Latest ONSW News

The 2012/2013 Duo Adventure race series has just been announced and it looks to be a fantastic set of races this year!  A new course for novices is included to allow whole families to participate, and fee structures have been reviewed to make the series even more attractive than ever.  ACT Orienteering has joined in too with the last race of the series being held in Canberra - just part of the DuO Adventure Race world domination plan. 

With 4 great races in fantastic areas in Newcastle, Belanglo and Canberra, the growing group of DuO Adventure enthusiasts are going to have so much fun this season. 

Race 1. 4th Nov 2012 Hawkemount (Awaba) Newcastle club
Race 2. 2nd Dec 2012 Bluegum Hills Regional Park Minmi Newcastle Club
Race 3. 10th Mar 2013 Belanglo (Southern Highlands) Bigfoot Club
Race 4. 14th Apr 2013 Canberra ACT Orienteering

Read all about it in the latest newsletter from organiser Greg Bacon.

And if that were not enough, DuO Adventure has a brand new sponsor.  Active Cycles of Newcastle is onboard to support our 2012-13 Race Series with Trek Australia.  They have supplied a Trek Cobia 29 er as the lucky draw prize for the series!  The more you enter, the more chances there are to win a brand new bike!

Get the dates in your diary and take up the challenge!

Goldseekers event at Oaky Creek on 5th August attracted 54 people on a lovely sunny morning.  Reddall Leslie had set very good courses in this popular area of native bush near Mullion Creek. Darren Francis continued his good form by winning the Hard Long course while Daniel Parton put in a good run to come third.  Daniel will be travelling to Tasmania with the NSW Schools Team to compete in the National Championships in October.

Greg Smith was the winner of the Hard Short course.  Stephen Johnson and his daughter Hannah won the popular Moderate course.  Three families came along to their first event and all successfully completed the 2.8km Easy course with the Livermore family taking first place.  Competitors had travelled from as far away as Dubbo, Rylstone, Katoomba, Bathurst and Molong. 

Thanks to Jean Baldwin for this report and photograph.

Riverside Girls High School bested the boys teams to take the title of Champion High School at the recent Northern Region Schools Championships .  Nearly 100 runners, the great majority with no prior experience, raced at the St Ives Showground last week. Coaches from Orienteering NSW worked with the youngsters through an introductory coaching session which was followed by individual courses and relays.  The delight on the students' faces and the spirit that they displayed as they cheered each other on was really uplifting.

The courses were testing but that so many did exceptionally well shows how good coaching can bring beginners on quickly.

Champion primary school was St Ives North Public School.

Other results:

1st boys relay team was Normanhurst Boys High School (Daniel Hill, Adam Halmy and Matthew Osborne)

1st girls relay team was Riverside (Emily O'Loughlin, Rosie Browell and Anne Vervoort)

1st primary relay team was Turramurra Public School (Rachel Osborne, Hannah Wilkinson and Veronica Hardman)

1st composite team was St Ives Public/Chatswood High School (Joanna Hill, Sara McDonald, Sam Wilkinson).

The behaviour of ALL 90 students was exemplary and they all competed with great spirit.

Many thanks to sponsors of the event, The Athletes Foot, St Ives who donated prizes and also to Ku-ring-gai Council for allowing the use of the fantastic venue.

Thanks to Barbara Hill for this report

More photographs of the event can be found in the North Shore Times gallery

Western Hills were in position to take three titles yesterday at the MetrOLeague finals yesterday at Mount Annan, and did in fact beat Illawarra Kareelah 34:21 points to win Division C.  However it was mighty Big Foot who took Division A and Division E from them winning strongly 30:18 and 35:20 respectively.  Garingal, despite having a massive 6 teams in the events, scored a win only in Division B beating Bennelong Northside 32:23.  Uringa mopped up the remaining division, winning D division also against a disappointed Bennelong.

The new map from Dave Lotty and SHOO of Mount Annan was a delight to run.  Sweeping grassy hillsides with small plantations of native trees made for very scenic running.  Mount Annan itself added some physicality to the map, with Course A having some 250m of climb as well as its 6.6km length, but no-one was complaining. The co-located assembly, start and finish were in a pretty glade surrounded by garden beds, which made it feel like the orienteering community had the park to itself, which apart from a few mountain bike enthusiasts, it mainly did.  Only the southern half of the map was used, which provided an opportunity for beginners and more experienced alike to run off the map on the northern edge, but also means that there is more of this fantastic map to discover in the near future.