New controllers minted
- Last Updated: Friday, 13 July 2018 18:19
We had ten people attend the recent controllers workshop in Sydney.
ONSW Technical Director Andrew Lumsden ran a packed full-day program which generated lots of feedback and discussion.
Attendees are reminded of the need to do the online officials course, and complete the initial 'points table', to gain accreditation.
We look forward to seeing these new and re-accredited controllers in action.
Thanks, Andrew
Six ONSW athletes into WMOC Middle A finals
- Last Updated: Wednesday, 11 July 2018 11:43
NSW has six orienteers into the A finals of the Middle Distance at the World Masters champs in Denmark tonight (Wednesday).
Briohny Seaman (Waggaroos, W35A), Hilary Wood (Central Coast, W60A), Debbie Davey (Waggaroos, W60A), Jean Baldwin (Goldseekers, W75A), Maureen Ogilvie (Uringa, W85A), Patrik Gunnarsson (Big Foot, M40A) made it into the top finals.
You can see a short video of the day's highlights from Tisvilde Hegn here.
Tisvilde Hegn is legendary in Danish Orienteering for its special vegetation and characteristic contour features.
The forest primarily consists of conifers, but beech is also found – primarily in the eastern parts. With its rapidly changing visibility, the terrain will challenge the participants’ capabilities to alter their speed and navigate carefully in very detailed areas.
Tough JWOC baptism for Alastair
- Last Updated: Wednesday, 11 July 2018 11:03
Big Foot's Alastair George is learning just how fierce the competition is at the junior world champs in Hungary.
Alastair (pictured) is arguably NSW's top junior orienteer, posting impressive km rates across all three formats, but Europe's elites are taking it to a whole new level.
In the JWOC Sprint last night, the men's winner Colin Kolbe from Germany covered the 4.1km course in 15:48. That's less than 4 minutes per kilometre! Victorian Aston Key was equal ninth, a terrific performance following his recent win in the European under-18 titles.
The race was in the middle of Kecskemét, a very flat area with parks and narrow alleyways.
Alastair finished 100th and 3:13 off the pace. Now, let's just think about that for a tick... 3:13 is 193 seconds - so on average there are two seconds separating each of the first 100 placegetters. Wow. Just looking at your map can cost time!
In the women's Sprint, our new scholar Grace Molloy from Scotland tied for 17th.
The champs opened on Monday with the Long Distance in relatively flat terrain. Alastair was 103rd in 96:43 for the 15km course. Special mention goes to Tara Melhuish for her 27th position which is the best result for an Australian woman in the long distance at JWOC since Laurina Neumann’s 25th in 2008.
Wednesday is a well earned rest day. Thursday sees the Middle Qualifying and Friday the finals, with the Relays on Saturday.
You can catch all the action, results, splits and routegadget via the champs website.
World Masters, JWOC underway
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 10 July 2018 06:08
It's that time of the year when the seriously big carnivals dominate the European summer - and this week we have the annual World Masters and Junior World Championships underway.
Big Foot's Alastair George is the sole NSW representative at JWOC in Hungary. Competition starts tonight with the longest Long course ever for the junior men - 15km! You can catch all the action via the champs website.
Alastair is off at 5.59pm on Monday. Our new scholar, Grace Molloy from Scotland (who arrives in late September), is also competing.
WMOC in Denmark has already begun, with the Sprint finals run overnight. Ross Barr and Ron Junghans (Garingal), Debbie Davey and daughter Briohny Seaman (Waggaroos), Julia Prudhoe (Central Coast) and Jean Baldwin (Goldseekers) made their respective A finals.
Debbie fared the best, placing 12th in W60A. Courses were set around Copenhagen's inner harbour and seemed far too easy overall, with only a couple of legs featuring difficult route choices. You can catch all the action via the WMOC champs website.
Middle distance qualification is on Tuesday.
One fascinating event in the lead-up was an indoor sprint in a multi-level high school campus (called a Gymnasium - but not a gym as such). The map covered four levels, and controls were found between book shelves, in a toilet, at a piano, in offices and classrooms. Very tricky and exciting orienteering. Here's the map! How do you get from 10 to 11? Look carefully!
GO's Barbara Junghans said: "This event was amazing! The organisers/course planners obviously put a lot of effort into ensuring the desks in the class rooms and the open plan areas matched the arrangement on the map perfectly. Simply by using red-and-white tape they created many devious blockages to potential routes, which really made us think."
Read all about the indoor sprint here and see pics here - do you know of a location we could do this in NSW?
