AUSTRALIAN 3-DAYS – CASTLEMAINE , VICTORIA
Over 1000 attend Easter Carnival by Blair Trewin
M
ORE than 1000 competitors and volunteers descended upon Bendigo and Castlemaine over the Easter period for the Australian 3-Days Orienteering Carnival, the foremost event on the calendar for our orienteers. Competitors came from Darwin, Perth and other, closer, towns and cities; even internationals from France, Japan, the UK and Scandinavia. Monday’s competition was an IOF-sanctioned World Ranking Event in which elite competitors compete for world-ranking points, so the heat was most certainly on for that last race of Easter. Blair Trewin reports: Overall, the Australian 3-Days saw comfortable wins for preevent favourites Dave Shepherd and Hanny Allston. Both took the lead from the Prologue onwards, and although both were tested for the first two races, they pulled away from the field to have substantial margins by the end of Monday. Close finishes are the norm in the Prologue, which this year was contested in gold mining terrain on the fringe of Bendigo. The men had a very close finish, but not so the women. Allston set the scene for her eventual victory when she finished nearly two minutes ahead of her closest rival on the day, Anna Quayle. Perhaps more significantly, Jo Allison, her most likely challenger over the four days, pulled up with a knee injury after finishing fourth and did not run again for the rest of the week. The men were much closer, with Shepherd finishing 7secs clear of Grant Bluett and Kerrin Rattray not much further back. Saturday saw a move to the lightning-fast gully-spur near Maldon, where sub-5 minute kilometres were commonplace amongst the men. This was the day when Allston did not have things all her own way, as small errors added up and left her just short of fellow Tasmanian Grace Elson on the day. She was still two minutes clear, though, and in a strong position. The men stayed closely bunched at the top. Shepherd once again won the day by a single-digit margin – this time three seconds from Rattray – and Bluett was close enough to leave the three leaders covered by just over a minute after two days. The critical moves in the elite classes are often made in the long race on Sunday. With Spring Gully proving to be relatively fast terrain despite the areas of mining detail, it wasn’t as much of an endurance test as Easter Sunday sometimes can be, but the key breaks were still made. Shepherd’s two nearest challengers both disappeared from contention, by misadventure rather than lack of endurance. Rattray’s chances were ended by a six-minute mistake at control 21, and Bluett missed control 22 altogether. That left the lead expanded from a few seconds to six minutes, and Eric Morris and Rob Preston, both of whom had solid runs, in the minor placings. Allston displayed her formidable long-distance skills in running away from the field. She was already three minutes ahead by the fifth control, and won by five. Elson remained in second
place, whilst the consistent Anna Sheldon worked her way into contention with a third. The final day was also the most detailed, in the intensive mining and often low visibility of Deadman’s Flat. It was a map which provided plenty of opportunity for people to make big mistakes – opportunities which were often accepted in other classes – but the reverse-order start in the elite classes means that packs are quite common and big moves are rare. They were certainly hard to come by amongst the men. Shepherd made it four wins out of four as he scored by a minute to stretch his final margin to eight, Morris and Preston held their places, and the biggest excitement was the resolution of a tight four-way battle for fourth in favour of Rune Olsen. The women’s finish was more interesting, not at the front – that was a no-contest as Allston extended her lead well into double figures – but in the rest of the field. Elson, who led Sheldon by three minutes at the start of the day, lost that advantage at the first control, and despite some fast legs in mid-course was never quite able to regain second, falling 26secs short in the end. Whilst they fell short of the placings, Danielle Winslow and Orla Murray both had excellent final-day runs – Murray’s second on the day being her best result in a couple of years – to put themselves into contention for the WOC team with one trial to come.
Uppill dominates, and a first major win for Whitfield. Simon Uppill was expected to dominate M17-20E and did. He showed his form by winning the Prologue in a time fast enough for sixth in the open event, and went on to win all four days comfortably, ultimately finishing twelve minutes clear. The close contest was behind him as Chris Naunton and Ryan Smyth fought for second place. They were only seconds apart on the first two days, before Naunton edged clear over the last two. There were more surprises on hand in W17-20E. With three of the leading juniors (Allston, Jasmine Neve and Vanessa Round) running the
Simon Upill (SA), a clear winner in M17-20E
JUNE 2006 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER 3
