Young shoulders won out over old heads at Garingal's annual Goanna wacky race at The Clay Pan in Beacon Hill on Sunday.
JWOC rep Toby Wilson (Garingal), Ewan Shingler (Big Foot) and Serena Doyle (Uringa) were first across the line in the mass start mind-bender that is the brainchild of ONSW marketing and communications officer Ian Jessup.
Competitors may skip controls, may follow others, and have a small box section to be done in any order - throwing the standard line course a little out of kilter and introducing some tangential decision making into the mix.
For example, fourth-placed Bart Vonhoff was en route to #13 on the long Goanna course, but found himself instead at control a in the box. Worry? No - he simply skipped #13 and continued! (Don't we all wish we could have days like that?!)
Toby (43:03) deadheated with Andrew Brown last year in the Goanna but had the glory all to himself this year as he pipped Big Foot junior Alastair George by 18 seconds. Visiting Tasmanian Karl Bicevskis was a further 14 minutes back in third place.
In the medium DraGOn, Ewan (38:59) shrugged off a heavy cold to beat Tom Kennedy (second place again) by seven minutes. Mapper Jim Merchant was third in just under an hour - feeling right at home no doubt.
In the short GeckO, Serena (40:58) edged out Toby's mum Airdrie Long by half a minute, with Peter Fozo - one of Garingal's Hungarian imports, third in 49:47.
A bi thank you to controller Ron Junghans and the team of GO helpers, especially SI guru Col Burnett who had the task of programming such a spectacle as well as overseeing the trial of SI Air.
The courses are on Routegadget, with some amusing 'noodling' on the Goanna.
