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Map Mates Junior Coaching

In primary school, or even younger, and want to know more about orienteering?

A series of Map Mates junior coaching sessions will be held at each of the first ten Twilight Series events.

Meet at 5:10pm each week at the “Blue Sparks” banner, there will be 15 mins of orienteering skills training to get you ready to head out and attack the course.

No need to sign up, just enter the event (or get a season pass) and turn up ready to be a wild runner!

Twilight Training for Girls

This training is for girls in upper primary school/lower high school (ages 11-14) and will provide girls with the understanding, knowledge, and technical skills to orienteer at the moderate level of difficultly.

It is specifically designed for:

• Girls who are feeling confident when participating in ‘Easy’ level events and are interested in having a go at the ‘Moderate’ level.
• Girls who have recently started moderate level orienteering and would like to further their orienteering skills/techniques for this level of navigation.

Sessions will be held from 4:15pm to 4:50pm at four Twilight Series events. After each session, participants can then complete their selected course at the Twilight Series event. After completing their course participants will be encouraged to regroup to talk through their course with other girls and their parents.

Sessions will be held at each of the following Twilight Series events:

• Wednesday 28 October, Stromlo West
• Wednesday 4 November, Mt Ainslie North
• Wednesday 11 November, The Pinnacle
• Wednesday 18 November, Mt Majura West

To register:

• Attendees are expected to have entered the Twilight Series events by becoming a member of Orienteering ACT and purchasing a Twilight Series season pass.
• Each attendee must also register online for the training instruction. Cost is $10 (+booking fee), covering the four weeks of instruction.
• For more information call 0411 968 001 or email totoni@iinet.net.au.

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Map Mates is the entry point for young orienteers into the Development Pathway.
The program has been held for approximately 10 years and is a real success story for introducing beginners to orienteering. It is a four week action packed adventure series for children aged 7 to 13. The series is held twice a year, in May (Saturday mornings) and October/November (Wednesday evenings) in conjunction with the Metro Series and the Twilight Series. Teams of 2 – 4 children navigate around an easy safe orienteering course. Parents are welcome to take part. A free welcome event is held the week before where prospective Map Mates can meet each other and learn how to read a map and enjoy an orienteering course. 
Further details on the Map Mates program are available here.

An option that has been used successfully for past years to manage these programs is for a small group of volunteers to be involved, such as a couple of families to share the load.
 
If you are interested please send your nomination(s) to the OACT Office, by Monday 29^th July. 
If you would like more detail on what is involved please contact the Office and we can put you in contact with members who have previously been involved in managing the program.

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Entries are open to all ACT Primary School Students from years 2 – 6.

Minimum Previous Experience

All individual competitors, and at least one member of each pair, must have completed at least 2 orienteering events prior to the championships (including SC-ORE, Map Mates or school coaching sessions). This is to ensure the safety of all competitors.

Entries for students younger than grade 2 will be at the discretion of the organiser and will be based on the individual’s orienteering experience.

Competition Categories

Students can compete in either individual age-groups or in pairs (provided both students in the pair are from the same school), the following competion categories will be offered:

• Age groups for individual competitors (boys or girls):
  • 9 years and under (born in 2009 or later)
  • 10 years (born in 2008)
  • 11 years (born in 2007)
  • 12 years and over (born 2006 or earlier)
• Age-groups for teams of 2 students of any gender:
  • 10 years and under pairs
  • 11 years and over pairs

Courses

Courses for the 9 and 10 years age groups, as well as both pair categories are very easy (blue standard).

Courses for the 11 and 12 years age groups are easy (green standard).

Course lengths range from 1.5 km to 3.0 km depending on the age group.

All courses will have the option of following linear features (e.g. tracks, fences, power lines) on all legs.

Entries

Enter via Register Now.

Entry fee is $12 per individual or $24 per pair

Entries close Wednesday 14th November.

Further information or enquiries contact Cathy Hogg at actpsoc@gmail.com.

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In accepting the trophy on behalf of the ACT team, Noah Poland said, “I would like to acknowledge that the ACT has worked really hard for this first place. The result is the culmination of a lot of things. Our entire team, and all the juniors in our blue lighting squad have put in heaps of effort at our training. And Orienteering ACT as a whole has focused greatly on expanding the participation base in the city. We can clearly see that the big base has seen big results. It would be great to see the same trend nationally.”

The continuing achievements of the ACT teams highlights the success of the schools and junior development programs pursued by Orienteering ACT.

Two people, Toni Brown and Paul de Jongh, contributed greatly to the development of the team; Toni through her work with the schools generally and the ‘Focus on Girls’ program and Paul as the regular coach of around half the team.

The final placings overall were:

• 1st ACT 70 points
• 2nd SA 60
• 3rd NSW 54
• 4th Qld 50
• 5th Vic 49
• 6th Tas 39
• 7th WA 13

Links to the Results are at the Sprint Distance Championships, at the Long Distance Championships, and at the Relay Championships; the Splits are at Sprint Distance Championships and at Long Distance Championships, and the Photos for each are at Sprint Distance Championships, at the Long Distance Championships, and at the Relay Championships.

The Australian Honours Team for 2018 is:

Junior Girls

• Mikaela Gray Qld
• Justine Hobson ACT
• Nea Shingler NSW
• Ida Lehtonen NSW

Junior Boys

• Alvin Craig NSW
• David stocks ACT
• Torren Arthur Vic
• Toby Cazzolato SA

Senior Girls

• Joanna George SA
• Ella Cuthbert ACT
• Emily Sorensen SA
• Abigail George SA

Senior Boys

• Aston Key Vic
• Afnan Dante SA
• Patrick Miller ACT
• Noah Poland ACT

The 2019 Australian Schools Championships will be held in and near Wagga Wagga during the 2019 Oceania Championships.

Thank you to David Poland for providing the data for this story and to Tom de Jongh for the featured image; both at short notice.

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The welcome event will start with registration at the Blue Sparks flag from 1000am. At 1030am Map Mates coaches will present an introduction to orienteering to prepare participants to head out and try an orienteering course. There is no pre-registration required for the Map Mates welcome event.

For those already registered for Map Mates the welcome event provides participants an opportunity to pick up their welcome packs and practise their orienteering skills and teamwork, ahead of the first competition event on 26 May at Farrer Ridge.

Map Mates at is a four week, team competition designed for beginner orienteers aged 7-13 years.  More details on the program are available on the Map Mates webpage. Registration for Map Mates is via Eventor and closes midnight 23 May 18!

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The Annual Blue Sparks Training Camp for 7-13 year olds (and their families) is on again on 25-26 Nov 17 – this time with a difference! After ten years in the same fantastic bush location north of Braidwood, we are brining the Camp closer to town. We know this will make it easier for those Blue Sparks and their families who cannot camp the whole weekend and only want to join in for a morning, an afternoon, or a particular activity. But don’t worry, there is still camping and activities available for the whole weekend if that’s what you want to do, including the ever-popular afternoon swim!

The venue for this year’s camp is Cotter Campground, where Blue Sparks (and anyone under 15) camp free and adults are just $15 per night. We are confident this change will make the Blue Sparks Camp opportunity more accessible to our many new members from Map Mates and SC-ORE and it also gives us ready access to a number of excellent OACT maps nearby for training.

Our coaches have activities planned from Friday evening through to Sunday afternoon when we will finish up so that everyone can get to the OACT Presentation Dinner at Canberra Yacht Club.

If you would like to join us, please RSVP to s4shannan@live.com.au to ensure you receive further updates of the fun development program we have planned.

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