4 minute read
GREAT LEGS
How the West was won
by Richard Matthews with photos by John Toomey
THE NOL weekend in Western Australia in May focused on two very different terrains. The first day was held on an entirely new farm area South East of Perth that will be used again for the Australian Relays in 2006. Day 2 was held at Julimar on an area that was first mapped for the Spring West Carnival in 1984, which was the first “national” event hosted by Orienteering Western Australia, so it seemed a fitting place for the long day of the NOL weekend.
The area is without doubt the best gully-spur area mapped in Western Australia and does offer the chance to provide some longer route choice legs as well as some detailed control picking. The vegetation is typical of WA terrain with relatively open running on the slopes but thicker and prickly vegetation on the tops of the hills.
The M21E and W21E courses plus the routes for Jo Allison (2nd), Tracy Bluett (1st), David Sheppard (3rd) and Grant Bluett (1st) show some interesting decisions and running times. Critical controls did make a difference and maybe some tiredness showed towards the end of the race.
Table shows leg times with the winner on each leg highlighted.
W21E
Leg Tracy Jo %diff
1 11.56 11.46 1% 2 3.27 3.23 2% 3 3.10 3.03 4% 4 8.25 9.23 -11% 5 8.54 8.07 9% 6 2.17 2.01 12% 7 2.04 2.00 3% 8 5.10 4.54 5% 9 1.45 1.37 8% 10 10.17 10.45 4% 11 7.59 8.49 -10% 12 1.5 2.16 -21% 13 1.07 1.28 -27% 14 0.48 0.54 -12% 15 0.23 0.26 -12% 16 17 18 19 20 Finish
In the Women’s race Jo Allison was leading for the first two thirds of the race, except for control 4 where a wide route cost Jo nearly a minute. On leg 10 Jo took the option to run down the hill and along the track and then a hard climb back up to the control losing 50 seconds on Tracy. Up to this point Jo and Tracy were very close in time. From control 11 to the finish Tracy picked up the pace and was gaining time on Jo. One suspects that not only was the straight route through the green a better bet on leg 11 but that the hard climb took its toll on Jo and Tracy was able to finish stronger despite being a few seconds behind on most of the legs leading to this point. In Tracy’s words; “I think control 11 won the race for me. I went straight over the hill and used the flat part of the spur between the creeks as my attack point, while Jo ran around the track”.
Julimar Brook
Orienteering map
1:15000, 5 metre contours
(has been reduced to 90% to fit on page
W21E course showing Tracy Bluett Jo Allison
M21E Grant David %diff
10.34 11.04 -5% 2.24 2.21 2% 1.26 1.22 5% 9.27 9.58 -5% 3.49 5.52 -42% 2.52 2.45 4% 1.26 1.29 -3% 1.30 1.39 -10% 1.38 1.38 0% 4.03 4.19 -6% 1.21 1.26 -6% 7.51 6.38 17% 1.24 1.34 -11% 2.53 2.49 2% 5.34 5.33 0% 1.52 1.29 23% 7.09 8.55 -22% 5.17 6.05 -14% 1.40 2.25 -37% 1.34 1.41 -7% 0.26 0.23 12%
IN the Men’s race, from the start Grant gained a 30sec advantage by taking the straight line through the green, whilst David took the track to the left of the line and others took a wide route to the right. Whilst dropping a few seconds at controls 2 & 3 Grant gained time at 4 & 5 by running strongly through these controls. At control 5 Grant held a 57sec advantage. Grant continued to run well to control 11 taking the lead out to 1min 23secs.
From here in Grant’s words; “Running to the 12th I saw that I didn’t have far to go, and decided to push it a bit harder. That decision must have taken the focus of my orienteering and I did just about everything wrong on the 12th. I ran too far to the left at the start, then in the circle I saw a large boulder and couldn’t work out where I was; I panicked and ran around with no real
plan. After the race I saw the boulder was hidden under my circle.” Grant continued to lose time to David through to 16 where David took a 4sec lead in the race. However on the leg to 17 Grant re-established his lead with a clever route choice avoiding the worst of the up and down on the track whilst David took a wider route. Grant pushed on winning the remaining legs and David lost 2nd place to Eric Morris in the last 3 controls.
Julimar Brook
Orienteering map
1:15000, 5 metre contours
(has been reduced to 90% to fit on page
