Schools League wraps up with a Garden final

81 runners took part in the final of the 2012 Orienteering Schools League on Monday afternoon. This event, held at the beautiful Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens, wraps up five weeks of schools orienteering.

The Gardens are an interesting network of flowerbeds, open lawns, rough ground and paths. The Birds & Butterfly Garden, the Succulent Rockery and the People’s Plants Garden caused chaos with its network of small paths and trails. Runners were scattered all over the place looking for controls. Out on the open lawns they seemed to fare better and without the structured buildings of the school environment the orienteers had to use paths and vegetation features to keep their maps orientated.

The Junior Boys results were certainly the most competitive  with only 32 seconds separating the first three runners. Devon Cowling (Fourways) took top honours with Marc Flint (Charter College) and Christian Dlamini (Fourways) breathing down his neck.

The experience of the top three Junior Girls kept them at the top on this more technical course. Christie Courtnage (Trinity), Cian Oldknow (Fourways) and Kirsten Chambers (Bryandale) are regular orienteers. Snapping at their heels is Ruth Avierinos (Cornwall) who, with experience over the next year, will challenge for the podium at OSL next year.

Timothy Chambers (Fourways) has dominated the front of the Senior Boys. A regular orienteer, his experience and fast running speed have kept him in the lead. Greg Avierinos (Cornwall) hasn’t been far behind at each event and like his sister Ruth (Junior Girls), another year of orienteering experience can make all the difference for next year. A closer challenge between Timothy and Greg will be very exciting.

The Senior Girls have shuffled positions throughout the series but again, on this tehnical course, a regular orienteer had the upper hand. Jessie Oldknow (Fourways) finished with a comfortable lead over Natalie January (Fourways) with Jessica Thiels (Fourways) in third.

It is interesting to note that Fourways took wins in three of the four categories.

The splits for each runner on each leg are very interesting to look at.

Above is shown three rows (two numbers in each row) – each row is a runner – and a number of columns.

• 2. 3. 4. at the top of the columns – that’s the control number and below the number is the distance, in metres and as-the-crow-flies, between controls.
• In the next row, at the top, the orange, bold number indicates the fastest time out of all the runners for that leg. The number in the brackets is the person’s position, based on time, for that control (all the orange numbers will be first).
• Below the orange number, in the first row and column, is a blue number. This is the total accumulated time. So, using the first example, the runner took one minute to run from #1 to #2 and their total time out on the course is 1:55. They are in 1st position. All blue numbers are 1st position. You’ll notice that the second runner got ahead of the first in total time, but then lost it with a bad leg on #6.
• The brown shading highlights that the person ran a bad leg on that control losing a lot of time over the runners ahead of them.
• In the other rows and columns, the upper more bold white number is the same as the orange number – it’s just the person’s time for that control (the number in brackets is their position at that control) and the less bold white number below it is their accumulated time (their overall position at that stage – accumulated time – is in brackets).

This weekend we have a sleep-over Orienteering Schools Camp near Hekpoort. It starts on Friday evening and runs through Saturday with coaching in specific orienteering skills in a more bushveld environment. This will prepare the participants for the first cross-country orienteering event of the year, on Sunday morning. This event is on the regular orienteering calendar.

The results from the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens (final) event are as follows:

Junior boys (21 runners)

1. Devon Cowling, Fourways, 16:13
2. Mark Flint, Charter College, 16:39
3. Christian Dlamini, Fourways, 16:45

Junior girls (21 runners)

1. Christie Courtnage, Trinity, 13:23
2. Cian Oldknow, Fourways, 14:17
3. Kirsten Chambers, Bryandale, 16:46