The Australian Orienteer – March 2022

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Sport Australia proudly supports Orienteering Australia Sport Australia is the Australian Government agency that develops, supports and invests in sport at all levels in Australia.

Orienteering Australia has worked closely with Sport Australia to develop orienteering from community participation to high-level performance.

Orienteering Australia is one of many national sporting organisations that has formed a winning partnership with Sport Australia to develop its sport in Australia.

www.sportaus.gov.au 2 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

THE CHAIRMAN’S PAGE

The Chairman’s Page MIKE DOWLING - CHAIR OA BOARD

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s the 2022 orienteering season fully swings into gear with the onset of autumn, we can only hope, that with high national vaccination rates across Australia, we can have a year of orienteering that is less impacted by the ongoing COVID pandemic. We can hope we will be able to hold both the Easter 3 Days in Queensland and the Australian Championships week in Victoria later in the year.

In addition, we are cautiously optimistic we will be able to return to the international competition arena. I particularly feel for our elite junior orienteers who have missed two years of Junior World Championships. Being fortunate to attend these Championships on numerous occasions, I know what a valuable life experience they are for the junior orienteers who represent Australian orienteering.

We are hoping to send teams to the World Championships in Denmark, the Junior World Championships in Portugal, the World University Championships in Switzerland, and the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships in Sweden. We have appointed coaches for almost all teams and expect further announcements to be made for additional coaching and management support by the time of the first round of selection events.

As in 2020, we have managed to weather the challenges of 2021 well compared to many sports. We were able to hold most of our major events, not withstanding the unfortunate cancellation of the “lost” Australian Championships in Tasmania for the second year in a row.

Sadly, we were not able to get across the Tasman in January which led to the cancellation of the Oceania Championships in the South Island of New Zealand.

The good news about the immediate future of the Oceania Championships is that, with the agreement of New Zealand, Tasmania is keen to conduct these in January of 2023 in the forest formats of Long Distance, Middle Distance, and Relay across all age groups. We will be working with Orienteering New Zealand through this year to review the future structure of the Oceania Championships.

As was the case in 2020, we did not hold an Annual Conference at the end of 2021 and again conducted a series of workshops connected to high performance and coaching, marketing and communication, events, mapping and technical, and strategy, governance and the new Sport Australia National Integrity Framework. It was highly satisfying to see the very positive engagement of all participants in the workshops and again reinforces that we have many great volunteers who care deeply about our sport and its direction into the future.

Connected to coaching, we have just begun the process of transitioning our coaches to the new OA Coaching Framework.

This new framework rethinks the structure of coach education for our sport in an exciting and innovative way. I want to especially acknowledge the leadership of Brodie Nankervis, our Manager Coaching Development, and the wonderful group of people who provided support and advice to bring this project to fruition.

The Board continues to be occupied with many matters connected to the good governance of our sport. We have a number of important items of work in progress such as the implementation of the Sport Australia National Integrity Framework, completing the transition of OA to a company limited by guarantee under the constitution adopted last year, and the finalisation of strategic priorities for the next four year period supported by a two year activity plan, to name three. Two key items of activity will be to develop and implement a participation plan and a communication and social media plan for OA. It is anticipated that after a consultation period with States the strategy and activity plan will be formally signed off at the 2022 OA AGM at Easter. The AGM will be significant in that our long serving Director Technical, Jenny Casanova, will step down. May I extend a very sincere thank you to you Jenny for your many years of outstanding service to OA. Finally, our long serving editor of The Australian Orienteer, Mike Hubbert, will inevitably retire from the role as he has indicated an intention to do so for the last year. We are still seeking a new editor.

Without a new editor to replace Mike we must ask a question: Is there a future for “The Australian Orienteer”?

Time for a new Editor

All Editors to date have been ‘original orienteers’ from the days when Orienteering was becoming established in Victoria and had still to spread to other States.

David Hogg and Michael Hubbert both competed in (and finished) the inaugural Upper Beaconsfield event in 1969, while Ian Baker joined the Orienteering scene soon after.

It’s been nearly 18 years since I took on the Editor role and I’ve enjoyed every moment. However, it is probably time to hand over the baton to a new and younger Editor who may have some different ideas on the direction the magazine should follow. It’s a paid position with funds from magazine revenue - $4,125 (incl. 10% statutory Super) per edition, plus expenses.

I’m happy to carry on until a new Editor can be found so, if any of you out there in Orienteering Land are interested in the role, please get in contact with me (Michael Hubbert).

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 3

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4 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

w w w. o r i e n t e e r i n g . a s n . a u PO Box 3379, North Strathfield, NSW 2137 Chair & Director – International (IOF) Director – Finance Director – Technical Director – at large Director – Secretary Director – Operations & MTBO Director – Executive Officer OA Head Coach OA Assistant Head Coach High Performance Administrator Manager Coaching Development Anti Doping Medical Officer Editor OA Enews National Sporting Schools Coordinator Coach & Controller Accreditation Badge Applications

Mike Dowling Richard Mountstephens Jenny Casanova Bill Jones Andrew Lumsden Craig Steffens Brett Weihart Natasha Key Jim Russell Fredrik Johansson Brodie Nankervis Mark Freeman Linda Burridge Jim Mackay Jim Mackay John Oliver

international@orienteering.asn.au finance@orienteering.asn.au technical@orienteering.asn.au bill@orienteering.asn.au andrew.l@orienteering.asn.au craig.s@orienteering.asn.au

0410 775 799 0412 739 491 0427 605 167 0428 255 210 02 9412 3545 0418 871 193

gm@orienteering.asn.au headcoach@orienteering.asn.au assistantheadcoach@orienteering.asn.au hpadmin@orienteering.asn.au coaching@orienteering.asn.au markfreeman@hotmail.com oa_enews@orienteering.asn.au sportingschools@orienteering.asn.au accreditation@orienteering.asn.au 68 Amaroo Street, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650

0419 0411 0423 0429

549 125 030 433

532 178 957 323

0407 467 345 0407 467 345 0427 201 954

STATE ASSOCIATIONS Orienteering Queensland: PO Box 114 Spring Hill QLD 4004. Secretary: David Firman secretary@oq.asn.au Orienteering NSW: PO Box 3379 North Strathfield NSW 2137. Admin Officer: John Murray, Ph. (02) 8736 1252 admin@onsw.asn.au Orienteering ACT: PO Box 402 Jamison Centre ACT 2614. Secretary: Stephen Goggs, Ph. (02) 6162 3422 office@act.orienteering.asn.au Orienteering Victoria: PO Box 1010 Templestowe VIC 3106. Secretary: Aislinn Prendergast secretary@vicorienteering.asn.au Orienteering SA: 1 Windsor Rd, Glenside SA 5065. Sec: Fi Pahor secretary@sa.orienteering.asn.au Orienteering Western Australia: PO Box 234 Subiaco WA 6904. Secretary: Ceri Pass, oawa.secretary@gmail.com Orienteering Tasmania: Secretary: Julian Roscoe secretary@tasorienteering.asn.au Top End Orienteers (Northern Territory): PO Box 39152 Winnellie NT 0821. Secretary: Susanne Casanova topendorienteersNT@gmail.com

NEXT ISSUE DEADLINE

April 15. Time-sensitive: April 22

ISSN 0818-6510 Issue 1/22 (no. 204) MARCH 2022

The national magazine of Orienteering Australia Inc. ABN 77 406 995 497 Published four times a year: First day of March, June, September, December. Print Post Approved PP 236080/00011, (100023602 for NSW).

Editor: Michael Hubbert, P.O. Box 165, Warrandyte, Victoria 3113 mikehubbert@ozemail.com.au Phone (03) 9844 4878 Magazine Design & Assembly: Peter Cusworth, Ph. 0409 797 023 pcusworth53@gmail.com Printer: Ferntree Print, 1154 Burwood Hwy Upper Ferntree Gully.

Contribution deadline: April 15; Time-sensitive – April 22.

Deadline dates for contributions are the latest we can accept copy.

Publication is normally planned for the 1st of March, June, September & December. Copies are dispatched in bulk to State associations in the week prior to that date.

Regular Contributors: Competition – Blair Trewin; Official News – Andrew Lumsden; MTBO – Craig Steffens Contributions welcome, either directly or via State editorial contacts.

Prior consultation is suggested before preparing major contributions.

Guidelines available from the editor or from state contacts.

State Editorial Contacts QLD: Liz Bourne – batmaps.liz@gmail.com NSW: Ian Jessup – marketing@onsw.asn.au ACT: John Scown – scown@light.net.au SA: Erica Diment – ericadiment@adam.com.au – tel: 0408 852 313 VIC, WA and TAS – vacant Subscriptions: State Association members via State Associations. Contact relevant Association Secretary for details. Other subscribers: Write to The Australian Orienteer, PO‑Box 165, Warrandyte, Vic. 3113. Within Australia: $40 pa. Overseas: Asia/Pacific (inc. NZ) $A49, Rest of World $A58 pa.

Delivery is airmail, there is no seamail option. Please send payment in Australian dollars by bank draft or international postal order, or pay direct

by Visa or Mastercard. Quote full card number and expiry date.

Subscription renewals (direct subscriptions only). The number in the top right-hand corner of the address label indicates the final issue in your current subscription.

Opinions expressed in The Australian Orienteer are not necessarily those of Orienteering Australia.

CONTENTS T H E C H A I R M A N ’ S PA G E.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 NOL PREVIEW.......................................... 6 NEW COACHING FRAMEWORK...................... 8 MELBOURNE SPRINT WEEKEND.................... 9 E A S T E R 2 0 2 2 .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 Q B I I I P R E V I E W .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 2 0 2 1 X M A S 5 - D AY S R E P O R T.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 2022 AUS CARNIVAL................................ 22 KOOMBA KAOS........................................ 26 SYDNEY SUMMER SERIES ......................... 30 THE RETURN OF THE HIGH-O...................... 32 N U T R I T I O N .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 6 RECONNECTING YOUTH TO SPORTS CLUBS..... 38 2022 AUSTRALIAN MTBO CHAMPIONSHIPS ... 40 S P O T T H E D I F F E R E N C E .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1 O - S P Y.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 L E T T E R S .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6 TOP EVENTS........................................... 47

Cover: NSW junior Julia Barbour at the Xmas 5 Days. Photo: Evalin Brautigam MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 5

NOL PREVIEW

National Orienteering League 2022 Preview BRODIE NANKERVIS – MANAGER COACHING DEVELOPMENT, ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA. PHOTOS BY: EVALIN BRAUTIGAM & TOM DE JONGH

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he National Orienteering League (NOL) in 2022 is set to be an exciting season, with strong domestic competition expected, with many athletes preparing for the long-awaited return to international racing in 2022.

