Los Angeles Orienteering Club
Belmont Shores Urban Discovery 2026
Mother's Beach and surrounding Neighborhood
Sunday, July 12, 2026
It was a quintessential beach day in Long Beach, America’s Aquatic Capital, this Sunday. Sunshine, mild temperatures, and a refreshing breeze rolling in toward the end made for perfect racing conditions. Rich mapped out a course that wound past pickleball courts, through marinas, along waterfront neighborhoods, into the classic streets of Belmont Shore, and across a handful of teeny urban parks.
The event kicked off and wrapped up at Mother’s Beach, with 6 Teams and about 15 individual participants joining in. Competitors who came out on top made smart strategic control choices while keeping a close eye on the clock to avoid the steep overtime penalty. Those of us who didn't come out on top probably took too many scenic pictures out on the course :)
Rich noted that two controls had unintended “tricky” questions:
· Control 91: This control asked what the topographic feature was at the location. The intended answer was "Re-entrant" which seemed obvious to me. But a number of people argued that the answer was "Hill". There was a small hill next to the re-entrant but it was located quite a way west of the actual control location. Since there were no features on the map that allowed you to determine the exact location of the control, both "Hill" and "Re-entrant” were considered correct.
· Control 94: This control asked the prominent color the flowers around the fountain. Rich has proof that a week ago there were lots of purple flowers in bloom, but they were all gone by race day. There were a few yellow-colored flowers left so most people answered "Yellow". There was also one "E" answer. Either were marked as correct.
· Rich also noted that every control was visited by at least one person, which is an interesting footnote.
And the winners of bragging rights are:
Rex Winterbottom swooped in from BAOC to snag top dude of the day, with a final score of 2365. Once again, our LAOC Olga Urbanovskaia came out on top for the “dude-ettes” with a final score of 2280 points. Top Family Team was Team Huntington Beach Pirates and Top Adult Team was Vas Normandy, with final scores of 1060 and 890, respectively. Sergio Garcia and Katherine Jung took first for Junior dude and dude-ette, with final scores of 1320 and 1205, respectively.
And the winners of our gratitude for pulling this event together:
· Event Director: Clare Durand
· Course Setter: Rich Hoesly
· Map: Rich Hoesly
· Registration: Alan and Jen Perez
· Beginner Clinics: Clare Durand and Rich Hoesly
· Start/Scoring: Rich Hoesly
· Finish: Rich Hoesly and Logan Perez
We are grateful to our facility host, the City of Long Beach.
-Recinda
Place Name Club Points Controls Over
Class Overall Visit Final Good Bad Time
----- ------- ----------------------------- ----- ----- ----- ---- ---- ----
Adult Female
1 2 Olga Urbanovskaia LAOC 2280 2280 31 0 0
2 4 Ann Bergstrom LAOC 1710 1710 24 0 0
3 12 Recinda Sherman LAOC 1110 930 15 0 -180
4 13 Clare Durand LAOC 950 890 16 0 -60
5 19 Betty Rothman LAOC 0 0 0 0 0
6 20 Diane Weifenbach LAOC 0 0 0 0 0
Adult Group
1 14 Team Vas Normandy LAOC 1030 890 14 0 -140
Adult Male
1 1 Rex Winterbottom LAOC 2405 2365 35 1 -40
2 3 Wayne Cottrell LAOC 1805 1805 27 1 0
3 5 Vladislav Urbanovskiy LAOC 1685 1685 27 2 0
4 6 John Kuechle LAOC 1340 1340 20 2 0
5 9 Alan Perez LAOC 1140 1140 18 0 0
Family Group
1 10 Team Huntington Beach Pirates LAOC 1060 1060 14 0 0
2 11 Team The McKinleys LAOC 1050 1050 14 0 0
3 16 Team Yellow Sand LAOC 900 600 18 0 -300
4 17 Team No Directions Needed LAOC 650 610 13 0 -40
5 18 Team To Infinity and Beyond LAOC 530 530 8 0 0
Junior Female
1 8 Katherine Jung LAOC 1285 1205 24 2 -80
2 15 Sofia Somova LAOC 930 650 17 0 -280
Junior Male
1 7 Sergio Garcia LAOC 1320 1320 18 0 0
Zone Scores
Name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
------------------------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
Rex Winterbottom 0 0 320 380 440 440 500 325
Olga Urbanovskaia 0 0 20 380 440 440 500 500
Wayne Cottrell 10 0 0 380 150 440 500 325
Ann Bergstrom 0 0 20 250 0 440 500 500
Vladislav Urbanovskiy 0 0 50 380 150 280 500 325
John Kuechle 0 0 90 -15 0 440 500 325
Sergio Garcia 0 0 320 0 0 0 500 500
Katherine Jung 10 50 320 380 0 200 325 0
Alan Perez 0 0 320 380 440 0 0 0
Team Huntington Beach Pirates 0 0 20 0 0 40 500 500
Team The McKinleys 0 0 50 0 0 0 500 500
Recinda Sherman 0 0 20 0 0 90 500 500
Clare Durand 0 0 90 380 440 40 0 0
Team Vas Normandy 10 0 20 0 0 0 500 500
Sofia Somova 0 0 20 120 300 90 50 350
Team Yellow Sand 260 320 320 0 0 0 0 0
Team No Directions Needed 10 320 320 0 0 0 0 0
Team To Infinity and Beyond 10 0 20 0 0 0 500 0
Betty Rothman 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Diane Weifenbach 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0