Latest ONSW News
Alastair George, our sole NSW representative at JWOC, has finished with a good result in the Middle Distance final and relays.
Alastair (pictured left) was 43rd in the B final in the Middle, then his No.2 Australian team upstaged the No.1 team by three minutes in the Relays, which concluded an intriguing week in Hungary.
The Middle and Relays were on a map rapidly becoming known as the Hungarian Labyrinth (see here for the maps). The Middle final was in a particularly brutal section, while the Relays were in an more open area that allowed for much faster running.
Apparently the green bits were juniper bushes. Pity the poor mapper having to get it right.
OA has a nice photo album on Facebook taking all the events. World of O also has some excellent analysis.
Congratulations Alastair on your first junior world champs.
Meanwhile in Denmark, the annual World Masters champs wrapped up in beachside terrain at Tisvilde Hegn.
Our Waggaroos club had some great results, with NSW Stinger Briohny Seaman (W35A, pictured right) 23rd in the Middle followed by an outstanding 14th in the Long. Her mum Debbie Davey was mid-field in both W60A finals.
You can see all the maps and results on the event website.
We had ten people attend the recent controllers workshop in Sydney.
ONSW Technical Director Andrew Lumsden ran a packed full-day program which generated lots of feedback and discussion.
Attendees are reminded of the need to do the online officials course, and complete the initial 'points table', to gain accreditation.
We look forward to seeing these new and re-accredited controllers in action.
Thanks, Andrew
NSW has six orienteers into the A finals of the Middle Distance at the World Masters champs in Denmark tonight (Wednesday).
Briohny Seaman (Waggaroos, W35A), Hilary Wood (Central Coast, W60A), Debbie Davey (Waggaroos, W60A), Jean Baldwin (Goldseekers, W75A), Maureen Ogilvie (Uringa, W85A), Patrik Gunnarsson (Big Foot, M40A) made it into the top finals.
You can see a short video of the day's highlights from Tisvilde Hegn here.
Tisvilde Hegn is legendary in Danish Orienteering for its special vegetation and characteristic contour features.
The forest primarily consists of conifers, but beech is also found – primarily in the eastern parts. With its rapidly changing visibility, the terrain will challenge the participants’ capabilities to alter their speed and navigate carefully in very detailed areas.
Big Foot's Alastair George is learning just how fierce the competition is at the junior world champs in Hungary.
Alastair (pictured) is arguably NSW's top junior orienteer, posting impressive km rates across all three formats, but Europe's elites are taking it to a whole new level.
In the JWOC Sprint last night, the men's winner Colin Kolbe from Germany covered the 4.1km course in 15:48. That's less than 4 minutes per kilometre! Victorian Aston Key was equal ninth, a terrific performance following his recent win in the European under-18 titles.
The race was in the middle of Kecskemét, a very flat area with parks and narrow alleyways.
Alastair finished 100th and 3:13 off the pace. Now, let's just think about that for a tick... 3:13 is 193 seconds - so on average there are two seconds separating each of the first 100 placegetters. Wow. Just looking at your map can cost time!
In the women's Sprint, our new scholar Grace Molloy from Scotland tied for 17th.
The champs opened on Monday with the Long Distance in relatively flat terrain. Alastair was 103rd in 96:43 for the 15km course. Special mention goes to Tara Melhuish for her 27th position which is the best result for an Australian woman in the long distance at JWOC since Laurina Neumann’s 25th in 2008.
Wednesday is a well earned rest day. Thursday sees the Middle Qualifying and Friday the finals, with the Relays on Saturday.
You can catch all the action, results, splits and routegadget via the champs website.