The NOL season commences at the Melbourne Sprint Weekend (MSW), with the addition of a forest Relay sure to spice things up. The season continues in Canberra at the start of April with two forest races, returning to a crowd favourite at the Gib. Two weeks later Easter will be held in the fast granite forests of Kingaroy before an exciting culmination of the season at the Gold Coast. These final events have recently been granted Oceania status, with a World Championships wildcard spot up for grabs for the champion in both the Sprint and Sprint Knockout events!

The OA High Performance Management Group has been working hard to make the NOL more accessible, more competitive, and more fun! After the success of similar events in the 2021 season, social events will be held at all rounds and accommodation options suggested. The presentation evening on Sunday night after the final event on the Gold Coast will surely be a highlight, with the addition of a

Round 1

lighthearted best and fairest award planned! The 2022 season will also see a trial of a “Sport” class, which will be offered at Round 2 in Canberra.

Sport Class to be trialled at NOL Round 2 in Canberra!

In both women and men, open (21 and over) and juniors (20 and under), there will be an “Elite class” (which exists at the moment) and a “Sport class”. The Sport class replaces the A class used previously and brings it into the NOL competition.

The Sport class is designed for competitive orienteers who may have other priorities than just the goal of elite racing on the international level. This could include young athletes, those new to the sport or those returning to orienteering after a break. The Sport classes will be approximately 80% of the distance of their corresponding Elite class, will be hard navigation and will score points (albeit a reduced amount compared to the Elite class). This means that there will be eight NOL scoring classes on offer at NOL Round 2. The Team’s competition for each category will combine scores from both the Elite and Sport class, with the three top scorers from each State being counted.

12-13 March MELBOURNE SPRINT WEEKEND Sat PM Campus (new map) WRE sprint Sun AM Campus (new map) Sun PM Forest Relay (Woodlands)

2022

Round 2

2-3 April AUTUMN CLASSIC, ACT Sat: Middle Distance (The Gib) Sun: Long Distance (The Sandhills)

Round 3

15-18 April EASTER 3 DAY, KINGAROY QLD Sprint, Middle, Long Distance, Multi-day

Proudly supported by Round 4

23-24 April

GOLD COAST SPRINTS, QLD Fri: Night Sprint Relay Sat: Oceania Sprint (Qualification + Final) Sun: Oceania Sprint Knockout

Alastair George

Angus Haines

6 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

Aston Key

Emily Sorensen

Jensen Key

Mikayla Cooper

Who will come out on top?

With national representation spots at JWOC, WOC, World Games and World University championships on the line the racing is sure to be intense. The Sprint world championships in Denmark will result in slightly more Sprint races than normal, which could challenge some of the defending champions from 2022.

In 2021 the Open Women’s class was won by Grace Crane (ACT), who narrowly edged out Krystal Neumann (QLD) and Olivia Sprod (SA). Olivia has since moved to Spain, but the competition will be bolstered by several junior talents moving up into seniors in 2022, namely Caitlin Young (ACT), Emily Sorensen (SA) and Arabella Phillips (TAS). But the strong sprinters will be hard to knock off this season, with Tara Melhuish (ACT) and Ellie de Jong (QLD) likely to be podium favourites. ACT took the Team win in 2021 and with the addition of Caitlin in 2022 they will be hard to beat. However VIC, QLD and SA were separated by only 6 points in 2021 and all have the depth to make a move in 2022.

The top three from Open Men in 2021, Aston Key (VIC), Patrick Jaffe (VIC) and Brodie Nankervis (TAS), will all be racing in 2022. However, they are likely to be challenged by young guns Alastair George (NSW) and Angus Haines (SA), who both showed impressive individual performances in the 2021 season. Throw in experienced orienteers Matt Doyle (ACT) and Matt Crane (ACT), world class runner Marty Dent (ACT) and maybe even new dad Simon Uppill (SA), and it could be anyone’s game! Defending Team champions VIC will lose Brodie Nankervis back to the Tasmanian Foresters, with returning talent Joe Dickson and rookie Oskar Burcide looking

Joanna George

Arabella Phillips

Simon Uppill

Tara Melhuish

to shake things up. The competition won’t be easy though, ACT and SA also have the depth required to take the overall win!

The junior competitions in 2022 may be harder to predict, with no schools’ championships in two years, its difficult to know who the up-and-coming talent is. In the Junior Women, Nea Shingler (NSW) will be hoping to defend her 2021 title, but is likely to see some competition from final year juniors Mikayla Cooper (TAS), Joanna George (SA) and Abigail George (SA). There is also some young talent coming through, with Mikayla Gray (QLD), Erika Enderby (NSW) and Milla Key (VIC), who was also 4th overall in the 2021 season, all showing some form at the recent Xmas 5 Days. The SA Arrows reigned supreme in the 2021 Teams competition, closely followed by NSW, however the Teams competition was largely a numbers game. If other States can get full teams on the start line of each race the championship could be anyone’s for the taking!

In the Junior Men, Ewan Shingler (NSW) will be out for redemption after David Stocks (ACT) took the season out from under him in 2021. They are likely to be pushed by Ewan’s teammates, Oscar Woolford (NSW) and Oskar Mella (NSW), who both ran impressively at the Xmas 5 Days.

Jensen Key (VIC) will also be hungry for the win after last years 3rd place. VIC took the win in the Teams competition in 2021, but the strong NSW team will be looking to take the championship from them in 2022. It’s likely that QLD, SA and ACT will all challenge this year, after being separated by only 3 points in 2021.

Matt Doyle

Patrick Jaffe MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 7

NEW COACHING FRAMEWORK

OA Publishes New Coaching Framework O

rienteering Australia is excited to announce that after 1.5 years of conceptualisation, stakeholder engagement and thorough review, the new OA Coaching Framework has been published. Lead by OA’s Manager of Coaching Development, Brodie Nankervis, the project team included representatives from all State/Territory organisations as well as external input from Sport Australia.

The framework aligns with OA’s strategic plan, and outlines a guide to foot orienteering coaching education, development and support in Australia. The following diagram represents the key areas that OA believes contribute to exceptional coaching practice. OA strives to work with State/Territory organisations to continue to develop these areas in the future.

Orienteering Instructor The Orienteering Instructor accreditation course replaces the previous Level 0. It aims to provide “instructors” with the skills and knowledge required to deliver basic instruction of orienteering navigation, from beginners all the way through to high performing participants (e.g. helping an orienteer analyse their navigation after an event). Orienteering instructors will often support Orienteering coaches with their coaching activities. The course has been designed to meet the needs of both school teachers and community members.

Learn and Play Orienteering Coach Replacing the old level 1 course, this accreditation aims to provide coaches with the skills and knowledge required to support beginner orienteering participants learn orienteering and develop basic skills. Coaches will be capable of delivering group coaching activities which assist participants to positively engage with Orienteering, developing confidence to be able to complete very easy, easy and moderate navigation orienteering.

Competition Orienteering Coach Replacing the old level 2 course, this accreditation aims to provide coaches with the skills and knowledge required to support orienteering participants to develop their orienteering and achieve their personal best. These coaches will work with orienteers at different life stages and levels of competition who are completing moderate and hard navigation orienteering. These coaches will help add depth to competitive Orienteering events in Australia, strengthening the link from social participation to high performance.

Performance Orienteering Coach

Coach Education, Development and Support

Coaching Accreditation: Coaching accreditation is integral to overarching coaching framework. As part of the development of the new framework outlined above, the four accreditation courses in the Australian coaching pathway have been updated.

The coaching pathway is intended to track athlete development, commencing with “Orienteering Instructor”, and then leading into three parallel courses that match coaches with the participants they work with. Note that these three courses are not progressive in nature, highlighting the fact that an Orienteering coach can practice and become an expert with one level of participants, not having to work with higher level participants to become more experienced.

Replacing the old level 3 course, this accreditation aims to provide coaches with the skills and knowledge required to support orienteering participants striving for the highest level of performance in the sport. These coaches will help create more champions in our sport at the international level, inspire new talent and improve the profile of Orienteering in Australia.

The OA Coaching Framework and each accreditation courses syllabus document, as well as other information about Orienteering coaching, can be found on the coaching page of the OA website.

Next Steps: Over the coming months OA and its member organisations will be working on: • Transitioning current coaches into the new framework; •D eveloping delivery materials and building online delivery capacity; • Delivering the first courses using the new framework.

Please feel free to contact your State/Territory coaching coordinator or the OA Manager of Coaching Development, Brodie Nankervis, coaching@orienteering.asn.au for more information about coaching!

8 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

MELBOURNE SPRINT WEEKEND

Join the Sprint Train Melbourne Sprint Weekend returns: 12-14 March 2022 including a round of the National Orienteering League (NOL), WOC trial, a World Ranking Event, and races for non-elites.

LATE ENTRIES CLOSED 3rd MARCH The carnival format will be similar to previous editions with 6 races over 3 days, age classes and prizes for the overall winners. The class categories remain the same as MSW 2020 as does the overall competition and prizes in each class. This year’s carnival includes four new maps, with a mix of intricate school and university campuses as well as a fantastic bush/ parkland area.

For the elites, 2022 MSW includes three National Orienteering League (NOL) races on Saturday and Sunday and a Knock-out Sprint on Monday. The NOL races comprise two individual campus Sprints and one forest team Relay. The Sprints, one of which is a WRE, are also selection trials for WOC, JWOC, WUOC and the World Games.

Following its success in 2020, the Knock-out Sprint is back on Monday for the elites while non-elites finish the carnival with two more individual races. Brodie Nankervis returns as the course planner for the Finals and PROGRAM* afternoon races SATURDAY 12 MARCH on a new college Event 1 – AM La Trobe University, Bundoora campus map, Event 2 – PM Assumption College, Kilmore and is joined this year by OA Head SUNDAY 13 MARCH Coach Tash Key Event 3 – AM Manor Lakes College, Manor Lakes as planner for Event 4 – PM Woodlands Historic Park, Greenvale the qualifiers and MONDAY 14 MARCH morning races.

Event 5 – AM TBA Get your entry in Event 6 – PM Whitefriars College, Donvale before it’s too late. *May be subject to change MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 9

EASTER 2022

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Maidenwell.

Reedy Creek.

GCGU2016.

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 11

QBIII PREVIEW

Preview

QBIII 2022 will be held on the long weekend (June 11-13) in the Riverina, based in Wagga Wagga.

