Latest ONSW News
NSW junior Toby Wilson spent hours planning courses for last weekend's Garingal event at Gladesville, only to be struck down by appendicitis on the eve of the event.
Poor old brother Huon and Mum Airdrie spent Saturday night at RNS, then Sunday morning putting the controls out in the rain, but at least the heavens cleared for the runners.
The feedback was that Toby set great courses which started with a number of long legs to provide subtle route choices. The courses then plunged into the intricate layout of Gladesville Hospital, which required careful navigation, before finishing in picturesque style with a sprint along the harbour edge past Bedlam Bay and into Banjo Paterson Park.
It's always great to see our juniors helping out and we all wish Toby a speedy recovery.
Tony Hill took some wonderful photos on the day, including this scenic shot near the finish.
Waggaroos went down by one point in the fourth of the Interclub challenges with Albury Wodonga.
Conducted near Gerogery, it was a tough day for participants with numerous steep climbs, slippery descents and lots of rubbish on the ground making it difficult to hold a rhythmic pace. Some of the control locations proved equally challenging with one in between three huge boulders with barely enough room to squeeze through, and another at the entrance to an enchanting cave.
The Interclub Challenge points are allocated according to placings in each course for an equal number of participants from each club.
Waggaroos took out the 1.75km Easy course 6-4, but the advantage was quickly eroded with Albury scoring 13-8 on the 3.2km Moderate Course. Albury then went 5 points ahead ahead by winning the 3.6km short Hard course. At this stage Albury had slipped away to a line 5 points lead.
This stretched to 11 when Leigh Privett had an emphatic 22-minute win on the 5.5km Hard course. Waggaroos fought back by filling the next three places. When Rick Armstrong, Albury’s third participant on this course, failed to finish, Waggaroos had won the course 12-8 but Albury won the day 27-26.
Thanks to John Oliver for this report.
ONSW's initial foray into wheelchair orienteering was a great success and had participants demanding more. One of the keen rookies was the local area manager of Wheelchair Sports NSW. His first reaction: "We have to do this again, and soon!"
The brainchild of Coffs Harbour-based Northern Tablelands member Bruce Meder, 'Orienteering Without Limits' drew around 30 people to the local uni on Saturday for a taste of O.
Under sunny skies much the envy of Sydneysiders of late, participants had the choice of 3 line courses, all wheelchair-accessible and suitable for beginners. Course lengths were 300m, 800m and 1200m.
Some of the participants were in electric wheelchairs and some were self-propelled. Route choice wasn't the only problem to be solved - how to hold/carry the map posed an extra challenge. Also present were several families with young children - people we hope return for our proposed promotional events there in October.
Pictured above is Raymond Munro and, left, Luke Fieldhouse (who prompted Bruce to think about 'Wheel O') punches a control.
A huge thank you to Bruce and fellow NTN members for helping pioneer our sport to new audiences.
Bruce's passion for this project gained media coverage as well as a radio interview on 2HC.
A raft of local organisations, such as disability service provider Lifestyle Solutions, CHEC, Coffs Harbour City Council and Wheelchair Sports NSW banded together to get the event up and running.
Our NSW girls at JWOC felt the heat in the long distance event overnight. Debutante Nicola Blatchford (NC) came in 116th out of 148 in a time of 91.04, a good 30 minutes behind the winner Lisa Risby from Sweden. Michele Dawson (GO) was 127th in 97.14. Michele said navigation was straightforward, the terrain was good, but route choice was paramount to avoid excessive climb (450m in 7.1km in hot conditions).
In the boys section Ollie Poland was the best Australian in 52nd place in 80.34 - but only 11 minutes behind the winner, Piotr Parfianowicz from Poland.
The competition is fierce, and our team have their sights on tonight's Middle distance qualifiers, hoping we can get some runners into the A finals. Follow the action at www.jwoc2013.cz and on the team blog.
