Robert Vincent
Sport: Orienteering
Year Inducted: 2025
Rob’s orienteering journey began in the early 1970s in Newcastle, when he was just 14. With a natural aptitude for the sport, he quickly achieved competitive success, and in 1979 represented Australia at the Australian-New Zealand Challenge in Auckland. In 1981, he became Australian Orienteering Champion in the M21 Elite class for the first time.
In 1983, Rob moved to Wagga Wagga, and within weeks of his arrival, had become an active member of the WaggaRoos Orienteering Club.
He would often sacrifice competing in state or national events because he was involved with training, mapping, course planning and organising local events for the club. In July 1983, Rob agreed to be the Event Coordinator for the 1985 National Easter three-day meet, which became the largest orienteering event ever held in Wagga Wagga. He spent hundreds of hours organising and planning the event, working on developing maps and programs.
Rob’s service to our sport is the complete package: starting as a junior and rising to the dominant elite male in Australia for many years… his influence on NSW and Australian orienteering has been and will continue to be immense.
Orienteering NSW
While living in Wagga Wagga, Rob also competed at high level events and reached the peak of his orienteering prowess. He represented Australia in three World Orienteering Championships: in 1983, in Hungary, where he placed 25th in the Individual event; in 1985 in Bendigo, Australia where he placed 21st in the Individual event (the best placing by any Australian man at the time) and in 1987 in France, where he placed 33rd in the Individual event. Rob also became Australian Orienteering Champion in the M21 Elite class again in 1987 and 1989.
Rob left Wagga Wagga in 1989, having contributed enormously to the development of the club in the six years he was resident in the city. His legacy is evident in the high-quality of the maps he created for the WaggaRoos club and the continued facilitation of a high standard of orienteering events, developed under his expert guidance.
In 2010, Rob was awarded the SILVA Award for Services to Orienteering by Orienteering Australia, which is presented in recognition of meritorious services to the sport of orienteering over many years. In 2016, his lifetime devotion to the sport was recognised with the prestigious ONSW President’s Award.
Today, Rob continues to compete in his beloved sport and has become known as an orienteering legend back in his hometown of Newcastle, NSW.