Latest ONSW News

Galston High School and Greenwich Public School are the proud new titleholders after a very windy annual Sydney North schools championships at St Ives Showground on Monday.

Galston have been coming for a few years now and built on their preious experience to unseat Riverside Girls. In the primary division, Greenwich had two Garingal juniors leading the way.

All up we had more than 240 entries, with a big increase in primary school numbers. Great to see some follow-through from the programs we have run at Mimosa PS and Lindfield East PS in particular.

A big thank you to Barbara Hill for organising, Terry Bluett on SI, and all the coaches and other helpers who ensure the students had an enjoyable day.

And a reminder that entries for the annual NSW Schools Champs close next Monday (August 14). This year we are in the Illawarra - see the flyer for details.

Sydney North was the last of our regional championships for 2017 - but we still have gala days to come in Term 4 in Armidale (Oct 20) and Orange (Nov 3).

Young shoulders won out over old heads at Garingal's annual Goanna wacky race at The Clay Pan in Beacon Hill on Sunday.

JWOC rep Toby Wilson (Garingal), Ewan Shingler (Big Foot) and Serena Doyle (Uringa) were first across the line in the mass start mind-bender that is the brainchild of ONSW marketing and communications officer Ian Jessup.

Competitors may skip controls, may follow others, and have a small box section to be done in any order - throwing the standard line course a little out of kilter and introducing some tangential decision making into the mix.

For example, fourth-placed Bart Vonhoff was en route to #13 on the long Goanna course, but found himself instead at control a in the box. Worry? No - he simply skipped #13 and continued! (Don't we all wish we could have days like that?!)

Toby (43:03) deadheated with Andrew Brown last year in the Goanna but had the glory all to himself this year as he pipped Big Foot junior Alastair George by 18 seconds. Visiting Tasmanian Karl Bicevskis was a further 14 minutes back in third place.

In the medium DraGOn, Ewan (38:59) shrugged off a heavy cold to beat Tom Kennedy (second place again) by seven minutes. Mapper Jim Merchant was third in just under an hour - feeling right at home no doubt.

In the short GeckO, Serena (40:58) edged out Toby's mum Airdrie Long by half a minute, with Peter Fozo - one of Garingal's Hungarian imports, third in 49:47.

A bi thank you to controller Ron Junghans and the team of GO helpers, especially SI guru Col Burnett who had the task of programming such a spectacle as well as overseeing the trial of SI Air.

The courses are on Routegadget, with some amusing 'noodling' on the Goanna.

We are pleased to announce the range of merchandise on offer for next month's Australian championships carnival at Bathurst and Hill End. 

You can choose from running shirts, running caps, jigsaw puzzles and sports towels.

Shirt orders must be placed by Friday August 25; they are the same cut and fabric as the 2015 Tasmanian Oceania shirts that were very popular.

Other merchandise must be ordered by Monday August 28 - the same day that entries close.

You can view all the details here.

Entries have reopened for Garingal's innovative Goanna 'goat race', which this year will again be held on the fiendish Clay Pan map at Beacon Hill on Sydney's northen beaches.

The event is on Sunday August 6, with a mass start at 10am for the 3 moderate courses. Please note we will be testing the new touchless-contact SI Air sticks on the DraGOn course. Stick hire will be free in place of your normal SI stick.

Goat races are a wacky form of line orienteering in which:
* there is a mass start
* following is allowed (this is usually a no-no)
* you may skip a control (yippee!)
* there are forked controls (you go to 'a' or 'b')
* in the boxed section you visit the controls in any order 

There are 3 course lengths (GeckO 3.5km, DraGOn 5km and GOanna 7km), with the standard varying from easy to moderate to hard depending on where you are on the course.

Have a look at a previous Goanna to see what you are confronted with.

Tactics have to be made up on the run - which control will you skip?, which fork will you take?, and in which order will you do 'the box'? The first two Goannas generated a lot of discussion about strategy, and great enthusiasm for the format. A 'fun' run in its own right.

Entries close on Fri Aug 4. The Very Easy and Easy courses are Enter-on-Day and will have a start window of 10.15-11am.