Each day will be run by a different club/group. Day 1 - NSW Stingers, Day 2 - OACT and Day 3 – Waggaroos Carnival organiser: Deb Davey (Waggaroos).

The events will also be NSW State Leagues 5, 6 & 7, and ACT League events AL#6, 7 & 8.

Days 1 & 2 will be held in Murraguldrie State Forest, 60km southeast of Wagga.

The location of Day 3 is yet to be finalised but will be either Kildare College or Charles Sturt University Wagga Campus.

Day 1 - Middle Distance NSW State League 5 – NSW Stingers Planners: Ewan Shingler & Duncan Currie Controller: Alex Davey Little Burngoogee map is a ridge line of complex granite which will test all runners in their navigation skills to minimise climb but accurately locate intricate boulders and gullies over the rocky hills.

Little Burngoogee

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Day 2 - Long Distance NSW State League 6 - OACT Planners: Geoff Lawford and Jenny Bourne Controller: Phil Walker Burngoogee will allow runners to stretch out over some of the best spur gully terrain in the State through native eucalypt forest. There are also numerous forest roads and some significant motorbike tracks strung through the map. But don’t think it’s only for the runners as there are scattered areas of complex granite that will have you quickly concentrating on your map to ensure time gained in a fast run isn’t lost in the granite boulders.

Day 3 - Sprint Distance NSW State League 7 - Waggaroos Planner: Jack Janetzki Controller: Alex Davey Day 3 will see the culmination of the carnival with a Sprint event held on one of two excellent maps.

Kildare College (used in 2019 for the Australian Schools Sprint Championships) has a mix of complex buildings with hidden passages combined with small gardens and lawns, while Charles Sturt University Campus Wagga (used in 2019 for the Oceania Sprint) is a typical university campus. The complexities of either map will keep you thinking, always conscious of the minutes you need to catch up to gain a place or to hold your place from Day 2.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) Wagga Wagga As an event centre Wagga Wagga has a lot to offer. The Wagga Wagga Visitors Centre is available to help with all your accommodation and tourism needs.

As well as being accessible easily from Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne by road, Wagga can be reached by air with Qantas and Rex flying in and out of Wagga Wagga daily. (Book early!)

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 13

XMAS 5 DAYS

2021 Xmas 5-Days report

IAN JESSUP, ONSW PHOTOS – EVALIN BRAUTIGAM

more photos can be found at https://evalinmae.smugmug.com/Orienteering/Xmas-5-days-2021/

Day 1 – Mt Alexandra Reserve, Welby Setter: Angus Shedden

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his map is ideal for a bush Sprint, a Middle Distance or a loops course.

An intricate track network in a flattish western half tempts you to go flat out when in fact you need to pay close attention to the tracks and your bearing.

The standout result here was Maggie Mackay (UR-N) winning Women C by a massive 43 seconds, beating older NSW Schools team-mates the Barbour twins along with Paula Shingler and a host of other vastly more experienced competitors. Maggie stuck mainly to the tracks and chose her bush entry points carefully, maintaining speed throughout.

In Women A it was a battle of South Australians, with Emily Sorensen (now residing in Sydney) beating Evalin Brautigam by 33 seconds. Nea Shingler (BF-N, third) dropped three and a half minutes on legs 11 and 12 to surrender the lead.

The closest tussle was in Men A where Alastair George (BF-N) pipped Adrian Uppill (OH-S) by three seconds.

Martin Dent (RR-A) was a long way back in third. Adrian led by 21 seconds at control #19 but Alastair made up the time over the last three legs.

Ewan Shingler (BF-N), like Nea and mum Paula, was left to rue errors on consecutive controls mid-race.

Speedy Garingal junior Cooper Horley smashed Men B by two and a half minutes and the Dent kids (RR-A) started their domination of the Moderate, Easy and Very Easy classes.

A great start to the week.

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Mt Alexandra Reserve 500m

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Xmas 5 day - Day 1

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Emergency No: 0401894513

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Copyright November 2020 Southern Highlands Orienteers

Day 2 – Tree Cave Track Setter: Ian Froude

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ne of our beloved Belanglo maps with a bit of everything – fire trail, single track, spur/gully, pine plantations, and lots of scattered rock.

Ian says he tried to keep runners out of the really scratchy stuff, chose interesting map features as controls, and wanted options where people could use tracks or go across country The Shinglers were quickly back in form with comfortable wins, while Erika Enderby (NC-N) claimed Women B after leading from control #2 and Alice Radajewski (PO-A) swept Women E by 8 minutes.

Sam Woolford (BB-N) showed his pedigree and rapid improvement with a second in Men A as dad Tony took out Men B where Richard Mountstephens (BF-N) lost almost seven minutes on legs 7-8-9 to lose the lead and end up sixth.

In Men E, Hayden Dent lost eight minutes on legs 1 and 3, but powered through as brother Elye, leading at 3, dropped 14 minutes on the next leg.

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 15

XMAS 5 DAYS

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Day 3 Stingray Swamp (Penrose SF) Setter: Toby Wilson.

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undreds of termite mounds dot this open map just off the Hume Highway.

Course 1 had A and B controls.

“After changes from last year due to forest operations, I needed to add a bit of distance,” said Toby.

“Adding the Phi loop allows greater distance in a small space, without covering the same ground too many times, and also gave us the opportunity to run a more interesting head-to-head racing format, where the runners are interested in doing so.”

Today’s big winner was Julia Barbour (BF-N) in Women C by almost six minutes. Julia has been in the NSW Schools team for a few years now and is really starting to blossom. She relegated Toni Brown (BS-A) and Paula Shingler to minor placings with a steady race, reclaiming the lead at #8.

That made it wins by juniors in the top three classes, while veterans Liz Abbott (PO-A) and Alison Radford (BG-V) battled it out in Women D. Justine de Remy (WH-N) had a win in Very Easy.

In the men’s, 2019 junior world sprint champion Aston Key (MF-V) entered the fray and led throughout but dropped nearly two minutes on #17 to finish a minute behind Alastair George.

Greg Barbour (BF-N) held off clubmate Jock Davis by a minute in Men B, while young rookie Nick Stanley (GON) impressed with a third in tough company in Men C – beating even his NSW junior squad coach Bjorn Mella!

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 17

XMAS 5 DAYS

Day 4 – Wattle Ridge Setter: Bob Morgan.

Firstly some background: This map was used for a State League event in March 2021. The weather on the day was diabolical, it was pouring rain, waterfalls appeared all over the map in even the tiniest gully. The Hard 1 course was 10.7km and was won by Matt Doyle in 105:22 from Alistair George, so you can see it was tough going. Only 9 of 14 starters in Hard 1 managed to finish the course. All courses had long winning times.

Wattle Ridge was mapped by Alex Tarr for the NSW championships in 2008. Since that time it had thickened up until the 2019/20 bushfires when most of the map north of the road was completely burnt out. Bennelong Northside held a club mapping exercise in October 2020 to remap the vegetation ready for the 2020 Xmas 5-Days and we remapped as white nearly all the green areas north of the road. The carnival was postponed because of COVID and 12 months on, a lot of the vegetation has greened up a bit but not to the same extent as prior to the bushfires.

A lot of the greening is “epicormic growth” around the base of the eucalypts, making visibility low but relatively easy to get through, expect to get black. We had to change a few control locations for 2021 because of the greening - but the courses remain basically the same, navigation would be a bit slower than if the event was held in 2020. A beautiful feature of the map is that it is covered in wildflowers, for example the start area is in a field of flannel flowers.

For this Xmas 5 Days the longest course was only 6.2km and controller Terry Bluett expected the kilometre rate to be faster than in March but not significantly so on a map that at the best of times remains a challenging map.

Excluding Men A, on Hard and Moderate courses there were only three people who managed a km rate below

18 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

14 minutes. One of those was Greg Barbour who set the courses here in March 2021 and won Men B to tie Cooper Horley in first overall. Even Greg’s controller, Simon George, took 45 minutes to win the 3km Men D course.

The problem was the entire area had greened up a lot in the past nine months thanks to strong rainfalls.

That made for very low visibility and meant painstaking progress while maintaining map contact.

The punishment for a lapse in concentration could be severe, and we noted a split of 57 minutes (not naming names!) on a 330m leg by a well credentialled veteran on a Hard course.

This map was where the categories would probably be decided.

Aston Key led all the way to win Men A where there were 20 controls and hence no traditional long legs.

Mark Shingler made it a fourth win for his family by taking out Men C and Tony Radford made it three straight in Men E to claim the title and nudge ahead of young WHO lad Lachlan Coady who was having a very impressive carnival.

Emily Sorensen established an overall lead by winning Women A, while Mikaela Gray (UG-Q) got some breathing space over Erika Enderby atop Women B with her fourth straight second placing.

Paula Shingler retook the lead in Women C and Alison Radford wrapped up Women D with a day to spare as Julia Prudhoe (CC-N) crucially dropped six minutes on leg six in a tight race.

In Women E, Savanna Sweeney (WH-N) notched her second win to look unbeatable.

In the Novice class, Franklin Smyth (SO-Q) rested, allowing Tessa Radajewski (PO-A) to draw level with just the Sprint to come.

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 19

XMAS 5 DAYS

Xmas 5 Days #5 Hard 4-1

1.6 km

1 52 2 51

40 m

1

2021 XMAS 5 DAYS #5

St Gregory's College

Hard 4

Orienteering map

magnetic north

Scale 1:2000

3 44 0

4 64

25

50

75m

Contour interval 2m

5 41 6 63 7 37 0m

magnetic north

LEGEND contours water feature earth bank pit sealed road parking area footpath, track paved area steps pillar low fence with open gate uncrossible fence high wall low wall building walk through man-made object monument pole minor water channel pond, uncrossable pool prominent tree/s VEGETATION open land rough open land thicker vegetation gardens DO NOT CROSS bush land area with trees out of bounds

3

4

5

2 1

Do Not enter or crossGardens High Walls High Fences Swimming pool Out of Bounds

20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

6 7 Emergency number 0414397584 Symbol set aligned with ISSprOM 2019/20 Nov 2021

Fieldwork and cartography by NevLyn Dec 2021 Southern Highlands Orienteers

Day 5 – St Gregory’s College Setter: Lyn Malmgron A brand new campus map on a hillside, with lots of intricate stairways and a scale of 1:2000.

St Gregory’s is an old school with boarding facilities and large farm attached. It is built on top of a very steep hill resulting in steps having to be tackled on almost every leg.

