Following the first day of the Annual OA Conference delegates from the states joined the OA Board in the OA Challenge. Given the conference was being within the ANU, it was the natural setting for the most important event on the orienteering calender. Two hagaby style courses gave an opportunity for some head-to-head racing which produced some good battles. Construction and locked gates frustrated some of the competitors but all enjoyed the afternoon tour of the ANU.

The field was strong in the Long course with 4 males in the top 20 competing. Some visiting SILVA NOL competitors also attended for some quality training which added to the buzzing atmosphere. Predictably Julian Dent destroyed the field but given he was not a conference attendee he attracted the standard 1hr time penalty. This gave Eric ‘Ecmo’ Morris the victory ahead of Victorians Bruce ‘Triple Champ’ Arthur and Blair ‘the Human Calculator’ Trewin. Jenny ‘Carn the Arrows’ Casanova was the solo female in the long and showed WA’s John ‘When’s the paddling?’ Toomey how it’s done with a snappy 7 minute margin over him. Andy ‘I’ll pretend to be busy and not compete’ Hogg saw the writing on the wall and did not take part.

OA HP Director, Mike ‘I’ll show the elites how it’s done’ Dowling’, added himself to WOC 2009 middle distance calculations sneaking in ahead of Ian ‘Another bloody trip to the east’ Dalton for a 24 second victory in the short.Christine Brown showed her class and took both third overall and the women’s title. Robin ‘this is a very Special Project’ Uppill was the second female and Liz Bourne third.

Long                                         Short

Eric Morris        28.46               Mike Dowling      25.21
Bruce Arthur      31.21               Ian Dalton           25.45
Blair Trewin       31.56               Christine Brown   27.55 (W)
Ian Dodd           37.07               Peter Mayer        29.02
Ben Rattray        37.17               Reid Moran        29.39
Jenny Casanova  37.28 (W)       Robyn Uppill      34.05 (W)
Geoff Wood       43.05               Robert Spry       34.05
John Toomey      44.04               Liz Bourne         38.20 (W)
Paul Prudhoe      47.15               Craig Steffens     24.03 (one loop)

Non-OA                                    Non-OA
Julian Dent          25.20               Phoebe Dent      26.17
Lachlan Dow      34. 53              Jose Zapota        27.18
Paul Fischer        37.10               Hilary Wood      40.10
Kerrin Rattray     37.28