A superb FINAL at Kloofendal wrapped up a fantastic OSL 2015 season.
This year we were blessed with seven weeks of sunny skies and beautiful venues making our OSL 2015 League the most successful and enjoyable yet. We had a record number of 250 pupils from 14 different schools taking part in league events.
A record achievement by St Davids boys who won the overall Schools log competition, taking home the trophy for the first time after Fourways have won it for the past 12years. The only other school to win the trophy was Randpark in 2002. Fourways placed 2nd this year and Helpmekaar placed 3rd.
Well done to the Overall Category Floating trophy winners of the OSL 2015 league :
Primary Boys : Keagan Van Huysteen Bryanston Parallel Medium
Junior Girls : Kirsten Chambers Fourways
Junior Boys : James Hancock St Davids
Senior Girls : Christie Courtnage Trinity
Senior Boys : Rory Ellis St Davids
Thank you to the Friends of Kloofendal and City Parks who allowed us to hold our event in their beautiful nature reserve. What an absolute natural gem in the middle of the suburbs.
At our OSL Final we also welcomed the top 39 athletes from the newly established Checkpoint Challenge Schools League, which is based in the eastern Jo’burg suburbs.
Congratulations to all competitors who were challenged by a far more technical map than they are used to. There was also the added obstacle of more climb this week. The course definitely separated out those who had spent the past 6 weeks improving their Orienteering skills each week as compared to many who had unfortunately been too tempted to follow others whenever they could. Athletes who have attended Club events were also at a definite advantage when it came to being able to read the somewhat daunting map. The most important tip was the need to fold your map and ensure one kept your thumb where you were last. Most controls were located very close to pathways and although it may have looked like a shorter route to go cross country many athletes then found it difficult to locate exactly where they were on the map and easily became a little lost. In spite of the challenge everyone seemed to have enjoyed their time out on the course and very few athletes were disqualified. Well done to everyone who participated.
The Primary Boys course was again won by Keagan Van Huysteen from Bryanston Parallel Medium followed by his brother Jordan in 2nd place, 31 seconds behind him, and 29 seconds after him came Cameron Morrison from Cliffview Primary in 3rd place.
The Junior Boys course was won by Andries Swart from Helpmekaar in 19.28, followed by James Hancock from St Davids 13 seconds behind him and then Kyle Twomey from Fourways in 3rd place.
The Junior Girls was won by Heather Wimberley from Brescia in 14.09, a mere 29 seconds ahead of 2nd place Kirsten Chambers from Fourways and Joely Woodward in 3rd place. No Junior Girls were disqualified.
Senior girl Christie Courtnage from Trinity continued her winning streak winning in a time of 18.32, 11 minutes ahead of Saskia Alaraju from Randpark in 2nd position and Surprise Kheswa from Fourways in 3rd place.
The Senior Boys course was won by Darren Horwitz from Fourways, his first win of the season. Rory Ellis from St Davids placed 2nd and Henlo van der Westhuizen from Helpmekaar finished in 3rd place.
Unfortunately our Primary Girls from the Checkpoint Challenge League ran out of time and were unable to complete their courses. Well done for taking on the challenge of using an emit card and going out on challenging courses on a rather technical map for the first time.
The winning school at the Kloofendal Final was Fourways followed by St Davids in 2nd position and Randpark 3rd position.
Photos have been posted on the OSL Facebook page.