Albury extended its lead slightly to three points over Wagga after another tight Interclub Challenge near Burrandana today.
Both groups of races were physically challenging with steep hillsides to climb and descend, and large tracts of thick undergrowth, stony ground and many fallen branches to negotiate.
As it turned out there were viable competitions for the Interclub points only in the 5.7km and 3.4km hard navigation races. Points are awarded according to places for an equal number of participants in each race. Most of the Albury orienteers opted for the longer races whereas most of the WaggaRoos entered the shorter races.
On the 5.7km course Albury’s Tony Perrot had some problems trying to locate (A) pit which allowed Wagga’s John Oliver to sneak past. Then on the next leg John had even more trouble locating (A) small patch of rocky ground allowing Tony to regain the lead and score the points. Albury’s Wayne Bajenoff finished third well off the pace.
Liz Wood (Albury) just blew away the field completing the 3.4km hard navigation course in (A) blistering 55.29. Second placegetter Norm McCann (Albury) was almost 30min behind with Wagga’s Wes Campbell right on his heels. However, the damage was done and Albury scored 4 points to Wagga’s 2 to slightly increase their overall lead in the competition to 60:57.
In spite of the steepness, Jade Wade and Warren Fynn skipped around the 2.1km course in good time and then followed up with a win on the 2.9km course. Their effort on the 2.1km course earned them handicap honours for the day.
Kade Mavroudis and Charlie Cheesley, who both did well at the Riverina schools championships, again did well and filled the minor places in the 2.1km course. They too finished with sufficient energy to find a few more controls as practice for next month's NSW schools championships in Mittagong.
