230 very hardy school kids and orienteers braved cyclonic winds on the weekend (Sep 7-8) to participate in the 2019 NSW Schools Championships in the Southern Highlands. Steady winds of 60-70 km/hr and gusts of up to 100 km/hr challenged organisers, competitors and spectators at Saturday’s events at Oxley College and Tudor House. Flags in danger of being ripped out of the ground had to be packed away, control flags blew off their stands, and result slats had to be laid out on the ground because they kept blowing away! And while the top temperature at Moss Vale was just 9 degrees, the windchill kept the temperatures almost Arctic!

By all accounts Sunday’s event at Welby was not much easier with continued high winds and cool temperatures.

Congratulations to Mowbray Public School and Knox Grammar School for taking out the overall championship over two days of competition.

A huge round of applause needs to go to the brave and determined crew from IKO and SHOO who put on a successful event under extremely challenging circumstances. The months of preparation (and endless emails that clogged our inbox) all paid off and I don’t think there were any complaints or incidents over the weekend.

Well done to the organisers and planners – Lyn, Ruth, Peter, Stephen and Robert (SHOO) and David, Vicki, Kevin and Keith (IKO). Many thanks also to the IKO and SHOO start crews who had no respite from the wind, to Ron Pallas for his computer skills, and everybody else that pitched in to help out over the weekend.

Some photos of the sprint at Tudor House are below.

Congratulations to our club members who were successful in taking home a lovely wooden medallion / coaster from the NSW Championships. Sue came first in W55AS in the Middle Distance Championships at Wyangala on Day 1, while on Day 2 Vicki came second in W55AS and Helen 3rd in W45AS in the Long Distance Championships.

Both days had their challenges. On Day 1 the challenge was not to get too distracted from your map while taking in the stupendous views over Wyangala Dam, as well as mustering the stamina for several ascents and descents of the steep hills on the course. On Day 2 the intricate map detail combined with some long legs caused grief for some (OK, mostly me!) but was clearly not a challenge for others.

The weather was fantastic and the events well organised – thanks to Western and Hills Orienteers for hosting a great weekend. A club dinner at the Royal Hotel at Carcoar rounded out the social activities for 11 club members.

See the club Facebook page for a full gallery of photos.

The SummerGong Series has concluded for 2019. Three excellent locations were enjoyed by club members and a handful of newcomers and visiting orienteers.

The series commenced with a brilliant sunny (and hot!) afternoon of orienteering around the Wollongong foreshore and streets. Despite Keith plugging the event on ABC radio that morning, we were not over-run with people, managing just 17 (although five of these were newcomers).

Ken and Helen take the award for attracting the most entrants to the Figtree event (24) and also the most participants who were not members of an orienteering club (10). While the short course kept to the flats the medium and long courses gave competitors the chance to climb a few hills (or avoid some of them depending on your route choice).

The series concluded at Shellharbour with 20 people/teams enjoying the mix of coastal views and streetscapes around Shellharbour Village. A couple of orienteers from Western Australia turned up – we think this is probably the furthest distance for any domestic visitors at a SummerGong event. We also had a group of friends turn up, two of whom had done a bit of orienteering in their home countries of Switzerland and the UK.

A few photographs from the series are in the gallery below.

The finish line at SL11

Ron Pallas christened this the Dust Tour of Belanglo, but as we are one day into the Tour de France I thought I might give it a slightly more french flavour.  Either way it was a weekend of challenging conditions that the weather gods threw at State League 10 and 11.  The sun shone but it was bitterly cold and at times windy, which turned our bare denuded firebreak into a scene from Desert Storm. Our resident meteorologist informed us that on both days the wind-chill factor sent the apparent temperature plummeting below zero in the early mornings.

Aside from that the day seems to have been a success with no injuries (apart from John the first aide guy who injured himself!) and no complaints about misplaced controls.  173 contenders turned up to take on the forest, where conditions were apparently less windy than the finish arena.

Results are now available here on Eventor.

We are  greatly indebted to Ron Pallas and our friends at SHOO for helping us run this event.  Thanks to Natalya, Chris and David for the many days spent in the forest leading up to the event, and to Simon, Ken, Helen, James and Dayle for assisting over the weekend.  Thanks also to Sandra, Garry,  Lyn and Nev from SHOO for their assistance in the finish tent and EOD table.

Simon, Garry and Ron manning the finish tent. The material on the table is protecting the computers from the dust!

Thanks also to Sandra for the photos included here.
Visit SHOO’s Facebook gallery to see a lot more.

Competitors had to battle the wind and dust as they made their way from the final control to the finish.

And lastly, thank you to Simon for the following action shots taken in the forest.

Salme shows us how its done at UOW

I can hear the collective sighs of relief all around now that SL 10 and 11 are over.  Sleepless nights and early mornings were all part of the experience for the organisers and course setters. Great organisation by Keith, David and Kev, and great course setting by Natalya, Vicki and Simon.  There were some lessons learned with some people saying the State League courses were too easy at Cataract, while the easy courses could perhaps have been a little easier.  On Sunday Simon thought his sprint courses were maybe a little long, but it was such a great venue and everyone enjoyed the day that I don’t think anyone noticed!

On Saturday at Cataract we hosted 126 competitors in the State League event (including 8 EODs) and 121 children in the Schools Champs.

On Sunday we had 138 competitors in State League (including 15 EODs) and 113 children in the School Champs.

There were more than 70 different schools represented in the Schools Championships. Greenwich Public School took the honour of Champion primary school, while a continuing strong presence saw Knox Grammar once again take out Champion secondary school.

Channel 9 News turned up to the University around midday on Sunday to interview Ian Jessup and three of the children. All the kids spoke very well about the weekend and what they like about orienteering – what a great experience for them all!  Ian, our media guru, did a much better job than any of us could at selling the sport. If you live in the Illawarra be sure to keep an eye out tonight at 6pm on Channel 9.

Ian Jessup explains the sport of orienteering to Channel 9 cameraman

There were lots of positive comments about the new Wollongong Uni map, and the vibe in the grassy glade where we all assembled was very happy and relaxed.  Easy access to coffee and good food was a definite bonus!

For photos from the weekend see our new Photo Gallery page where you will find an edited down version of those already posted to Facebook.

Ken did a great job of keeping the starters under control