Newsletter

From the president

Rob Tucker

It has been a busy time for orienteers over the past few months. The Easter Carnival in WA resulted in excellent performances from SA participants. As a result, three juniors were selected for the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Denmark, being Joanna George, Dante Afnan and Angus Haines.

Significantly, Bridget Anderson was awarded the Orienteering Australia award for services to coaching, a well deserved acknowledgment for her enthusiastic contribution.

Congratulations to Simon Uppill and Bridget Anderson for their selection in the Australian team for the World Orienteering Championships.

I encourage South Australian orienteers to support the Southern Arrows World Orienteering Championships Support Fund, as the personal costs to participants are considerable.

Congratulations for the efforts of our SA contingent in the Australian team at the recent QB3 day in New Zealand.

Much work has been done, most behind the scenes, with the schools clusters, training days, permanent courses and mapping. Many orienteers were involved in the organisation and assisting on the day with the SA Schools Orienteering Championships held at Belair National Park.

It is always pleasing to see significant numbers turning up to events despite the weather, which is a great acknowledgment to our members efforts, but then orienteers are a tough lot.

From the editor

Frank Burden

A broad selection of articles again.

This time they include many that feature SA's leading orienteers, in particular those selected to represent Australia in the World and Junior World Orienteering Championships this year. Hard work by both orienteers and their coaches, and successes in national competitions, meant five were selected from SA. This is a great achievement. There are also articles on the recent schools orienteering championships, on the schools cluster training program, and on Australian Championship Events over Easter in Perth. The highlight article is a virtual Q&A session with Bridget Anderson and Simon Uppill that covers their lives, achievements and aspirations.

There is more, so please read and enjoy.

Notes from the Committee

1. Could members please check their details on Eventor, especially email and phone details.

2. See article below on supporting SA orienteers selected to represent Australia in international championships.

3. Congratulations to:

• Bridget Anderson and Simon Uppill (both OHOC) selected to represent Australia in the World Orienteering Championships in Norway on 12 - 17 August. Both have been selected for the middle and relay events.
• Joanna George (Tintookies), Dante Afnan (Yalanga), and Angus Haines (OHOC) selected to represent Australia in the Junior World Orienteering Championships in Denmark on 6 - 12 July.
• Abigail George (Tintookies), Bridget Anderson, Dante Afnan, Angus Haines, and Simon Uppill selected to represent the Australian Bushrangers in a test match against the New Zealand Pine Stars in conjunction with the New Zealand Queen's Birthday 2019 3-day event on 1 - 3 June.

4. A new scholar looks likely for the summer season – a young woman from the USA.

5. We have applied for a grant for the purchase of a defibrillator.

6. The new permanent course at Oaklands is up and running with an agreement with Marion Council for 5 years.

SA Results in NZ Test Match - 1/2 June

Example maps from day 2 afternoon. Click/tap to zoom.

Donate to Help Orienteering

The end of the financial year is rapidly approaching, and Orienteering Australia is continuing its fundraising partnership with the Australian Sports Foundation to allow tax-deductible donations.

Typically, June is the time when many community donors and philanthropists make their donations to the sports they support. That’s because from July 1, they will be able to lodge a tax receipt for their donations as part of their 2018-19 Tax Return. So why not donate to support an orienteering project now before it’s too late.

There are a range of fundraising projects available to choose from that will support Australia’s elite orienteers and Orienteering Australia itself. Many of these projects aim to help offset the high cost of our Senior and Junior elites representing Australia overseas. Detailed information on the various projects with information on how to donate can be found here.

There are currently six Orienteering Australia projects:

• OA WOC Team Support
• OA JWOC Team Support
• OA High Performance Support
• OA MTBO International Competition Support
• Southern Arrows WOC/JWOC Representatives Support
• Administration Support

Every donation counts, no matter how small, and of course all donations are tax deductible but need to be made by the end of the month if you’re looking to include it in your 2018-19 Tax Return.

