Final DuO Adventure Race attracts biggest field so far
- Last Updated: Friday, 06 July 2012 15:44
The last DuO Adventure race of the year was run on Sunday at Belanglo State Forest, and attracted the biggest field yet. The series has grown in popularity over its three event run, attracting orienteers and mountain bike enthusiasts in equal numbers. This last race saw a large contingent of participants from the ACT.
The courses were challenging but many lessons have been learnt over the series and this was probably the best yet. New courses were added to the championship long and short courses to allow as many people as possible to try out the event. There was a new novice course which saw a number of youngsters having a go, and a mountain bike only course for those who prefer their orienteering on two wheels only.
Championship winners were decided at this race. Mary Fien won the Women's Long Course both on the day and for the series. Although she had a difficult run at The Dairy where she lost to Melanie Simpson, her winning performances at Killingworth and Belanglo secured the top spot with 51 points from Carolyn Haupt's 46 and Hilary Ellis' 44. Anna Hyslop from the ACT was second on the day; this was her first attempt at the DuO so if she decides to run in the full series next year Mary may find the competition next year has hotted up.
Mens Long course winner Malcolm Roberts had a solid set of events through the series to take the top spot, but there were strong contenders bunched close behind. Jason Rutkowski took second; only 1 point separated Greg Barbour in third from Graham Horrocks and David Simpfendorfer in joint fourth. Many of the male competitors in the Long Course struggled with the foot O part of the course which was set around the Piggeries, a map well known to orienteers as one that can pose difficulties for even the most experienced.
Short course winner for the women was Carolyn Matthews with a near perfect score of 73. Toy Martin was a solid second in the series with Cath Chalmers third. A
ndrew Power, new President of Newcastle Orienteering Club, was the winner of the Men's Short Course, snatching the title from organiser Greg Bacon whose 6th place at Belanglo prevented him taking the overall title. Graham Fowler was 3rd,but things might have all been different if Rob Prentice had made the trip to Killingworth, as his two wins at The Dairy and Belanglo would have made him hot favorite for a title had he gathered the full DuO Adventure Race set.
Ewan Shingler won the novice course, accompanied by his father on foot. The other novices struggled with the course but seemed to enjoy their ride out into the forest nonetheless. Eoin Rothery led the MTBO Long course home; Bridget Kelly the Short MTBO.
Full results and final championship standing can be found on the DuO Adventure Race page here. Organiser Greg Bacon's detailed round up of the Belanglo race can be found here
A great day for some orienteering at Appin
- Last Updated: Friday, 06 July 2012 15:44
Appin is Southern Highland Occasional Orienteers' most technical map with lots of fine navigation needed to get around Moderate and Hard courses. It is also the hardest map to plan courses on because there is no vehicular access to any part of the map. Planner and organiser John took this in his stride with three trips to set up the event - first to tag all controls, then put out all controls, and then finally to actually run the event.
The Hard courses were steep, long and needed very fine navigation and it got the better of some of the runners, experienced as they were. There was representation from a number of clubs with Western Hills, Illawarrah Kareelah, Uringa and of course SHOO all in attendence. Val Hodsdon conquered the Hard Long, Ted Mulherin the Hard Short and the two Jones girls from Uringa Georgia and Sophie won the Moderate and Easy respectively.
SHOO's next club event is on 2 June at Lake Alexandra, Mittagong.
Thanks to Lyn Malmgron for her help with this report
A great day for some orienteering at Appin
- Last Updated: Friday, 06 July 2012 15:44
Appin is Southern Highland Occasional Orienteers' most technical map with lots of fine navigation needed to get around Moderate and Hard courses. It is also the hardest map to plan courses on because there is no vehicular access to any part of the map. Planner and organiser John took this in his stride with three trips to set up the event - first to tag all controls, then put out all controls, and then finally to actually run the event.
The Hard courses were steep, long and needed very fine navigation and it got the better of some of the runners, experienced as they were. There was representation from a number of clubs with Western Hills, Illawarrah Kareelah, Uringa and of course SHOO all in attendence. Val Hodsdon conquered the Hard Long, Ted Mulherin the Hard Short and the two Jones girls from Uringa Georgia and Sophie won the Moderate and Easy respectively.
SHOO's next club event is on 2 June at Lake Alexandra, Mittagong.
Thanks to Lyn Malmgron for her help with this report
What a line up for Illawarrah at Kurnell!
- Last Updated: Friday, 06 July 2012 15:44
An IKON club event record! Over thirty runners turned up for IKN's recent club event at Kurnell and were rewarded for their trip with perfect running weather, beautiful scenery and a thoroughly enjoyable course. Organiser Ian Froude used the format similar to that used by Victorian clubs for street events where the map had 19 controls on it and the competitor chose to do any 10, 14 or 17 of these depending on the distance they wanted to run. Control sites were questions relating to permanent features with a choice of three answers on the clue sheet.
Each course was very competitive with seconds separating the runners. The Long course, which was approximately 6km long depending
on route choice, was won by Ian Jones a good margin ahead of the rest of the field. Competition was tight further down the rankings with less than two minutes separating 6th place from 9th. This was also the case in the Medium, won by Georgia Jones, where the race was even closer with Sue Froude getting her 6th place only 45 seconds quicker than Salme Fuller whose 46:30 placed her 9th. The Jones family took the final placing in the Short with Sophie Jones winning ahead of Greg Robinson and Eunice Wilson who were close behind.
Thanks to Ian Froude for his help with this report. The IKON results will be available here
