Rachel Effeney (Q) and Oscar McNulty (WA) both had tremendous victories in a fantastic opening day of the Sprint the Bay carnival inNZ.   These wins enabled Rachel to be wearing the yellow jersey (overall leader) and Oscar, 3^rd overall, will don the white jersey, as leading junior in the 60 person men’s field.

Rachel, who debuted for Australia at WOC in 2011, won both stages and now has a 52 second lead overall. On the mass start stage 1 course she crossed the line 4 seconds ahead of Lizzie Ingham (NZ), but in stage 2 she took the lead after leg 2 and was never headed and won by a whopping 45  seconds from Great Knaston (NZ).  Lizzie Ingham, who now resides in Canberra, made a big 75 second mistake to fall back to 9^th in stage 2 but is certainly close enough to still podium.

Hanny Allston,  “having a run” to complement her coaching duties, was the next best Aussie in 8^th on both courses.  Aislinn Prendergast, who also debuted at WOC in 2011, and is more renowned as a long event specialist, performed really well to be placed 9^th after day 1.

The “boy from the west,” Oscar McNulty was the talk of the town after his dramatic 8 second victory on stage 2.  Having just finished school in Perth, he is Sydney bound for university later this month.  Oscar won 4 of the 23 splits and led throughout the race except for one leg in the middle.   In the initial race Oscar also excelled winning 7 splits before fading a little towards the end to finish a close 9^th.

Young Bendigo gun Bryan Keeley used his leg speed to advantage on stage 1 by placing 5^th and backed this up with an 11^thin stage 2.  Lachlan Dow (7^th) and Matt Parton (8^th) ran extremely well on stage 2 after being in the 20’s on stage 1.

After day 1 there was just 1 minute 6 seconds separating the top 10 in the men’s elite field, and 2.20 down to twentieth place.  In the women’s field it’s a little more stretched out with 4 minutes between 1^st and 10^th. Sunday’s two races are both again in mostly urban terrain featuring 2 or 3 different schools on each map.  The afternoon stage also has some public gardens to traverse.  With sprint races being so fast and frantic there are many chances for other runners to come to the fore.

Overall after day 1 – top 20 results

1^st  Tim Robertson (NZ)  places  1 + 3      31.01 minutes

3^rd Oscar McNulty (WA)               9 + 1     31.07    “

7^th Bryan Keely (VIC)                     5 + 11

11^th Ian Lawford (ACT)                  12 + 15

13^th Matt Parton (NSW)                22 + 8

14^th Lachy Dow (ACT)                     23 + 7

1^st    Rachel Effeney (Q)                 1 + 1      29.46 minutes  (pictured above)

2^nd   Angela Simpson (NZ)             3 + 3       30.38      “

8^th   Hanny Allston (TAS)                8 + 8

9^th   Aislinn Prendergast (VIC)      11 + 7

12^th  Mace Neve (ACT)                   15 + 13

16^th  Shannon Jones (ACT)            21 + 14

17^th   Ilka Barr (VIC)                         16 + 23

19^th  Katelyn Effeney (Q)               19 + 18

20^th Belinda Lawford (ACT)           18 + 21