SA Schools Orienteering Championships

The SA Schools Orienteering Championships was held at Belair National Park on Monday 27^th May, on a cool cloudy but fine day. Approximately 340 students were entered from 16 Primary Schools and 14 Secondary Schools. Students entered 36 different age classes, with A classes for the more experienced, and B classes for those newer to the sport. Recreational pairs' classes were also available to primary school students.

The event was presented by Onkaparinga Hills Orienteering Club, with

• Course Planners: Adrian and Robin Uppill
• Controller: Peter Cutten
• Organiser: David Tilbrook

and assisted by helpers from OH and all other metropolitan clubs.

The presentations to primary classes were made by Ruhi Afnan representing “Surveying and Mapping SA”, which provided medals for these classes. Senior class medals were presented by the local state MP Sam Duluk.

The shields were won as follows:

• John Williams Primary Shield – Woodside PS, with Goodwood and Stirling East PS in 2nd and 3rd places
• Brian Wale Secondary Shield – Heathfield HS (first time winners of the shield) with Black Friars Priory School, and Marryatville HS in 2nd and 3rd places.

Thanks to all who participated, all helpers that made the event possible and National Parks for permission to use the park for the event.

Results are here.

Quote from Sam Duluk:

"On Monday I had the pleasure of presenting medals at the SA Schools Orienteering Championships held in Belair National Park. Luckily, the wet weather held off, allowing the orienteerers to complete the course without getting drenched. Congratulations to all the competitors for taking part. It is fantastic to see our green spaces being used by schools and local clubs for a variety of activities."

Compiled from reports and photographs on OSA website and facebook.

Schools Cluster Training

Ben Cazzolato

Over the last few years a number of enthusiastic orienteers have been running regular mid-week training sessions for school kids. What started out as ad hoc training for specific schools has since grown into a more formal structure called The Schools Cluster Training Program. As the name suggests, this program brings together local schools into a cluster which leads to a gain in efficiencies, builds critical mass and develops a sense of community. There are now four regular clusters operating across Adelaide: Eastern Schools Cluster (Aylwin Lim), South-West Schools Cluster (Ben Cazzolato), Mt Barker & Echunga Schools Cluster (Zita Sankauskas) and Belair & Hills Schools Cluster (Zita Sankauskas). Whilst numbers fluctuate depending on location and weather, collective attendance exceeds 40 students each week.

The South West Schools Cluster built around Goodwood Primary School and Black Forest Primary School is the oldest and largest of the clusters, with average attendance between 25-30 kids. The success of this cluster is due to the way the orienteering is formally linked with the schools. At Goodwood, Orienteering is one of several after-hours school sports run by parents, and hence benefits from the formal structures in place including advertising, communications, management and invoicing. Each student is invoiced $30pa, and this is used to cover costs of maps, entries to both SA Schools Orienteering Championships and membership for the school, which ultimately reduces costs for the kids and encourages participation at OSA events. The Black Forest model is slightly different in that it is organised by an enthusiastic teacher Stuart Greene (and previously by Pat Velaitis), but the pricing structure is the same.

The SW Schools cluster had six training events in the lead up to the SA Schools Individual Orienteering Championships. The training program started with an introduction to the sport, how to read a map and a practice on a familiar area (Goodwood School grounds). Training then moved on to a more unfamiliar and difficult map (Forestville Reserve), with the objective to simply have fun and get a feel for the sport. At Goodwood Oval the kids learnt about the importance of keeping the map facing north and maintaining map to ground, followed by a number of line courses. One exercise involved following a conga line whilst at the same time keeping the map always facing north with the assistance of the newly purchased thumb compasses.

Something new in 2019 was a night training session at Soutar Park, a relatively small community park of 150m x 100m with a mix of open playing field, clumps of vegetation, tracks, impassable fences and play equipment. The weather gods were kind to us with a beautiful evening. Whilst a little apprehensive, the event was a huge success with a mass start of 30 kids and many requesting another night session. The relays feature in Purple Pen allowed for each student to have a slightly different map, with forks, pivot controls and multiple loops.

