Teenager Fergus Mackie underlined his potential with a third straight victory over strong opposition at the Australian MTBO champs, taking out Sunday's open men's Long race by a minute and a half.
The Sydney 16-year-old beat Kiwi Tom Spencer by a minute and a half to claim a clean sweep of the weekend - and bragging rights over older sister Lucy who had the misfortune to lose her SI stick halfway around and thus had to 'dnf'.
Finnish star Antonia Haga, en route to a six-month scholarship with Orienteering Tasmania, took out the open women's by two minutes from New Zealander Georgia Skelton.
On all courses at Wingello State Forest there were many route choices between longer fire roads and shorter, steeper single track.
Newcastle pair Erika Enderby (W12) and Toy Martin (W70) also won the Long to make it a weekend hat-trick.
Other NSW Long winners were Nat Carroll (SHOO) in M12, Mikayla Enderby (NC) in W14 and Tim Hackney (NC) in the Recreational Class.
New Zealand dominated the Long races, winning eight age classes to take out the AUS-NZ Challenge 23-12.
A massive thank you to carnival director Greg Bacon and the army of Newcastle and Big Foot setters, controllers, organisers and helpers. A really smooth four days of riding in top weather, including the warm-up events.
We can also announce a 2018 MTBO calendar update:
* Vic Champs & Australian selection trials will be near Creswick, Victoria, on March 17-18
* Aus Champs will be in Queensland from May 19-20
* The Aus v NZ challenge is in the South Island near Alexandra on April 25-26, followed by a cyclogaine on April 28.
