ONSW Technical Director Rod Parkin
- Last Updated: Thursday, 28 October 2021 11:51
Meet your Board member.
This is the fifth in a weekly series where we introduce you to the people entrusted to run our sport in NSW.
Technical Director Rod Parkin (Bennelong Northside). Joined the Board 2020.
Rod wasted no time making his mark on our sport by becoming Australian Junior Men’s champion in 1973.
At the time he was in senior high school and heavily into outdoor activities. One of his teachers had heard about orienteering (then very much in its infancy in Australia) and suggested he try it.
Rod’s first event was at “Camp Coutts” just south of Waterfall in July 1972. It was run on a hand-drawn black-and-white map at 1:25,000 with very little detail. Imagine that!
As befits a sporting career nearing the half-century mark, Rod can’t single out a highlight but says he’s had many very satisfying times with orienteering.
His contribution to the sport extends well beyond being pretty handy with a map.
He has been on the Bennelong committee for quite a few years, including a number of years as Treasurer.
Rod is a Level 2 Controller and has been both Planner and Organiser for quite a few events, including at State and National level – most recently he set Day 1 at Easter this year in the rock of the new map Noah’s Ark Ridge.
Rod was asked to consider coming onto the Board because of his vast experience and the need to replace retiring directors. He was quickly convinced of the idea and is now our Technical Director.
He has been a director/owner of a few small-medium incorporated businesses and has held prominent positions in (smallish) publicly listed multi-national companies.
Rod’s also an SES volunteer. With that comes various levels of training in First Aid, storm damage, height safety, rescue, and chainsaw use. He has particular responsibility for the business administration of the North Sydney unit.
We are back in action!
- Last Updated: Monday, 25 October 2021 19:49
More than 200 happy orienteers celebrated a return to community sport over the weekend with runs in three different terrains.
On Saturday morning, the Bold Horizons crew put on a cracking 5km sprint at Hyde Park in the Sydney CBD.
Junior world championship selection Ewan Shingler (Big Foot) blitzed the fast, flat course in just under 19 minutes! Younger sister Nea, who was also picked for JWOC, was the fastest woman in 22m22s.
In Port Macquarie, our newest club resumed operations with hilly line courses on their Tacking Point map. The Hogs' IT guru James Stevenson was quickest on the Long course and Torgrim Soeyland fastest on the Moderate.
We noticed an entry on the Easy course called "Team Happy dragged away from devices" - we can all relate to that!
And outside Orange, Goldseekers had their final winter bush event for 2021 at Ophir South.
They start their sprint twilight series this Friday at Elephant Park.
NSW champs going ahead!
- Last Updated: Friday, 22 October 2021 13:02
The NSW championships are going ahead for fully vaccinated people on November 20-21 after the state government relaxed restrictions on community sport following the long Delta Covid outbreak.
We are delighted that our Uringa and Central Coast clubs will get to see their work come to fruition on maps north of Lithgow that we have not been on for eight years.
Entries have now reopened, and close on Sunday November 7.
Please note there will be no enter-on-day or string course.
The landscape is dominated by large pagoda rock outcrops inter mingled with spur gully. Thank you to Rob Vincent for updating both maps following the fires and the recent regrowth.
These will be our last two State League events for 2021.
ONSW Coaching Director Jamie Kennedy
- Last Updated: Thursday, 21 October 2021 09:56
Meet your Board member.
This is the fourth in a weekly series where we introduce you to the people entrusted to run our sport in NSW.
Coaching Director Jamie Kennedy (Garingal). Joined the Board 2020.
Is it comforting to know that our current coaching director got lost on an Easy course the first time he went orienteering?
Yes – because it got him hooked on our sport!
It was 2007 and Jamie Kennedy’s wife was looking online for fun runs. She came across a Garingal club event near them at Hunters Hill.
Along with sons Alex (then 9) and Tom (then 6), they found themselves instantly hooked.
“The Garingal members helping at the event really welcomed us and contributed to the experience. A few years later I found the map and wondered how I could get lost on such an easy course,” recalls Jamie.
There followed the standard procession: summer series, MetrO League, State League and national events as their skill levels and passion grew.
Jamie has been president of Garingal and is in his second stint as club captain (organising 8 teams for each round from about 80 interested GO members).
He and Tania ran the registration tent for the 2017 Australian Championships at Bathurst/Hill End. He has set, organised and controlled events and is a Level 1 controller.
A step up to Board level seemed a logical next move, representing NSW’s largest club where he can contribute to our sport in a different way.
Jamie has coached junior rugby and soccer and helped organise a tour to NZ for Alex’s rugby team in 2012.
While Jamie narrowly missed out on being picked for NSW in CHS Rugby in Year 12, he lists his career highlight as winning a NSW Sprint championship.
“It was a bit of a ‘Bradbury’,” he said sheepishly of his win in M50A in 2016.
“Thanks to injuries, DNFs etc I didn’t exactly beat the who’s who of that year’s class, but I won both legs of the double-header and got myself a cloth patch. Before we had to leave for lockdowns, that patch was stuck on my wall at work.”
