AUSTRALIAN 3-DAYS

TROY DE HAAS, contesting his first major event in Australia for several years, made a triumphant return when he took out the Australian 3Days at Jindabyne over Easter, beating the strongest field seen domestically since the 2000 World Cup. He set his victory up on Day 2, when an outstanding run from him combined with scrappy ones by his nearest rivals to give him a sevenminute margin on the day. He lost some of that on the last day to the impressive Julian Dent, but still had enough in hand to score by a minute.

It wasn’t looking quite so promising for de Haas after the Day 1. The Prologue was interesting in its own right – Grant Bluett coming from behind to register a narrow win, whilst former Australian steeplechase representative Martin Dent missed an opportunity for a breakthrough win when he missed a control – but, as usual, it didn’t resolve much at the

Triumphant return home for Troy de Haas

Julian Dent had a great 3-Days to finish a close second to Troy. Photo: Bob Mouatt front end. Day 1 didn’t resolve a great deal either, but it featured a good battle between Dave Shepherd and Julian Dent, narrowly won by Shepherd. The two were tied at the front going into the long day. The early controls caught a few unawares, with Rob Walter, Tom Quayle, and de Haas all losing time in the first three, and de Haas dropped further with successive one-minute mistakes at 14 and 15, a stretch which most of the rest of the field were clean on. He was nearly five minutes off the pace on Saturday night in tenth place, and looked in a lot of trouble.

All that changed on the Sunday. Bluett, who had been there or thereabouts all weekend, again led early, but dropped two minutes at 7. That gave de Haas the lead and he never let it slip. Julian Dent was initially close, but mistakes at 9 and 13 saw him drift backwards, and de Haas had caught him to the tune of six minutes after dominating the long 15th leg. That leg also marked the end of the challenge of Rob Walter, who had held the gap at about two min. after losing that amount on 6. After catching up, de Haas was content to sit on Dent until breaking away on the climb into 23, and went on to

Troy de Haas getting plenty of crowd support as he runs in to win the Australian 3-Days. Photo: Peter Cusworth

win the day by seven minutes. It was an indication of his dominance that he won 15 of 31 splits. A group tightly clustered for 2nd were still more or less in contention for the placings, but one who was missing from that group was Bluett; he faded badly in the second half and ended up another six minutes adrift.

De Haas took a threeminute lead into the last day, which meant he only needed to avoid significant error to be reasonably safe. He hit the lead briefly two-thirds of the way through the course, then eased back a bit but had more than enough in hand, scoring by just over a minute. Julian Dent, still a junior, had already impressed enough over the first three races in such a strong field, but he took a further step up here, finishing full of running to win the day and secure 2nd overall. Bluett showed that his Sunday was an aberration, running a very fast first half and coming through to share 4th (a dead heat after more than 3 hrs of running) with the consistently good Rob Preston, who could be well pleased with his step up in this field. Rob Walter’s consistency saw him in 3rd place, whilst the biggest surprise of the last day was the disappearance from the list of Dave Shepherd, who was third going into the last day, but lost four minutes at 3 and more time over the next few controls before pulling out.

Jo Allison withstands a strong challenge from Hanny Allston to win four in a row

AS with the men, the Elite women had a virtually full-strength field, although that is less of a novelty for them with fewer having been based overseas in recent times. Hanny Allston, taking a further step up after her outstanding World Championships of 2004, once again showed that she belonged at the very front end of the field – in a terrain, granite, where she hasn’t always been at her best in the past – but in the end Jo Allison weathered the storm to win Easter for the fourth successive year.

Four in a row for Jo. Photo: Bob Mouatt

Hanny Allston took another step up. Photo: Bob Mouatt

Opening skirmishes in the Prologue at Jindabyne on the Friday sorted out a clear top three, to the surprise of no-one. Natasha Key, with considerable international credentials in sprint racing, came through at the very end to pip Allison and Allston. The three were only 11 secs apart, and half a minute clear of anyone else, and the only dramatic thing to occur elsewhere in the field was the demise of 2004 WOC representative Danielle Winslow through a mispunch.

