The 2024 Australian Orienteering Championships was held in Armidale, NSW from 28 September – 6 October 2024.
Over the 9 days, this national event contained a plethora of events and activities for people of all ages:
- Australian sprint, long, middle, & relay championships
- Australian schools sprint, long, & relay championships
- Public Thunderbolts 3 day
- Independent Athlete Development speakers program
- 57 different classes to compete in
- And much more!
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.
If you’re already itching to see what’s to come for Australian Orienteering Championships 2025, visit auschamps25.com.
It will be held from 27 September – 5 October in Brisbane, Queensland.
We hope to see you there!
All photos by Terry Cooke.
