COMPETITION
State Championships roundup Blair Trewin
South Australia South Australia returned to this year’s Easter areas at Twigham, running their Sprint championship on the Saturday before the Long Distance event on Sunday. Simon Uppill was dominant on both days, winning the Sprint by nearly three minutes and the Long Distance by seven. The tightest battle was for second in the Sprint, when Lachlan Hallett edged out Blair Trewin between the last control and the finish. Trewin was able to reverse the result next day. Susanne Casanova took an early lead over Vanessa Round in the Long Distance race and was never headed, extending the gap to over five minutes by the end of the day, and reversing Round’s win in the Sprint. Jenny Casanova finished well to take third in the Long Distance race, whilst Catherine Loye occupied that place in the Sprint.
Natasha Key continued her comeback by winning the Victorian Middle Distance Champs. Photo: Bob Mouatt
Queensland Queensland led off the spring championships season with their usual two-day event, west of Warwick, with the first day doubling as the Middle Distance Championship in M/ W21 and 20. Lorenzo Calabro, little-sighted in Australian orienteering since being selected for the 2001 WOC team, made a convincing return to the scene, winning both days comfortably to lead by 10 minutes overall, ahead of Mark Nemeth and Dane Cavanagh. W21 was a battle of the juniors and near-juniors with Anna Sheldon away at WOC. Ainsley Cavanagh won narrowly on the first day, and then extended her lead by another four minutes on the second day, with Bridget Anderson withstanding a strong Sunday challenge from Krystal Neumann to finish second.
Western Australia
Krystal Neumann. Photo: Bob Mouatt
Western Australia also run their championship over two days (although their Middle Distance event is separate). The first day in M21 was relatively tight, with Craig Dufty, Rhys Challen and Terry Farrell separated by four minutes. The long second day, though, sorted out the toughest competitors, and Dufty came to the fore, extending his lead to more than 20 minutes in the end. Farrell was second and Challen third. The women saw a good battle between Rachel
14 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2007
West and Kellie Whitfield. Whitfield led by four minutes on Saturday night, but West was able to overcome that on the second day to score by a minute. Kim Hazeldine was third.
Victoria The championships season finished in Victoria with two events on the 2006 Easter maps near Castlemaine. Bruce Arthur did the double, winning both the Middle Distance and Long Distance championships by 1:30 and three minutes respectively. His Long Distance win was particularly impressive, coming with a late start on a very hot day. Blair Trewin was second on both days, ahead of Warren Key on Saturday and Jim Russell on Sunday. Natasha Key continued her comeback by winning the Middle Distance very narrowly, having just nine seconds to spare over Kathryn Ewels. Ewels turned the tables in the Long Distance on Sunday as Key had a somewhat erratic run, and took the race out by just over two minutes. She joined Arthur as a first-time winner of the Victorian open Long Distance championship. Jasmine Neve completed the placings on both days.
Tasmania Ryan Smyth continued a productive first year as a senior by taking his state’s open title. Paul Liggins, in excellent running form, was the fastest competitor in the race, but eight minutes of mistakes at #4 and #5 put paid to his chances. Instead, Smyth’s closest challenge came from Paul Pacqué, but the veteran fell just over a minute short, with Liggins third. Corinna Woolford (formerly Kelly) made one of her periodic appearances on the championship scene to take out W21 by three minutes. Louise Fairfax lost her chance with a disastrous first control, and could only finish third despite being the fastest through the remainder of the race. Emma Warren was three minutes behind Woolford in second.
