The club will be holding a bush orienteering training day for IKO members in the Belanglo State Forest on Saturday 23 July from 11am to 3pm. This will be an excellent opportunity for those wanting to transition from local street events to orienteering in the forest. The lessons learned can be put into practice the following day at the Highlands Forest Series event #4.
Anyone wanting to attend should register their interest by email to ikorienteers@gmail.comby Sunday 10th July. There is no cost to members.
For those competing and/or volunteering at the Highland’s Forest event the next day there is still some accommodation available at the Belanglo Hut. So why not stay over and join the other IKO members for the evening. Email ikorienteers@gmail.com if you want to book a bed.
Our next event is coming up this Saturday 4th June at Stanwell Park. Starts are from 2pm to 3pm. Meet at Stanwell Park Beach Reserve. Toilets, kiosk and water are available. Pre-entries are encouraged but enter on the day will be available for newcomers.
Runners, joggers & walkers are all welcome. Beginners are always welcome at our events, and there are always club members on hand to provide some basic coaching. You can go by yourself or as part of a group. For more information and to pre-enter go to https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/16878
The BOM is predicting a sunny day so make the most of it and head for Stanwell Park. You could even walk the Seacliff bridge before or after the event.
Club members are invited to join us for dinner at the newly re-opened Imperial Hotel at Clifton. Several of us have tried it out and its definitely worth a visit. RSVP to Margaret on 0417470655. Children welcome.
Congratulations to Sue Froude, long time member and secretary for IKO, for winning “course of the year” at Rushcutters Bay in this year’s Sydney Summer Series (SSS). Sue tied with Richard Patterson of Bennelong Northside Orienteers for his St Ives Bungaroo event.
Not only did Sue set an interesting and challenging course amongst the parks, streets and laneways of Woolloomooloo, Kings Cross and Rushcutters Bay but she also mapped the area. Her win was no surprise to those helping out on the day as many of the finishers commented on the quality of the map and the course. The Rushcutters Bay event on 5 January 2022 was the first foray by IKO in the SSS. The club has already been asked to run an event in the series next summer.
The organisers and club executive have made the decision to cancel this weekend’s planned event at Cordeaux Heights (Saturday 2 April). We don’t often cancel events due to weather, but the ground is saturated, local creeks are running high and the paths are dangerously slippery. And the forecast is still more rain!
So stay inside and stay dry, and hopefully we can reschedule this event later in the year.
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.
