Category Archives: Event Reports

Illawarra Map Run Series ends

The fourth and final event of the Illawarra Map Running Series was held on the 3rd March in brilliant sunshine at Shell Cove. There was a good turn out bringing the total number of competitors for the series to 165. As well as enjoying the challenge of the courses set by David Green the finishers eagerly tucked into the free sausage sizzle cooked by master chef Ian Froude. Our thanks to Ken Mills, Stephen Holloway, Vicki Wilmott and David Green for organizing four successful events in the series.

A warm welcome to all the new members who recently joined the club, including those who competed in 3 or more of the Illawarra Map Running events and took up the offer of free membership. Looking forward to seeing you at our coming events.

A year in review

2023 was a big year for our club multi-tasking across many event types.

Kicking off early on 18 January we joined forces with the successful Sydney Summer Series that runs from October through to March on Wednesday afternoon/evenings.  Our Rushcutter’s Bay map did us and 189 competitors proud, this being the second time the map had been used for a SSS event.

In February/March we continued to run our popular summer Illawarra Map Running Series showcasing many runnable areas around the Illawarra region.  The competition is aimed at newbies and regular orienteers alike to spend an hour or so getting to know the local area.  It’s a low key fun event for all and our first event kicked off with a “banger ” – with every competitor receiving a sausage sandwich bbq’d by Chef Ian Froude. For newcomers we continued to offer a free club membership if they participated in any 2 out of 3 events.  Three newcomers took up the offer.

At the first event of the series President Ken Mills presented Stephen Holloway with the 2022 ONSW Volunteer of the Year award in recognition of his meritorious service to the sport of orienteering in NSW. 

Steve receiving his award from Ken

Atrocious wet weather impacted on our middle distance State League event at Belanglo State Forest in April but as always, as organisers, we kept smiling and grew webbed feet for the day.  Competitors who took part were keen to compete no matter the cold wet weather and finished their courses literally singing in the rain.

June saw us return to Yeramba Lagoon for #3 in the Metroleague competition.  With the map having been extensively updated and re-mapped since 2022, the eastern part of the map was included in the longer courses. Unlike our May event it was a beautiful sunny morning.

In September we hosted an event in the SHOO Forest Series using their Appin map.  Again the area was fieldworked by our club members and the map updated.  With a good rollup on father’s day many families and groups took the opportunity to stretch their legs.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the experience on this warm spring day.  Cake for everyone was the reward at the finish desk – a real winner. 

Later in September the RFS Cadets Championships was held on the same map.  Cadets from all over Australia came to compete against each other in this fun activity.  IKO, SHOO and GO members helped to set up and showcase our sport to the 120 keen cadets who took part.

As a joint venture each year in October/November we co-host the River & Bay Orienteering Series with Uringa and Stingers using maps around the Cooks River and Bays in the southeastern suburbs.  This year IKO conducted two events in the series at Yarra Bay and Monterey.   Our course setters Ewan and Natalya did a sterling job in providing both score and line courses giving seasoned and newcomer orienteers alike a choice in their orienteering experience. We hope to continue participating in this series to help promote orienteering as a fun sport and raise awareness in our local communities.

We also ran local events in March, May, July, August and October in the Illawarra and Sutherland areas.  There are many club members to thank for their enthusiasm and volunteer work keeping up with the demands of mapping, course setting, organising and last but not least the important role of coaching in our local schools and other organisations, introducing newcomers to participate in the joy of orienteering. 

Club members also took the opportunity to compete at International, Regional and State events including Easter, Kings Birthday and Xmas 5 days.

Metro league 2023 – Club members again joined forces with SHOO in entering five teams in the annual inter-club competition for greater Sydney metropolitan clubs. The best result was runner up by the Division 3 team.

Six members were place getters in their classes in the ONSW Orienteer of the year awards – Elizabeth Leung (3rd W Open B), Natalya Filippova (2nd W35A), Vicki Wilmott (1st W65AS), Julie Shepherd (3rd W65AS), Margaret Duguid (3rd W75A) and Peter Shepherd (3rd M65AS)

Natalya, Vicki and Margaret receiving their badges.

Nine of our club members were also awarded Orienteering Australia (OA) merit badges for their participation in various orienteering events in 2023: Ewan Barnett M21 Bronze, Margaret Duguid W75 Bronze, Ian Froude M65 Bronze, Sue Froude W55 Bronze, David Green M55 Gold, Keith Jay M70 Bronze, Julie Shepherd W65 Bronze, Peter Shepherd M70 Silver, Vicki Wilmott W65 Silver

Planning is well underway for the 2024 season starting with the Sydney Summer series at Cooper Park in January followed by the Illawarra Map Running series in February and March. Check Eventor for details.


Illawarra Map Running #2 Fairy Meadow

It was all smiles at our 2nd event of the Illawarra Map Running Series today at Fairy Meadow. Course setter Vicki made the most of Guest Park and Cabbage Tree Creek with a few slightly hilly forays into the surrounding streets for the medium and long courses.

We had 30 starters including 7 newcomers and a couple of visiting Austrian orienteers who came first and second on the medium course! David and Helen provided great instruction at the start for those new to the sport.

The short series concludes next week at Figtree where Ken and Helen have warned us that our feet may get wet!

Below are just a few of the happy faces snapped at today’s event. See Facebook for more photos.

That’s a wrap – Illawarra Map Running 2022

Thanks to everyone for coming out to support this year’s Illawarra Map Running series. We attracted a great range of competitors from experienced orienteers to keen runners and family groups.

The weather was a mixed bag – we battled the heat at Gwyneville, just about got blown away at Lake Illawarra but finished with some lovely sunny days at Shellharbour and Minnamurra.

Attendance levels rose as the series gained momentum with 25-30 competitors for the first two events and 39-40 for the last two events. Steve takes the prize for the most competitors with his event at Shellharbour, with this event also attracting the most non-club members (13 individuals or groups).

Special mention to our neighbors at Southern Highlands Orienteers who made the effort to come down, seemingly to dominate the long course. Angus from SHOO won the long course in all 3 events he attended, with Doug also taking a win and ranking 2nd or 3rd for the rest of the events. The Shedden boys are doing well to get around the medium and long courses on their own now. Euan won the Medium course at Lake Illawarra and placed 2nd at Minnamurra. Meanwhile brother Rory is taking on the big boys in the long course placing 8th of 19 competitors at Lake Illawarra.

It was great to see lots of new faces at the events, especially family groups. All up we had 18 non-club members compete in the series, with most coming to multiple events. We even had a few lapsed club members signing up again during the course of the series! Shout out to newcomer Austin who won the medium course at Shellharbour in a blistering time of 24 minutes, while enthusiastic newcomer Maggie won the medium course at Minnamurra in 34 minutes.

Newcomers who competed in three events will be offered a complementary membership for 2022. Sue will be in touch with eligible people soon.

Photos from the series are in the album below.

SummerGong update

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.