Russell's margin of nearly four minutes was a convincing one over the long course in typical Bendigo terrain, fast and a bit scratchy with patches of mining detail. (Some of the gold is evidently still there: a major mine is about to open just north of the map, and several people were seen with metal detectors during the day). Behind him it was every bit as close as it had been in Canberra the preceding weekend, with most of the same actors, and Blair Trewin just ahead of the bunch again. It was a result which did nothing to dispel the likelihood that the Australian Championships will be the most open in years in Grant Bluett's absence, with at least eight plausible winners.
The womens' field was not quite as deep as last week, but Rowe's win was still a meritorious one. Like Russell, she had about four minutes in hand, with Georgie Macken continuing a solid return to Australian orienteering and Karen Staudte recording her best result for some time. Another significant result was the fifth place for Susanne Casanova, a member of this year's JWOC team.
As expected, Troy de Haas scored comfortably over Tom Walter in M20, while the W20 result was more surprising, Rachel Johnson having her best race since her unexpected 1995 Australian Championship win to beat JWOC representative Allison Jones. For most of the junior fields it was a mere preliminary to bigger things in Tasmania, especially in the 16's which will see two of the largest fields in recent Australian orienteering history. W16 was a closer contest than expected, with Amber Tomas continuing her excellent form from the South Australian Championships to give Kathryn Ewels her closest challenge for some time, while Justin Slater won in an M16 field left wide open after a stress fracture brought Jamie Potter's season to a premature end. Other notable results in the junior classes were David Colls' narrow win over his brother Stuart in M18, Clemmie Thompson's convincing win in W14, and a rare tie for third place, between Chris Davill and Adrian Jackson, in the M14 race won by Ross Slater.
The veteran classes also saw their share of fine contests, none better than in M40 where four seconds separated Roch Prendergast and Nick Dytlewski, with Chris Norwood less than a minute behind. Dave Lotty in M50 and Ian Hassall in M60 were the only two who were able to repeat their ACT Championship wins in Victoria; Lotty had to work for his one-minute margin over Leigh Privett, but Hassall had twelve minutes to spare; this may be his year after the last eighteen Australian Championships have brought him eleven placings, but only one win, in 1985. The pick of the womens' classes were W45, where Alison Radford won and Peta Whitford edged out Kathy Liley for second by two seconds, and W50, where Kate Fortune and Ruth Goddard put out serious challenges to Shirley Viner's dominance of the class but fell just short.
The season now moves, storms permitting, to the rescheduled New South Wales Championships next Saturday, before the Australian Championships carnival gets under way in Tasmania the following weekend. The postponement carries with it a bonus-the elite fields will be strengthened considerably over what they would have been, as most of the World Cup team are home now.
