Category Archives: Club news

Update on events

Another event bites the dust! Rushcutters Bay is always such a lovely map to run on but sadly it will have to wait till next year. Due to continued Covid restrictions this Saturday’s event
on 7 August is CANCELLED.

We still have two events in regional locations pencilled in for September – Belanglo on 11 September and Berry on 25 September. We’ll let you know how things are looking for these events at the end of the month.

For those in the Kiama area we have a new MapRun course you can amuse yourself with thanks to map master David. The course is 3.5-4 km long and takes in the scenic coastline and harbour. You can do it whenever you like, and as many times as you like over the next 12 months.

If you want to give it a go you will need to download MapRun6  from your App store onto your mobile phone (its free). Select ‘Events Near Me’, and the program should find “Kiama–2021-07-18 Course 1 PXAC”.  Or select the event from the events listed under NSW then Illawarra.

Once you’ve finished the course your result will be loaded onto the Event results page and you can see if you have bragging rights. You can also look at your splits.

For any questions about the Kiama MapRun course contact David Green on 0409608990.
Rumour has it there may be a second course available very soon (shhhh…. you didn’t hear it from me!)

Message from Ken

Hi Fellow IKO Orienteers

These are certainly most challenging times and we thank you for your patience and understanding. With lockdown in the Greater Sydney region stretching over several weeks now, and likely to continue for more weeks and perhaps months ahead, the 2021 orienteering schedule has been severely disrupted again impacting on most of us.  IKO members reside across a broad geographical area encompassing both areas of lockdown and areas where people are still free to move around.  At this time, the primary goal must be to keep us all as safe as possible and to abide by the government public health orders.  Frustrating as these are, we must err on the side of caution wherever there are inconsistencies, as there will inevitably be, with such large and rapidly implemented changes.

Rest assured your club is working with the broader orienteering community to reschedule events and determine optimal strategies to manage refunds for events already entered. The uncertain timeframes for ongoing restrictions add significantly to the challenges involved.  Note there will be no events organised by IKO in July.  August is unfortunately also looking doubtful for all events at this stage but check here on the Eventor calendar for 2021 scheduled events and any cancellations or postponements made at short notice https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events  You can also check our Facebook page and our website for any updates and we will of course keep you informed by emails.

We look forward to the time when we can all gather again for events and the social activities afterwards. Until then, stay safe, keep exercising and keep in touch. This is a great time to give people a call just for a chat and I would encourage you all to reach out.

Take care,
Ken Mills – President
Illawarra Kareelah Orienteers

COVID strikes again #3

Due to the current restrictions on Greater Sydney and the Illawarra there will be no orienteering events in July. The event at Rushcutters Bay in August is also in doubt but we will confirm closer to the date.

We are hoping to reschedule the cancelled event at Belanglo (28 June) to 11 September so as not to waste all the effort that David put into updating the maps and planning courses. The Berry event is now re-scheduled for Saturday 25 September – a new map for the club!

Orienteering on hold (again!)

Following discussions with ONSW regarding restrictions on community sport we will sadly need to cancel our next two planned events. The restrictions on mixing volunteers and participants from different regions or parts of Sydney unfortunately renders most of our club and state events unfeasible to run.

The event planned for Sutherland this Saturday 22 August is postponed to a later date. The new date will be decided once we get further clarity on when these restrictions will be lifted.

The State League and Schools Championships planned for September 5-6 is also cancelled and may be run on the same maps next year.

A copy of the advice to community sport organisers from the Chief Health Officer can be viewed here. It will be in place for at least six weeks before being reviewed.

No events until further notice

Sadly the time has come to suspend all orienteering events in Australia until further notice. I thought Blair Trewin’s statement (President of Orienteering Australia) was a beautiful message. You can read it here.

We’ll let you know when we are ready to run some local events again.

In the mean time, there are plenty of orienteering resources on the interweb.

Orienteering Australia has a series of instructional videos on their YouTube channel which you can find here.

For a look back at some of our Australian orienteering carnivals you can view videos (courtesy of Living it Live) from the Easter 2016 Carnival or 2017 Orienteering Championships or the recent 2019 Oceania Championships.

A personal favourite of Club President David is the Hubmann Brothers from Switzerland who have two very well produced and entertaining videos Go Hard or Go Home and Train Hard Win Easy. Another video that beautifully illustrates the difference between orienteering and running is More than Just Running.

Stay healthy and safe and we’ll see you in the great outdoors hopefully in a few months.