1 Sepember, 2023: There was plenty of cheering for all orienteers, not just the placegetters, at the 2023 SA Orienteering School Relay Championships held at Thorndon Park on 1 September.
Thank you to Zita Sankauskas and her merry band of pink-hatters, and the school coaches who prepared the students for the day, and to all the teachers, parents and spectators who came along to support their schools.
Clive Arthur not only set courses with support from Marian Arthur, he marshalled the troops for the exciting Mass Start. Competitors and supporters were able to track results in near real-time, thanks to the technical expertise of Dianne Bergen and Colin Burnett using a big-screen display (hope we can do the same for the 2024 Australian 3 Days at Easter next year).
It was great to see students from 2 regional SA schools, Curamulka and Goolwa, travel from early in the morning to be there. See Facebook for more pics from the day, including winners.
Congratulations to all the winning teams. This year’s School Champions and Shield winners are:
• Primary Girls - Stirling East
• Primary Boys - St Martin De Porres
• Junior High Girls - Heathfield HS
• Junior High Boys - Urrbrae Agricultural HS
• Senior High Girls - Mitcham Girls HS
• Senior High Boys Glenunga International HS/Heathfield HS (equal
Participating Schools:
Black Forest PS
Coromandel Valley PS
Crafers PS
Curamulka PS (regional)
Echunga PS
Eden Hills PS
Glenunga International HS
Goolwa PS (regional)
Hawthorndene PS
Heathfield HS
Hope Christian College
Marryatville HS
Mitcham Girls HS
Stirling East PS
St Martin DePores
Upper Sturt PS
Urrbrae Agricultural HS
Woodside PS
Orienteering across the generations: Jeffa Lyon discusses route choice with competitors at the School Relays.
Senior High School Course, Thorndon Park Map - set by Clive Arthur
Experience three days of orienteering in beautiful terrain. Enjoy springtime in beautiful outback SA. Open cypress pine forests, wildlife, spectacular views. Orienteer for an hour or two each day. After that, go sightseeing, hiking or relax and make new friends. These events are those originally scheduled for the June Long weekend.
Saturday: Wilpena Spurs – Afternoon event with Middle Distance Length courses by TT Eventor Link
Sunday: Rawnsley – Long OY Event by TJ Eventor Link
Monday: Prelinna – SA Middle Distance Championships by OH Eventor Link
All events are pre-entry and entries close midnight Wednesday, Sept 30.
As events are organised by 3 separate clubs you will need to enter each separately – but remember you can enter all of your family at once for an event. After you have entered the first person, scroll down the entry page and select the link to “Enter, Cancel or Change Entry for Another Person”.
As the weather may be warm, everyone is encouraged to be prepared and take you own water on your course, The Sunday and Monday events have an option (under Services) to elect to have water provided on your course.
Accommodation is still available at the Rawnsley Park Bunkhouse for 3 nights (Oct 2-4). $40A, $30C per night. Full kitchen and dining facilities. Lots of orienteers for great company. Email Aylwin Lim
Lucky Draw: Rawnsley Park Station has generously have donated a prize for 2 nights accommodation for 4pax (Worth up to $600). undefined
One 'ticket' per person per event, so if you enter all 3 long weekend events, you automatically get three tickets! Extra raffle tickets will be available at $2 each, with proceeds to Junior Arrows. The lucky draw will be conducted at Rawnsley after Sunday's event. Prize is valid for 2021 (Block-out periods apply).
After all the months of uncertainty about gathering limits and social distancing, once it became possible to hold minor events with COVID-plans in place, suddenly there was a glimmer of hope that the club relays and SA Championships events might be able to go ahead after all...
First, the Club Relays were hosted by the Southern Arrows at Wirra Wirra on what was admittedly a rather wet Sunday Aug 30th, so it was really good to see approx. 65 two-person teams compete on Simon Uppill’s complex courses, with some tight finishes between teams, in a beautiful arena alongside the redgum-lined creek.
The calculations for the winning club have now been finalised; the algorithm takes into account results achieved by the clubs in all categories, but also the percentage of the club’s members who competed on the day, so in this scenario, little can in fact beat big - and Yalanga won for the second year in a row:
1st YA 46.58 points
2nd TT 31.32 points
3rd TJ 25.42 points
4th OH 17.47 points
5th WA 13.05 points
Two weeks later and in much better weather, the SA Long Orienteering Championships were held by Wallaringa Orienteers on Sunday Sept 13th in Kinchina Conservation Park with the 1999 Narrinyeri Hills map having been re-done by Adrian Uppill using LiDAR flown by Aerometrex. 
