North to Newcastle for a double header

 

It was in the deep dark distant days of the School Certificate that the standard question was “Compare and contrast the dairy industry of the Taranaki region with that in your state”.

Welcome to State Leagues 10 and 11- “Compare and contrast the spur gully of Olney Forest, Saturday, with the sand dunes of Salt Ash Sunday” Spur Gully has a certain predictability with water courses providing the gullies and the spurs appearing either side of the water courses- all leading downhill!

Salt Ash sandhills are an enigma we seldom get to run on such maps. The Stockton Dunes came to life for orienteers way back in an Aussie Champs somewhere around 1983. The sand dunes are a mix of high points, hills and depressions all carpeted with bracken fern which tends to reduce your ability to see the small features. Plus, there are no water courses to create the predictable gully spur systems. Sometime after the Aussie champs the area was burnt out and the bracken fern was just beginning to regrow. Suddenly the map was so much easier to read. When looking at the courses for Salt Ash take note of the contour lines especially those with an eyelash- depression.

For those who ran in Olney Forest in May, water and leaches dominated the memory banks. Toss in a few big hills. This version of Olney was a lot drier, less hilly and what, no leaches! It was advised, where possible to stay away from the green around creeks- here “lawyer vines” are awaiting to take hold and they are seriously difficult to escape once they get hold- reverse gear only!

The fields in all classes were down on the usual as many orienteers have headed to Europe for WOC, JWOC, EYOC, O-Ringen and a plethora of multi day events in many countries. Shane and serena are at O-Ringen whilst Jana, Linda and Aldo are off catching up with friends and relatives in Czechia, Switzerland and Italy.

Our own Maggie was at European Youth Orienteering Championships held in Brno Czechia. This was her very first experience in Europe. As the name suggests it is a Championship attracting 16/18 year old orienteers from across Europe plus a team representing Australia. Each of the age classes have around 140 runners so the competition is fierce. Australia had quite a large representation this year.

Magge was placed 70^th in W18 Sprint – Aussie Elye dent (ACT) came 4^th wow what and effort. The long event was super hard lots of climb and lots of distance. Maggie finished 90^th in W18. The relays were much more enjoyable and Maggie’s team finished in 20^th place – an excellent effort.

Brutal climb on the long courses- hot weather!

Olney Forest- no leeches!

As mentioned earlier the entry numbers were way down and only 5 Uringans faced the starters gun.

And believe it or not all 5 stood on the podium at the end of the day. Jono Nolan 2^nd M20A, Ant Nolan 2^nd M50A and Ron Pallas 2^nd M65AS were our top performers. Down just one step on the podium was Jane Boland 3^rd W open B and Gayle Shepherd 3^rd in W55AS.

As mentioned earlier the terrain was quite friendly and you could avoid the thicker green. The weather was also very friendly and the arena was bathed in sunshine. It was a then a case of head home to prepare one's head for the challenges of Salt Ash- part of the Stockton Dunes.

Gayle's Course

Jono and Ant's course

Salt Ash - mind over contours

Mapper Rob Vincent gave some wise advice use the big high features to navigate by. Wise words!

Our famous five were joined with the timely arrival of  Ori and Alon. With the start at the bottom of a deep depression the only way was up and for many straight into the contour puzzles

Once more on the podium was Jono and Ant and Ron, all repeating their Saturday placing. They were joined by  Gayle who stepped up to finish 2^nd in her class. Jane and Ori, M45As, both recorded 4^th places and Alon finished 5^th in M14A.

Once again, the weather was superb and the arena warm and wind free. A perfect day amongst the dunes.

Jono's course

Alon's Course

Ori's Course

What is next- here are the big events coming up!

The NSW Schools Championship on the Southern Highlands - 23/24 August- - including  State Leagues 12/13

All students must enter through School Students entry not via Eventor

All non school students  via SL 12 and SL 13

Uringa will be handling SL 13- so be prepared when the call goes out for volunteers.

NSW Championships in Uralla (Armidale) -13/14 September

Information Bulletin 1

On a personal note, I am so looking forward to these events. Having been on the map, Glenburnie,  a number of times preparing for the 2024 Aust Champs it will be a real challenge to compete on what is a premier granite map.

Australian Championship Carnival 27^th September – 5^th October Brisbane – Ipswich regions.

Carnival web site         Carnival 1st Bulletin: 

King's Birthday 3

 

The June long weekend is always a great time for orienteering. 3 days 3 events taking in Middle Distance, Long Distance and Sprint Distance. Each event is a stand-alone State League event however, the icing on the cake is the KB3 Badge for the cumulative time of the three races.

