Waggaroos won the first event of the Interclub Orienteering Challenge against Albury with a convincing 56 points to 19.

The event was conducted in the Livingstone National Park and State Conservation Area near Burrandana last Sunday.  Wes Campbell set courses that challenged participants mentally and physically. Route choices were generally between going straight and battling the scrub to avoid the steeper climbs or running wider to tracks and accept the climb to avoid the scrub. The pits left from early mining days provided good navigational check points along the way.

Waggaroos win was set up when John Oliver and Stuart Young took the quinella on the 5.9km Hard navigation course ahead of Albury’s Matt Flower. John had a steady run and was always in the lead. Stuart lost some time when he ran past the first control which allowed Matt to assume second place. When Matt seriously missed the second and fourth controls Stuart was able to move into second place and retained it for the rest of the course. When Waggaroos Phil Roy and Lauren Edmanson finished ahead of Albury’s Wayne Bajenoff, the locals had a strong 18:8 lead.

Briohny Seaman, Alex Davey and Deb Davey then consolidated Waggaroos position with a trifecta on the 3.5km Hard navigational course. The trio finished almost 14 minutes ahead of Albury’s first finisher on that course. Briohny had an excellent run with no major errors. Alex lost significant time at the second control which should have been a straight forward up and over a ridge into a small gully. However he drifted significantly and ended up in the wrong gully system. Despite being well behind most other participants at that point a series of good legs helped him claw his way to second place. Albury’s Rick Armstrong was always in contention but a couple of navigational errors towards the end of the course along some very rocky slopes saw him slip from second to fourth place. When Albury’s Bill Krautz finished fifth and Waggaroos had a handy 36:13 lead.

Albury did have some success when Alex Sutherland and Josh Roy won the 3.0km Moderate navigation course quite comfortably from Waggaroos Bowen-Wilson family group despite having considerable trouble finding the second last control. While this gave Albury some valuable points from the Moderate course Waggaroos were able to score freely in the 1.2km Easy navigation course which had no Albury participants. The Judd family had fastest time finishing just ahead of Oliver & Carolyn Hatherly with Ryder Seaman in third place

This gave Waggaroos a resounding 56:19 points win.

Event 2 in the Interclub Challenge will be held near Chiltern on Sunday 29 April and there is no doubt Albury will be out in force to redress this loss.

Totals: WaggaRoos 56; Albury 19

The event was conducted in the north western part of the Park. The shorter easier navigation courses encompassed parts of the Multi-function track while the longer harder navigation courses included some serious hilly sections. The 1.7km Easy navigation course still required some cross-country navigation however it largely kept out of the hillier terrain. Tom Janetski won the Easy course by almost 7 minutes despite losing a little time by missing the second control and having to retrace his steps. Grace Hargreaves from Tumut came second with a steady effort on her first orienteering course and Rob McDougall did well to finish third 6 minutes further back.

Jack Janetski competed on the 3.0km Moderate navigation course which challenged participants with route choice decisions about taking the direct line across hills or going a bit further around hillsides to reduce the climb. Jack made a classic parallel error by following the wrong spur line and subsequent gully away from his second control and the only realising his error when came out onto a track. From there his run was almost faultless and his time of 36:15 was almost half that of his nearest rival. Ian McDougall finished second whilst the Iona Judd family group maintained a steady pace around the course to finish third.

The hard navigation courses traversed more of the hilly terrain and required two climbs over the main ridge line. The dry winter and summer has resulted in less undergrowth so despite the hills the forest was reasonably runnable. As a result no-one made any significant navigational errors and places were largely decided by running speed.

On the 3.9km Hard course Deb Davey was impressive winning by just over 40 minutes from Wes Campbell. Deb and Dave Murray just edged out Phil Roy and Loren Edmanson for third place.

Alex Davey had the fastest time on the 4.7km Hard course. However, 14 year old Cameron McDougall did exceptionally well, finishing just 16 minutes behind. Indeed from the half way mark Cameron conceded only one additional minute to Alex and was faster on two of the five final legs.

Results:

The 1.9km Easy course proved popular with family groups being mainly along tracks with some opportunities to take short cuts through the open forest. Nine year old Rob McDougall ventured out on his own for the first time and did very well finishing in first place almost 12 minutes ahead of the Farquhar family. This was in spite of making a couple of mistakes but impressively he worked out what had gone wrong and corrected appropriately.

Fifteen year old Cameron McDougall also did very well winning a very closely contested 4.1km Hard Course. Deb Davey set an interesting course that twisted and turned within itself across the prominent east-west spur in the centre of the reserve. This meant lots of direction changes and careful of map-reading to identify the significant features that would lead to the control site quickly. Cameron out-orienteered his much more experienced competitors winning by 46 seconds from Alex Davey with Iain Crossett a 19 seconds further back in third place.

