NSW orienteers are enjoying the major European carnivals taking place over the northern hemisphere summer. A number moved on from the World Masters in Hungary to compete in the 6 Days of Austria in early July with some great results: Uringan Ian Mackenzie placed 15th during the week, Dick Ogilvie had four top ten placings, and Valerie Brammall and Jan Hardy each scored a bronze in W65 and W55 respectively.
Josh Blatchford continued to build his experience at the Swedish O-Ringen in Halsingland at the end of July, with a set of solid results which improved all week to a best placing of 47th. Uringa's Dick Ogilvie was feeling the fatigue build up after three major competitions, on the varied terrain which took in pine moors, flat rock and runnable forest, his best in this race a 57th placing.
Over in the UK the Scottish 6 days based around Oban, is providing quite different terrain with wild open moorland mixed with mature oak woodland, birch thicket and intricate contour detail. A large contingent of Australian orienteers is competing with a number of NSW clubs represented. The first day's best result for NSW came from John Hodsdon of SHOO, who placed 16th in a large field of nearly sixty runners. Mary Jane Mahoney of Uringa was 27th in W60S, with Julia Prudhoe getting a good start: 34th in W50L.
Some of the Australian elites are using the Swiss O week in Flims for final preparation for the World Orienteering Championships which starts on the 10th August. NSW's Robbie Preston is competing here along with Simon Uppill and Aislinn Prendergast. Intricate detail and rock will be the challenge in Switzerland.
Read more on these races in the September ONSW newsletter when we compile the news from our foreign correspondents.
Many thanks to the O-Ringen http://www.oringen.se/english and Swiss O week http://www.swiss-o-week.ch for their permission to use these photographs from their websites