Two SW Cluster trainings were joint sessions in the South Parklands with the Eastern Cluster, run by Aylwin. These maps allowed for more difficult and longer courses on terrain and scales not dissimilar to the Schools Champs.

As the clusters develop, we have learnt what works and what doesn’t. Whilst manual punches are ok, these have several issues – they are not good for mass starts because they are slow, and they also damage map bags. Fortunately, Orienteering SA secured funding for several sets of SI units (electronic punching) to be used by the clusters which the kids love. The mini flags are also great – they are easy to carry and place, and are highly visible both night and day. The thumb compasses, recently purchased using funding from Orienteering SA, have opened new training opportunities. For example, the night training would have been very difficult for inexperienced juniors without having the compass to help keep their map aligned.

The training for the remainder of 2019 will include more advanced skills development, and other fun activities including night-O, maze sprints and perhaps multi-level orienteering.

In an effort to more broadly advertise the activities all cluster events have been entered in Eventor and can be found here

Note from Schools Coordinator: if you would like to help with schools coaching then please contact Zita Sankauskas or Bridget Anderson.

Source: The Tjuringan Star

Simon & Bridget, their orienteering lives

Editor's note: the following is Simon Uppill's and Bridget Anderson's responses to questions asked a few weeks ago. Their responses coincided with these very active high achievers leading their respective senior National Orienteering League rankings ... with Bridget having her best season to date and Simon displaying his usual high consistency ... with Bridget receiving a national award recognising her major contribution to coaching ... with both selected to represent Australia in the August World Orienteering Championships in Norway ... and, a few weeks ago, with them announcing their engagement. Enjoy and be inspired.

Background

Age, where born/brought up, education, when/how introduced to orienteering, first orienteering event, why still orienteering, any active interests in other sports. Results/records?

Simon

I am 31 years old and was born in Townsville and spent my early childhood there and in Brisbane before moving to Adelaide in 1996. My primary school years were at several schools due to moving before attending Blackwood High School and then studying Mechatronic Engineering at The University of Adelaide.

I had no choice about orienteering because both my parents were already involved in the sport before I was born. As such I was simply taken to orienteering as a young child and have simply never left. I don’t know where my first event was, somewhere in Brisbane I guess? I have continued orienteering because it is something I was successful at and enjoy and particularly enjoy social relationships that I have developed while participating. Outside of orienteering I also play in some mixed social netball competitions like Bridget.

Best international results as a junior were a 4th in the Long Distance and 10th in the Sprint distance at JWOC (Australia) in 2007, and as a senior a 33rd in the Middle and 30th in the Sprint at WOC in 2013 (Finland). Domestically I have won the Australian Championships in all disciplines in various years but am most happy with my consistent record in the National Orienteering League as a senior.

Bridget

I am 30 years old and was born in Adelaide where I initially grew up before moving to Brisbane in 1998 and returning to Adelaide in 2010. I started primary school in Coromandel Valley before moving to Brisbane where I attended primary and high school in The Gap. I then started a degree in Speech Pathology at the University of Queensland before swapping to Fine Arts at University of South Australia and then a Masters of Teaching at Flinders University.

I was introduced to orienteering by David Tilbrook during my years at Coromandel Valley. My brother Ian started first and I went along because I wanted to be cool like my brother. My first event was at Belair National Park and at the start I fell over in a puddle and cried. Mum said I would never be back again, hence I have never stopped. I am still orienteering because to have stopped would have proven my mother correct. Also, Simon goes orienteering, so I go too. I have no real other interest in sports, in fact I don’t understand the football when it is on the radio. Although, I do moonlight as a social netball wing attack.

