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.