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Rachel Effeney and Ralph Street took out the elite classes at Friday’s Australian Sprint Orienteering Championships, held on a complex and convoluted course at St. Patrick’s College in Ballarat.

Effeney, a finalist in the sprint in the World Championships, was making her first appearance of the week. The last starter of the day, she was in front from early in the course and once she was under way she never seriously looked like losing, eventually scoring by more than 30 seconds. New Zealander Renee Beveridge recovered from a slow start to take second, while Krystal Neumann’s third gave her a useful four-point lead in the National League with one race to come.

Street had been a close second in both of last weekend’s races after arriving from the UK, but went one better on Friday. Starting in the middle of the field, he came in with a big lead. Only once was it seriously challenged, when Matt Ogden was in touch through most of the radio controls, but he was never quite able to match Street and fell 11 seconds short at the finish. Henry McNulty, still a junior, was best of the locals in third place. Neither Matt Crane nor Simon Uppill improved their National League score, leaving the former one point in front.

Olivia Sprod had her best result at this level with a win in the junior women’s event, scoring by six seconds after a fluctuating contest with Tara Melhuish. Tommy Hayes showed his pace by dominating the junior men’s race (in a time which would have got him third in the seniors), with Patrick Jaffe the best of the rest. Despite not improving their own scores, Matt Doyle and Lanita Steer secured the National League titles when others failed to get the results they needed.

Competition continues with the Australian Long Distance Championships on Saturday.

Results and splits are available.

Tasmania have won the 2015 Australian Schools Orienteering Championships after a dramatic finish in the relays on Wednesday, beating the ACT by a single point. It all came down to the senior girls’ relay. Once Tasmania had finished in third place, the ACT, who had gone out in fourth, needed to finish fourth to win outright or fifth to tie. They hung in there better than anyone expected, but Asha Steer of Victoria went through the ACT’s Emily Alder on the second half of the course, and Bo Davie (WA) also caught up to take a 50-metre lead at the spectator control with a few minutes of the course to go. Despite some ups and downs in the closing stages, that was more or less the gap at the end, as Davie (probably wondering why she was being frenetically cheered by every Tasmanian present) held off Alder in a sprint finish.

Tasmania achieved their result with consistency today across the age groups. They did not win any of the relays, and were second in only one of them – the senior boys, where Joseph Dickinson successfully defended, just, a two-minute gap on the fast-closing Victorian Patrick Jaffe, to hold second in a critical result – but got at least fourth in every class. The ACT were the leading state in both junior classes, finishing behind New Zealand in both junior boys and junior girls, and although they got more than expected out of their seniors – led off by Tara Melhuish putting three minutes into the rest of the field on the opening leg – it was not quite enough.

New Zealand also took out the senior girls, Georgia Creagh taking control of the race on the second leg to send Danielle Goodall out with a two-minute break on Winnie Oakhill, although there was a scare at the end when the gap shrank from two minutes to less than 30 seconds on the final loop.

The one race not won by New Zealand was the senior boys. Queensland’s strategy of running Joshua Morrison first and then handing over to their two front-liners, Simeon Burrill and Riley de Jong, paid off in spades as Morrison came back almost on the lead pack. From there, Burrill dominated the second leg to put four minutes into the field and the result was never in serious doubt from there.

Final scores:

Australian Schools Championships: Tasmania 62, ACT 61, Victoria 54, Queensland 54, NSW 41, SA 38, WA 22.

Southern Cross Junior Challenge: NZ 89, Tasmania 63, ACT 63, Victoria 56, Queensland 55, NSW 41, SA 39, WA 22.

Results from the relay are available.

A close finish is in store in the Australian Schools Championships after the second individual day in the fast terrain of Sandon Forest. Tasmania and the ACT are tied on 40 points going into relays day, with Victoria, today’s leading scorers, four points further back.

Surprises were the order of the day, with three of the four race winners somewhat unexpected (at least to tipping competition entrants!). Jo-Anna Maynard showed her form yesterday in the sprint, but the forest was something of an unknown quantity. It was apparent early on that she was on another very good run, and she took a clear lead when she arrived at the finish. There were still several serious challenges to come; Danielle Goodall lost her chance with an early error, but Winnie Oakhill and Asha Steer both ran consistently well. They were, however, unable to match Maynard’s speed, and had to settle for second and third.

