Competition heats up in Tasmania

The last 9 days saw the orienteering community venture to the shores of Tasmania for the most important competitions of the year, these being the Australian Sprint, Middle, Long and Relay Championships as well as the Australian School Championships.

A small contingent of club members made their way to the East coast of Tasmania for the competitions in various terrain. Events were held around St Helens in open eucalypt forest with granite, in Bicheno featuring parklands, urban scrub and a foreshore with granite slabs and boulders for the sprint, and undulating spur/gully in Royal George.

Australian School Championships (Royal George)

Georgia and Lawrence Jones represented NSW in the School Championships, and the team placed equal second with Queensland! The School Championships consist of an individual event and a relay in  the categories Junior Girls and Boys as well as Senior Girls and Boys. Georgia competed in the Junior Girls class and came 9th (top NSW junior girl!);  the class was completely dominated by the New Zealand girls which placed 1,2,3,4. In the Senior Boys Lawrence placed 13th which made him top NSW Senior Boy!

The Junior Girls relay was dominated once again by the the New Zealanders with NSW (Georgia, Melissa Annetts, Rebecca George) coming 4th. Looks like the Senior Boys relay was also dominated by New Zealand, and unfortunately the NSW team had a mispunch. Lawrence still had a good race placing 8th on the first leg.

Well done to Georgia and Lawrence for your great contributions to the NSW Schools team!!
Congratulations to Georgia who was named on the honor roll for NSW School team. Well done!! :-))

Podium placings at the Australian Championships

Sprint Championships (Bicheno)

W10A         1st         Sophie Jones

W75A         1st         Maureen Ogilvie

Middle distance Championships (St Helens)

W75A         1st         Maureen Ogilvie

W10A         2nd        Sophie Jones

Long distance Championships (St Helens)
W14A         1st         Georgia Jones
W10A         2nd       Sophie Jones
W75A         2nd       Maureen Ogilvie

An overall great performance by the Jones Family, with Maggie and Ian both just missing out on a podium placing, coming 4th in W45A resp M45A !!

Relay (St Helens)
M/W12        2nd       NSW (incl Sophie Jones)
W65A         2nd        NSW (with Maureen Ogilvie)

Although Georgia was 1st out of the forest on leg 1, the team unfortunately didn't manage a podium placing in W14A.

GREAT NEWS: Due to her great results in the Long Distance and Relay events Georgia was also named in the Australian Schools Team for the match again NZ in early January 2013, which is being held in New Zealand. Congratulations Georgia and well done!! What a great achievement.