NOL PREVIEW

National Orienteering League 2022 Preview

BRODIE NANKERVIS – MANAGER COACHING DEVELOPMENT, ORIENTEERING AUSTRALIA. PHOTOS BY: EVALIN BRAUTIGAM & TOM DE JONGH

The National Orienteering League (NOL) in 2022 is set to be an exciting season, with strong domestic competition expected, with many athletes preparing for the long-awaited return to international racing in 2022. The NOL season commences at the Melbourne Sprint Weekend (MSW), with the addition of a forest Relay sure to spice things up. The season continues in Canberra at the start of April with two forest races, returning to a crowd favourite at the Gib. Two weeks later Easter will be held in the fast granite forests of Kingaroy before an exciting culmination of the season at the Gold Coast. These final events have recently been granted Oceania status, with a World Championships wildcard spot up for grabs for the champion in both the Sprint and Sprint Knockout events! The OA High Performance Management Group has been working hard to make the NOL more accessible, more competitive, and more fun! After the success of similar events in the 2021 season, social events will be held at all rounds and accommodation options suggested. The presentation evening on Sunday night after the final event on the Gold Coast will surely be a highlight, with the addition of a lighthearted best and fairest award planned! The 2022 season will also see a trial of a “Sport” class, which will be offered at Round 2 in Canberra.

Sport Class to be trialled at NOL Round 2 in Canberra!

In both women and men, open (21 and over) and juniors (20 and under), there will be an “Elite class” (which exists at the moment) and a “Sport class”. The Sport class replaces the A class used previously and brings it into the NOL competition. The Sport class is designed for competitive orienteers who may have other priorities than just the goal of elite racing on the international level. This could include young athletes, those new to the sport or those returning to orienteering after a break. The Sport classes will be approximately 80% of the distance of their corresponding Elite class, will be hard navigation and will score points (albeit a reduced amount compared to the Elite class). This means that there will be eight NOL scoring classes on offer at NOL Round 2. The Team’s competition for each category will combine scores from both the Elite and Sport class, with the three top scorers from each State being counted.

2022

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Round 1 12-13 March MELBOURNE SPRINT WEEKEND

Sat PM Campus (new map) WRE sprint Sun AM Campus (new map) Sun PM Forest Relay (Woodlands)

Round 2 2-3 April AUTUMN CLASSIC, ACT

Sat: Middle Distance (The Gib) Sun: Long Distance (The Sandhills)

Round 3 15-18 April EASTER 3 DAY, KINGAROY QLD

Sprint, Middle, Long Distance, Multi-day

Round 4 23-24 April GOLD COAST SPRINTS, QLD

Fri: Night Sprint Relay Sat: Oceania Sprint (Qualification + Final) Sun: Oceania Sprint Knockout

Jensen Key Mikayla Cooper

Who will come out on top?

With national representation spots at JWOC, WOC, World Games and World University championships on the line the racing is sure to be intense. The Sprint world championships in Denmark will result in slightly more Sprint races than normal, which could challenge some of the defending champions from 2022. In 2021 the Open Women’s class was won by Grace Crane (ACT), who narrowly edged out Krystal Neumann (QLD) and Olivia Sprod (SA). Olivia has since moved to Spain, but the competition will be bolstered by several junior talents moving up into seniors in 2022, namely Caitlin Young (ACT), Emily Sorensen (SA) and Arabella Phillips (TAS). But the strong sprinters will be hard to knock off this season, with Tara Melhuish (ACT) and Ellie de Jong (QLD) likely to be podium favourites. ACT took the Team win in 2021 and with the addition of Caitlin in 2022 they will be hard to beat. However VIC, QLD and SA were separated by only 6 points in 2021 and all have the depth to make a move in 2022. The top three from Open Men in 2021, Aston Key (VIC), Patrick Jaffe (VIC) and Brodie Nankervis (TAS), will all be racing in 2022. However, they are likely to be challenged by young guns Alastair George (NSW) and Angus Haines (SA), who both showed impressive individual performances in the 2021 season. Throw in experienced orienteers Matt Doyle (ACT) and Matt Crane (ACT), world class runner Marty Dent (ACT) and maybe even new dad Simon Uppill (SA), and it could be anyone’s game! Defending Team champions VIC will lose Brodie Nankervis back to the Tasmanian Foresters, with returning talent Joe Dickson and rookie Oskar Burcide looking to shake things up. The competition won’t be easy though, ACT and SA also have the depth required to take the overall win! The junior competitions in 2022 may be harder to predict, with no schools’ championships in two years, its difficult to know who the up-and-coming talent is. In the Junior Women, Nea Shingler (NSW) will be hoping to defend her 2021 title, but is likely to see some competition from final year juniors Mikayla Cooper (TAS), Joanna George (SA) and Abigail George (SA). There is also some young talent coming through, with Mikayla Gray (QLD), Erika Enderby (NSW) and Milla Key (VIC), who was also 4th overall in the 2021 season, all showing some form at the recent Xmas 5 Days. The SA Arrows reigned supreme in the 2021 Teams competition, closely followed by NSW, however the Teams competition was largely a numbers game. If other States can get full teams on the start line of each race the championship could be anyone’s for the taking! In the Junior Men, Ewan Shingler (NSW) will be out for redemption after David Stocks (ACT) took the season out from under him in 2021. They are likely to be pushed by Ewan’s teammates, Oscar Woolford (NSW) and Oskar Mella (NSW), who both ran impressively at the Xmas 5 Days. Jensen Key (VIC) will also be hungry for the win after last years 3rd place. VIC took the win in the Teams competition in 2021, but the strong NSW team will be looking to take the championship from them in 2022. It’s likely that QLD, SA and ACT will all challenge this year, after being separated by only 3 points in 2021.

Simon Uppill Tara Melhuish