Best international results as junior was 28th in the Middle at JWOC in 2008 (Sweden), and as a senior 54th in the Middle at WOC in 2017 (Estonia). Domestically my best result recently was coming 3rd at the Australian Three Days and 2nd at the Australian Sprint Championships this year and previously winning the Australian Middle Distance Championships in 2016.

Current

Current studies/work?

Simon

I am working as an electrical/mechatronic engineer.

Bridget

I am currently teaching a Primary class (5/6), as well as Digital Technology for years 3-8 and Art for years 3-12.

I am also a hobby (aka not yet famous) artist.

What is (or was) a typical week's training (fitness and orienteering) during competition seasons and off-season?

Simon & Bridget

A typical weeks training involves running training most weeknights, doing a variety of interval sessions with the Adelaide Harriers and group runs or training with the Junior Arrows. We try to focus on orienteering training on weekends either at the local events or by organising our own training. This is fairly consistent through most of the orienteering season and the only difference during the summer off season is we swap to doing long group runs on weekends instead of orienteering.

Are you (or in the past, were you) focused on improving/developing any particular area, eg strength, stamina, map-reading/interpretation, compass use?

Simon

I haven’t really had a specific focus on one thing, but I would say in my later junior years I had a big general focus on orienteering, both to improve my physical fitness and doing lots and lots of technical orienteering training. This was primarily in the lead up to JWOC in 2007 but formed the platform for my senior orienteering years as well.

Bridget

From my junior days to current I have always had a strong focus on armchair orienteering, map reading, visualisation and drawing of maps or how I would do legs. I have found this a valuable form of practice as it simulates the same process I do during actual races.

Any special preparation prior to major competitions, eg diet, training?

Simon & Bridget

Special preparation for major events would primarily be focused on the technical side, through map studies, simulated route choice practice like running wild or for international races training on similar relevant areas.

Coached, self-coached, mentored?

Simon & Bridget

We are both sort of self-coached but try to get advice from as many different sources as possible.

Any sponsors?

Simon & Bridget

Nil, although we were both very well supported by our parents during our junior years.

Memorable competition(s) to date, why memorable, what did you learn from them?

Simon

I think my most memorable competition was Swiss O Week in 2011 because it has great terrain including the base of a glacier and was a spectacular setting. This was one of the events I wasn’t at to focus on being competitive but simply enjoy orienteering in unique terrain.

Bridget

One of my favourite events was the World University Sprint Orienteering Championships in Alicante (Spain) in 2012 where we started at a castle before running down through the old town to finish by the sea.

Favourite local, national, and international orienteering area(s) - why?

Simon

Local: Narrinyeri Hills

National: Ororal Crossing or Buckenderra (somewhere semi alpine with rock, eucalypt and open)

International: Mountains above Aix Les Bains and Chambery (France)

Bridget

Local: Mannawarra

National: Gumble Creek

International: Gothenburg (Sweden) and Venice

Favourite forms of orienteering (eg sprint, middle, long, relay) and why?

Simon

Relay - Running in packs and extra tactics from forking and positioning. Also enjoy the course setting style and duration.

Bridget

Middle – High technical intensity

Key highlights/lessons learned from competing at national and international level, and advice to others who aspire to compete at the top level.

Simon

I think my main lesson is that you learn and improve at orienteering while doing it so it is important to get as much experience in different races and terrains as possible, and because we have limited opportunities to always try to make the most of what is on, ie: always do events and training with a purpose and practice how you want to race.

Bridget

You need to be physically prepared and confident in your physical capability. Also that just because you have had good results one year you still have to push to try to improve for the next year. You need to train how you want to race, so you can’t slack off in training just because “it's training” because otherwise you will not be able to race well.

Future

Future goals/ambitions. What key competitions or other events are on your calendars for the next couple of years? Any particular pressures that might interfere with your ambitions?

Simon & Bridget

The key focus for this year for both of us is WOC in Norway. The main pressures we both face is fitting orienteering around work and other life commitments.