Julie Sunley was the only participant on the 3.6km Moderate Course which offered challenges in route choice more than map-reading. Participants had to decide whether to go straight and tackle the hills or run further and go around them.

John Oliver was the only finisher on the 5.5km Hard course when Joannah McDougall withdrew after the fourth control.

Next event will commence at 10am on Sunday 25 March at the Livingstone National Park and State Conservation Area. From Jubilee Park travel south along Holbrook Rd for about 19km. Just after crossing Little Sandy Creek turn left into O’Briens Creek Rd. After a further 6km turn right into Wrigleys Rd and follow the orienteering signs to the assembly area.

On the 30 minute course, Joannah McDougal showed the older folks a clean pair of heels with an excellent 100 points, well clear of Bob Moore (85), Ian McDougal (75) Pauline Moore and Wes Campbell (65), with Julie Sunley needing to bring her watch next time after loosing a hefty 50 points for a very late finish to collect 40 points.

Next week we venture in the forest with our first bush event at Pomingalarna Reserve on Sunday 11th March. 10:00 am to 12 noon starts near the western entrance to Pommy on the Sturt Highway.

Starting from Apex Park participants had a choice of 30 or 45 minutes to find as many answers to questions about the area as possible. Correct answers earned points and points were deducted for exceeding the time limit.

Julie Gooding set some good challenges for participants with 34 questions worth a total of 270 points. Participants had to continually consider which direction to head next to obtain a better score. In some cases the lure of higher points in one direction led to some retracing of steps or a long run to get back to another group of questions.

Participants on the 45 minute course generally over estimated their ability and exceeded their allotted time limit which became important because the competition was close. John Oliver went east into and around Rawlings Park before heading north through the streets in a roughly anticlockwise direction. Although he picked up an excellent 150 points he found the run back into the wind difficult and lost 10 points by finishing 1:33 overtime.

In contrast Izzy Hutchinson and Chontelle Dailey headed north in a roughly clockwise direction around the streets taking some of the higher valued questions. A little time was lost at one place where the clues in the question did not seem to match the evidence on the ground but the pair managed to score an excellent 140 points and finish with just over minute to spare. Although having the same final score as john, Izzy and Chontelle were declared the winners by virtue of having the faster time.

Sean Sunley also went east into Rawlings Park and finished third just off the pace with a very good 135 points after losing 10 points for exceeding his time limit.

Competition in the 30 minute course was also close. Pauline Moore did best finishing with 33 seconds to spare and amassing a very good 90 points. Wes Campbell finished second with 75 points. Bob Moore gathered more points than the others (95) but was almost 4 minutes overtime so finished with a score of 75 and was relegated to third place.

The penultimate event in the Waggaroos Summer Orienteering Series will commence at 6pm next Thursday evening from 46 Brindabella Dr, Tatton.

Because of the warm conditions participants were restricted to a 30 minute time limit. This proved to be a challenge in itself with all competitors exceeding it and suffering a points penalty as a result. Most participants went in an anticlockwise direction around the map with the main difference being where they chose to start to return.

Stuart Young ran strongly despite the heat and amassed an excellent 160 points out of a possible 235 but exceeded the time limit just over 6 minutes. The resultant 35 point penalty reduced his score considerably but his final score of 125 was enough to win comfortably.

John Oliver managed to answer about half the questions and finished in second place with a score of 100 after suffering a 5 point penalty for exceeding the time limit by 50 seconds.

Junior Jack Janetski and the Izzy Hutchinson/Chantelle Dailey group tied for third place with 75 points each. Jack actually collected more points that Izzy and Chantelle but suffered a greater time penalty.

The next event in the Summer Series of orienteering will commence at 6pm next Thursday 1 February from Car Park 11 Charles Sturt University. Newcomers are welcome.

Conducted around Charles Sturt University a score event format was used with competitors having a choice of a 30 minute or 45 minute time limit. Instead of having to find the answers to questions, the SportIdent timing system was used, combined with OR software which calculates both the competitors time and the number of points earned (and any penalties for late returners!)

Deb Davey set an intricate course with 25 controls spread around the campus and a total score of 590 points. The main challenge was working out the best route around and between the various buildings.

Junior orienteer Joannah McDougall excelled on the 30 minute course managing to reach all controls with 45 seconds to spare and scoring the maximum 590 points. She won comfortably from Wes Campbell (430) and Melanie Bradley (390). 

On the 45 minute course four participants scored the maximum 590 points and all did it well within the 45 minute time limit. Indeed all would have safely completed the 30 minute course.

Stuart Young’s time of 19:14 was the fastest and he was declared the winner ahead of Briohny Seaman and Cameron McDougall who just edged out John Oliver for third place. Roylene Stanley went close to joining the group scoring an excellent 570 points.

Event 7 will be held in the Kooringal area starting at 6pm from the park on the corner of Sherwood Ave and Kilpatrick St.

CSU Results: