Latest ONSW News
Another cracking Darks Common event under the guiding hand of Richard Lauder was won by Big Foot Patrik Gunnarrsson going one place better than last year and leading in Lee Coady, who overhauled Paul Marsh on the second sprint, but couldn't keep up with Patrik despite catching him at the first control.
Read all about the fleet feet at Big Foot Sprints with Big Foot President Andy Simpson's report here.
WaggaRoos has won the 2012 Interclub Series against Albury. In the final event conducted at Connorton last Sunday WaggaRoos had a narrow 12 point to 8 victory bringing the overall scores for the four event series to 72 points to 52.
Briohny Seaman (W) had an excellent run on the 5.9km Red course which looped around three large hills. Participants needed to make careful route choice decisions to avoid the hills and rocky areas. A number of controls required fine reading of the underlying contour features which was difficult given the prevalence of black symbols indicating rocky features. On some hillsides the Stypandra was very pretty but also difficult to traverse.
For the Interclub series points are awarded according to places for an equal number of participants from each club on each course.
Briohny gained maximum points for WaggaRoos finishing almost 7 minutes clear of Albury’s Leigh Privett. John Oliver (W) was third in just ahead of Wayne Bajenoff (A). This gave WaggaRoos a useful 6:4 point lead.
Debbie Davey had a brilliant run on the 4km Red course finishing almost 20 minutes ahead of Norm McCann (A). Wes Campbell (W) finished in third place. Albury’s John Trevivian missed a control giving WaggaRoos 6:4 points for this course.
Kath Oliver had the fastest time on the 3.2km Orange course. The course wandered across more open areas and followed a pretty stream before heading back along some power lines. The Wetherspoon and James families enjoyed the wander even stopping for a short picnic lunch on the way. There were no Albury participants on this course so no points were allocated.
2 year old Hannah Holland and mother Catherine were the only participants on the 2.3km Green course.
Many thanks to John Oliver for this report.
Starting from the Music Bowl at the Botanic Gardens the emphasis of the day on Sunday 26 August was on skills development and a feature was a 3.1km self-help training course. Participants were provided with written instructions on how to do particular legs including extending the control, aiming off and running –on-the-compass, all navigational techniques that assist in simplifying complex legs.
In addition to the training loop there was a 4.5km course for the more confident orienteers and a 2km course for beginners. The courses primarily zigzagged along the hillside up to Captain Cook Drive utilising various point and linear features.
Catherine Holland, who was the top performer of the day, initially completed the 2km Green course ripping around in slightly over 13 minutes. Wanting a bit more exercise she then chose to tackle a few of the controls on the self-help course. However, she enjoyed it so much she just kept going and not only completed the entire course but also recorded the fastest time.
Julie Gooding spent a bit more time reading and recorded second fastest time. The James and Wetherspoon families combined as a group to enjoy a pleasant Sunday morning’s exercise.
Handicap honours for the day went to Edward Stow on the 4.7km course, which comprised two figure-of-eight loops;despite a couple of small errors he recorded a very good 48 minutes.
Thanks to John Oliver for this report
The NSW Schools Championships continues to draw in more junior orienteers for the annual competition. Amongst the schools represented Knox Grammar School and North Sydney Boys High School were out in force in the senior grades, with Mawarra Public School and Thirlmere Public School fielding teams to contest the junior races.
Cool running conditions made for cold spectating for parents but with the NSW Junior Squad catering team on hand there was plenty of coffee, tea and pumpkin soup to keep them warm whilst the competitors chased down titles in the forest. The Piggeries map used for the races this year can pose interesting challenges for even the most experienced orienteer with its distinctive rock features, track network and runnable pine forest plantation, but the juniors tackled it with confidence and turned in some great times.
Mawarra PS was triumphant in the Primary School competition for the second year in a row and a number of the faces winning their classes were familiar to coaches who have worked with Southern Highlands Orienteers on the South West Regional Championships. A strong contingent from North Sydney Boys High School, who have an in-school orienteering club, Falcon O and are frequent competitors in the Sydney Junior League, took the senior title.
The new competition for this year, the Regional Champions Cup was won by the Combined Independent Schools who included amongst their number Trinity Grammar School, Ascham School, Sydney Grammar School, PLC, and of course the mighty Knox Grammar School.
Full results can be found here, as well as Split times and Routegadget.
