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!
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.
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.
Our SummerGong events are off to a flying start with one more event to go. Both events have hosted more than 30 competitors/teams, and its great to see new faces and local families coming along to test themselves and have some fun. Also good to see families coming back to step up to the next level and complete the medium course with a smile on their face! Below is a few photos from the first two events thanks to Vicki.
We’ve had fog at Thirroul and brilliant sunshine at Fairy Meadow, fingers crossed for our final event which starts from Stuart Park in Wollongong. For club members, a reminder that the Annual General Meeting will be held after the SummerGong 3 event at Wollongong (venue to be advised).
If you’ve enjoyed the SummerGong events and are keen for more we are currently finalising our 2020 event calendar. We will continue our usual mix of events between Southern Sydney and the Illawarra.
Thanks to Peter and Julie for organising such a lovely afternoon for our club event at Grays Point. Scenic bush tracks and perfect temperatures combined for a pleasant outing in the bush. The medium and long courses were a bit challenging length wise but a few club members made it around in less than an hour – Ross and James took 58 and 59 minutes respectively to complete the medium course which was closer to 6km all up, and Alex did a sizzling time of 56 minutes to complete the long course which was 7-8km.
Those of us doing the short course enjoyed the pleasant ramble around the main tracks taking in the scenic rock formations and wilflowers out in bloom.
A belated CONGRATULATIONS to all the IKO members who cleaned up the awards at the QBIII carnival last weekend. The club had six overall winners after three days of competition: Natalya 2nd (W35A), Shiona 2nd (W45A), Helen 3rd (45AS), Vicki 2nd (55AS), Margaret 2nd (W70A), and Ian 3rd (M65A).
Congratulations to all!