Robertson, Schaefer take out CC summer series
- Last Updated: Monday, 21 February 2022 13:15
Melissa Robertson and Mark Schaefer have taken out first places at the Central Coast summer series after the final event at Bateau Bay.
Melissa (600) finished comfortably in front of CC president Hilary Wood (540), while Mark (600) had Newcastle's Justin Stafford (581) close by.
The men's handicap section went to Neil Chappell (NC), and the women's was shared by Liz Bulman (Garingal) and Suzanne Bramford (NC).
A big thank you to all the course setters, organisers, mappers and participants.
The next Central Coast event is the 40th edition of the Toukley/O'Shea 2-Days on March 4-5. There are three runs in 18 hours. Cake prizes for the fastest pairs overall, but you can also enter as an individual in 1, 2 or 3 events.
Details are here. Entries close Mar 2.
Orienteers clean up at Max Adventure race
- Last Updated: Friday, 18 February 2022 17:42
NSW orienteers dominated the Maximum Adventure races at Lake Macquarie last weekend.
Bennelong Northside's Ryan Armstrong and brother Chad took out Saturday's Classic distance in 2h7m25s, a good 12 minutes clear of their nearest rivals.
The following day Newcastle veteran Jenny Enderby and junior Oskar Mella (pictured, top) won in 2h19m46s, which was second across both days by just a mere three seconds.
On Saturday, Newcastle MTBOers Ginaya Dunn and Derrick Cant were the first mixed couple in 3 hours, and second across both days.
In the Mixed Novice class, Garingal's Heather Vrachliotis and son Anthony (aged just 10) were fourth overall.
Clubmate Kirsten Horley and partner Jennifer Jones were fourth in the Female Novice.
Melissa sets new Great South West Walk record
- Last Updated: Tuesday, 15 February 2022 10:35
Congratulations to Central Coast member and endurance athlete Melissa Robertson who has smashed the record for the 250km Great South West Walk in Victoria.
Melissa's time of 51 hours 39 minutes obliterated the previous women's record of 94h 27m and took a whopping 7 hours off the men's best time of 58h 33m.
She travelled with her mum who was her support crew for all but a 38km beach stretch towards the end.
To add to the drama, their car was written off after hitting a kangaroo near Seymour en route to the event centre in Portland!
The first day of the run was tough, with temps hitting 37C, and she was understandably exhausted after the adrenalin-sapping sagas of the lead-up.
"As is often the case with ultra events, you have a brief mental breakdown, then pull yourself together and get to the next water source to cool down," said Melissa.
The 40-year-old grew up with a bushwalking mum, became an elite obstacle racer (Tough Mudder etc) in her 20s then picked up orienteering in her 30s. This taught her how to navigate and - crucially - become a lot less afraid of the bush.
Melissa has won the Central Coast Summer Series women's division for several years now.
Her next big challenge is the annual Six Foot Track marathon, where she has three times placed in the top 10 women.
But that's barely a warm-up for the 200-mile (360km) Unreasonable East in June.
Ori's good deed
- Last Updated: Sunday, 13 February 2022 14:34
A big thank you to Uringa's Ori Gudes who stopped his race to help a lost boy at Newcastle's mountain bike orienteering event on Sunday.
Ori was approaching his last control at Killingworth when he came across a distressed boy aged about 10 or 11.
The boy had been walking his dog in local bushland but the dog got out of sight and the boy became misplaced while trying to find the dog.
Ori came to the rescue, calling the boy's dad and calming the lad until the father came to collect him.
Ori remained in touch with the event organisers throughout to let them know of the situation, and had his time adjusted - resulting in a second placing in the Men All Score category.
Well done, Ori.
The last BOSS event for the summer is on Sunday March 13 at O'Donnelltown.
