Cross Country - Training for orienteering?

The State Cross Country saw some of our brightest NSW Orienteers from across the state get together and Garingal had a phenomenal 5 representatives!

Look at the times and rankings these teenagers produced....

Eamon Corry: 3km in a blistering 10:25, 3rd overall U13, 1st from a Government School. WOW, this guy can move!

Anneke Corry: 4km in 18:00, 31st Overall U16, 12th from a Govenment School

Cooper Horley: 6km in 20:49, 16th Overall, U16 6th from a Government School

Steven Horrocks: 6km in 22:03 38th Overall U17, 18th from a Government School

Eszter Kocsik: 6km in 25:05, 18th Overall U18, 5th from a Government School.

Congratulations to all. You have done your state proud (and your orienteering club)!

Addendum: Cooper Horley has been selected for the U17 NSW State Team to race at the Australian Cross Country Championships in August.

OA 2021 Silva Award for Coaching Services

Congratulations to Barbara Dawson (Garingal) who has won Orienteering Australia's Silva Award for Services to Coaching. Barbara has done long-term work in schools in NSW and at local club events, and contributed to the National Schools Kit Project. She has also been a stalwart at the River and Bay Series as the lead coach for newcomers and in helping other club members in instructing first-timers. This award caps a big six months for Barbara who also won the Cox's Cup (ONSW Encouragement Award) in 2021. Photo, text from ONSW.

Easter 2022 at Kingaroy

29 Garingalites travelled to Kingaroy Qld for Easter - a beautiful part of Australia known for peanut growing. The orienteering was superb in granite terrain with well set courses and excellent organisation. The weather was gorgeous. A huge THANK YOU goes to the many Queensland volunteers who made it all happen.

The key to good outcomes over the Easter 3-day Nationals is consistency. Day wins are a good achievement - but to win overall once the times are summated is something really special as each day also requires a different style of orienteering (Middle Distance, Long Distance, Relay Distance).

• Overall 1st place getters were: Lilja Lehtonen in W16A ( middle left dais in photo), Cooper Horley in M16A (running an age class up, middle right in photo) and Eszter Kocsik in W18A (yellow blouse first photo at the dinner). The margins with these wins were very convincing! Clearly these 3 juniors have excellent prospects in our sport and are to be congratulated.

• Overall 2nd place: Eino Lehtonen in M10A, Nikolett Halmai in W35AS and Andrea Lux in W45AS.

• Overall 3rd place: Istvan Kertesz in M35A, Juha Lehtonen in M45AS, Barbara Junghans in W65AS.

But it is not all about the orienteering. Easter offers a chance to socialise and be a tourist. Many of us went to the Bunya National Park with the enormous exotic pines not too far away. Plus, there is the Garingal Easter Dinner! On the Saturday 22 Garingalites had dinner together at the Kingaroy Commercial Hotel (traditional, old-style, country pub, live music). Fortunately our booking put us in a side room. The food was good and there was heaps of reminiscing about the last two days of orienteering, and for some, also the Armidale events the previous weekend.