Latest ONSW News

The first MTBO event in metropolitan Sydney for several years was staged at the Western Sydney Regional Park on Sunday 24th July. Heavy rain had left the course sodden and the riding slow, but with a blessing of sunshine on the day and trails which were mown grass rather than dirt track, the mud was kept to a minimum. A variety of trails made for interesting riding, with a challenging hills section in the southwestern corner of the map. Malcolm Roberts won the Men's category in the 75 minute score event, Mary Fien the Womens and Lucy and Hamish Mackie carried off the Family category honours.

It was slow going at the Pennant Hills Park as runners in the fifth Metro League race this year tackled thick bush, mud and slippery rock surfaces left by the recent heavy rains. The fastest speed recorded was Tomas Krajca on the B course running at 10mins/km but the rest of the adult field were slower, with even strong runners struggling to run quicker than 12mins/km. Duncan Currie, that speedy junior from Garingal, managed sub 10 min/km on the Green course but the rest of the Junior Leaguers were challenged by the heavy going. Track running became the serious route option as cross country routes were ruled out by the luxuriant vegetation and steep slopes; any that tried were heavily punished not only in terms of time, but also with grazed shins for those not running in gaiters.

Big Foot and the GOannas dominated the A division, with Illawarrah Kareelah winning their third match in a row in the B Division. Bennelong won their match in Division C and in Division D narrowing the lead of GO Legless who are in poll position after the five competitions. Uringa managed a win over GO Monitors but had to concede to the GO Frill Necks as they could not field a team with so many of the B Division runners currently overseas racing in Europe.

A beautiful sunny New England winter's day greeted the participants who made their way to Oakview, 20km west of Armidale, for the NTOC club event on July 24th. Despite the recent rain, the Rocky River was crossable, and whilst runners needed some rock-hopping skills this meant that it was possible to use the full map for the courses. The large hill on the south side of the map provided great route choice legs on the red courses and from discussions afterwards, it seemed that left, right and directly up and over, were all attempted on the day.

Fastest around the Blue/Green course were Axel and Bethany Jeclicka with a five minute margin, Orange was won by Sandy Watson, Bob Hawkins the Short Red with Kas Gregory winning the Long Red in convincing style.

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