The first two events were on a well-known map- Kahli’s Rocks just west of Bathurst. The map features vast quantities of granite boulders and naturally green areas. The contour features, gullies and spurs were hard to read due to the granite. All in all, a tough area and when you look at the finish times across all classes it was certainly 2 “tough days in the office.”

As the 400+ competitors travelled from all points of the compass. The most accessed web site was BOM checking the weather forecast for the weekend. Bathurst is 650m above sea level and BOM was predicting a very cold, a very wet weekend. Snow, hail, sleet, frosts were featured in the predictions.

The organisers sent out emails requiring all competitors to carry a whistle, wear thermals and carry a rain jacket with hood. This was the first time that such a request has been made however seeing the forecast for the weekend it was a good call.

Saturday dawned with a mix of grey and blue sky with the NW wind making it a wee bit on the chilly uncomfortable side. “There is no such thing as bad weather just bad clothing” (the saying goes something like that)

All up there were 28 Uringans entered for Race 1 included in this contingent were a number of Uringans who had little or no experience in such complex terrain. One heck of a bush baptism!

When the day ended Uringa had notched up 2 firsts; Paul in M Open B and Catherine in W21AS. 3 seconds; Maggie W20A, Linda W55A and Jane W Open B.  5 Third places; Michael M60A, Elodie W12A, Benjamin M Junior B, Ian M Open B and Ori M45AS.

Sunday’s race was totally dependent on the land owner giving the green light. The road into the assembly whilst on Saturday was firm may have not been the same on Sunday due to overnight rain. As it turned out it was pretty good with a few slippery spots. Luckily Sunday morning saw sunshine and the road in was deemed fit for purpose. The presence of sun and scattered cloud cover brought out smiles for the organisers, competitors and the very welcomed coffee cart!  Still very chilly 6 degrees feels like 1 degree!

For our 25 competitors it was more of the same but listening to post mortems it would appear that the Long-Distance Courses were far kinder to the orienteers.

Onto the podium strode 10 Uringans. Michael, M60A and Ian, M open B were top of the podium. In second place was Laurence, W Open B, Benjamin, M Junior B, Jonathan M20A (great result in a very competitive class), Jana W50A. Taking 3^rd we had Linda W55A, Paul, M Open B, Elodie W12A and Gayle W55AS.

Moderate Course day 1

Hard 4 Course Day 1

BOM and especially the weather radar copped a real hammering as a rain front was barreling towards Bathurst overnight.  Snow, sleet hail and rain again were in the mix. Fortunately, it dropped away south with just a few scattered clouds and possibly showers the expected outlook for the day.

Day 3 was a sprint at Scots All Saint College, Junior Campus. 2017 was the last big event on this map; Australian Schools Sprint Championship. It is a small campus and the setter Anna, utilised some barriers to make navigation just that much harder. Cars coming from Blayney and Orange had been subjected to some overnight snow and there were tales of snowmen being built on Mt Panorama.

Sprints are a case of-  have a hiccup and you drop places. One hesitation and it costs you. Speed is the operative word, but speed is the very thing that can bring you undone as you miss a control or the better route choice.

Once more 10 Uringans earned a spot on the podium. Catherine, W40A, Laurence, W Open B, Ian, M Open B. They were joined by second place getters Michael, M60A, Benjamin, M Junior B, Sherry, EOD Hard, Istvan M45AS, and Ron (his first orienteering event since he had a knee replaced in February) in M65AS. Gayle in W55AS and Paul M Open B were our 3^rd place getters.

                       

                        

                                                

                                             

Now with the 3 individual Days run it was time to get out the abacus to work out the placings in the KB3.

Congratulations to Michael, M60A and Ian, M Open B who came out in the lead to claim the #1 position. Elodie, W12A, Benjamin, M junior B and Jane, W Open B finished 2^nd overall. In third overall were Gayle, W55AS, Laurence, W Open B and Pau,l M Open B

Maggie, W20A and Ori M45AS were 4^th. I am sure that these two have been fourth in a number of major carnivals. They are knocking on the door of a podium finish!

Maggie, W20A and Ori M45AS were 4^th. I am sure that these two have been fourth in a number of major carnivals. They are knocking on the door of a podium finish!

Perhaps the highlight of the 3 days was seeing so many Uringans at the events It was great to see the Charlotte, Sophie and Grace out running around the assembly area making friends with other ankle biters. It was so reminiscence of watch their mum; Catherine do likewise a whole lot of years ago.

Then there were some juniors who were entering either their first or near to first bush events- Kahli’s was one heck of a baptism! Alon, Elodie, Harrison and Mitchell.

