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At the end of the six race league Sydney clubs were keen to get a good last run and hold off or close the gap on nearest opponents in the rankings. The race on the Cattai National Park map was an interesting mix of rough open, track and bush and allowed confident orienteers the opportunity to get some real speed up. Big Foot increased their series lead in Division A with a fine win over Bennelong Northside, eclipsing the points nearest rivals Garingal Goannas scored in their win over opponents Western Hills, giving Big Foot the Division A title for 2011. The Geckos took the Division B win for Garingal but Big Foot again triumphed in C Division over nearest rivals, the Garingal Skinks. Bennelong Northside was the Division D winner against a strong Garingal Legless team. The Uringa/ Central Coast joint teams in each division never really got on terms this year, hampered by absent club members, all racing overseas.

The event was also part of the Junior League which saw over 20 juniors racing in race #5 of the 8 race series. Cattai provided much more of a bush map than Junior Leaguers have been faced with this year, but all rose to the challenge. Quick times were posted by Adam and Bethany Halmy winning the Orange with Bethany showing why she is representing the State at the National Cross Country Championships later this month. Other juniors to watch are Nick Wyche of Falcon O and Uringa's Adam Garner both of whom posted good times and showed increasing orienteering confidence. Cameron Gonzales of Big Foot looks an interesting prospect, only being 3 minutes off Green course leader Duncan Currie. Race #6 of the Junior League will be contested on 21 August at Waverton.

Pelaw Main was the venue for the Newcastle Orienteer of the Year race #5 on Sunday 7th August. Initially it looks like a map that doesn’t ask big questions, with relatively flat terrain covered in mixed runnable bush with low lying swamp areas, but this is deceiving; the lack of detail is the challenge. Results showed some runners out of their normal race, recovering from injury and illness, and still others who ran in multiple races for training. One such was Thomas Essinger who ran Blue, Green and Short Orange and put a good effort in for all three. Junior Tristan Hollard is not a name which is known much outside the Newcastle orienteering community, but his performance in Orange makes him someone to watch if he steps up to State League level. Andrew Power had a good run in Medium Red; although better known as a Mountain Bike orienteer he showed he can still mix with the Foot O crowd by taking 6 minutes off Tim Tew and Ian Dempsey. Rob Vincent might have only just come back from a broken arm but he ran well in the Long Red to win against Steven Todkill and a family of Blatchfords, one of whom was admittedly running a little jetlagged from his recent tour of Europe.

The next NOY is event #6 at Wallaroo on Sunday 21 August.

Orienteering Australia has done it! Brought European style live GPS tracking spectator entertainment to the Oceania Championships this October. Probably the most exciting recent innovation in our sport, it brings the thrill of the action direct to the Assembly area, on a big, really big, screen. Read the OA website for more on this, and hear Warren Key talk about the amazing races you can enter at the Oceania Championships this year.

The 2011 World Orienteering Champs start today with the Long Qualification with both team members from NSW, Julian Dent and Rob Preston competing. The team is fit and well and settling into life in Aix-Les-Bains, France.

The long qualification is in the foothills of the French Alps at about 1200 metres above sea level. The terrain is made up of two distinct types: one is steep, fast, open meadows which contrasts with the karst forest that has intricate rocky details with poor runnability in parts.

The start times for the long qualification are:

Aislinn Prendergast: 11.36 am (7.36 pm AEST)
Jasmine Neve: 12.09 pm (8.09 pm AEST)
Vanessa Round: 12.51 pm (8.51 pm AEST)
Rob Preston: 2.19 pm (10.19 pm AEST)
Julian Dent: 2.31 pm (10.31 pm AEST)

There are three heats for the men and three for the women, and the first 15 in each heat qualify for the final. There are 118 starters in the men's class and 84 starters in the women's. The women have a winning time of 45 minutes and an average distance of 6 km; the men have a winning time of 59 minutes and and average distance of 9 km.

If you want to follow all the action go to woc2011.fr, otherwise worldofo.com will have information and commentary if the live link at the WOC site doesn't work.

So you don't miss out on any of the action, the program for the week is:

Sunday 14 August: the middle qualification starts at 10 pm (AEST) watch out for Grace Elson, Vanessa Round, Jasmine Neve, Julian Dent, Rob Preston and Simon Uppill
Tuesday 16 August: sprint qualification starts at 5 pm (AEST) look out for Grace Elson, Rachel Effeney, Mace Neve, Julian Dent and Simon Uppill
Sprint final on the same day starts at 11 pm (AEST)
Wednesday 17 August: long final, 8.30 pm (AEST)
Friday 19 August: middle final, 9.30 pm (AEST)
Saturday 20 August: relay, 9.30 pm (AEST)

For more information see the Aussie Team Blog
http://australianorienteeringteam.blogspot.com/

Thanks to Hilary Wood and Orienteering Australian for this update