Ballarat, Victoria, March 9-10
The 1996 Australian Orienteering League kicked off, as it did last year, at the Eureka Challenge, based in Ballarat, with Grant Bluett and Natasha Rowe as the individual winners and Victoria and the ACT sharing the team honours. Once again the format was slightly experimental, with a chasing start on the second day following a two-race short distance event on the Saturday, with time bonuses available for the placegetters on the Saturday afternoon.
The short-distance event took place at Little Forest, a fast gully-spur area used for the first day of the 1992 Australian 3-Days (and surprisingly little thereafter). Just how fast became apparent very early in the day when the first men returned in well under 5 minutes per kilometre, a mark which the leading women also challenged. As might have been expected in a short race in a technically straightforward area, the field was very closely bunched. In the context of the race, Tom Quayle's opening salvo of 25.10, 44 seconds clear of the mens' field, was quite a decisive margin. Rather more typical of the morning was the battle for second; second and sixth were separated by 32 seconds, and third, fourth and fifth by three. Grant Bluett's sixth place was a little lower than might have been expected, thanks to a mistake on a fourth leg which claimed several other victims, but was to prove somewhat atypical.
Natasha Rowe opened up a narrow lead in the morning, with Emily Viner and Nicki Taws following at 30-second intervals. Close finishers were also the order of the day through this field, at 21 one of the largest elite womens' fields seen in Australia in recent years. All but one of those 21 finished within ten minutes of the lead.
Time bonuses were at stake in the afternoon; two minutes for the winner, one for second, 30 seconds for third. Quayle again took an early lead which saw off several strong challenges, first from Blair Trewin and Warren Key, then from Rob Walter. Bluett, however, was equal to the task, and went on to a 51-second lead. The kilometre rates looked too good to be true, and were: the course was listed as 6.07 km, which would have given Bluett a barely credible 3.8 minutes/km, but was actually 5.3 km long (which still makes it pretty quick...). Quayle held second, while, having lost out for third by a second in the morning, Walter took third in the afternoon by the same margin.
The afternoon was also when Rowe took control of the women's race with an emphatic win by more than two minutes. Viner was once again second, and Jo Allison recovered from an indifferent morning race to take third, although the result and the resultant 30-second bonus were insufficient for her to displace Taws from third place overall on the day. The other significant events of the afternoon was the elimination from effective contention of Tracy Bluett, who finished more than seven minutes down and started the second day in ninth place, and a result symbolic of a generational change when Louise Fairfax and her daughter Kirsten were separated by only two seconds.
Sunday looked to have the makings of a very different day on the steep granite slopes of Mount Beckworth. Amongst the men, Bluett had 35 seconds in hand over Quayle, with a group of four within a minute of each other battling for third place, and another pack fighting for seventh. The small gaps had predictably diminished to zero within a couple of kilometres, with Quayle catching Bluett, a lightning start from Jim Russell reeling in Key and Walter, and Eric Morris and Andy Hogg catching Eddie Wymer. Only Trewin remained on his own, remaining in sixth from first step to last. The leaders were together from the fourth control onwards, and reeled off a succession of impressive split times as they built an imposing margin over the battle for third. It was not until the final kilometre that Bluett broke away, eventually winning by a deceptively comfortable margin. It was the highest placing yet at this level for Quayle, fourth placegetter at JWOC94 and 95, in his first year as a senior. Behind them, Key and Russell broke away from Walter on the long climb into 8, and although Walter was able to re-catch them late in the course, he did not have enough left to advance beyond fifth. It came down to a sprint finish in the end; Russell led to the last control, but missed it slightly, opening the door for Key to get to it first and hold his lead to the finish.
At the front, the women's event turned into a demonstration of Rowe's superiority as she completely dominated the second day. Going into the day with a four-minute lead, she went on to extend it by another five. Viner again came second on the day and was never threatened for second overall, and Taws held onto third. The close battles were in the field behind, most memorably that for fifth. This was set up by the expected climb through the field by Tracy Bluett and a rather less expected, and even more spectacular, climb by Kirsten Fairfax, who had started the day in twelfth. Only centimetres separated them in the end, but that did nothing to diminish the impact of a great result for Fairfax, who must now be a very strong contender for the JWOC team.
The development of Quayle and Walter has further strengthened a formidable ACT mens' team, which comfortably defeated Victoria despite the latter being at full strength. Victoria, however, did reverse the result with the 1-2 finish of Rowe and Viner. This result left the two teams tied after the first round, with the Outer States a respectable third. The three rounds at Easter will help to sort out the order; it is early days yet.
