Latest ONSW News
Term 4 of the popular SOS kicks off with an ultra sprint at Pymble on Saturday morning.
The SOS is run by our partner organisation Bold Horizons and provides an ideal introduction to orienteering for newcomers, while offering regulars a challenging outing each time.
Ultra sprint is the latest format and best suited to small areas with lots of trees.
There are no control descriptions or numbers for checking. Control circles will instead include a dot showing the control location. There will be no disqualifications for visiting incorrect controls, instead a time penalty of 30 seconds per incorrect control will apply.
And all courses will include a maze! These events are great fun and a great coaching tool.
Please pre-enter by Thursday midday. This event is 200m from Pymble train station, so public transport is a great option as parking will be very tight.
Two engaging DUO events gave orienteers reason to smile over a hot long weekend in Sydney.
At this time of year, hundreds of our members would usually be interstate at the annual Australian championships (set down for Tasmania in 2020).
When they were cancelled, Victoria had hoped to offer two events in Beechworth on maps used at last year's Oceania champs - only to fall victim to the second wave of covid.
That gave us a chance to move the postponed DUO events at Appin and Frenchs Forest into the long weekend - and the response was around 180 entries all up, with some competitors coming from ACT and Newcastle.
Temps on both days nudged 30C at midday as the last participants were finishing on the bike section, making for thirsty work.
Saturday was a true team effort - with Ian Jessup (Garingal/ONSW) setting, Rob Prentice (Newcastle) controlling and Uringa organising on SHOO's Appin map updated by IKO!
Immediate ONSW past president Greg Barbour (Big Foot) was the only person to clear both courses within the 60-minute limit.
He backed up again on Monday at Frenchs Forest, again set by Ian but organised by Garingal, where shorter courses gave everyone a reprieve from the heat.
This resulted in 32 people clearing the Foot course and 23 people clearing the MTBO course which featured some intriguing twisting single track and some suburban street riding.
Results and splits are on Eventor. Click on the blue links for the courses: Appin Foot, Appin MTBO, Frenchs Forest Foot, Frenchs Forest MTBO.
A huge thank you to Ian for setting both events and ensuring some MTBO action in Sydney, plus all the helpers on each day, and the scouts (Appin) and girl guides (Frenchs Forest) for use of their halls. We saw lots of newcomers having a go.
Newcastle are hosting the next 3 MTBO outings - a free come-and-try-it on October 18, then BOSS events on November 15 and December 13.
We are already planning DUO events for 2021 - stay tuned!
Our two biggest summer series - Sydney and Newcastle - kick off next Wednesday with important changes to the way both are conducted.
Newcastle will be using the free app MapRunF available for smartphones and watches. This ensures that the events are as contactless as possible due to ongoing covid concerns.
Warm-up events on October 7 and 14 offer the opportunity to get procedures sorted in time for the series opener on October 21.
Events remain score courses of 45 minutes, with the start window from 5-6.30pm. Only people participating during that time will count towards the point score, otherwise people can run the event at a time that suits them.
You can pre-enter right up until 6.30pm on the day. Printed maps will still be available.
In Sydney, maps will be available on Eventor from 7pm Tuesday so people can plan their routes in advance. The days of mingling with buddies to compare routes are over thanks to covid. The intention is to arrive, run, leave.
All Sydney Summer Series events will have a common assembly area layout - see here for details. This is to better manage the flow of 200 participants across the three hours.
Events remain score courses of 45 minutes, with the start window from 4.30-6.45pm.
You can pre-enter up until the last start time, and there is a free MINI course pretty much every week as well for kids.
The SSS website has also had a big revamp thanks to Andrew Wisniewski. Clicking on your name on any result will bring up your entire SSS history! Thanks to Jim Merchant, Ian Jessup and Richard Pattison for pulling together the historical data.
SSS season tickets offer members a discount of 30% and are available here.
Covid has wrecked most of our winter calendar but there are still a few chances to enjoy bush orienteering before all clubs turn their attention to summer street and park programs.
And with no restrictions on inter-regional sport from September 26, you can now make the most of the school holidays to get around to some events.
On the long weekend, we have two DUO events in Sydney.
* Saturday (Oct 3) is at Appin, where you can do a one-hour bush score course on Foot and another on a mountain bike - or both!
* Monday (Oct 5) is at Frenchs Forest, with the same format.
* In between, in Wagga on Sun Oct 4, there is a local event at Willans Hill in the middle of town.
Then,
* on Sunday October 11 you have a choice of bush events in Orange, Newcastle, Mittagong and Armidale.
* on Sunday October 18 it's the Sydney MetrO League final at Lansdowne, and a local event in Wagga.
* on Sunday November 1 Big Foot are putting on a Sate League-quality event at Falnash near Lithgow.
