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The Minigaine Madness, a joint event between ONSW (as part of the Summer Series) and NSW Rogaining Association, was a huge success pulling in 130 teams and well over 100 individuals to race in the event at Lindfield this weekend.  Using a combination of Bennelong Northside's Lane Cove map and Big Foot's Blue Gum Creek map, competitors had 3000 points to chase down in three hours.  Gill Fowler and Stephen Ryan were the only team who managed the perfect score, but Glen Horrocks, Mark Schafer, Tim Austin and Richard Green, running as individuals, all gathered in full points.  Perhaps this proves that sometimes two heads are not better than one when it comes to rogaining or maybe the issue was with teams having four tired legs rather than two.  Certainly there were plenty of hills on offer and quite a bit of mud too as the course took full advantage of the extensive bush in the area.

Winning teams in the various categories on offer were:

• Open - Gill Fowler, Stephen Ryan (also won the Mixed category)
• Men - Chad Armstrong, Ryan Armstrong
• Veteran and Super Vets - Neil Hawthorne, James Lithgow, Warwick Selby
• Family - Barbara and Matthew Hill
• Women - Lisa Grant, Claire Winnick
• Novice - Ben Gardem, Dale Jackson
• Under 23 - Alexander Watt, Tristan White, Samuel Wicks
• Legends - Bryony Cox, Timothy Cox

Provisional results can be found here

Entrants to the first State Leagues of the 2012 season received an email from Big Foot organisers last weekend which read: 'After a site visit this weekend, Big Foot have reluctantly had to postpone State League 1 & 2. Access to the area by 2WD is impractical, and it looks as though this will remain the case for several weeks.

We apologise for the inconvenience that this will no doubt cause.

We will attempt to reschedule the event and will be in touch as soon we have a date. This may take a while, since we have to negotiate with a few land owners, consult the relevant orienteering calendars and sacrifice something to the weather gods.'

Big Foot plan to retain entry fees pending the setting of a replacement date for the events.

Around forty orienteers, drawn mainly from ACT and NSW Elites and Junior Squads, enjoyed some fantastic training at Timberlight this weekend. The training was a last minute arrangement between NSW, and ACT training coordinator Toni Brown, after the disappointment of the State League postponement.  With exercises set by National Senior Squad member Josh Blatchford and World Masters Gold Medallist Jenny Bourne the training was high quality and just the thing to sharpen up bush skills after the summer of street navigation.  New Zealand International Lizzie Ingham and Australian JWOC 2011 team member Belinda Lawford (also National Senior Squad) were amongst those taking advantage of the opportunity for some extra training.

NSW Head Coach Nick Dent ran a session for Sydneysiders returning home, in Belanglo on Sunday.  Dave Lotty and Dick Ogilvie who were out in the forest planning for Uringa's August State League joined in the tough physical loops course on the Miner's Despair map.

Many thanks to Toni Brown and the coaches for working together to pull this off at short notice.  Many thanks also to the Knights family for access to their property, Timberlight, and Western Hills Orienteers for access to the map.  This may be one of the last few opportunities to run on this part of the map as the property is being subdivided and sold in 100 acre lots. 

The Great Volcanic Mountain Challenge to the top of Mount Canoblas near Orange had a record field this Sunday.  Nearly 400 starters entered from all over NSW, with athletes drawn from Wollongong, Sydney and Newcastle as well as a good local turnout.  A fund raiser for the local Scouts and Guides, the annual event is organised by Goldseekers Orienteers and has been growing in popularity since it started seven years ago.  This year there was an additional boost to entrants to the event as it was nominated as the NSW Mountain Running Championships by Athletics NSW. 

Competition was fierce with Ruairdh Macdonald snatching the victory from last year's winner and course record holder Robin Whiteley, in 51:09 to Robin's 51:28.  Central Coast runner Charlie Brooks was third in 52.13.  For the female placings it was local woman Christine Wolfson first across the line in 1:01:13, a good margin head of Audrey Amiya-Hall who was second in 1:06:03 and Estelle Dean, also from Orange in 1:07:24. Local orienteer Darren Francis of Goldseekers put in a tremendous performance with a time of 1:11:01 with Western Plains club member Matt Scott coming in not far behind in 1:12:08.  Shaun Smith, a junior and NSW Wildfire (Under 12) from Goldseekers, found his way to the top in just over 2 hours.  Other notable results came from the Over 70 age class winner, Brian Rix, who scorched up the mountainside in 1:25:22.  Willy Thomas who completed the course in just under 3 hours, is the oldest entrant ever in the race, competing in the Over 80's class.

This year saw the use of a new electronic timing system, purchased as a joint venture between Goldseekers, Orange Triathlon Club and Orange Runners Club.  The purchase of the system, which cost over $16,000 was made possible by the generous support of local Orange Council.