Often runners found themselves entering at ground level and coming out on a different storey. The individual buildings provided lots of options for course choice.

As with any Sprint on a campus you run the risk of construction popping up unexpectedly. Map checking in November revealed scaffolding all over the front of the school and the start ‘fenced in’. Luckily only two controls were affected.

The day before the event we found the access road dug up. Luckily there was access through the farm to another car park. And once again none of the control sites were affected.

Times were short - this meant there was no room for error – but many comments were made about how many steps were climbed.

Aston won Men A by 21 seconds from Ewan, who made a 24-second error at #14 but otherwise showed he has really stepped up his pace in the past 12 months. Alastair was only six seconds away in third, enough to claim overall honours.

It was a similar tale in Women A, with Nea 35 seconds ahead at #16 only to somehow drop 1:15 on the next short leg to hand the title to Emily who was ultimately rewarded for her consistency. Two JWOC team-mates in a ding-dong battle.

Classic.

A decisive 10th leg gave Mikaela Gray the Women B title, while Cooper Horley’s raw speed saw him win by a phenomenal 1:43 in Men B to also take the bikkies overall.

Uringa president Ant Nolan triumphed in Men C despite not winning a single day as Dylan Bryant (EN-Q) led from wire to wire, while Paula Shingler swept the Women C race and title in a return to form.

Julia Prudhoe cemented second with a win in Women D, and Simon George’s second place got him the Men D title.

Savanna won again to claim Women E (it was her fifth toptwo finish for the week) and Lachlan Coady Men E for second overall.

In Women F, Justine de Remy’s absence allowed Layla Dent (RR-A) to win the day and overall while brothers Hayden and Elye finished 1-2 on the day and overall. Alton Freeman (BF-N) was third.

In Men G Connor Dent suffered his first loss, to Callum Bryant (EN-Q), but had the title in the bag by then. ONSW and Australian legend Dave Lotty (UR-N) was the grandpa in a class with lots of fast kids.

ONSW thanks our host clubs (SHOO, IKO, the NSW Stingers and Bennelong Northside), carnival organiser Colin Price and his team, the landowners, club helpers and all the participants for ensuring a lovely carnival.

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 21

2022 AUS CARNIVAL

Granite, Gold and Gourmet – Something for everyone at AOC 2022 To explain what is new and different for the 2022 Australian Carnival, the Australian Orienteer’s roving correspondent Jess Doverthere spoke to Carnival technical director and new JWOC team coach Warren Key:

will enjoy that showcase the best of gold mining, granite and campus-based Sprints. Adding to that we cherry picked and extended some of our best existing maps into new sections for the other events. From a leisure perspective the food, wine, beer and coffee in this part of Victoria are now renowned! So, there is something for everyone and all within an hour of the airport and a short drive from Kyneton and Daylesford to any event.

JD: Warren, it has been a while since we have been to Victoria for a big carnival like AOC2022, What’s the big draw card for the Central Highlands of Victoria?

JD: How on earth did you find new forest maps of championship quality so close to Melbourne and is there a new gold mining area or did you just dig it over yourself?

WK: As you know I am an orienteering nutter, but I can swear on my Victoria chest tattoo that this carnival has some of the finest orienteering terrain in Australia and three of the maps are new. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that the atmosphere and attractions of this region are just so fantastic, it is really a beautiful part of the world.

WK: A mix of luck and skill. Former coach in residence Fredo and his hosts were out training and had agreed to meet at Blackwood for a picnic and literally stumbled into this gold mining area. They were all so excited they spent the next half an hour exploring it and realised that it was potentially map quality and big enough for a Middle Distance. That’s for the Australian Middle Distance and it will really be something unique, crazy interesting goldmining on a new level and the arena is just picture perfect.

We set out to have a brand-new area and map for each of the Australian Championships (Middle/Sprint and Long Distance) and we’ve found three amazing areas that I know everyone

Blackwood - erosion gullies.

Blackwood - mining terrain.

22 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

Blackwood - open forest.

JD: I hear there is a new granite map for the Long Distance?

How did you find a new Granite area?

WK: Luckily, Neil Barr has had his eye on this area for a while, so we have saved it up for this Carnival. It’s the next hill over from Mount Tarrengower and it has some gold mining as well – so it’s a cracker. The area offers our version of the “the big three”, granite, goldmining and gully/spur on the same map.

Once we realised that we could get Lidar as well it was just a case of getting permissions from some landowners. It will be a lot of fun and with changes of vegetation as well it is perfect for Long Distance. I wish I was running.

JD: And the Australian Sprint?

JD: So, three new maps. Is that it?

WK: Not at all. We have a brand-new event called the Australian Grand Prix on the first Saturday and we’ve combined all kinds of terrains in one. I had this vision of finishing right in the middle of Daylesford and that is what we’ve done. I have to be careful to not talk it up too much, but it is going to be a really exciting event and something for everyone, not just Elites. That follows the VIC Middle on super cool terrain - old school goldmining only minutes out of Daylesford, one of the prettiest towns in Victoria. Enjoy the fabulous selection of coffee places and outdoor eateries between events.

WK: How lucky are we!? It fell in our lap as well because for ages we’ve wanted to map Silesian College at Sunbury which is famous because it includes the stately home where The Ashes Urn was created. Then last year the Principal of the college started asking about Orienteering and the OV committee took it from there. That’s in Sunbury less than 20 minutes from the airport and it’s a great campus, very technical. This area, the history and amazing atmosphere is really going to make this event something special.

So, the first weekend has three top quality events. A totally new area and style of Goldmining for the Aussie Middle, a great new map of goldmining the day before to get you in the zone and an exciting new style event in one of the most scenic locations in the whole of Victoria. As ScoMo would say: What’s not to like? ( I assure you this is not a paid political advert ).

Maldon - granite

Maldon - granite.

Maldon - spur-gully.

Maldon - township.

JD: What about the schools and mid-week events?

WK: Yes, I know sometimes they can be an afterthought, but absolutely positively not this year. The schools Sprint map in Kyneton is set amongst historic bluestone buildings in a complex school’s campus and towering European trees in the botanical gardens, both dating back to mid 1800’s. Then the next day we are using part of the huge Mount Alexander map that we haven’t really seen since last century. The granite and

Maldon - open terrain.

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 23

2022 AUS CARNIVAL

runnability are amazing and ideal for the schools and public event. The views are breath taking and a fantastic downhill finish into the Arena will be great fun and if you are lucky, you may even see a Koala from the days of the Koala reserve on the map. Then we go to the best part of the famous WOC85 Wattle Gully map extended to include exciting new terrain and a super cool tunnel underpass for the School’s Relay.

So, the public events on these new maps will be fun and part of a 3-Day cumulative event and they are super relevant preparation for the AUS Championships events the following weekend. The granite looks and feels the same, the goldmining of the Australian Relays is literally only a couple of kilometres away to the Schools’ Relay and the Sprint buildings are from the same era using the same bluestone coincidentally mined out of Mt. Alexander! .

Sprint sample

JD: So apart from the maps and the aqueducts what else could the Carnival do for us (to quote from Life of Brian)?

The OV committee has voted with their feet and three of the committee now live in the area so it must be good!

WK: We don’t have aqueducts, but Victoria’s most famous viaducts are nearby, and the Central Highlands now has some of the best food, beer and wine in the country. We can offer cideries, breweries, smokehouses, cheese, really amazing coffee hide-outs and of course fantastic wineries – the central Highlands is the trendy wine spot at present.

JD: What’s the part of the Carnival you are looking forward to most, Warren?

Plus atmosphere in spades at the events and after the events amongst these historic hamlets. Some of Victoria’s best chefs have chosen to live and work here because the local produce is so good. Places like Lake House and Du Fermier are famous, but you’ll have to book early. The cafes and pub choices are limitless.

WK: Look, this will be the first Australian Champs for three years! I think it’s just going to be wonderful to be amongst friends again from around Australia and across the ditch, doing what we love at the biggest and best orienteering Carnival that the southern hemisphere has to offer.

JD: Sounds great…see you there.

WK: We are 100% full speed ahead. Entries are open now on Eventor and if COVID does hit I understand that generous refunds will be offered.

Salesian - Ashes oval.

Route choices analysis (photo - Warren Key).

Salesian College

Salesian College

24 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

Aus Carnival technical director, Warren Key.

Mt Alexander.

Wattle Gully.

Australian WOC, JWOC and MTBO teams are outfitted by

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 25

KOOMBA KAOS

The SI f AIR y wand

You then smile sweetly at the camera in the hope of persuading the course setter that 9 out of the 12 controls was pretty good and, in any case, it was now too hot and you are in need of icecream.

PETER YEATES (DANDENONG RANGES OC)

I

n order to encourage my grand daughter Ivy to Orienteering I have invented a new, and now vital, piece of equipment.

The SI f AIR y Wand.

Instructions for its construction can be obtained upon application, but basically attach your SIAC to the end of a rod with hair scrunchies and decorate with glitter and ribbons.

I am reliably informed that it is best to commence your course by giving it a good SWISH.

Now its over to the Finish tent.

Then try to find some controls.

“How the hell do we get “glitter” out of the download unit?”

Technical details.

Continue around your course and approach the Finish at the best speed you can manage whilst dragging a good stick.

26 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

KOOMBA

Koomba Kaos DEBBIE DODD (DANDENONG RANGES OC) PHOTOS: ILZE YEATES

K

oomba Kaos descended on Melbourne on Sunday 16th January. It was the first SPORTident event of 2022, and it proved to be a great way to clean out the cobwebs and kick our brains into gear, before a big summer of Sprints gets underway.

The map was drawn in 2007 and has only been used a couple of times since. We gave it a touch-up, but the vegetation in there changes as fast as the COVID rules! After much rain in the previous weeks the ground had dried considerably, and thankfully the mowers had been in to some areas at least, so our decision to postpone paid off. The day was warmer than predicted, and the large shady trees around the arena were a welcome place to relax before and after the racing.

Several controls required wading through very tall grass, but if you weren’t amongst the first couple of people, you found nicely flattened “elephant tracks”. Some intrepid navigators chose the red line route, even when it crossed stripey or solid green. The longer routes on very runnable tracks were invariably faster, creating some good route choice dilemmas. Winning times on all four courses were approx 25 minutes, in line with expectations of an extended sprint distance.

Some basic skills were required, the first one being instant orientation of the map. From the Start triangle there were numerous choices of direction.

