It is with great sadness that we wish to inform the orienteering community that Dr Hania Lada, a cherished orienteer and friend to many, has sadly passed away.
For more than 35 years Hania has orienteered alongside us. She came to Australia as a teenager in the early 1990s and soon become involved with Victorian and national junior squads. In her long orienteering career, she achieved a top-ten Australian Championships result in W21E in 2003 and later won national championship placings in W40, and represented Australia in Australia-New Zealand Challenges.
In her professional life, Hania was an environmental scientist and later retrained as a school teacher. More recently, Hania was the Orienteering Victoria Schools Officer, as well as joining the Orienteering Australia staff team as the Editor of The Australian Orienteer magazine.
Across many years of involvement, Hania’s hard work, insight and steadfast passion for orienteering has left a profound imprint on our sport.
Hania was a dedicated mother to orienteer Ella Maja Lang, who has been a member of the Victorian Schools Team for many years. Hania and Ella recently returned home after Ella Maja competed in the European Youth Orienteering Championships in Slovenia.
For many the Oceania Carnival has been a time of grief, tears and supporting one another as we grieve the loss of Hania. On Saturday there was a minute silence for Hania, a heartfelt tribute by Blair Trewin and a moving song by the New Zealand team.
We honour Hania with deep gratitude and extend our heartfelt condolences to her family and all who knew her.
