A wonderful weekend in western Sydney decided our schools champions for 2015 and saw our regular State League competitors back in action.
154 students turned out for a Saturday sprint double and Sunday bush event.
This year we offered a free map walk and Enter-on-Day courses to parents while their children were competing. We are delighted to report that 19 parents took up the map walk offer, with Neville Fathers and Carol Jacobson as coaches, and eight of them went back to the start and did an Easy course. It was great to see parents and children comparing notes afterwards.
Our 2015 champions (based on Sunday's results) are:
Primary schools - Mawarra PS
Secondary - KNOX Grammar
Region - Sydney North
On Saturday morning Robert Bradley gave us a fast, flat sprint around UWS Hawkesbury that made great use of the many small 'light grey' segments. This was an excellent introduction to sprints given what was to follow in the afternoon. At UWS Kingswood, Michele Dawson upped the ante with some very tricky legs on a terrific new map by fellow former JWOC rep Josh Blatchford. This was international-standard sprint O and capped off a great day in glorious sunshine.
On Sunday Kevin Williams set demanding Middle Distance courses on the Knapsack Lagoon map at Glenbrook. The intricate track network and many rockfaces put a premium on maintaining map contact, and there were quite a few students overshooting controls as a result.
All those novice students who completed Moderate or Easy courses can be very proud of their efforts.
We offer a very large thank you to the WHO club, the NSW Stingers, event organiser Ted Mulherin and schools champs convenor Lyn Malmgron for their tireless work to put on such a great triple header. Likewise all the people who helped the novice students before, during and after their courses - and those who reassured the odd nervous parent!
Click on the blue links for results from Saturday and Sunday, and the splits from Sunday. Don't forget to check out the photo albums on our Facebook page. Orienteers may download these for personal use or to put in their school newsletter.
Our last State League weekend is in the Southern Highlands on September 19 (Appin) and September 20 (Belanglo). Entries close on September 6.
Next year's NSW Schools Championships will be held in the Bankstown area on August 28-29.
