Vic Autumn Series

WORDS MARGI FREEMANTLE PHOTOS SUE GUINANE, LINCOLN PATERSON AND OTHERS

At Orienteering Victoria’s 2018 Strategy Day it was noted by a number of people that attendances at the state Autumn and Spring series had been on a downward trend and some form of revitalisation was required. Suggestions for simplifying and enhancing the series were made, such as reducing the number of courses and including sub-competitions to make the series even more interesting. A group of interested people met to develop the ideas further and the new Vic Autumn Series took shape, with five courses plus a 2 hour score option. Prizes were introduced for course/ class winners at each event, and for the fastest sprint finish split on each course. There was also a spot prize for competitors who pre-entered. As part of the revamp, the inter-club competition for the Rockhopper Trophy scoring was extended to include the Vic Autumn Series performances and participation, in addition to the Victorian Relay Champs results. Hadyn Tang designed and implemented the Inter-club competition scoring system. A competition was also introduced for the highest placed junior girl and junior boy on Course 2 across the series. 2019 – A summary

Event 1 – Bunjil

Nick Collins was the course planner for event 1. Nick was supported by OV’s two Coaches-In-Residence, Joe and Nathan, checking and placing controls, and the Victoria Schools Squad, as part of their schools team fundraising, was the organising team. The sun shone and people stayed to chat, enjoy the atmosphere after their runs, and to see if they had won prizes.

For the first event of the series it was great to see such a large turnout with 149 entries. Helen Alexander was the winner of the first spot prize draw (return of her entry fee) and Archie Neylon blitzed the field to take the fastest sprint finish of the day.

Event 2 – Petticoat Gully

Jenny Bourne designed challenging courses in the gold mining area at Petticoat Gully, and was supported by Gary Buchan and Eureka Orienteers in running the event. The

positioning of the finish chute provided good spectating for the sprint finish competition and the sun continued to shine long enough for people to relax and talk after their runs and to take part in the prize giving. Suzanne O’Callaghan was the spot prize winner and Archie stayed ahead of his rivals by one second to take the fastest sprint finish of the day again.

Event 3 – Nerrina

What a nice setting for the arena at the Little Bendigo school, centred around what must be Australia’s smallest athletics track. The hotly contested fastest sprint finish competition featured half a lap of the track which made for entertaining viewing, with Glen White taking out the title this week. Patrick Jaffe, supported by Jim Russell and the Victoria High Performance team, was the course planner, setting some great courses on a very technical part of the Nerrina map that involved a challenging mix of intense map reading, route choices and direction changes. The spot prize draw went to Jenny Bourne.

Event 4 – Eppalock South

The great weather continued with perfect conditions for this event, which was planned by Glen White and organised by Ruth Goddard and Yarra Valley Orienteers. The terrain was very different from the last two events with its subtle gully spur. The positioning of the finish chute again provided good spectating and to everyone’s delight was a downhill leg. Archie Neylon made it 3 out of 4 to take the finish sprint leg. The spot prize draw went to John Chellew.

Event 5 – Irishtown

The weather forecast was not looking ideal, however the series’ luck continued and although it was on the cool side, there was no rain. Andrew Hunter was course planner, supported by Greg Tamblyn and Bayside Kangaroos Orienteers. Most courses stayed on the spur gully terrain, while Courses 1 and 2 also got a taste of gold mining in the north. The Irishtown map does not have many tracks, so Andrew had to get creative for the easy course using the water channels as “pseudo” tracks. The winner of this event’s prize draw for pre-entering was Anttijussi Karjalainen, and Archie Neylon cemented his position as the fastest finish sprint leg winner.

Event 6 – Creswick Diggings

The Vic Autumn Series finished with this last event also being part of the Pure Gold QB3day. Course planner Dion Keech designed some testing courses that had a mix of fast open running and steep detailed and sometimes scrubby gully lines. Dion even managed to find some very deep holes, masquerading as erosion gullies, to place controls in on Courses 1 & 2 that took some thought on how to get in / out of.

Then there was the most gnarly finish chute of the series which Archie Neylon once again aced for the win. This event also saw its first sprint finish run off, after brothers Lachlan and Luke Feuerherdt tied for the sprint finish on course 3M with a winning time of 24 seconds. The run off was very close with Lachlan finishing just ahead of Luke by launching his body forward over the finish line.

Series Results

The series placegetter certificates and prizes and overall awards were presented after the Victorian Middle Distance Championships. Race results are listed in the results pages. Course 2 Junior Prize Winners Overall junior competition winner Serryn Eenjes Serryn won a pair of VJ Orienteering Shoes Junior Boy James Love James won an orienteering gear voucher Series Finish Sprint Leg Champion Archie Neylon Winner of the Lucky Draw for the STR8 Thumb Compass (open to all competitors who had pre-entered at least 5 events) Libby Meeking