Author Archives: Jim Russell

‘Twas the first official race in the club’s orienteering year,
Before midday the first runners began to appear.

They came from Bendigo, Melbourne and overseas,
Ready to take on the spiderwebs between the trees.

One third of all runners took part on course one,
Ahead of Mikkel, Aston and Ben, Brodie has won.

Lots set out on the loops of course two,
Morten, Andrew and Nic were the top few.

The mapper Alex showed up for course three,
He had a win. Next in line was Raelee.

Yarra Valley did well on course number four,
But at the end of the day Jacqui came to the fore.

The kids all did well on course number five,
Ashley, Hugo and Isobel were in overdrive.

There were newcomers to the club who were out for a run,
I hope they found their way and had lots of fun.

Thanks to everyone who helped put on the event.
The satisfaction rate was close to 100 per cent.

Thanks for indulging my April Fools jest,
I think the idea was one of my best.

RESULTS | SPLITS

Clare & Charles

The weather forecast for Bendigo is fine, sunny, and mid 20s both days – perfect. The organisers will not be providing water at the events on Saturday. Remember to bring your own.

SATURDAY

Please be aware that the competition areas for both events on Saturday are Out of Bounds except when competing. No exceptions.

Make sure you follow the 3-step entry process – 1. Pay; 2. Collect SI AIR stick; 3. Enter your course via the Touch screen. Failure to miss any one step will result in disqualification. Note: if you are competing in both races today, you only need to pay and enter ONCE, in the morning. You will receive two Start tickets, one for each race.

You MUST use your rented SI Air stick for the whole weekend, and return it after the Champs. Loss or damage incurs a replacement fee of $105. If you own an SI AIR stick, we will contact you separately as you do not need to rent one.

Course closure times will be strictly enforced today, to enable us to pack up and relocate between races.

Saturday morning – SIS Race 6, Bendigo South East College.

Register from 10.30am, start any time from 11am-12.15pm.

Clothing & Footwear: Running shoes and shorts are appropriate. Shoes with spikes or metal studs are not allowed.

Out of Bounds except when competing: All areas of the campus, including surrounding footpaths, are Out of Bounds except when competing. Please remain within the taped registration/parking area at all times.

Warm-up can be undertaken via the footpath east along Ellis Street (right when exiting the campus). Cross Sharon Street (take care) and continue east on public footpaths around the La Trobe University campus.

Saturday afternoon – SIS Race 7, South Star (Eaglehawk).

Register ONLY if you did not race in the morning. Start any time from 3pm-4.15pm. South Star is an approx. 20 min drive from SE College (14 mins from central Bendigo). Please factor this into your travel time. If using an in-car navigation system, the destination is Brewery Road, Sailors Gully.

Clothing & Footwear: Full leg cover is recommended and Orienteering shoes are appropriate

Out of Bounds except when competing: All areas of the forest that are bordered by Peg Leg Rd, Brewery Rd, Lethebys Rd, Lester St and Sailors Gully Rd are out of bounds.

Warm-up can be undertaken along Brewery Road.

SUNDAY

Please read the Event Information Sheet. Start lists are published on Eventor.

Our use of the venue is conditional on obeying Out of Bounds rules. The Fairplay rule – no entering, crossing, jumping over or reaching across – will be strictly enforced. There will be marshals on the course and they will not hesitate to disqualify anyone breaking the rules.

After the race, stay around for the Presentations, bring a picnic, and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. For those staying on in Bendigo, have a go at the Park Street Challenge – a 45 minute score event starting at 5pm.

Debbie Dodd

Bendigo’s MTBO event on the 3rd July started at our house in Castlemaine. Competitors had to ride 1km to get to the start but it offered a flat ride for those who did the scatter event with lots of great single track riding. Other courses traveled north over the Castlemaine Muckleford Rd that was used the week before for the Interwinter series between 4 local mountain bike clubs. The terrain north was very hilly with lots of single tracks offering a lot of route choice .

The new SI system worked well and the results were displayed on a screen back at our house as well as coffee and tea to warm everyone after the event. We had a competitor from Sydney that had come to do the double header for the weekend as they love the mountain biking that Victoria offers .

We had great help on the Sunday from Peter and Di Searle, John Chellew, Jason and Harrison Carter as well as Jim Russell who set up the results system and picking up controls .

