The 2024 Australian Orienteering Championships was held in Armidale, NSW from 28 September – 6 October 2024.

Glenburnie and the adjoining property Orana (or Oranah), on which the 2024 national orienteering championships were being held, lie on the land of the Nganyaywana (Anaiwan) traditional owners.

Australian Middle Distance Championship – 28 September

The first day’s courses utilised detailed, runnable and hilly granite terrain on the new map: Rola Lantherana, 21km south west of Uralla. The area had very little green apart from along one creek that many Hard courses cross.

Here are the podium winners for the elite classes:

	Men 20 Elite	Women 20 Elite	Men 21 Elite	Women 21 Elite
1st Place	Sam Woolford	Nea Shingler	Felix Hunt	Renee Beveridge
2nd Place	Jake McLellan	Justine Hobson	Julian Dent	Mikayla Cooper
3rd Place	Jamie Woolford	Phoebe Hunt	Matt Doyle	Mikaela Gray

Australian Relay Championship – 29 September

The relay area was very varied from recently cleared forest, with large piles of felled trees mapped as thickets, through to fast open farmland with scattered rock, to areas of intricate rock detail. Overall, the area was open, easy running with great visibility. All courses except those being used in the Mixed Age class had forkings designed to bring competitors together, or close together at frequent intervals.

There was a common spectator control approximately 2/3 of the way around courses 1-10 and at the last control for course 11, adjacent to the arena for friends and family to cheer on the competing athletes!

	Men 20 Elite	Women 20 Elite	Men 21 Elite	Women 21 Elite
1st Place	NZL 5 1. Felix Hunt 2. Eddie Swain 3. Jake McLellan	Orienteering NSW 1 1. Nea Shingler 2. Erika Enderby 3. Mikayla Enderby	Orienteering Queensland 1. Matt Doyle 2. Blake Reinbott 3. Ryan Gray	Orienteering ACT 1 1. Shannon Jones 2. Justine Hobson 3. Grace Crane
2nd Place	Orienteering NSW 1 1. Cooper Horley 2. Oskar Mella 3. Sam Woolford	NZL 8 1. Juliet Freeman 2. Phoebe Hunt 3. Tide Fa’avae	Orienteering ACT 1 1. Paul de Jongh 2. Toby Lang 3. David Stocks	NZL 2 1. Renee Beveridge 2. Amelia Horne 3. Briana Steven
3rd Place	Orienteering NSW 2 1. Seth Sweeney 2. Nick Stanley 3. Jamie Woolford	NZL 9 1. Nika Rayward 2. Alison Power 3. Georgia Lindroos	Orienteering SA 1 1. Ethan Penck 2. Jack Marschall 3. Leith Soden	Orienteering Victoria 1 1. Milla Key 2. Aislinn Prendergast 3. Natasha Key

ASOC Sprint Championship + T3D Day 1 – 1 October

The sprint championship was held at the Armidale School, an 1890s school campus surrounded by sports fields, a lake and gardens.

There was an arena passage and map flip on certain courses. After the runners punched the last/spectator control, they followed the mandatory route before splitting into either the finish chute or towards the restart.

	Senior Boys	Senior Girls	Junior Boys	Junior Girls
1st Place	Cooper Horley	Milla Key	Hayden Dent	Ariadna Iskhakova
2nd Place	Euan Best	Erika Enderby	Matty Maundrell	Ella Clauson
3rd Place	Owen Radajewski	Liana Stubbs	Rory Shedden	Sanda Halpin

ASOC Long Championship + T3D Day 2 – 2 October

The long championship map covered a range of terrain, from farmland paddocks and open eucalypt forest with outcrops of rock, to steep hilly areas with dense and complex rock detail at property Pine Tree. All ASOC courses had a long-distance character. Courses 1 (Senior Boys) and 2 (Senior Girls) passed a spectator control towards the end of the course.

	Senior Boys	Senior Girls	Junior Boys	Junior Girls
1st Place	Owen Radajewski	Erika Enderby	Alton Freeman	Katie Clauson
2nd Place	Euan Best	Milla Key	Rory Shedden	Ella Clauson
3rd Place	Alex Woolford	Xanthe Schubert	Matty Maundrell	Sophie Hartmann

ASOC Relay Championship + T3D Day 3 – 3 October

Also at property Pine Tree, the courses for the relay championship went through a variety of terrains, from fast running farmland, forest with occasional rock outcrops, steep hilly areas with dense and to complex rock detail.

	Senior Boys	Senior Girls	Junior Boys	Senior Girls
1st Place	Orienteering NSW 1. Cooper Horley 2. Nick Stanley 3. Jamie Woolford	Orienteering NSW  1. Rebecca Craig 2. Maggie Mackay 3. Erika Enderby	Orienteering Victoria 1. Matthew Layton 2. Xander Greenhalgh 3. Jayden Styk (only finishers)	Orienteering ACT  1. Sanda Halpin 2. Katie Hogg 3. Ariadna Iskhakova
2nd Place	Orienteering Queensland 1. Miles Bryant 2. Will Barnes 3. Eric Lovell	Orienteering ACT 1. Aoife Rothery 2. Mira Walter 3. Ella Hogg		Orienteering Tasmania  1. Sophie Hartmann 2. Ella Clauson 3. Katie Clauson
3rd Place	Orienteering ACT 1. Max Walter 2. Oliver Bishop 3. Owen Radajewski	Orienteering Queensland 1. Alexandra Edwards 2. Ingrid Young 3. Xanthe Schubert		Orienteering NSW 1. Jessica Dun 2. Justine de Remy de Courcelles 3. Tiffany Palmer

Australian Long Distance Championship – 5 October

The long course map, Rola Birkungirra, featured granite terrain with undulating, open forest and farmland with scattered trees, covered in various granite rock features scattered across the terrain. There were many steep slopes and was rough under-foot, rugged to traverse, and covered in granite rock features from big (3-5m high) to gigantic (15-20m high).

	Men 20 Elite	Women 20 Elite	Men 21 Elite	Women 21 Elite
1st Place	Cooper Horley	Nea Shingler	Felix Hunt	Hanne Hilo
2nd Place	Owen Radajewski	Erika Enderby	Zefa Fa’avae	Grace Crane
3rd Place	Sam Woolford	Justine Hobson	David Stocks	Kaia Joergensen

Australian Sprint Championship – 6 October

For the final day, the sprint championship was held at the newly mapped campus of the University of New England, which hadn’t been used since XMAS 2015. This classic university campus featured a mix of larger and smaller buildings, creating complex sections within the map, including narrow passageways, canopies, and stairs. The terrain was situated on a slope, adding to the physicality of the courses, and features open grass sections between the complex building areas.
All courses had a mandatory route through the arena for a spectator loop at around 80% of their course before coming back to the arena to finish.

	Men 20 Elite	Women 20 Elite	Men 21 Elite	Women 21 Elite
1st Place	Cooper Horley	Nea Shingler	Ethan Penck	Hanne Hilo
2nd Place	Sam Woolford	Milla Key	Patrick Jaffe	Kaia Joergensen
3rd Place	Euan Best	Anna Babington	Felix Hunt	Mikayla Cooper

A major thank you to everyone involved in helping shape this year’s Australian Orienteering Championships 2024 into what it was! This national event truly could not have been set up without all the volunteers’ help from event organisers, map makers, supporters, people who donated, photographers, and many more. We hope everyone who attended and competed across the nine days had a wonderful time.

All photos by Terry Cooke.