KOOMBA KAOS T

Koomba Kaos 1 Kaotic (Hard) 4.4 km 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

72 81 87 78 73 84 83 88 65 64 63

Magnetic North

91 69 67 71 62 70 92 80 75 74 94 79 96 82 90 77

0

93

70 m www.condes.net 9.7.25 Dandenong Ranges Orienteering Club Koomba Kaos.wcd

Map printed here at 70%.

50

100

Base map : Lands Vic Plan Fieldworked by Adam Scammell for, Victorian ARDF Orienteers, August 2007 Drawn by Adam Scammell using OCAD 8 software Minor revisions made November 2021

Scale: 1:4000 1m contours

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 27

KOOMBA

The controls in question were 91 (on Course 1 and 2) and 97 (on Course 3 and 4), so no course had both controls. Control 91 was on a fence, and control 97 was on a vegetation boundary, right next to the dam, with a track leading in along the embankment. On Course 1 and 2 (hard), the previous control was no 63, with the obvious route to 91 being the bike path south and west, past the dam, and looking for the vegetation change. The approach was downhill, as shown by the contours, and across a small section of rough open ground, with thicker vegetation on your right. On Course 3 and 4 (moderate and easy), the previous control was no 90, with a simple, open approach into 97, using the dam as the attack point.

Control 97 was easily visible on the approach. However if you were looking for 91, then a check of the map, the control description, and the control number – not to mention finding

Each course had a different first control, and they didn’t give you much thinking time. Courses then zigzagged around small buildings, tennis courts and carparks, into small watercourses and onto treed knolls, before heading into the Jazz Museum garden.

From there, the running became more straightforward, with some control picking legs along the power line, as the courses headed north. The next section required decision making – should I plunge into the veg, or circumvent it? The shaded narrow tracks, boardwalks and bird hides were a feature of the mid course section.

Runners then found themselves in the more open eastern section, with pockets of pine plantation and eucalypt forest on the slope. A final tight loop of 6 or 8 controls around the Arena brought them into the Finish; it was this last section where we expected fatigue to set in and mistakes to be made.

yourself right beside a sizeable and very obvious water body – should have given plenty of warning! So our Sprint training tips are: • d on’t follow another competitor; they are probably not on your course, or they may be making the same mistake as you; • c heck both map and control descriptions, and know what to expect. If they don’t match reality, then you are not in the right place; • c heck the control numbers; check the control numbers; check the control numbers; • a s fatigue sets in near the end, you will lose concentration. Ease off the pace until you regain focus; save the speed for the Finish chute. An error-free run will gain you far more places in the results, than a mad dash in the wrong direction!

There were in fact quite a lot of mispunches, but not where or why we thought. Although some people simply skipped a few controls due to the heat, the majority of MPs were caused by the same error. As this was a warmup/practice event for the more serious stuff to come, it is worth a closer look to see why this occurred.

28 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

All in all it was a really good, fun event. Thanks to the DROC team for organising and course planning, and to ARDF for providing the Koomba Park map. With a major development planned this year for the sporting facilities, the next version of the map will look quite different.

KOOMBA KAOS T

Koomba Kaos 3.0 km

3 Komplex (Moderate)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

76 96 88 83 84 73 81 87 78 75 95

Magnetic North

69 67 71 63 90 97 65 85 72 77 93 94 79

45 m

www.condes.net 9.7.25 Dandenong Ranges Orienteering Club Koomba Kaos.wcd

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Map printed here at 70%.

50

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Base map : Lands Vic Plan Fieldworked by Adam Scammell for, Victorian ARDF Orienteers, August 2007 Drawn by Adam Scammell using OCAD 8 software Minor revisions made November 2021

Scale: 1:4000 1m contours MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 29

SSS

Sydney Summer Series Newcomer Experience

BY IAN JESSUP, SSS CO-ORDINATOR PHOTOS - BEN CIRULIS AND FULLY RAD ADVENTURES

T

Monika 2nd from left and Edie 2nd from right.

he Sydney Summer Series draws around 200 participants every Wednesday afternoon for 26 weeks during daylight saving.

Now in its 31st season, it’s the entry point to orienteering for a lot of people in NSW. With the summer calendar almost over, we thought we’d check in with some recent converts to see what lured them to the SSS, what’s keeping them, and what’s next.

Edie Chow, Monika Lee and Mattiijs Spierings are in their first and second seasons of the SSS and – like many before them – are now hooked. They’ve joined a club, are now doing adventure races and have dabbled in MTBO as well.

Monika Lee, 30 How did you find out about the Sydney Summer Series?

Through an adventure racing Facebook group.

What were your thoughts before, during and after the first event?

My first event was hilarious: no one told me that I had to come back in 45 minutes. My friend Edith shared the instructions and told me I could collect all checkpoints if I wanted to but failed to mention it was optional .… so I ran my heart out and collected every checkpoint which took me over 90 minutes. I also did not know that all checkpoints were on the trails and did some bush bashing for 15 minutes. I still loved it and my first event got me hooked.

What has converted you to becoming regulars?

I love the challenge. I’m always learning something new and also discovering new hidden bush trails which are so close to home every week. We then come back to these new trails with our mountain bikes or dogs and go for swims in local swimming holes.

Has your entry into orienteering inspired you to do other similar activities?

It’s been my ultimate goal to improve my navigation skills and harness my tracking ability to be able to compete in adventure racing.

I really enjoy knowing where I am and tracking my surroundings. Once I’ve been to a place, I will know how to get back there even 10 years later. My eyes are like one of those Google Map truck cameras without the zoom lens.

We just completed our first adventure race in the Blue Mountains and came third. Then we did the Wildside 8-hour adventure race and for both races we came first in the rogaining section (not overall), which shows our orienteering skills transferring across.

What would you say to a friend who is curious about ‘this orienteering thing’ that you do?

Gamified exercise and amazing race in your local bush tracks.

30 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

Anything else you’d like to say?

Edith and I are now forming and gathering a large team in NSW to compete across the A1 series in the coming years.

We are doing weekly casual training sessions with mountain bike orienteering, pack rafting, trail running & attending Sydney Summer Series every Wednesday night. For those interested in joining us please contact us on our Instagram page @adventure_racing_maniacs

Edith Chow, 33 How did you find out about the Sydney Summer Series?

Through Monika, but I wish I found out about it earlier!

What were your thoughts before, during and after the first event?

The first one we did was Pymble, I think 2020. I didn’t have any expectations. I just wanted to find the controls (more so than winning) and I think that’s still the case today because I love the satisfaction of getting it right! I remember being wowed by how beautiful the area was, the secret bush tracks, but also stunned at how this was in our own neighbourhood but we never knew about it (I went to Macquarie Uni and grew up in the area so it was refreshing experiencing it in a new light).

After the first event, we were hooked. We’ve been to nearly every one since! Also, initially I told myself I was just going to walk but after the first event, then the second and third, it went from walk to fast walk, slow jog, proper jog, run! You just can’t help yourself and the challenge feels great!

I’ll also add too, the first few sessions I was going with another friend and we would joke about just hitting the pub and secretly getting the Uber to pick up all the controls (whilst Monika was running her butt off doing it properly) - but you can see how I’ve gone from being lazy to really working hard and getting right into it now J! What has converted you to becoming regulars?

How it’s different every week, so discovering a new neighbourhood every Wednesday, new secret bush trail, waterfall, swimming spot. Then also discovering a new restaurant every week too because we go find a local place to eat at and debrief afterwards. It was also really fun as we progressively got better, to aim for a new high score every week. We finally reached 400 last season! This season Monika and Mattijs will aim for 500!

Another great thing Monika started doing this season is comparing her route to the winner’s route. So it’s been great having the post-run analysis put up on Facebook for us to compare and learn from each time.

Has your entry into orienteering inspired you to do other similar activities?

Yes! We signed up to the Max Adventure novice course in Blue Mountains in November 2021 and orienteering helped us so much. It’s really improved my fitness. I didn’t even exercise prior to orienteering. Like, nil, zilch. OK, maybe a bit of soccer.

But anyway, after a season of SSS in 2020-21, I remember starting back in my soccer team and I could feel the difference in my fitness straight away! So after Max Adventure we signed up to Wildside 8-hour at Port Macquarie (Dec 2021) and now we plan on doing Gippsland 30-hour in VIC, Max Adventure again (the longer course) among others in 2022 (we have scoured the internet for all ARs coming up in 2022-2023 and created an AR calendar!).

Orienteering has really been the stepping stone into opening up a new type of fitness that suits me. I thought the only way you could become fit was to go to the gym - and considering I fell asleep at a premium gym in Coogee once before - I didn’t think I could ever be one of those fitness babes you see on Instagram. But now I realised I was doing it all wrong!

What would you say to a friend who is curious about ‘this orienteering thing’ that you do?

I’ve been marketing it as a “magical treasure hunt in the forest” or I’d say, “come for a light jog and find some treasure on the way” ha-ha. Most of my friends are busy professionals, so I’d also say it only takes an hour (but I may inadvertently omit telling them about the extra hour of traffic - lol).

Anything else you’d like to say?

A big shoutout and thanks to the SSS organisers, the clubs and other affiliates, and especially the volunteers for the time and effort into creating something so fun, wholesome and inclusive for everyone! I also want to say everyone is super friendly which I love, and we appreciate all the tips we’ve gained (my faves – “don’t run faster than you can think” and “the map never lies”).

Mattijs Spierings, 42 How did you find out about the Sydney Summer Series?

Via friends What were your thoughts before, during and after the first event?

I was curious as to how it would play out. During the event I was laser focused and having fun; after the event I was keen to go again and do better. I was amazed by the scenery of the suburbs we run in.

What has converted you to becoming regulars?

I like trail running. Adding the element of navigation and trying to make the best score out of your plotted course is really fun.

Plus, you see very nice spots in Sydney.

Has your entry into orienteering inspired you to do other similar activities?

Yup, we are now hooked on adventure racing, too.

What would you say to a friend who is curious about ‘this orienteering thing’ that you do?

I would say “Come and join us and have a fun run, see for yourself” MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 31

HIGH-O

The Return of the High-O TRACY MARSH

Andrew Brown running into the last control on Event 1.

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he High-O had been a regular summer event in the NSW Snowy Mountains and Victorian Alps in the nineties and the Albury-Wodonga Orienteering Club (AWOC) brought the event back this summer as a three-day Orienteering event in the ski village of Dinner Plain in the Victorian Alps. The format changed from the traditional 2-day long-distance alpine Orienteering event. This year it was a smorgasbord of five events, for a bargain total entry fee of $50 and over 70 orienteers took part.

