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Newcastle Orienteers invite you to the Western Lake Macquarie and Cessnock areas for the 2021 Queen’s Birthday 3 Days.
Enter 1, 2 or all 3 events - a combined 3 day time will decide the overall placegetters.
Saturday 12 June - Middle Distance | State League 5
Freeman’s Waterhole with starts 11:45 am - 2:00 pm
The Redgum Ridges map features intricate detail in watercourses and lower slopes, separated by steep ridges. Tracks are mostly restricted to the ridge lines. The forest is quite open but running at full speed can be hampered by low vegetation, deep leaf and bark litter, or steep slopes. Vegetation is denser after a wet summer and has been re-mapped.
Sunday 13 June - Long Distance | State League 6
Quorrobolong with starts 9:45 am - 12:00 noon
Much of this map is NEW and has never been used for Orienteering previously. Undulating to steep and open eucalypt forest with an extensive track network in parts. The upper slopes comprise many parallel gullies and scattered sandstone rock features. The lower slopes include sections of subtle gully detail. Isolated patches of lantana throughout are easily avoided.
Monday 14 June - Sprint Distance | State League 7
Cooranbong with starts 9:30 am - 11:00 am.
First used during 2019 Newcastle Shorts, this typical University “Avondale University College” campus map has been extended to include parts of the decommissioned Sanitarium Foods factory and Laboratories. Many of you would have enjoyed eating Weet-Bix cereals that for many years were produced on this site.
Entries via Eventor https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/10822
Entries Close Midnight Tuesday 1 June
Enter On Day Available at all events but limited to Very Easy, Easy, Moderate and a single Hard course.
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Orienteering Australia and Orienteering Queensland are hosting a National Junior Camp in the July school holidays, based in Stanthorpe from Thursday 8th of July to Sunday 11th of July, with an optional extra training Wednesday afternoon in Brisbane. The trainings will be on the fantastic granite belt maps. The camp will help individuals learn and develop their orienteering skills for the 2021 Aus Champs, 2022 Easter and even 2022 JWOC in Portugal!
The camp is aimed at juniors from 13-20 years of age - activities of moderate and hard navigation will be on offer. Senior athletes, orienteering coaches (or coaches to be) and parent/guardians are also welcome to attend the camp, participating in the activities and/or assisting with activities/coaching. A detailed information flyer has now been posted to the Eventor page for the camp.
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Alongside the junior camp, there will also be a week-long orienteering tour open to all orienteers over the age of 18, aimed at those aspiring to run national league races. The training tour will be focused on fun trainings and socialisation/team building. It will run from Saturday 2nd of July through to Sunday 11th of July and includes a weekend at the Gold Coast, the unofficial Australian Under 25 Champs/Novelty Events in Brisbane midweek and the chance to coach/train at the National Junior Development Camp in Stanthorpe.
You can attend all or part of the camp and entries (for expressions of interest) are now open via Eventor, where a Bulletin 1 is also available. Expressions of interest close on May 31 to allow for planning re: group accommodation.
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The Victorian MTBO Champs were run successfully at Maryborough and Dunolly in May. Despite the weather being particularly cold, the sun did shine for a good part of the weekend's events, and there was no rain.
The weekend started with the Sprint from the Maryborough Education Centre and using part of the Flat Creek map (from the 2019 Aus Champs) and adjacent Bristol Hill map. Bristol Hill never fails to challenge, as riders discovered when they flipped their map mid course over to the Bristol Hill side and were faced with a maze of spaghetti type track networks. We're not sure if anyone had a clean run, but some did better than others. This event was organised by Eureka Orienteers with Mark Valentine setting the courses, Blake Gordon event advisor and Ian Chennel organiser.
The afternoon saw the Middle distance race on the Tullaroop map on the NE edge of Maryborough. We started in a different location to 2019 and the map included more northern areas not used in 2019. Again, a very complex area of forest with riders needing to take due care as some tracks through lightly forested areas were quite indistinct. The event was organised by Nillumbik Emus with Rob Edmonds setting the courses and Peter Hill event advisor.
That evening, there was a casual dinner at the Maryborough Gold Club attended by 40 odd people, and we presented awards for the Sprint and Middle to those present. A special presentation was made by Andrew Power to Kay Haarsma who is retiring from her Orienteering Australia MTBO roles. Kay has held many key positions over the years, representing MTBO at Orienteering Australia virtually since MTBO started in Australia. It was also mentioned that this retirement may mean that Kay can fit in a bit more bike riding now ... if that is possible.
