Metro 1 Mt Annan- Up Up and a little down.

After the battle with the vegetation at Wattle Ridge the previous day it was nice to see a map with a little green a lot of white and plenty of orange. Mind you there were some rather breathless complaints about the hills. And so began the Metro League competition for the year.

Interestingly we were set up right next to a very distinctive structure that just happened to be the architectural genius of our very own Anthony Nolan. The structure won an award!.

Our mighty Division 4 team chalked up a win over Garingal 29 - 25. Samuel and Robyn from Buddy Club Central Coast certainly helped. The Div 5 side also missed out losing 30-25 to the new joint venture of Illawarra / Southern highlands (SHIK)Unfortunately we were one runner short in Division 1 but matching the Bigfoot team would have been super hard.
Welcome to Serge and Laurent to Metro competition!

There were some fantastic individual performances :

Name	Course Place	Team Points
Division 1	Loss to	Big Foot
Laurent	11	5
Shane	6	7
Serge	12	4
Ian	5	8
Division 3	Loss to	SHIK
Maggie	12	6
Finn	7	10
Jim	22	1
Dick	20	2
Georgia	5	9
Division 4	WINNERS	(Garingal)
Samuel	11	10
Adrienne	37	2
Dave	36	3
Robyn	16	8
Maree	25	6
Division 5	Loss to	Garingal
Zara	19	5
Maureen	42	1
Gayle	18	6
Margaret	21	4
Serena	4	10

Check out the Doyle family Especially Serena who recorded the 4th Fastest time on her course and scored 10 points for the team. Zara was another highlight picking up 5 team points. Sister Maree also contributed with a fine 6 pointer and not to be outdone dad, Shane, scored 7 points. Georgia,  Ian and Maggie Jones were also big scorers with Ian 5th fastest on Division 1 ( fantastic!). Georgia was also 5th fastest on the Division 2 course.

The next Metro Event will be on May 1st at Manly Dam.

A cuppa, a sandwich and cake- what better way to end the day!

State League 1 - Wattle Ridge

You know that there is going to be trouble when you see expected winning times of 35 minutes on courses that start at 4km for M21A and range down.

Wattle Ridge. Most Courses were on the southern side of the road the longer courses went over to the north side too!

Wattle Ridge has some of the best rock, cliff lines, bare rock in the Sydney area but unfortunately it is blessed with a lot of vegetation making running very difficult and navigation hampered by the visibility. Winning km rate saw M21A at a tick over 8minutes and W21A almost 13 minutes per km. Most classes were won with rates in high teens early 20s.Mmm why go there- simple great, tough navigation.
Darren Slattery, the course planner, picked the eyes out of the area to provide you with challenging courses and avoided the deepest dark jungle. He did a good job!

Well we had quite a few Uringans at the event and 5 X 1st place, 5 X second place  and 3 X 3rd place  was not a bad effort for our crew.

1	Georgia Jones	W20A	43:10
1	Maureen Ogilvie	W80A	1:58:59
1	Ant Nolan	M45A	41:53
1	Sophie Jones	W14A	32:54
1	Linda Sesta	W45A	44:21
2	Gayle Shepherd	W45AS	1:09:45
2	Shane Doyle	M45A	58:51
2	Dick Ogilvie	M70A	48:12
2	William Nolan	M12A	1:20:30
2	Jane Boland	WopenB	1:08:28
3	Ian Jones	M50A	49:29
3	Brian Cleland	M75A	1:44:32
3	Jonathan Nolan	M10A	29:31
4	Finn Mackay	M14A	36:37
4	Margaret Jones	W45A	1:28:39
4	Ron Pallas	M55AS	56:03
5 5	Dave Lotty Serje Robidoux	M70A M55A	1:02:05 2:12:46
11	Jim Mackay	M55A	1:34:41
	Mary Jane Mahony	W65A	did not finish

Sydney Summer Sprint Series

The summer sprints on late Sunday afternoons have been a regular pleasure for some and an occasional for many. All orienteering events include a lot of socialising. The Sydney sprints seem particularly relaxed and social.

Nine events in 2016 (should have been ten but Uringa tried to fit in with other orienteering/rogaining events and then fell foul of Callan Park use strict rules).

Rankings at the end of the series were based on the best six. If you only ran in one event you were still awarded a ranking - so the numbers below may represent successful orienteering, or they may represent turning up regularly (or not). 

Groups are not given a ranking. The multiple outings of the Billott family need to be mentioned as well as the excursions by Connor and Alyss Mielke, and Alex and Jasper. Monica Brockmyre and  Daniel Murray tried out the once-off 'short' course at the first event.

Junior Men
10 Finn Mackay
12 Lawrence Jones
14 Jakob Doyle
16= Alex Murray
16= Martin Billott

Junior Women
3 Sophie Homes
5 Serena Doyle
6 Georgia Jones
7 Maree Doyle

Open Men
10 Matt Westwood

Open Women
3 Catherine Murphy
4 Clare Murphy
6 Alice Westwood

Masters Men
4 Owen Shepherd
12 Ian Bilmon
14 Phil Coote

Veteran Men
7 Jim Mackay
10 Ian Jones
19 Shane Doyle
29 Michael Warlters
33 Titus Murray

Veteran Women
5 Maggie Jones
8 Linda Sesta

Super Veteran Men
12 Matt Peters
28 Michael Lloyd

Super Veteran Women
1 Lisa Lampe
11 Gayle Shepherd
12 Margaret Wilmot

Legends Men
7 Terry Murphy

Legends Women
2 Mary Jane Mahony
3 Helen Murphy

Immortal Men
4 Brian Cleland
7 Dave Lotty
8 Dick Ogilvie

Immortal Women
6 Maureen Ogilvie

Walking Men
1 Ron Pallas

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: