Sprint Canberra

5 races spread over 4 days was hectic to say the least. However it was unbelievably so for the very small team who ran the carnival.It was the Bill, Jacqui, Nick, Hilary, Toph, Ron show plus the course planners!

Dick in reflection

The 5 races were well attended with around 200 runner each day (total entry 1013) using Canberra Institute of Technology, Radford College, Mount Stromlo Forest Park, and Asutralia National University- northern and southern campus areas.

The reaction in the finish tent was mixed each day- "loved it , hated it, too hard, too easy, too long, too short". Mount Stromlo was least liked as the predicted winning times were well off . The elites ran a 4 person relay and the fastest time was 18 minutes with most in mid twenties. So the times for the rest of the competitors were long.

From my point of watching- seeing runners come through an uncrossable feature ( visible to all at the finish) and then not "fess up to it was amazing. Oh well if they get to JWOC then they will be disqualified ...

Gayle starting Race 5

In the program it stated clearly:

OUT OF BOUNDS All competitors are reminded that it is your responsibility to not enter out of bounds areas as clearly marked on the maps or to cross impassable objects. Please communicate any infringement of this rule to the athlete concerned so that they can DSQ themselves as the organisers will not be checking. Olive green is used widely to show forbidden areas. Olive green in reality on the ground can be various different types of vegetation or even open garden beds or dirt. Please respect the rules and do not cross olive green areas. Respect the rules, respect your competitors and respect the map! Thanking you in anticipation of your honesty. Olive green, dark green and purple parallel lines mark OOB. Impassable walls and fences.
A few came up and asked to be dsqd

Dave leaving the start triangle

There was but a small group from Uringa competing.
Dave Lotty was very consistent with 2nd,2nd,2nd,3rd,3rd for a win on the pointscore for his class.
Dick was also very consistent- 32,40,31,38,41 spread over the Men Open class.This was the largest class with 60 runners. Terry was to have had a run in this class but preferred the cricket.
Maureen was also consistent - 10,11,7,12,10. Interestingly her best result was at Mount Stromlo! Maureen finished 11th on the pointscore .

Maureen concentrating hard

Gayle had an interesting carnival. Day 1 missed a control, Day 2 was placed 6th, Day 3 - mmm wrong map but finished 24th in that class, and days 4 and 5 did okay. gayle ended up 9th in her class overall.
Funds raised help pay for the elite training camp which was held in conjunction with the carnival. The carnival featured the use of Sportident Air sticks which meant rather than punching, competitors simply waved the stick over the control.

Ron with partner in crime- Bill Jones

Race 4 saw the Roulettes come for a visit

SIAC in action- no stopping just swipe and go!

Sprint Canberra was a very successful carnival and will be repeated in 2018.. ( I would have included maps but alas my scanner has had a seizure and is not operating)

Sydney Summer of Sprints - UNSW

It may have been quite a hot afternoon but the cooling sea breeze certainly took the sting out of the day. A total of 19 Uringans toed the start line in the very complex Uni of NSW. This would be one of the more complex sprint maps that I have run on in Australia and deciding on which way to go was at times a real test of your decision making. That said many of our members flew around with a number of podium finishes. There were a few "mps" among the crew too, a testimony to the complexity of the map and the denseness of the course.

Results:

5	Matt Westwood	Open Men	26:38
2  7	Owen Shepherd Ian Bilmon	Masters Men Masters Men	29:04 40:04
2	Catherine Murphy	Open Women	29:22
3 5	Alice Westwood Clare Murphy	Open Women Open Women	29:45 36:25
8	Jim Mackay	Veteran Men	34:57
5	Matt Peters	Super Veteran Men	37:45
7	Finn Mackay	Junior Men	38:41
3  5	Lisa Lampe Gayle Shepherd	SVW SVW	47:42 53.04
3	Brian Cleland	Immortals Men	48:48
4	Dave Lotty	Immortals Men	52:17
1	Ron Pallas	Walking Men	52:52
2	Mary Jane Mahony	Legends Women	54:31
	Terry Murphy	Legends Men	mp
	Helen Murphy	Legends Women	mp
	Dick Ogilvie	Immortals Men	mp
	Maureen Ogilvie	Immortals Women	mp

Want more sprints?

Carrs Park 17th January- (A Uringa Event!) You can pre-enter on Eventor

http://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/2922

Want More?

