Julian Dent gave mere mortals a taste of world-class orienteering when he flew around the former UTS Kuring-gai campus in 16m44s to win the annual Big Foot Sprints on Saturday.
Australia's top-ranked male orienteer dominated the two 1.4km races to the disbelief of regulars. With an actual distance closer to 3.2km, that's just over 5 minutes per kilometre in mostly rocky terrain. Wow.
The Sweden-based Central Coast star finished two and a half minutes ahead of Uringa's Ondrej Pavlu, with ACT's Grant Bluett third.
ACT elite Shannon Jones took out the women's section in 23m20s, beating host club members Paula Shingler and Tracy Bluett.
Eoin Rothery's courses encompassed fine rock detail on the fringes of the campus with some up and down. It was great to see participants from Sweden, UK, ACT and Newcastle. Thanks to a limping Andy Simpson and the rest of the Feet for a top outing. Results, splits and more are on the Sprints web page.
