South Australians travelled to QLD to participate in the Prologue and Australian Three Day events near Kingaroy in Queensland, followed by the NOL and Public sprints at various locations on the Gold Coast.

The results of the Prologue are hereand the overall results for the 3 Days here.  The prologue was a bush sprint, in open terrain with granite outcrops.  Days 1 and 2 were in relatively friendly open forest (as at the last control below) with granite outcrop and low to moderate climb. Day 3 by contrast was in physically more demanding terrain.

As an introduction to the Gold Coast, an event was held in sand dunes of the Southport Spit, with courses of Middle Distance Format through the dunes and on the beach.  For courses see here

The sprints began with a night relay at Coomera Anglican College, adding to the challenge of being at night was heavy rain before the event and near the end.  The senior team of Evalin Brautigam, Angus Haines, Simon Uppill and Emily Sorensen (below) lead for the whole race with consistent runs by all 4.  The junior team was fourth.

Saturday sprints for the elites were a morning qualifier followed by the final at Griffith University Campus.  Juniors and Seniors ran the same event. Angus Haines (finished 3^rd), Ethan Penck, Simon Uppill and Leith Soden made the men’s’ final. Evalin Brautigam, Zoe Carter, Bridget Uppill, and Joanna and Abigail George made the women’s final.  Results are here.  Non elites ran a selection of shorter hard to easy courses.

 Sunday was a knockout sprint for the elites, with 4 rounds for the men and 3 for the women, with short races from 5 to 8 mins in duration.  For some rounds competitor had to choose a map option for part of the course (as in the example - the start shown was a control during the course and not the actual start).  These events saw many sprint finishes, with Angus, Ethan Simon in the men’s semis, with Angus who was then 2^nd , and Ethan 5^th going to the final. In the women, Bridget, Joanna and Zoe ran in the semis. Zoe went on to win the final, leading the whole race after making a better route choice to the first control.  A fanatastic result for Zoe still being a junior. 

Non-elites also participated in knockout races, or standard shorter sprint courses.

For all the final results see here

For photos see the OSA Facebookpage and Evalin’s photography page.

The final results for the Natioanl League season are here- the best was a seond by the senior women. For individuals, Angus Haines and Emily Sorensen were both 4th, Joanna George 5th, and Ethan Penck, Bridget Uppill and Simon Uppill all 6th.

Three events were held in the Renmark area over the Anzac weekend, possible with a Monday public holiday in some states including SA.  Two of the events were National Orienteering League events, so many junior and senior elites attended.  In addition a number of interstate orienteers in other age groups attended, pushing the numbers for the Saturday and Sunday events over 200.

The Saturday afternoon event was a Middle Distance at Bunyip Reach, with the map extended from that used in 2018.  For elites this was also a World Ranking event, with juniors and seniors doing the same course. Steve Cooper set some challenging courses through the complex erosion gullies. The event was run by Yalanga Orienteers and the controller was Phil Hazell.  For results and splits see the links here. The M65A  W45A  W55A course:

Sunday’s SA Long Distance Championships included a mass start loop race for the 4 NOL groups (senior men and women, junior men and women in classes 20E and 18A).  The 2 senior classes and junior men had a run through after a short first loop to collect the map for a longer challenging second loop.  Other classes used the traditional interval start.  All courses, which covered the more sublte terrain on the ridge top into the compelx erosion gullies flanking the ridge, were set by Simon Uppill, with the controller Jenny Casanova and the event by Onkaparinga Hills Orienteers.   For results and splits links here  Mass start for each of the 4 elite courses below, and the course for the a second loop of the M21E course.

Monday’s sprint event at the Renmark schools set by Lanita Steer with the event by Tintookies, was a more relaxed event to finish off the weekend.  Results and splits are here

For many more photos of the Sunday event see the Facebook album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=OrienteeringSA&set=a.4033129866754003

And other posts about the weekend events - https://www.facebook.com/OrienteeringSA

Crooked Straight course planner Simon Uppill competing at Bunyip Reach, and the event's controller Jenny Casanova with Bunyip Reach Course planner Steve Cooper (3rd in M55A at Crooked Straight)

The Easter Carnival was centred on Orange, NSW, this year after a twelve month deferral due to Covid 19.

The Sprint was held at Charles Sturt University, with excellent results from Olivia Sprod second, Abigail George third, and notable performances from Angus Haines, Joanna George, Jenny Casanova, Toby Cazzolato, Max Grivell and Ethan Penck.