If your up for a trip to Canberra there is Sprint Canberra. 

5 sprint races spread over 4 days commencing January 23rd.

http://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/3245

http://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Documents/Event/1939/1/Information-flyer

Event information: 

BIG FOOT SPRINTS- West Pymble

Few who have run the BG Sprints will ever forget the attack of the killer Zombies ( see article about 2 years ago) at Sydney University. Bicentennial Park at West Pymble was much quieter although a pack of Samurais were spied wielding their swords near control 3 /17 depending whether you were on Course 1 or 2. Fortunately they were friendly.

The map was a ripper with roads, tracks, creeks, cliffs etc. making it for interesting navigation. The courses were set by Mark Shingler and he did a fine job. He had a few traps out there and a number of people came undone on control 11 in Course 2. It would appear that the lure of control 12 was too much and 11 missed.

the sneaky route 11-12

 On Course 1 there is a sneaky route choice but you had to look hard to see it. Dave Lotty who mapped the area saw it so too did Gayle. Look closely at the leg from 11 to 12. Head due east around the circular bit of out of bounds and there right at the end of the rock face it turns from impassable to passable. This saved heading south around the cliff line! and back through the car park. On Course 1 would you have gone around the road from 6-7 or west through the park and up? 14-15 back over the bridge or southwest on the track.

Course 2 was slightly shorter with more climb and more option to run through the white in places.

Again the leg 5-6 posed the question around the road or along the property boundary and up?. 9-10 was interesting around the fenced off section (it was a very tempting swimming centre- people could be seen frolicking in the water) or go  lower and via control 15. I wanted to go via the top of the swimming centre but missed the gap ( London- Mind the Gap). 14-15 was down the road and then across the oval, run the little track and across the oval and straight line through green and then white (avoiding the out of bounds) and then across the oval.

The leg from 15-16 brought a few undone as the natural flow was across the bridge and then along the car park- alas you ended up on the wrong side of the creek. I deliberately chose this route and cut across the top of the creek just below the track. I didn't want to go back around-lazy.
 Winners were awarded chocolates and the rest went empty handed. Mind you as last male finisher on Course 2 I did get some chockies.
As far as results went there were 8 Uringans present.
Shane Doyle was 10th overall, Dave Lotty 40th, Jakob Doyle 41st and Ron Pallas 43rd. The females all succumbed to not finishing. Maree, Serena and Gayle mp on Course 2 and Zara did not start.

Great fun although at 36 degrees when I finished it was a little warm! (That is what you get for being 2nd last out on a chasing start!
Oh well little to do now except wait for the Xmas 5 Days in Armidale. Uringa has a reasonable sized contingent attending:

Dave Lotty

Finn Mackay

Sophie Jones

Ian Jones

Shane Doyle

Serena Doyle

Lawrence Jones

Margaret Jones

Linda Sesta

Maggie Mackay

Gayle Shepherd

Jim Mackay

Following that the club has its first event of the new year on Sunday 17th January at Carss Park. It is a sprint event and Linda has set a very interesting course. Carss park is a great venue: swimming, bbqs and a good café on the map for before and after socialising.
Best wishes to all for the festive season and how could I forget- best wishes to Catherine and Ian as they are wed on 3rd January.

 



Southern Summer Series Results for Uringa

Running four events meant a lot of members turned up. Sundays meant junior members could have a go, with or without an accompanying shadow. Sundays also meant other commitments.

The resulting rankings listed below are the best four of scores. Some ran more than four events, some even ran (or set) just one event. Some occasionally ran on their own but other times shadowed a family member. What was good was to see so many Uringans on the results table.

Junior Men

3 William Nolan

4 Jakob Doyle

5 Finn Mackay

6 Jonathan Nolan

14 Martin Bilot

Junior Women

1 Maree Doyle

2 Georgia Jones

3 Serena Doyle

4 Maggie Mackay

7 Sophie Jones

Open Women

2 Catherine Murphy

5 Alice Westwood

Masters Men

2 Serje Robidoux

7 Tim Sleath

10 Anthony Nolan

11 Phil Coote

13 Owen Shepherd

14 Ian Bilmon

Masters Women

9 Jane Boland

Veteran Men

2 Ian Jones

3 Shane Doyle

5 Michael Warlters

10 Titus Murray

13 Jim Mackay

Veteran Women

1 Linda Sesta

2 Margaret Jones

Super Veteran Men

6 Matt Peters

Super Veteran Women

2 Lisa Lampe

3 Gayle Shepherd

5 Margaret Wilmott

Legends Men

3 Terry Murphy

Legends Women

1 Helen Murphy

2 Mary Jane Mahony

Walking Men

5 Ron Pallas

Immortal Men

1 Brian Cleland

3 Dave Lotty

4 Dick Ogilvie

Immortal Women

3 Maureen Ogilvie

2015 Southern Summer Series Finishes with Uringa's 'Cup & Saucer'

The Southern Summer Series offered a pleasant Sunday afternoon outing October to December. Uringa Orienteers were responsible for four of the eight events. Club members are always supportive of club events, even when they may not be too fond of city orienteering, so there was much relaxed socialising at these more low key events.

The Cup & Saucer map was a new (in 'modern' times) slice of the lovely Cooks River area. Anthony Nolan set the course with diversions inland on both sides of the river. One of the club's younger members had his first orienteering outing in the company of his father.

41st Nosh

I have a feeling that Uringa has been manning the water stop at Roseville Bridge ( Davidson Park) for about 15 years. So the well oiled Uringa machine swang into action today.

300 cups of water prepared by the eager work force and we were ready. The first runner came though in just under 19 minutes which is not bad for 6kms. Zuzu was quick to add that apart from the scramble up to the road bridge it was all down hill. and the next 9kms were all up hill.

The runners began appearing with greater frequency. Regina, Will, Jonathon and Jane dished out the cups with great speed and they remained remarkably dry in so doing. Gayle and Penny were hard at work keeping up the supply of cups to "hander outerers" Zuzu was juggling used cups with great aplomb will I played keep the ranger happy.


There was a passing stream of runners which included Ant, Lawrence, Georgia and Maggie all travelling pretty comfortably. One look at Lawrence's photo you will see he was a blur of speed.
Many orienteers were recognisable as they passed our watering station and just over 80 minutes after the first runner came through Steve "The Sweep" appeared which was the signal for pack up and head home.
Now forgot to mention that the day started with a cuppa and tea bun supplemented by some very tasty muffins..
Today started out rather ominous but the rain stayed away but the lack of sun made conditions a little on the chilly side.
Organiser Joel rang in later to thank us again for a job well done.

Northern Summer Series- Longueville

In weather conditions that saw a blast from the Antarctic continent the NSS event at Longueville featured 195 competitors.

The quandary, set by Michael Burton,  was definitely what can I get and survive. There were those who tried for all 600 but alas no one achieved Nirvana. There were those who took on the valley and then headed west and those who stayed east avoiding the valley altogether and then those who headed to the valley and picked up a few on return. Whatever the tactics  it was a tough day in the joggers. Many an overtime runner greeted the download table with gasps of "goodness gracious me- I am late" common.

Having used this map for a fabulous President's Cup (Uringa Christmas Party) last year, the valley had a lot of interest for me and a lot of bang for your buck. Brian "once bitten twice shy" stayed east of the valley for a pretty good harvest. Gayle was cursing as she chose to miss 9 and 26 whilst in the valley...
Linda took on the valley and managed to collect the controls on the "Butcher's Block" as well.
Pity Rick and Sarah weren't home as via there house for a pit stop was a definite possibility.


Catherine continues her fine form in Open Women with 2nd place (450 points) and Helen was similarly placed in Legends scoring 290. Mary Jane scored 3rd in Legends with 190 points. Lisa  (330) and Adrienne  (300 points)  were 3rd and fourth respectively in Super Vets. Brian was best of the men with a 7th in Immortals with 270 points
Have a look at the following link for an interesting dissertation on control visitation at this event.
http://www.sydneysummerseries.com.au/201516/Routes%20-%20Week%209%20-%20Longueville.pdf

Updated point scores for the Northern Summer Series can be found at: http://www.sydneysummerseries.com.au/results.htm

Updated point scores for the Southern Summer series can be found at: http://onsw.asn.au/images/stories/results/SouthernSSS2015Score.pdf

Hopefully we will see a big turnout at Cup and Saucer Creek, Hurlstone Park on Sunday:
http://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/2919