At our final Orienteering Schools League event, 161 pupils enjoyed running through or around a mix of open grassland, dense bush and forest at a well looked after City Park in the Northgate area.
A number of participants also made good use of the jungle gyms and swings. Although St Davids, Brescia, Charter and Summit were on midterm break many of their pupils still came to participate. Thank you to parents and teachers who organised transport.
This week the map was a little more technical than previous events and many of the controls were not as easily visible as before. Participants who paid attention to their control descriptions were at a definite advantage. If you have not yet memorised all the necessary symbols remember to always check the Course Info on our noticeboard for the text descriptions. It makes a big difference knowing whether you are for example looking for a significant tree or a building and helps prevent unnecessary disqualification for punching an incorrect control. Knowing what the different terrain depicted on the map is, will also always impact your route choice. The shortest distance is most definitely not necessarily the easiest or even the fastest way to get to your next control.
Fun ‘O in a box’ games that help you get to know the descriptions as well as the map legend are used by teachers and coaches during training sessions. Materials are also available on www.orienteering.co.za listed under School resources.
This week our Senior Girls and Junior Girls events were again won by Trinity’s Christie Courtnage and Kirsten Chambers from Fourways giving them a clean sweep by winning all 5 league events. Congratulations on an excellent achievement to these girls.
Senior Girl Kirstyn Hutcheson from Fourways narrowed the gap behind Christie to place 2nd and for the first time Saskia Alaraju from Randpark placed 3rd. Junior Brescia girl Heather Wimberley has continued to take 2nd place, this time only 25 seconds behind Kirsten. Shannon Gent from Fourways placed 3rd.
The Senior Boys category was won by Rory Ellis from St Davids with Luke Ruiter from Fourways moving right up the ladder to 2nd position. Henlo Van der Westhuizen from Helpmekaar was in 3rd position and Jeppe Boy Carl Holmes in 4th. St Davids took all 3 top positions in the Junior Boy category with James Hancock 1st, James Breytenbach 2nd and Brandon Gallichan 3rd.
The Primary Boys category was won by Keagan Van Huysteen from Bryanston Parallel Medium followed by Cliffview Primary School’s Cameron Morrison in 2nd place and Jordan Van Huysteen in 3rd. Well done to all of these young boys who took up the challenge and again ran on the same map as the High School Junior Boys. Comparing results Keagan would have placed 2nd in the Junior Boys. Throughout the league all 4 boys have performed extremely well and are clearly becoming most competent Orienteers.
Well done to Fourways who won the Golden Harvest Schools log event followed by St Davids in 2nd position and Randpark in 3rd.
Congratulations to all pupils who have been invited to take part in the OSL 2015 Final at Kloofendal Nature Reserve next week. Remember to brush up your control description and legend knowledge this week. To get some good practice in before Monday you are encouraged to attend the Club event at Rietvlei Zoo this Sunday. Please let me know if you need assistance with lifts or would like some help at the event. For those who didn’t make it through to the Final I hope you enjoyed the season. We would love to see you all at Club events to help you improve your skills and ensure you make it through next year!
Invitations have been sent out to pupils selected to go on our Orienteering Schools Camp in the Magaliesberg from 13-15 March. If you have not yet confirmed whether you are able to make it please do so as soon as possible. For those who are really keen to go but were not invited please email me and I will let you know should any places become available.
A reminder to teachers and pupils to organise their relay teams for the Schools Relay competition taking place in conjunction with the Gauteng Club relays on Sunday 22 March. We look forward to having as many teams as possible entered. Why not challenge your teachers and parents to put in a team or two too!
Photos have been posted on the OSL Facebook page.