Course Setter and Organiser: Peter & Judy Hill

Friday’s cold and wet conditions gave way to a magnificent, sunny Saturday to greet the 62 eager competitors who ran in the flat and largely open terrain of Longlea Forest for Bendigo Orienteers’ 12th bush event of the year.

Participants came from far afield: Melbourne, Ballarat, Kyneton and Rochester, as well as many Bendigo locals. The flatness and openness could lead astray anyone who didn’t keep very good contact with their map. In spite of this, some very fast times were recorded.

On the courses with difficult navigation Ben Goonan won the 7.6 km Course 1, followed by Simon Rouse and Belinda Lawford. Ben clocked up an impressive km rate of 4. minutes. Course 2 was won by Chris Naunton, followed by Andrew Cameron and Nic Cherry while Peter Hill, Jacqui Knee and young Serryn Eenjes took the placings on Course 3.

The Moderate course was won by Richard Bills, followed by Jarrod Martin and Oliver Martin. Angus Martin took out Course 5.

Thanks to Neil Barr for help with the computers on the day and beforehand.

Course Setter and organiser: Charles Brownridge

The Queen’s Birthday Weekend saw Yarra Valley Orienteers and Bendigo Orienteers host events 3 and 4 of this year’s state series at the renowned Mt. Kooyoora State Park. Yarra Valley set a series of middle distance courses on the Saturday and Andrew Cameron and Craig Feuerherdt set a series of long distance courses for the event hosted by Bendigo on Sunday. Congratulations must go to Andrew and Craig for their terrific courses that demanded a high level of skill from all competitors. Many thanks to Peter Searle for the very thorough job he did overseeing the course setting and guiding a novice organiser through many and varied hoops. I would also like to thank the club members who were very willing to pitch in and make the event a success.

Course 1 was just over 12km long with local runner Leon Keely coming home first in 1:48:28 in an average km time of 9 minutes exactly. This was an excellent performance in very tough and demanding terrain. Brodie Nankervis was next home 4 minutes later followed by Bruce Arthur and Patrick Jaffe, both just over the 2 hour mark. The tough nature of the terrain is shown by the fact that only half the field of 14 completed the course.

Sixteen runners started the 7.4 km M2 course with Warren Key winning comfortably in 1:14:34 from Dion Keech. Bendigo juniors Lachlan Cherry and Glenn James performed really well to come in 3rd and 4th in just under 2 hours. Natasha Key was first home in the W2 class over the 7.4 course in 1:25:26 followed closely by Aislinn Prendergast, with Lanita Steer in 3rd place. All 3 ran very competitive times.

David Colls from the Yarra Valley club was well ahead of his competition running the 6.1 km M3 course in 1:05:03 followed by Ted van Geldermalsen and Vic Sedunary. Local runner Clare Brownridge had an excellent run to win the W3 class from Carolyn Jackson and promising Bendigo junior Leisha Maggs.

The largest field of the day started in the M4 class and veteran Alex Tarr showed the benefit of experience in the tough terrain coming in ahead of locals Warwick Williams and Andrew Wallace. Alexandra Sinickas was first home in the 4.5 km long W4 class from Margi Freemantle and Pru Dobbin.

First home in the M5 class was Peter Prime from Greg Cates and Blake Gordon. A large field contested the W5 class with Sue Key leading in Kathryn Tarr and Dale Ann Gordon.

Ian Dodd beat a small field over the 2.1km M6 course with 2 locals Ralee Enjes and Caitlyn Steer coming first and second in the W6 category.

Mason Arthur and Serryn Enjes won the M7 and W7 classes, while Torren Arthur and Luca Bogdanovits had victories in the M8 and W8 classes. Luke Feuerherdt and Emma Cates both showed excellent speed to win the M9 and W9 classes in good time.

Results For Saturday are HERE Splits are HERE Win Splits are HERE.

Results For Sunday are HERE Splits are HERE Win Splits are HERE.

Next Bendigo event is at Mandurang.

