Latest ONSW News
With 26 events under her belt and 2600 points representing 26 winning runs there was no doubting who was going to be Sydney Summer Series Champion this year. Wendy Stevenson had an immaculate set of races, beating all comers in the Veteran Women's class and out point scoring everyone else to take the trophy.
The last race in the Series was held at Macquarie University. With few hills and plenty of building detail, the course had the feel of a sprint event albeit a rather long one. Deep grass on the open areas of the map sapped some of the runners' energy but these areas were balanced nicely with very quick legs around paved areas of the campus and local streets.
There were some amazingly close results, with a number of equal first places being awarded. For badge purposes, where perfect scores of 1200 were matched, delving into the series event scoring detail was the only way to differentiate between top scorers. Even then it was by very slim margins. Lisa Grant in the Open Women took top badge from Gill Fowler this way, as did Glen Horrocks from Richard Green in Masters Men. Steve Ryan was a veteran of 26 races this season and scoring the full 1200 took first place from Andrew Hill, who despite injury part way through the season still had such a great set of results that Mark Schaefer couldn't catch him. 
Michael Burton won in convincing style ahead of Malcolm Bradley and Andy Graham; Eoin Rothery was the winner of the Super Veteran class. NSW Junior Squad members Matthew Hill and Michele Dawson took top honours in the Open Men and Open Women categories.
Full results for the race and for the season will be available soon on the Sydney Summer Series page.
The winter bush orienteering season has started, with club events already underway and the Metro League kicking off on Sunday 1st April out at Cecil Hills. Anyone heading up to the Easter Carnival in Queensland will find this a great opportunity to brush up their bush orienteering skills. For those who get withdrawal symptons from the Summer Series during the bush season, there is the monthly Moonlight Madness race series held at the full moon. The first of that series is on 4th April in Northern Sydney.
The Coalfields Classic brings together top quality terrain with the very best in organisation and planning that NSW has to offer. These races are blue riband State League events and National Orienteering League Round 3. Nominated as one of the Australian team World Orienteering Championship selection races, and Sunday 13th Long Distance as a World Ranking Event it is no wonder there is such a classy field of competitors lining up to run. Have a look at the competition area maps and start to get excited. Entries are still open until 15th April but don't get distracted by Easter and book your entries in now here. This is one set of races you don't want to miss!
Junior orienteers were treated to a weekend of competition as Western Plains completed their highly successful Space Racing Series on Saturday followed by the Central West Schools Orienteering Championship on Sunday.
On Saturday at Macquarie Anglican Grammar School (MAGS), twelve space racing crews competed to take the final mission honours. Team Mimosa – Joe Thompson and James Hughes (10mins 14secs) overtook the previously unbeaten Team Pleione – Samantha Wallace and Shannon Finch (10mins 20secs) to become the new Space Racing Champions with Team Betelgeuse – Emma Hughes and Katie Wallace (12mins 12secs) in third. The Star Trek open sprint event, for adults, attracted some twenty two sprinters and was won by Dale Wallace (Men) and Karen Hagan (Women).
The Central West Schools Championship was held on the combined campuses of St Johns Primary School and St Johns College. There were winners from all the schools represented in the Championship but it was the strength of the Macquarie Anglican Grammar School who swept the board in the 10 years and under, took 1st and 3rd in the 12 years and under division, and 1st and 2nd in the 16 years and under, which brought home the points to become the 2012 Central West Schools Champions. They were only seriously challenged in the 14 yrs and under division where Dubbo South Campus took both male and female first places.
A new series of five Space Races will begin on Sunday 20th May 2012. For further information email:
Thanks to Karen Hagan for her help with this report
The Waggaroos vs Albury Wodonga Interclub series of 2012 had the Waggaroos getting off to a good start with a win in the opening event of the Interclub Series against Albury last Sunday with a score of 16:11.
The event was organised by the Albury Club on a newly mapped area near Table Top and proved to be a wonderful challenge in a small area. The 1:5000 scale meant a huge amount of detail was presented to the participant and in the forest features appeared quickly. It was fascinating countryside combining intricate contour features created by diggings and erosion control with fields of boulders spread across the map. Long grass made some hillsides particularly difficult to negotiate.
Results: 5km Course: Alex Davey (Wagga) 43:40; Deb Davey (W) 49:50; Rob Simmons (Albury) 53:16; Rob Matthews (A) 53:47; John Oliver (W) 55:17; Norm McCann (A) 77:18; Eloise Matthews (A) 78:18; Wayne Bajenoff (A) 82:55; Alastair Buchan (A) 89:42. 4km Course: Rick Armstrong (A) 51:53; Wes Campbell (W) 61:03; Janet Buchan 81:49. 3km Course: Kath Oliver (W) 56:25; Paul & Oliver Hembrow (A) 64:58; Cave Family (A) 72:08
The second of the four event series will be conducted in the Wagga area in June. Next local event will be on Sunday 22 April at the Victory Memorial Gardens commencing at 10am.
Thanks to John Oliver for this report
