Latest ONSW News
Waggaroos had a strong win in the final round of their annual Interclub series but surrendered the trophy to Albury-Wodonga on Sunday.
The home club needed to catch up 44 points at Livingstone National Park but had to settle for a 63:32 triumph as Albury claimed overall bragging rights 376:363 in what was the closest competition for a number of years.
Points are awarded for participating and completing a course, and to the place-getters in each course. The points earned by place-getters are weighted in favour of the longer and harder navigation courses.
The next Waggaroos event is at Rawlings Park on Sunday 15 September, starting at 10am from the eastern end of Angel St, Lake Albert.
A reminder that in the next week we have three major entry deadlines:
Sunday August 25 for the ACT Middle and Long Champs - this is a NSW State League weekend. Events are near Wee Jasper and Cooma.
Wednesday August 28 for the NSW Schools Champs (students enter via Trybooking) - this is a NSW State League weekend). Events are near Mittagong.
Saturday August 31 for the Oceania championships. Events are in the Riverina and north-east Victoria.
Big Foot has sewn up Division 1 with a round to spare as the finalists emerged in our MetrO League at Wianamatta Regional Park on Sunday.
The NSW Junior Squad hosted, with WHO teenager Niamh Cassar setting her first event and Big Foot veteran Mark Shingler controlling.
The Roads to Nowhere map is flat, with a few earthbanks adding the odd contour, but it can be deceptively hard to maintain a bearing. Throw in some small termite mounds and areas of low visibility and you have terrain that - if underestimated - can easily hurt you.
And that doesn't include the nasty infestations of tiger pear that many runners noted and some felt!
The Garingal Frill Necks were unbeaten in Division 2 but lost 29-26 to SHOO-IKO and - by virtue of 'goal difference' - will meet them again in the final at Mulgoa on September 22.
KNOX will contest the Division 3 and 5 finals - against Bennelong Northside and WHO respectively after winning 3/4 matches.
Big Foot likewise are hot favourites to win Division 4 after another easy win. They'll face SHOO-IKO (3).
In the top division, where it's first past the post, Bennelong's loss to Garingal means Big Foot have won the title for the ninth time in 11 years.
A big thank you to Tim and Dmitry for doing SI, WHO for the map use and general assistance, and all the junior squad members and families for pitching in to ensure a smooth event.
Links to all the results etc can be found on the ML web page.
Like Christmas, ski orienteering in Australia comes but once a year.
And our event has real snow! Photos from the day are available here, as proof.
At Perisher on Sunday, 33 fearless ski orienteers took part in the 2019 ACT & NSW Ski-Orienteering Championships.
Thankfully, the fierce snowfall over Friday and Saturday abated and gave way to beautiful sunshine and plenty of fantastic fresh snow.
We should note that the "feels like" temps were still around -8 all morning! Control collectors... moan no more!
Former Garingal member Tom Landon-Smith won the long course, the interestingly-named former Sydney Summer Series regular Albert the Moose took out the middle, and Nicole Strachan was fastest on the short.
Complete results are available here and winsplits are here.
Thank you to to OACT, ONSW, Big Foot and Red Roos for their terrific support, and to the Nordic Shelter at Perisher for preparing the excellent ski-tracks after a snowstorm!
Special thanks to Marina Ishkakova and Fedor Ishkakov for organising such a high quality event.
