Today saw over 600 runners competing in Day 1 of the Australian 3 Day Championships in a granite area extending over both sides of the Queensland-NSW border. With long grass covering much of the area between the rocks, competitors found it both physically and technically tough. Those who paid careful attention to the map and didn’t let themselves get pushed around by the terrain performed well today.

The lead changed a few times early in the men’s elite race, before a mistake from Simon Uppill (SA) gave Matthew Crane (ACT) the lead at control 7 which he held to the end finishing 78 seconds ahead. Simon finished in second, followed by David Shepherd (ACT). The junior elite race was led from start to finish by Oliver Poland (ACT) who finished almost 2 minutes ahead of Brodie Nankervis (Tas) and Ian Lawford (ACT).

Similarly Vanessa Round (SA) held the lead in the women’s elite race from the beginning, showing her strength in the physical terrain to win by almost 2 minutes. Bridget Anderson (Qld) and Susanne Casanova (SA) were rewarded for their consistent runs with second and third places respectively.

Jacqui Doyle and Lilian Burrill (Qld) traded places for the lead in the junior elite class, with Jacqui taking the win by 21 seconds. Michele Dawson of NSW was third.