Latest ONSW News

With great weather and a new area to ride 61 competitor’s had a great day’s riding around Bluegum Hills Regional Park near Newcastle. Sydney competitors were out in force despite the early start.

With wide tracks, single tracks, hills and gullies to climb and the odd bit of mud the course allowed for some aggressive riding especially on the downhills. The novice riders had the option of taking the suggested route around the course in the less demanding areas to ride and navigate. It was great to see the number of junior and first time riders at the event.

The regional park will be used for the DuO event in November. The results and a full report are on the Newcastle Orienteering website here.

Thanks to Greg Bacon for this report

The penultimate event in the Waggaroos Summer Series was held in the Tatton area.  Bob Moore set a challenging course in which participants could stay west of Plumpton Rd and tackle the hilly ridgeline, or try their luck east of Plumpton Rd where it was flatter, points values were higher, but there was more distance to be covered.

Competition was close on the 45 minute course with only a few points separating the participants. The hill area proved the best route choice with Brian Coogan amassing an excellent 145 to break through for a well-earned win.  The in-form Alex Davey decided to head east towards the lake and fell short of first place by only 5 points.

Duncan, Emily and Ella Farquahar came and tried orienteering for the first time and did exceptionally well to finish fourth with 125 points just behind John Oliver in third.

On the 30 minute course the amazing pram pushing Jonathon Holland scored 90 points to finish ahead of his wife Catherine.

Next week will be the final event in this year’s summer series. It will be conducted in the Tolland area commencing from the Cobb St side of Kessler Park at 6pm.

Thanks to John Oliver for this report.

With all coaching and events within easy travelling distance of Camden this training course is designed for anyone wanting to improve their navigation skills, whether orienteering, adventure racing or just getting from place to place without a SatNav!

The course offers three Saturday coaching sessions on 10th and 24th March and 14th April, along with three key club events (Sunday 18th March, 1st and 22nd April)  the coaching team have nominated where they will be on hand to mentor participants through their first bush events of the season.  All this for $30!  More details?  Read the flyer here.

The second of the five Space Race missions set by Western Plains was manned by enthusiastic crews last Saturday.

Team Pleione (Samantha Wallace and Shannon Finch) came home first for the second week in a row. Team Electra (Kate Hagan and Samantha Smart) were second and Team Atlas (Robert Barwick and Jingming Chow) took third place.  After the Space Race, adults were encouraged to try a little Star Trekking of their own. Nineteen sprinters (including some enthusiastic space cadets) were given a map and a different mission to finish as soon as possible. Robert Barwick rocketed home first (12:02), closely followed by Kerrie Mitchell (12:15) and Dale Wallace (12:32) took third place.

The next Space Race will take place at 8.30am (followed by the Star Trek at 9.30am) on the 3rd March at the Dubbo Christian School, Sheraton Road.