Newcastle powers home with 4 Championship titles in QLD MTBO Championships
- Last Updated: Friday, 24 August 2012 10:49
The NSW competitors in this year's Queensland MTBO Championships arrived at Woodford north west of Brisbane by train, plane and automobile. Most only made the trip for the weekend with a few taking the leisurely driving option. It was a long way to travel for two one hour races in the Middle and Long Distance Championships but for NSW it was all worth it with Newcastle carrying off combined wins over the two days in four classes:
Womens Open: Jenny Enderby Newcastle
Mens 50: Andrew Power, Newcastle
Mens 60: Greg Bacon, Newcastle
Mens 70: Graham Fowler Newcastle
Read Greg Bacon's report from the Queenland MTBO Championships here.
Junior Leaguers race all comers at Westleigh
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 21 August 2012 14:19
Garingal 
Orienteers hosted Junior League race #8 along with its Come and Try It event at Westleigh. It was an unprepossessing map on first sight, with urban streets teamed with a steep gully system which limited bush control options, but organiser Melissa Joseph and her team skilfully crafted the courses to bring out the best and produce a set of runs which were challenging and enjoyable.
Sophie Jones (UR) and Ewan Shingler (BF) led off the Easy courses and maintained what is proving to be formidable form across these races. Joanna Hill (GO) won her Easy course 2 minutes ahead of rival Rachel Osbourne (BF), and is clearly benefiting from her recent attempts at Orange at MetroLeague running for her club Garingal. Terence Chiang (UR) won the boys Easy course, the latest great result in a 2012 series which has seen him improve enormously since event #1.
State Junior Squad athlete Georgia Jones (UR)won convincingly in Short Moderate, taking a few of the more experienced adult scalps on the way, and Lewis Redner (GO) brought home the Short Moderate for the boys.
In the Hard courses the competition in the Junior League boys division is close. Whilst Matthew Hill (who did not run on Sunday) is dominating the leader board, there are plenty fighting for the other podium places. Younger brother Daniel Hill (GO), always reliably swift, this time lost to Adam Halmy (BN) whose skills as a State competition level cross country runner were on show to win three minutes ahead of Daniel.
And amongst the non-Junior Leaguers? Salme Fuller (IKN) had a great race in Short Moderate to come second in 42:33. Glen Horrocks (GO) and Andy Hill (WH) held off the junior challengers to take 1st and 2nd places respectively in the Long Moderate.
The penultimate Junior League of the season, race #9, will take place on September 23 at Chatswood West.
Normal Entry for Australian Championships closes at Midnight August 20
- Last Updated: Saturday, 18 August 2012 18:41
It is now only 2 days to the close of normal entries on August 20th. After that time late entry fees apply so don't pay more than you have to - get your entries in now!
Visit the entry page on the Carnival website.
Detailed event information for each of the races during the Championships week is coming on-line. All the information for the Australian Long Distance Championships is already posted, and class and distance information for the remainder of the St Helens and Bicheno events is also available on the Program page of the website.
As we get to the Championships you can keep to date with all the latest 'Champ News'. Follow the action on facebook, keep up to date on Twitter (@2012AustOChamps) and of course check out the News page of the Championship website.
Here comes summer!
- Last Updated: Saturday, 18 August 2012 14:36
Its official - summer is just around the corner. How do we know (apart from the date of course)? The Sydney Summer Series and the new South and West Summer Series have all published their racing dates.
The well established and hotly contested Sydney Summer Series ('SSS') starts on Wednesday October 3rd with an event at Shrimpton's Creek and flows through 27 weekly events until March 27th 2013. The SSS is again including the Metro Minigaine on Sunday 3rd March - a great addition last year to this popular series.
Sydney West and Sydney South Series are growing, sharing the Monday slots before Christmas with 13 events between them. Sydney South includes a Sunday event 21 October in Centennial Park following on directly from the World Fire Fighter Games courses in the morning - come and see if you can beat their times!
