18 minute read
OCEANIA CHAMPS
Rob Walter
Hanny Allston
Kathryn Ewels
Grace Elson Photos: Erik Borg
2.47km 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Fin
1st Simone Niggli SUI 12:06,9 0:39 (1) 0:29 (1) 0:20 (1) 0:38 (1) 0:36 (2) 2:35 (1) 0:45 (1) 0:47 (3) 0:14 (6) 1:42 (2) 1:01 (4) 0:39 (6) 0:29 (2) 0:36 (4) 0:36 2nd Minna Kauppi FIN 12:26,6 0:42 (6) 0:37 (19) 0:22 (9) 0:41 (3) 0:36 (2) 2:41 (4) 0:47 (2) 0:50 (8) 0:13 (1) 1:42 (2) 1:00 (3) 0:36 (1) 0:28 (1) 0:35 (2) 0:36 9th Hanny Allston AUS 13:26,9 0:44 (15) 0:35 (11) 0:22 (9) 0:52 (36) 0:43 (15) 2:40 (3) 0:52 (5) 0:54 (16) 0:17 (39) 1:47 (11) 1:03 (7) 0:46 (32) 0:32 (9) 0:42 (20) 0:37
Photos: Bob Mouatt
Australian Challenge Team
Todd Neve and Catherine Hewitt Karen Blatchford
Carnival Report
Blair Trewin
The Oceania Championships came to Australia for the second time. It was the third major carnival in a year, but was still pleasingly well-attended, including a solid New Zealand contingent. There were no fewer than three Australia-New Zealand competitions: the regular Challenge on the final weekend, an elite Test Match between the Australian Bushrangers and New Zealand Pinestars, and a Schools Test Match over the midweek events.
ACT Championships - Antills Creek
The Carnival started with the one event which was not part of a formal trans-Tasman competition, the ACT Championships. It was the first time the area had been used since the mid-1980s and there was a definite retro feel to the day, complete with controls on native cherry trees. The only thing missing was some Wa Wa Nee on the PA system. The best race of the day was in W21E, featuring two WOC team members and one who probably isn’t too far away. Grace Elson led through much of the first half, but lost the lead when she dropped two minutes at #11. That left Vanessa Round in front through the middle of the course, but Elson regained the lead on the long 18th leg and held it to the end, despite a wobble on #22. Jo Allison was a little off the pace in the first half, but finished strongly and was level with Round by the last control before being outsprinted. Less than a minute covered the top three. Competition over the long M21E course suffered through preceding more significant days to come, with half the field failing to finish, but there was still room for an imposing run by Julian Dent. Dave Shepherd stayed within two minutes of him until the steep climb through #20 and #21, but the gap then blew out to five. Kerrin Rattray, after a steady run, was six minutes further back. New Zealand gave an early indication of some of the classes they would do well in during the week. Michael Wood took out M60 and Jack Vincent was three minutes clear in M20. Greta Knarston was nearly six minutes ahead of the W20 field, in which Bridget Anderson held off a fast-finishing Aislinn Prendergast for second, and Selena Metherell led a Kiwi 1-2-3 in W14. Duncan Morrison also upset the talented local duo of Joshua Blatchford and Lachlan Dow in M16, although Lilian Burrill led most of the way to score one for the locals in W16.
