AOC August Newsletter 2023

What has AOC been up to lately?

Forest Cup 2023

August saw the start of the Inaugural Forest Cup Series – a 4 race event hosted by the 3 Auckland Region clubs. So far we’ve had two fantastic events at Temu Road Coast and Mushroom Road. Click here to see the current points for the Men’s, Women’s and Open grades.

The next event will be at Waiuku Forest South on the 10th of September, hosted by CMOC, and the finale at Hucks & Deviation Road, hosted by NWOC on the 17th of September.

Auckland Club Champs

The final event at the Forest Cup on the 17th of September will double up as the Auckland Club Champs. We’ll have a hosted area in the event centre where we will have a social get together afterwards.

Details to follow regarding food and drink options.

Winter Sprint Series comes to an end

In July and August Auckland Orienteering Club ran a hugely successful Winter Sprint Series. Following on from previous years Winter Series we introduced a points system over the 4 events with winners announced across the 3 courses in Men’s and Women’s grades.

The final event at Epsom Campus was pure Orienteering theatre with a top 3 reverse start for Course 1.

In the Men’s grade, Ryan Williams, Sam Carryer and Duncan Morrison went head-to-head with Duncan coming out ahead, showing his calibre across the ever-tricky campus.

There was an unbelievably tight finish in the Women’s grade with Harriet Johnston starting the day 7 seconds ahead of Alicia McGivern and coming home 1 second ahead across the 3 races.

To see the full final results see below:

Course 1

Course 2

Course 3

Nationals is fast approaching!

Over Labour Weekend we head off to Hawkes Bay for the re-arranged National Champs. There are four events over the four days which are the Sprint, Middle, Long, Relay. We will automatically assign club members to Relay teams – we are looking to get as many club members as possible. We have 73 members signed up already – entries are still open here - Click Here

We will also be arranging club get-togethers after some of the events for an opportunity to catch up with other club members and discuss your maps of the day – please see our Facebook page for location updates.

AOC Club Night is the place to be!

Club Night on Wednesdays at the Griffin Reserve Scout Hut are ongoing. Over the past month we’ve ran a wide range of coaching, training, fun activities and educational evenings.

Selwyn Palmer gave an amazing walkthrough of how Forests are mapped from first contact, including laser cartography and contour creation.
Joanna and Alistair Stewart created an indoor Micro Sprint with controls and multiple different courses.
We ran a World Cup route choice exercise where all attendees drew their own courses for the recent Long event in Czechia and then assessed their routes against world elites.
We ran a number of Sprint Route Choice exercises on Running Wild as well as out weekly Route Choice competition.

Come along – we are there each week at 6:30 in Epsom.

Night Series

Auckland Triple Crown

Controllers Course

September saw the start of our Sprint Night Series events with our first event at Shoe Science in Mt Eden – our major club Sponsor.

We have 3 remaining events over the rest of September at Blockhouse Bay (7th), Cox’s Bay Reserve (14th) and back at the Griffin Reserve Scout Hut (21st).

The final event will include a Rogaine with a Free Sausage Sizzle afterwards.

February sees AOC hosting the Auckland Triple Crown event

3 races over Waitangi Weekend in Central Auckland.

This includes the Oceania Sprint Championships with automatic qualifying for WOC Sprint champs in 2024.

We will need a large team of volunteers to help out – if you are keen on helping, please email Neill McGowan.

Marquita Gelderman is the head of the ONZ Technical Committee and will be hosting a Controllers Course on the 14th/15th October in Pukekohe.

You don't need to be an expert to come.

Day 1 is theoretical in the classroom. Day 2 will be a short practical exercise followed by a bit more classroom work.

If you are interested, please email Neill McGowan.

We need you!

We recently announced our SummerNav calendar for 2023/2024. We’ve had an exceptionally good response rate for Setters and have only 3 locations remaining. We are now looking to close out the remaining Controller slots so we can get started.

Please sign up here - Volunteers for 2023-2024 SummerNav - Google Sheets

Junior Camp and Under 23 Camp applications are open.

Applications are now open for Junior and Under 23 camps for 2023 – Woodend Christian Camp - Christchurch. Both camps have the bonus of Tim Robertson and Emma Bjessmo (recently married) as coaches.

Junior Camp – Dec 14th – 19th– Years 9-13 - Sign up Form

Under 23 Camp – Dec 7th – 13th– 17-23 age range – Sign up Form

ONZ – Keep in touch with Developments at National level.

Orienteering New Zealand have a monthly newsletter called Compass Point, which contains a wide range of valuable information of what’s happening at home and abroad. This is sent to a managed distribution list.

If you wish to receive it, register here.

Auckland Orienteering - Find your adventure.