ELITE NEWS- NOL ROUND 2 REPORT
Rowdy Flat and Kangaroo Crossing- March 22nd and 23rd.
Round 2 of the Silva NOL events was held last weekend, with a very challenging Middle Distance event at “Rowdy Flat” and a Long Distance event at “Kangaroo Crossing”.
Rowdy Flat is a small area of very intense contour detail and at scale of 1:1000 it required very good technical skills to master it. The km rates were quite slow as was expected so it wasn’t running speed that mattered but map contact and mental calmness. David Shepherd on his return from injury demonstrated these skills as he has in the past on this map and was the winner in M21E. Simon Uppill who was leading until control 8 came second, with first year senior Ian Lawford having a good run to finish third.
The W21E was a battle between Jasmine Neve and Lizzie Ingham with Jas leading until control 13 when Lizzie got in front only to see Jas regain the lead at the second last control. Grace Crane in probably her last NOL event for a while came a very good third.
The M17-20E class saw the lead change during the event a number of times between Ludvig Ahland (Swedish JWOC representative 2013), Matt Doyle and Brodie Nankervis. Ludvig was the winner with Brodie in second and Matt in third place. Anna Dowling in the W17-20E had a very consistent run being first or second the whole way and was a clear winner from Annika Carlberg in second and Nicola Blatchford third.
Sunday was the granite challenge of Kangaroo Crossing and all courses were faced with a very challenging long first leg which required decisive decision making and then good execution of the plan. This leg in the W21E was won by Hanny Allston by 1:30 and Hanny remained in the lead for the rest of the race to be a clear winner from Jo Allison, showing great strength in this terrain, in second and Lizzie Ingham in third place. In M21E it was a similar story with both Simon Uppill and Lachlan Dow being clear equal leaders after the first leg. Unfortunately Lachie lost his SI stick after control 5 were he was leading by 34 seconds from Simon. Simon remained in the lead for the rest of the race and with a pack forming at control 11 Dave Meyer was able to finish in second place, demonstrating good physical strength and Max Neve in third. Lachie managed to finish the course having punched some controls on his map and then using his mother’s SI towards the end of the course. He later found his SI stick.
In the junior elite classes the same three men and women finished in the top three as on Saturday but in different order. Ludvig Ahlund winning the M17-20E with Matt Doyle a very good second and Brodie Nakervis third. It was a Swedish double as Annika Carlberg won the W17-20E, with Anna Dowling who lead until control 8 coming second and Nicola Blatchford a steady third place.
The overall point score for the NOL sees the Canberra Cockatoos regain the lead in the senior men with the Stingers and the Nuggets equal second. The Cockatoos are now leading the senior women from the Cyclones. In the junior point score the Tasmanian Foresters have taken the lead in the men’s and the Stingers have increased their lead in the women’s.
Results are available on Eventor and splits are available on Winsplits.
The focus for the elites in Australia is now on the Easter Carnival (April 18th-26th) which is a selection trial for both WOC and JWOC teams and comprises five NOL events as well as the first fully mixed relay for state teams using the same format as the WOC mixed relay. Teams of two women and two men, with seniors and juniors running together in the same teams.
Our overseas based elites (Vanessa Round, Felicity Brown, Evan Barr and Julian Dent) will be participating in the European Orienteering Championships to be held in Portugal 9th-16th April. This event comprises a sprint, middle and long qualification race to be followed by finals in each of these. As each country can have six competitors in each discipline the level competition is very high and making the final will be quite an achievement.