Oceania Middle Distance Championships & Schools Individual Test Match - Honeysuckle Creek
Julian Dent completed the second leg of his bid for four individual wins when he dominated the Middle Distance Championships. He hardly put a foot wrong in the complex terrain, winning 14 of 23 splits and no more than a few seconds behind on any of the others. He gradually extended his lead over the course to a bit over two minutes, with Dave Shepherd once again his closest challenger. Ross Morrison was three minutes further back, leading a group of four within a minute. W21E again saw a narrow win for Grace Elson over Jo Allison (although Vanessa Round was not a part of the equation this time). Once again she opened up a lead early, leading by 1:30 by the sixth control and winning 9 of the first 13 splits. Allison came back at her a bit in the second half, as she had the previous day, but never really threatened and fell a minute short. Tracy Bluett was another minute behind after a consistent run, in probably her best major result of the year. Greta Knarston again dominated W20, catching several runners ahead of her (including fellow Kiwi, second-placed Nicola Peat) and winning by four minutes, after a very impressive first half of the course. Bridget Anderson was the best of the locals in third. A good day for the New Zealand girls was continued by Jaime Goodwin in W16. She finished a bit over three minutes ahead of Lilian Burrill, who was good early but made two mistakes in the second half, whilst Erin Paterson gave the visitors another placing after recovering from a first-control error. Jack Vincent also backed up from his Sunday win to take M20, but there were impressive runs by Lachlan Dow and Joshua Blatchford (both effectively running up from M16 because the senior Schools Test was conducted on the M20 course). Dow led for most of the first half, and ended up only just over a minute behind, whilst Blatchford finished third, squeezing out JWOC team member Rob Fell. Kurt Neumann, also running up an age group (as he usually does), took out M16 by 47 seconds from two New Zealanders, Matthew Ogden and Duncan Morrison, but Dave Mallen and Thomas Carter got close enough to give Australia the team win – just – and level the score at two classes apiece going into the Relay. Once again, Geoff Lawford and Jenny Bourne impressed in their classes, winning by 6-7 minutes in M50 and W45 respectively. Bourne was particularly impressive in having the fastest time on her course, when the opposition included the M60 class, once again won by a New Zealander – Dave Middleton this time.
Anthea Feaver. Photo: Bob Mouatt
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Schools Relay - Felled Timbers
New Zealand took out the Schools Test match comfortably on a warm day when, after a fluctuating day in which three of the four classes were in doubt at some stage, they won all four Relay classes. Australia led both junior classes early on after the first of the four legs and held their leads to the last change. The junior girls started especially well, when Lilian Burrill opened up a gap of eleven minutes on Jula McMillan. Erin Paterson pulled back three minutes on Melanie Neumann, but the last two legs were what really made the difference as Jaime Goodwin and Laura Robertson ran the two fastest times of the day. Robertson went out a minute down on Georgia Parsons, but Parsons lost three minutes at the first control and the visitors were never headed thereafter. The Australian junior boys were four minutes ahead after two legs thanks to good runs by Todd Neve and Thomas Carter, but Duncan Morrison ran the day’s fastest time to send Matthew Ogden out just behind Kurt Neumann. The Australians would still have been favourites at that stage after Neumann’s individual win, but Ogden took the lead by the common second control after a shorter split, and extended that through the rest of the course to score by two minutes. In contrast to the juniors, the Australian senior boys were in trouble early as Scott McDonald and Jourdan Harvey took New Zealand to a lead of five minutes. Lachlan Dow again impressed with a very fast split, closing the gap to two minutes, but it was always going to a big ask for Simon Mee to make inroads on Jack Vincent, despite his excellent relay record for Queensland. Mee was able to hold the gap, but never looked like bridging it. The senior girls saw the most comfortable margin of the day. Kate Morrison gave the New Zealanders a lead of ten minutes after the first leg, and although Aislinn Prendergast was able to pull back three minutes of that, Australia was never in the hunt. Nicola Peat and Greta Knarston pulled away over the last two legs, although Krystal Neumann’s final-leg time was only a little over a minute behind.
