Orienteering NSW

Coming Events

map	Sat 2 Nov 9:30 am SOS 3 - Middle Cove Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School, 5A Glenroy Ave, Middle Cove

map	Sat 2 Nov 10:00 am Illawarra Map Running Series - Spring #3 Croome Sporting Complex John O Dwyer Oval within Croome Sporting Complex - use the northern entrance from Croome Road - most direct access to Oval.

map	Sun 3 Nov 4:00 pm River and Bay Series #2 - Randwick Over the Rainbow, Randwick

map	Wed 6 Nov 4:30 pm 2024/25 Sydney Summer Series #5 - Lindfield Primula Oval, Lindfield.

map	Wed 6 Nov 5:00 pm Newcastle Summer Street Series #4 - Blackalls Park Blackalls Park

map	Thu 7 Nov 5:00 pm Summer series #1 72 Ross Street

map	Fri 8 Nov 5:30 pm Goldseekers Park #2 - Gosling Creek Gosling Creek

map	Sat 9 Nov 9:30 am SOS 4

map	Sat 9 Nov 10:00 am Illawarra Map Running Series - Spring #4 Unanderra Lindsay Maynes Park, cnr Princes Highway & Factory Rd, Unanderra

map	Sun 10 Nov 9:00 am Central Coast Summer Series 1 - Shelly Beach Naomi Honey Reserve, Shelly Beach Rd, Shelly Beach

Illawarra Kareelah Orienteers are seeking volunteers to help out at the schools gala day next Wednesday (May 21) at Croom Sports Centre, Albion Park.

If you are able to assist, please contact Keith Jay This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Kev Curby This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. who will be able to supply further details.

It is anticipated that there will be 150+ entries, so any help you can give on the day would be very much appreciated.

Our annual regional schools championships and gala days started last week with 150 students from Caringbah HS at Centennial Park, the first of

a record 11 events in 2014.

These days are greatly looked forward to by students and parents alike, but require many volunteers - so it's time to put the call out to our troops for assistance.

Helpers are needed in the following roles: parking, course marshals, start & finish, coaching, scoring.

Please contact your club - or the person nominated below - if you can spare a few hours to help continue the success of these schools champs.

Events in the Sydney area which will need a lot of support due to increasing numbers of enthusiastic students are;

Wed Jun 4 - Sydney West. Contact Lyn Malmgron on

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Wed Jun 18 - Sydney South West Secondary. Contact Lyn Malmgron on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Wed Jun 25 - Sydney South West Primary. Contact Lyn Malmgron on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mon Jul 28 - Sydney North. Contact Barbara Hill on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Events in regional NSW are:

Mon May 19 - Riverina. Contact John Oliver on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Wed May 21 - South Coast. Contact Kev Curby on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Wed Jun 18 - Orange (NEW!). Contact Jean Baldwin on

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Tue Jun 24 - Hunter. Contact Geoff Todkill on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

early Nov - Armidale. Contact Maurice Anker on

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Free Coaching at State League 6 - Sunday, 18 May

Maria Orr will be leading some coaching for people who:

run moderate courses and find the navigation a bit of a challenge;
are thinking of running moderate courses; or
who run hard courses, but often make big mistakes.

The coaching will start at 8.45am at Rydal Showgrounds. It will be mostly talking or strolling. It will cover map reading (at above beginner level), contours, bearings and pace counting. Warm clothes may be necessary (check the forecast).

The session will last 60 minutes. People who attend the coaching can run their normal course at the State League and will be allowed to start late (if you have an early start time).

If you want to attend, or have questions, please contact Andrew Lumsden (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 02 9412 3545).

We thank Andrew and Maria for this wonderful initiative.

NSW elite orienteers have had stunning results overseas in the past week in major endurance races.

Andrew Hill (WHO) on May 1 won the annual Great Wall of China Marathon. His GPS recorded 1873m of climb, but Andy's not sure how accurate it is on stairs.

This marathon is based at the Jinshanling section of the wall. The majority of this marathon is on the actual wall itself with 20,518 countable stairs. Andy rose at 2am from his hotel in Beijing.

The course consisted of six loops from the start/finish area. The trail was rough going: it was either up or down with no flat sections. Staircases would usually wind up to a tower generally based on the top of each hill. On one such staircase to a tower called the Stairway to Heaven was a 400m climb with a 60^o ascent and stairs up to 40cm high.

On the second loop the two runners who had tried to stay with Andrew cracked and withdrew. Although temperatures were reaching near 30C, Andrew was still managing to keep a good pace running both up and down the stairs. The biggest issue now was battling the hordes of tourists which got to a tight squeeze in the corridors and of the towers. Spurred on by being in the lead and running in such an amazing scenic area, Andrew was able to complete the final small loop in the lead and 45 minutes ahead of second place.

Over in the US, Victoria-based Rob Preston (Newcastle, right) was in the winning team at the Shenandoah Epic Adventure Race in Virginia.

Guaranteeing 13 hours of toil - and 27 for Rob's team of elites as they chased bonuses - the race featured a long paddle to start the race, a day time orienteering course, a day time MTB course followed by a rogaine-style night course with biking and a night orienteering course.

No word yet as to whether they were singing along to John Denver to keep them going. Read more about this race on the team web page.

And in Sweden, top-ranked Australian male orienteer Julian Dent (Central Coast) ran a phenomenal 2nd leg as his IFK Lidingo team finished second in the annual 10MILA.

This is a 108km, 10-person relay starting on Saturday evening, and finishing with the winners running in on Sunday morning.

Julian went out in 52nd place and returned in the lead! It was only on the last leg that the Lidingo runner was overtaken by the Finnish favourites.

Read more about Julian's efforts on the Stingers' blog.

Mountain Devils staged the inaugural NSW DuO championships in perfect conditions in the Lower Blue Mountains, with Jason Rutkowski in the setter's chair.

Marina Iskhakova (Bennelong) took out the women's Hard 1, while Newcastle's Steven Todkill pipped new ONSW president Greg Barbour (Big Foot) by less than a minute in the men's Hard 1 course.

Clear dry air and little rain leading up to the event provided wonderful conditions for both foot and bike competitors. The maximum temperature was 19 degrees, and around 15 degrees for the start at 9.30am at Glenbrook Oval.

This event was run on a combination of maps from WHO and Bigfoot, comprising Knapsack Gully and Darks Common using an interconnecting pedestrian link below the Great Western Highway.

Knapsack in particular was a treat, with some technical MTB tracks for the MTBO as well as gullies and rock for the foot legs. Navigation was at a Moderate grade but the terrain was quite difficult with a lot of shrub and some large rockfaces to negotiate. It was so clear that the CBD was visible to the naked eye.

"Amazing views over Sydney and very cool to ride on the old Zig Zag railway track," said our resident Swede Patrick Gunnarsson.

ONSW sincerely thanks Greg Bacon (Newcastle) for the hundreds of hours he has put into getting the DuO format up and running over the past 3 years, and Jason for setting the courses.

Click here for the results.