The SA Interclub relays were held at the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide on Sunday September 24th. The event was presented by the Southern Arrows, the SA interstate elite orienteering team, with the courses planned by Ethen Penk, with Simon Uppill as the controller and SPORTident manager.
The Waite map is a sprint standard map, however the courses offered a variety of terrain, covering the complex of campus building, and the treed area of the Waite Reserve. 72 teams were entered, although last minute team changes were made due to late withdrawals.
The Yalanga club was the successful club, with many teams being paced as well as managing to get a high proportion of their club members entering. The other clubs placings were OHOC, WA, TT and TJ.
Results are here
Club winners - Yalanga
One of the loops on Course 1 - campus to the arboretum
Working in the finish
The 2022 Club Relays were originally planned for August, but delayed until 16th October as the main organisers and course planners were not available at the original planned date. So Max Grivell and Jack Marshall planned courses, and organized the event, with support from Jenny Casanova to control the event, and Simon Uppill to help with SI and the event software (and of courses the spreadsheet to decide the winning club).
The event was held in the northern part of Para Wirra NP on the last Sunday of the school holidays. However this did not deter clubs from organizing a record number of team entries, 71 in all. And many runners displayed the club shirts, including a new shirt for Wallaringa featuring the dingo logo.
Unfortunately the bush in Para Wirra has become thicker in some areas in recent years, so the start of the Hard and Moderate courses traversed some of the thicker bush in the first part of the courses. Some track options were available, and the latter part of these courses traversed friendlier terrain. The courses passed through a spectator control of a colourful inflatable rhino on the edge of the oval.
Our Facebook site has a series of photos and 2 videos of the mass start
Team results are available on Eventor.
And the club results were as follows, YA had been on top for the last couple of years, but OH with a turnout of 20 teams and some good results, took the trophy this year. The points are calculated based on the results, allowing for the number of entries in a class, and the clubs participation as a percent of its membership.
Onkaparinga Hills - 33.99
Yalanga - 30.57
Tintookies - 25.42
Tjuringa – 18.07
Wallaringa – 10.69
Orienteering SA has organised a special MapRun Spring Series, launching October 17 at Bonython Park, North Adelaide.
The series will cover a variety of terrains from parkland to bush areas, and courses formats across October and November, leading into the Twilight Series. Full details will be available on the OSA Facebook and Instagram channels, and on our Eventor calendar
The MapRun Spring series comprises four events, all listed in Eventor
Sunday October 17th – Bonython Park – Scatter courses – you can pre-order PDF maps for this event if you want to attend at the nominated event time (10 AM to 11:30 AM). Also download the MpaRun app before the event, and add your details. Instructions will be provided on how to use MapRun.
Sunday October 24th – Sturt Gorge and Blackwood Hills – Longer trail running format line courses in a bush area with many tracks
Sunday October 31st – Anstey Hill = Line courses in a bush area with many paths and interesting historical quarry areas
Sunday November 7th – Adelaide Parklands vising many of the monuments north of the city – Score Courses
For the nominated event dates see our Event Calendar
Each event in the MapRun Spring Series will provide courses that can be completed using MapRun; a PDF of the map will also be available for download a few days before the nominal event date to use with MapRun, or if you just want to navigate on a paper map only. Once you complete a course, MapRun allows you to compare your time against other map-runners.
MapRun6 is a phone app that uses your smartphone for timing and tracking as you go round an orienteering course displayed on your phone screen. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the iPhone App Store
For details on the MapRun phone app and how to sue MapRun see - https://www.sa.orienteering.asn.au/about-orienteering/new-to-orienteering/mobile-orienteering
This site also lists other MapRun courses that can be done anytime.
Also download the series brochure here.
Great orienteering was experienced in the Flinders Ranges over the October Long Weekend but the weather was somewhat interesting.
Event 1 –Saturday - warm-up event on the flatter eastern section of Wilpena Spurs, after arrangements were made to enable access through the new locked gate on the Sacred Canyon Rd. Event was held by Tintookies on a hot afternoon with the courses by Bob Smith
Event 2 – Sunday - Long OY event on Rawnsley – with a strong northerly and increasing dust through the morning into the afternoon so that Rawnsley Bluff was hidden by the dust. Somewhat challenging weather although not as hot as the previous afternoon. Fortunately the assembly and download were in the covered area at the Rawnsley Bunkhouse. Event organized by Tjuringa with courses by Sarah and Aylwin Lim
Event 3 – SA Middle Distance – by far the best of the weekend weather as a cool change and a little rain arrived on Sunday evening. Hence a cool morning initially with low cloud for the orienteering on the very challenging courses set by Bridget Uppill (assisted by Simon) with the event organized by Onkaparinga Hills.
For more photos of the weekend - see the OSA Facebook page
New permanent orienteering courses that can be completed on Foot or on a Mountain Bike, have been opened at Paringa Paddocks, Renmark.
