Easter at Molong 2021 proved to be a huge challenge due to the black dots and lines sprinkled like 100's and 1000's all over the map.
Take your hats off to the following Garingalites who had podium finishes on one or more of the days, and especially to Istvan, Niki, Ian, Aniko and Cooper for a podium finish overall.
Notably, Cooper was running up an age class in order to have a challenge.
Day 1: 1st: Istvan Kertesz (M35A) and Ian Jessup (M55AS) 2nd: Aniko Fozo-Kertesz (W35A) and Peter Fozo (M35AS). 3rd: Nikolett Halmai (W35AS) and Jim Merchant (M75A)
Day 2: 1st: Nikolett Halmai (W35AS) 2nd: Ian Jessup (M55AS), James Lithgow (M65A) and Keiran Joseph (MOpenB) 3rd: Istvan Kertesz (M35A), Aniko Fozo-Kertesz (W35A), Cooper Horley (M16A) and Angus Leung (M20A)
Day 3: 1st: Istvan Kertesz (M35A), Cooper Horley (M16A) and Keiran Joseph (MOpenB) 2nd: Nikolett Halmai (W35AS), Peter Fozo (M35AS), Ross Barr (M75A) 3rd: Angus Leung (M20A)
Overall: 1st: none 2nd: Istvan Kertesz (M35A), Nikolett Halmai (W35AS) and Ian Jessup (M55AS) 3rd: Aniko Fozo-Kertesz (W35A) and Cooper Horley (M16A)
Photos: Istvan, Niki, Ian (thanks to Tony Hill).
At the Garingal's 2020 Christmas Party - held this afternoon at Manly Dam - the Perpetual Trophy for the 'Most Improved Junior in 2020' was awarded to Riley Grainger. The Junior Encouragement Award Medal goes to Kieran Joseph. The Silver Hare perpetual trophy was awarded to Warwick Selby for running our events calendar for several years now (over a dozen non-SSS events per year that he finds the Course Planner, often also an Organiser, and a Controller - no mean feat). The Silver Hare was donated nearly four decades ago by Garingal member Moira Whiteside who believed that the people behind the scenes contributing to the organisation of events should be recognised too. The list of awardees on the base of the Silver Hare is a veritable who's who of Garingalites. Photos L to R: Riley Grainger, Kieran Joseph, Warwick Selby (all courtesy of Tony Hill).
The awarding of the overall Garingal Champion for 2020 has been held over until after the results of the 2020 NSW Middle and Long Championships being held at Eugowra the week after Easter are known. This way the profile of Garingal events that count toward the Club Championships will better represent the typical nature of orienteering across a year (distorted of course by the coronavirus situation).
Garingal life member and Sydney Summer Series founder/organiser Ross Barr is the ONSW Volunteer of the Year for 2020.
This is a fitting award as Ross celebrates the 30th year of the SSS, arguably the greatest local innovation in orienteering.
He has led the series since its conception as visionary, chief organiser and mentor (to course setters, organisers, competitors), not to mention feature reporter (in the weekly SSS blog where his exceptional prose and knowledge of the fine arts shine through).
Ross has also been a mapper and course setter for Garingal for many years, including for national events. He also writes periodically for The Australian Orienteer magazine on various topics.
This award makes it a neat handful of major ONSW awards: he received the President’s Award in 1996 and the Encouragement Award in 2006, and was twice named Course Setter of the Year (2015 and 2011). At a national level he was awarded the David Hogg Medal for Services to Orienteering in 2013.
Ross has also been recognised outside of orienteering, being named the Sport NSW Community Sport Administrator in 2016. He is a volunteer extraordinaire.