Tracy Bluett made a great start to Saturday and was in front by 5, but just when it looked like she was going to push seriously for the win, three minutes lost at 6 put paid to her chances on the day. That left Allison and Allston to fight it out. The 45 seconds that Allison lost at 4 proved to be decisive, although she still managed to get in front by a second at the second-last before Allston ran away over the last two legs, winning the day by twelve seconds and leading overall by eight. In something of a surprise, Natasha Key was nearly five minutes down, thanks to a scrappy start and successive one-minute errors at 6 and 7,

and unlike her fellow Victorian Troy de Haas, was unable to work any Sunday miracles from a similar position, whilst Swiss WOC representative Sara Gemperle put together a second consistent run to be third overall at the end of the day.

As with the men, Sunday was a critical day. It didn’t feature a leave-everyone-else-reeling performance as the men did, but Allison proved to be the strongest on the day, taking the lead by 5 and then edging away leg by leg. A slightly wobbly start by Allston saw her two minutes down by 4, a gap which then stayed fairly stable to the end, whilst Allison Jones was very solid and just edged Allston out of second place on the day. Outside the placings, the performance of the day was that of Rebecca Minty, running her first high-level race for four years; the reports coming out of Canberra in the lead-up suggested that she was very fit, and she showed it with an impressive sixth place.

Erin Post (WA) W20A

I went really badly yesterday, (Saturday). I smashed my compass and made a mistake early on. Then I hit my head on a tree. I tried to line up my map with the big contour features like spurs and with the vegetation. I didn’t use the sun, I don’t know how to do that. My aim is to get into the team for the World Junior Championships (JWOC) in Switzerland in July. I need to have clean runs. The selection is Easter as a whole so I’m aiming to do well today and Monday. Erin won Day 3 comprehensively to finish 2nd overall and made the JWOC team for Switerland. This will be Erin’s third trip to the Junior World Champs.

Jo Allison took a two-minute lead into the final day, and any real chance Allston had was snuffed out when she lost a minute at 3, setting the stage for her to be caught by 7. The two were together for most of the rest of the course, and also hauled in Allison Jones and Tracy Bluett, ensuring that the top four would stay as it was with the margins stretched a bit – a not-uncommon feature of the last day of Easter with the current start time structure. Allston and Bluett ran away from the other two right at the end, Bluett particularly impressive as she consolidated fourth in her best result since motherhood, but it was too late to make any impact on the lead, as Allison won by four minutes overall. Outside this pack, Grace Elson had a great run, with the fastest time for the first half of the course; she couldn’t quite sustain it but still ended up in third on the day, picking up two places in the process

Tom Quayle (ACT) was 6th in M21E on each of the three days and 6th overall. Photo: Peter Cusworth

Simon Uppill (SA) had a good Easter winning M18A and a place in his first JWOC. Photo: Bob Mouatt

Classic Injuries

Neil Schafer

(M75-GO-NSW)

IT’S all about “insurance”. After 27 years of Orienteering one would hope to have learnt something. Early on I observed the potential for injury and saw that others taped their ankles. This seemed a sensible idea and I made it part of my preparation routine. Over the years it has served me well, except at a minor event when I didn’t tape and broke my ankle. We learn the hard way!

Not so frequently seen is blister prevention. I have long practised heel protection insurance. Plaster applied on the heel is a great help in avoiding blisters. The plaster should be extended around the heel and along the sole of the foot for about 8cm. This ensures there’s no ‘roll-up’ which can occur if only the heel is covered. Plaster 5cm wide is recommended.

Some years ago in Qld, I was running through knee-high grass when I hit a jagged rock resulting in a badly cut shin which needed stitches. I normally wore the reinforced Orienteering socks but after this incident I decided that gaiters with a substantial protective strip down the shin would be better insurance.

That was until Day 3 of the 2005 Aust 3-Days when somehow (one is never sure how) I had a heavy fall, taking it on my right hand and knee. Most of the pain was in the knee but I could feel something wet on my hand – blood? No, I had smashed my compass and the fluid ran out. What a relief! Fortunately another insurance was available. For years I had always carried a small compass and a whistle on a cord around my neck. So, on getting to my feet, I was able to proceed in the right direction.

It was only after finishing my course that I discovered my main injury was to my LEFT knee and shin where there was a 2cm gash. I now had a sock saturated in blood as well as a blood-stained gaiter. The St Johns people bandaged the leg to stop the bleeding and later applied another dressing. The mystery is that the gaiter shows no signs of having been pierced. The wound seems to be on the mend and I should be around to orienteer another day.

