Event report: Kambarang Carnival

Sept 30^th - Oct 8^th

Roundup

OWA has put on a great National Championships carnival over the 9 days between the 30^th of September and 8^th of October. The seven events also included the Australian Schools Championships and took place in areas adjacent to the Avon Valley from Brookton to the Avon Valley National Park as well as in the city for sprint events.

A good number of competitors (a total of 565 at the Long and Middle Distance championships) came from the eastern states as well as from a range of countries, from New Zealand and New Caledonia to the UK, and enjoyed a range of terrain from open, high granite regions to steep forest/woodland slopes. The schools teams numbered up to 170, along with their coaches and team managers.

A number of visiting groups stayed in the Avon Valley towns of York, Northam, Beverley and Brookton, exploring the heritage charms of each. The schools teams had a great stay for nine days at the Swan Valley Adventure Centre on the upper Swan River.

The weather was variable, as expected in Spring, with pleasant running weather over most days but with a very hot day of around 36C for the Long Distance Championships - which tested some of us. There were some great runs for West Aussie locals, with many podium finishes across all events.  Fantastic work by our Schools Team as well. We had a full team and managed to get off the bottom of the ladder for the first time in many years! 

Responses from our visitors were all very positive about the organisation of the carnival and the maps and courses. Great work by all the Kambarang Carnival team.

Anna Napier - OWA President

Thanks

What a whirlwind week of events that was! I would like to pass on my heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers throughout the Carnival. From the people who filled the key positions to the dozens of people who committed some of their time to help at some stage during the carnival. We received many positive comments about the efficient organisation of the carnival and that comes down to the efforts of everyone. At a few stages during the events, people were required to step into roles at short notice and there were always people willing to do so.

Well done all, without you the Carnival would not have been such a great success. It was a pleasure working with all of you.

Graham Braid - Carnival Director

ASOC

By Rachel West

Seventeen students represented WA at the Australian Secondary Orienteering Championships this year. This was a team heavily weighted to boys, with 13 boys and only four girls. As three girls are required for a full team, and we only had two girls in both senior and junior categories, we were at quite a disadvantage in the overall state team points calculations. It was therefore a surprise that this year WA were able to get off the bottom of the table for the first time since 1992, beating Victoria to take 6^th out of the Australian states, and 8th in the Southern Cross Challenge (which includes New Zealand). This is a huge credit to the team.

WA team members in the top 10 Australians at ASOC were:
Sprint: Senior Boys: 10^th Liam Dufty, Senior Girls: 6^th Kate Braid, 8^th Ruby Phillips, Junior Boys: 9^th Lachlan Braid, Junior Girls: 6^th Amy Dufty.
Long: 8^th Liam Dufty, Senior Girls: 4^th Kate Braid, 9^th Ruby Phillips, Junior Boys: 4^th Lachlan Braid, Junior Girls: 5^th Amy Dufty.
Kate Braid was selected for the 2023 ASOC honour team.

We also had some fantastic runs in the ASOC relay. Congratulations in particular to the Junior Boys team of Lachlan Braid, Christopher Drury and Rohan Braid that placed 3^rd Australian team, and the Senior Girls team of Kate Braid, Amy Dufty (running up from juniors) and Ruby Phillips that placed 2^nd Australian team. 

I would also like to congratulate our many less experienced and younger team members for displaying such a positive attitude and trying to get as much out of the experience as they could. The depth of talent in this younger group bodes well for coming years. I really enjoyed spending time with this great group of young people.

Australian Championships

By Liisa Hirvonen

The Carnival started with the Australian Middle Distance Championships on Sat Sept 30^th in Peterdine (Bitidiin). The Middle Distance Championships was the most popular event of the Carnival, with 543 starting competitors in 51 classes, competing on 18 different courses navigating a total of 97 controls.

The Australian Relay Championships were held the next day Oct 1^st on the same map. The relays had 160 teams, each with 3 runners, and a mass start with all first leg runners starting at the same time.

After the mid-week ASOC & Kambarang Classic events, the Australian Long Championships were held at Avon Valley on Saturday Oct 7^th. Due to the hot weather forecast, start times had been moved forward by an hour. The previous day was also hot, and the temperature was already over 20 degrees at the start of the competition at 8.30am, before climbing up to 37 degrees towards the end of the competition.

