The Wildfire Sports Ultra Long Australian Championships were held in Ballarat, hosted by Eureka Orienteers. The overall winner of the return airfare to Europe was Henry McNulty, the 2015 JWOC representative who has only recently returned to Australia after spending the last 12 months training and competing in Sweden with the OK Linne club. The overall placing for the prize were: First-Henry McNulty, Second-Patrick Jaffe, Third-Ian Lawford.

In the M21E class, with a course distance of 22.3km, Ian Lawford  in his second year as a senior elite had a very strong, consistent run to finish 1:42 minutes in front of Brodie Nankervis. Brodie lost 4 minutes on Control 1*** and then another 3 minutes on Control 9, but he recovered to be in the lead at control 20, but Ian finished stronger to take out the win in a time of 156:05. ***this may be incorrect as the race was in loops , however, the overall results are correct.

In the W21E class, with a course distance of 14.4km, Aislinn Prendergast, a Ballarat local had a very steady start and finished very strongly to beat Krystal Neumann by 35 seconds in a time of 120.55 in a very close race.  (*** see above comment)

In the M17-20E class, with a course distance of 15km, Henry McNulty was a clear winner in a time of 104.00. Henry has obviously benefited from the training in Sweden as he was clearly the fastest runner in this class and his km rate was good enough to win the overall prize. Patrick Jaffe was second 3.44 minutes behind. Patrick was in the lead at Control 22 but he faded over the remainder of the course. (*** see above comment). Aston Key who can still run M16 was 3rd. An amazing run by Aston who was in the lead at Control 16, but he tired after this.

In the W17-20E class, with a distance of 9.4km, the NZ visitor Sonia Hollands was too strong and she won by 3.40 minutes from Lanita Steer in second place.

In the NOL Sprint held on the Saturday Ian Lawford also was the winner in M21E from Brodie Nakervis by 17 seconds (I am informed that Brodie was unofficial in this race) with Bruce Arthur in 3rd place. In W21E the winner was Krystal Neumann by 26 second with Natasha Key in 2nd place and Anna Sheldon in 3rd.

The M17-20E was a tie between Patrick Jaffe and Jarrah Day. The W17-20E the winner was Tara Mellhuish by 14 seconds from Sonia Holland in 2nd and Olivia Sprod in 3rd place.

This report has been done remotely from Sweden so I hope I have all the details correct. *** see above comment

A big thank you to Eureka Orienteers for organising this event again and providing the substantial prize to the overall winner. A special thank you to Geoff Lawford and Jenny Bourne for all their efforts.