Rob Clark, Organiser

And Finally

For those who competed at the recent event at Apollo Hills, here is a small article written by Don Cherry, that has been published on a American website

Clear skies and a cool breeze welcomed orienteers to the Borhoney Ghurk forest near Elaine, SE of Ballarat on Sunday. A moderate crowd of over 170 representing all of Victoria’s O clubs turned out for the annual Middle distance championships. Nillumbik were the organisers, and while it was challenging to fit in the cars around the trees and numerous tracks and battles with the masses of European wasps, the event seemed to run quite well.

Results Tent

Jim provided the O-lynx digital setup and the results tent was an ever popular viewing site(see the photo). Thirty Bendigo club members ran on the day participating in 18 of the 34 classes on offer. Seven club members were first in their categories – Eleanor (W10), Serryn (W14), Karina (W16), Alison (W65), Michael (M16), Don (M50) and Tony (M65). A further 4 achieved 2nd – Caitlyn (W14), Glenn (M16), Darren (M45) and Peter (M75) with 4 also getting 3rd – Henry (M16), Lachlan (M17-20), Ben (M21) and Neil (M60). Well done to all!

The maps all showed quite a bit of green and combined with the old mine workings, numerous bike trails, erosion gullies and sharp steep climbs it was a challenging yet enjoyable event. A few thick patches of scrub and the piles of washed river gravel in the workings made navigation and footwork a physical workout.

Next Bendigo event is at Peter the Great Gully.

Don Cherry

A year to date record of 85 entries today saw really good conditions in the bush south of Crusoe Reservoir, Bendigo. This is mostly fast running bush but the course setter (John Wilkinson) used a lot of old gold mining terrain and eroded gullies to hide his controls. This also made the courses interesting and wet for those brave enough to cross the wide water channel in pursuit of a quicker time.

By early afternoon the rain had cleared. Unfortunately for John it was quite wet when he put out controls on Friday. Fastest in course 1 was Leon Keely with a time of 31.41 min for the 7 km, closely followed by Natasha Key (35.23) and Ben Goonan (35.59).

Course 2 was also close, won by Jimmy Cameron (34.09), Shayne Hill (35.06). The fastest lady on course 2 was Julie Flynn (who also braved the water channel). Course 3 was won by Toph Naunton (25.10). Peter Hill and Leisha Maggs came second and third respectively.

Best in course 4 was Oliver Martin followed by Rick and Alison McDonald.
Lachlan Feuerherdt was fastest on course 5 followed by brother Joshua.

Well done to everyone. We hope you enjoyed yourselves. Thanks to those people who stayed behind to collect controls. This area is really interesting but because it is entirely fenced all controls had to be carried in/out by foot or bike.

Results are HERE Splits are HERE Win Splits are HERE. Next Bendigo event is at Chewton.

Leon’s preparation pre Ultra long, that includes other shoes, just in case, and with the spoils of victory

John Wilkinson/ Jenny Ball

The fantastic weather at Bendigo’s most recent event held at Kangaroo Gully meant that many Orienteers showed up eager for a run. 72 competitors over the 5 courses meant that we even went short a few maps.

David Brownridge held up 1^st place over a 7.1km course 1, closely followed by Jim Russell, 50 seconds down from the winner. Young Louis Cameron came in 3^rd, giving a respectable time only another 3mins 50sec down from Jim.

In the 6km course 2 we saw Jimmy and Andrew Cameron holding 1^st and 2^nd respectively with Nigel McGuckian coming in 3^rd in the wide field consisting of 23 competitors. Neil Barr gave us an insight to his route choices which can be seen DOMA, following the link.

Another wide field in course 3 with 23 competitors didn’t intimidate young Jack Wigney finishing first in the 3.6km course with a time of 37:44 and Jacqui Knee came in only 45seconds behind him, giving her 2^nd place. 3^rd place was achieved by Charles Brownridge with a respectable time only 2mins behind Wigney.

Course 4 winners ‘The A Team’ finished in a convincing win with a lead of close to 7mins over Campbell James, with Raelee Eenjes coming in with a worthy 3^rd place.

Course 5 was won by New Comer Michael Chan followed closely by young Harrison Carter putting in a good show only 4mins 37secs down from Chan. Akira Hill also competing well, bringing in 3^rd place.

From an organising perspective Glenn James, Nic, Don and myself were very happy with how the day unfolded. A big thanks is due to Jim for providing the gear for electronic entering/downloading which allows us almost instant results online, also many thanks to the helpers who collected controls and helped pack up at the end of the day.