Oceania Sprint Championships - Radford College
Competition returned to urban Canberra with the Sprint championships at Radford College. (It was so urban that Eric Morris jogged across from work to do the event during his lunch break). The complex network of buildings made for a challenging course at speed, with a brief bush section in the middle the only opportunity to relax at all. Natasha Key has been largely absent from the competitive scene for the last two years, first through pregnancy and then back trouble, but she came back in convincing style with a narrow win in W21E. Jasmine Neve led for most of the way and was 13 seconds ahead at #10, but drifted back to the field after that. Kathryn Ewels was also competitive throughout and took the lead at #14 (the fourth-last), but then lost 20 seconds at #15 and dropped out of the placings. That gave Key the lead for the first time. Grace Elson levelled it at #16, but Key was a little faster over the last two legs and won by five seconds, with Elson two seconds ahead of Neve. Seven seconds also covered the placegetters in M21E. Simon Uppill, making his first appearance for the week, led narrowly most of the way, and was still in front at #19 after the spectator control. By then Julian Dent, who had been 19 seconds down at #11, had closed the gap to five, and although Uppill had no major mishaps, Dent was too fast over the closing stages, taking the lead for the first time at the second-last. David Shepherd was second and Uppill third. Ross Morrison, in fourth, was the best of the New Zealanders, losing his chances when he lost 24 seconds at the first control. New Zealanders dominated the junior classes. Scott McDonald and Jack Vincent fought out M20 with Vincent’s 15-second error at #12 proving decisive. Greta Knarston was outstanding in W20, only three seconds slower than Natasha Key (running the same course); Rachel Effeney ran well but 36 seconds was as close as she could get. M16 and W16 both saw Kiwi quinellas, with Jaime Goodwin leading Erin Paterson in W16 and Duncan Morrison ahead of Matthew Ogden in M16. There was a reversal in an age class hitherto dominated by New Zealanders when Tony Simpkins was 45 seconds ahead of Michael Wood in M60, whilst another upset occurred when Eoin Rothery edged out Geoff Lawford in M50. Gillian Ingham was 48 seconds ahead of Carolyn Jackson in W50, whilst there was a first major victory for Su Yan Tay in W40.
Erin Paterson (NZ). Photo: Bob Mouatt
The feature event of the Carnival, for most, was the Long Distance championship at Brayshaw’s Hut, a granite area at the southern end of Namadgi National Park. It is near Mount Clear but has more open areas than Mount Clear does; fallen timber from a storm earlier in the year made for hard running in many of the forested areas. The M21E race will be remembered for its wildly erratic nature; it may not have been the most technical area ever used, but it is difficult to remember an elite race in Australia in which the favourites collectively made more mistakes. It was a particular roller-coaster ride for Julian Dent. He caught four minutes on Dave Shepherd by #4 after Shepherd lost time on three of the first four controls, but then lost four minutes at #8 and 1:30 at #10, to drop him three minutes behind Kerrin Rattray and Simon Uppill. Dent then won five successive splits between #12 and #16 to get back to within 55 seconds, and re-caught Shepherd, only for the two to lose another three minutes when they ran off the map at #17. Rattray was holding his nerve amidst the carnage (Uppill also having fallen a little off the pace after an uncharacteristically scratchy run), but Dent steadily pulled him in, and had got within 33 seconds by the third-last. Rattray then had his worst control of the day, losing a minute to Dent at the second-last, and that was enough for Dent to claim one of his more unusual victories. Rattray was second, still by some margin his best longdistance result, and Uppill third another minute back. James Bradshaw was the best of the visitors in fifth. There was nowhere near as much drama in W21E, which followed a similar pattern to the other two forest races of the week – a narrow win for Grace Elson over Jo Allison. This time the margin
was 34 seconds. Once again, Elson led from start to finish and was two minutes in front by #4. Allison then had a good section and was within 17 seconds by #11, but that was as close as she was able to get as both ran steadily to the end. They were six minutes clear of anyone else, with Tracy Bluett completing a repeat of the Middle Distance placings, while Penny Kane in fourth was the only New Zealander to make any impression on the results. Australia dominated the individual Challenge, winning by 20 classes to 4. The four that they lost came as no real surprise given the form earlier in the week – M/W20 and M/W60. The individual junior results, though, ran counter to the form from earlier in the week as both the dominant figures of the week to date, Jack Vincent and Greta Knarston, missed the placings. Morten Neve had perhaps the most impressive run of his career, winning M20 by three minutes in a kilometre rate which would have been very competitive amongst the seniors. He was unable to find much support and Simon Jager’s second led the way for a New Zealand team victory. Lizzie Ingham took out W20 by three minutes. She was pushed much of the way by Belinda Lawford, before Lawford lost two minutes on the last control to blow out the margin. Knarston was out of contention after errors in mid-course, and then suffered a head injury in a fall towards the end. New Zealand might also have hoped to take out W16, but their stars from earlier in the week all made major errors early, and Krystal Neumann dropped down to take it out by five minutes from the consistent Lilian Burrill. Lachlan Dow was equally commanding in M16, nearly five minutes ahead of Joshua Blatchford after pulling away in the second half. Paul Liggins did justice to his recent good running form when he was three minutes ahead of Jim Russell in M40. Geoff Lawford resumed normal service in M50 with a comfortable win over Eoin Rothery, and Jenny Bourne was an equally comfortable winner in W45 over Anthea Feaver, whilst Patricia Aspin was a predictably convincing winner in W60 over fellow New Zealander Jill Dalton. The closest race of the day was in M60, another New Zealand quinella. Dave Middleton and Michael Wood were level at the final control, but Middleton had the superior sprint and scored by eight seconds. Others to prevail by narrow margins included Ian Hassall (15 Rick Armstrong. seconds ahead of Clive Pope in M70) Photo: Bob Mouatt and Nigel Davies (22 seconds ahead of Gordon Wilson in M55). With the individual trophy safely in the bag, the Australians finished the day looking to complete the job in the Relay the next morning.
