What is it they say about mad dogs and Englishmen? Well, throw that in reverse - and it seems only orienteers relish running around in sub-zero temperatures in winter near Orange.
Saturday's Middle Distance at Kahli's Rocks, one of our best granite maps, drew some fast times - and well they needed to be as the 'feels like' temp hovered just below zero.
We noted former junior squad manager Sally Devenish (Western Plains) roaring to a win in W45AS in a rare appearance this year, and WHO's Robert Bradley cleaning up M45AS by seven minutes as his rivals made big mistakes.
Newcastle prodigy Alvin Craig raced around the 3.5km M16A Hard course in just 18 minutes and 50 seconds!
Garingal and Newcastle each took out ten age classes, while our ACT visitors also did very well in conditions they are much more used to.
At Ophir in mining terrain On Sunday it was colder still - verging on Antarctic - with actual temps of 0-2C and 'feels like' temps of -5 all day as 30-knot winds buffeted the hardy 160-odd participants.
And what racing there was! In M21A, run over 10.2km and with almost 500m of climb, Toby Wilson (Garingal) pipped ACT's Martin Dent by just one second. Big Foot's Alastair George was less then a minute away in third place.
We must say a very big thank you to the NSW Stingers and Goldseekers for their efforts in very tough conditions. Perhaps even a rendition of "Freeze a jolly good fellow"?
Please fill out the very brief Course Setter surveys. Our State League page has been updated with links to results and splits.
Our final SL weekend is September 22-23 in Newcastle. Entries will open shortly.
