Latest ONSW News
New Newcastle recruit Stephen Craig cleaned up at Easter, taking out the keenly contested M45A class over the three days of bush action in the ACT.
Stephen, the son of Garingal member Margaret Craig, has only been back in Australia a few months after many years living in Sweden. He won his age class by 14 minutes over Eric Morris (Bennelong Northside) as NSW notched the trifecta, and had 7 of the first 10 runners in M45A.
Stephen also took out the Hard 1 prologue sprint at Uni of Canberra by almost a minute.
NSW runners also swept the M12A, W55AS and M/W Junior Easy placings.
Newcastle came third in the Australian club championship battle, based on placings in the Long Distance event on the Sunday.
In the elite National League divisions, Michele Dawson (Garingal) was crowned Australian university women's champion to add to her uni sprint title in Melbourne earlier this month. Michele was the highest-ranked NSW runner in the open women's elite in 10th place overall.
Aidan Dawson (Garingal) and Georgia Jones (Uringa) recorded top-10 overall in the junior elites, each finishing 9th.
NSW placegetters overall at Easter were:
1st - Jamie Marsh (BF, M10), Oskar Mellla (NC, M12A), Glenn Meyer (SH, M35A), Stephen Craig (NC, M45A), Tony Woolford (BB, M50A), Brook Martin (GO, W21A), Mikayla Enderby (NC, W12A), Jenny Enderby (NC, W45A), Toy Martin (NC, W65A), Christa Schafer (GO, W75A), Maureen Ogilvie (UR, W80A), Peter May (NT, M55AS), Jeff Carberry (IK, M65AS), Alexa Troedson (BF, W45AS), Maria Orr (NC, W55AS), Kade Mavroudis (WR, M Jnr B), Oliver Macfarlane (BF, M/W Jnr Easy).
2nd - Oliver Freeman (BF, M12A), Darren Slattery (BN, M35A), Jock Davis (BF, M40A), Eric Morris (BN, M45A), Gordon Wilson (BN, M65A), Terry Bluett (BN, M70A), Basil Baldwin (GS, M75A), Alitia Dougall (BN, M21A), Ruth Shedden (SH, W35A), Tracy Marsh (BF, W40A), Linda Sesta (UR, W45A), Jean Baldwin (GS, W70A), Shane Jenkins (NC, M35AS), Saacha Donaldson (BF, W35AS), Lisa Lampe (UR, W55AS), Lucy Mackie (BF, W Open B), Daniel Sherlock (BF, M/W Jnr Easy).
3rd - Mark Freeman (BF, M21AS), Sam Woolford (BB, M12A), Richard Mountstephens (BF, M40A), Greg Barbour (BF, M45A), Simon George (BF, M50A), Robert Vincent (NC, M55A), Ted Mulherin (WH, M75A), Barry Hanlon (WH, M80A), Nail Schafer (GO, M85A), Neqa Shingler (BF, W12A), Danielle Kopriva (UR, W35A), Janet Morris (WH, W75A), Dmitry Stukov (WH, M35AS), Garry Stewart (SH, M55AS), Dennis Sparling (GO, M65AS), Sandra Stewart (SH, W55AS), Lachlan Sherlock (BF, M/W Jnr Easy).
A big thank you to Orienteering ACT for a fantastic carnival. The autumn extravaganza continues in that area this weekend with the NSW Middle and Long championships at Snow Hills, conducted by Big Foot.
Contours aplenty couldn't prevent some very fast times across all divisions as our annual interclub competition kicked off under cool blue skies at the Australian Botanic Garden at Mt Annan on Sunday.
The navigation was considerably easier for those who attended the State League opener on Saturday. The key was trying to minimise the climb and pick the red-line route to save time across the rough open areas.
Most courses were a little shorter than expected at MetrO League and there were a lot of sub-35 minute times.
In Division 1, last year's finalists Garingal and Big Foot had narrow wins as most teams were a bit below strength. WHO's Graeme Hill ran above his usual grade to help the team out but had the misfortune to drop his SI stick. A fellow runner told him where it was but it cost many minutes. Team captain James Macquillan was quickest around the 4.5km course in 31m43s.
The newly combined SHOO-IKO teams enjoyed wins in Divisions 2 and 3, but lost both double headers in Divns 4 and 5. Bennelong Northside had the fastest times in Divisions 2-5 as they enjoyed running in lower grades than last year, having three big wins and a close loss.
Newly promoted KNOX made a winning start in Division 3, while Big Foot were ruing being one runner short in Division 4 as they tied with WHO.
Click on the blue tabs for the results and splits. The match results have been uploaded to the ML web page.
Thanks to setter Stephan Wagner and the SHOO club for a lovely day out and a fantastic assembly area with great views. The next round is May 1 at Allambie Heights.
A beautiful autumn day greeted almost 200 runners for the opening State League event on a tricky map at Wattle Ridge on Saturday.
Setter Darren Slattery concentrated courses in a smallish area at 1:7500 to allow for better readability, and the three hardest courses had map changes.
What soon became apparent was (a) the change from summer series to proper bush was stark; and (b) what looked white on the map was deflnitely light green.
Visibility was low (see the pic of Uringa's Linda Sesta in action). Those with overseas experience were quick to point out that it was a lot like being in a European forest as far as thickness goes.
While times were on the slow side generally, there were some very good results of which the picks were: Garingal's Hugo McCahon-Boersma winning M14A, Daniel Hill (GO) tearing up M20A, and Ant Nolan (UR) winning by 17 minutes in M45A.
ACT's two visiting scholars ate up M21A with sub-35 minute times, a good five minutes clear of Newcastle duo Alex Massey and Josh Blatchford. Less than a minute separated the first three placegetters in W55AS
The Eventor page has links to the results, splits, Winsplits and results by course (which show time lost). Tony Hill has some superb photos as well from the day.
Thanks to organiser Alitia Dougall and the Bennelong Northside club for a great start to the State League season.
A record 30 teams will contest this year's MetrO League, which starts on Sunday at Mt Annan Botanic Gardens.
SHOO and Illawarra Kareelah have combined across Divisions 2-5, and SHOO will field a separate team in Divn 5 through which to mentor some of their younger talent into bush orienteering.
Along with some promotions and relegations from last year, this means Divisions 4 and 5 will have 7 teams each. As such, one team will contest two matches each round so that we can achieve a full round and finals over the six events.
In Division 1 we have 4 teams, so it will be two full rounds with no final. Garingal stunned Big Foot in last year's final to end the Pink People's Origin-like streak. Can the Feet bounce back?
All this year's details are on the ML web page. We wish all participants an enjoyable season and hope to see lots of Summer Series runners taking the next step up.
Please pre-enter for each event. The briefing for round 1 is here.
The abbreviated MetrO League calendar is:
Mar 20 Mt Annan
May 1 Manly Dam
May 29 Botany
Jun 26 Lapstone
Jul 31 Mulgoa
Sep 4 Galston
