8 minute read
What Happened to Spring?
WORDS & PHOTOS MARGI FREEMANTLE
Some years Sprint into Spring gets perhaps one wet day. Not so for the 2019 series where the weather cycle seemed to bring cold wet weather nearly every Saturday. The series had a slightly different composition this year, starting with a double header on the Friday evening and Saturday as a lead-in to the Melbourne City Race on the Sunday. Also, the series presentations were held at a separate pop-up sprint the weekend after the last race. This was because access to Kardinia International College, the venue for the Victorian Sprint Champs, was only available on Sunday 17 November, a week before the series was due to finish.
Race 1 - Edgewater
The Friday evening race was a first for Sprint into Spring, and, being part of the Melbourne City Race Weekend, it attracted a mix of locals, interstaters and internationals. The City Race organisers requested longer than usual courses for this event in order to follow the London City Race model. This posed a challenge for planner Judi Herkes to meet this criterion, while not compromising the sprint and hill climb legs that are a feature of SIS. Edgewater is a mix of campus, parkland and streets and Judi used these to good advantage. All courses started with a novel “tunnel crawl” before being taken straight into the complexity of Victoria University campus and then into the park gardens for the hill climb, followed quickly by a long sprint leg. While the Usain course only required competitors to navigate back to the arena, the Mo and Sally courses continued north with some long legs through the Edgewater estate, of the type that were expected in the Sunday City Race.
Race 2 – Kensington
There had been much discussion over the years that the Kensington Banks area might make a good sprint map with its complex maze of laneways, parks, and old stock fences. So it was decided to make the move and include it in this year’s program, with Fredrik Johansson and Ted van Geldermalsen both mapping and planning the courses. Setting up for this
Tunnel crawl
event took a bit longer than usual. Due to the permit conditions, most controls had to use trestles which are time consuming to assemble, position and lock. Also the very features that make the area so interesting means parking is at a minimum (i.e. non-existent) so most trestles had to be walked in from the arena. The courses provided a mix of short sharp legs and longer ones, each providing its own puzzle for route choice. Surprisingly one leg that seemed to catch out a number of people was the sprint leg, where the control at the end of the leg was behind a concrete block. There were plenty of tales of competitors running straight past, across the bluestone street cobblestones only to find themselves alongside the next control.
Race 3 – Kurunjang Secondary College
Kurunjang, Melton, is a little bit off the track for most orienteers, but for those who made the journey Michael Hubbert had planned some cunning courses on this small but highly complex map. The arena was set up under the veranda outside the college reception and the start was inside the building in the reception area itself. This meant there was no peeking at course routes prior to starting. The arena setup also proved very fortuitous, as Melbourne’s fickle spring sprang into action with a downpour during the day. The fences and gates are a feature of this map, and by careful choice of which to open and which to close, they can really catch out the unwary. This event was no exception with plenty of people discovering themselves on the wrong side of several high fences. Luckily most people puzzled their way through the confusion without great time loss. All the courses featured a map swap, and competitors quickly discovered that they needed to pay attention to the fine detail. It was not a problem finding a sprint leg on this very flat map but finding a suitable hill climb presented a challenge, until it was noticed that the college had built an external stairway to access the upper level of the gym building. Luckily there was room to pass on the
Bryan Stokes
Michael Hubbert
stairs and there were a few good head-to-head races up and down the stairs.
Race 4 – Eltham College
The organisers were the Vic Junior Squad, and they did a great job, led by Callum White as course planner. Everyone enjoyed great racing and if timed right got to run in lovely sunshine, although showers did roll through every now and again. Every leg of Callum’s courses had something to think about; straight out of the start triangle competitors were faced with nothing more than a grassy slope, which was disorienting. There were route choices all the way, and the eastern end of the school was particularly challenging with its playground, very small buildings, and numerous fences and gates. There were lots of places where the decision was either to go wide and keep it simple, or take a route that was more direct but harder to navigate. The sprint leg had a trap for the unwary who took the longer stair option, and the hill climb was tough, with a very steep pinch to start with, a levelling out, then a second steep pinch to reach the control.
Race 5 – Cornish College
After our first use of Cornish College in 2018, we were invited to come back again this year. In preparation for the event Ian Davies updated the map to include the new building and surrounding landscaping. First time course planners Victoria Greenhan and Greg Palmer planned courses that used the complex built area and internal corridors, and the parkland with its island and mini farm, to great effect, creating courses that kept competitors thinking hard throughout. A number of competitors got caught out by the courtyards and covered corridors early on, and found that small details were important with tiny paths connecting through to the open spaces. Both the sprint and hill climb legs were out in the parkland with the hill being a long gentle climb, in comparison to the short steep one last year. Melbourne’s unseasonably cold spring continued, but although the conditions felt more like winter
Daniel Stott
than spring, it didn’t rain during the event and all who attended had a great time.
Race 6 – Oxley College
At last, Melbourne’s spring decided to turn on a fine, dry day with a higher temperature than the previous few races. This was Sarah and James Loves’ first experience of sprint course planning. James, as an Oxley College student has good knowledge of this campus, and by the time Sarah and he had finished planning the courses they made sure the competitors would get well acquainted with the campus as well. On arriving to set up, the organisers discovered they had been beaten there by a group setting up a Christmas nativity scene, smack bang in the middle of a route choice option. Fortunately competitors took this unmapped obstacle in their stride. The courses started in the built area with its tight turns, lots of stairs and ramps, and very small outbuildings as well as the main campus. Then the sprint leg was a hard straight run across the edge of the oval, followed by a series of open running legs before the hill climb, which kicked off a final sequence of technical legs among the buildings again, before an uphill finish.
Callum White
Race 7 – Darebin Parklands
The final event for the series finally saw some lovely late spring weather – no hail or gale, just sunshine. It was a move away from campus terrain and into a pure park/bush environment. Course planners were Will Davey and Jensen Key, and they had put a lot of thought and test running into these courses to make the most of the terrain. The courses started in the woodland to the north, and then headed downhill to the creek, setting up some good route choices to the south end of the park. The southern section featured lots of changes of direction and route choice legs around the series of lakes. Both the hill climb and sprint leg were in the southern part, where the hill climb had been set up perfectly for photography with competitors powering up the short hill, and the sprint leg
needed good map reading. Then at the end of the course, just when competitors were contemplating a sprint up through the finish arch, there came the realisation that the leg was equal to the hill climb with four lung busting contours to be overcome between the final control and the finish.
The Pop-Up Sprint – Ruffey Lake Park
The Sprint into Spring presentations were held in conjunction with an informal (pop-up) sprint. Former coach-in-residence Peter Hodkinson, back in Melbourne for another summer, put up his hand as organiser, and Brodie Nankervis quickly came on board as the course planner. Who will forget Brodie’s maze in a hurry - certainly not Peter and other helpers who had to set out seemingly kilometres of tape for it, nor the competitors puzzling their way around it. Again it was a lovely late spring day with plenty of sunshine that tempted people to stay and relax under the trees after the event and series presentations.