I treated myself to the three events on the smorgasbord that didn’t require wheels, whereas my Finnish-Aussie race partner, Virpi Komulainen, treated herself to four races. The first event on 22 January was a Sprint race through Dinner Plain, won by Mace Neve and Ewan Shingler. It took us through the various ski chalets of

Choosing routes at the start.

32 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

Dinner Plain, across playgrounds, amongst snowgums and over skiruns. A MTBO race followed, that Virpi took part in on roller-skis, setting off like a true Flying Finn along the Great Alpine Road towards the first control before the terrain slowed her down a bit.

The maps marked the location for our BBQ later that evening.

Sunday’s third event was in the style of the traditional epic High-O race. Competitors needed to pair up, and the 16- and 19-year-old siblings Ewan and Nea Shingler showed endurance beyond their years to win the long-distance course. Unique control locations included the “stationary kangaroo” (a kangaroo skeleton). Event 4 was another MTBO race, that took racers out past the tent sites where we freecamped at JB Plain. Again we gathered for dinner after the day’s races, this time at the Dinner Plain Hotel.

Tracy Marsh & Virpi Komulainen.

Nea & Ewan Shingler.

Map printed here at 70%

Monday’s fifth and final event was the Keen Relay. Leigh Privett explained how it would all work. The first leg runner would run a 2.8km Sprint around Dinner Plain, hand the map and SI stick to the second leg runner to run the 2.4km Sprint course on the flipside. The map was to be flipped again for both runners to run the final Sprint relay course together, shown in a different colour on side one of the map. But before setting off, we would self-handicap ourselves by lining ourselves up at the 0, +5, +10, +15 or +20 minute signs held up by the AWOC organisers, and make challenges to teams who were giving themselves too beneficial a handicap. The handicapping system worked well - Virpi and I ended up in a 3-way sprint finish. The maximum handicap wasn’t big enough to keep speedy juniors at bay though, with Ewan and Nea winning again.

The High-O was even more fun than the ones I raced in from 1990 to 2000 around Falls Creek and Kiandra. Big thanks to Leigh Privett, Peter Mousley and all of AWOC for reviving the event. It was fantastic to see Hugh Cameron, the first organiser we met as we arrived, running the COVID check-in process. Despite becoming an octogenarian just the day before, and being retired from his Department of Education, OA presidency and IOF Council roles, he was on his feet helping to run the event from beginning to end.

Virpi on roller skis.

Freecamp site at JB Plain.

We hope the High-O is here to stay on the O-calendar. Perhaps there will be a roller-ski or Knockout Sprint race on next January’s smorgasbord menu!

Hugh Cameron welcomes Virpi.

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 33

HIGH-O

Albury Wodonga OC members.

Albury Wodonga OC were the event organisers.

Leigh Privett gives instructions.

Map printed here at 70%

34 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

Control amongst the snow gums.

Map printed here at 90%

Leigh Privett was the key High-O organiser.

Relay change overs....

Bill Vandendool & Carolyn Jackson.

Paul & Julia Prudhoe.

The start.

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 35

NUTRITION

What were the first processed foods?

BY WILLIAM PARK (FROM BBC FUTURE - JUNE 2021)

From putrid water to fizzy cola, food processing gave us preservation, consistency and innovation. So how did it become associated with unhealthy food?

F

rom the moment one innovative ancient human decided to cook their meat on a fire at least 400,000 years ago, to the advent of agriculture 10-15,000 years ago, people have processed foods. Our ancestors fermented (essential for alcohols and dairy products), milled and baked (breads and pasta), and worked out how to preserve meat by salting or brining. The early history of food processing was both useful and tasty.

Food processing was essential to the expansion of human civilisation.

How did it become synonymous with high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt diets? And do the processed foods we eat today bear any resemblance to their original forms?

Each of the early forms of food processing mentioned above has a clear purpose: cooking adds flavour and softens foods – making root vegetables and legumes easier to chew and extract nutrients.

Fermentation, milling and baking also makes some foods more nutritionally available and easier to digest. It’s very difficult for our bodies to extract anything useful from a kernel of wheat, but ferment it into beer or mill it into flour and you can make a calorie-rich food.

Techniques like salting or pasteurisation make foods safer and last longer. This allowed humans to travel further and survive cold winters or harsh famines.

carbonated water (he called it “medicated water”) might prevent scurvy: “In general the disease in which water impregnated with fixed air will most probably be serviceable are those of a putrid nature,” he wrote.

He was wrong. But he had stumbled onto something reasonably useful – carbonated water is slightly acidic, which means it’s a little anti-microbial and therefore goes stale slower than still water.

“Bacteria are not big fans of carbonic acid,” says Michael Sulu, a biochemical engineer at University College London in the UK.

To the approval of the Earl of Sandwich, Priestley’s medicated water was a success. Driven by innovation, medicated waters took off. Early successes included tonic water, infused with quinine from the bark of the cinchona tree, which acted as an antimalarial. Tonic water with quinine was widely drunk by Europeans from the mid-19th Century for this reason (although the antimalarial properties of cinchona bark were known for centuries beforehand by indigenous South Americans).

What happened next is a similar story for many of the highly processed foods on our supermarket shelves.

We still do this today. Much of food processing is about making foods safer and longer-lasting, which is better for the environment as it means less food waste. But clearly some processed foods are very bad for your health. Where did this happen?

The 4th Earl of Sandwich is perhaps best-known for lending his name to two slices of bread with a filling in between. However, he has another claim to a lunchtime staple – soft drinks. Soda, fizzy drinks, pop – whatever you call them, they started life in Britain 250 years ago. The Earl of Sandwich then held the title of First Lord of the Admiralty and oversaw the welfare of Britain’s navy. Early carbonated cola drinks were marketed as health tonics, thanks to the stimulating effect of kola, coca leaves and caffeine.

Sea voyages in the 18th Century were slow, miserable affairs. They might last months away from land and supplies of fresh food and water. The crews relied on their provisions. Water could be stored for weeks or months in the hold (desalination was a nascent science and not yet widely used in the 18th Century) where it festered and went stale. No wonder sailors preferred rum.

In search of a way to make stale freshwater more palatable, Sandwich turned to chemist Joseph Priestley. Natural sparkling water from springs was already consumed for its health benefits – Priestley wanted to manufacture his own. In a 1772 pamphlet, Priestley described a 15-minute method of producing a vessel of “water impregnated with fixed air [carbon dioxide]”. It was his belief that 36 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

cacao beans.

The chocolate we enjoy today is a much more processed and refined food than the one enjoyed by the Aztecs centuries ago

Modern high-sugar soft drinks are “heavily vilified”, says Sulu – far from their good-for-you origins. Likewise, breakfast cereals are far removed from the grains our ancestors milled, and modern chocolate, meats, dairy, even ice cream would be unrecognisable to our ancestors.

So how did we get to this point?

The search for natural extracts with which to fortify sparkling drinks in the 19th Century led to even more exotic medicated waters.

Various companies started to produce stimulating, caffeinated “cola” drinks with extracts from the kola nut. Pepsi-Cola, originally concocted in the 1890s and named “Brad’s Drink”, was a digestive

aid. Its name is thought to be a nod to pepsin, one of the digestive enzymes, or dyspepsia, the scientific name for indigestion, and the cola flavour, though the recipe contained neither kola nut nor pepsin.

“The problem is that, in the past half century, a different type of food processing has been developed” – Fernanda Rauber Coca-Cola, flavoured with kola nut and coca leaves, was first advertised as an “ideal brain tonic” in the late 19th Century. The combination of caffeine and coca leaves made it a stimulating drink.

Coca leaves had been chewed raw or brewed in tea to release their psychoactive agents by indigenous South Americans for centuries.

(Coca-Cola says the drink never contained cocaine, which can be derived from coca leaves).

As customers demanded the same, consistent taste, smells and colours, and as rules and regulations outlawed certain ingredients, food manufacturers had to adapt their products. It was the demand for a consistent tomato relish, for example, which led to the development of Heinz’s ketchup.

corn syrup

In some highly processed foods, natural sugars have been replaced with high-fructose corn syrup, which is highly calorific. Could the taste and texture of a product be recreated with an extract instead of a whole ingredient? Advances in chemistry was making it possible.

And, it could make food cheaper.

“The problem is that, in the past half century, a different type of food processing has been developed,” says Fernanda Rauber, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, about what we now call “ultra-processed foods”. “These substances would not be found in our kitchen. Usually, they contain little to no proportion of real foods.”

“Very commonly, they use what we call cosmetics additives – colours, flavours, thickener, emulsifiers, gelling agents – to improve the sensory properties of the food, to give something to the substance that otherwise would taste like nothing, just plain starch,” says Priscila Machado, a public health nutritionist at Deakin University in Geelong, Australia. “The problem when you think about these substances, in isolation they don’t add anything particularly nutritious to the food. Food is more than the sum of the nutrients they contain.

There are no antioxidants and phytochemicals that we find in whole foods if they are stripped out in processing. “Even when nutrients are added back in, like cereals fortified with iron or fibre, food might not be as healthy as it seems. Added nutrients don’t work as well as those found in whole foods”, she says.

drink became successful because of its coca flavour, not because of its “tonic” effect. Sulu says that some modern food processing is done for aesthetic reasons and not the original reason, which might have become redundant.

Like soft drinks, modern chocolate is far removed from its original iteration. Chocolate originates from ancient Mesoamerica where cacao beans were brewed as a bitter-tasting hot drink. We know broadly how these hot chocolate drinks were prepared by analysing layers of residues absorbed on the insides of Ancient Maya pottery from AD250: the cacao beans were ground, but not to a dry powder as we might expect today, instead to an oily pulp. After brewing, the oils would sit on top of the drink and the bean grit would sink to the bottom creating layers on the inside of cups. Depictions of hot chocolate drinkers in Ancient Maya artworks also reveal that hot chocolate might have been intended for communal use in ceremonies.

The Aztecs made the next chocolate innovation, choosing to drink their chocolate cold and spiced. Separating the butterfat, grinding and roasting the dry bean mass to produce a cocoa powder was an innovation that came later, and might have made it easier to store or transport. By drying the powder, chocolate could be traded as a commodity or shipped across seas. No longer could it only be prepared fresh for ceremonies.

Chemists began experimenting with new reformulations for chocolate as the market for confectionery boomed. It wasn’t until the 1840s that anyone attempted to mass produce a solid chocolate bar by mixing cocoa powder, sugar and cocoa butter.

