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The heat was on for the opening event in Newcastle's mountain bike orienteering summer series (BOSS) at Columbey National Park on Saturday.
Temperatures in the mid-30s made for thirsty work, but weather aside the area had everything: fast single tracks and roads, some difficult route selections and some really fun downhills with water diversion berms to jump off.
There was even a creek crossing, which was handlebar-deep if you tried going through the middle of the crossing.
Following some advertising on the local MTB Facebook page we had 18 first-timers which was a great result. With a little help with their route planning, most navigated around the course and the points were fairly close in the All Score category.
"I'll be back," said first-timer Ginaya. "Thanks for the warm welcome to everyone there. A well-run event."
"Was great fun. Will be back," added Rob.
Steve Todkill travelled around 24km in the 75 minutes and was two controls short of clearing the course. Carolyn Matthews continued her fine form being first of the ladies and at the pointy end overall. Cassie Thompson came in ahead of Margaret Peel in the ladies all-score class with Mick Cann and Isaac Mordue fighting it out in the men’s class.
It was a great result for promotion and introducing riders to MTBO. Thanks to Greg Bacon for this report and well done to Newcastle. BOSS 2 is on Sun Nov 25 at Wallaroo State Forest.
Our Goldseekers club in Orange hosted our final gala day for 2013 at Gosling Creek Reserve.
About 50 youngsters from Orange, Manildra and Molong Public Schools had a great time hunting down controls on 10 courses set by our new Scottish scholar Grace Molloy.
In the morning courses ranged from very easy with just a few controls to harder courses that were longer, with more controls and some simple route choice options. Most students went in pairs and did 3 or more courses.
After lunch there was the 'organised chaos' of a relay teams contest where they put in an enthusiastic effort. Everyone went away happy!
This was our 13th regional champs/gala day for 2018 and we are delighted to report a record aggregate attendance of around 2,650 students at these events.
Thanks Goldseekers, thanks Basil for organising.
Orienteering Australia has released its High Performance calendar for 2019.
The highlight for NSW is the return to the complex gold mining terrain of Hill End for the opening rounds of the National Orienteering League and our State League, on March 30-31.
We host the NOL again with the NSW Middle and Long Champs near Cowra in mid-May.
The NOL finishes on home turf with the Oceania champs in the Riverina (hosted by ACT) in September-October.
The Oceania Sprint at CSU Wagga on September 28 will also be the 2019 Australian University Orienteering Championships, conducted in the M/W20E and M/W21E classes. It will be open to all students enrolled in an Australian university in 2019 who enter in those age categories.
NOL events 1-6 will be selection trials for the 2019 JWOC team.
NOL events 1-2, 5-6 and 8-10 will be used for selection of the 2019 WOC team, with particular focus on events 9-10.
For all squad athletes there will be two weekends set for physical test time trials in February and March.
You can view the 2019 HP calendar here.
More than 700 students had a glorious day out at the annual Armidale schools day on Friday.
Our Northern Tablelands club had all hands on deck from 7.30am to 3.30pm under a beautiful blue sky at Sunnyside Travelling Stock Route just north of town.
Students had the choice of an Easy line course, a Moderate line course or a score course; and went around in teams of 2-4. They were bussed in and out in waves.
Approximately 585 primary students from 7 schools took part. TAS Junior School narrowly beat NEGS Junior School, who had not competed for a few years.
A further 116 secondary students attended. In the competition for individual/team trophies, it was a clean sweep for Armidale City in the Year 5&6 Easy line course, and almost so for Duval High School in the senior divisions, with Claude Toakley and Sebastian Stoessel from O'Connor Catholic College just managing to claim third place in the Year 7&8 Moderate line course.
The map was a well-bounded area with fences and a creek line ensuring students were nicely confined while still being challenged by the undulating forest and farmland.
Thanks NTOC, thanks Maurice Anker for organising.
