Latest ONSW News
Thank you to everyone who has pre-entered for the Australian championships carnival around Bathurst and Hill End later this month.
When late entries closed at midnight on Thursday, we had 941 unique entrants. Of those, 188 are trying out the new SI Air touchless contact timing sticks.
Our biggest event is the Middle Distance champs with 886 entries. The midweek Bathurst 3-Days has attracted 449 people keen to try their hands at the courses being used for the Australian schools champs.
We will be offering enter on day at each of the 7 events - stay tuned for EOD details.
Waggaroos have easily retained the annual Interclub trophy after a narrow 16-13 last round win over Albury-Wodonga.
Held in a cold and wet Murraguldrie State Forest - venue for day two of this year's big June long weekend carnival - the courses regularly challenged participants in a number of respects.
The forest was open enough to attack the control on the direct line route which had to be considered against the option of running wide and avoiding some steeper slopes. Then as the control site was approached careful navigation was required to home in on the target feature.
Finally, the slippery conditions in some areas meant traversing the hillsides became difficult and times were slightly slower than usual. Wagga won the eight-event series 160-145.
We thank John Oliver for his regular reports from Wagga, and look forward to the 2019 Oceania championships being held in the area.
A hugely successful week for NSW riders in mountain bike orienteering has set the stage for a big Australian championships in the Southern Highlands in early October.
Lucy Mackie (Big Foot), younger brother Fergus, and Newcastle's Glen Charlton (pictured) have just finished their world championship commitments in Lithuania.
Lucy stamped herself on the international scene with silver in the Middle and seventh in the Long. Fergus notched his first top-10 finish with 9th in the Middle. Glen was beset by mechanical issues but loved the atmosphere and will return much wiser.
At the Queensland MTBO champs this weekend, the small contingent of NSW riders was well and truly among the medals.
Rhiannon Prentice (Newcastle) won all 3 formats in W14-16 and dad Robert did likewise in M60-69.
Michael Ridley-Smith (Garingal) won the M50-59 Long champs and was third in the Middle. In the same age class, Andrew Power (NC) took silver in the Long and won the Middle. Both men mispunched in the opening Sprint.
With our three WOC representatives buoyed by their experience, NSW will be well primed for the national titles on home turf at Wingello from October 7-8. Entries close on Sunday September 17 via Eventor.
Sydneysider Lucy Mackie has ridden the race of her life to take second place in the Middle Distance at the junior world mountain bike orienteering championships in Lithuania.
By our calculations, this makes Lucy the first orienteer from NSW to win a medal at a world championship.
Lucy finished just two minutes behind Czech star Veronika Kubinova, who is widely considered to be just about unbeatable in the sport.
Very muddy conditions in the capital Vilnius put a premium on fitness and technical skills and, after dropping two minutes to the first radio control, Lucy powered around the last three-quarters of the course on par with Kubinova.
Lots of rain and mud made some of the hills unrideable, though running up a sloping mountain with a bike was also challenging – very slippery! Read Lucy's race report here.
There was more good news for the family, the Big Foot club, ONSW and Australia with younger brother Fergus recording a top-10 finish in the junior men's, finishing 9th.
Newcastle's Glen Charlton was 67th in the senior men's race in a tough MTBO WOC debut.
FRIDAY UPDATE: Lucy gained another top-10 result with a 7th placing in Friday's Long distance event. Fergus was 24th and Glen was disqualified. In Wednesday's Mass Start race, Lucy dropped a map and as a result had a dnf recorded, Fergus was 35th and Glen mispunched.
The championships finish on Saturday with the Sprint event.
