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Our first city-based Xmas 5-Days carnival wrapped up with an ultra sprint right outside the Sydney Cricket Ground to great acclaim from elites and amateurs alike.
The setting - among magnificent fig trees (see pic, left), around Kippax Lake, and a stone's throw from so much sporting history - was a fitting end to 5 days of urban O.
Ultra Sprint is a new form of orienteering, much like cricket's Twenty20 - fast, furious and finished quickly.
Participants had to complete short line courses of about 1km, in any order, inside the two-hour window (8-10am). The maps were drawn at 1:2000 with every tree shown and its canopy covering. Controls could be either side of a tree or fence post or log, and each wrongly punched control brought a 30-second penalty instead of the dreaded 'mp'.
"It's the first time I have done this and it's fantastic," said Christian Tingström of Sweden, who won the Big Foot Sprints a week ago at St Ives Showground. Today he finished four seconds behind Josh Blatchford (NC) who completed the 3 courses in 17m52s.
"I am an orienteer, not a runner, so I love how you have to concentrate very hard on the map in an area that looks very easy. And all the dummy controls (from the other courses); it's like Trail O and quite tricky. It's a really good training activity, too. I loved it."
In Women's A, Swedish World Cup champs and six-time world championship silver medallist Tove Alexandersson won by a massive two and a half minutes today to easily take out the overall title.
The standout feature of the ultra sprint is the maze (see pic, left) in the middle of the map. Each course had 3-4 controls inside the maze, which was also magnified as a map inset. You can see a two-minute video of the maze in action.
Around 100 Sydneysiders had a test run of the ultra sprint at Callan Park in November, so had an inkling of what lay ahead. Behind the scenes it was a mountain of work for setter Matt Peters, SI guru Ron Pallas and the host club Uringa - triple the work of a normal event. UR awesome !
Click on the blue links for Day 5 maps from the Hard 1 course (Leg 2 and Leg 3), results, splits, the final carnival standings (your best 4 results counted) and the ONSW album of Facebook photos.
You can see why Garingal's Tony Hill worked as a wedding photographer during his uni days - check out his sensational album from the carnival. Thanks Tony.
We wish safe travels and clean running to all those heading on to Tasmania immediately for the Oceania championships and opening round of the World Cup. We hope you have enjoyed a carnival that aimed to showcase the best of Sydney.
Our one bush event in the Xmas 5-Days carnival drew a healthy 255 entries who braved a hot and steamy morning at Lapstone.
The Darks Common map is a lovely little pocket of bush just two train stops from Penrith at the foot of the mountains. WHO were our hosts, borrowing a much loved map from Big Foot.
The track network on the map appears straightforward enough for those taking a leisurely stroll, but can prove tricky when trying to go flat chat in 4WD mode.
And with the mercury above 30C by mid-morning it was sweaty work - and excellent preparation for those heading to Tasmania in the next 48 hours for the opening World Cup round and Oceania championships.
Dave Shepherd (ACT) again took out Men's A, just ahead of Austrian Gernot Kerschbuamer who leads the overall standings. Andy Simpson (BF) smashed Men's B by four and a half minutes.
Swedish World Cup star Tove Alexandersson made it a hat-trick (she skipped Day 3 at Pyrmont) in Women's A as Europeans took the first five placings. Paula Shingler (BF) pipped Karen Blatchford (NC) by two seconds to take out Women's B.
Many of our European guests were later spotted higher up the Blue Mountains, taking in Echo Point and the Three Sisters. They have shown us just how good they are - it's been wonderful to be able to witness world-class athletes in our backyard.
Click on the blue links for Day 4 results, splits, carnival standings and some photos courtesy of Garingal's Tony Hill.
Just a reminder, too, that Wednesday's venue is Kippax Lake, Driver Avenue - right outside the Sydney Cricket Ground. Only one day left in the carnival and the year - let's go out with a bang!
Day 3 of the Xmas 5-Days carnival at Pyrmont retained the heavy nautical theme and sprint map detail of the opening days at Georges Heights and Cockatoo Island - but on A3 paper at 1:4,000 scale.
The score format allowed Dan Redfern to set controls from the base of the Anzac Bridge in the west to the Maritime Museum in the east, the Fish Market light rail station in the south and on the ends of the piers to the north, with sweeping views of the Harbour Bridge and CBD.
But this format - (1) get to as many controls as you can within 45 minutes, in any order (2) the controls are worth different amounts, and (3) penalties for being back late - is something most of our visiting Scandinavian elites have not experienced.
