Latest ONSW News
DuO orienteering made a refreshing comeback to Sydney over Easter with events held at Belrose and St Ives attracting 130 participants - including many newcomers.
DuO is an event comprising a course on mountain bike (MTBO) and a course on foot. For these events, the MTBO leg was done as a line course, then the Foot O as a scatter course (any order).
There was a long course (featuring one tough climb on bike and some Moderate-Hard controls on foot) and a short course (fairly flat bike leg and Easy foot nav) each day.
The last DuO was four years ago in Castle Hill; the 2019 events were in the northern beaches area offering an excellent introduction to orienteering for beginners while also satisfying regulars wishing for a decent training session.
Garingal's Michael Ridley-Smith won the Long on both days, while in the Short it was Year 7 student Cooper Horley (GO) who was fastest at Belrose and John Bulman (GO) at St Ives.
Cooper backed up in the Long on Monday and came fifth - a highly impressive result for someone so young. Crucially, he avoided the dreaded mispunch that hurt a few seasoned campaigners.
It was lovely to see so many newcomers - adventure racers, MTB people, some young army guys who were told to improve their nav, a family who came to Space Racing and wanted more (see bottom pic of dad jogging beside his daughter).
You can find results links and info about upcoming MTBO events here. Thanks to those people who took photos - you can find pix and the maps on our Facebook page.
A big thank you to our helpers Liz, John, Ori, Robert, Kristin, Sue, Melanie, Colin and Dianne.
Big Foot's Alastair George has again been selected in the Australian team to compete in the junior world championships in Denmark in July.
Alastair (back row, third from left) finished second overall in the junior men's elite division at the big national Easter carnival in WA. It's his second trip to JWOC after making his debut in Hungary last year.
Year 9 prodigy Alvin Craig finished an impressive fourth overall but did not nominate.
We congratulate the boys on their success - along with Duncan Currie who won the opening Sprint event - and wish Alastair all the best in Denmark. You can follow his progress on the event website here.
The Australian JWOC team is:
Women: Mikayla Cooper (Tas), Ella Cuthbert (ACT), Joanna George (SA), Tara Melhuish (ACT), Zoe Melhuish (ACT), Caroline Pigerre (Qld).
Men: Dante Afnan (SA), Alastair George (NSW), Angus Haines (SA), Aston Key (VIC), Patrick Miller (ACT), Noah Poland (ACT).
Speaking of Easter, congratulations to these NSW orienteers who won their age classes across the 3 days of the carnival:
Aoife Rothery (BF, W12A), Erika Enderby (NC, W14A), Nikolett Halmai (GO, W35A), Cath Chalmers (BF, W50A), Barbara Junghans (GO, W65AS), Alton Freeman (BF, M10A), Oliver Freeman (BF, W14A), Oskar Mella (NC, M16A), Chris Fitzgerald (GS, M21A), Istvan Kertesz (GO, M35A), Stephen Craig (NC, M50A), Michael Halmy (BN, M55AS), Eoin Rothery (BF, M60A), Ian Warlters (BB, M65AS), Basil Baldwin (GS, M80A).
And congrats to Big Foot who finished second in the competition for Australian Champion Club, based on the Long Distance event on Sunday.
Garingal star Duncan Currie has won the junior men's elite Sprint at the national Easter carnival in Perth.
Duncan beat a quality field to win by an impressive 35 seconds at Scotch College campus.
It's his first solo win in the National League, following NSW's Australian Relay champs win at Hill End three weeks ago.
He has nominated for the junior world champs in the European summer and these early results keep his name in front of the selectors.
"I looked at the map beforehand and was focusing on running fast and taking good route choices," said Duncan.
"There were a lot of complex buildings in a small area but I had a really clean."
Our NSW winners (there were 16) were: Aoife Rothery (BF, W12A), Erika Enderby (NC, W14A), Nikolett Halmai (GO, W35A), Cath Chalmers (BF, W50A), Barbara Junghans (GO, W65A), Oliver Freeman (BF, M14A), Duncan Currie (GO, M20E), Istvan Kertesz (GO, M35A), Stephen Craig (NC, M50A), Michael Halmy (BN, M55AS), Eoin Rothery (BF, M60A), Gordon Wilson (BN, M65A), Ian Warlters (BB, M65AS), Ron Junghans (GO, M75A), Brian Cleland (UR, M80A), Samantha Mella (NC, W Open B).
Pictured here is Serena Doyle (UR) pushing hard to the finish.
In one of the most meteoric rises in any sport, Newcastle adventure racer and mountain bike marathoner Tim Doman is off to the MTBO world championships after competing in just a handful of events.
Doman made such an impact at the recent NSW MTBO championships on home turf in Newcastle – winning two of the three disciplines (Sprint and Long) that the national selectors had no option but to ‘have a chat’ to this complete stranger.
He was encouraged to back up immediately and flew to Ballarat last weekend to take on Victoria’s best MTBO talent – and streeted the field by 22 minutes, taking out the 29km elite course in just under an hour and a half.
That left the selectors with little choice but to name the 31-year-old rookie in the three-man Australian team to compete in Denmark in late July and early August.
He'll be joining WA veteran Ricky Thackray and Queenslander Joel Young who'll be attending his second WOC.
“It's a bit of a blur really - two weeks ago I didn't realise it was an option and now I've made the Australian team!,” Tim said on Wednesday as he packed for a wilderness holiday.
Doman first heard about MTBO in late 2018 through brochures in a mate’s bike shop promoting the Newcastle club’s monthly BOSS events. He easily won his first event in the casual category, then beat all the experienced riders in his two events in the elite class.
That prompted him to enter the NSW Champs. The rest, as they say, is history.
“I'm hooked,” he said.
“You have the freedom to choose how technical and fast you want to ride, and the race atmosphere is pretty relaxed and social. I've started doing foot orienteering events as well, but MTBO is definitely my preferred discipline, mostly because I can ride better than I can run!”
