MTBO
Maryborough Maze 2021 Victorian MTBO Championships
PETER CUSWORTH
Scott Gavens (M21) and Carolyn Matthews (M50) – Middle distance
T
he weekend of 15-16 May saw the Victorian MTBO Championships run successfully at Maryborough and Dunolly. The championships were also the first round of the 2021 National MTBO Series. It was particularly cold across Victoria on this weekend with many snow falls reported, but at Maryborough, while still cold, the sun did shine for a good part of the weekend’s events, and there was no rain. The weekend started with the Sprint from the Maryborough Education Centre and using part of the Flat Creek map (from the 2019 Aus Champs) and the adjacent Bristol Hill map. Bristol Hill never fails to challenge, as riders discovered when they flipped their map over mid-course to the Bristol Hill side and were faced with a maze of spaghetti type track networks. We’re not sure if anyone had a clean ride, but some did better than others. Bendigo’s James Robertson had a good ride to take the M21 win from Jack Allison and Ricky Thackray. Marina Iskhakova was best in W21.
Ricky Thackray (M21) and Gavin Bennette (M50) starting the Long race.
presentation was made by Andrew Power to Kay Haarsma who is retiring from her Orienteering Australia MTBO roles. Kay has held many key positions over the years, representing MTBO at Orienteering Australia virtually since MTBO started in Australia. It was also mentioned that this retirement may mean that Kay can fit in a bit more bike riding now ... if that is possible.
The afternoon saw the Middle distance race on the Tullaroop Forest map on the NE edge of Maryborough. We started in a different location to 2019 and the map included more northern areas not used in 2019. Again, a very complex area of forest with riders needing to take due care as some tracks through lightly forested areas were quite indistinct. Ricky Thackray was on top of M21 this time with a good win from Harrison Waugh and Joel Young. Marina Iskhakova scored her second win in W21.
Sunday morning was the Long Distance event on the Dunolly Forest map. This area has more hills than the Maryborough maps and perfect for this format, with the track network not being quite so intense, but there were still plenty of crucial route choice decisions to be made. Carolyn Jackson had a close tussle with Marina Iskhakova over the weekend and came out on top in this Long event with a good win in W21. Ricky Thackray had another good ride to take M21 with adventure racer Luke Haines close behind in 2nd.
That evening, there was a casual dinner at the Maryborough Gold Club attended by 40 odd people, and we presented awards for the Sprint and Middle to those present. A special
A number of riders had clocked up 3 victories for the weekend including: Veronika Iskhakova (W12), Maya Bennette (W14), Jayne Sales (W40), Carolyn Matthews (W50) and Keith Wade (M80). Other classes, such as M40, M50, M60 and M70 saw some intense competition between riders over the weekend with honours being shared between a number of riders. These events all used the new BS11 SPORTident control units that have a 1.8m range allowing riders to pass by controls at speed and not too close. Another innovation for the events was the live results. Competitors could scan the QR code on their maps and be taken to the results immediately after completing their course.
Anthony Jones (M40) at Dunolly. 36 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER JUNE 2021
The championships was a combined effort from three clubs, Eureka, Bayside Kangaroos and Nilumbik Emus, plus key contributions from a number of Victorian MTBOers. Great to see such cooperation between clubs and all of those interested in the sport.