  
Sunday morning was the Long Distance event on the Dunolly Forest map. This area is perfect for this format, with the track network not being quite so intense, but there were still plenty of crucial route choice decisions to be made. The event was organised by Bayside Kangaroos with Natasha Thackray course setter and Tim Hatley event advisor. John Gavens was organiser.
A special thanks to all of the many people who assisted in running the weekend's events.
These events all used the new BS11 SportIdent control units that have a 1.6m range allowing riders to pass by controls at speed and not too close. Another innovation for the events was the live results. Competitors could scan the QR code on their maps and be taken to the results immediately after completing their course.
Full results are available on Eventor and splits are on WinSplits.
Thank you to Peter Cusworth for writing this article.
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Victoria and the Canberra Cockatoos took out the senior National Orienteering League titles at the final round relay at Broulee. The senior women started the day with any of the Cockatoos, Victoria or Southern Arrows able to take the title with a win, and after two legs the three were only separated by three minutes, but Belinda Lawford’s fine second leg had given Canberra a useful lead and Grace Crane was able to finish it off. The Victorian men had a more straightforward task, only needing to finish in the top three, and led the race throughout after Aston Key gave them a flying start, although Matt Crane cut the gap from five minutes to one on the second leg to add a bit of excitement.
The Victorian junior men had a harder task than the seniors, needing to beat the NSW Stingers to take the season’s honours. It looked a difficult challenge after the first leg when Ewan Shingler opened a ten-minute gap on the Victorians (and eight on the Cockatoos). Mason Arthur cut that in half on the second leg, but Jensen Key still had to run down five minutes on Sam Woolford, which he was able to do. The Southern Arrows junior women got the second place they needed, although after a close race for two legs, the Stingers ran away with it on the last leg to take the honours on the day.
Results for the event are available.
Final points for 2021 NOL
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Aston Key and Grace Crane are the senior National Orienteering League champions for 2021 after today’s final individual round in the sand-dune terrain of Broulee. Key started in front in the chasing-start format and was never headed, doing the day’s fastest time in his eighth win from ten 2021 rounds, with Patrick Jaffe and Brodie Nankervis in the minor placings. It was a much tighter affair for the women, with Crane and Olivia Sprod going out together. Crane edged away over the course to take the overall victory, while Krystal Neumann won the day and did enough to push the South Australian out of second overall.
Both junior classes saw lead changes on the individual season’s final day. In the junior men’s one control was decisive. David Stocks led almost from the start, but needed to make up two minutes on Ewan Shingler, and for most of the course could not quite bridge that gap, but Shingler lost over two minutes at #18, and that was enough. In W20, Nea Shingler needed to catch 2.40 on Emily Sorensen and did so by mid-course, but there was a twist to come – both lost major time on #13, but with third-placed Mikayla Cooper also well off the pace today, they were still battling for the overall lead. This battle was resolved in Shingler’s favour over the last two controls. With the favourites all losing time heavily, Erika Enderby broke through for her first race win, with Natalie Miller also getting easily her best result yet with second.
Results and splits are available.
Final points for 2021 NOL
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Orienteering Australia is pleased to announce the Australian merit team for WOC 2021.
This is the highest level of representation so it’s a very impressive achievement. Well done and congratulations to you all!
Women: Grace Crane, Tara Melhuish, Krystal Neumann and Olivia Sprod.
Men: Matt Doyle, Patrick Jaffe, Aston Key (Oceania champion middle), Henry McNulty and Brodie Nankervis (Oceania champion sprint, long).
The men’s team is larger due to extra allocation of places from Oceania Championships.
At the OA Board meeting on 30th of March, a decision was made that Orienteering Australia would not support or endorse sending Australian based athletes to WOC 2021 due to ongoing travel restrictions and the COVID-19 situation in Europe. Whilst unfortunate, the likelihood of this decision and the reasons behind it were signalled in the selection criteria.
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Recently retired OA Executive Officer Paul Prudhoe celebrated 50 years in the sport at last weekend's NOL round on the NSW South Coast.
Paul started orienteering in high school in the UK in 1971, and has been actively involved in the planning, controlling and the organisation of events as a member of 11 clubs over the years.
- Following a move to Australia in 1987, Paul joined a local club and continued his passion for the sport.
- Over the years, Paul has been involved in numerous major events in Australia – including helping with JWOC, World Masters, and several Australian championships and NSW championships.
- He is one of only three Level 3 Controllers in NSW, meaning he can organise world ranking events and is an International Orienteering Federation Event Advisor.
- Paul was awarded the NSW President’s Award in 2015 for his outstanding contribution to the furtherance of orienteering in the state.
- Paul was first elected to the Orienteering NSW Board in 2003, then president from 2008-2014. In 2015 he became Executive Officer for the sport in NSW and in 2017 he moved to take on the same role nationally.
