2025 Australian Intervarsity Championships
The 2025 Australian Intervarsity Rogaining Championships will be held in conjunction with the NSW State Rogaining Championships on 13-14 September. Travel bursaries are available for university students - details provided below.
About the Intervarsity Championships
To participate in an Australian Intervarsity Rogaining Championships, students must be enrolled at a tertiary education institution recognised by UniSport Australia.
Teams consist of 2-5 students from the same university. Both part-time and full-time students are eligible. There is no age restriction, ie. under-graduate, mature age and post-graduate students qualify.
The Intervarsity rogaining competition began in 1969 and from 1981 was coordinated by the Australian Rogaining Association.
Travel bursaries are available to cover the travel costs of one team from each state/territory to compete at the Intervarsity Rogaining Championships.
The Nigel Aylott Memorial Sports Foundation (NAMSF) sponsored the re-establishment of the Intervarsity competition in 2007. The NAMSF provided a perpetual trophy for the winning Intervarsity team named ‘The Nigel Aylott trophy’. For many years the Foundation paid the travel costs for one university team from each state so that there can be a well-represented national competition. The Foundation left a generous legacy to the Australian Rogaining Association to enable continuation of this support.
State Rogaining Associations are responsible for determining their own selection criteria for the travel bursaries (ie. a single qualifying event, or a cumulative point score from multiple events, whether 24 hour or shorter qualifying events). However, for the purposes of the subsidy, preference must be given to under-graduate full time students.
Entrants should contact their state rogaining association as soon as possible for details about their selection process for the state representative team.
Nigel Aylott Memorial Sports Foundation
The Nigel Aylott Memorial Sports Foundation was set up in memory of Nigel Aylott to encourage engagement in the outdoor sports of rogaining and adventure racing. The Foundation left the Australian Rogaining Association a generous donation to enable us to continue the valuable work of the NAMSF in the promotion and development of youth participation in rogaining.
Who was Nigel Aylott
Nigel Aylott showed some talent as a long-distance runner at school but at university got into the full range of outdoor activities available through the Monash BushWalking Club, which included skiing, kayaking, and rogaining. As his endurance and navigation skill developed, so did his success at rogaining, eventually winning the World Rogaining Championships in 1998 and the Australian Rogaining Championships in 2000 and 2001.
As adventure racing developed, Nigel saw it as the natural progression from long-distance running and rogaining. He loved experiencing the different locations in which the adventure races were set. Nigel competed in several Southern Traverse and EcoChallenge events before teaming up with Tom Landon-Smith, Alina McMaster, and Matt Dalziel to form the successful team AROC. Nigel was tragically killed in the 2004 Primal Quest race after being hit by a large boulder dislodged at the top of a gully.
Nigel was highly regarded in the community and friends encouraged Nigel’s family to set up the foundation to leave a legacy by supporting the sports Nigel loved and gave so much to.
