Blackberries. Lots of blackberries
- Last Updated: Monday, 08 October 2012 10:09
Briohny Seaman secured a solid win at the WaggaRoos orienteering event conducted last Sunday in the Murraguldrie State Forest.
Starting near the Murraguldrie Creek bridge the courses looped across the undulating hillsides that were a profusion of orchids, wattles and egg-and-bacon plants. And blackberry bushes. The blackberries have infested many of the gullies and although the clumps could be reasonably easily traversed, strands tended to grab at ankle height.
Briohny Seaman made very few errors on the 5km hard course as she worked her way around the course to win by just over 6 minutes. In one area where the blackberries were rife she stayed well to the west avoiding the main infestations and then worked her way up a long spur to the control. Others went more direct zigzagging their way through the clumps and then across the undulations. Alex Davey missed out on the win due to a classic parallel error running down a spur south of the correct one; Wayne Bajenoff came third.
Debbie Davey had a great run on the 3.8km hard course winning easily from Wes Campbell who by his own standards had a disappointing event dogged by unforced errors.
Chris Lee won the 2.5km easy course. Participants on this course were led through the forest along a ridge line with the aid of some notes to help locate the controls. Although having orienteered previously this was the first time Chris had ventured out by herself. She finished just ahead of Kath Oliver. The Yeoman family had their first orienteering experience on this course and did well finishing in just over an hour.
Julie Gooding was the only participant on the 3.2km moderate course. The only difficulty she had was whether to stop and admire the orchids or continue running. The Waggaroos next event is 21 October at Pomingalarna, with their Summer Series starting on 22 November at Lake Albert.
Thanks to John Oliver for this report
Fabulous results for NSW Carbines
- Last Updated: Saturday, 29 September 2012 20:11
The NSW Schools Team, known as the NSW Carbines, have had a fantastic set of results at the Australian Schools Championships in Tasmania. As well as bringing home 2nd place overall in the team competition behind Tasmania there were medals galore for the individuals and teams.
Michele Dawson was a standout winner of the individual Senior Girls course, coming in first nearly 3 minutes ahead of New Zealander Lauren Turner. Michele's win is the first ever win for a NSW Senior Girl since the Schools competition was started over 13 years ago. Daniel Hill was the 2nd Australian home in the Junior Boys course in a highly competitive event which saw some very quick times at the top of the leader board. Georgia Jones missed out on a place by 42 seconds in the Junior Girls. There were solid results consistently close together for the NSW competitors, giving the teams Gold in the Junior Boys, Silver in the Senior Girls and Bronze in the Junior girls in the combined results. There was real disappointment for the Senior Boys with key runner Matt Hill sustaining a serious ankle injury over the previous weekend, which prevented him turning in the sparkling performance we have become accustomed to. Although the rest of the Senior Boys did their best, the Tasmanian, Victorian and ACT teams proved just too strong for them to get a place this year.
There was more excitement in the Relays on Wednesday and more success for NSW. Strong performances and high levels of concentration allowed NSW to take Bronze in Junior Boys, Junior Girls and Senior Girls teams. Senior Boys failed to finish when a brave performance by Matt Hill was cut short by a second ankle injury.
The announcement of the Honour Roll brought more awards to NSW with an amazing four of our athletes named. The Honour Roll recognises individual performance and consistency over the two days of Schools Championships from the entire Australian competition, so it is a matter of great pride that Michele Dawson (Senior Girls), Nicola Blatchford (Senior Girls), Daniel Hill (Junior Boys) and Georgia Jones (Junior Girls) were named in the Honour Roll for 2012.
Tough, courageous, fast, quick thinking and tenacious
- Last Updated: Thursday, 27 September 2012 16:40
'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
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 25 September 2012 16:59
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) 4th. Bennelong Northside's Terry Bluett took 1st in M65 with Ross Barr (GO) 3rd. Ewan 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.