Wishing everyone good luck for next weekend’s event organised by Michael Loughnan at Bird Reef.

Results are HERE Splits are HERE Win Splits are HERE. Next Bendigo event is at Birds Reef.

Lachlan, Nic and Glenn getting ready to put out the Controls

Lachlan Cherry

Autumn has arrived, and so has the Bendigo Orienteering season. Mandurang was the setting for the 1st event this year, with a feature of the map, the Coliban Water channel, that the Course Setter Peter Forbes had to ‘bridge’ in a couple of places, so contestants didn’t get there shoes wet.

Craig ‘Fleet of Foot’ Feuerherdt, was to fast for the rest of the field on the 7.2 k course 1, putting more than 3 mins into Ben Goonan in 2nd place, with Simon Rouse (Dandenong Ranges) rounding out the podium. Lachlan Cherry showed us some of the form that we saw at the To-Day, easily winning course 2 by more than 5 mins. So good was his K rate, he would have placed 4th on course 1. Young Jimmy was the only one able to break the Cherry trifecta, with Nic Cherry in 3rd, just 14 secs quicker than his Father. Leisha Maggs showed a clean set of heel to her competitors, getting around the course, 4 mins behind Don.

On Course 3, Warwick Williams was the ‘Trophy hunter’ taking out all comers by nearly 9 mins. Peter Hill was his closest competitor, with young Rueben Cameron taking out 3rd place. Serryn Eenjes won the ‘close one’ just edging out Katherine McMillan, and Raelee Eenjes. There was less than a min covering these 3 girls. The Group of Sam/Mark/James had a easy win on course 4, with the young boys, Ben English just edging out Lachlan Feuerherdt for 2nd place. Jan Baxter wasn’t far behind, was the best of the Girls.

Course 5 saw the Adams sisters challenge each other, with Hannah getting the edge over Claire by 11 secs. Newcomers, Rob and Shirley Fisher did well at there 1st event, getting 3rd place. They even went out again, this time on the harder course 4, coming in about mid field.

No event next week, as the Australian 3 Days are on in Canberra. We wish all Bendigo competitors the best of luck at these Championships.

Results are HERE Splits are HERE Win Splits are HERE. Next Bendigo event is the Golden Sand-shoe.

Jim Russell

The site for this years’ To Day events were the streetscape and local bushland at Heathcote. Big Thanks to Jim and helpers for putting on a great double event, including linking it into the Heathcote Community Games. This meant that the event was highlighted to the locals with several participating in a Come and Try option on Saturday evening. A follow-up event will be on next weekend too.

The sprint on Saturday included portions of the health centre precinct and the local primary school before heading down through the town centre to the sports fields. Plenty of route choice options were on offer and careful attention to gaps between buildings and fences meant the difference between good and average times. The Sunday Hagaby started along McIvor Creek before climbing into the rising ground to the east with some controls placed amongst the showground and other buildings. Portions of the A and B courses lead orienteers further up into the hills for some loops amongst the steep and scrubby forest. The 2 map courses also meant that orienteers retraced their steps across the rocky ridge line before descending to the final leg into the finish.

Course A attracted 27 competitors for both days, with a further 7 participating on Saturday or Sunday only. This course was won by visiting British orienteer Ralph Street, separated by just seconds from local Leon Keely in a close race. Simon Uphill (OHS) also placed well, with Natasha Key (MFR) best placed female over the two days in 14th.

Course B attracted 15 over the two days, but a further 16 ran either Saturday or Sunday only. Aston Key (MFR) dominated in both Sprint and Hagaby, well ahead of second place Even Fossum (BKV), with Andrew Cameron (BGV) in 3rd. Best female was another visitor from the UK, Kitty Bray in 5th just ahead of Leisha Maggs (BGV).

Course C saw a smaller field with 9 participating on both days and a further 11 who ran on either day. Sarah Davies (DRV) won ahead of Karina Cherry (BGV), with third place taken by the first male Dennis Mews(BKV) a couple minutes ahead of Magnus Fossum (BKV).

The event attracted about 85 orienteers in all with 31 Bendigo club members participating. Several others were present as spectators or helpers at some point. Well done.

Don Cherry

Pat Jaffe on his way to 3rd place in the Sprint