He is pictured here with grandson William.
Congratulations Paul!
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On Wednesday, 19 May, about 80 past and present orienteers took part in the 50th Anniversary celebrations of regular orienteering in the ACT. Those attending included ten past or current ACTOA/OACT Presidents, and several others who were prominent in the early history of ACT orienteering. 56 participants went on one of the ‘Flashback’ courses on Black Mountain Reserve, where the inaugural event was conducted on 16 May 1971. They enjoyed the experience of searching for red-and-white plastic bucket controls, using a black-and-white map oriented to true north (not magnetic north) and showing contours, vehicle tracks, some watercourses and not much else.
Participants also spent time studying the historical display, catching up with past orienteering friends whom they may not have seen for many years, and sampling one of the 50th Anniversary biscuits (Covid-safe instead of a cake), baked by Carol Harding.
The results of the courses are available here. Photographs of the occasion are available here.
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Save! Early Bird Entries Close Monday 31 May
Australian Orienteering Championships 2021, Tasmania
Things are hotting about in Tasmania, with event organisation in full swing as we get ready for your arrival. As organisers, we are determined to make this 9 days of fun – great courses set in great terrain – and to make sure winning times are on the money – to leave you with time and energy to explore.
Regular entries will run from 1 June – 22 August. There is a generous discount that applies in the early bird period which closes 31 May.
If you plan on heading south, please make your travel and accommodation plans NOW. It is peak holiday time and even in St Helens, tourism has taken off. People love the new mountain bike trails and things are bustling.
If you plan to fly and rent a vehicle, you might consider AutoRent Hertz. AutoRent Hertz are providing commercial vehicles to help Orienteering Tasmania with the logistics. AutoRent Hertz have provided similar support for previous major carnivals (think Easter Tasmania 2018 and Oceania 2015). This makes life significantly easier for OT volunteers and helps to reduce organisation costs.
To learn more and to enter: https://aoc2021.tasorienteering.asn.au
Accomodation in St Helens will fill up during the Tasmanian school holidays. St Helens recently has opened several mountain bike tracks which are proving very popular. You need to book soon.
As well as the usual hotels, motels and AirBnB we are using the Big4 Holiday Park as a base. NZ Schools Teams will be staying here in cabins. There are additional cabins for hire. There are also camp sites to hire.
There are several other accommodation options that you can find on the web.
Spirit of Tasmania Ferry: If you visit our website https://aoc2021.tasorienteering.asn.au/ you will an offer for travel via the Spirit of Tasmania. If you book through the link in the news article you will find a slightly cheaper price than the best available price on the day you book. Some space on the Spirit has been guaranteed, until all sold out. Full information is on the website.
Bringing your own vehicle over on the ferry (or hiring one in Melbourne) will make things easier for you.
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Preparations for Easter 2022 in Queensland are well underway.
Like our Facebook page for updates https://www.facebook.com/easter2022
We got some great orienteering planned: granite maps near Kingaroy over Easter, some sand dune fun during the week, and then a NOL Sprint weekend at the Gold Coast.
Visit our web page at https://www.easter2022.com.au/
Put the dates in your diary now for this sensational orienteering carnival .
Plan now for your Easter 2022 getaway!
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A man surveying a forest for his orienteering club in western Sweden stumbled on a trove of Bronze Age treasure reckoned to be some 2,500 years old. It includes about 50 items, such as necklaces, bracelets and clothing pins.
Swedish archaeologists say it is very rare to find such a hoard in a forest. Ancient tribes usually left such offerings in rivers or wetlands. The hoard was on the forest floor, next to rocks. It is thought that one or more animals had disturbed the earth, leaving the many items semi-exposed. They have been dated to the period between 750 and 500BC.
Archaeologists describe it as a "depot" find - that is, a hoard deliberately left as an offering to a god or gods, or to invest in life after death. The treasure includes a type of rod used to spur on horses, previously found in neighbouring Denmark, but not in Sweden.
The article, published in the BBC News can be found here.
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The OA Board now has six Directors (out of a possible 10). They are:
• Jenny Casanova -Technical;
• Mike Dowling (ex officio as he is IOF Vice President) – Mike is currently Interim Chair and Interim High Performance Director;
• Bill Jones – Director at Large;
• Andrew Lumsden – Secretary;
• Richard Mountstephens – Finance; and
• Craig Steffens – Operations, including MTBO.
OA are actively seeking additional directors.
They did not receive any applications for the Executive Officer when they advertised among the orienteering community. They have now followed Orienteering New Zealand’s example and advertised for a General Manager in Sportspeople – which is Australia’s largest sports job advertising website. They have received at least 10 good applications.
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