Australia has levelled the Australia-New Zealand Challenge, taking 13 classes to 7 at the Oceania Championships to leave the competition tied at 20-20 going into the decisive Long Championships tomorrow.
In a reverse of the situation at the Middle Distance Championships, the close classes fell Australia’s way – M20 was won by five seconds, and M65 by eleven – and there were also unexpected wins in M45 when the heavily-favoured local team had two mispunches, and in W65 where Bryony Cox inflicted a rare defeat on Patricia Aspin.
It was also a more productive day for Australian individuals. Seventeen Australians won their races, whilst a further five were Oceania champions as the leading Oceania competitor in their class.
Winners: Heather Muir (W20), Brodie Nankervis (M20), Matt Doyle (M18), Noah Poland (M12), Alyssia Wymer (W10), Cathy Hogg (W35), Anita Scherrer (W40), Eric Morris (M40), Wendy Read (W45), Anthea Feaver (W50), Grant McDonald (M55), Carol Brownlie (W60), Adrian Uppill (M60), Bryony Cox (W65), Ann Ingwersen (W70), Alex Tarr (M70), Maureen Ogilvie (W80).
Other Oceania champions: Julian Dent (M21), Joanna Hill (W12), Michael Burton (M50), Debbie Davey (W55), Ross Barr (M65).
Julian Dent 13th in Sprint Final and Lizzie Ingham (NZ) takes bronze.
The World Cup sprint final in Wellington today again saw the cream come to the top with pre-race hot tips Matthias Kyburz (Swiss) and Tove Alexandersson (Sweden) taking gold.
The main surprise was the blow out in the winning times, usually 12-15 minutes, to nearly 18 for the men and mid 19’s for the women. The hilly terrain and wide route choices accounted for some of this no doubt. Some runners obviously spent their energy early on, not anticipating that a longer run was in store.
Tove’s success was built on consistency, as she only scored a couple of fastest legs. After holding the lead midrace she fell behind, only to grab the lead and hold it from the penultimate control, with just a 3 second margin from fellow Swede Annika Billstam.
Kiwi sprint specialist Lizzie Ingham delighted the crowd to race in for 3rd, just 12 seconds behind the winner. This bronze medal is the best ever result at a major international meet by a female New Zealander. Now studying for her Phd in Canberra, Lizzie had returned home a month ago to finalise her preparation for a rare World Cup event on home soil.
Lizzie started slowly but then won a decisive route choice leg from 5-6 which saw her remain in either 2nd or 3rdplace for the remainder of the course.
The Aussie girls had mixed results, with Grace Crane doing well for 18th place in a strong field that boasted 11 of the 12 top World ranked females. Rachel Effeney finished 21st, but rued a loss of some 45 seconds on one control. She leaves NZ now, to return to her doctor’s internship in Cairns, thus being unable to race in event 3. Top junior Heather Muir will step up into elites for this race. Felicity Brown continued her impressive form for 28th.
Many of our lower placed girls lost valuable time on leg 5-6. Where Lizzie ran 3.14 they took 5- 6 and a half minutes.
The men’s race was dominated by the Swiss, as they had 7 runners in the top 10! Matthias Kyburz took the honours, 30 seconds clear of Swede Jerker Lysell. It was almost another “Matthias” trifecta with the other Matthias Swiss boys finishing 3rd and 4th. Our two male representatives can be well pleased with 13th(Julian) and 17th (Simon). Given the long winning times they were quite close to the pointy end, with Julian being less than 30 seconds from the podium.
The elite runners have a mini rest now until racing event 3 on January 13. This event has an unusual format consisting of a Middle distance chasing start in the afternoon with the start times based on a shortened middle distance prologue (20-25 minutes) in the morning. The prologue will have a loop format with 2 athletes starting at a time. The start interval will be 2 minutes
Mace NeveGrace Crane
Men 3.6 km 135 m 19 C
1 17.52 Matthias Kyburz SUI
2 18.27 Jerker Lysell SWE
3 18.30 Matthias Merz SUI
4 18.41 Matthias Müller SUI
5 18.50 Olav Lundanes NOR
6 18.56 Tue Lassen DEN
13 19.23 Julian Dent AUS
17 19.54 Simon Uppill AUS
20 20.02 Tim Robertson NZL
29 20.45 Ross Morrison NZL
33 21.04 Matt Ogden NZL
34 21.19 Matthew Crane GBR / ACT
Women 3.0 km 135 m 16 C
1 19.32 Tove Alexandersson SWE
2 19.35 Annika Billstam SWE
3 19.44 Lizzie Ingham NZL
4 20.12 Sara Lüscher SUI
5 20.19 Tone Wigemyr NOR
6 20.33 Rahel Friederich SUI
18 21.49 Grace Crane AUS
21 22.23 Rachel Effeney AUS
25 23.42 Greta Knarston NZL
27 23.51 Georgia Whitla NZL
28 23.54 Felicity Brown AUS
30 24.10 Imogene Scott NZL
31 24.32 Laura Robertson NZL
33 24.53 Amber Morrison NZL
34 25.00 Anna Sheldon AUS
35 25.46 Aislinn Prendergast AUS
36 26.21 Mace Neve AUS
37 26.52 Jasmine Neve AUS
38 26.55 Cosette Saville NZL
39 27.29 Kathryn Preston AUS
NZ take first round of Australia-New Zealand Challenge
New Zealand have taken the first stage of the Australia-New Zealand Challenge, winning 13 classes to 7 at the Oceania Middle Distance Championships.
For a time Australia looked like they might have a chance of becoming the first visiting country since 1994 to win a Challenge event, but New Zealand’s dominance in the junior classes, which were run late in the day, eventually settled the matter. It was a close-run thing, with three of New Zealand’s wins being by less than a minute.
Thirteen Australians took Oceania titles while Grace Crane (W21E) and Blair Trewin (M40) were the leading Oceania competitors in their classes. Major placegetters were:
M55 1 Geoff Lawford, 2 Paul Pacque W55 1 Sue Key, 3 Julia Prudhoe
M60 2 Bert Elson, 3 Nick Dent W60 1 Lynne Dabbs, 3 Carol Brownlie
M65 3 Tony Simpkins
M70 1 Alex Tarr W75 1 Ann Ingwersen, 2 Jean Balwin, 3 Janet Tarr
M80 2 Gordon Howitt W80 1 Maureen Ogilvie
Competition continues with the World Cup sprint qualification from 1pm (NZ time) today, while the next Oceania Championship event is the sprint on Tuesday.
Swiss runner Fabian Hertner and Swedish star Helena Jansson won the first World Cup race of the season in very detailed and sandy terrain in New Zealand. Very intricate contour details made map reading and orienteering challenging, as demonstrated below.
In the men’s event all the top 8 were Swiss and Swedish runners while the women’s top 8 list featured five different nations, albeit with 4 Swedes amongst them. The fact that the overseas nations raced well in the sand-dune terrain was expected, as particularly the Swedes and Danish have similar areas at home. The men’s favourite, Norwegian Olav Lundares, looked to be the winner in the finish shute until it was discovered that he had punched a women’s control instead of his number 16. Chris Forne’s 22nd place was the best NZ result in the men. Best Aussie Julian Dent was with the leaders in the early stages of the race but lost time later on to finish in 27thth place, with Simon Uppill in 36th. Lachy Dow made an excellent senior debut for 42nd and rookie Chris Naunton was close behind in 48th.
Swedish winner Helena Jansson told orientering.se after the race, “I was prepared for a tricky race, and therefore I was very careful in my orienteering. I did not do a technically clean race. But I am probably the one who did the least amount of mistakes, and that was rewarding.” Grace Crane was Australia’s stand- out performer, and the first “down under” finisher, with a fine 16th place. Lizzie Ingham, in 21st was the best of the Kiwi women, with 5 others in the top 30, just ahead of Kathryn Preston in 31st.
Simon – photo by Andrew Johnstone (NZ)Julian – photo by D. Teahan (NZ)
The sprint qualifying World Cup event was held today in Wellington, New Zealand.
This was on the 1:4,000 “Mr Speaker” map, so named as it finished in front of the Parliament building. It also featured the Botanic Gardens and other urban areas.
Swiss Fabian Hertner again led the way in the men’s event. However the exciting news was that both Julian Dent and Simon Uppill easily qualified within a minute of the winner. Olle Poland was our next best, but he fell just 7 seconds short of the qualifying mark in taking 44th place,
For the second event in a row again it was a Swedish victory in the women with Tove Alexandersson (14.05) taking an 11 second victory over compatriot Helena Jansson. As expected NZ’er Lizzie Ingham was prominent in 5th and could improve even further tomorrow. The best of the Australian contingent was grouped together in the early 20’s, with Rachel Effeney (15.54) being 1 second up on Grace Crane, Kathryn Preston a further 2 seconds back and Felicity Brown again ran well to record 15.59 for 25th place. Overall we had 8 girls qualify for the final.
Finnish star Minna Kaupi again watched from the sidelines, having not overcome a bout of the flu. Hopefully she will compete in event 3 on Sunday before joining other Europeans for a month training in the warmth of NZ.
Women – 2.8 km, 65 m climb
1 14.05 Tove Alexandersson (SWE)
2 14.16 Helena Jansson (SWE)
3 14.36 Sara Luscher (SUI)
5 Lizzie Ingham (NZ)
20 15.54 Rachel Effeney
22 15.55 Grace Crane
23 15.57 Kathryn Preston
24 15.59 Felicity Brown
26 16.15 Amber Morrison (NZ)
28 16.25 Mace Neve
29 16.31 Laura Robertson (NZ)
30 16.32 Georgi Whtla (NZ)
31 16.34 Aislinn Prendergast
32 16.37 Anna Sheldon
32 16.37 Great Knarston (NZ)
38 17.03 Corsette Saville (NZ)
39 17.04 Imogen Scott (NZ)
40 17.48 Jasmine Neve
41 17.52 Susanne Casanova
45 18.01 Bridget Anderson
45 18.01 Lara Prince (NZ)
47 18.07 Rachel Smith (NZ)
48 18.48 Jula Macmillan (NZ)
Men – 3.3 km, 75 m climb,
1 13.27 Fabian Hertner (SUI)
2 14.47 Jonas Leandersson (SWE)
3 13.50 Olav Lundanes (NOR)
10 14.12 Julian Dent
15 14.23 Matthew Crane (GB/ACT)
17 14.27 Simon Uppill
19 14.31 Ross Morrison (NZ)
32 14.47 Tim Robertson (NZ)
35 14.48 Matt Ogden (NZ)
44 15.08 Olle Poland
46 15.18 Tane Cambridge (NZ)
47 15.20 Chris Forne (NZ)
49 15.31 Lachy Dow
51 15.48 Tom Reynolds (NZ)
52 15.49 Oscar McNulty
53 15.52 Josh Blatchford
54 15.54 Ian Lawford
55 16.10 Bruce Arthur
57 16.38 Rob Preston
59 16.48 Bryn Davies (NZ)
60 16.55 Chris Naunton
MP Toby Scott & Gene Beveridge (NZ)
The sprint final will occur Tuesday morning, again in Wellington commencing at 8am eastern Australian time. The runners will venture into Government House grounds, as well as Mount Victoria and the school sites of Wellington East Girls College and Wellington College.
World Cup and Oceania Championships get under way today
The World Cup and Oceania Championships get under way in New Zealand today, with a middle distance World Cup races, and the Oceania Middle Distance Championships. Both races will be contested on an area of complex, largely open sand dunes north of Wellington.
Australia has 9 men and 10 women taking the field today, led by Julian Dent and Grace Crane. The race will be the first World Cup event held in the region since 2000, and while the field is not quite at full strength, it still contains a large proportion of the world’s best orienteers. The first starts are at 9.30am (NZ time) for women, and 10.00 for men. The Oceania Middle Distance Championships for other classes follow from 2.00pm.
Two carnival events have already taken place. The major feature of this was the Australia-New Zealand Schools challenge, with the relay on Friday and the individual on Saturday. While Australia put up a close contest in some classes on both days they were unable to prevent a clean sweep by New Zealand. The best Australian individual results were by Brodie Nankervis (2nd in senior boys) and Nicola Blatchford (3rd in senior girls).
Live video streaming and results should be available through the ‘Results’ section of the Championships website. This also has results from the Friday and Saturday races.
Grace Crane and Julian Dent reign supreme in Christmas 5 days.
The Christmas 5 Days championships concluded today with the last event held on the rugged granite terrain of Beechworth Gorge.
It was a chasing start format for the elites. The day was made even more challenging with an extremely steep uphill finish; quite warm temperature and courses that were 20% longer than expected.
Grace Crane was the outstanding runner of the carnival and she retained her 20 minute lead today, despite having a sore back from yesterday’s event. She recorded a winning time of 84 minutes. Kathryn Preston got within one minute of Grace today with a strong run while Felicity Brown showed great form in being only 4 minutes behind for 3rd today. Overall it was Grace, Kathryn, then Aislinn Prendergast, Felicity, Jasmine and Mace Neve, Susanne Casanova and junior Heather Muir rounded out a strong top eight.
Julian had a somewhat narrower 4 minute lead going into the chasing start but blew his competitors away with an outstanding time of 65 minutes, with Matthew Crane being next best with 72, then David Andersson on 73. Julian thus won by a 12 minute margin, from David, then Matthew who jumped ahead of Simon Uppill. Rob Preston was 5th followed by the dynamic junior duo of Ian Lawford and Olle Poland.
The other classes were decided on a points system with the best 4 of 5 results counting. Placegetters, Australians unless stated otherwise, were:
Men’s B – Tim Hatley, Steve Doyle, Matthew Goodall (NZ)
Men’s C – Ulu Aeschlimann (Swiss) Paul Pacque, Ted van Geldermalsen.
Men’s D – Eoin Rothery, Steve Flisk, Alex Tarr
Men’s E – Torsten Smedslund (Finland), Robert Allison, Andrew Campbell
Men’s F – Kylian Wymer, Alan Kuffer, Duncan Currie
Men’s G – Ewan Shingler, Jared McKenna, Mason Arthur
Women’s B – Jenny Bourne, Isabelle Wymer, Nicola Dalheim.
Women’s C – Paula Savolainen, Jo Allison, Carolyn Jackson
Women’s D – Ulla Enderby (Sweden), Lisa Annersand (Sweden), Ann Scown
Women’s E – Kelly Candy, Danielle Goodall (NZ) Caroline Taurany
Women’s F – Joanne Hill, Alyssia Wymer, Sarah Davies
Novice – Ellen Currie, Torren Arthur, Nea Shingler
The 2nd MTBO event was held at Stanley, co-ordinated by Leigh Privett and other members of the Albury-Wodonga club. This was a 60 minute score event witha twist, in that older riders received bonus points before they started. However Robbie Preston still managed a win from Geoff Robinson, while the speedy Carolyn Matthews was the victor in the women’s field.
The Christmas 5 Days had a variety of excellent maps; many international competitors; really good weather and the beautiful town of Beechworth as the centre, thus ensuring that all had a good time. Many thanks to the huge number of Victorian orienteers who made this carnival possible.
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.
Crane family double at opening day of 5 Days competition.
Day 1 of the Christmas 5 Days was held on the spur- gully terrain of “Magenta” which adjoins the Chiltern township. The competition this year attracted large fields, partly because of the high class maps on offer, but also as an important warm-up for World Cup and Oceania events which start in New Zealand in early January.
The elite women were led in by Grace Crane who had a big 3 minute victory over Helen Palmer (Britain / Norway) with Jasmine Neve, Kathryn Preston and Aislinn Prendergast all finishing in the next 90 seconds. There were over 30 entries and 7 internationals in this field.
Matthew Crane also won albeit with a much closer margin, with Julian Dent making a welcome return home to be just 11 seconds behind. Simon Uppill took out third, a further 2 minutes back, and Swede David Andersson was close behind in 4th. David Shepherd was next, then Rob Preston and Ian Lawford was just ahead of fellow junior Olle Poland.
Tomorrow’s event moves into rock terrain at Barambogie, followed by Kangaroo Crossing, Rowdy Flat (Yackandandah) and finishes on the Beechworth map. The first MTBO occurs tomorrow afternoon at Indigo winery, with the second event at Stanley on Tuesday. With temperatures predicted to be in the low to mid thirties it will be hot both running and riding.
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