There's no business like sn-O business
- Last Updated: Monday, 03 August 2015 20:37
While the east coast 'sweltered' in the rare winter warmth of 24 Celsius, two dozen hardy souls took to Perisher for the second annual NSW Ski Orienteering Championships on Sunday.
25 starters braved temperatures around zero (but which felt like about -7C) to take on the three courses set for Big Foot by their resident Swede Patrik Gunnarsson.
South Australian Ben Rattray (he of the Orienteering Australia introductory videos) took out the long course in 2.05.08, less than a minute clear of James Bailie. Mace Neve, a Victorian orienteer living in Canberra, won the medium and Wendy Hughes prevailed in the short novice course.
Garingal's Nicole Sellin was third on the novice course, while clubmate and ONSW junior Duncan Currie (pictured, left) unfortunately was one of several athletes to mispunch - will we soon see a 'Jeff' cartoon based on ski-o?.
OACT's David Poland reports: "Route choice was paramount with rain and the slow snow favouring those good navigators who risked leaving the groomed trails to cut corners and follow the map detail. Several newcomers had a go. Some had never orienteered before, some had never skied before and one had never even seen snow before! It was an exhilarating if rather wet day for all.
We thank Big Foot, Patrik and the Perisher XC week people for allowing us to put on such a pioneering event.
Results are on Eventor.
Vacancy for Development Officer Co-ordinator
- Last Updated: Thursday, 30 July 2015 12:19
Are you highly organised? Able to manage a diverse range of people? Orienteering NSW is looking to appoint a Development Officer Co-Ordinator to manage our growing load of requests for assistance.
The position is two days a week but initially may involve additional hours as we bed down the new Sporting Schools program as well.
ONSW receives many requests for development work: from schools, scout/guide groups, corporates, to co-host charity events, and even to put on orienteering birthday parties. Our aim is to double participation by 2020. The Development Officer Co-Ordinator will drive this growth in conjunction with the Admin Officer and Marketing & Communications Officer.
Please see the job advertisement for further details. Applications must be made by August 31 to Paul Prudhoe (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
MetrO League finalists sorted after Manly Dam
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 28 July 2015 10:10
A beautiful blue sky, temps nudging 20C, wildflowers galore and sensational views to the CBD - the serenity of MetrO League round 5 at Manly Dam hid the tense battles for places in the final on a tough map.
There was plenty of drama in Division 4, where the young GO Legless team jumped from fourth to take second place on points difference after thrashing hosts Bennelong. Uringa-Central Coast blew their chance by losing to the GO Monitors; likewise WHO's loss to top team KNOX meant they dipped out.
In Division 2, SHOO edged out defending champions Big Foot on points difference to grab second spot. SHOO benefited from two Bennelong runners recording an mp.
In Division 3, IKO and UR-CC were untroubled and finished well clear of the rest of the pack. In Division 5 the bottom three teams all won, meaning UR-CC and WHO stayed first and second.
In Division 1, Garingal at last got the better of Big Foot in the cross country scoring method. Their final promises to be a cracking contest.
Our finals on August 23 will be:
Division 1 - Big Foot v Garingal
Division 2 - GO Dragons v SHOO
Division 3 - IKO v Uringa-Central Coast
Division 4 - BF-KNOX v GO Legless
Division 5 - UR-CC v WHO
The map was almost entirely green and black; so it was a constant battle to retain map contact as all the many tracks, fire trails, rockfaces and boulders seemed a blur. As such, times were generally slow even the courses were not that long.
The thick bush meant visibility was low; combined with all the rockfaces and bare rock this placed placing a premium on map reading.
At the pointy end the big guns were untroubled: WHO's James MacQuillan broke through for a maiden win in Division 1 in 38m51s, Garingal junior Duncan Currie (38m17s) streeted Division 2 by a massive six minutes, IKO rookie Simon Louis (29m56s) was seven and a half minutes clear in Division 3, and KNOX captain Dylan Sherman (31m17s) took out Division 4 by five and half minutes. Wow. Congratulations on such great orienteering.
In the contest for the individual medals, Angus Shedden (SH) has won Division 2. The tightest race is in Division 4, where Garingal junior Tom Kennedy and WHO's Marie Ringer (40) are just in front of Dylan Sherman (39). Toby Wilson (GO) leads Divn 1 from Andrew Brown (BF) and James MacQuillan. In Division 3, only a point separates Nicole Sellin (GO) from Linda Sesta (UR, who was absent on Sunday). And in Division 5, John Russell (SH) has a seven-point lead over Garingal pair Ellis Leung and Ian Jessup.
Thanks to Bennelong for a great day out. Results are on the ML web page, along with the draw for the last round at Nurragingy.
Junior squad camp a big success
- Last Updated: Wednesday, 22 July 2015 19:49
Our NSW junior squad had a great three-day camp in Orange at the end of the school holidays to prepare for the Australian championships in Ballarat in September.
Our regular juniors were joined by 5 new juniors from Wagga Wagga and 6 juniors from ACT. We had a total of 41 juniors and parents. Coach Jock Davis had planned some training for juniors and parents that started at Kahli's Rocks and moved onto Macquarie Woods and Gumble. Jock was assisted by Michele Dawson (in far right of pic) and Toni Brown.
On Friday night Michele shared with the juniors her experience at 3 Junior World Orienteering Championships, how to nominate for JWOC, selection races and the benefits of representing Australia. This proved to be very popular with lots of juniors taking the opportunity to ask questions over the next couple of days. Visting Danish orienteer Stefan Frands Petersen also assisted with coaching and discussing JWOC.
On Friday night, juniors also met with Jock to discuss their training maps and route choices, or with Toni to test their knowledge and visualising powers through several paper based activities.
Saturday's training took place at Macquarie Woods with some route choice timing exercises before juniors and parents did a short or long course.
ONSW thanks Jock and Manager Sally Devenish for their efforts in putting the camp togethger, along with Maggie Jones for her shopping and catering. Maggie provided the squad with hot dinners and rolls for lunch with cake, hot chocolates and other snacks.
