Vic Autumn Series WORD S MA RG I F RE E MA NTL E
PHOTOS SU E G UI NANE , L IN CO LN PAT E RSO N AN D OTH E R S
At Orienteering Victoria’s 2018 Strategy Day it was noted by a number of people that attendances at the state Autumn and Spring series had been on a downward trend and some form of revitalisation was required. Suggestions for simplifying and enhancing the series were made, such as reducing the number of courses and including sub-competitions to make the series even more interesting.
Event 1 – Bunjil
Nick Collins was the course planner for event 1. Nick was supported by OV’s two Coaches-In-Residence, Joe and Nathan, checking and placing controls, and the Victoria Schools Squad, as part of their schools team fundraising, was the organising team. The sun shone and people stayed to chat, enjoy the atmosphere after their runs, and to see if they had won prizes.
A group of interested people met to develop the ideas further and the new Vic Autumn Series took shape, with five courses plus a 2 hour score option. Prizes were introduced for course/ class winners at each event, and for the fastest sprint finish split on each course. There was also a spot prize for competitors who pre-entered. As part of the revamp, the inter-club competition for the Rockhopper Trophy scoring was extended to include the Vic Autumn Series performances and participation, in addition to the Victorian Relay Champs results. Hadyn Tang designed and implemented the Inter-club competition scoring system.
For the first event of the series it was great to see such a large turnout with 149 entries. Helen Alexander was the winner of the first spot prize draw (return of her entry fee) and Archie Neylon blitzed the field to take the fastest sprint finish of the day.
A competition was also introduced for the highest placed junior girl and junior boy on Course 2 across the series. 2019 – A summary page 31