What are your long term aims in orienteering and outside orienteering?

Simon & Bridget

Getting Married.

Australian Championships Events WA April 2019

Robin Uppill

Adrian and I attended the Australian Three Days over Easter followed by the Australian Sprint and Middle Distance Championships in WA in the latter part of April. As my orienteering for the 3 events prior to Easter had been marked by a few mistakes due to poor concentration and a lack of application of some basic orienteering routines, I was hoping to improve in WA.

The Easter events started with a relay day at the University of WA, Crawley Campus. This event was originally planned to be on a new map around the new Optus stadium in Perth. However the AFL decided to now hold a match on Good Friday and the location was Perth and Optus Stadium. Hence the shift to Uni. WA. The weather forecast for this day was somewhat dramatic with rain and gale-force winds predicted. We were staying at Cottesloe on the foreshore where it was very windy and rained a lot overnight. However at the university the day was much calmer, and the event was interrupted by only a few short rain showers. However the weather was great for the rest of the week, being mild, fine and sunny.

The relays commenced with a elite sprint relay of 2 men and 2 women. Our junior Southern Arrows team was second overall, the senior team, which included Ethan Penck who is just into his first year of junior elites, third.

Following was a three person Open Sprint and Family Relay, with elites able to run again in these teams. Best overall results were Leith and Zara Soden, with Tyson Hillyard in the open relay and Ethan and Anna Penck and Steve Cooper 4th in the Family Relay. Although Adrian and I with Bridget were 16th overall in the family relay, our placing was 3rd in the handicap results.

Results are here:

• Elite Relay
• Open and Family Relay

We also had a surprise visit at this event from former Coach in Residence Manu Jurado, who is currently working in Chile for a French company. He was taking the long route from France back to Chile after a short stint back in France.

The following Australian Three Days had a different format from normal with the events being Sprint, Long and Middle Distance. The format was changed as the original areas chosen for the bush events were unable to be used as the Water Authority initially withdrew permission, and then imposed significant restrictions on the use making the events impractical to hold on these areas.

So the first day of the Australian 3 Days was a sprint event at a complex school campus, Scotch College, in eastern Perth. Most courses had 2 maps printed back to back. With the irregular buildings, multi levels and stairs, concentration and maintain map contact was more important than speed.

Click/tap maps to zoom.

The subsequent two days were on granite maps about 100 km east of Perth, so we moved accommodation from the seaside to York. The Sunday Long Distance Day at Hill Park Dale was a mixture of steep rocky hill sides and more open areas, so at times taking advantage of a longer route to avoid the rocky hillsides paid off. The final day of middle distance at Umuna was a more open granite area, so faster running but with an uphill finish.

Overall Results are here.

Some pleasing results for SA in the junior and senior elite classes with:

• W20E – Joanna George 3rd with selection in the JWOC team
• M20E – Dante Afnan 3rd with selection, along with Angus Haines, in the JWOC team
• W21E – Bridget Anderson 3rd overall, with a win on the sprint day
• M21E – Simon Uppill 2nd by 46 seconds overall after around 200 mins of overall running time, including a win on the long day

Adrian and I both had successful events, being each second in M and W65A and with a win on one day each, Adrian on the long and myself on the middle day. I had managed to avoid any significant mistakes, with a few wobbles on route being corrected before getting too far off course.

OWA offered a Wednesday coaching session, run by our SA Coaches Bridget and Simon who had also done 3 days coaching with WE juniors prior to Easter, and a Thursday Score event, in the Narrogin/Dryandra where the 2 following events were to be held. However we spent 3 days in the region around Albany, which was much greener and lush compared to the farming areas where the 2 bush days of Easter had been held. Some spectacular coastal scenery, forest walks, and inland “granitic” knobs (Mt Frankland, Porogurup and Castle Rock) are worth visiting if you get the chance.

