A full programme was set out for the Otago MTBO Carnival in New Zealand last week. Starting on January 7th there were two warm up events followed by the Sprint, Long Distance, Middle Distance events of the NZ/Australia match before the carnival wound up with a friendly Relay event on January 14th.
The Sprint distance was held on a tiny map, some 1km long by 500m wide, near Roxburgh but the size of the area, did not prevent the planner being able to set 5 courses of up to 7km each in this technically challenging gold mining area. The Long Distance event was raced in sweltering heat over steep hills testing the nerve and stamina of the field of 150 riders. NZ scored a narrow win over Australia in the Sprints and increased their winning margin in the Long Distance races before the teams took a well earned rest day mid week.
The Carnival resumed on January 13th with a Middle Distance race near Wanaka where competitors had quite different conditions with falling temperatures and the threat of snow. Riding conditions were difficult after overnight rain but the teams battled it out with some closely contested races. In the Women's open Australia's Melanie Simpson (Newcastle) and Mary Fien (Big Foot) turned in great performances to take 2nd and 3rd places respectively, winning the class for Australia over a strong ride by Marquita Gelderman for New Zealand. The Middle Distance completed the Australia/NZ competition with NZ winning by a 4 point margin 14:10.
The relays on the last day of the Carnival saw competitors racing on snowfields above Cardrona. Full reports posted by Kay Haarsma can be found on the Orienteering Australia website and results on the Carnival website
