Latest ONSW News
Space Racing has blasted off on a new frontier after a successful foray into Castle Hill Showground during the July school holidays.
With poor weather forecast, and this being the farthest venture west with Space Racing, the team were unsure how many participants would come along. so it was rather pleasing to report that 31 hardy souls turned up to take on the new sprint map of WHO, our club of the year for 2011.
The course, set by NSW junior Daniel Hill, had to be substantially curtailed due to council closing the underpass beneath Showground Road in the NW corner of the map that leads into Fred Caterson Reserve. With that in mind, the time limit was cut from the usual 45 minutes to 30. That was no barrier to the seasoned crop of talented juniors who flew around the (in parts boggy) course at warp speed.
Garingal's Aidan Dawson pushed the G forces to the limit with a time of 10m12s for the 20 controls. Lawrence Jones (Uringa) WOULD/COULD/SHOULD have been second in a time of 11m48s but somehow forgot to visit one control - the perils of score courses and SI!
The Currie family (GO) snared three of the top 5 places.
Lawrence and Georgia Jones, along with mum Maggie (ONSW Communications Officer) and Duncan Currie then went out again to run the course in control order from 1-20. Less than five minutes separated the four of them, but none could match Aidan who ran the course again in reverse order (20-1) in 27m39s.
Most pleasing though, was the appearance of two families who took part at Sydney Olympic Park the week before and were so captured by our sport that they simply had to get another O fix ! And another two families saw our notice in the Hills News and dragged the kids away from the electronic gadgets for some real life adventure.
As always, our Space Racing missions would not function as smoothly without the many volunteers who help out - thanks to everyone who gave of their time at both events.
We are back at Sydney Olympic Park on Friday October 5. Dates and venues for the Xmas school holidays have not yet been set.
Thanks to Ian Jessup for this report
Chris Brown and Alison Pearce are fresh to the game of organising events, but they are bringing some interesting new ideas with them. They were the organisers at the Uringa club event at Callan Park this weekend. In the weeks before the race they were out planning when they came up with a new way of telling people about it. All along the parkways and pavements of the park messages to the general dog walking, bay running, children minding public began to appear in chalk. 'Can you think and run? Come on Sunday 22 July at 10am for some orienteering?' Ron Garner, who was running the SI at the event for the first time, threw his weight behind it and laminated signs with more details for posting around the park for people whose interest had been piqued.
So did it work? Certainly despite the poor weather the turnout was good, on a par with the previous year's event which was bathed in sunshine. Alison had a call the night before from someone who had seen the signs and googled 'orienteering', and a local runner tried out the courses, having seen the chalk messages. One local club member even heard people talking about the event in the local coffee shop the week before. Whether it can be proved it worked or not it is rumoured that Dave Lotty, Sydney Southern Series Co-ordinator has now got a 'chalk box budget' in his plans.
Mountain Devils is headed back to the Southern Highlands for some mid-winter MTBO racing! On Saturday 28 July, we'll be at Penrose SF for SS5, which hasn't seen a Mountain Devils event for a number of years. So come and re-acquaint yourself with the forest! Stay overnight at Belanglo Hut in Belanglo SF, ready for Sunday's SS6, which will be an exciting mass start and Score Course that will really test your decision making on the fly.
Both forests are a mix of open pine and eucalypt, with easy riding for short courses and longer courses venturing into steeper and undulating terrain. Whilst both forests lend themselves to long distance courses we have made some courses on Saturday a bit shorter to suit a winter afternoon.
Entry is open now on the Mountain Devils web site until Sunday 22nd July.
After consultation with the selection panel, the squad that will travel to Tasmania this year to contest the 2012 Australian Schools Championships was announced this week. This year's squad has a balance of new faces combined with those who already have experience running at State level, as well as Junior Elite international Michele Dawson, recently returned from competing at JWOC 2012.
The squad to represent NSW in the 2012 Australian Schools Championships in Tasmania, is as follows.
Junior Girls
Georgia Jones, Rebecca George, Melissa Annetts, Kate Kennedy, Samantha Wallace
Senior Girls
Michele Dawson, Nicola Blatchford, Felicity Barker Smith
Junior Boys
Daniel Hill, Scott Charlton, Toby Wilson, Callum Davis, Alex Kennedy
Senior Boys
Matthew Hill, Aidan Dawson, Lawrence Jones, Daniel Parton
Selector Geoff Todkill sends his congratulations to all squad members who will be contacted in the near future by Team Managers Karen and Russell Blatchford. He reminds the squad to keep training hard, as the final selection races are still ahead in State Leagues 10 and 11. The selection of the final teams, including naming of reserves, will occur at the presentations following the NSW Schools Champs, and will also be published on the ONSW website.
