill
August 13 - Sydney North Schools at St Ives
If you are able to help, can you please save the dates and let Barbara Hill (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) know of the events that you may be able to assist at.
Duncan, Dawsons star at Melbourne Sprint Weekend
- Last Updated: Monday, 12 March 2018 17:47
Garingal junior Duncan Currie showed his credentials with two third placings on the opening day of the National Orienteering League and Melbourne Sprint Weekend.
A fifth placing in Race 4, after an unfortunate mispunch in the Sunday morning relay, showed Duncan, 17, belongs in junior elite company despite giving away several years of experience to most of his rivals.
Visiting English scholars Peter Hodkinson and Will Gardiner dominated the men's elite M21E, where Aidan Dawson (GO) finished a creditable fifth in very tough company.
Aidan's older sister Michele was also fifth overall, in W21E, in another excellent start to the year.
In the age class competitions, Uringa's Shane Doyle earned a rare victory over Victorian legend Warren Key in M50 and led the division after the weekend, when he had to return to Sydney.
In W60, Central Coast pair Julia Prudhoe and Hilary Wood zigged and zagged for the entire six races before Julia edged out Hilary to claim the title by a solitary point (492-491; with the best five scores counting.)
And Ross Barr (GO) surrendered his M70 crown to local Tony Radford, settling for second. Final standings can be seen here.
Thanks to OV for a terrific weekend of quality venues, maps and organising.
Garingal family Hung(a)ry for success at O'Shea
- Last Updated: Sunday, 11 March 2018 17:54
Istvan Kertesz and partner Nikolette Halmai took out the 2018 O'Shea 2-days on the Central Coast in a closely-fought tussle over 3 runs at the weekend.
Only four minutes separated the first three teams in the Long Pairs division.
They were third after the opening relay at Rumbalara, then took the lead at the night event from local brothers Mark and Ken Schaefer (150m10s) and held on throughout Sunday morning's team score event to finish in 147m50s.
Istvan's sister Aniko and husband Peter Fozo led after the relay but lost five minutes at night as the new Mt Penang map was unveiled and ended up third. The Garingalites hail from Hungary and are loving life in Australia.
Newcastle orienteers dominated the Short Pairs, won by Stephen Craig and daughter Rebecca in 91m40s.
Malcolm Roberts and Carolyn Matthews were eight minutes adrift in second place, while Geoff Peel and Rudi Landsiedel were well back in third.
Overall results can be viewed here. Thanks to Central Coast for another great weekend.
