EASTER IN BURRA

Simon Uppill (SA) will head the Aussie charge at JWOC in July

Julian Dent (NSW) kicks up the dust as he leads Kerrin Rattray (SA) at Easter Hanny Allston (TAS) on her way to a comprehensive win at Easter

Another dominant performance by Hanny Allston

Blair Trewin

In her first major domestic appearance since her World Championships gold medal last year, Hanny Allston predictably dominated the women’s competition at the Australian 3-Days at Burra, South Australia. She started off by winning the opening prologue sprint by more than a minute, and went on to win all four days on her way to a margin of nearly 15 minutes.

The only day on which she was seriously challenged was the Long-distance event on Sunday. Jo Allison was within two minutes of her late in the course, but a long, tough leg towards the end of the course saw Hanny double that margin to comfortable levels. Allison was second on the last two days, but that was not quite enough to overcome a slow start on the shorter first two days. Grace Elson was second at that stage, and had just enough in hand to hold off her WOC relay team-mate for second, despite a late wobble at the third-last control. Kathryn Ewels was best of the rest, confirming the return to form she first showed with her placing at last year’s Australian Championships. Julian Dent took a bit longer to take command in M21E but was almost as comfortable in the end. The four who most expected to be at the front – Dent, Matt Crane from Britain, Troy de Haas and Dave Shepherd – were covered by less than 20 seconds after the prologue. While Dent won on Saturday the others were still within striking distance, as was the impressive Simon Uppill, taking a further step upwards as he prepares for a serious JWOC challenge. The issue was more or less finally resolved at the second-last control on Sunday. Troy de Haas lost four minutes there – one of few large errors in the elite classes in the gully-spur terrain – which was the end of his challenge (he later left before the last day to travel to Europe). That gave Dent a comfortable seven-minute lead over Crane which he stretched slightly on the last day. Uppill made some inroads on Shepherd’s two-minute gap on the final day but was unable to quite make it to the placings.

The battle for JWOC places begins

With the rare carrot of a home Junior World Championships (JWOC) this year, the competition for places in the team will be more than usually keen. Unlike most years, the team was not decided at Easter (the final trials being in NSW in May), but it was still the first opportunity for contenders to impress. Heather Harding impressed more than most. Despite being unwell in the lead-up, she won three of the four days. Only Rachel Effeney’s 18-second win on Saturday stopped her from getting a clean sweep, but she still had seven minutes in hand over the field by the end of the weekend. Effeney continued the promise she had shown last year in her first year of serious competition, recovering from losing ground on Sunday to take second place. Jessica Davis’s second place on the Long-distance day was the key to her completing the placings, just ahead of Belinda Lawford, who nevertheless took large steps towards possibly being Australia’s youngest JWOC representative with four consistent days. The results were more up and down in M20 with four different winners over the four days. In the end the decisive result was on the Long-distance day, which Rhys Challen won by six minutes. That was more than enough to overcome a poor prologue and give a comfortable victory to the Western Australian, resuming the promise he showed a couple of years ago. Nick Andrewartha looked to have slipped out of contention on Saturday, when he lost five minutes at #10, but a final-day win saw him edge out Morten Neve and Bryan Keely for second. Tristan Lee led after two days but dropped away after that, whilst prologue winner Kieran Sullivan’s chances were ended on Sunday when his SI stick broke. The younger junior classes were smaller but still competitive. It was a good weekend for the home state in W16, with South Australians taking first and third, Nadia Velaitis’ win coming despite her not winning any of the three days. Joshua Blatchford was the pick of the M16 field, with the final day making only a small dent in his margin after he had built up a break of nine minutes over the first two.

Some big wins in the veteran classes

The terrain made for one of the easier Easters technically in recent years. In the older age groups, this tended to mean that the faster runners dominated and there were fewer unexpected results to mix things up a bit; more than half the veteran A classes had the same winner on all three days. Some of these were predictable walkovers in small fields, but others were in classes that might have been expected to be close. Probably the highest standard on display was in M50, where Geoff Lawford was three to four minutes clear of a strong field every day. The battle for the minor placings here was the tightest of the event. Ted van Geldermalsen took a two-second lead over Paul Pacque into the final day. Pacque’s final-day margin was almost as small, but was just enough to take second despite an impressive sprint finish from van Geldermalsen. Another class

TROY MERCHANT

BOB MOUATT

BOB MOUATT Jasmine Neve (VIC) W21E, Prologue

Belinda Lawford (VIC) will make her debut in the Australian Team at JWOC in Dubbo

Grace Elson (TAS) finished a close 2nd to Hanny Allston in the Prologue

Visitor from the UK, Matt Crane, finished 2nd overall in M21E at Easter

Kellie Whitfield (WA), Prologue

TROY MERCHANT Jose Zapata at a man made “man made feature” at the family relays

TROY MERCHANT

BOB MOUATT

Tristan Lee (SA) off to a flying start in the Galaxy Sprint

TROY MERCHANT Matt Crane (GB), Galaxy Sprint

David Shepherd (ACT) sends the dust flying - ‘Shep’ will again represent Australia at WOC in Ukraine

BOB MOUATT

Kathryn Ewels (VIC), Galaxy Sprint - Kathryn returns to the AUS Team for WOC after an absence of four years Eric Morris (NSW) clearing the first fence in style in front of Grace Elson (TAS), Galaxy Sprint

BOB MOUATT

which saw a slightly unexpected – and consistent – hat-trick was W40, where Nicola Dalheim was first and Christine Marshall second on all three days, with the margin always between 2.32 and 3.00. A number of the usual suspects were easy winners. Rob Vincent was particularly impressive in M45, with double-digit margins on the first and third days, whilst Jenny Bourne (W45), Dale Ann Gordon (W65) and Maureen Ogilvie (W70) also had comfortable victories. Whilst many of the veteran classes were one-sided, there were several competitive classes. Predictably, one of these was the always fiercely contested M60. Like last year, this saw considerable reshuffling on the last day (although not to the extent of last year when all three Sunday-night placeholders made major errors in the first few controls on Monday). Trevor Sauer led into the final day, but broke his glasses, lost time at three of the first five controls and missed the placings, whilst Tony Simpkins came from fourth, taking the lead for the first time at the third-last control as he edged out local Rob Tucker. Hugh Moore in M55 and Tim Dent in M65 (who obviously didn’t think the course provided enough exercise and was seen riding to and from the event on Saturday) both recovered from being a little off the pace on the first day to take control over the final two days. There was a final-day lead change in the fluctuating M35 class, where Jon McComb overhauled Scott Simson in mid-course, whilst the final day saw potentially close contests turn into large margins in W50 and W60, where Carolyn Jackson and Jenny Hawkins saw off potential challenges from Lynn Dabbs and Ruth Goddard respectively.

ASC Galaxy Sprint: Crane and Elson take the points

Competition resumed on the following Friday afternoon in the National League with the ASC Galaxy Sprint at Nuriootpa. With Julian Dent, Dave Shepherd and Troy de Haas all on their way to Europe, Matt Crane was a clear favourite and ran like it. He was clearly fastest in the field, although Adrian Jackson was within 10 seconds of him until he ran from #13 to #15. The gap was more than a minute in the end. Jackson recovered from his error to take second, just ahead of Simon Uppill. A creek mapped as uncrossable (and thus illegal to cross in sprint races) caused some grief in the men’s race, with several disqualifications. The women’s event was much closer with the top three separated by only six seconds. Jasmine Neve led early, but Grace Elson took the lead by #10. She held it to the end, although she had to withstand very serious challenges over the closing controls from Kathryn Ewels and Anna Sheldon, as the final margin shrank to only five seconds. Sarah Dunnage bounced back from a disappointing Easter to win W20, whilst the junior men’s event was taken out by Nick Andrewartha, continuing his good form late in the Easter week.

Australian Middle Distance Championships: Sheldon adds another title

Anna Sheldon added the Australian Middle Distance title to the Long Distance one she already holds after a race of fluctuating fortunes in the rocks at Pewsey Vale. In a race that had four different leaders at various stages, the top four were covered by less than a minute. Grace Elson, the pre-race favourite, looked to have dropped out of contention when she lost three minutes at #8, but she got herself back into the race and was back in front by the fourth-last control. She looked set to take out the event, but lost another 30 seconds at #18, and this time it was too late to recover. Kathryn Ewels also lost an excellent chance when she lost two minutes at #14 when leading, leaving Sheldon and Tracy Bluett to fight out the final result. Sheldon prevailed by 15 seconds, with Elson completing the placings. The men were more predictable with Matt Crane in front throughout, as he had been the previous day. His only wobble came at #16, the first control after the spectator area (which also caused trouble for many others), but a minute lost there was of little ultimate consequence and he had two in hand by the end. His nearest challenger was the increasingly impressive Simon Uppill, who ran an excellent final loop to be the lead Australian by a comfortable margin. Kerrin Rattray might have been a contender for that, but lost his chance of second when he lost two minutes at #17, whereupon he just held Bruce Arthur off for third. Morten Neve won his first national title in M20, coming home in a rush after having been behind for all but the last two controls. His battle with Tristan Lee was not settled until the second last, which was also where Bryan Keely, the leader at #14, dropped two minutes and ended up missing the placings altogether as Geoff Stacey benefited from a good second half. Bridget Anderson also made a breakthrough in the small W20 field, showing the effects of a solid summer. Her closest challenger was Belinda Lawford, who finished strongly but was still a minute short at the end. Most of the other classes were significantly thinner than they had been at Easter, and most of the interest came from some dominant individual performances. Perhaps the pick of them were Bob Allison’s four-minute win in a decent M55 field (especially as he was running up) and Carol Brownlie’s sevenminute win in W55, but there were also excellent wins against reasonable opposition by the likes of Carolyn Jackson (W50), Geoff Lawford (M50) and Alex Tarr (M65). M60 was again close, with Robert Smith overtaking Trevor Sauer at the second-last control after Sauer lost two minutes there. In W60 four finished within just over a minute, with Jenny Hawkins coming from seven minutes down at halfway, whilst Rachel Dunnage just edged out Nadia Velaitis by 19 seconds in W16 as time losses on the closing controls cancelled each other out.

National Badge Event: Crane makes it a hat-trick

Matt Crane made it three wins out of three on the closing weekend despite an erratic run at Ngaralta Country. The areas of scrub and small rock in between open paddocks provided plenty of traps for the unwary, and he fell into a few of them, losing two minutes at #1, one at #7 and one at #19. His running speed, however, was able to get him between the complex bits faster than anyone else, and once he took the lead at #9 he was never headed – despite a minute very publicly lost at the second-last. Simon Uppill made a rare mistake when he lost three minutes at #7, but gradually worked his way back into the race and ended up a minute behind Crane after a good second half. Another minute back were Eric Morris and Blair Trewin: they led briefly early on but then settled into a tight battle for third, which was not resolved in Morris’ favour until the last control. Grace Elson had her second win of the week, taking a clear lead by one-third of the way through the course and never being headed. Kathryn Ewels had a great final loop, winning the last six legs and taking two minutes out of the lead, but she was coming from too far back and fell 43 seconds short. Kirsten Fairfax completed the placings with her best run of the week, catching Anna Sheldon in mid-course, on another good day for the Victorian Nuggets. Bryan Keely finally put a full run together and showed his speed with an easy six-minute win in M20, with Morten Neve just holding off Geoff Stacey for second. Bridget Anderson made it back-to-back wins in W20, after the early lead of Jessica Davis disappeared when she lost eight minutes at #10. Clare Brownridge had her best result of the week to finish behind Anderson.

New Uniforms for Australian teams

Orienteering Australia is very pleased to have reached an agreement with leading orienteering equipment supplier Trimtex of Norway for the supply of all competition uniforms and track suits for our foot orienteering teams. With Australia hosting JWOC we believe our teams both here and abroad will be very distinctive running in the green and gold. The images provide a preview of the competition top. Competition uniforms will be supplemented with green pants and the track suit will feature matching navy blue trousers. Mike Dowling – AO Director, High Performance

The MTB-O team are planning to wear Aussie uniforms based on the Cycling Australia national kit, as above.

Southern Arrows launch new O-suit

Sourced from a local Adelaide supplier and first revealed at the Australian 3Days this Easter, according to Ben Rattray they look awesome. The new suit-tops carry logos of the Southern Arrows’ three sponsors – Paddy Pallin (an outdoor clothing and equipment chain), Townhouse Properties (a housing development group) and Veska & Lohmeyer Surveyors & GIS Consultants (a surveying group based in Mount Barker).

Right: Tristan Lee wearing the new Southern Arrows uniform at the Galaxy Sprint. Photo: Bob Mouatt