Latest ONSW News

A busload of eager students from Henty beefed up the Riverina schools championships to a record 101 entries at Wagga today.

The tiny town on the Olympic Way sent 54 kids from Years 4-6 along for the first time to this annual event that kicks off our regional schools champs season. It was a great introduction to the sport as they now embark on orienteering as part of the new federal government Sporting Schools program. 

Students set out from the Music Bowl behind the Botanic Gardens and explored the western side of Willans Hill, basking in the superb autumn day. After a map walk with a coach to explain the basics, they each did a solo line course by age group then had a fun 3-person relay to cap off a great day.

Thanks a million to the Waggaroos club and WHO's Graeme Hill who made the trek from Sydney to help out. If you'd like your children or students to experience one of these days, see our schools champs page for more information.

Nicola Blatchford (Newcastle) and Michele Dawson (Garingal) have added another string to their representative bows with selection in the Australian team for the world universities orienteering championships in Hungary in July-August.

The pair have been great buddies, great rivals and JWOC team-mates and can tick another European country off their impressive list of orienteering destinations.

The 11-strong Australian team is here and the event website is here.

We congratulate Nicola and Michele and wish them the very best in Hungary.

Muddy tracks made for some hard going in MetrO League round 2 at Allambie Heights on Sunday.

Setter Marina Iskhakova used the northern section of the Manly Dam map to full effect, setting some legs that required careful route choice by track due to the bush being fairly impenetrable in most places.

Division 1 found the going tough around the hilly 5.5km course, with the fastest time going to Andrew Hill (WHO) in 45m30s - a good 10 minutes outside the expected best. Big Foot and Garingal had comfortable wins and meet next round to see who remains undefeated.

There were two ties: Go Frill Necks ruing a mispunch against WHO in Division 2, and SHOO-IKO wishing they had a fifth runner against the GO Geckos in Division 5.

Hosts Bennelong Northside racked up double wins in Divisions 4 and 5 and look the teams to beat in those grades, with Tshinta Hopper blitzing the field by six minutes in Div 5.

Newly promoted KNOX continued their unbeaten run in Division 3 and had the three fastest times, headed by Thomas Gordon's 28-minute trailblaze.

Overnight and morning rain made for some mushy running but that didn't deter the almost 200 participants, including a group from Brigidine College. Thanks to Bennelong for another lovely day out on the northern beaches.

The ML web page has been updated with Sunday's results. Round 3 is at Sir Joseph Banks Park in Botany on May 29. Entries are already open.

Entries are open for Garingal's innovative Goanna 'goat race', which this year wil be held on the fiendish Clay Pan map at Beacon Hill on the northen beaches.

The event is on Sunday May 8, with a mass start at 10am for the 3 moderate courses.

Goat races are a wacky form of line orienteering in which:
* there is a mass start (10am)
* 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 

This novelty event is the brainchild of GO member and ONSW marketing and communications officer Ian Jessup, who wanted to offer something unusual but still an O challenge in its own right.

There are 3 course lengths (GeckO 3.8km, DraGOn 5.3km and GOanna 7.2km), with the standard varying from 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 midday on Fri May 6. Please note the Very Easy and Easy courses are Enter-on-Day and will have a start window of 10.15-11am.