Orienteering NSW

Coming Events

map	Sun 3 Nov 4:00 pm River and Bay Series #2 - Randwick Over the Rainbow, Randwick

map	Wed 6 Nov 4:30 pm 2024/25 Sydney Summer Series #5 - Lindfield Primula Oval, Lindfield.

map	Wed 6 Nov 5:00 pm Newcastle Summer Street Series #4 - Blackalls Park Blackalls Park

map	Thu 7 Nov 5:00 pm Summer series #1 72 Ross Street

map	Fri 8 Nov 5:30 pm Goldseekers Park #2 - Gosling Creek Gosling Creek

map	Sat 9 Nov 9:30 am SOS 4 Gore Hill Oval, 209 Pacific Highway, St Leonards. Meet by the oval car park and playground.

map	Sat 9 Nov 10:00 am Illawarra Map Running Series - Spring #4 Unanderra Lindsay Maynes Park, cnr Princes Highway & Factory Rd, Unanderra

map	Sun 10 Nov 9:00 am Central Coast Summer Series 1 - Shelly Beach Naomi Honey Reserve, Shelly Beach Rd, Shelly Beach

map	Sun 10 Nov 4:00 pm River and Bay Series #3 - Canterbury The Gallops, Tasker park, Phillips Avenue Canterbury

map	Wed 13 Nov 4:30 pm 2024/25 Sydney Summer Series #6 - Camperdown Memorial Rest Park, Camperdown.

Big Foot teenager Lucy Mackie warmed up for the junior world championships with a comfortable win in the open senior class at the NSW MTBO Long champs at the weekend.

Lucy beat perennial World Masters medallist Carolyn Jackson of Victoria by almost six minutes on a new bike over the 23km course at Sunny Corner State Forest near Lithgow on Saturday.

Mum Amanda took out W50A, while dad Hamish was second in M40A. Lucy's younger brother Angus, who is also off to the world champs, had a flat tyre after the second control and had to withdraw, having forgotten to take his repair kit with him!

In Sunday's Sprint at Rydal, Lucy mispunched while Fergus was back in form, pipping WA's Ricky Thackray. Carolyn Jackson also took out the Middle, just ahead of Lucy, while Ricky came first and Fergus third in a tight contest.

The Mackies are now in full training for the world champs in July, with former Big Foot champ Paul Darvodelsky helping with their navigation skills.

A big thank you to Newcastle and Big Foot for hosting, and to those riders from Victoria, ACT and Western Australia who travelled long distances to participate. All the results are on Eventor.

Our next MTBO weekend is June 18-19 at Raymond Terrace.

Meanwhile, last week we saw record attendances at the SOS at Lane Cove on Saturday and the Moonlight Madness World Orienteering Day event at Milsons Point on Wednesday - with each event just tipping over 100 entries. Thanks to everyone who participated.

On the first Sunday in June each year, Bennelong Northside and Orienteering NSW put on one of the great trail runs on offer in Sydney.

The great NOSH footrace starts at Lindfield Oval and winds 16km to Seaforth Oval - mostly on bush tracks and fire trails, with some steep sections. It has been going since 1975 and regularly attracts 400+ participants. We will again be using electronic timing.

Entries for the 2016 edition, on Sunday June 5, close Sunday May 22. Enter on the Day is available. A BBQ at the finish will be provided by Seaforth soccer club.

A reminder to everyone that entries close tomorrow (Wed May 11) for this weekend's NSW MTBO championships, and for the State League double header on May 21-22.

Both weekends are just west of Lithgow and promise great orienteering terrain.

The MTBO champs consist of a Long Distance on the Saturday, then the Middle and Sprint on Sunday. Thanks to Big Foot and Newcastle for hosting these events.

For the State League weekend, camping is available on the Saturday night on the Gardens of Stone property for $10 per car. WHO and Garingal are hosting these events.

And don't forget Wednesday's Moonlight Madness event under the Sydney Harbour Bridge to celebrate World Orienteering Day. Starts are from 5.30-7pm - bring a torch or headlamp.

Andrew Brown (Big Foot) and Toby Wilson (Garingal) tied for first place as the fifth annual Garingal Goanna enjoyed its closest ever finish on Sunday.

While "Brooner" punched the finish a fraction of a second ahead of Toby, they recorded identical times of 45m28s around the 7.3km course on the fiendish Clay Pan map at Beacon Hill. Brooner's clubmate Andy Simpson was just seven seconds adrift in third place on the long course. Michele Dawson (GO) was fastest female in fifth place.

In the DraGOn (5.3km), Paul Shingler delivered more good news for the Feet with victory in 41m28s, a bare 10 seconds ahead of Tom Kennedy (Garingal). Bennelong's David McGhee was third in exactly 43 minutes.

In the short GeckO (3.9km), Tom's older brother Alex climbed out of his sick bed to take the honours in 42m21s, a clear six minutes in front of Terence Chiang, one of a number of promising Garingal juniors coming through the North Sydney Boys High School program. Only one second separated WHO veterans Steve Dunlop and Ian Miller for third place.

This newish area is a ripper of a map on Sydney's northern beaches with its complex track network and coastal scrub making map contact a necessity.

In this unique 'goat racing' format, runners:
* have a mass start
* may follow each other
* have a box of 4 controls that can be done in any order
* may skip a control or two (depending on the course)
* have to choose a or b at a forked control

There was lots of animated discussion about skips, forks etc - and many runners realised in the post mortem that they had overlooked yet another option that may have been better.

Click on the blue links for the GOanna, DraGOn and GeckO course maps. Which control(s) would you skip? Which fork would you take? The 'clay pan' area which hosted the box was blown up (see pic top left) for easier reading on the run... but it seems 80% of entrants forgot to refer to it!

A massive thank you to Colin Burnett for configuring the courses in SI - this is a huge task for this event, and to setter Ian Jessup and controller Ken Jacobson for offering something off the beaten track, so to speak.

Results are here (including a brief analysis of skips, forks and box routes) - feel free to put your course on Routegadget. And there are photos on Facebook.