2020 NSW Sprint Championships

Garingal has achieved a fantastic array of class wins and placings, as shown below: 21 first places, 6 seconds, 5 third places in classes spanning ages from under 10 years to over 75 years.  What an amazing sport is orienteering!  The parklands in Botany presented a picturesque setting, even with a sculpture zoo [photos taken from SHOO FB page]!  The extensive tracks and grasslands led to some fast performances.

1^st Place:  Nicola McConaghy W10A, Anneke Corry W14A, Iida Lehtonen W16A, Aniko Fozo-Kertesz W35A, Toni Bachvarova W45A, Barbara Hill W50A, Sue Thomson W75A.  Wendy McConaghy W45AS, Barbara Dawson W55AS, Barbara Junghans W65AS.  Kirsten Horley WOpenB.  Eamon Corry M12A, Timothy McConaghy M14A, Cooper Horley M16A, Riley Grainger M18A, Tom Kennedy M20A, Toby Wilson M21A, Jim Merchant M75A, Ian Jessup M55AS, Dennis Sparling M65AS.

2^nd Place:  Lilja Lehtonen W14A, Ben McConaghy M12A, Aidan Dawson M21A, Eino Lehtonen M/W10N, Miia Lehtonen WOpenB, Juha Lehtonen MOpenB.

3^rd Place:  Melissa Annetts W21A, Nikolett Halmai W35A, Clare Netherton W45A, Andrew Smith M35A, Peter Annetts M50A.

Garingal's own Awards

Garingal conducts a 'Garingal Club Champion' competition to look for our top member in eventing.  Jim Merchant is the statistician behind this, and keeps a mammoth data base of GO'ers participation.  As every event that one enters counts, it is not simply a matter of winning your class at a couple of top rating events.  For 2019 our Club Champion is Toby Wilson.  Toby is passionate about his orienteering and very deserved of the Award.  For Juniors, we have the Garingal Most Improved Junior Award.  This perpetual trophy went to Cooper Horley.  Cooper is certainly on a steep trajectory with his orienteering.  Our Junior Encouragement Award went to Lilja Lehtonen, as she is developing her O-skills beautifully.

Our final award is the Silver Hare Award.  This was donated in the early '80s by Garingal member Moira Whiteside as a means of honouring those people who are essential to the sport: the volunteers who make it all happen.  So what has Peter been doing?  He works behind the scenes to print pretty well all the maps we use.  He can work to incredibly short timelines when things go wrong, he detects mistakes the course planner missed, he always has a smile. And now that the event booklets have been dropped, he ensures that every map has an up-to-date listing of upcoming events on its flip side.

Australian University O Championships

Congratulations to Duncan Currie who WON the Men's 20E class at the Australian University Championships held at Deakin University held a couple of weekends ago in Melbourne.  Duncan's kilometre rate was 4.03 minutes per km!

Wrap up of the 2019 ONSW Awards

Garingal's own Ian Jessup was awarded the ONSW Encouragement Award at the end of 2019.

This is presented to an orienteer across NSW who makes efforts to encourage other orienteers by both personal efforts and example. The award is also known as the Cox's Cup as it was generously donated by Bryony and Tim Cox of Garingal. 

Ian works part time for ONSW, but he goes above and beyond to ensure that we are making the best efforts to provide opportunities for newcomers to enjoy our sport.  Ian runs the Level O coaching courses, in many cases to school teachers with little real understanding of the potential of orienteering.  Ian also puts his heart into his runs at events and clearly encourages by example.  Congratulations Ian!