Yarra Valley Orienteering Club

Yarra Valley is organising the next event at the Summer Shorts and Sprints series, next Sunday at Ruffey Lake Park. Will be a worthwhile event (and a good place to introduce your friends to orienteering, too).

Summer Shorts and Sprints Event 5 is at Ruffey Lake Park on Sunday 10 November, with starts between 11am and 12pm. If you think you know Ruffey, think again! Discover everything from amazing artworks, a Ninja Warrior Course, 2 challenging regional playspaces, a Disc Golf course, new bridges, and incredible views. Special prizes this week for the King and Queen of the Mountain! Great picnic, BBQ and playground facilities for afterwards. Enter online by Thursday 7 November, and be in the final random draw to win free entry to the Melbourne City Race. Get your shorts on, and enter now at https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/20588

A fantastic 4th place for Maya Bennette in the junior women's sprint at the World Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships. Lucas Kent was 31st in the junior men.

Mtbo Worlds Sprint - update
Only elites will have timing on IOF Eventor site.
Only some elites will have tracking, not Will.
Best source of results should be on event website - http://wmtboc2024.eu.
Races commence at 6pm Australian time.
Orienteering Australia Orienteering Victoria Orienteering Tasmania

Good luck to the Australian team (including Lucas, along with Maya Bennette) competing in Bulgaria over the coming days.

Meet the national MTBO team representative: Lucas Kent! 🚴

🚲 Lucas is 16 years old, in year 11 studying at Luther College. If he had to choose, his favourite MTBO format would be sprint. He currently rides a Grand Canyon 8, Hardtail, 2024 bike and has many hobbies including hockey, cricket, foot o, flying and music.

📣 Let's cheer for Lucas at the World MTBO Championships in Bulgaria next week!

Congratulations to Yarra Valley's Ted van Geldermalsen for his bronze medal in the World Masters sprint event (and to all the other Australians as well).

Congratulations to both ACT’s Martin Dent (M45) and VIC’s Ted van Geldermalsen (M70) on taking bronze medals in the World Masters Sprint Distance Final overnight in Turku, Finland.
Other top 10 placings were achieved by WA’s Anthea Feaver with an 8th place in W65, ACT’s Kathie Dent also with an 8th place in W45 and VIC's Tim Hatley with a 5th place in M65.
Top 20 placing were achieved by TAS’s Sue Hancock in W60 with an 18th place and VIC’s Bruce Arthur in M50 with a 20th place.
Other A Final results were:
W80
23 - Ann Ingwersen – ACT
26 - Jean Baldwin – NSW
M70
42 - Paul Prudhoe – NSW
W70
23 – Sue Key – VIC
Today is a rest day with the qualification race for the Middle Distance and Long Distance on Tuesday.
Photos courtesy of Kathie Dent.

Congratulations to Callum White, who after a good run in the eighth-placed Australian sprint relay team at the Junior World Championships on Monday, backed up with an excellent 16th place in the individual sprint on Tuesday. Competition continues with the long distance on Wednesday.

Nice ABC article on Alex Tarr and the recent South Australian Championships on the Eyre Peninsula.

Octogenarian Alex Tarr is still running on the edge, winning orienteering's mental game Still quick enough mentally and physically to post competitive orienteering times, Alex Tarr outclasses many of his younger opponents.

The National Orienteering League for 2024 concluded in Canberra last weekend. Although things didn't go his way on the final weekend, Callum White still managed a podium finish in the overall score, placing third in the junior men's with two seconds and three thirds from 10 starts. Other club members to score points during the season were Maya Bennette (30th in junior women) and Blair Trewin (30th in senior men).

Congratulations to Lucas and Maya from Yarra Valley (as well as Will) for their selection, and best of luck in Bulgaria later this year.

The OA MTBO Selection Team wishes to advise that Lucas Kent (male junior), Maya Bennette (junior women) from Victoria and Will Whittington (elite men) from Tasmania have been selected for the 2024 Australian MTBO team. Congratulations!

The MTBO national team selection trials took place at Bostock in Victoria on 21 April 2024.

With the World MTBO Championships taking place in Bulgaria in September, the team will now focus on travel preparations, training and other activities to support their campaign.

Yarra Valley hosted the first event of the Victorian bush series, at Eppalock on Sunday. On a perfect autumn day there was a good turnout to run in the fast and open (but sometimes tricky) terrain. The club had two winners on the day, Moira Kuffer in women's course 2 and the evergreen Alex Tarr on men's course 3.