Day 2 of the foot o Christmas 5 Days was held in the somewhat rugged terrain of Barambogie, near Chiltern.    Competition was much closer at the top in the women’s elite with Grace Crane again victorious but only by 35 seconds over Swedish star Lena Eliasson.   Grace estimates that she lost several minutes in several mistakes, but it’s hard to be perfect in the detailed granite areas of the map.   Kathryn Preston was a further 6 minutes back in 3rd with Jasmine Neve one second behind her.

Aussie stars Julian Dent and Simon Uppill were atop the men’s leader board before the course was cancelled due to a misplaced control 8.    At least 6 eatly starters went through

before the control was relocated correctly, thereby giving later starters a proper course.

The other 400+ competitors enjoyed their outing in the challenging terrain.  ACT’s Toni Brown experienced success on course 2 with a narrow win over Jenny Bourne and Barbara Hill.   Michael Burton won the men’s course 2 ahead of Steven Doyle and Tim Hatley.     Course 3 winners were Ulu Aeschliman (Swiss) and Carolyn Jackson, with runner’s up being Svein Nygard and Paula Savolaine.

A large number also turned out at the MTBO event at Indigo winery near Beechworth in the late afternoon.   The format had a 75 minute score event with a twist.   With a mass start riders had to collect 15 controls in any order and then return to the start before commencing a 6 leg point to point event.   The central nature of the start saw riders disappearing to all points of the compass, but Alex randall and Chris Firman ended up together, causing a super fast pace.   Given the small nature of the area it was no suprise to see them return in a speedy 37 minutes, with Alex prevailing by a mere 19 seconds over Chris, who is in his last days as a junior comnpetitor!    Fellow WOC team-mate Ricky Thackray took 3rd ahead of Robbie Preston and Ben Rattray.

The women’s class saw Kathryn Preston as a suprise entrantbut her victory was no suprise.  Carolyn Jackson and Carolyn Matthews rode extremely well to finish close behind.