NSW orienteers Greg Bacon (Newcastle), Paula Shingler (Big Foot) and Andrew Lumsden (BF) have taken out major service awards from Orienteering Australia.
Greg (top left) received the Silva Award for Services to Orienteering. He has been a stalwart - and driver - of the MTBO scene in Newcastle and NSW for many years. Greg also started the DuO concept which has returned to the calendar after a short break.
A tireless worker dedicated to getting people onto bikes for a different take on orienteering, Greg has seen the Newcastle BOSS series grow in recent years and his promotional efforts resulted in a total rookie (Tim Doman) riding for Australia at the 2019 world champs.
He will also be heavily involved in the 2020 Australian MTBO champs in Newcastle, and has lately taken to e-bikes (another avenue for growth) with great gusto.
Paula received the Silva Award for Services to Orienteering Coaching.
For the past 6 years Paula has run a weekly, informal interval session mainly aimed at juniors, although seniors (including parents) do come along. Attendance is usually 10-20.
Currently Paula coaches 12 orienteers, 8 of which are juniors, and co-ordinates with expert technical coaches to deliver learnings appropriate to the level of student. As a fully qualified physio, Paula provides all her ‘students' with a tailor made, monthly schedule, specially geared towards their age, ability and goals. The success of these individual programs can be seen in the low number of injuries suffered.
In her coaching capacity Paula also acts as a listening board for a whole range of problems her team might be experiencing. She regularly arranges other training sessions (both bush and sprint) and is invariably available at events for that last minute taping and treatment.
Some of Paula’s recent successes include: Alastair George (JWOC 2018 & 2019), Michele Dawson (WUOC 2018), Aidan Dawson (WUOC 2018), Toby Wilson (JWOC 2017 and WUOC 2018), Emily Sorensen (JWOC 2019 Irish team) and Georgia Jones (JWOC reserve 2017).
Andrew, the ONSW Technical Director, won the David Hogg Award for Services to Event Management. A Level 3 controller, Andrew has overseen a raft of international and national events.
Andrew started in orienteering in the early 1970s in Victoria. Since then he has worked countless hours on orienteering including controlling major carnivals, course setting and mapping, negotiating landowner access and creating the technical framework that ensures the quality of NSW events.
Andrew was National Controller for the Australian Championships Carnival at Bathurst in September 2017, however his services to Orienteering go far beyond that. He is also innovative and challenges the status quo. Andrew has given decades of outstanding service to orienteering in Australia.
As ONSW Technical Director he is also the backbone of NSW technical standards and accreditation, constantly working on a range of fronts. He shoulders much of the detailed technical work for ONSW.
