AUSSIES OVERSEAS
Park World Tour AUSTRALIAN David Brickhill-Jones has burst onto the Sprint scene this year with wins in both the Mediterranean Orienteering Sprint Championship and Round 2 of the Park World Tour. For good measure he took out 3rd place in Round 1. All events were held in southern Italy last March. In Round 2 at Brindisi, Lithuanian Ieva Sargautyte and BrickhillJones (or “BJ”) celebrated their first ever Park World Tour victories at an historical point in Brindisi. Via Appia, the first road built by the Romans, was centre-stage for the PWT race.
BJ’s big bang at Brindisi Among the men, 24-year old BJ scored his first main international victory, outscoring the 23 combatants including the PWT 2004 toptrio Østerbø - Näsman - Haldin. ”Things have really changed during the winter. Earlier, I could do a top race one day and screw everything up the next day. Now we’re talking confidence and results”, said BJ, who had a margin of over 16 seconds to Round 1 winner Østerbø. The Norwegian silver medallist holds on to the lead on the Tour, but Brickhill-Jones is only two points behind. Sargautyte and Brickhill-Jones received a welcome reward in their bank accounts, being crowned Mediterranean Sprint Champions after the three races in Italy.
Absolutely perfect for BJ Earlier, BJ had taken out the prologue race in Gallipoli, Italy. Last year Brickhill-Jones focused almost entirely on the WOC Sprint race in Sweden, but failed to get things right and ended up down in the ranks. In the Mediterranean Orienteering Sprint Championships prologue, he showed that he needs to
Look at me! Look at me! BJ tops the results board. Photo: Lucie Navarová. be counted among the absolute top elite when it comes to Sprint Orienteering. He entered the race with his typical strategy: ”I started at my maximum speed, and hoped I would still have some energy at the end of the race. Apart from that Orienteering worked perfectly for me. But I really didn’t expect that the margin separating me from the runner-up would be as much as 16 seconds”, he exclaimed. On the podium he was joined by the Norwegian Øystein Kvaal Østerbo in 2nd and Denmark’s Claus Bloch in 3rd.
Premiere PWT Victory for Østerbø
PWT 05 Brindisi map
Gallipoli, Italy 1.3.2005: The winner of the Mediterranean Open Sprint Championships Prologue David Brickhill-Jones (AUS) cheered by young and beautiful Italian fans. Photo: Lucie Navarová.
In Round 1 at Otranto, Italy, the men’s race offered an exciting spectacle with the first three runners finishing within five seconds. Fastest of all was the 23-year old Norwegian Øystein Kvaal Østerbø who stormed through the eighteen controls of the challenging 2.5 kilometre course in an amazing 12:19.6, and took his first ever Park World Tour race victory. ”I think I was really lucky today and I can also thank BJ for the many mistakes he made. I ran to the first control with high caution in order to get onto the map and get an overview of what was coming later on the course”, were Østerbø’s telling comments after the race.
Above: Claus Bloch (DEN). Above right: Allan Bogle (GBR). Right: German Roman SchulteZurhausen. Photos: Lucie Navarová Placegetters at Brindisi: Øystein Kvaal Østerbo (NOR) 2nd, David BrickhillJones (AUS) 1st and Claus Bloch (DEN) 3rd. Photo: Lucie Navarová. JUNE 2005 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 11
