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Forty one students participated in the 2013 Riverina Schools Orienteering Championships conducted by Wagga Roos and The Riverina School Sports Association at Willans Hill on Tuesday 7 May. 

Star of the day was Uranquinty Public School student Lachlan Billett.

Starting from the Music Bowl made available by Wagga Wagga City Council the day commenced with experienced orienteers providing instruction on map reading and navigation by taking students on a short 500m orienteering course at walking speed. This familiarisation gave the students an understanding of how various features in the bush were marked on the map and how to use the electronic timing devices.  Courses for the individual races ranged from 1200m to 2600m. Participants soon found that although being fast is an advantage, it is not the fastest that necessarily finds the control site quickest. More often it is the one who works out the best strategy to find the control site efficiently.

Courses looped around the bushland on the western side of Willans Hill challenging participiants to find various earthbanks, small watercourses, rockfaces and exercise stations.  Uranquinty Public School student Lachlan Billett had little trouble winning the Boys 11-13 year age-group in an excellent time of just under 15 minutes for the 1200m course. This was well ahead of Kade Mavroudis (TRAC) and Sam Gardiner (The Rock Central School ) who took the minor places.   Still feeling fresh Lachlan then tackled the Boys 16 and over course and coped well recording a time that would have placed him fifth.

The Riverina Anglican College (TRAC) dominated the Girls 11-13 year age-group. Biola Dawa took a little while to get going but when she got going she went well, winning by just on 7 min from Sarah Wood and Emelia Coe.  In contrast Wagga High dominated the Boys 14-15 year and Girls 14-15 year age groups. On the boys course Grant Jenkins won by a narrow 35 seconds from Daniel Rafter and Will Standley. On the girls course Kimberley Johnson also had a narrow victory finishing just 53seconds ahead of Angelika Andreou with Michelle Sibanda a further minute behind.

The Boys 16 years and over age group was also an exciting finish with Bryce Jenkins winning by 29 seconds from schoolmate Matthew Hort. TRACs Sam Dunnett was third.

The Girls 16 and over age-class was the closest event of the day with 18 seconds separating the first four placegetters Jade Bekker, Stephanie Heath, Hannah Johnston and Sarah Hogan.

Following the individual races the excitement continued with 13 teams participating in an orienteering relay race between teams of three. Each team member completed one of the three short 1000m loops with the electronic timing device being the “baton” to be exchanged.

Lachlan Billett was the sole representative from Uranquinty Public School student and decided to do complete all three loops in succession by himself. Having previously completed two individual races the three 1000m relay legs meant he completed 7.6km of orienteering in the day. His time over the three legs was 4 seconds faster than the first all-boys team of Daniel Rafter, Will Stadley and Grant Jenkins from Wagga High. Wagga High also had the fastest all-girls team of Kim Johnson, Hannah Johnston and Michelle Sibanda.

Results