The Australian Sprint Championships on Sunday Oct 8^th at the Christ Church Grammar School / Methodist Ladies College in Claremont, Perth. Special mention to Edmund, Quinn, Archie and Ruben, who took the first 4 places in the M12A class!

All events went smoothly, and winning times were roughly as expected. We have received lots of positive feedback about maps, courses and organisation - thanks again to all our volunteers!

Kambarang Classic

After the ASOC events held in the mornings, the courses were opened in the afternoons for anyone wanting to compete on the Kambarang Classic courses set on the same maps. Six classes were available for both men and women (Hard A-D, Moderate E and Easy F). Although the events could be entered individually, anyone completing the course in the same class in all three days had their times added up.

The following Western Australians completed the whole 3-day competition (class-place):

Men: Oliver Martin (Hard A-9), Sten Claessens (Hard A-22), Rob Beattie (Hard B-14), Jaco Bosman (Hard C-7), Tony Simpkins (Hard D-2), Mike Howe (Hard D-4), Peter Komyshan (Hard D-6), Quinn Lommers (Mod E-1).

Women: Liisa Hirvonen (Hard A-2), Veronika Vavrova (Hard B-5), Vanessa Smith (Hard B-7), Sandra Tarr (Hard C-6), Christine Howitt (Hard C-9), Sharon McFarlane (Hard C-18), Carol Brownlie (Hard D-4), Marlize Bosman (Hard D-6), Heike Behrbohm (Hard D-8), Rosemary Kullmann (Hard D-18), Jenny Komyshan (Hard D-19).

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Photos by several OWA members, including Richard Matthews, Rob West, Graham Braid, Helen Post, Liisa Hirvonen.

For more photos, see the Kambarang Carnival Facebook page.
More details about the carnival can be found on the Kambarang Carnival website.

WA placegetters

The following Western Australians won podium places in the Championship classes. There were also other excellent performances - in some classes competition is very tough. All results for the Kambarang Carnival can be found in Eventor. 

Middle Distance Championships:

1^st place: Fraser Brownlie (M10A), Peter Hamilton (M85A), Ruth Toomey (W10A).

2^nd place: Quinn Lommers (M12A), Tim Sharp (M40A), Craig Dufty (M50A), Russell Wade (M70A), Liisa Hirvonen (W40A), Anthea Feaver (W60A), Carol Brownlie (W70A).

3^rd place: Sten Claessens (M45A), Volker Gartz (M55A), Ian Fletcher (M75A), Mike Howe (M80A), Lily McFarlane (W21A), Vanessa Smith (W60A).

Relays: 

1^st place:
M45A - Sten Claessens, John Toomey, Craig Dufty
M75+A - Ken Brownlie, Mike Howe, Ian Fletcher

2^nd place:
M/W12A - Edmund Toomey, Archie Brownlie, Quinn Lommers
W65A - Jennifer Binns, Jan Candy, Anna Napier

3^rd place:
W21E - Jo Anna Maynard, Veronika Vavrova, Kellie Whitfield
M55A - Duncan Sullivan, Nick Dale, Volker Gartz
W21AS - Ruby Phillips, Amy Dufty, Sarah Richards
W45A - Rachel West, Ceri Pass, Sandra Tarr

Long: 

1^st place: Quinn Lommers (M12A), Aldo Bosman (M20AS), Oliver Martin (M21AS), Peter O’Loughlin (M55AS), Peter Hamilton (M85A), Daisy McCauley (W21AS), Veronica Vavrova (W35A), Christine Howitt (W55AS), Anthea Feaver (W60A).

2^nd place: Fraser Brownlie (M10A), Tim Sharp (M40A), Peter Komyshan (M65AS), Russell Wade (M70A), Liisa Hirvonen (W40A).

3^rd place: Kellie Whitfield (W21E), Troy Kingma (M12A), Jaco Bosman (M45AS), John Toomey (M50A), Ruth Toomey (W10A), Sarah Richards (W20AS), Rachel West (W45A), Sandra Tarr (W45AS).

Sprint:

1^st place: Edmund Toomey (M12A), Ruth Toomey (W10A), Rachel West (W45A).

2^nd place: Quinn Lommers (M12A), Mike Howe (M80A), Daisy McCauley (W21A), Liisa Hirvonen (W40A).

3^rd place: Archie Brownlie (M12A), Lily McFarlane (W21A), Jen Graham-Taylor (W45A).

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