Tag Archives: wollongong

Volunteer of the Year 2022

Steve Holloway receiving his award from Ken

Congratulations to our very own Stephen Holloway who was awarded the honour of Volunteer of the Year for 2022 by Orienteering NSW.

The award was passed on to club President Ken Mills who presented it to Steve at our recent AGM in Wollongong. The Volunteer of the Year Award is presented to a member/s who are recognised for meritorious service to the sport of orienteering in NSW.

Making orienteering visible in the general community in the Illawarra region, Steve has been paramount in initiating and implementing hands-on workshops at Wollongong and Thirroul libraries to attract newcomers.  These successful 2-hr workshops offer the public a chance to experience orienteering instruction via a video then a hands-on demo course, followed by a course in the nearby local area.  More library workshops are being considered for this year. 

Steve also provides coaching in local schools to support their orienteering programs and is an invaluable and pro-active member of our club.  Well done Steve, we appreciate everything you do for our club and our sport!

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.

Lets try orienteering @ Wollongong Library

IKO is pleased to be partnering with Wollongong Library for an introductory workshop on orienteering. The workshop on Saturday 30 July at 1pm will include an introductory presentation on orienteering and a fun demonstration event around the streets and parks of Wollongong.

Anyone who wants to learn more about orienteering and how to get started is welcome to join and the event is FREE!

Follow the link below to register with the library:

https://www.wollongong.nsw.gov.au/library/library-events/adult-wol/lets-try…-orienteering-wollongong-library

REMINDER: This weekend we also have our club training day at Belanglo Forest on Saturday and the SHOO Highland Forest event on Sunday, also at Belanglo. See previous posts for more details.

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.