Results from Round 1 (ACT: Australian Capital Territory. NSW: New South Wales. VIC: Victoria. OS: Outer States. SA: South Australia. TAS: Tasmania. QLD: Queensland. WA: Western Australia.) An asterisk (*) denotes those who, as far as I know, are not eligible for individual O League points (most of whom finished outside the top 16 in any case). Men Name State Day 1 Day 1 Bonus Day 2 Overall am pm time 1 Grant Bluett ACT 26.26 23.09 -2.00 61.45 109.20 2 Tom Quayle ACT 25.10 24.00 -1.00 61.57 110.07 3 Warren Key VIC 25.54 24.23 66.57 117.14 4 Jim Russell VIC 26.12 24.34 66.29 117.15 5 Rob Walter ACT 26.13 24.22 -0.30 67.20 117.25 6 Blair Trewin VIC 26.15 24.49 67.54 118.58 7 Andy Hogg ACT 26.50 25.58 66.20 119.08 8 Eric Morris NSW 27.57 25.09 66.11 119.17 9 Eddie Wymer VIC 27.01 25.28 67.18 119.47 10 Craig Dufty OS/WA 27.18 27.19 74.56 129.33 11 Jason McCrae VIC 27.55 26.11 75.36 129.38 12 Bruce Arthur OS/SA 28.19 27.11 76.53 132.23 13 Paul Liggins VIC 29.52 27.14 75.21 132.27 14 Michael Derlacki ACT 30.33 27.57 74.03 132.30 15 Scott Simson OS/QLD 33.45 25.49 77.36 137.10 16 Reuben Smith OS/SA 34.13 29.01 76.15 139.29 17 Troy de Haas VIC 31.46 29.09 78.26 139.31 18 Andrew McComb (*) OS/SA 29.39 27.53 82.11 139.43 19 Jon McComb OS/SA 30.20 25.46 90.44 146.50 20 John Whittington VIC 31.28 32.11 83.19 146.58 21 Nino Calabro (*) OS/QLD 35.39 31.02 83.37 150.18 22 Roch Prendergast (*) VIC 30.49 29.46 89.45 150.20 23 Thomas Walter (*) ACT 33.58 28.59 87.43 150.40 24 Darren Meeking VIC 32.38 33.13 92.33 158.24 25 Ben Rattray (*) OS/SA 45.21 30.52 95.56 172.09 26 Peter Lowndes (*) NSW 28.53 42.25 105.03 177.21 27 Nigel Aylott (*) VIC 36.07 28.46 142.31 207.24 David Shepherd (*) NSW 34.37 30.49 DNF DNF Damian Dawson (*) OS/SA 33.00 28.57 DNF DNF David Calder (*) VIC DNS DNS 95.51 DNF Teams: 1 ACT 336.52 (Bluett 109.20, Quayle 110.07, Walter 117.25) 2 Victoria 353.27 (Key 117.14, Russell 117.15, Trewin 118.58) 3 Outer States 399.05 (Dufty 129.33, Arthur 132.23, Simson 137.10) New South Wales DNF (Morris 119.17, Lowndes 177.21, Shepherd DNF) Women 1 Natasha Rowe VIC 22.32 24.07 -2.00 56.23 101.02 2 Emily Viner VIC 23.06 26.26 -1.00 61.07 109.39 3 Nicki Taws ACT 23.38 27.07 63.07 113.52 4 Jo Allison ACT 26.27 27.03 -0.30 62.27 115.27 5 Tracy Bluett NSW 24.46 31.46 65.49 122.21 6 Kirsten Fairfax OS/TAS 27.45 30.17 64.19 122.21 7 Susie Hogg ACT 26.22 27.15 75.57 129.34 8 Jo Mitchell OS/TAS 30.03 30.50 69.12 130.05 9 Nicola Plunkett-Cole NSW 27.37 32.25 70.30 130.32 10 Belinda Allison ACT 25.33 28.24 79.04 133.01 11 Allison Jones NSW 26.07 29.35 77.35 133.17 12 Carolyn Jackson VIC 26.32 30.44 76.39 133.57 13 Suzanne Casanova (*) OS/SA 31.14 31.07 74.09 136.30 14 Julia Minty (*) ACT 32.14 28.45 75.34 136.31 15 Louise Fairfax OS/TAS 26.22 30.15 83.27 140.04 16 Jenny Casanova OS/SA 29.59 31.40 90.45 152.24 17 Emma Prime (*) VIC 28.33 33.46 92.22 154.41 18 Miriam Palmer VIC 31.56 36.38 88.21 156.55 Clare Hawthorne OS/TAS 27.55 30.15 DNF DNF Karen Staudte VIC 25.39 29.37 DNF DNF Cathy Hogg (*) ACT 35.08 47.57 DNF DNF Teams 1 Victoria 210.41 (Rowe 101.02, Viner 109.39) 2 ACT 229.19 (Taws 113.52, Allison 115.27) 3 Outer States 252.26 (K.Fairfax 122.21, Mitchell 130.05) 4 New South Wales 252.53 (Bluett 122.21, Plunkett-Cole 130.32)Return to Australian Orienteering League home page.
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