The annual Aus v NZ Challenge, held during the Australian MTBO Championship carnival at Maryborough, Victoria, saw Australia emerge victorious 18 points to 14.   The challenge was contested over the 8 age classes nominated by the visiting nation in each of the 4 races.   In both races 1 & 2 the teams shared the honours with 4 wins each.   In the 3^rd race Australia won 5 classes to 3, thus giving them an edge, but no guaranteed victory going into the final race.  Thanks to wins in W21, W40, M21, M50 & M70 classes in the race 4 Australian manager Andrew Power was reluctantly handed the challenge trophy by the Kiwis, who had held it for some years. The Championships saw the sprint, middle and mass start events held on the outskirts of Maryborough, while the long distance champs was held in the forest east of Dunolly.  This was the first time that all 4 individual events had been contested at the one carnival and attracted 162 pre-entrants plus some enter on the day.  Among these were 27 Kiwis and 2 from Britain and 1 from Hungary.  Many congratulations to the 3 organising clubs, Bayside Kangaroos, Eureka Orienteers and Yarra Valley and their extra helpers who conducted an excellent carnival.

Race reports, results and Winsplits are available on the Championship website, while photo’s, courtesy of Jason Rogers, are available on the Aus MTBO Facebook page.

After the races 26 orienteers stayed on for a 2 day International Orienteering Federation (IOF) Event Advisor Clinic conducted in the Maryborough community hub.   This was led by Hungarian MTBO expert Sandor Talas who updated the knowledge of participants in the technical aspects of MTBO event organising.