Latest ONSW News
Newcastle are blessed with dozens of great bush maps and we enjoyed two of them at the weekend as our State League season wound up in glorious spring sunshine.
Stephen Craig set short but physically demanding courses at Mt Sugarloaf on Saturday, where you needed one leg shorter than the other on the steep hillsides.
On Sunday at Southams Road, Ian Dempsey set some cracking long legs that offered a direct route in fast runnable forest or longer running on the many tracks and firetrails.
Emily Sorensen from South Australia took out W20A on both days, while Damien Welbourne (Newcastle, M50A) and Ian Jessup (Garingal, M45AS) had their first wins of the year.
Please fill out the very brief Course Setter surveys. Our State League page and the OY point scores will be updated over the course of the next fortnight, as our regular human abacus Col Bailey is on a well-earned overseas holiday.
Thank you to all our organisers, course setters, controllers, results people and participants for a great year.
Our 2019 SL season starts with a NOL round in conjunction back on the awesome mining maps of Hill End on the last weekend in March.
Early bird entries are now open for the 2019 Easter carnival in Western Australia.
Organisers are promising seven quality events in nine days across a variety of terrains.
Because the Oceania champs are on later next year, WA will host the Australian Sprint and Middle championships the weekend after Easter (April 26-27).
And for those people going to this year's Australian champs in South Australia, the final bulletin has been released.
Two dozen NSW orienteers competed in the ACT Long Champs on Sunday and found the map very challenging.
Our winners were Dave Lotty (Uringa, M65AS), Maureen Ogilvie (UR, W85A), Cheryl Bluett (Bennelong, W65AS), Terry Bluett (BN, M70A) and Nicola Nygh (Big Foot, W45AS).
Controls were often placed on small termite mounds hidden in long grass or bracken (see top pic), making it very difficult to spot; while the rocky hills in the southwest of the map had complex spurs and gullies with many small rocky knolls.
Overall it was a true test, as all long champs should be. And there was plenty of wildlife (deer, foxes, kangaroos, wallabies) for those of us who took longer than they would have liked!
Following the NSW Long Champs in Armidale in April, and these results, ACT has regained the Bennelong Trophy 39.5 to 35.5.
Thanks to OACT and Red Roos. Maps and photos can be viewed in the Facebook album here.
Sam Woolford, one of three brothers in our NSW Schools Team, had a weekend to remember at the Qld NOL round at Stanthorpe.
Sam won the M14 Queensland Middle Distance Champs on Saturday, then stepped up to M16 on Sunday - and won by 1 second in a sprint finish!
Older brother Oscar was second in M16 on Saturday and third on Sunday, while their mum Helen O'Callaghan (W45A) came third on both days. It was well worth the four-hour journey from Coffs Harbour.
NSW had no runners in the small NOL fields, but a handful of intrepids made the trek for some of the most awesome granite maps anywhere.
On Saturday, Northern Tablelands' Eric Baker won M65A, while Garingal's Ross Barr was third.
Ross reported he ran less than 9 minutes per km - almost 'warp' speed - over 4.6km on Sunday in finishing second in M70A.
NTOC added three wins on Sunday, via Don Barker (M60A), Alec Watt (M65A) and Jane Watt (W55AS).
