President’s Report

Orienteering Victoria President Carl Dalheim

Hi Folks, it would be fair to say that 2021 was a year divided. January kicked off with the Melbourne and Surf Coast Park and Street Summer series, the MFR sprints, and MTBO BikeO75. A certain optimism was in the air.

Throughout February, March, April and May our volunteers provided us with many great events. The MTBO community held several rounds of the BikeO75 Series. Bendigo OC rolled out the Koolamurt team score events and commenced their excellent Bendigo Bush series. The MFR urban sprint series was completed. MelBushO started with three events in March and continued through to July. In March Victoria hosted a NOL round, coinciding with the commencement of the Autumn –Spring bush series. Thanks to the CHOC, Yarra Valley, Bendigo, and Eureka clubs, a large contingent of interstate and local participants competed in the NOL Sprint, Middle and Long distance events, as well as the first two rounds of the Autumn/ Spring series. In April DROC ran the Melbourne City Race, and in May we all ran the Victorian Secondary School Orienteering Championship. Throughout this period all of the various Park and Street series continued week after week, and Albury Wodonga continued to host a steady stream of foot and MTBO events. Unfortunately, late in May, Victoria got the Covid wobbles, and Melbourne locked down, but the regions stayed open. Melbourne opened up, then shut down again in July, for another long dark winter and spring; all the way to mid-November. Restrictions changed in November, and Victoria reopened for Community Sport. Yarra Valley ran the ‘Unofficial’ Victorian Short Champs, Park and Street was back on, and the Bendigo and Albury Wodonga clubs wrapped up the year with a couple of events.

It was a frustrating year for all. Regardless, our board, event organisers, course planners, and a host of other volunteers were not deterred. Laurie Niven persevered and worked with the clubs to re-schedule and re-negotiate permits; and plan for 2022. Debbie Dodd continued to deliver services to Orienteering Victoria across a large range of activities, not surprisingly resulting in Debbie being the recipient of the 2021 ‘Services to Orienteering Victoria’ award. Wendy Taverna along with her coaching committee, despite the lockdowns, persevered with many activities and initiatives throughout the year. And we all continued to navigate Covid mandate changes, permit changes and numerous other challenges to provide as much Orienteering as the restrictions would allow. We had some personnel changes in the year. Mel Kent stepped down from the Office Manager role; and Brodie Nankervis stepped down from the Schools Officer role. Richard Goonan joined us as Schools Officer in May, and Ricky Thackray as OV Bookkeeper in September. A big thanks to Mel and Brodie for their service; it was greatly appreciated.

Planning continued throughout the year for the 2022 Australian Orienteering Carnival. Warwick Williams, Warren Key, Fredrik Johansson, and I continued to visit various event locations, while David Jaffe commenced a range of other activities including the financial side of the carnival.

Unfortunately, in a repeat of 2020, our elites and our school team again missed out on several opportunities in 2021. The cancellation of the Australian Orienteering Carnival meant that our schools team again did not travel to Tasmania. Great work from Bruce Arthur, Clare Brownridge and Patrick Jaffe to organise and prepare the schools team was in vain, and the team themselves missed a great opportunity to compete against and have fun with old and new friends. I note on Eventor, Orienteering Tasmania refer to the event as ‘Carnival That Never Will Be’. Fortunately, their work is not wasted, as it will be transferred to the Oceania 2023 carnival.

Despite Australia not sending teams to JWOC or WOC, Victorians were named in the JWOC Honour team – Jensen Key, and the WOC Merit team – Aston Key, Patrick Jaffe, and recommend you take some time to reflect on what we all did last year; be grateful for your efforts and the efforts of others, and consider what we can do in the future to re-establish and grow Orienteering in Victoria, cheers Carl.