Latest ONSW News

Our annual ski orienteering day at Perisher will be held on Sunday August 11.

The 2019 NSW & ACT Ski-Orienteering Championships are the sixth year in a row we have staged this event since it was revived by Big Foot's Swede Patrik Gunnarsson. It is now jointly organised by Big Foot, ACT club Red Roos and Perisher X Country.

Participants can choose from: Long, Middle and Short line courses, a 2-hour Snogaine or a 1-2-hour family treasure hunt.

Please note that downhill skis and snowboards are not suitable - you need cross-country skis. 

This event forms part of XC Ski week (2019 details yet to be added to website), with the start in front of the beautiful Nordic Shelter at Perisher. Last year's event drew 47 participants.

Pre-entry will be available later this year, but if you wish to enter on the day please email the organisers (Marina Iskhakova and Fedor Iskhakov) in advance so they know how many maps to print.

Coincidentally, Sydneysider and occasional orienteer Paul McDonald was in Swedish Lapland last week for the World Masters Ski O champs. Is he the first Australian to compete at WMSOC?

Derrick Cant has led a posse of rookies in taking out awards at Newcastle's BOSS series of mountain bike orienteering.

Participants had the choice of short line course + a score course, or just the score course.

Having started on the score course in round 3, Derrick (pictured top with Newcastle president Andrew Power) swept the field in the next 4 events to finish first with 382 points out of a possible 400 - including wins at the last two events.

"I love adventure racing and this is a great training run." he said. "MTBO as a sport is awesome fun and great people." 

Ginaya Dunn took out third place in the women's score course after doing all six events.

"Greg Bacon and Tim Hackney are very supportive of any new people who turn up," she said.

"I’m only new to this sport and mountain biking but I can see myself doing more of these events in the future."

And Tim Doman is looming as a big threat to Steven Todkill's stranglehold hold on the elite men's trophy.

"Hebburn was my third MTBO race, and I'm hooked! You have the freedom to choose how technical and fast you want to ride, and the race atmosphere is pretty relaxed and social," said.

Tim easily won BOSS 2 doing just the score course, then stepped up to do the Line + Score for the last two events - and won both!

This won him the Line Score rookie award. 

Despite half an inch of rain on Saturday at Kurri Kurri, the tracks and trails remained quite firm and scoring was on a par with previous events.

Congratulations to the placegetters:
Male Line Score: 1st Steven Todkill, 2nd Andrew Haigh, 3rd Malcolm Roberts
Female Line Score: 1st Carolyn Matthews, 2nd Nicole Haigh, 3rd Sally-Anne Henderson
Male All Score: 1st Derek Cant (rookie), 2nd Marcus Lee, 3rd Brad Mertons
Female All Score: 1st Cassandra Thompson, 2nd Margaret Peel, 3rd Ginaya Dunn (rookie)
E-bike Line Score: Greg Bacon
E-bike All Score: Peter Ramsey
Rookie Line Score: Tim Doman
Rookie All Score: Derrick Cant

The final tallies can be found here - the R symbol denotes a rookie. The series had around 120 unique participants, including 70 first-timers who were alerted by our Facebook ads and word of mouth.  

We say a big thank you to all the event organisers, and especially the BOSS co-ordinators Tim Hackney and Greg Bacon.

A reminder that there are three more MTBO events on April 6-7 at the NSW championships at Holmesville. There are Sprint, Middle and Long Distance events for all skill levels and abilities. Follow this link for details.

Following that, we have two DuO events (a combination of MTBO and Foot O) on Sydney's northern beaches at Easter. See the flyer for details.

Our latest coach-in-residence Grace Molloy is on her way back to Scotland after an action-packed six months in NSW.

Grace has run at JWOC for Great Britain and we wish her well as she prepares for another northern summer of elite competition.

Here she pens some recollections of her time down under.

"I have had an incredible six months," Grace said.

"I was hosted by lovely families in Orange, Sydney and Coffs Harbour and I also made trips to Perth, Adelaide, Ballarat, Canberra and New Zealand for a mixture of training camps, competitions and holidays.

"My main tasks included organising training sessions and running events for both juniors and adults, coaching in schools and making sprint maps.

"I also coached the NSW junior team at the Australian Championships and at a training camp in Ballarat and these were two of the highlights of my trip. Everyone I met was extremely welcoming and I am especially grateful to my host families.

"I would love to come back to Australia will be recommending the programme to any enthusiastic orienteers in Britain." 

A reminder that entries close FRIDAY (March 15) for our opening State League weekend at Hill End on March 30-31.

This doubles as the first National League (NOL) weekend for 2019 and will attract the best orienteers from across Australia as they strive to make the Australian teams for this year's senior and junior world champs.

Garingal's awesome gold mining terrain of Hill End wowed more than 900 orienteers at the 2017 Australian champs and we can't wait to have another go at this great area.

Please note that on the Saturday the elites will be running their Australian Relay Championships, and everyone else a Middle Distance event. On Sunday all entrants have Long Distance courses.

Accommodation close to the events is limited so get in quick - otherwise there is plenty of accommodation in Bathurst.

Whistles are compulsory - please see the program for all the latest information.

Late entries are available for a higher fee until Monday.