Oceania Relays - Antills Creek
The competition week finished back at the gully-spur of Antills Creek, as two rugby-disappointed nations clashed in the Relays. The terrain looked superficially easy but had ample scope for parallel errors, as several leading contenders discovered. As Challenge relays go the event was rather lacking in drama, and the only real interest by halfway through the day was in the eventual size of the margin. New Zealand looked like they had a chance of winning five or six classes, but had to settle for four. Only two of the 24 classes saw last-leg lead changes, and no Challenge race was closer than three minutes. The pick of the races, for drama at least, was M21. It helped the interest level that some contenders were as erratic as they had been the previous day, and that there were several other decent teams in addition to the Challenge teams. There were five teams within 1:30 on the first leg, led by Matt Parton for a composite team. Both Australia and New Zealand were in that group, but New Zealand looked to have made a decisive break on the second leg when Reuben Smith lost seven minutes to a parallel error on the long leg. That left Simon Uppill with a big deficit to make up on Neil Kerrison, but he was equal to the task, taking the lead by two-thirds distance and running away at the end in a very fast time. Dave Shepherd and Julian Dent were equally impressive on the final legs for their teams and brought them home ahead of both national teams, with Shepherd taking the race out for a Canberra Cockatoos team. W21 also saw a composite team beat the national teams. With a clear sense of déjà vu, Grace Elson came in first on the opening leg, 49 seconds ahead of Jo Allison (neither of them were in the Bushrangers team). Allison was close enough to set her team up for a comfortable win through Briohny Davey and Mace Neve. New Zealand led the Challenge race after the first leg, but Vanessa Round gained nine minutes on Jenni Adams on the middle leg, and unlike the men this was decisive. The New Zealand junior teams were disrupted with the withdrawal of Greta Knarston, which caused reshuffling throughout the ranks. They were still able to survive a scare in W20, when Lizzie Ingham went out just behind Aislinn Prendergast but was too good on the final leg, but were unable to make an impression in W18 and W16 (the only age group other than the two elite classes which was not won by a Challenge team). Jack Vincent gave New Zealand a nine-minute lead on the first leg in M20, and although Morten Neve regained some of this the Australians were unable to get closer. New Zealand ensured a win in M60 when Wayne Aspin gained five minutes on Greg Chatfield on the second leg, in a race which will be best remembered for its finish – Michael Wood tripped over a flag being carried by his team-mates and ended up sprawled in the gravel five metres short of the finish line. They would have expected a win in W60 too, so it was a major shock when Patricia Aspin lost 18 minutes on the first leg. They never recovered from that and drifted further back over the rest of the race, but did make up for it with a comfortable win in W65 after three good legs. Australia won a high-standard battle in W45, with Jenny Bourne getting a minute clear of Gillian Ingham and last-minute replacement Liz Abbott consolidating on the second leg. A New Zealand mispunch on the first leg killed a close M16 race. Most of the other classes were formalities or walkovers, although there was an interesting contest between two Australian teams when the M18 and M40 teams met on the same course. Leon Keely and Paul Liggins started the final leg together, and finished it almost together, but Keely’s speed was enough to give him a narrow win in one of his best performances yet.
