Term 3 SOS starts this Saturday
- Last Updated: Wednesday, 19 July 2017 11:35
In Sydney this weekend, the SOS resumes its Saturday morning timeslot on a brand new map in the CBD taking in Hyde Park and the Domain.
Public transport is easily the best way to get there. Or park in the Cook and Phillip ($13) or Domain ($10) car parks.
Run by our partner organisation Bold Horizons, you can choose from line courses or a score course.
Term 3 for 2017 will be a mix of sprint and bush orienteering, and are excellent preparation for the NSW Schools championships in Wollongong next month.
Newcastle puts on glorious SL weekend
- Last Updated: Sunday, 16 July 2017 21:49
Our Newcastle club is truly spoilt for quality bush maps, and they rolled out another beauty for State Leaue 8 at Quorrobolong on Saturday.
The smallish Barraba Lane map had much fast open running, with a few steep watercourses thrown in to mix it up. And a smattering of tracks. A classic Middle Distance location and one that will see a lot of use in the years to come.
Georgina Macken (Central Coast) had a great win in W21A, while Gayle Shepherd (Uringa, pictured) crushed her W45AS opponents by eight and a half minutes - as well as taking out the 'chocolate leg' among rivals.
In M20A, Thomas Gordon (KNOX) pipped Alastair George (Big Foot) for a breakthrough win, while visiting Israeli Itay Manor (Uringa) edged out NSW Junior Squad coach Rob Bennett (Newcastle) in a closely contested M21A.
On Sunday it was a Long Distance event at Wallaroo State Forest on 'Rocky Ridges', a hybrid of two previous maps that offered some longer track running or more direct compass navigation, often to small point features such as tree root mounds or small rockfaces.
Nicola Blatchford (Newcastle) roared back to form in W21A, while Hunter Schools champs organiser Colin Bailey triumphed in a very close M45AS class. There were multiple victories in the Shingler (BF), Doyle (UR), Woolford (Bush n Beach), Enderby, Rigby and Craig (NC) families.
Our State League web page has links to all the weekend results, Attackpoint splits (by course) and Routegadget.
We also ask all participants to please fill out the very brief Course Setter of the Year survey for each day - this will provide important feeback for setters and controllers, as well as helping decide one of our prestigous annual awards.
A big thank you to Newcastle for a woinderful weekend, and a reminder that the next SL outing is in conjunction with the NSW schools champs in Wollongong on August 19-20. School students are to enter via Trybooking; everyone else via Eventor.
Tough start to JWOC for Toby Wilson
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 11 July 2017 12:37
NSW's sole representative at the junior world championships in Finland has had a baptism of fire in the Middle Distance qualifying.
Garingal's Toby Wilson - making his JWOC debut - finished 44th in men's heat 2 on Monday evening our time, meaning he'll be in the C final on Tuesday.
Eight of the Australians are in the B finals and 4 in the C finals.
The event website has an excellent live stream and GPS tracking so you can follow the athletes.
Turkey Trot becomes day of jakes and jennies
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 04 July 2017 09:32
There has been a changing of the guard in the Sydney Turkey Trot, with Big Foot junior Alastair George ending Garingal gun Glenn Horrocks' long winning streak in the iconic annual multi-map event.
It appears Glenn, who had 9 wins in a row (including two deadheats) recorded an mp.
Hosts WHO used the combined maps of Darks Common and Knapsack Gully at the foot of the mountains to set courses pretty much all in the bush for the three courses.
Alastair has been in red-hot form this year and must be a strong chance to make the Australian JWOC team in the very near future.
He won the 20km men's Long event in 1:45:18 (averaging just over 5 mins per km!), 40 seconds ahead of WHO's Andrew Hill, and three minutes quicker than Big Foot's Bart Vonhoff.
Al's sister Rebecca was second in the women's Medium course (12km).
Juniors performed well in other divisions, with Garingal's Duncan Currie winning the men's Medium course in 1:09:13 ahead off Big Foot junior Ewan Shingler and Garingal's Peter Fozo.
Georgia Jones from Uringa took out the women's Short (8km) while primary schooler Nick Stanley was third in the men's Short.
