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Coming Events


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Sat 6 Apr 9:00 am
Forest Orienteering and Navigation Skills Day
Smiths Creek Reserve, Campbelltown (meet at Waminda Reserve, Macquarie Av, Campbelltown.

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Sun 7 Apr 9:00 am
Waggaroos Local event, Willan's Hill plus LTO Training session
Lord Baden Powell Drive, Willans Hill, Wagga Wagga.

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Sun 7 Apr 9:30 am
2024 Metro League #1 - Appin
Scout Hall, Burke St, Appin

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Sun 7 Apr 9:30 am
NOY1 - Archery Ridge (Elrington)
Archery Ridge (1:10,000)

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Sun 7 Apr 10:00 am
Mount Brown
4.5 km on Torryburn Road

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Sun 7 Apr 10:00 am
Goldseekers Bush Series #2 - Bridal Track Reserve
Clifton Grove (only a few minutes' drive out of Orange).

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Sat 13 Apr 1:00 pm
Highlands Forest Series #1 - Penrose State Forest
Penrose Forest North, 1:10,000

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Sun 14 Apr 9:30 am
2024 NSW State League #4 - Snow Hills (ACT Classic Series; ACT League #3)
Snows Hill . Mayfield Cross Road, Mayfield. About 1 hour drive south of Goulburn and 1.5 hours east of Canberra

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Sun 14 Apr 2:00 pm
Bluebottles April Camp at Belanglo
Belanglo State Forest.

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Sun 21 Apr 9:30 am
NOY2 - Redgum Ridges (Freemans Waterhole)
 Redgum Ridges 1:10 000

Welcome to Orienteering NSW

Orienteering is a sport that challenges both the body and the mind. It's also loads of fun!

The aim is to use a special orienteering map to navigate your way around a course and visit marked check points along the way. You choose a course that suits your age and experience and proceed at your own pace: walk, jog or run. It is a race but you decide if you want to just race yourself or be the next world champion! The course may take you through urban areas, parks, schools, farmland or forests.

Events are conducted weekly across NSW and beginners are welcome at all events.

New to orienteering? Click here for more information.

Want to enter an event? You can see what's on by looking at the Coming Events at left or by going to the Event Calendar. Some events are enter on the day - you just turn up and register at the start. Other events require pre-entry and for that you need to know about (and register with) Eventor - read the Eventor FAQ.


Tough, courageous, fast, quick thinking and tenacious

'Tough, courageous, fast, quick thinking and tenacious' were the words used by Mayor of Glamorgan Spring Bay Council, Bertrand Cardart to describe his impression of orienteers at the opening ceremony of the Australian Schools Orienteering Championships in St Helens on Monday evening.

The Schools State teams paraded their flags through the centre of St Helens before presenting them to the receiving committee at Portland Memorial Hall. Carnival organiser Warren McDonough welcomed and thanked the supporters of the carnival who included Orienteering Australia, represented by President Blair Trewin, Orienteering Tasmania, represented by President Martin Bicevskis and Break O'Day Council who have provided many of the carnival facilities, represented by Councillor Coulson, and Glamorgan Spring Bay Council.

Orienteering elites were also on hand to offer words of encouragement and advice to the Schools teams.  Lillian Burrill, 4 times JWOC competitor and graduate of the Schools Championships had three pieces of advice: 'believe in yourself, train hard in terrain and get race smart.'  NSW elite Josh Blatchford agreed: 'never underestimate the need to train and train in the forest.'  Aislinn Prendergast, Australian representative at the recent World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland counselled the youngsters to use the experience of the people they were meeting at the Schools Championships.  The coaches, the managers and the other competitors all had things which could contribute to a developing orienteering career.

Warren left the teams with these thoughts:

'You are not at these competitions by accident.  You are here through the hard work of your coaches, the support of your parents and your own perseverence, resilience, skill and hard work.  You are the best of the best from all our Australian States.  We hope you will perform at your very best this week.  Let the Championships begin!'

 

Tin mining terrain tests the best in opening races of the 2012 Australian Championships

The Australian Orienteering Championship Carnival kicked off at the weekend with the Australian Middle Distance and Tasmanian Long Distance Championships in areas close to St Helens in the north east of Tasmania.  Many orienteers took advantage of the model map to get acquainted with the race terrain and discovered the intricate tin mining erosion gullies and challenging earth bank features ahead of the first race.

On Saturday good runnability and visibility allowed many of the racers to build up a good head of steam, and winning times across the courses were quick. Others struggled with some of the more technical details getting confused with the network of bank and gullies and taking significantly more time.  Sunday was more of the same but with longer course legs and increased climb to test stamina and challenge the brain. Competitors enjoyed the larger field of entrants and the chance to test themselves against the best of the other Australian States.  New Zealanders are over in decent numbers and again showing their strength across the age groups. 

