Dave Shepherd and Tracy Bluett took out the open classes at the Australian Middle Distance Championships, held in the sandstone of Ganguddy in central New South Wales. Shepherd was particularly impressive in his victory, scoring by three minutes in a strong field. He had opened up that three-minute gap over Grant Bluett by control 6, the most technical section of the course, and held it to the end. Completing the placings, in his best result for some years, was veteran Jock Davis, who took third late in the course after Rob Preston stumbled at the first control of the final loop.

W21E was a much closer affair with a tight battle between Tracy Bluett and Jo Allison, both of whom had excellent runs. After some dicing early, Bluett took the lead by halfway and held it to the end of the course; the gap never got bigger than 23 seconds, and Allison had closed it to 12 by the last control, but that was as close as she was able to get. It was Bluett’s best result of the year and further underlined her claims to a World Championships place. Hanny Allston lost two minutes at control three, but was consistent over the rest of the course to place third, that two-minute gap remaining more or less constant to the end.

The junior fields were thin, particularly the men. There was some quality in W20E where Erin Post continued her good form from the last two days of Easter to take the race out by a minute over Ainsley Cavanagh; Chris Naunton prevailed in a small M20E field.