Wildfire Sports Ultra Long- Nick Hann NZ the BIG winner
Monday, 1 September 2014
In yesterday’s Wildfire Sports Australian Ultra Long
Distance event held at Kooyoora State Park the big winner was the NZ Junior
Nick Hann who flew to Victoria especially to run in this event with his
ultimate aim being to win the $2,500 valued return air ticket to Europe. The
overall winner would be the winner of one of the four elite classes who was
closest to or under the winning km rate for their class. The “base km rate” for
each of the classes was: M21E 6:13min/km, M17-20E 6:27min/km, W21E 7:24min/km,
W17-20E 8:05min/km.
Nick Hann was the winner of the M17-20E class in a time of
1:38:33 for the 14km course which gave him a 7:00min/km rate. This gave him the
fastest km rate of all the classes as the winner of the M21E Ian Lawford in a
time of 2:24:40 for the 20km course, with a km rate of 7:13min/km. 
Perhaps the most exciting class was the M21E class as the
lead changed a number of times during this epic long distance event. Jim
Russell the course setter had the M21E doing two “short” loops with the runners
coming back through the arena to a map change after each loop, with a “long”
loop to finish off the course. After the first loop Bryan Keely was in the lead
with Ian Lawford in 2nd and Lachlan Dow in 3rd place.
From control 17 to 32 Lachlan Dow was the leader before he unfortunately had to
withdraw due to an ankle injury. From that point on it was a very close battle
between Ian Lawford, David Shepherd and Bryan Keely who were only 16 seconds apart
at control 45. However, Dave and Bryan both lost just over 3 minutes to Ian at
control 36 which enabled Ian Lawford to come into the finish a winner by 4:12
from David Shepherd in second and a tiring Bryan Keely in third place. There
were some epic performances in the M21E class with Ben Goonan, Simon Rouse,
Glenn Meyer and Ian Dodd all completing the 20km course in times over the 4
hours. 
In the W21E class the favourite and last year’s winner of
the return air ticket, Lizzie Ingham had to withdraw due to health issues.
Jasmine Neve who is soon to leave to spend a year studying in Slovenia, after a
slow start to control 1 was in the lead at control 19 and finished off very
strongly to maintain this lead and finish in a time of 2:13:31 for a 10:01min/km
rate. Sarah Buckerfield making a comeback to NOL racing was second and Clare
Brownridge, third. 
In the junior elite classes, our JWOC representatives Matt
Doyle and Brodie Nankervis were second and third behind Nick Hann. Matt had a
7:22min/km rate and Brodie a 7:41min/km rate. In the W17-20E class in a very
small field the three JWOC team members Anna Dowling, Nicola Blatchford and
Michele Dawson filled the first three placing’s. Results available here: http://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/ResultList?eventId=1345&groupBy=EventClass Splits available here: http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=classes&databaseId=32709
A very big thank you to the course setter Jim Russell, the
controller Neil Barr for all their efforts. These two men were also the
controller and course setter for the Victorian Middle Distance Championships on
Saturday. Great courses on a famous iconic map and the weather was ideal. To Geoff
Lawford and Jenny Bourne along with the Eureka Orienteering Club and Bendigo
Orienteering Club a big thank you for all the work that went into the organization
of these two great events. Especially to Eureka Orienteers who have provided
the major prize of the return air ticket for the last two years. NATIONAL ORIENTEERING LEAGUE UPDATE
The National
Orienteering League points for teams
and individuals after the completion
of Round 11 are:
Teams Point Score
Senior Men: the
Canberra Cockatoos (89) have a comfortable lead over Victorian Nuggets (73)
with the NSW Stingers (60) in third.
Senior Women: the
Canberra Cockatoos (86) also have a comfortable lead over Victorian Nuggets
(71) with Queensland Cyclones in third place.
Junior Men:
Tasmanian Forresters (61) have a winning lead over two states NSW Stingers and
Victorian Nuggets who are equal second (42).
Junior Women:
this is the closest battle of all with NSW Stingers (59) only two points in
front of the Tasmanian Forresters, Victorian Nuggets (33) are in third.
Individual Point
Score
Senior Men: Simon
Uppill (195) still leads despite not being able to compete in the Ultra Long,
David Shepherd (189) has moved into second place in front of Lachlan Dow (180).
Senior Women:
Despite not competing in the Ultra Long Hanny Allston (228) maintains a comfortable
lead over Jasmine Neve (194), with Jo Allison (182) in third place. As neither
Jasmine nor Jo will be able to compete in the final rounds Hanny will be a
comfortable winner of the senior women’s.
Junior Men: Matt
Doyle (174) has slightly increased his lead over Brodie Nankervis (156) after
the Ultra Long, with Henry McNulty(155) in third place, just one point behind Brodie.
Junior Women:
Michele Dawson (168) still leads from Anna Dowling (162) but the gap has got
smaller after the Ultra Long, Nicola Blatchford (153) is in third place.
The 2014 National
Orienteering League final rounds will be in WA with four rounds for team’s
points and three for the individual points at the Australian Orienteering Championships Carnival.
|