NSW orienteers have been having their fair share of success. In the Long Distance Championship M40 was a good class for NSW;  although the men couldn't hold off Jon McComb of Tasmania who took 1st place, NSW took the next three places with Jock Davis (BF) 2nd, Scott Simson (NCN) 3rd, Paul Marsh (BF) 4thBennelong Northside's Terry Bluett took 1st in M65 with Ross Barr (GO) 3rdEwan Shingler (BF) took the M10 class with SHOO's John Hodsdon scoring a win in M70.  The female contingent have been having a great Championship so far: Sophie Jones (UR) 1st W10, W35 1st Anna Fitzgerald (WH), 2nd Brook Martin (GO), W45 2nd Barbara Hill (GO), 3rd Paula Savolainen (GO), W60 1st Lynn Dabbs, W65 1st Jenny Hawkins (NTN) and W75 1st Maureen Ogilvie (UR)

The Carnival moves on to the Schools Championships on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by the Australian Sprint Championships on Friday, the Australian Long Distance on Saturday and finishing with the Australian Relay Championships on Sunday.  All race information, and results can be found on the Australian Championship website here.

 

Marketing efforts reaping rich rewards

Media coverage of orienteering is at an all-time high, with the hard work put in by clubs and the ONSW team bearing fruit. Local newspaper coverage has seen over 18 items already published this year, with more in the pipeline as Uringa and IKO club members line up for their photo shoot in early October advertising the Southern Sydney Series.  It's not just about reporting on events.  Upcoming events are being listed on on-line running and adventure racing communities such as Cool Running, Eventlist, AdventureRace, and KMSEvents.

Ian Jessup, Marketing manager for ONSW and principally responsible for supporting our media contacts, is really pleased with coverage of the sport by local newspapers and radio stations. 

‘There was a great article on Tim Cox in The Australian which really highlighted the strengths of the sport, and how it is both physically dynamic and mentally challenging.  It is a real difficulty to present our sport in soundbites, as it provides so many different things to so many people.  There is the wide age range we cater for, the different levels of physical fitness of those who can participate, and even the difference between the urban vs bush orienteering element to describe.  It is no wonder that the general public have widely differing views of our sport, but with all this media coverage the main messages I think are really getting out there are how much fun it is, and how accessible it can be. Most media outlets I deal with are taken aback by the range in ages, particularly, of our orienteers - but also the fact we cater for different abilities and the fact you go at your own pace. Not many sports can boast that kind of inclusivity."

So if you missed the articles or the radio broadcasts, where can you get access to them now?  YOu can read about the recent NSW Championships profiled in the Western Advocate (Bathurst) here and the Sydney Northern Regional Schools Champs which covered in the North Shore Times here.   A full listing is kept on the website at www.onsw.asn.au/index.php/media-coverage

If you come across any coverage in your area please let Ian know and we can add the material to the mounting pile of good things said about our sport. And if your club is seeking ways to broaden its publicity, Ian is here as your ONSW employee to help. Contact him on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 0416 040 135.

 

NSW MTBO Super Series 2012 draws to a close

A band of enthusiastic mountain bike orienteers descended on Clarencetown, in the Hunter Valley, for last two rounds of the NSW MTBO Super Series. The weekend was hosted by Newcastle Orienteering Club and consisted of a Middle Distance event in Uffington State Forest on Saturday and a Long Distance event in Wallaroo State Forest on Sunday morning.


Perhaps a little ambitiously, these events were the first where Newcastle used its newly purchased SI equipment. Thus behind the scenes there was much discussion of logistics and processes.  Unfortunately, teething issues on Saturday meant that splits were lost for publishing and the organisers offer apologies to the competitors for this.


Out in the forests and the riding was good since the areas had dried up considerably over the last month although on Sunday there was still some water on the tracks (which was mapped!) that had to be taken into consideration. Steven Todkill and Hilary Ellis took out the Mens and Womens Course 1 respectively, on both days.  Full results can be found here for SS7 Uffington and SS8 Wallaroo. David Ellis took out the “Epic Fail” award by injuring himself Saturday morning while surfing and then melting his wheel on the journey up to the events by having his bike too close the exhaust pipe! He did however assist the organisers throughout both events. Well done Dave!

The course setters,Malcolm Roberts and Andrew Power would like to thank all of those members from the Newcastle club who helped make the events a success, in particular Denis Lyons on Saturday and Caroline Taurinay on Sunday.

Thanks to Malcolm Roberts for this report

 

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