Latest ONSW News
Our West Sydney orienteering series gets underway this Sunday at Upjohn Park in Rydalmere, hoping to mirror the success of the revamped South series.
Club of the Year WHO kick off the West series, which runs for three Sundays in December (2, 9, 16) and again in January (6, 13, 20).
You have the choice of four courses: (a) a SCORE course of 45 minutes, (b) a 5-6km LONG LINE course with minimal street crossing, (c) up to 3km SHORT LINE course with NO street crossing - this is ideal for kids, or for adults seeking a short activity, (d) a FREE MINI course - very easy, mainly for younger juniors.
You may start any time between 9-10.30am.
The South series attracted over 180 people for 476 entries and more than 600 participants, also drawing new members into the Uringa club.
Our awesome Australian championships carnival in Bathurst and Hill End last year is in the running for the Sport NSW Event of the Year.
Featuring maps of some mind-boggling new gold-mining terrain along with a couple of old favourites, the carnival enjoyed record entries and unprecedented media coverage (TV crews came to 5 of the 7 events).
The carnival was 3 years in the making using a significant number of orienteering volunteers from several NSW clubs. The estimated economic return to the region is considered to be $0.5-1 million.
The winners will be announced at the 2018 NSW Champions of Sport Ceremony on Tuesday November 27 at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse. Carnival organiser Barbara Junghans and husband Ron will be at the awards. Fingers crossed!
ONSW encourages our clubs and members to nominate worthy candidates for these awards each year. Click here for more information.
A big thank you to Helen O'Callaghan and Hilary Wood for putting on introductory courses recently as part of the Girls Get Active initiative by Sport NSW and local governments.
Local high school girls hear about life as an elite athlete from the panel reps from a handful of sports, then do a brief clinic of those sports before assembling for an orienteering course.
Helen is the rock of our Bush n Beach club in Coffs Harbour and set four short line courses around Sportz Central on Tuesday. In September Hilary, a stalwart of Central Coast, set a score course for the session at Bateau Bay.
Attendees rated each day at about 9/10 for enjoyment. With research showing girls dropping out of sport at alarming rates in their teenage years, these sessions are a timely reminder of the many options girls have - and that it doesn't always have to be about competition.
We look forward to working with Sport NSW on more of these next year.
Big Foot stalwart Andrew Lumsden has been honoured with the President's Award for 2018 for decades of outstanding service to orienteering in NSW.
Andrew started in orienteering in the early 1970s in Victoria and quickly became one of Australia’s most promising juniors.
Since then he has worked countless hours unpaid on orienteering over the past 30 years including controlling major carnivals, mapping, negotiating landowner access and creating the framework of technical systems that ensures the quality of our events.
A new award this year is Volunteer of the Year. This went to Garingal couple John and Liz Bulman who readily assist at school regional carnivals, school programs, Space Racing, the SOS and promotional events.
We congratulate our major award winners:
President's Junior Award - Alastair George (Big Foot)
Club of the Year - WHO
Course Setter of the Year - Colin Price (Central Coast)
Rookie of the Year - Melanie Christie (Uringa)
Encouragement Award - Maurice Anker (Northern Tablelands)
Volunteer of the Year - John & Liz Bulman (Garingal)
Interclub Trophy - Newcastle
Click on the blue links for the major award citations and our OY badge winners.
Thanks to the Waverton North Sydney Club for the lovely venue, and to Bold Horizons for the challenging courses on so many levels - all with the sublime views of the bridge and harbour.
