Latest ONSW News
Alex Massey and Jenny Enderby have been crowned Newcastle Orienteers of the Year following the final round on the Astley's Tower map.
Participants in each division count their best five results from the eight rounds, with the overall female NOY coming from the Hard Long class.
Alex (pictured) had 6 wins to finish with a perfect score of 500, ahead of Steven Todkill (482) and Justin Stafford (445). Jenny was seventh (413) in a very competitive field.
Club President Andrew Power took out Hard Medium from Samantha Howe, while Kendall O'Connor pipped Rudi Landsiedel by a point for the Hard Short championship.
It was a family celebration for the Enderbys as daughters Mykala and Erika took out the Easy and Very Easy titles.
The NOYs by course are:
Hard Long: Alex Massey
Hard Medium: Andrew Power
Hard Short: Kendall O'Connor
Moderate Long: Nick Maddock
Moderate Short: Jennifer Fagan
Easy: Mikayla Enderby
Very Easy: Erika Enderby
Click on the blue link for the final tallies. Congratulations to Newcastle on another successful NOY season.
A globetrotting Debbie Davey has helped Waggaroos open up a big lead with one round to run in their annual Interclub competition with Albury-Wodonga.
Points are awarded based on an equal number of competitors on each course. Our southernmost club was four points clear heading to Walbundrie but comfortably won 30-22 on Sunday to triple their overall lead, at 97-85, before the finale on the Connorton map in a fortnight.
Debbie won the 3.9km short hard course by a whopping 11 minutes. On the long hard course, husband Alex was second behind daughter Briohny to make it a family day to remember.
Held on the Piney Ridge map, literally in the centre of Walbundrie, the terrain provides a variety of navigation challenges. The area consists of three large hills, one of which has an intricate contour network due to mining activities and the other two have numerous granite features. Some tracts are open and fast whereas others are covered in cypress pine is much more difficult to traverse.
Debbie is just back from a successful O tour of eastern Europe where she placed third overall in W55A in the 5-day OO Cup in Slovenia in late July and at the Bubo Cup in Croatia straight afterwards. She is pictured here with her bronze medal from a hot and humid Croatia.
In a result much akin to NSW finally ending Queensland's rugby league supremacy, Garingal have upset six-time defending champions Big Foot to take out Division 1 in MetrO League for the first time.
The Goannas enjoyed the fast, flat area at Nurragingy in western Sydney to end their long drought. Sadly, Big Foot were missing a handful of their top runners through illness, injury, travel and bereavement.
Still, that should not take away from the best performance of the season from the Goannas. Steve Ryan was second on the day, individual medal winner Toby Wilson third, and JWOC rep Aidan Dawson fifth. That left too much for the Feet to do and they ended up with the same score as third-placed WHO.
Likewise in Division 2, where SHOO won for the first time in 20 years (30-25) against a previously undefeated but also depleted GO Dragons outfit missing three of their quicker runners. Duncan Currie (GO) was fastest in 35.52, and SHOO's Angus Shedden took out his second straight individual medal.
IKO's maiden Division 3 title came at the expense of Uringa-Central Coast 34-21. Curiously, in the match to decide third, all 5 runners from the GO Skinks finished within 1 minute 1 second of each, and Bennelong's Terry Bluett matched the fifth of those.
In the race for the individual medal, David Green (IKO) and Nicole Sellin (GO) tied on 41 points, pipping Simon Louis who is bound for much higher competition after again blitzing the field with a sub-30-minute run. Simon ran 4 times for 40 points.
In Division 4, the young men from KNOX returned to the competition with a bang by easily accounting for the GO Legless crew of North Sydney Boys High 33-21. An mp cost Garingal but KNOX were too strong anyway.
In Division 5, Uringa-Central Coast downed WHO 31-24. John Russell (SHOO) took the medal despite not running (he has moved to Melbourne) after Ellis Leung (GO) ran in the Division 4 final.
The Kennedy clan from Garingal enjoyed a good day out; with mum, dad and youngest son Tom all bagging 10 points in separate divisions.
Tom's success earned him the individual medal (won last year by mum) on 50 points in Division 4 in a tie with Marie Ringer (WHO) who also took the 10 on offer.
A massive thank you to course setter Paul Marsh, operating under trying circumstances, and to the Big Foot crew for a smooth day as the rain thankfully held off. All packed up by 1pm and results online by 2.30pm - terrific work, Andy.
Scores are on the ML web page. Click on the blue links for splits.
Congratulations to the winners, thank you to all the event organisers, and the participants for their great spirit.
We look forward to a 2016 MetrO League season which will debut two new maps - at Mulgoa and Galston, and feature Sir Joseph Banks Park in ML for the first time.
A wonderful weekend in western Sydney decided our schools champions for 2015 and saw our regular State League competitors back in action.
154 students turned out for a Saturday sprint double and Sunday bush event.
This year we offered a free map walk and Enter-on-Day courses to parents while their children were competing. We are delighted to report that 19 parents took up the map walk offer, with Neville Fathers and Carol Jacobson as coaches, and eight of them went back to the start and did an Easy course. It was great to see parents and children comparing notes afterwards.
Our 2015 champions (based on Sunday's results) are:
Primary schools - Mawarra PS
Secondary - KNOX Grammar
Region - Sydney North
On Saturday morning Robert Bradley gave us a fast, flat sprint around UWS Hawkesbury that made great use of the many small 'light grey' segments. This was an excellent introduction to sprints given what was to follow in the afternoon. At UWS Kingswood, Michele Dawson upped the ante with some very tricky legs on a terrific new map by fellow former JWOC rep Josh Blatchford. This was international-standard sprint O and capped off a great day in glorious sunshine.
On Sunday Kevin Williams set demanding Middle Distance courses on the Knapsack Lagoon map at Glenbrook. The intricate track network and many rockfaces put a premium on maintaining map contact, and there were quite a few students overshooting controls as a result.
All those novice students who completed Moderate or Easy courses can be very proud of their efforts.
We offer a very large thank you to the WHO club, the NSW Stingers, event organiser Ted Mulherin and schools champs convenor Lyn Malmgron for their tireless work to put on such a great triple header. Likewise all the people who helped the novice students before, during and after their courses - and those who reassured the odd nervous parent!
Click on the blue links for results from Saturday and Sunday, and the splits from Sunday. Don't forget to check out the photo albums on our Facebook page. Orienteers may download these for personal use or to put in their school newsletter.
Our last State League weekend is in the Southern Highlands on September 19 (Appin) and September 20 (Belanglo). Entries close on September 6.
Next year's NSW Schools Championships will be held in the Bankstown area on August 28-29.