Courses planned by Jenny Casanova (supported by part time controller Andrew Kenendy - who had to wait to get out of quarantine to do the final field check) utilised the eastern escarpment with many trickssy rockses, and attempted to minimise traverses of the rather-green regrowth area from 2005 bushfires. The first controls were in numerous different directions from the start, leading to some interesting routes (not necessarily route choices) and the final control on many courses offered expansive views out over Murray Bridge and the surrounding plains.
It is not known how many competitors also attended the model event on Saturday, but some of those who hadn’t, were overheard to wish afterwards that they had done so...
Organisers Frank Tomas and Peter Kreminski would like to thank the 135 (!) people who entered, for making this event a success – and for those of you who didn’t collect your placegetters’ certificate on the day, see Jenny at one of the Flinders Ranges events on the October long weekend!
SA Interclub Relays, Sunday October 20th, Coromandel Valley Primary School
All orienteers are invited to come out and run around Coro Primary and Frank Smith Park +/- Blackwood Forest on Sunday October 20th at the club relays hosted by the Southern Arrows, South Australia’s elite orienteering squad.
All you have to do is to form teams of 2 – only one member of the team has to be a current financial member of your club - and let your club secretary know who you want to run with before Oct 14th. So encourage all your friends who haven’t orienteered in a while, to join you in a team. It’s also possible to form teams where nobody is a club member although then your team won’t count towards the interclub trophy.
As was done previously, we have no age limitations and the choices are simply: men’s, women’s and mixed age classes on 4 different courses, which are approximately:
- 5.5km hard (split into 2 x 2.7 km, each person runs twice)
- 4.5km moderate/hard (split into 2 x 2.2km, each person runs twice)
- 3.5km moderate (split into 2 x 1.7km, each person runs twice)
- 2km easy – each person runs once only
So you can pick a course which matches your preference, and which has been expertly planned by our WOC representatives Bridget & Simon! It’s lots of fun, and there will be prizes...for further information as it becomes available, go to: https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/9161
Article by Jenny Casanova
Thirty six teams from a wide range of public & private primary and secondary schools competed in the SA Schools Relay Championships today at Bonython Park. Weather conditions were perfect in this beautififul location adjoining the River Torrens. Winning schools for the various shields were:
Primary School Girls: Stirling East Primary School
Primary School Boys: Hills Community Christian School
Junior High Girls: Heathfield High School
Junior High Boys: Marryatville High School
Senior High Girls: Heathfield High School
Senior High Boys : Blackfriars Priory School
Click here for split times on Winsplits (look for the course version on your map A B or C)
Click here for raw splits list which include those who mispunched
Article Ken Thompson
The Surveying and Spatial Science Institute is sponsoring the Australian Schools Championships as part of the Australian Championship Carnival, and this sponsorship is likely to extend to future years. SSSI is the national body representing and supporting spatial science and surveying professionals across Australia. SSSI professional areas include Land Surveying, Spatial Information and Cartography, Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry, Hydrography, Engineering and Mining Surveying, Women in Spatial and Young Professionals in Spatial and Surveying. They provide their members with the platform to support and maximise their skills knowledge and experience.
SSSI is running a Geospatial Information Competition that challenges students to identify an issue in their local area and use geospatial information and technologies to address it. For more details see www.geospatialscience.com.au/competition. Can our students use their orienteering background to address a spatial issue? Geospatial information is the basis of all orienteering maps.
During the carnival a mapping workshop on Friday 5th Oct will discuss the new geospatial area of LIDAR data in orienteering mapping.
SSSI will give a presentation to the state schools teams during the carnival.
With the carnival rapidly approaching, all the main tasks are now almost complete. All the maps are printed, and being sorted ready for each event.
With 8 events in 9 days, the carnival offers the 900 individual compettors in the carnival , the most diverse terrain for recent Australian Championships. The carnival starts at 12 noon on Saturday 29th September with the Australian Middle Distance Championships at Crooked Straight. The carnival also includes the Australian Schools Championships, the details of the 3 events are in the carnival bulletin, so pelase come and support the schools teams. Will the local SA team be able to beat the ACT, the winners in 2017?
The event bulletin is now published here.
The start lists are all published under each event on Eventor.
Location - At Jack's Paddock, 11km SW of Meadows. 3km from Forestry SA HQ along Brookman Road.
Area is a mix of pine forest and native scrub. Generally undulating, easy running, and with many tracks. Ideal for beginners and families.
Please pay and register on Eventor to get a guaranteed map, a $1 discount, plus a free choccy frog.
Limited EOD is available on all courses. But no discount or frog at the finish.
For event details, course lengths, and location – see Eventor – entries close midnight Wednesday 5th September.
Direction signs from ‘Fingerboard Corner’, 2km West of Meadows.
