AUSSIES OVERSEAS
World Rogaining Championship May 2004: Big Lake, Arizona, USA David Rowlands The smiles looked familiar immediately. Who would you expect to meet 1500m below the rim of the Grand Canyon a week before a World Rogaining Championship on the other side of the world? Geoff Lawford and Rod Gray had been in Arizona training for weeks, like many competitors who realised the value of acclimatisation, while enjoying a unique holiday experience amongst the world famous geological sights like Monument Valley and Sedona.
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was again teamed with the evergreen Greg Barbour. Based in The Hague with Shell, he was as usual in the midst of negotiating a billion dollar deal, this time with a Russian oil company, while in his spare time planning strategy for the largest Macadamia farm in New Zealand and a booming property development business. At 40+ he continues to represent New Zealand in Orienteering, Mountain Biking and even Ski-O world championships. The World Rogaining Championship is held every two years, rotating between Australia, Europe and North America. With the largest rogaining population outside Australia, and regular events since 1989 sponsored by United States Orienteering Federation, it was no surprise that 394 competitors enjoyed a superb event capably planned by Tucson Orienteering Club. The serious business for us was that this could be a third consecutive world title, which would be unprecedented. After the 40-degree heat of the 1998 world championship in Canada, USA produced a unique rogaine held at an elevation of 2700 metres. Arizona is in the grip of a nine-year drought, like Australia, with the location chosen to avoid potential fire danger. The start at Big Lake, in the White Mountains near the New Mexico border, was covered in a blanket of snow only a week before, but by event day only a few drifts remained. Competitors enjoyed a picturesque 300 square kilometres of varied terrain: from rocky alpine grassland, to open ponderosa and fir forest, lakes, and a few steep gorges. The 1:40,000 map scale with 6 metre contours was field worked extensively to accurately represent forest boundaries and the abundance of small tracks. Navigation was rather straightforward due to the broad contour features, many attack points and catching features. There were 64 checkpoints ranging from 30 to 90 points in value, with the winners bagging 55 of them. Rogaining is a meeting ground of orienteers, adventure racers, trail and ultra runners. History has favoured experience (usually meaning Australians), navigational skill (usually orienteers), or a home ground advantage. But in a relatively immature sport beware the dark horse. In past years, the adventure racers had gained a reputation for “all the gear but no idea”. Perhaps due to the altitude and an easy navigation course the event was won by an adventure racing team from the mountains of Colorado. What did surprise was that this was their first rogaine event.
WORLD ROGAINING CHAMPIONSHIPS The Australian highlights were Geoff and Rod’s third place in the Veterans section and ninth overall. Julie Quinn, who with Kay Haarsma won the Womens title in Czech Republic in 2002, returned to win the Mixed section with David Baldwin, placing eighth overall. Baby boomers Derek Morris and Ted Van Geldermalsen were standouts with a fantastic fourth overall and second Veterans. Greg and I really felt our age (or the altitude) and hung on for second place by a small margin. The highlight for us was being asked to present our route and tactics on a huge map to a large gathering of fanatical USA rogainers, including the course setters. Someone came up to Greg afterwards and said she learned more from that 45 minutes than from 10 years of rogaining. The next World Rogaining Championship will be in New South Wales, Australia in mid-October 2006. Top Results 1. Mike Kloser, Michael Tobin (USA) 3490 points 2. Greg Barbour (NZL), David Rowlands (AUS) 3410, First Veteran 3. Petr Boránek, Miroslav Seidl (CZE) 3240 4. Derek Morris, Ted Van Geldermalsen (AUS) 3190, Second Veteran 5. David Frei, Blake Wood (USA) 3050 6. Todd Holmes, Mikell Platt, Jason Poole (USA) 3040 7. Eric Bone, Vladimir Gusiatnikov (USA) 3000 8. David Baldwin, Julie Quinn (AUS) 2930, First Mixed 9. Rod Gray, Geoff Lawford (AUS) 2830, Third Veteran 10. Trevor Baine, Scott Pennell (CAN) 2820 22. Peter Gagarin, Fred Pilon (USA) 2470, First Super Veteran Men 55. Victoria Campbell, Jennifer Knowles (USA) 2020, First Women 70. Sharon Crawford (USA), Robin Spriggs (AUS), First Super Veteran Women
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SEPTEMBER 2004 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 19
