The Urban Series has kicked off with a well attended event at Emmarentia Dam. There were surprise winners in both woman’s and men’s events. Kirsten Chambers beat Michelle Botha while Alex Pope beat Tim Chambers.
It is with great pleasure that the SAOF Selection Committee announces the addition of the following two members to the development squad
Khutšišo Matlakala (POC) and Thato Phogole (POC)
We congratulate these athletes and wish them all the best in their orienteering endeavours.
Tania Wimberley
Chair – SAOF Selection Committee
It is with great pleasure that the SAOF Selection Committee announces the Senior, Junior, Youth and Development National orienteering squads for 2018 as follows (in alphabetical order, with their club for 2017 in brackets):
Senior Squad
Timothy Chambers (UCTMSC) and Michael Crone (ROC)
Junior Squad
Kirsten Chambers (RACO), Christie Courtnage (RACO), Andries Swart (RACO) and Tinus Swanepoel (RACO)
Youth Squad
Rory Ellis (UCTMSC), Dylan Fenthum (RACO), Ryno Grove (RACO), James Hancock (RACO) and Connor Morrison (RACO)
are added to the following youth squad members whose selection was made and announced in August 2017:
Carla Collins (PENOC), Sarah Everett (RACO), Cameron Ferreira (ROC), Tristan Malherbe (RACO), Luan Swart (RACO), Heather Wimberley (RACO) and Sarah Wimberley (RACO)
Development Squad
Ephraim Chuene (POC), Lesedi Chuene (POC), Tebatso Ramodike (POC)
Announcements of team selections for the local camps and competitions will be made during the course of 2018 in terms of the timelines set out in the 2018 Selection Policy
We congratulate these athletes and wish them all the best in their orienteering endeavours.
Tania Wimberley
Chair – SAOF Selection Committee
The next World Orienteering Days will take place on May 23rd 2018! We aim to beat the record participation of 288,000 people in 2017.
Lawns at the Botanical Gardens
This is a fun event with two races. Starting time for the second race is based on your time for the first race. You can also just walk or run the first race. No experience needed, we will explain how Orienteering works. View the event sheet here.
The SAOF selection committee wishes to advise that the 2018 selection documents have been published and are available here
https://www.orienteering.co.za/high-performance/hp-policies/
An important extract from those documents is set out below
The selection process for the youth squad ordinarily only occurs in December/ January for the following year
Exposure to training in international terrain is a key building block to develop our athletes and therefore in April/ May 2018 there will be an international training camp to Sweden for a limited number of members of the youth squad.
In order to assist in budgeting for such a trip (which will be self-funded) the selection committee has concluded its selections for the training camp.
We are therefore pleased to announce that the following athletes have been invited to attend the camp, and have therefore also been selected for the 2018 Youth squad
Kirsten Chambers (RACO), Carla Collins (PENOC), Sarah Everett (RACO), Cameron Ferreira (ROC), Tristan Malherbe (RACO), Tinus Swanepoel (RACO), Luan Swart (RACO), Heather Wimberley (RACO), Sarah Wimberley (RACO),
We congratulate them all and wish them the best in their orienteering.
This announcement is made on behalf of the SAOF Selection Committee by
Tania Wimberley
Chair – SAOF Selection Committee
Last week, Michael Crone qualified for his second sprint final at the World Orienteering Championships. He is the only South African who has every qualified for a final, having done so for the first time in Switzerland in 2012. We are, once again, incredibly proud of his achievement and commend him for all his hard work leading up to the World Champs in Estonia.
3 South African’s will be taking part in the Junior World Orienteering Championship in Finland. Christie Courtnage, Andries Swart and Carl Holmes are representing SA in the competition which runs from the 9th until the 16th of July. Live tracking will be availalbe for all races. More information can be found on the official website: http://www.jwoc2017.fi/ as well as on the team blog: http://juniororienteers.blogspot.fi/
Congratulations to Dr Ricky Raine from Penoc who has been awarded Honorary Life Membership of the SAOF in recognition of his meritorious services over many years to SAOF and to orienteering in South Africa. In this photo Dr Ricky is shown with his Honorary Life Member certificate awarded to him by the SAOF.