Metro League round 1 this Sunday 29 March 2026

Get your entry in before midnight on Friday 27 March. All club members are eligible and encouraged to participate. 

The event will be held at Nurragingy Regional Park, Western Sydney. Start times: 10.00am – 10.30 for team members. You will be notified of your start time by email the night before the event. Individual runners, including those entering on the day, can start from 10.30am – 11.00am.

Enter through Eventor using the link below. Tip: You will need to log in to Eventor first & then check the drop down boxes to nominate Illawarra Kareelah Orienteers & select a Division that best suits your ability before proceeding to payment.  https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/23832

Club members that have previously advised they are available for a team, please let our team captain  know if you can’t attend, if you haven’t already done so. Email jistuart@bigpond.com

For those club members new to Metro League, come along and give it a try. It is a lot of fun. Division 6 is entry level and is graded Easy, Divisions 3-5 are Moderate and Divisions 1 & 2 are Hard navigation.  

…ON THE DAY…
This is a teams event, however you can still pre-enter as an individual runner if you prefer.  You may be approached on the day if teams are short.   Likewise if we have too many entries for teams you may be asked to run up or down a division or you can just compete as an individual runner for that day. You can find out more about the Metroleague at https://onsw.asn.au/events/metro-league

IKO Club Champion 2025

Congratulations to Phil Whitten who is the overall 2025 IKO Club Champion. Throughout the year Phil took part in a cross-section of local, Metroleague and State League events, competing in 15 of the 22 events held during the year (as well as being very fast!). He was in the winning Division 2 Metroleague league team and a placegetter in the NSW Championships coming 3rd in both the Middle distance and Long distance races in M35A.

Not to be outdone by her father, daughter Pippa Whitten was awarded the individual medal for Division 5 in the Metroleague competition and came home from the NSW Champs with a 2nd place in both the Middle and Long distance events in W14A. An excellent performance in her first year of competition.

Entries for State League events #1 & #2 close 15 March

The first of the 2026 NSW State league forest events will be conducted near Molong in western NSW on the weekend of 21st and 22nd March. The courses will be run on the spectacular granite area – Gumble Pinnacles – rated as one of the best orienteering areas in Australia and used for previous national and state level events. Gumble Pinnacles provide the prefect opportunity to try out your orienteering skills in typical Australian granite terrain.  Why not join the IKO contingent and head for the hills for the weekend and combine orienteering with some wine tasting at the renowned Orange wineries or a visit to the “Dish” at nearby Parkes. Details are available on Eventor at https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/22668

2026 Metro League season starts on 29 March

The first event will be held at Nurragingy, Doonside in Western Sydney on Sunday morning 29 March. Go to Eventor for details and to enter the event. See table below for the list of venues and dates for the 2026 Metro League series.

Those members interested in competing in this year’s Metro League series should emailing IKO Metro League Team Captain James Stuart at jistuart@bigpond.com.  Please indicate which rounds, if any, you could attend and  advise which division you wish to compete in. At this stage we are just looking for an indication of numbers in each of the teams.

All IKO members are encouraged to compete no matter your level of proficiency.  Contact James if you are unsure which Division you would be comfortable running in.

We will again be partnering with our sister club SHOO. At this stage we are intending to field combined teams in Divisions 1, 3, 4 and 5. The number of teams in each division may change depending on interest.

2026 Venues and Dates

RoundDateVenueOrganising Club
1Mar 29NurragingyBig Foot
2May 3GalstonGaringal
3*May 24(TBA)Grays PointIllawarra Kareelah
4Jun 28Pennant HillsBennelong
5Jul 26BoggabillaUringa
6Sep 6Glenbrook WHO

*  IKO looking to swap to another date. 

New to the Metro League? This is a team competition with line courses requiring bush navigation around the Sydney metropolitan area. Teams of 5 from the various clubs battle it out over 5 rounds to determine the teams that will be in the finals in Round 6. There are 6 Divisions of competition, all with different courses:

  • Divisions 1-3 are graded Hard
  • Division 4-6 are graded Moderate
  • Division 6 courses are intended for competitors transitioning from urban to bush orienteering and juniors.

 More information is available at https://onsw.asn.au/events/metro-league

Sprint the Illawarra a success!

Well what a fun little series that was! Four sprint events staged across 4 consecutive weekends in February attracted over 150 competitors across the series. The first 2 events at Kiama and Wollongong University proved the most popular with 49 and 47 participants respectively. Albion Park and Croom both hosted 28-29 competitors. The novel addition of a ‘fast and furious’ mass start where competitors lined up to take on a short 1km course also proved a fun and exciting way to finish the day for those still with energy to burn.

Thank you to all our course setters – Joel, David, Stephen and Keith. The weather gods were against us for 3 of the 4 courses, but finally we cracked some sunshine for our last event at Croom where the heat became the challenge instead of the rain.

Below is a gallery of highlights from the series. Click on an image for full size.