Then we had a number of first-time bush orienteers (not counting Metro Events) Paul and Hayley, Istvan and Jen. A huge welcome back to the bush for Helen who for the past decade has run weekend and mid-week events in Sydney.

A fantastic 3 days which will live in folklore similar to QB3 1993 in Armidale which featured almost identical weather conditions with Day 3 being on heavily frosted ground more suitable to ice skates than runners.

Whoops failed to mention the dinner on Saturday Night

The only downside to events over the mountains is getting back to Sydney. Lithgow to Katoomba is usually 45-50 mins alas coming home it a was a delightful 3 hours. Novacastrians avoided this heading north through Mudgee and Gulgong. Southern Highlanders headed south east through Crookwell and Taralga thus avoiding the Great Western Highway. (Ori went this way and had a first-time experience of driving in snow)

What is up next:

Well do not miss the NSW Champs,13-14  September, to be run on the Australian Champs Map – “Glenburnie” near Armidale / Uralla. I have walked extensively on this map preparing for the 2024 Australian Champs and am so looking forward to competing.

Far from the cold of Bathurst you can head further north to the Australian Champs Carnival, 27/09 - 5/10. The two weekends are National Champs events Sprint Long Distance, Middle Distance and Relays. Midweek will be the Australian Schools Championships plus events for the older orienteers.

Many thanks to Sandy from SHOO for the many photos used in this post.

Metro League 1- Getting to know Centennial Park!

 It was with bleary eyes that the intrepid crew arrived at Centennial Park as the sun rose tasked with putting out the controls for Metro 1. The task was made harder by having to dodge the gazillion bikes forming an endless stream of Lycra clad riders plus a few cars. Crossing the road was all about timing.

Never was this more evident than when you needed to unpack the flotsam and jetsam from cars that is required for an event,

As the sun rose higher in the sky the bleary-eyed crew were joined by the first wave of Uringan volunteers. Quickly the start appeared, Finish flags and units in place. The important registration desks stocked with all that was needed for the event. The IT department was up and running.

Wave 2 of volunteers arrived having found a parking spot somewhere nearby. With this group now in place our early start volunteers headed out on their courses. There is a reason why you do this as one of our early starters came across a control that didn’t want to cooperate. This was quickly replaced.

It was about now that the 200 plus runners were arriving, establishing club camps amongst the trees. It was good to see a number of competitors took advantage of the light rail stop nearby.

Steadily the maps were being consumed as runners headed off into the field. The nature of Centennial Park, open and fast gave runners a little more distance than perhaps their legs were ready for. However, the winning time for each course were just what the doctor ordered.

At time of writing the team results are not up on line.

Uringa Results:

Division 1

Jonathan Nolan 7th
Michael Warlters 21
Ian McKenzie mp

Division 2

Shane Doyle 7th

Serena Doyle 8th

Maggie Mackay 18th

Division 3 

Harrison Grubits 3rd

Jim Mackay 6th

Mitchell Grubits 9th

Istvan Grubits 32nd

Xiaohui Sherry Zou 38th

Division 4

Nicholas Smith 5th

Frances Richards 13th

Laurence Bruggeman 20th

Paul Coleman 24th

Division 5

Melanie Christie 6th

Gayle Shepherd 20th

Helen Murphy 23rd

Hayley Coleman 24th

Dave Lotty 32nd

Jane Boland – dnf (Jane found the errant punch returned to the start.)

Division 6

Elodie Warlters 21st

Benjamin Mo 28th.

The crowd dispersed reasonably quickly and I wondered how many were able to auction off their car park to the circling hordes?

Once the final runners returned – it was time to head back into the park to collect the controls. This is a thankless task usually done on tired legs but I am pleased to say the Control Collectors were in fine spirit- must have had something to do with Mrs Murph’s chocolate biscuit bribes.

Whilst the control collectors were out another group of worker ants were busy packing up the gear, risking life and limb to cross the car and bike filled lanes to the respective cars.

With a total of 208 entries this was one of the biggest Metro events for many a year. A huge thank you to course setter Matt for another great event along with Ant, who was Matt’s Controller. The efforts of the Uringan volunteers were outstanding.

Now for something funny. The live results were posted on a Swedish web site.

https://liveresultat.orientering.se/followfull.php?comp=32924&lang=sv

 There is an option in the upper left corner to have the site in Swedish or English. Check out what happens when you switch to Swedish! Uringa translate into ........

Course Planner Matt addressing the throng

Great shot of Serena full gas.

The next few months for our club will be very much enjoy competing, sitting back and watching other volunteers hard at work.