The two final events were the Australian Sprint and Middle Distance Championships, held in WA as 2019 is also the year for Australia to host the Oceania Championships. All Oceania, Australian and Schools Championship events will not fit in one week, hence the shift in normal timing for these 2 events.

The Friday’s Australian Sprint was held on a map of the Narrogin HS and adjacent bushland with some irregular ground with diggings, and often green in places, making quite mixed terrain for the sprint. Again many courses had 2 maps, but this time the second map was collected at a map exchange. The shorter courses only ventured into the more open bushland with a couple of loops through the school. The following day was the Australian Middle event, on Foxes Lair, on the outskirts of Narrogin. An area of mostly fast running and good visibility, with scattered granite outcrops and a lot of tracks. I had a very successful 2 days, winning both events, whilst Adrian had a third place and a win. Simon continued his run of 2nd placings, Angus and Dante were 1st and 3rd in the sprint, Dante was 2nd in the Middle, Bridget was 2nd in the Sprint and Joanna 3rd in the Middle.

For all results and to see other performances by SA orienteers

• Sprint
• Middle

Orienteering WA, similar to SA, have limited resources and volunteers. However they presented a very well organized carnival, especially after having been forced to change the initially planned areas for the events over Easter.

Perth Champion of Champions

Frank Burden

The apps published in the March newsletter enabled the performance of individual champions to be compared directly across all courses. This was achieved by estimating expected running speeds for each age, gender and course based on global running and orienteering records and championship results.

For this analysis, the winning time in M21E for Australian Sprint and Middle championship events was used to estimate expected running speeds for all courses. Championship course winning times were then compared with predicted times with the winning time for M21E set to 100. Times faster than predicted receive a number greater than 100, with the margin above 100 representing the percentage running speed faster than predicted.

All courses were assumed to scale approximately equally for distance, climb, terrain and number of controls. Where an orienteers age was not known, this was assumed to be at the upper end of the age group for ages below 21, and at the lower end for ages greater than 35. Results for M/W10 and M/W12 were excluded from this analysis because the easier level of navigation required to complete the respective courses provided a speed advantage.

Conclusion: for both sprint and middle events, women generally performed at a higher standard than expected.

June Australian Orienteer

Michael Hubbert (AO Editor)

The JUNE edition of The Australian Orienteer is now on-line here.

This edition features a tribute to Tom Andrews who was instrumental in establishing Orienteering in Australia 50 years ago. There’s 12 maps for you to comb through; coverage of the Easter Carnival in WA; features on Indoor Orienteering (the Monash Indoor/Outdoor events are to be held on June 30); news of other events coming up including the inaugural Melbourne City Race; MTBO news; a review of Wilf Holloway’s latest Orienteering book; some proof that your brain acts as a compass; and Spot the Difference will yet again test your map reading skills on a Sprint map and help you avoid the dreaded “mispunch”.

Another one not to be missed.

World Orienteering Day - Belair National Park - 15 May

Troy Merchant, Organiser

For mid-May the afternoon sun was a delight. With the recent fresh rain the old Belair golf course shone a spark of its former glory. Kangaroo’s were abundant and probably quite surprised to see the crowds of runners and walkers enjoying a late afternoon adventure. We had a number of new faces attend the event to try orienteering for the first or second time. It was fantastic to see so many families involved. Most enjoyed the short course in the daylight but then we also had a large group of Joey Scouts embark in the dark joining the more experienced orienteers that were up for the challenge.

Hot soup and pizza were a warm welcome as the sun set and the mercury dropped. The cold didn’t seem to discourage many as lots of people stuck around to test their skills on Aylwin’s amazing “O" maze! With music, food and fairy lights it was the perfect way to celebrate our sport.

A big thank you to my family for helping on the day, Jan Hillyard for welcoming newcomers, Aylwin for all his help with organising and the the Maze course, the Uppills for the map and liaising with the rangers and Tyson Hillyard for his expertise with Purple Pen.

