Michael Derlacki has never come close to winning at this level before; not since 1991, when he made the JWOC team at eighteen, has he been near the top with any consistency, and he had never previously come in the top five in a National League race. His best race at elite level had probably come in the 1998 Australian Relays, where he ran the second fastest time and set up the second place that delivered the team title to Canberra. No-one really gave him a thought after his Easter, where a major error on the second day had put him completely out of contention. This time, his smoothness through the intense detail of the first half gave him command of the race, and he never let it go. Andy Hogg had also had an Easter below expectations, but the dual Australian champion was back on home ground and consolidated his chances for a trip to Scotland with a solid second. Behind that the shocks resumed. After an injury-interrupted first year in M21 Ben Rattray's sixth on the final day of Easter gave us a hint of what he could do, but his third, set up by a fine first half, was by some margin his best result yet at this level.
The first three places were filled by those who were well below expectations in M21 at Easter. Fourth was filled by someone who wasn't even running M21 at Easter. David Brickhill-Jones started the year hoping to make the JWOC team, but he has gone from strength to strength both before and after Easter, and fought a good battle with Hogg through much of the course. Whilst that battle will have done his result no harm, he stamped himself, at eighteen, as one to watch. Reuben Smith was solid and would have been more so but for the loss of three minutes at the eleventh control, while Eddie Wymer, back from France for the first time in two years, came home very strongly after a disappointing first half. The favourites both faltered considerably; Rob Walter missed a control, easy to do on the short legs, and had to go back, while Troy de Haas, who had made early mistakes in any case, missed a control and didn't go back.
Like Derlacki, Cassie Trewin had not previously won a National League race, but in marked contrast to him, she went in as a warm favourite. The three who beat her at Easter were all missing; Tracy Bluett is already overseas, Natasha Key had pulled out before the start with the after-effects of a broken rib, and Nicki Taws had the flu. She had also shown strong lead-up form, and those with long memories recalled her unexpected win in W16 in the 1992 Australian Championships here. Like Derlacki, she controlled the first half of the race; she fell away a little after that, but had enough in hand. Pushing her to the line was Alix Young, the Norwegian-based Western Australian who was running her first race in Australia for four years.
Four were closely bunched behind that, in the battle for the last place in the WOC team (if they take six). Emily Viner had her nose in front of the in-form Clare Hawthorne. Kirsten Fairfax lost time early, but, like Eddie Wymer, came home strongly to record the fastest time for the second half of the course, whilst Jo Allison kept herself in some sort of contention with a solid performance. The last place will probably be filled by one of those four; unlike the men, for whom the situation is far less clear, none of the major contenders for the team were in the bottom half of the results list.
Return to Qantas National Orienteering League home page.Men (5.1km)
3.1km Final 1 Michael Derlacki ACT 26.47 46.50 2 Andy Hogg WA 29.17 48.31 3 Ben Rattray SA 28.35 48.51 4 David Brickhill-Jones ALL/T 31.29 50.25 5 Reuben Smith SA 30.57 51.21 6 Eddie Wymer VIC 33.40 51.37 7 Rob Walter ACT 31.45 52.28 8 Paul Liggins VIC 32.42 52.49 9 David Shepherd NSW 30.59 53.11 10 Tom Walter ACT 32.05 53.36 11 Jason McCrae ACT 30.54 54.15 12 Terry Farrell WA 32.00 54.25 13 Blair Trewin VIC 32.45 54.49 14 Scott Simson ALL/Q 33.45 55.32 15 Eric Morris SA 33.50 55.35 16 Jon McComb NSW 35.37 56.37 17 Martin Groth NSW 37.16 58.36 18 Craig Dufty WA 35.36 59.10 19 Alex Randall VIC 59.24 20 Bruce Arthur SA 35.20 59.38 21 Anthony Scott ACT 40.39 64.35 22 John Toomey WA 41.30 65.08 23 Jim Russell VIC 47.00 67.25 24 Rob Preston NSW 41.14 69.43 25 Michael White SA 46.02 80.19 26 Glenn Meyer NSW 51.47 84.26 Troy de Haas VIC 37.46 DNFTeams
1 Canberra Cockatoos 152.54 (Derlacki, R.Walter, T.Walter) 2 Southern Arrows 155.47 (Rattray, Smith, Morris) 3 Victorian Nuggets 159.15 (Wymer, Liggins, Trewin) 4 Western Nomads 162.06 (Hogg, Farrell, Dufty) 5 NSW Stingers 168.24 (Shepherd, McComb, Groth)Women (4.3km)
2.7km Final 1 Cassie Trewin ACT 28.35 50.55 2 Alix Young WA 30.02 51.06 3 Emily Viner VIC 29.20 52.52 4 Clare Hawthorne VIC 31.36 53.07 5 Kirsten Fairfax ALL/T 33.15 53.33 6 Jo Allison ACT 33.02 54.43 7 Allison Jones NSW 32.37 58.02 8 Julie Calder NSW 34.02 60.22 9 Karen Staudte VIC 34.59 60.51 10 Cathy Liggins NSW 36.38 63.13 11 Rebecca Minty ACT 40.35 66.07 12 Belinda Allison ACT 37.32 66.22 13 Sheralee Bailey NSW 36.40 66.45 14 Orla Murray NSW 42.54 68.02 15 Natalie Smith WA 44.10 70.50 16 Louise Fairfax TAS 44.03 72.41 17 Anthea Feaver WA 52.57 79.23 18 Rachel West WA 41.58 79.48 19 Cath Chalmers WA 46.25 80.27 20 Jenny Casanova SA 50.16 81.43 Cathy Hogg NSW DNFTeams
1 Canberra Cockatoos 105.38 (Trewin, J.Allison) 2 Victorian Nuggets 105.59 (Viner, Hawthorne) 3 NSW Stingers 118.24 (Jones, Calder) 4 Western Nomads 121.56 (Young, Smith) 5 Allies 126.14 (K.Fairfax, L.Fairfax)
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