Then it was into the rocks and bush of the Three Days, and what an orienteering test it was. Day One on Noah's Ark was a great introduction to what was to follow on the Gumble Pinnacles the next two days. Considering the number of " did not finish " and long course times, this map arguably certainly lived up to be one of the most challenging in Australia. To finish at all could be considered by some a success, (myself included), and I noticed many miserable participants wandering aimlessly around in a sea of large boulders. Many courses did not achieve the expected winning times, even when experienced orienteers had relatively mistake free runs, and many competotors chose to abandon their courses on Day 2 ( much greater number than normal for this early season event).

Nevertheless there were great performances from South Australians, being: Emily Sorensen first and Joanna George fourth in Women 20 Elite, Toby Cazzolato first in Men 18 Elite, Olivia Sprod second in Women 21 Elite, Lachlan Hallett first in the Sledge, Jenny Casanova third in W45A, and very good efforts by Abigail George, Teri McCoomb, Leila Henderson, Susanne Casanova, Ethan Penck, Steve Cooper, Dante Afnan, Angus Haines, Max Grivell, Andrew McCoomb, Robert Kriesl and Robert Smith.

All resutls are available in Eventorand you can view courss in the LiveLox link (although you need to be a subscriber to run full replays of those who have uplaoded their routes).

Photos of some SA orienteers by Evalin here - https://evalinmae.smugmug.com/Orienteering/NOL-2-SA-Orienteers/

Well done NSW - Rob Tucker President OSA

Following are some of the main things happening during May:

• A series of Schools practice Cluster Events leading up to the SA Schools Championships on 27th May.. Don't forget to get your school entry in by no later than Mon 13th May.

• Help celebrate World Orienteering Day at the Belair Golf Course on Wed May 15th (late afternoon & evening). This is a great opportunity to bring out your family and friends to show them what Orienteering is all about in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Set in the beautiful Belair National Park - only 15 minutes from Adelaide - there will be courses to suit young family's and newcomers as well as those that are experienced.

• Yalanga Orienteers invite you to explore Felixstow and the Torrens Linear Park  on Sun 26th May. This event offers Foot O and MTBO courses. It starts at the western end of the newly mapped wetlands on the Felixstow Reserve. Entries are now open.

• Wallaringa Orienteers invite you to explore the streets & parks of Beaumont on Sun 19th May. Entries are now open.

Article by Ken Thompson updated 12th May

The event at The Paddocks on 1^st April was held in ideal (cool but dry) weather for orienteering.

 After a wet night, the weather cleared, and the four courses that Jeffa had set were a great puzzle for those who attended.  The tricky wetlands area, and the new out of bounds area (discovered in the previous week) were fun to negotiate, and Jeffa’s tricky planning had us all thinking hard.

Thanks to Tintookies members who assisted to make this a success for the 52 runners.

The brief AGM was held at 12noon, where we duly elected Rob Tucker as President for another year, along with Andrew Kennedy (Treasurer) to be ably assisted by Brodie Dobson Keefe this year. Erica Diment will continue as Secretary, Robin Uppill as Technical Officer,  Zita Sankauskas as Schools Coordinator, Bridget Anderson as Coaching Coordinator, Olivia Sprod as Publicity Officer and Frank Burden as Newsletter Editor. 

The Orienteering Season is now well underway.

Article by Erica Diment

From late April through May, 4 events are being provided to provide orienteers to try out orienteering in the suburban environment but with a flavour of bush orienteering at some events. At each event, several courses are available, shorter easier courses for the less experienced and longer more challenging courses for the physically fitter or more experienced orienteer. You can complete a course as an individual or in a group, and do at a pace which suits you (run or walk). 

The series begins at Wadmore Park, Athelstone (small map snippet at left) – Black Hill in Athelstone (Sunday April 29^th). The second event (Sunday May 6^th) at Heathfield includes a detailed map around the Heathfield HS (map snippet below) with a larger map extending to Woorabinda Reserve for the longer courses. A more urban style event is to be held Saturday May 12^th at Stonyfell,   The fourth event on Sunday May 20^th is in Shepherds Hill Recreation Park. In conjunction with the foot orienteering courses will be a Mountain Bike event. 

At all events, more experienced orienteers will be on hand to assist newcomers and those with less orienteering experience.  Participants can enter at each event, arrive between the designated start period in the event details.  Links to event information are in the event list on the right of this page.

Starting on foot and bike at an event in 2017.

94 persons participated in this rain-affected event. The weather and some tricky controls posed problems for many.

Click here for all results & links to winsplits, splitsbrowser and route gadget.Voting for the Course Planner Award can also be found here

Don't forget to log in to Eventor & fill in the Event Survey. We would like to know what you think. Include your name if you don't wish to be anonymous or wish a reply.

Photos and video on TJ facebook page.

Article by Aylwin Lim