My participation in the 2022 Australian Schools Orienteering Championships (ASOC) Carnival started with the Victorian Middle Distance, which was very tough and had a high degree of navigation at the start. This was completely uncommon for me and I had a 20 minute mistake, which made it a disappointing start to the Carnival.
The next day was the opening of the Schools Carnival and the Grand Prix. It was on a very hilly and muddy course which drained your energy quickly. But the awesome finish chute was the best part of the day.
Day 3 was the Australian Middle Distance Champs which was on an extremely intricate map with creeks as rock paths instead. The difficulty helped me with slow running. But I completely missed the second last control so had to go back, costing me time.
The Schools Carnival started on Day 4. It was fun starting in the Botanic Gardens and going into a school through a velodrome.
The 2nd day of the ‘Schools’ was the Long event, which although was on a challenging map of the renowned Mount Alexander, known for steep climbs and difficult rock navigation, it ended up being not such hard navigation and rather a quick Long course instead!
The 3rd day of Schools was the Relay. I was in the mixed NSW team which included boys from the Development Team (Jonny Nolan and Lachlan Coady). The course had a quick start, followed by very tough terrain, and thick bush to finish. It was very competitive.
The Australian Sprint on Day 6 required high level navigation on the tricky school grounds with lots of route choices.
Day 8 was the hardest day by far with a 6.9km course and 20 controls. It was a very physical course with tricky controls at the start and the end in thick dark green vegetation with hidden depressions.
The final day of the carnival saw the Aus Relay (with Callum Waland and Jonny Nolan) on an intricate gold mining course. The multiple tracks caused a few problems and a control in some head high green.
The teams stayed at a camp which was amazing and allowed team bonding and getting to know others from interstate and ‘across the ditch’ New Zealanders. The scavenger hunt set up by some of the senior runners was great, and gave us an experience none of us had had for 2 years during Covid.