The project to create these courses was instigated by the Visitor Information Centre (VIC) at Renmark and funded by Renmark- Paringa Council. This required the making of a new orienteering map over part of Paringa Wetlands, followed by consultation between OSA and the Visitor Information Centre over course design and the placement of control points. The orienteering courses will enable visitors to explore some generally unseen parts of the wetland including points of historical interest. Some example control sites are shown below.
Courses start and finish at the information centre on the riverfront, or alternatively at a second venue at the Lions Park, near the Big 4 Holiday Park. Maps for all courses can be downloaded as PDFs here.
The Australian Championships carnival concluded with two contrasting terrains. The Australian Long Championships at Gumeracha Gold Fields on Saturday Oct 6th was held on a mixed spur gully terrain with open fast pine forest, slower native forest and young pine plantation and some open areas with rocky detail. Course planner was Vince Loye. Winners of the elite classes were Natasha Key from Victoria and Henry McNulty from WA, his first senior open win at an Australian Championships
For all the resutls see the Results page, this page has links to some GPS tracking for the 4 elite classes.
Victoria was the winner of the OA shield.
The SA Middle Championships at Keynes Gap was on terrain with complex rock detail in othewise open terrain. Course planner Steve Cooper set some challenging courses for the final carnival event on Sunday October 7th. A spectacular view to the rocky ridge from arena was even shared by those in the Finish tent.
All results are available.
The Natonal League results were also announced at the event, with Simon Uppill from SA 1st in M21E. Other winners were Natasha Key for W21E, Aston Key for M20E and Tara Melhuish for W20E.
Lots of pictures from all 8 events on the carnival Facebook page.
Orienteering SA would like to thank all our volunteers who have been working toward the carnival over the past 2 years or more. In particular Ken Thompson for all his work behind the scenes managing entries and all the queries from competitors.
View from the Finish tent at Keynes Gap by John Nieuwenhoven
The Australian Schools Championships was held over three days from Oct 2nd to Oct 4th. The three events
- Sprint Championships on a warm day at Keithcot Farm - complex school buildings with many stairs and different levels, courses by David George
- Long Championships at Wirra Wirra - the day was much cooler for the competitors to navigate the at times low visibility pines, areas of complex rocks and a steeper section for the longer courses. Courses by Andrew Kennedy
- Relay Championships at Mount Crawford, a mix of lower and more open pines and some eucalypt forest. Fantastic effort by the teams to avoid any mispunches. Courses by John Nieuwenhoven
The ACT won the interstate competition for the 3rd year in a row, with South Australia second, and New Zealand again won the Southern Cross Challenge
The honour team is
Senior Girls - Joanna George, Abigail George, Emily Sorensen, Ella Cuthbert (3 SA runners who dominated the senior girls events)
Senior Boys - Dante Afnan, Noah Poland, Aston Key, Patrick Miller
Junior Girls - Mikaela Grey, Justine Hobson, Nea Shingler, Lila Lehtonen
Junior boys - Alvin Craig, David Stocks, Torren Arthur, Toby Cazzolato
All the event resutls are here.
From a mild day for the first event the Australian Middle Championships at Crooked Straight, the weather became warmer to the high twenty degrees for the relays at Wiela - Bunyip Reach and the Australian Sprint at Renmark Schools. At Crooked Straight, the sandier terrain at times produced some physically demanding courses set by Robert Smith, whilst at Wiela - Bunyip Reach the challenge for the courses set by Simon Uppill was to find your way through the maze of erosion gullies. The sprint at Renmark schools was a super fast area, some temporary barriers added some technical complexity to the courses set by Robin Uppill.
Link to all the results can be found here.
And some fantastic photos of the three events on the carnival Facebook page.
Course maps for the Middle and Sprint here.
A courses from each day below
Crooked Straight - M21E
Wiela - Bunyip Reach - W21 E Course - one variation
Renmark Schools - M21E - Maps 1 and 2
The carnival returned to Hill End this weekend for the final 2 events, the Long Distance and the Relays.
Australian Long Distance Championships
The Long Distance was held on a map with open forest on spur gully terrain with areas of complex mining detail in some creek lines. Most hard courses had some long legs with more technical sections in the mining areas.
Flinders University was the venue for the 2017 SA Club Relays, run again by the Southern Arrows. Courses were set by 2 of the junior Arrows, Nick Congedi and Angus Haines, with Simon Uppill as the controller.
The plaza area of the university was used as the assembly area, with a spectator run through on all courses. These started by a loop through the campus buildings south of the lake, with a run through and a second loop on the complex multi-level area of buildings with several quadrangles north of the lake. The format followed the 2 person team, with each person running two legs, except for the easy course where each team member ran only one leg.
All clubs were well represented, and took up the option to expand their teams by having a club member team up with a non-club member. Some very close completion resulted for the club championship, and Onkaparinga Hills looked to have ruined their chances with some team mis-punching. However a sprint finish by Zara Soden against junior Emily Sorenson giving the team of Bridget Anderson and Zara the win in the Course 1 women’s group, helped OHOC to just pip Yalanga for the club trophy.
Results and splits are here.
