Latest ONSW News
Garingal's James Lithgow has won the M55 B sprint final at the World Masters in Italy. James finished the 2.3km course in 18m26s, an impressive 38 seconds clear.
The sprint final was held in the town of Sestriere (host city of the 2006 Winter Olympics), where many orienteers came unstuck through the intricate streets of the ski village and recorded slow times or an mp.
Also in James' race Waggaroos' Alex Davey was 16th, Peter Orr (NC) 45th and Larry Weiss (GO) was 74th.
Among those who qualified for the A finals, Wagga's Debbie Davey was the best with a 12th in W55 and Karin Hefftner (GO) 30th.
One of the great things about our sport is the variety in terrain, setting and weather on any given day, and Sunday offered a smorgasbord.
While the mercury hit 19 on another glorious weekend in Sydney (is this really winter?) and 17 in Newcastle, it barely got above 8 in Orange and 12 in Wagga.
Sydney Junior League 7 at Centennial Park provided some fast courses in largely flat areas with some pockets of tricky bush to the north and sand dunes to the south of all the lakes. Those with long legs and large lungs were bound to do well and so it was.
Uringa's recent Czech recruit Ondrej Pavlu flew around the 7km long moderate course in 34m2s, just ahead of GO's NSW junior Aidan Dawson. Bennelong's Mel Cox took out the medium moderate by almost six minutes from Big Foot's Callum Davis, another talented youngster. And NSW schools rookie Duncan Currie, in a slow 'recovery' run a day after his school cross-country, won the short moderate (3.2km) by five minutes from Garingal clubmate Nick Wyche.
Amongst the real young-uns, Nea Shingler (BF) was first in the Very Easy and Angela Brown (GO) quickest on the Easy course.
It was also great to see very young children having a go on the string course, as IKO's new Russian member Alex Karavaev and his kids demonstrate.
Almost 100 students enjoyed a stunning day at St Ives Showground for the third annual Sydney North schools championships today.
Barbara Hill set courses that took the older high school students at times into the 'white' patches looking for rockfaces and boulders, while the younger charges were kept busy in a smaller loop around the showground's ovals, myriad picnic tables, small buildings and minor bush tracks.
A big contingent of 50 from Riverside Girls High was back for their second outing and the girls who ran last year showed the benefit of their experience to take out the champion high school teams award.
Champion primary team again was St Ives North PS.
Around 130 students from 10 schools took part in the 37th annual Hunter schools orienteering championships at Barnsley on Tuesday. Many of the competitors were new to orienteering or had limited exposure before the day but all managed to find their way around at least one of two courses on offer.
The students completed a line course in age classes in the morning before heading back out on one of four different 45-minute score courses. The score courses provided the most discussion and excitement as they do not separate the boys from the girls.
Champion school was Hunter River High School. Boy champion was Scott Charlton (Morisset High School) who won Boys 16 years and the A Score Course. Girls Champion was NSW rookie Amylee Robertson (St Phillips Christian College) who won the Girls 16+ years and was second on the A Score course.
As organiser I would like to thank all the volunteers from Newcastle Orienteering Club who ran the Start and Finish as well as patrolling and assisting students out in the forest. This event was postponed from late June due to torrential rain and was eventually held in glorious weather.
A special thank you to Geoff Todkill who set and drew the courses and put out/collected controls.
Check out the photo gallery from the event and the results.
Colin Bailey, convenor
