'Tough, courageous, fast, quick thinking and tenacious' were the words used by Mayor of Glamorgan Spring Bay Council, Bertrand Cardart to describe his impression of orienteers at the opening ceremony of the Australian Schools Orienteering Championships in St Helens on Monday evening.
The Schools State teams paraded their flags through the centre of St Helens before presenting them to the receiving committee at Portland Memorial Hall. Carnival organiser Warren McDonough welcomed and thanked the supporters of the carnival who included Orienteering Australia, represented by President Blair Trewin, Orienteering Tasmania, represented by President Martin Bicevskis and Break O'Day Council who have provided many of the carnival facilities, represented by Councillor Coulson, and Glamorgan Spring Bay Council.
Orienteering elites were also on hand to offer words of encouragement and advice to the Schools teams. Lillian Burrill, 4 times JWOC competitor and graduate of the Schools Championships had three pieces of advice: 'believe in yourself, train hard in terrain and get race smart.' NSW elite Josh Blatchford agreed: 'never underestimate the need to train and train in the forest.' Aislinn Prendergast, Australian representative at the recent World Orienteering Championships in Switzerland counselled the youngsters to use the experience of the people they were meeting at the Schools Championships. The coaches, the managers and the other competitors all had things which could contribute to a developing orienteering career.
Warren left the teams with these thoughts:
'You are not at these competitions by accident. You are here through the hard work of your coaches, the support of your parents and your own perseverence, resilience, skill and hard work. You are the best of the best from all our Australian States. We hope you will perform at your very best this week. Let the Championships begin!'