Today, added sugar contributes to a lot of the health problems that people associate with processed foods (they account for more than 10% of people’s total calories). But it wasn’t always the case. Sugar was a luxury product for a long time. So, why are refined sugars added in such quantity to our processed foods, and why don’t we use more natural sugars such as fructose?

“It’s those phytochemicals – flavonoids, polyphenols – that have the health benefits,” agrees Eileen Gibney, deputy director of the University College Dublin Institute of Food and Health in Ireland.

If you check the ingredients list of a modern Coca-Cola drink you will find only “natural flavours”, the identity of which are a protected secret. Coca-Cola still contained extracts from the coca leaf until at least 1988, even if the cocaine was removed much earlier. The

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 37

NUTRITION

Should we be swapping more refined sugars for those that occur naturally, such as the fructose found in fruit? Finding new ways to structure foods will be an important form of food processing in the future

“Sugars obtained by chemical synthesis, such as high-fructose corn syrup and invert sugar, are common low-cost ingredients of ultra-processed foods,” says Rauber.

“Sugars are used in large quantities by the food industry to give flavour to foods that have had their intrinsic flavours processed out of them and to mask any unpleasant flavours in the final product. These sugars are not only used as sweeteners but have important technological functions in foods, providing texture, bulk, colour and acting as preservative agents.”

It’s true that fruits contain a lot of natural sugar, “but it is surprisingly low for the sweetness that you get,” says Sulu. By comparison, processed confectionery contains more sugars for the same sweet hit.

Much of the sugar is there to cheaply bulk out the processed food.

Sugars, fats and salt have all been the subject of public health campaigns, but as Rauber says, it’s not always simple to remove them from foods where they serve a chemical function.

Take, for instance, emulsions added to low-fat foods to give the mouthfeel of fat, which is widely being regarded as the “sixth taste”. We might need to get used to more processing – though for reasons of public health – in the future as we find ways to keep food fresh and looking its best without these ingredients.

Finding new ways to structure foods will be an important form of food processing in the future, agrees Gibney, as we move towards a plant-based diet. “Plant-based diets are really going to challenge the concept that we are going to process less,” she says. “The nature of having to extract nutrients from plants to create products that consumers will want to taste, feel and smell the same will mean we need to process food. Are we moving away from one kind of food for ethical reasons and moving towards something that is more processed?

“I think that if you look to the future, we are going to have to embrace food processing,” she says.

RECONNECTING YOUTH TO SPORTS CLUBS

Reconnecting young people to sports clubs VICTORIA AND FEDERATION UNIVERSITIES - DEC, 2021

N

ew research shows young people who swapped community sport for bike rides or other unstructured physical activities during COVID-19 lockdowns may not return – unless clubs find new ways to re-engage them.

With closed competitions and cancelled training for most of 2020 and 2021, sport club participation rates in Victoria have plummeted, according to research from Victoria and Federation Universities.

Registration records for the State’s most popular 10 sports, including AFL, cricket, gymnastics, netball, tennis, and swimming, indicate members fell from a 2019 peak of 868,000 -- representing more than 13% of all Victorians -- to about 637,000, or less than 10% in 2020. Just over half of all participants were aged under 14.

VU researcher Professor Rochelle Eime said if clubs could not entice former members to return – and recruit new ones – community sport could lose a generation of people, especially children aged four to nine who showed the biggest drop-off.

“The early adopter group missed out on school PE as well as club sport. Many have not yet developed skills to throw or kick a ball and don’t have much motivation or confidence to join clubs.”

Recruiting this group will require junior clubs to go back to basic skills development in a fun and inclusive environment, she said. “Declining physical literacy of young children has been an issue for years, but the pandemic made it worse. If we don’t do something now, COVID-19’s legacy will be an even wider gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children.”

38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

Another reason for the drop-off may be due to parents who have reassessed time and cost commitments of club sport compared to the less demanding activities that featured during lockdowns – especially those with several kids, she said.

Professor Eime said one solution to address this is for clubs to find flexible ways to involve the family in a range of competition and play formats, including informal sport.

Previous research revealed participants join clubs primarily for enjoyment and socialising, meaning recruitment strategies must emphasise fun over premierships. This is especially true for girls and young women at another critical drop-out stage of adolescence.

Against this backdrop, clubs continue struggling to recruit and retain volunteers who are the lifeblood of these organisations, especially coaches, she said. It is too early for 2021 data, but anecdotal evidence shows some winter sports, such as soccer and AFL, have already started preseason training for 2022, in a signal they are eager to re-engage with their young members in new ways.

VicHealth’s Future Healthy Executive Manager, Kristine Cooney, said participation in physical activity, and the social connection it brings, is more important than ever for the mental and physical wellbeing of young people.

“This new research is another example of how young people have been hardest hit by the pandemic,” Ms Cooney said.

“We must work with sporting clubs and local communities to listen to our young people and understand what they need to be active and socially connected. As we recover from the pandemic, it’s vital we create a Victoria where no young person is denied a future that is healthy, regardless of their postcode, bank balance or background.”

Professor Hans Westerbeek of Victoria University also contributed to the sport participation research project, funded by Sport and Recreation Victoria and the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth).

Healthy Swaps Healthy ingredient swaps to increase fibre intake NSW Institute of Sport While a wide variety of foods can and should make up a highperformance diet, a key nutrient to incorporate to support optimal health is fibre. Fibre plays an important role in optimising gut health, which we know can have a significant influence on other areas of health including mental health and the body’s immune defence.

Fibre can be found in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes,

Nutrition Advice nuts and seeds. Making one or two slightly healthier choices in how you fill your plate each day may help to create more sustainable shifts and encourage long-term change in nutrition habits, rather than feeling like you need to eat ‘perfectly’, all the time. Challenge yourself to find ways to make meals and snacks higher in fibre by using some of the suggestions shown in the chart.

It is important to note that while fibre is a fundamental nutrient for health, if consumed too close to training and/or competition, it may lead to gastrointestinal symptoms in some athletes. Therefore, it is worth trialling different foods and timings around your training sessions to see what works best for you. For some athletes, focusing high fibre foods in meals and snacks away from training may be best to avoid undesirable symptoms that may impact training quality.

Healthy ingredient swaps to positively impact your diet In training, sometimes very small changes to skills or techniques can make all the difference to overall performance.

A slight adjustment of an angle, or timing of a stroke, can have a huge flow-on effect to impact performance.

Nutrition is very similar in that making small modifications to what ingredients are used, or how food is cooked, can impact the quality and health of a meal and your overall diet.

In the chart are a few key ingredient swaps and cooking techniques to adjust and tweak your diet to have a longer-term impact on performance outcomes.

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 39

MTBO

2022 Australian MTBO Championships

Australian MTBO Team Trials

A Carnival for everyone!

Craig Steffens OA Director – Operations & MTBO

W

ith an eye on the 2022 World MTBO Championships to be held in Falun, Sweden from 15-20 July, nominations are now open for riders wishing to try out for the Australian team. If you’re eligible to ride in either W20, M20, M21 or W21 and interested in travelling to Sweden, then check out the team selection criteria on the Orienteering Australia website under Get Involved > High Performance > Selection Criteria.

The selection trials will be held in conjunction with the Australian Championships at Newcastle from 25-27 March. The team will be announced shortly after the selection trials.

T

hird time lucky we hope for the organising team who first tried to run this carnival in 2020 and again on several dates in 2021.

The events will be held in the Kurri Kurri and Neath area, near Newcastle NSW, from 25-27 March 2022.

au s tr al i an

c h am p i o n s h ip s 2022

Kurri Kurri, NSW

There will be four championship races: Mass Start, Sprint, Middle distance and Long distance, plus a warm-up MapRun event on the Thursday.

This event is also Round 1 National MTBO Series.

The event centre and camping is at Cessnock Pony Club grounds at Neath with the Long and Mass Starts events to be held nearby. The Sprint and Middle distance events will be held just a few kilometres away near Kurri Kurri.

All athletes who wish to be considered for selection in the Australian 2022 WMTBOC or JWMTBOC team need to submit a nomination web form by midnight 21st March 2022. The link to the nomination web form is on the last page of the selection criteria document.

If you have any selection queries, contact Craig Steffens: craig.s@orienteering.asn.au (0418871193)

The Australian MTBO team in Denmark in 2019.

The full range of age classes will be offered for the championships, plus some recreational and e-bike classes.

Enter through Eventor where you can also find Bulletin 1 and 2 for all of the details.

Thu 24 Mar Fri 25 Mar Sat 26 Mar Sat 26 Mar Sun 27 Mar

Practice Event MapRun Mass Start Sprint Distance Middle Distance Long Distance

from 1.00pm from 1.00pm from 9.00am from 2.00pm from 9.00am

Killingworth South (near Newcastle) Neath Stanford Merthyr Pelaw Main Neath

Riders starting the first Australian Mass Start Championship in Victoria in 2019.

Bulletin #1

For a sample of the riding in store, check out this video: https://www.facebook.com/ausmtbo/ videos/334224075198606 World MTB Orienteering Championships

Australian MTBO Championships

Junior World MTB Orienteering Championships Falun Sweden July 15-20 2022

40 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

1

Spot the Difference

With the Easter 3 Days coming up followed by a full winter program of bush events it’s time to brush up on your map reading skills again. Here is a complex bush map.

MAP 1 (above) is essentially the original map. MAP 2 (below) contains 25 changes.

Some of the changes will be easy to find and some will not.

CAN YOU FIND ALL 25 ???

MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 41

Spot the Difference

In the December 2021 magazine we gave you a complex Sprint map.

MAP 1 was essentially the original map. MAP 2 contained 25 changes.

Some of the changes were easy to find and some were not.

CAN YOU FIND ALL 25 ???

42 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

THE DECEMBER SOLUTION. There were 25 differences between MAP 1 and MAP 2. DID YOU FIND ALL 25 ???

The solutions to the December puzzle are shown here.

pretex Jim Russell

Ph. 0411 125 178 jymbois@gmail.com

NEW SHIPMENT ARRIVING SOON, GET YOUR ORDER IN EARLY TO BEAT THE PRICE RISE. https://goo.gl/t81zFf

MAPPING & COURSE SETTING SOFTWARE Thank you my OCAD customers who trusted me with their orders and first line support since 2012.

I have retired as AUS/NZL reseller of OCAD Inc’s great cartographic editions.

I have really enjoyed assisting you in order evaluation and first line trouble shooting.

Of note - what other cohort outside orienteering would never deliver a cross word to their supplier over a decade?

The OCAD crew will continue to be as supportive and innovative for its users as it has been for me as reseller.

And the buying transition is eased as they now offer multiple methods of payment.

