City, country combine for World Orienteering Day
- Last Updated: Thursday, 25 May 2017 08:48
City and country; bush and big end of town. You'd be hard pressed to find two more contrasting locations for World Orienteering Day than sleepy Dorrigo and beneath the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
An initiative of the International Orienteering federation, WOD aims to promote our sport worldwide. So, with 2,000+ events in 53 countries on all 7 continents (yes - even Antarctica!), and more than 77,000 participants - that goal appears to have been well and truly reached on Wednesday.
In NSW the first event was at Mt John's Primary School (lower pic) at tiny Dorrigo, 30km west of Coffs Habrour, with 49 students doing Space Racing. In the afternoon a further 12 entrants were at the local showground, the first public orienteering event held in Dorrigo, on a new map prepared by Maurice Anker from the Northern Tablelands club to offer Very Easy, Easy and Scatter courses. A big thank you to Jenny Hawkins (NTOC) for putting this on.
The official population of the Dorrigo Plateau is only 2311, so 61 orienteers represented almost 3% of the town!
Back in the big smoke by Milsons Point station, we doubt WOD had a better location than Bradfield Park.
Ninety participants, including 20-odd scouts, took in the Sydney Harbour foreshore, Luna Park, the PM's residence and other North Sydney landmarks under torchlight. The top photo was taken at 4.30pm as organisers were setting up. WOW!
We had guests from Israel, Ireland, New Zealand, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Hungary among others. Course setting thanks to Ross Duker and seamless organisation by Garingal. A great way to cap off a 23C day.
Wianamatta map debuts in MetrO League
- Last Updated: Monday, 22 May 2017 12:02
WHO unveiled a terrific new Sydney bush map of Wianamatta Regional Park for round 2 of our MetrO League on Sunday.
Opened just two years ago after more than 50 years off limits, the park is one of the last remnants of Cumberland Plain forest. The site has a history of farming, timber cutting and from the outbreak of WWII to the late 1980s housed an explosives and munitions filing factory.
It was flat terrain with a few earthbanks and former roads in a grid assisting navigation. When the white was white it was right for smooth running; when the white was green it was a bit mean. The plethora of small termite mounds (<1m high) required caution to locate among the scrub.
As such many of the times were a little longer than expected, but we'll put that down to first-time trial. At the top end of the competition the big guns certainly proved the course lengths to be correct.
Uringa's Ondrej Pavlu (31.35) helped the hybrid WHO Evers to a comfortable win over a severely depleted Big Foot n Division 1, while Garingal had a close victory over SHOO-IKO.
Garingal had a good day out, winning 7 of 11 contests. Their Dragons and Frill Necks won in Division 2, while Uringa's Ian Jones (32.04) was the only runner under 35 minutes.
KNOX's Thomas Gordon (34.45) and Bennelong's Alitia Dougall (39.47) were the only runners under 45 miniutes in Divn 3, with most clustered between 47-53 minutes. Winning times in Divns 4 and 5 were just above 40 minutes.
We thank WHO for this great new adventure in western Sydney. Scores are on the ML web page. A reminder that Round 3 is on a new map at Glengarry Girl Guides Camp in North Turramurra on June 25. This event is being run by the NSW Junior Squad.
South Coast gala day thrills eager kids
- Last Updated: Saturday, 20 May 2017 10:53
Our fifth annual South Coast primary schools gala day was another successful promotion.
IKO organiser Kev Curby reports: "Four primary schools from the South Coast District supported the event with 75 students from years 5 and 6 and some teachers.
Few of the students had read maps before, so it was quite a new experience for them. After a short break, the individual competition was held, courses going through bush and open areas of the Croom Sports Complex near Albion Park. The students had acquired their new skill very well, running the courses in quick times. The day finished with a relay event consisting of 25 teams of three. From the mass start until the last runner finished, excitement levels were high.
The Croom Sports Complex offers excellent conditions for beginners with a natural, lightly wooded bush area with a track network and plenty of open area that is used for training and competition for a variety of sports.
Nowra Public made a return attendance this year while Flinders Public, St Georges Basin Public and Aurora Steiner School attended for the first time.
Placegetters received a personal invitation to the NSW Schools Championships to be held on August 19-20 in the Illawarra.
Lyn Malmgron did a great job again, guiding the students through the day, Keith Jay set the courses, Ron Pallas provided his annual IT coaching session for me, and Salme Fuller, Rob Spry and Garry Stewart provided invaluable assistance on the day."
Long, long legs - and emus
- Last Updated: Sunday, 14 May 2017 20:38
Our clubs are rightly proud to unveil new bush maps - but there's nothing quite like opening the vault, dusting off an an old classic and giving it another airing.
So it was at Canyonleigh in the Southern Highlands on Sunday when Uringa called up the Arthursleigh map out of retirement for the NSW Long Championships.
Setter Nick Wilmott - giving up a weekend of his beloved hockey - tested everyone with long legs to pretty much every control on every hard course.
"Hey Nick, did you forget to pack all the controls?," quipped one wag. No, simply a case of doing more with less. The men's Hard 4 course, for example, was 5.6km and just 4 legs, plus a short hop to the 5th control and finish.
It was faster to contour around than to red-line, but the vagueness of the terrain (very little besides termite mounds and contour lines) also posed its own problems. You could really stretch the legs out (our M21A winner covered the 15.3km in 85 minutes!), but at the same time map contact was paramount.
As Australians we are used to seeing kangaroos on course, maybe even a snake, but today we were treated to emus! What a hoot! With the forecast rain staying away until mid-afternoon, it was a perfect day for orienteering. Hrad to think of more ideal conditions for a bush run.
Massive thank yous also to organiser Margaret Jones, SI guru Ron Pallas and the entire Uringa team. Happy Mothers Day everyone.
Clare Jessup's terrific photo album is on Facebook, and results are on Eventor. Please fill out the very brief course setter surveys for both days.
Our next State League weekend is the Australian 3-Days carnival in Wagga from June 10-12. Entries close Monday May 22.