"It's the first time we've ever run this type of course," said Signe Klinting and Camilla Bevensee of OK Pan Aarhus club in Denmark. "The scenery was amazing and every control I was just smiling so much at the beautiful views."
"But I don't believe you should be allowed to look at the map beforehand."
Australians are well versed in 'score' orienteering as it is known, because the summer months are usually too hot for bush O. Sydneysiders in particular are used to unlimited planning time for score events. While this might seem a bit 'easy' or appear to bring the best orienteers 'back to the field', there is still quite some strategy involved.
You must choose a route that maximises your score while minimising time, and being mindful of slower sections (steps, bush tracks, sandy areas etc) and hills. There were 600 points on offer and 11 runners got the lot inside the allotted time. But the scale also seemed to throw others, and there were a handful of runners back 8-10 minutes early!
Today's run was also event 14 in the annual Sydney Summer Series. Open Men's star Steve Ryan atoned for mps on the first 2 days by sweeping all 30 controls in 40m3s. Newcastle's Alex Massey (41m21s) was set for a sub-40 time but accidentally punched one of the very easy controls near #7 by mistake - and realised his error as he was about to finish. Back out to #7, but slower than Steve overall.
The top women's score was 540, by Cecilie Fryberg Klysner (Norway) and Catherine Murphy (UR).
We would also like to thank the many regulars who handed back their map as we ran out of them. You can print one, or pick one up on Day 5 at the SCG.
Click on the blue links for Day 3 raw results, carnival standings, and photos on the ONSW Facebook page with some captions and commentary. Absolutely unmissable is SSS supremo Ross Barr's blog.
Such is the richness of Ross' prose, the uniqueness of his weekly theme, so vast his grasp of culture - from the fine arts to dance steps to gastronomy - that your humble correspondent readily defers to his highness for the official account of proceedings.
As Ross was collecting controls last night then retiring to the local for a well earned Reschs, this week's missive may be much shorter than usual.
Has there been a more anticipated map in recent memory than Cockatoo Island?
Judging by the 413 entries, it's hard to argue against such a bold statement. Thanks to the vision and persistence of innovative club Big Foot, orienteering finally made its debut on Sydney Harbour's largest island for Day 2 of the Xmas 5-Days carnival.
This one had the lot: convict history, maritime relics, tunnels and train tracks, industrial statues, a huge shed/workshop near the start to really test the fine navigation skills - and a 1:3,000 map on two levels. All this in an area 500m x 300m. Part Star Wars, part Easter Island, part Maze Runner. Wow - we're out of breath just summing it up.
Many good judges present rated the fields the strongest ever at an event in Sydney - the first four men and eight women were European elites stopping over before the first round of the 2015 World Cup in Tasmania next week. See Big Foot's report for more detail.
"It was fantastic. It would be great fun to do a World Championship Sprint in this area," said Women's A winner for the second straight day, Swede Tove Alexandersson. Her time of 11m26s (despite a 10s error on the first control) was still 67 seconds quicker than team-mate Karolin Ohlsson.
"I haven't been running in the forest lately, and I only got off the plane yesterday morning, so doing sprint courses is great fun for me right now."
Men's A winner was Tove's team-mate Gustav Bergman, who flew around the 2.1km circuit in 12m14s, almost a minute ahead of Austrian Gernot Kerschbaumer.
Starting from an open shed on the SE tip of the island, the courses quickly bewildered many by going "indoors" for a bit, then up onto the second level of the island. For longer legs the route choice was often "tunnel then steps" or "ramp then weave through buildings" - or vice versa.
It was tight, it was tough and it was terrific new territory. With public transport capped at $2.50 per person on Sundays, it made for a memorable and ridiculously cheap outing as everyone came and went by ferry.
With "glamping" available on the island, we even had a group of campers (not orienteers) rock up and do the moderate course, and they had great fun. It's a pretty good sport where they can do that at the same event as multiple world champs get a hit-out.
The A courses were set by Andy Simpson, and all other courses by 12-year-old Ewan Shingler (pic, right) to much acclaim. Ewan swears it was pure coincidence that younger sister Nea took out the Women's D division!
Click on the blue links for Day 2 results, splits, carnival standings, and photos on the ONSW Facebook page with some captions and commentary. Tony Hill has also posted some great photos on his web page.
Orienteering NSW would like to thank the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust for granting us permission to access such beautiful locations for the first two days of this carnival.