Haere ra! See ya!

in the forests and fields of Down Under.

www.ocad.com info@ocad.com support@ocad.com MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 43

O-SPY

Introducing the Bluebottles, the NSW Junior Squad

N

SW Junior Development Squad has a new name and logo - the Bluebottles.

O-SPY O in Tasmania turns 50

2

022 marks the 50th anniversary of the first orienteering event held in Tasmania - on September 9, 1972 at The Lea, Hobart. 2022 is also the 30th anniversary of the very successful Veteran World Cup event held in St Helens which attracted almost 1700 competitors from 23 countries.

The squad is the gateway to the NSW Schools Team and eventually the elite National League team, the Stingers.

The Bluebottles name, logo and new T-shirt design were all driven by the junior squad which is always on the lookout for new recruits. Squad members must be at least in Year 6, and either already doing Moderate courses or looking to move up to Moderate level (where you learn to go cross-country).

The squad is a great chance for junior orienteers to make new friends, develop their skills and travel around the State. Camp costs are kept down by camping or staying in bunk accommodation, and everyone pitches in for food.

“We love having parents help at our camps, and we encourage them to have a go at the activities as well,” said Bluebottles manager Helen O’Callaghan. “There is a such a good, fun atmosphere in the squad and the kids have a fantastic time.”

For all enquiries, please contact Helen via woolfordfamilyhome@gmail.com

Australia’s Beijing Winter Olympic Team – A West Australian connection

C Scottish 6 Days

ongratulations go to Don Young’s grandson, Lars Young-Vik, who has been named in the Australian Olympic Team to compete in the 15km cross country event at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The cross country event was held on 11th February.

I

n 2023 the Scottish 6 Days returns to Moray from Sun 30 July to Friday 4 August, but as a five-day event with four days to count and a “rest” day in the middle. The reason for this is the difficulty in finding six good areas without undue travel, the strain on Scottish orienteers, and a lot of accommodation is now Friday to Friday.

Many Aussies have made the trip to Scotland in past years and it’s unlikely that the changes will deter them in 2023, travel restrictions permitting.

Believe it or Not

O

n US ABC TV (which you can watch on SBS), two of the weather forecasters are named Ginger Zee and Danielle Breezy.

44 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

Lars Young-Vik representing Norway at JWOC 2021.

When was the last time you saw a 7 month old on the Overland Track?

O

n a 24hr whim, Graham, Nikolas and Hanny decided to hike the Overland Track. Over four days they hiked the 82km from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair in Tasmania’s highlands. Nervous at first, it brought them closer as a family and resulted in a memory of a lifetime to be hatched. (from Find Your Feet publication)

Cartoon from a 1984 Orienteering Queensland newsletter. (Submitted by former OQ Newsletter editor Trevor Sauer - Sunshine Orienteers, QLD.)

Breakdancing to debut at 2024 Paris Olympics

W

ith two years until the Paris Olympics, Japanese breakdancers are hoping the street dance genre’s inclusion in the world’s largest multisport event can boost its popularity and increase recognition of Japan’s status as a global powerhouse.

Japan’s breakdancing community has been stepping up preparations for the quadrennial Games’ return to the French capital, aiming to ride the wave of success from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where Japanese athletes achieved a record medal haul.

Olympics, there may be many people who are not familiar with it, but I think that may change if a Japanese dancer manages to win gold,” she said.

At the Olympics, dancers — known as b-boys and b-girls — will go face-toface in solo battles and be judged in the Place de la Concorde, a major public square on the bank of Paris’s Seine river that will also be home to other urban sports — 3×3 basketball, skateboarding and BMX freestyle.

In “breaking,” as the discipline is widely known, dancers improvise to music played by a DJ, pulling off stylized footwork and body-bending acrobatics such as head spins and legspread windmills. About five decades after it developed in the nascent New York City hip-hop scene, the 2024 Paris Olympics will feature 32 dancers competing over two medal events, one per gender.

“The attraction of breaking is that each dancer has unique and individual dance styles. I can never get enough of it,” said Ramu Kawai, a 20-year-old dancer who captured two gold medals at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. “I hope there comes a day when everybody knows breaking. Until the Paris MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 45

Letters The Australian Orienteer welcomes letters.

Preference will be given to letters which are concise and which make positive points. The editor reserves the right to edit letters, particularly ones which are longer than 300 words.

The Carnival that Never Will Be

A

ustralians were extremely disappointed when the Australian Orienteering Championships and the Australian Schools Championships were cancelled for the second year in a row, due to COVID. What surprised me was that there was no mention of the carnival that was staged by OTAS as an alternative for those who were able to safely visit Tasmania.

(Perhaps I should not have been surprised as others were doubtless thinking, like me, that someone else would do it). At any rate, OTAS, with good humour and undoubtedly a lot of hard work and last minute changes to their original plans, did provide ‘The Carnival that Never Will Be’. This was a carnival of 6 events that provided good fun and good orienteering for those who participated. These included 32 WA orienteers who decided to stay flexible and make the most of the changed carnival.

Control numbers on maps

A

word of warning to all orienteers. The numbering of controls on maps at most events can lead to serious error.

While the number 1 is printed European style, with a large serif (tag) at the top, the number 7 is inexplicably printed in English style, i.e. without the crossbar found on the European 7.

How this came about I can’t imagine, but the result is that the 1 and the 7 resemble each other, not dramatically, but enough that it is possible to confuse them if the course has crossovers.

If you think this is silly, let me confess that twice in a moment of brain fade I have gone to the wrong one because of this resemblance. And there aren’t many orienteers who can claim to have never had brain fade.

The obvious answer is to make the 7 a European one with a crossbar, as it should be. Unless this happens, it is wise to be aware of the present danger.

Trevor Sauer – Sunshine Orienteers QLD

The events started with a Sprint at UTAS, Launceston.

This was followed by the Tasmanian Middle Distance Championships at Avoca. The action then moved to Bosses Rocks near St Helens, where an unusual Score event was on offer. Like a regular score event, participants had to visit as many controls as possible in the allocated time. The difference (an additional difficulty) was that runners had to start with only even OR odd numbered controls. They could change from odd to even or even to odd only once, and that was after punching a transition control. Imagine the impact on route choice!

The next three events made up the Turbo Chook series. The first was a Sprint along the waterfront at Bicheno with the following two at different parts of the challenging Mt Pearson map. Participants could choose from seven courses ranging from hard to easy navigation standard.

Points for places were accumulated to determine the series winner for each course. For the curious: turbo chooks does not refer to orienteers running in circles like headless chooks, but is the name given by Tasmanians to actual, fastrunning, birds. Stuffed toy turbo chooks decorated some of the orienteering sites and some very cute ones were handed out as spot prizes.

The WA contingent of orienteers would like to thank OTAS and congratulate all those involved for a well-run and most enjoyable orienteering carnival. It certainly provided us with a different and very pleasant orienteering experience.

Janet Fletcher – Orienteering WA Vice President 46 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2022

HANDYMAN For stockist call 1800 808 971 MAKERS OF THE ORIGINAL SWISS ARMY KNIFE | ESTABLISHED 1884

VICTORINOX AWARD This issue’s Victorinox Award goes to Ann & John Scown (ACT) for their assistance in distributing the magazine in the ACT over many years..

They will receive a Victorinox Handyman which includes 24 tools and features – retail value $139.

Top Events 2023

2022 Mar 12-14

Melbourne Sprint Weekend + NOL

April 7-10 May 13-16

AUS 3 Days Carnival, ACT World Masters MTBO Champs Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia

Mar 25-27

June 17-18

April 2-3

Australian MTBO Champs Kurri Kurri, NSW, mtbo.orienteering.asn.au Canberra NOL events (forest)

April 15-18 Easter

AUS 3 Days Carnival + NOL, Queensland

April 23-25

Gold Coast NOL Sprint Weekend Queensland

May 11-17

World Orienteering Day

May 13-29 POSTPONED

WMOC & World Masters Games near Kobe, Kansai Prefecture, Japan www.wmg2021.jp/en/ QB3 Wagga Wagga, NSW

2023 Jukola Relays Porvoo, SE Finland.

JWOC 2023, Romania Forest WOC 2023 Flims, Switzerland O-Ringen 2023, Åre, Sweden Scottish 6 Days (actually 5 days) Moray, Scotland WMOC 2023, Slovakia WMTBOC & JWMTBOC Jicin, Czech Republic AUS Championships, WA

June 11-13

June 18-19

June 26-30

July 3-8 July 15-17

July 11-16

July 11-16

Fin 5 week Orimattila, Lahti & Hollola, Finland

July 15-20

WMTBOC & JWMTBOC Falun, Sweden https://wmtboc2022.se O-Ringen 2022 Uppsala, Sweden

Aug 7-12 Sept 2-4 Sept 24 Oct 2 Sept 15-20

Dec 27-31

July 23-29 July 30 Aug 4 August 11-18 August 18-27 September 2024 Mar 29-Apr 1 Easter June 28-30

2022 Jukola Relays Mynämäki, SW Finland Sprint WOC 2022 Denmark (near Velje, Jutland) woc2022.dk 54th Kainuu Orienteering Week Puolanka, Finland 2022 World Games Birmingham, Alabama, USA www.theworldgames2021.com/ WMOC 2022 Vieste (Gargano, Puglia) Italy www.wmocitaly.eu JWOC 2022 Aguiar da Beira, Portugal

July 12-17

July 24-30

July 2-9 July 11-16

Lakes District 5 Days, UK City of London Race weekend, UK AUS Championships Daylesford - Kyneton, Victoria aoc.orienteering.asn.au World Masters MTBO Champs Targovishte, Bulgaria Xmas 5 Days NSW (venue tba) www.onsw.asn.au/xmas-5-days

July 21-27 Sept 9-16 Dates TBA Oct 24-Nov 3

AUS 3 Days Carnival, World Masters MTBO Champs Viborg, Denmark O-Ringen 2024 Smålandskusten, Sweden WMTBOC & JWMTBOC Bulgaria Oceania & AUS Champs Carnival Armidale, NSW 2024 WMOC Antalya, Turkey

The UK’s Orienteering Magazine Packed with maps, event reports, coaching tips and advice, MTBO, Mountain Marathons/Rogaining, Competitions and much much more.

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RC#5 Fixtures Silvanus Jukola 2021 Competitions Safety Spotlight GB Elites abroad WOC 2021 Races World Masters 2021 Where are all the 21s MTBO British Champs Allerdale Bike Challenge

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MARCH 2022 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 47

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