Toby, Brooner dead heat at Goanna
- Last Updated: Sunday, 08 May 2016 19:22
Andrew Brown (Big Foot) and Toby Wilson (Garingal) tied for first place as the fifth annual Garingal Goanna enjoyed its closest ever finish on Sunday.
While "Brooner" punched the finish a fraction of a second ahead of Toby, they recorded identical times of 45m28s around the 7.3km course on the fiendish Clay Pan map at Beacon Hill. Brooner's clubmate Andy Simpson was just seven seconds adrift in third place on the long course. Michele Dawson (GO) was fastest female in fifth place.
In the DraGOn (5.3km), Paul Shingler delivered more good news for the Feet with victory in 41m28s, a bare 10 seconds ahead of Tom Kennedy (Garingal). Bennelong's David McGhee was third in exactly 43 minutes.
In the short GeckO (3.9km), Tom's older brother Alex climbed out of his sick bed to take the honours in 42m21s, a clear six minutes in front of Terence Chiang, one of a number of promising Garingal juniors coming through the North Sydney Boys High School program. Only one second separated WHO veterans Steve Dunlop and Ian Miller for third place.
This newish area is a ripper of a map on Sydney's northern beaches with its complex track network and coastal scrub making map contact a necessity.
In this unique 'goat racing' format, runners:
* have a mass start
* may follow each other
* have a box of 4 controls that can be done in any order
* may skip a control or two (depending on the course)
* have to choose a or b at a forked control
There was lots of animated discussion about skips, forks etc - and many runners realised in the post mortem that they had overlooked yet another option that may have been better.
Click on the blue links for the GOanna, DraGOn and GeckO course maps. Which control(s) would you skip? Which fork would you take? The 'clay pan' area which hosted the box was blown up (see pic top left) for easier reading on the run... but it seems 80% of entrants forgot to refer to it!
A massive thank you to Colin Burnett for configuring the courses in SI - this is a huge task for this event, and to setter Ian Jessup and controller Ken Jacobson for offering something off the beaten track, so to speak.
Results are here (including a brief analysis of skips, forks and box routes) - feel free to put your course on Routegadget. And there are photos on Facebook.
Henty aplenty at Riverina schools champs
- Last Updated: Thursday, 05 May 2016 20:19
A busload of eager students from Henty beefed up the Riverina schools championships to a record 101 entries at Wagga today.
The tiny town on the Olympic Way sent 54 kids from Years 4-6 along for the first time to this annual event that kicks off our regional schools champs season. It was a great introduction to the sport as they now embark on orienteering as part of the new federal government Sporting Schools program.
Students set out from the Music Bowl behind the Botanic Gardens and explored the western side of Willans Hill, basking in the superb autumn day. After a map walk with a coach to explain the basics, they each did a solo line course by age group then had a fun 3-person relay to cap off a great day.
Thanks a million to the Waggaroos club and WHO's Graeme Hill who made the trek from Sydney to help out. If you'd like your children or students to experience one of these days, see our schools champs page for more information.
Nicola, Michele headed for World Uni O Champs
- Last Updated: Wednesday, 04 May 2016 13:57
Nicola Blatchford (Newcastle) and Michele Dawson (Garingal) have added another string to their representative bows with selection in the Australian team for the world universities orienteering championships in Hungary in July-August.
The pair have been great buddies, great rivals and JWOC team-mates and can tick another European country off their impressive list of orienteering destinations.
The 11-strong Australian team is here and the event website is here.
We congratulate Nicola and Michele and wish them the very best in Hungary.
Muddy MetrO at Manly
- Last Updated: Monday, 02 May 2016 15:52
Muddy tracks made for some hard going in MetrO League round 2 at Allambie Heights on Sunday.
Setter Marina Iskhakova used the northern section of the Manly Dam map to full effect, setting some legs that required careful route choice by track due to the bush being fairly impenetrable in most places.
Division 1 found the going tough around the hilly 5.5km course, with the fastest time going to Andrew Hill (WHO) in 45m30s - a good 10 minutes outside the expected best. Big Foot and Garingal had comfortable wins and meet next round to see who remains undefeated.
There were two ties: Go Frill Necks ruing a mispunch against WHO in Division 2, and SHOO-IKO wishing they had a fifth runner against the GO Geckos in Division 5.
Hosts Bennelong Northside racked up double wins in Divisions 4 and 5 and look the teams to beat in those grades, with Tshinta Hopper blitzing the field by six minutes in Div 5.
Newly promoted KNOX continued their unbeaten run in Division 3 and had the three fastest times, headed by Thomas Gordon's 28-minute trailblaze.
Overnight and morning rain made for some mushy running but that didn't deter the almost 200 participants, including a group from Brigidine College. Thanks to Bennelong for another lovely day out on the northern beaches.
The ML web page has been updated with Sunday's results. Round 3 is at Sir Joseph Banks Park in Botany on May 29. Entries are already open.
