Bushrangers Test Match Victory
Australian Team wins AUS-NZ Test Match
After 3 days of close racing in Woodhill Forest, the Australian Bushrangers have pipped the New Zealand Pinestars 285-280 to take the Aspin-Key Trophy back across the Tasman. On Day 3 at Otakanini Topu, with only the women’s elite to be decided the score stood at 257-257, but the Australian victory in that grade proved decisive. Ironically, the Kiwis actually won 3 of the 4 grades, but overall it was the Australian Junior women who made the difference with a big 37 point margin over their New Zealand counterparts.
M21: NZ 79 AUS 56 (Brodie Nankervis, Lucas Frei, Ashley Nankervis)
W21: NZ 76 AUS 75 (Aislinn Prendergast, Anna Sheldon, Krystal Neumann, Rachel Effeney, Heather Muir)
M20: NZ 69 AUS 61 (Matt Doyle, Aidan Dawson, Jarrah Day)
W20: NZ 56 AUS 93 (Nicola Blatchford, Winnie Oakhill, Lanita Steer, Anna Dowling, Olivia Sprod)
Overall: NZ 280 AUS 285
There were three days of competition over the long weekend in Woodhill Forest north of Auckland. Day 1 was a long distance event in steep sand dunes with pine forest vegetation. Day 2 involved two middle distance events. The am event determined the starting order and start time for the pm event. This was a true chasing start with the winner from the am event starting first and all other runners starting at the time they were behind the winner in the am event. This produced some starters who were very close together, with some interesting pack running in the relatively flat sand dunes. On Day 3 there was a multi day length course in very low visibility detailed sand dune terrain.
In the W20 class Winnie Oakhill had three 1st place out of the four events and in the M20 class Matt Doyle had one 1st place and two 3rd places out of the four events. The highlight was the team performances by both the senior women’s team and the junior women’s team. The junior women beating the NZ team by 37 over the three days. In W21E class Hanny Allston had three wins out of the four races. In M21E class Brodie Nankervis finished 3rd on Day 1.
These events followed a five day training camp which was attended by 15 athletes from the National HP Squads as well as the coaches Jim Russell, Roch Prendergast, Lucas Frei and JWOC Coach Hanny Allston and JWOC Manager Karen Blatchford. The training involved two days in the sand dunes of Woodhill Forest and a day of sprint training in Auckland.
Detailed report on training camp coming soon.
Results and Splits
Nick Dent