The Chair's Column

As I am sitting down to write this column for The Australian Orienteer I am thinking where the sport of orienteering has come since my first event way back in August 1976. At that first event, about 20 km northeast of Hobart, the map was in three colours and there were four courses offered on the day. There was a single format of orienteering, and the sport was just four years old in Tasmania. Pin punches onto a card were used to prove you had visited all the controls in order. The World Championships of our sport had two formats, an individual and a relay, and were held every two years. I won my course that day and a few of the locals were wondering ‘who is that freckled kid?’ Well, I was hooked, and orienteering has become a major part of my life experience, and I guess you could say I am an O tragic. I know it is the same for many people who take up our sport. It is endlessly challenging, sometimes frustrating, always adventurous, never dull and a great way to see parts of both Australia and, if you travel, parts of other countries often not seen on the usual tourist routes. It teaches you to be resilient, to understand that the idea of ‘perfection’ is a nonsense, to be adaptive, to be reflective and sometimes takes you out of your comfort zone.

If I jump ahead to today and think of last week’s World Championships in Switzerland and that of last year in Denmark, our sport has come a very long way in the last 45 odd years. Orienteering by foot, as it is now, has six different formats, you can also go orienteering by ski or mountain bike or go trail orienteering. Electronic punching systems are the norm and maps are detailed, accurate and precise. In Australia, there are so many different ways to go orienteering within our highly urbanised environment and to go ‘bush' in the vastness and diversity of our countryside.

Our World Championships has an increasingly sophisticated live TV coverage, GPS tracking and live results that you can watch in the comfort of your own house, which is what I did to follow our team giving it their all in a brilliant World

Championships put on by the Swiss organisers. Our team performed with great credit, and I know each and everyone of them gave it their very best. The traditional long distance courses were a sight to behold starting high on a mountain. The week prior, we also had our team at the Junior World Championships in Romania. With the inclusion of a sprint relay into the program instead of the middle distance qualification it remains a full-on week of racing that is very physically and mentally demanding. All our team, like at WOC, performed with great credit. The sprint relay result of eighth was a fantastic result-focused outcome for the team as were the results of Nea (19th) and Milla (24th) in the sprint distance. These results and those of the sprint format WOC in Denmark last year again show that we are more internationally ‘competitive' in these formats.

On the Board front, the Board is having a continuing dialogue with our member states/territories as to the future financial relationship between them and OA for funding of operational matters and our performance program. The website redevelopment work is progressing with content being populated into the new online space. The ongoing review of all of OA’s operational procedures is progressing. Our Sport Australia funded projects are now largely proceeding as planned. The Board was also very pleased to welcome Paul Liggins (TAS) to take on the role of Director, Finance. Looking ahead, our national championships week will soon be upon us hosted by Orienteering Western Australia. I extend a sincere thank you and gratitude to the orienteers in WA who are spending many hours of volunteer work to bring the championships to fruition. If you are taking part, please say ‘thank you’. The same goes for any event you take part in to enjoy our sport, saying ‘thank you’ to the people putting on the event is just a small but important way of showing your appreciation for their efforts to allow you to enjoy our sport.