Event report: Navdash 7 WA Sprint Champs

St Hilda's, Mosman Park

The 2023 WA Sprint Orienteering State Championships were held on Saturday 12 August at St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in Mosman Park. We are very grateful to St Hilda’s for allowing us use of their beautiful campus.

Although mapped 2 years ago, the map remained ‘new’, having not been used and only seen by Nick and Noel. Whilst it is a very small campus, St Hilda’s is full of exotically shaped buildings, making it is not only beautiful in the traditional way, but also from an orienteering setters perspective! The only real problematic area was the oval, due to its limited access, but this nevertheless still allowed for good long legs into and out from it for the long courses, and for good spectator legs for the finishes of all courses. The school was very accommodating, allowing us access to all areas and to unlock and open every gate that we requested.

Disappointingly, the event was mildly marred by interference from the public. A St Hilda’s neighbour got their nose out of joint and moved a control from the verge in front of their house to the other side of the lane. Luckily most runners realized that it was too close to where the ‘missing’ control should have been to be a legitimate control on another course and rapidly checked and saw that it had the number they were looking for. However, some runners were more badly affected. The other main problem was the lower level exit from the oval, which was mapped OOB, but had its physical barriers taken down by St Hilda’s cadets. A number of people lost time running into and then back out of this area, including 1st, 3rd and 5th place getters on W21. Despite these, the overall results were fair, with M21 winner Oliver Martin having the fastest splits in 18 out of 28 legs and coming in nearly a minute before Liam (with 7 fastest splits), Riley and Sten – the 3 of them separated by just 1 second! In W21, Zali again pipped Kate, with the two of them having the fastest splits in 22 of 24 legs and coming in more than 2 mins in front of Kellie and Ceri, repeating their feat of 2 years ago. The young legs won the day! 

Chris Drury was the fastest finisher on Course 3, with Christine Howitt and Sandra Tarr having the fastest, and identical, times of the Course 3 women (although coming in a fair bit after youngster Chris!). Simmo was the fastest on Course 4, but despite having 11 of 18 fastest splits he got bamboozled and lost 80 seconds on Leg 9, scraping in just 8 seconds faster than Ian! While Carol was a minute in front half way through her course, she lost time in the second half allowing Helen Post, with a steady but mistake free run, to be Course 4’s fastest female.

Course 5 gave the boys a frenzy of short hops, covering the whole campus in 30 legs. It was the most competitive of all the courses with Reuben, Quinn and Archie all leading the race at some stage, before Edmund finally slipped into the lead at control 20, keeping it from there.

Thanks to Nick Dale for mapping, setting, and getting permission (the hardest part!). Thanks also to Brian Austin (controller), Rosemary Kullmann (organiser), Peter Gillon (starter), Sten (SIAC master), Ken B (start clock), Melinda (IT), Mike H (instructor) and to control collectors: Zali, Oliver, Riley, Sharon, Helen B, Jan & Ian, Simmo, Moreen, Anna, and Neve, Quinn & Mark.

Results can be found on Eventor. Upload your course, or see others' route choices, on Livelox. 

Photos: Junior winners at St Hildas. Taken by Rob West.