2022 AUSTRALIAN CARNIVAL

Breakthrough event to open 2022 Australian Carnival

The 2022 Australian Championships Carnival will open with an innovative new event ‑ a first of its kind. Designed to be “the ultimate Orienteering competition” the new format will bring together the best virtues of each Orienteering discipline to a 15‑20 minute winning time and the excitement of head‑to‑ head racing for everyone. Orienteering Grand Prix (OGP), as the new race will be known, will combine all the expectations of traditional forest navigation with spectacular and fast lakeside parkland and a complex urban Sprint surround, culminating with a main street Finish in beautiful Daylesford, the spa capital of Victoria. Highly regarded Event director Warwick Williams, along with technical coordinator Warren Key, have got on board the Hepburn Shire Council and local community groups along with event sponsors Nvii Sports and Str8 compasses to put together this exciting new race. They anticipate the event to

Lake Daylesford

Sprint map example.

be one of the most memorable of the carnival and expect popularity across all levels. As Warren said “….. route challenges like you experience in a Long Distance event, exacting navigation of a Middle Distance with the speed and energy of a Sprint. Add head‑to‑head racing and a sprint finish in the main street of this bubbling tourist town and this has the potential to be an absolute ripper.” The OGP race format will be based on 6 to 8 people mass starts with “runners choice” map selection as used in the World Championships. It’s first across the line for the winner of each mass start. Grading or qualification will be based on the morning Victorian Championships race, supplemented with official rankings and the organisers’ wild card discretion to assure the highest quality fields. Age categories are as per Championship classes and Finals will apply to all competitors, so expect tight racing and bragging rights against your nearest peers all the way through to the lower qualified B, C or D grades. A newly prepared map will be at 1:5000 with 2.5metre contours to best show the variations and intricacies of the terrain. Like the many towns found in Scandinavia surrounded by forests, Daylesford offers a picture perfect example of what Orienteering can be like for this new format. The terrain is on the edge of a famous gold mining forest with a large variety of vegetation changes that link seamlessly to beautiful lakeside parkland with open sections that are