Side note: Officially we had 53 entrants. However, this didn’t take into consideration parents and groups. I expect we would have actually had close to 80 people that went on a course.

Source: The Tjuringan Star

MONASH INDOOR-OUTDOOR SPRINT DOUBLE, SUNDAY JUNE 30

Seen in an Orienteering Victoria Weekly Bulletin and on their website, a novel sprint orienteering event format! If you're near south-east Melbourne at the end of June, why not try it?

The first-ever Indoor-Outdoor Sprint orienteering race to be held in Australia will take place at Monash University’s Clayton Campus, on Sunday June 30. Don’t miss this once in a lifetime opportunity! In the morning, you’ll tackle a dizzying course covering all four levels of the Learning and Teaching Building. After lunch, you’ll compete in a bonus outdoor race. Choose any of the five courses – Long Hard, Medium Hard, Short Hard, Moderate, or Easy. The longer your course, the more levels you’ll encounter.

The Indoor Sprint features a multi level map (scale 1:1,000) with stairs, one way corridors, voids, barricades, scattered furniture ... and more stairs! This will probably be the most complex map you’ve ever run on. The Outdoor Sprint will give you a chance to enjoy the exteriors of the campus, with the ever-evolving map (scale 1:4,000) freshly updated. Two incredible sprints for the low price of just $12.

Online entries via Eventor are now open. Entries close June 28. Entry numbers for the Indoor Sprint may be capped so we recommend entering early! Find out more.

Some OSA photos found on the O-web

Click/tap to zoom. Then click/spread to see at full resolution. Click left/right arrows, or drag, to see the complete gallery.

Competition/training program

Orienteering competitions for the period from March to October are mainly bush events held on Sundays. For program updates, go to the OSA Event page. The confirmed program on 1 June organised by Adelaide and surrounds, Lincoln, Saltbush and Top End clubs is as follows:

Oceania 2019 - 28 September to 6 October

The next major Australian event will be the National Orienteering Carnival, which comprises Australian and Oceania championships as well as Australian schools' championship events. The events will be centred around three areas, and normal entries close on 31 August. More details are on the Carnival website.

Note that formal recognition as an Oceania or Australian champion at the events is reserved for citizens of Australia or NZ, with applicable club membership, under Orienteering Australia and Orienteering NZ Oceania Carnival rules.

Schedule:

• Sat, 28 September 2019 : Oceania Sprint, Wagga Wagga
• Sun, 29 September 2019 : Australian Long, Cootamumdra
• Mon, 30 September 2019 : Oceania/Australian Relay, Cootamundra
• Tue, 1 October 2019 : Schools Sprint/Public Day 1, Wagga Wagga
• Wed, 2 October 2019 : Schools Long/Public Day 2, Wagga Region
• Thu, 3 October 2019 : Schools Relay/Public Day 3, Wagga Region
• Fri, 4 October 2019 : Rest Day
• Sat, 5 October 2019 : Oceania Long, Wangaratta
• Sun, 6 October 2019 : Oceania Middle, Beechworth

The organisers say to expect a variety of challenging terrains west of Australia’s Great Dividing Range and spread between the local government districts of the City Councils of Wagga Wagga and Wangaratta.

The event is expected to involve some wonderful orienteering in rocks, so if you enjoyed Keynes Gap at the Championships carnival held last year in SA, then you can expect to experience something similar. Bridget is planning to do some coaching in rocks before the event so that SA orienteers will have had some great practice for it.

Comments and Feedback

Some useful links

Orienteering SA Facebook page

Orienteering SA home page

Orienteering SA Newsletters

Lincoln Orienteers Website

Saltbush Orienteers Website

Saltbush Orienteers Facebook page

2018 Australian Championships Facebook page

The Australian Orienteer magazine

Western Australian online newsletters

Top End Orienteers Website

Sponsors:

Orienteering SA gratefully acknowledges the support given to orienteering by: