The ACT kicked off its championship season in style at Sparrow Hill today with intricate courses providing testing racing.

With the sprint race up first in open pine forest on vague hillsides it was crucial to have good direction throughout the race. In the women’s field, it was a race in three, with WOC representative Jo Allison posting the early time to beat, and neither Danielle Winslow nor Anna Quayle, both of whom lost time early in the course, could match Allison’s time 16.37, three minutes ahead of Winslow, with Quayle a further minute back.

In the men’s race it was Kerrin Rattray who showed he is one to watch next weekend for
a potential WOC spot with a convincing win over some other top contenders. Rattray was consistently faster than his competitors and beat Eric Morris by nearly half a minute to win his first senior ACT State championship. Morris was a minute ahead of Andy Hogg in third and Ben Rattray was 4^th.

The middle distance race was held only two hours after the completion of the sprint, and with a technically challenging 26 controls, it provided for some testing orienteering in the low-visibility pine forest.

The women were again off first with Jo Allison starting strongly, taking the lead for the first part of the race with consistent running; Anna Quayle was always close, and at control 18, a 2 minute error by Allison cost her the race,
with Quayle taking the lead to the end. Winslow nearly snuck in for second but a late mistake pushed her back to third.

In the men’s race it was the return of David Shepherd that had the morning’s performers nervous. Shepherd had flown in froma training camp in Europe hours before the race, but you wouldn’t have known he had jet lag, with a dominating performance from the start taking the lead and never looking like being beaten. Shepherd won by just over 3 minutes from Eric Morris, who had another consistent run. Andy Hogg had a confidence-boosting run coming back from injury to place third only 30 seconds behind Morris. Kerrin Rattray struggled to replicate his morning run, ending up fourth a further two minutes back.

The ACT-based elites will now focus on the Australian Easter Three Days in Castlemaine, Victoria which start on Friday, and will serve as part of the selection process for the Australian team for the World Orienteering Championships in Denmark

ACT Sprint – Results

M21A

W21A

ACT Middle – Winsplits

Full Results available soon at OACT website.