Julian Dent and Natasha Key took out the senior titles at the Oceania (and Australian) Sprint Championships in Canberra today, held on the complex Radford College map.

Both came from behind in close contests. The men’s race always looked like it would be a three-way battle, with Dent, Dave Shepherd and Simon Uppill likely to fight out the top places, once Ross Morrison had posted the fastest time of the earlier starters. All three were within a few seconds of each other at the spectator control. Uppill held a narrow lead there, with Dent five seconds in arrears, but he was able to turn that around over the last part of the course, winning by two seconds over Shepherd, with Uppill in third.

Seven seconds also covered the top three in W21E, but the rest of the field was within closer range too. The pace early in the course was set by the Victorian pair of Jasmine Neve and Kathryn Ewels, who swapped the lead for the first two-thirds of the course. Natasha Key was in third for much of the way, but was close enough to be able to take advantage when both Neve and Ewels lost small amounts of time at the third-last control. Grace Elson was level at the second-last but not quite fast enough in the finish, giving Key her biggest result of the last two years. Neve was third and Ewels fourth.

New Zealanders took out both junior titles. Greta Knarston was particularly impressive in W20E, winning in a time which would have placed her second in the open race, and Rachel Effeney was also competitive. Scott McDonald finished ahead of Jack Vincent in an M20E race in which only Rob Fell, in third, broke up an all-NZ top six.

The Australian Bushrangers had the better of the NZ Pinestars in the elite Test Match, taking the points 45 to 21.

The Championships continue with the Long Distance event tomorrow.