(Ed – we’re sure you will be Neil.)

Barker leaves the others to fight out the JWOC places, whilst Meyer heads the junior men

THE battle for JWOC team places is always a major feature of Easter, but this time, amongst the women, centre stage was taken by someone who wasn’t in that battle. Sophie Barker has not nominated for the 2005 team (she will spend the winter working in northern Australia instead). It was apparent after the first day that Jasmine Neve was her only real challenger, and when Neve dropped away on the second day (to disappear altogether on the last thanks to a mispunch) she had the race in her keeping, winning by seven minutes.

The rest of the W18 and W20 field was where the interesting action was happening, as four minutes covered six contenders for what turned out to be four places. Sunday proved to be a particularly interesting day, with less than two minutes covering the top six two-thirds of the way through the course. Up until the end of Sunday Zeb Hallett and Vanessa Round looked the best of the rest, but both stumbled on the last day to make it a bit more interesting. Both were significant casualties of the short but difficult tenth leg, which ran downhill to a rockface (Hallett had already lost time at 8), which also claimed Whitfield and Cavanagh as victims. Once the dust settled from that, Erin Post, who had been trying to get back into the race ever since things went awry

Ilka Barr (VIC) puts in a big finish sprint. Sophie Barker )ACT) was dominant in W18A but is not available for JWOC this year. Photo: Bob Mouatt

on Saturday (with a four-minute mistake at 2 and assorted other misadventures), was left with a useful lead and kept it to the end, seeing her in second overall ahead of Round, who was also the W18 winner.

There wasn’t as much depth amongst the junior men, particularly once illness forced the withdrawal of M20 favourite Conrad Elson at the end of the first day, but there was quality at the front end as David Meyer, Simon Uppill and Louis Elson fought out the top placings. For the first two and a half days the margins were fine, and small advantages were crucial, whether they were Meyer’s explosive Day 1 start which saw him 90 seconds up by 3, Uppill’s strong finish on Sunday which saw him pull two mins out of the field over the closing controls, or twenty- or thirtysecond mistakes here or there.

In the end it was the long 13th leg on the final day that was decisive. Uppill lost two mins to the other two here, giving Meyer the overall lead which he did not relinquish for the rest of the course. That leg also put Louis Elson back in the game, but he couldn’t quite go on with it, and a 50-second error at the third-last deprived him of the consolation of beating Uppill on the day.

Arto Laukka from Finland was an unexpected competitor at the 3Days. He has been on a working holiday in Australia since last year and was on his way to Melbourne for Easter when his old Volvo broke down 60km south from Jindabyne along the scenic Snowy River road. After spending 24 hours waiting for the NRMA he took a lift back into Jindabyne with orienteers Terry and Helen Haebich. As he couldn’t get anything done on his car until after Easter, he decided to take up the Haebich’s suggestion of doing some orienteering. He had done some orienteering before having competed in the Jukkola Relays in Finland on several occasions. He filled in on an open relay team and won a third place badge, and then took a spare spot in the M21E field, which he found quite a challenge with his limited training, but really enjoyed the event.

Darryl Erbacher (ACT)

M60A

I’m National Statistician for Orienteering Australia. I work out all the rankings based on performances at Easter, the Aus Champs and in all the State championships. The Silva Orienteer of the Year Award is based on points, three-two-one in all those events with Easter and the Aus Champs counting double. I have a computer program to keep the scores. 2003 was a really good year for me - I actually topped the Silva OY. But in 2004 I broke my arm before Easter and later in the year I caught the flu. In between the high point was finishing 18th in M60 at the World Masters at Asiago, Italy. My wife orienteers too and my son Grant is just into M18, but he has other interests including basketball. He used to flog me but it’s pretty even now, half and half. Darryl finished 5th in M60 and Grant was 7th in M18 in the Australian 3-Days.

W16 – an epic contest

W16 is a class which has something of a history of producing drama at Easter, Phoebe Dent’s 1998 win being perhaps the most memorable, and they turned on a great race again this year. No-one was in the top two on more than one day, and after two days only four minutes covered the top eight. Marissa Lee led at that stage, but crashed on the first half of the last day and ended up 7th. In the end it was Bridget Anderson, starting the day in 3rd, who held it together best to win, whilst Bronwyn Steele made an even bigger move, rising from 7th to 2nd.