Aston Key wins JWOC gold!
- Last Updated: Monday, 08 July 2019 10:51
A huge congratulations from everyone at ONSW to Victorian Aston Key who is the new junior world sprint champion!
Aston led from the very first control in Aarhus, Denmark and increased his narrow lead at each radio control to win by 13 seconds - a sizeable margin in this discipline.
It's only the second win at JWOC by an Australian, following Hanny Allston's victory in the Long Distance race in Lithuania in 2006.
Big Foot's Alastair George came 47th and Garingal's Duncan Currie 52nd. So there were four Australian men in the top 52 - a very impressive result.
We should also make special mention of our most recent scholar Grace Molloy of Scotland who came third in the women's sprint. Well done Grace (pictured below, right).
The race was held in a complex area of flats and houses, with some height differences. Especially in the arena, which was superb for spectators who had a superb sloping grass viewing area above the finish, with the spectator passage also clearly visible beyond it.
Race times were very fast from the start, but times at the spectator point kept being bettered, so there was excitement all the way with a lively and knowledgeable commentary and pictures from the course on the big screen.
Men’s and Women’s results can be found here and the splits here.
The men’s course can be found here and the women’s course can be found here.
The JWOC website can be found here. Monday is the Long champs.
JWOC, WMOC start this weekend
- Last Updated: Friday, 05 July 2019 14:44
Duncan Currie (Garingal) and Alastair George (Big Foot) will be representing Australia at the junior world championships in Denmark starting this weekend.
After Model events on Saturday, the medal races get underway with the Sprints from 10am on Sunday (6pm NSW time).
This is Alastair's second JWOC and Duncan's first. You can follow them via the event website here or the team blog here.
In a curious piece of scheduling, the annual World Masters champs are on at the same time in Latvia, starting on Saturday.
The seven NSW orienteers we found in the start list are Bennelongers Eric Morris and Gordon Wilson, Central Coast's Colin Price and Robyn Pallas, Garingal's James Lithgow, and Jean and Basil Baldwin from Goldseekers.
You can follow their progress via the event website here.
Mawarra win again
- Last Updated: Wednesday, 03 July 2019 19:39
Mawarra are creating a winning streak to rival Queensland in State of Origin after taking out yet another Sydney South West primary schools championships.
Their maroon colour matches that of the "Cane Toads" and they again featured in many of the age-class top-3 placings at Camden Equestrian Centre on Wednesday.
We had more than 300 eager students in Years 4-6 go for a map walk with a coach, then do an age race, and finally a mass start relay that is always the highlight of the afternoon.
We loved overhearing one teacher - who is retiring on Friday - say: "I wish I had known about this day years ago. It's fantastic."
A huge thank you to organisers Sandy Stewart and Lyn Malmgron and their team of helpers. You can see photos of the day on our Facebook page here. Feel free to download them for personal use.
Last week the SHOO club hosted the Southern Highlands high schools gala day at Mittagong, where Macarthur Anglican College prevailed at their first attempt.
Newcastle Shorts offer brief break from bush
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 02 July 2019 09:43
Newcastle added some novelty to the halfway point of the bush season with four quality sprint events at the weekend.
Two races each on Saturday and Sunday in a mixture of urban, campus, parkland and benign bush with no street crossings made for a nice break from the forest.
Around 80 competitors on Saturday were on hand at Cardiff High School and Hunter Sports High, while Sunday saw 55 people at Avondale College in Cooranbong (Sydneysiders were by then back home at the MetrO League).
You counted your best three runs, and the winners in the long class were Jenny Enderby and Alvin Craig, and in the short class were Erika Enderby and Andrew Power.
A big thank you to the Rigbys for co-ordinating this terrific weekend. You can see Tony Hill's great photos here.
