Great start for young Stingers at NOL opener

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Last Updated: Monday, 24 February 2014 10:05

It was a great weekend for the Dawsons and Matt Parton as the NSW Stingers kicked off their National Orienteering League campaign in style in Brisbane.

Dual JWOC rep Michele Dawson (Garingal, left) took out the junior women's sprint final on Sunday by more than a minute from visiting Swede Annika Carlberg, and was 3m20s clear of her nearest Australian rival - Jacqui Doyle from the ACT.

Michele's JWOC team-mate Nicola Blatchford (Newcastle) was 4th and Alinta Merrotsy (Northern Tablelands) 6th, underscoring our depth in this division. 

In the men's senior ranks, Matt (Goldseekers, pictured right) led by 1 second at the 5th and 6th controls but could not contain Simon Uppill, and finished runner-up by 34 seconds. Andrew Brown (Big Foot) and Josh Blatchford (Newcastle) were 8th and 9th. Matt and Josh were 6th in the relay, while Andrew and Andrew Hill were 7th.

Aidan Dawson has dominated the Sydney Sprint Series and carried that form into the NOL with a fourth placing in Saturday's teams relay with fellow school student Daniel Hill (Garingal), and a highly creditable third placing in the junior men's final behind the dominant McNulty brothers from WA. Daniel was 6th and Toby Wilson (Garingal) 9th.

The top ten runners from Saturday afternoon's qualifying race made the A final, and the rest ran in B finals. Lisa Grant (Garingal) was third in the senior women's B final in an encouraging double after partnering Barbara Hill (Garingal) to 5th in the relay, the best placing by NSW women.

Check out the relay results, individual results, and the OQ website for photos, splits and routegadget. The next round is in Victoria on March 22-23.