Today (24th May 2021) the SA Schools Championships was held at Wadmore Park in Athelstone. There were 202 entries from 21 primary and secondary schools. Winners of the shields were as follows:

Primary Schools - Williams Trophy - 

1) Woodside PS with 37 points
2) Linden Park PS with 32 points 
3) Hawthorndene PS with 21.5 points 

Secondary Schools - Wale trophy-

1) Heathfield HS with 60 points
2) Glenunga International HS with 21 points
3) Marryatville HS with 16 points.

Full results and splits can be found on Eventor

The event was organised by Tintookies Orienteering Club with much assistance from members of other orienteering clubs. The event would not be possible without this support. Thanks to all who assisted in any way. Thanks also to teachers and parents for the work in preparing and supervising the teams.

Part of Course 1..the longest course!!

Three events were held in the Renmark area over the Anzac weekend, possible with a Monday public holiday in some states including SA.  Two of the events were National Orienteering League events, so many junior and senior elites attended.  In addition a number of interstate orienteers in other age groups attended, pushing the numbers for the Saturday and Sunday events over 200.

The Saturday afternoon event was a Middle Distance at Bunyip Reach, with the map extended from that used in 2018.  For elites this was also a World Ranking event, with juniors and seniors doing the same course. Steve Cooper set some challenging courses through the complex erosion gullies. The event was run by Yalanga Orienteers and the controller was Phil Hazell.  For results and splits see the links here. The M65A  W45A  W55A course:

Sunday’s SA Long Distance Championships included a mass start loop race for the 4 NOL groups (senior men and women, junior men and women in classes 20E and 18A).  The 2 senior classes and junior men had a run through after a short first loop to collect the map for a longer challenging second loop.  Other classes used the traditional interval start.  All courses, which covered the more sublte terrain on the ridge top into the compelx erosion gullies flanking the ridge, were set by Simon Uppill, with the controller Jenny Casanova and the event by Onkaparinga Hills Orienteers.   For results and splits links here  Mass start for each of the 4 elite courses below, and the course for the a second loop of the M21E course.

Monday’s sprint event at the Renmark schools set by Lanita Steer with the event by Tintookies, was a more relaxed event to finish off the weekend.  Results and splits are here

For many more photos of the Sunday event see the Facebook album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=OrienteeringSA&set=a.4033129866754003

And other posts about the weekend events - https://www.facebook.com/OrienteeringSA

Crooked Straight course planner Simon Uppill competing at Bunyip Reach, and the event's controller Jenny Casanova with Bunyip Reach Course planner Steve Cooper (3rd in M55A at Crooked Straight)

For all younger juniors who have enjoyed the after school weekday orienteering events, weekend orienteering training activities are now planned from mid-June.

These activities come under the banner of the Southern Darts Training Squad, and are for the younger juniors who are new to orienteering. As they become more experienced they move to the Junior Arrows. For more information about the Darts - see this page:

https://www.sa.orienteering.asn.au/coaching-training/our-teams-and-squads/southern-darts

Training is sumarised in this flyer

The Easter Carnival was centred on Orange, NSW, this year after a twelve month deferral due to Covid 19.

The Sprint was held at Charles Sturt University, with excellent results from Olivia Sprod second, Abigail George third, and notable performances from Angus Haines, Joanna George, Jenny Casanova, Toby Cazzolato, Max Grivell and Ethan Penck.

Then it was into the rocks and bush of the Three Days, and what an orienteering test it was. Day One on Noah's Ark was a great introduction to what was to follow on the Gumble Pinnacles the next two days. Considering the number of " did not finish " and long course times, this map arguably certainly lived up to be one of the most challenging in Australia. To finish at all could be considered by some a success, (myself included), and I noticed many miserable participants wandering aimlessly around in a sea of large boulders. Many courses did not achieve the expected winning times, even when experienced orienteers had relatively mistake free runs, and many competotors chose to abandon their courses on Day 2 ( much greater number than normal for this early season event).

Nevertheless there were great performances from South Australians, being: Emily Sorensen first and Joanna George fourth in Women 20 Elite, Toby Cazzolato first in Men 18 Elite, Olivia Sprod second in Women 21 Elite, Lachlan Hallett first in the Sledge, Jenny Casanova third in W45A, and very good efforts by Abigail George, Teri McCoomb, Leila Henderson, Susanne Casanova, Ethan Penck, Steve Cooper, Dante Afnan, Angus Haines, Max Grivell, Andrew McCoomb, Robert Kriesl and Robert Smith.

All resutls are available in Eventor and you can view courss in the LiveLox link (although you need to be a subscriber to run full replays of those who have uplaoded their routes).

Photos of some SA orienteers by Evalin here - https://evalinmae.smugmug.com/Orienteering/NOL-2-SA-Orienteers/

Well done NSW - Rob Tucker President OSA