Tommy Hayes jumped to a strong early lead and kept the field at arm’s length for much of the race. The long 12th leg proved to be the decisive one, as he took a low route choice which proved to be suboptimal. The minute or so that option cost him opened the door, and it was Simeon Burrill who was able to go through it; he almost blew it with a slight wobble at the last control, but picked himself up just in time and finished four seconds clear of the New Zealander. Jarrah Day was third, on a day when the top five were covered by barely a minute.

It took a while for the junior girls to settle down, with several promising runs coming to grief on controls in the second half of the course, but Zoe Melhuish eventually posted the time to chase. It seemed unlikely to hold up with the formidable New Zealand team, fillers of the top four places yesterday, still with runners to come, but hold up it did. Jenna Tidswell was the last chance to overhaul her, taking the lead at the first radio, but a 90-second miss at #5 put her just behind the Canberran and it was a gap she was never quite able to close. Briana Steven completed the placings for the New Zealanders.

The one age group where the win was no surprise was the junior boys, where Aston Key reigned supreme. That the margin, just under two minutes, was a good deal smaller than those over the weekend owed something to the simpler terrain, but rather more to a high-standard race in which none of the top six made any significant errors. The Miller brothers from the ACT filled two of the top four, with Patrick second and Tristan fourth, separated by Dante Afnan.

Provisional scores: Tasmania, ACT 40; Victoria 36; Queensland 32; SA 30, NSW 29; WA 17.

Results and splits from today’s events are available.

Tasmania are the narrow leaders after the first day of the Australian Schools Orienteering Championships, the inaugural Schools sprint run at Federation University in Ballarat. They lead by one point from the ACT, with six of the seven states within six points of each other after a well-contested first day.

The most convincing win of the day came from Aston Key in the junior boys. He has been in imposing form in the forest, with a top-ten placing at the Swedish 5-Days and a third in M20 in the ultra-long in August among his highlights, and he showed today that he is as far ahead of the field in the sprint. The rest of the field was more than a minute back, with Dante Afnan (SA) edging out Duncan Currie (NSW) for second by a single second.

Jo-Anna Maynard was almost as impressive in the senior girls, giving the largest WA team in memory plenty to cheer about. Up against a strong field including three with JWOC experience, she made a very fast start and caught Winnie Oakhill by mid-course, sweeping to victory by nearly half a minute. Danielle Goodall was second, with Oakhill finishing off well enough to complete the placings.

New Zealand swept the board in the junior girls, with last starter Jenna Tidswell leading a quadrella which also included Carolyne Nel, Marisol Hunter and Briana Steven. Meredith Norman was the best of the Australians on a good day for South Australia. New Zealand also took out the senior boys in the closest result of the day, with Patrick Jaffe falling just short of edging out Tommy Hayes. Ed Cory-Wright, after an uncertain start, recovered to third place.

Provisional points after day 1:

State: Tasmania 20, ACT 19, Queensland 17, SA 16, Victoria 15, NSW 14, WA 11.

Southern Cross Junior Challenge: NZ 31, Tasmania 20, ACT 20, Queensland 17, SA 16, Victoria 15, NSW 14, WA 11.

Results from the event are available.

Jo Allison and Nick Hann opened the Australian Championships week with wins in the Victorian Middle Distance Championships at Creswick Diggings on Saturday.

The experienced Canberran proved the worth of experience on a technical course and controlled the race for most of the day. Only Anna Sheldon was able to get close to her, but Allison edged away over the second half of the course and ended up a minute clear. Liis Johansen, who splits her time between Estonia and Melbourne, had her best result in Australia with third, whilst Grace Crane’s fifth was her best result since returning to competition.

The men had a strong international field, and it ended up a race in three between two of those internationals and one of the locals. The New Zealander Hann posted the time to beat reasonably early in the day, but had to withstand two serious challenges, first from British WOC runner Ralph Street, and then from Simon Uppill. Neither, though, was quite able to match Hann over the last few controls, and had to settle for second and third.

Despite being on home ground, it was a disastrous day for the Victorian Nuggets in the National League, with three mispunches leaving them without a full women’s team and turning their five-point lead over the Queensland Cyclones into a two-point deficit. The Canberra Cockatoos extended their men’s lead from five points to ten. Both senior individual competitions are very tight; only seven points cover Krystal Neumann, Anna Sheldon, Natasha Key and Aislinn Prendergast, while Simon Uppill has a two-point lead over Matt Crane.

Results and splits are available.