Today’s Oceania Middle Distance Championships, run on an extension of the Honeysuckle Creek map in Namadgi National Park near Canberra, included the Aus-NZ Schools Test Match, as well as an Elite Test Match.

In the Schools Test Match scores are level on 2 points apiece. NZ won both girls races through Jaime Goodwin (1st), Erin Paterson (3rd) and Laura Robertson (6th) in the Junior Girls, with Greta Knarston and Nicola Peat taking the top two places in Senior Girls and Rachel Goodwin 5th. The Junior Boys race was a tight affair, but the Australians (Kurt Neumann 1st, Dave Mallen 4th and Thomas Carter 6th) came through. In the senior boys Jack Vincent’s victory wasn’t enough to beat the Australians Lachlan Dow (2nd), Joshua Blatchford (3rd) and Simon Mee (4th). The Test Match concludes on Wednesday’s Relay race.

In the Elite Test Match the score finished Aus Bushrangers 49 to NZ Pinestars 17, thanks to strong performances to the likes of Julian Dent and Tracy Bluett. Dent once again dominated the race, winning by over two minutes from David Shepherd, with another 3 mintes to NZ Pinestar Ross Morrison. The W21E race was won by Grace Elson form Jo Allison (neither of whom are eligible
for Bushrangers selection) while Tracy Bluett ran strongly to finish 3rd. The Elite Test Matches will continue through the week.