Latest ONSW News
Big Foot's annual two-race sprint event will be held on Sat Dec 17 at Crimson Hill, formerly the home to UTS Kuring-gai, in Eton Road, Lindfield.
Entries are open via Eventor. And for the first time Big Foot will be offering a 1.5km one-off course for kids, families and anyone who wishes to do just the one short course.
We thank the Feet for their flexibility after permission was withdrawn for their initial venue of Rookwood Cemetery. Full details are here.
Newcastle's Rob Vincent's lifetime devotion to orienteering has been recognised with the prestigious ONSW President's Award for 2016.
Rob's service to our sport is the complete package: starting as a junior and rising to the dominant elite male in Australia for many years. Even from the early days he was willing to coach those younger than himself and helped many achieve elite status over the years. He has also put in many hours of hard work through mapping and course setting and is now one of NSW’s premier organisers, setters and mappers. His influence on NSW and Australian orienteering has been and will continue to be immense.
The President's Junior Award went to Rebecca George of Big Foot for her work coaching with schools, mapping new local areas and setting the acclaimed NSW Middle Distance Championship courses at Snows Hill in April.
Club of the Year went to Garingal for the sheer volume and scope of events they put on plus their Division 1 MetrO League success and weekly training sessions throughout the year.
Our newest club Bush n Beach, based in Coffs Harbour, picked up two trophies: Bruce Meder for Course Setter of the Year for his Sprint courses at the QB III long weekend, and club secretary Helen O'Callaghan the Cox's Cup Encouragement Award for her efforts in getting the club started and her work behind the scenes of QB III.
Rookie of the Year, for a nice change, went to a junior in Waggaroos' Lachlan Billett who in his first year in the NSW All Schools Team helped the junior boys relay to first place at the Australian champs in Queensland.
The Interclub trophy, based on State League results, went to Newcastle.
National trophies won by NSW this year were the OA Shield (based on results in the Long Distance event at Easter), and the Xanthorrhoea Trophy (based on the relays at the Australian champs).
Congratulations to all our major award winners. They have all been added to our honour boards. Click on the blue links for more details of our major winners, OY badge winners, junior participation awards and wombie winners for amusing anecdotes. Thanks to Bennelong Northside for a wonderful setting and event at Lake Parramatta on Sunday to host our presentations.
Armidale's annual schools orienteering gala day at Dumaresq Dam last week drew another big crowd amid perfect weather.
Most of the massive turnout of 673 students did a one-hour score course, while the more experienced older students chose from an easy or moderate line course.
The Bush n Beach club, a mere three hours' drive away, sent a small posse and cleaned up some of the age classes.
Thanks to Alec Watt, Maurice Anker, David Symons and the rest of the Northern Tablelands club for another great outing.
This was our final regional schools carnival for the year and took our 2016 attendance for these events to an impressive 2,169. Thanks to all our carnival organiser and helpers.
Technology marches on in orienteering - and some of our clubs are now accepting electronic payment on the day.
Big Foot successfully trialled it at Ski-O at Perisher in August and will do so again at Wednesday's SSS at Sydney Olympic Park. (Big Foot are also offering pre-entry via Eventor at last year's prices ($10 for adults) - provided you register by 10am.)
Garingal tested Paywave at Sunday's Southern SSS event at Clovelly and reported no hiccups, and Bold Horizons have been offering e-payment this term in the SOS.
Cashless payment means orienteers don't need to hunt around for money on the day, and offers a vastly reduced cash handling risk for organisers. We encourage all clubs to discuss this payment method with our pioneers listed above.