M10A (2.2 km) 1 Marten Neve BR.V 40.43 Evan Barr BG.V DNF M12A (2.8 km) 1 David Brownridge BG.V 20.11 2 Hayden Lebbink --.V 27.24 3 Neil Mills NE.V 31.26 4 Kent Erwin EU.V 32.55 5 Lachie McGuckian BG.V 36.53 M14A (5.1 km) 1 Ross Slater BG.V 42.06 2 Miguel Clark WA.S 44.02 3= Chris Davill TT.S 51.04 3= Adrian Jackson NE.V 51.04 5 Tyson Hillyard TJ.S 53.46 6 Matthew Schepisi BG.V 55.58 Daniel Crowe BG.V DNF M14AS (3.3 km) 1 Tim Page BG.V 41.02 2 Jay Poustie BG.V 55.37 M14B (2.8 km) 1 Conan Prendergast EU.V 19.03 M16A (7.5 km) 1 Justin Slater BG.V 60.02 2 Chad Burbidge TT.S 63.49 3 Andrew Pepplinkhouse EU.V 67.52 4 John Nieuwenhoven TT.S 72.11 5 Andrew Dent YV.V 74.35 6 Lee Stoeckel WA.S 74.47 7 Michael Clark TT.S 82.25 8 Grant Keatley TT.S 83.28 Simon Goddard YV.V DNF M16AS (3.5 km) 1 David Alexander AW.V 88.08 M18A (9.9 km) 1 David Colls YV.V 66.55 2 Stuart Colls YV.V 69.35 3 Karl Hillyard TJ.S 75.50 4 Dean Pepplinkhouse EU.V 92.51 5 Graham Allen TK.V 122.06 M17-20AS (7.4 km) 1 Grant Lebbink --.V 65.22 2 Bill Kee SC.V 68.14 3 David Edgar BK.V 68.41 M17-20B (5.1 km) 1 Michael Sinickas YV.V 54.47 M20A (11.8 km) 1 Troy de Haas CH.V 68.12 2 Tom Walter RR.A 73.29 3 Damian Dawson TT.S 75.28 4 Steven Jones BG.V 78.11 5 Ben Rattray OH.S 79.02 6 Darren Meeking YV.V 81.30 7 Andrew Jones BG.V 82.03 8 Roly Russell BR.V 108.46 M21E (17.1 km) 1 Jim Russell BG.V 88.38 2 Blair Trewin YV.V 92.16 3 Tom Quayle RR.A 92.36 4 Rob Walter RR.A 92.40 5 Warren Key BR.V 92.48 6 Jason McCrae YV.V 95.17 7 Darren Ashmore WA.NZ 98.04 8 Paul Liggins YV.V 100.51 9 Andy Hogg PO.A 101.32 10 Rob Plowright EU.V 103.24 11 Bruce Arthur TT.S 104.57 12 Rob Crawford WA.NZ 108.45 13 Dave Quayle RR.A 114.50 M21A (11.8 km) 1 Bruce Graham BR.V 75.52 2 David Searle BG.V 76.32 3 Gareth Prosser KO.N 84.08 4 Pasi Kankaanpaa YV.V 85.30 5 David Calder EU.V 90.34 6 John Maher BG.V 93.25 7 George El-Hage YV.V 94.41 8 Andrew Moore SE.S 96.00 M21AS (8.8 km) 1 Peter Scott EU.V 63.45 2 Alex Randall YV.V 70.36 3 Phil Cichero BR.V 79.02 4 Peter Gossip CH.V 86.38 5 Robert Kriesl SE.S 91.03 M35A (11.8 km) 1 Tim Hatley BK.V 79.47 2 Peter Taylor YA.S 92.59 M35AS (7.4 km) 1 David Knight BK.V 59.52 2 Phil Poulton BK.V 63.09 3 Peter Cook BK.V 67.26 4 Guy Krippner BK.V 92.39 M35-44B (4.1 km) 1 Warren Halliday NE.V 48.01 2 Peter Cusworth BK.V 49.59 3 George Flack BG.V 99.32 M40A (9.9 km) 1 Roch Prendergast EU.V 64.51 2 Nick Dytlewski KO.N 64.55 3 Chris Norwood EU.V 65.49 4 Ron Scholes NE.V 71.10 5 Noel Schoknecht LO.W 73.33 6 Gary Grealy BG.V 80.18 7 Alan Davis YV.V 83.19 8 Rob Edmonds NE.V 83.20 9 Phil Davill TT.S 90.35 10 Tony Perrott AW.V 91.31 11 Ed Neve BR.V 94.24 12 Charles Brownridge BG.V 115.58 13 John Neve --.V 117.27 14 Roderick Wright TK.V 160.56 M40AS (6.2 km) 1 Neil Barr BG.V 55.25 2 Terry Haebich EU.V 57.55 3 Rex Niven NE.V 61.57 4 Mark Valentine EU.V 65.58 5 Alan Watts NE.V 67.39 6 Michael Horn NE.V 72.54 7 Peter Forbes BG.V 87.37 8 Keith O'Brien BG.V 102.55 M45A (8.8 km) 1 Derek Morris NE.V 60.39 2 Robert Allison RR.A 64.09 3 Michael Wood --.NZ 67.45 4 Tony Radford TT.S 68.01 5 Ken Thomas BG.V 68.49 6 Peter Jackson NE.V 69.09 7 Paul Elam TK.V 69.42 8 Murray Hanna BK.V 82.59 9 David Jones BG.V 83.35 10 Clive Arthur TT.S 87.09 11 Barry Wheeler TT.S 91.07 12 Steve Hure RR.A 92.35 13 Vincent Sinickas YV.V 96.39 14 Barry Hart YV.V 97.15 15 Phil Stoeckel WA.S 100.36 16 Rob Allen TK.V 102.28 17 Henry Post BK.V 283.12 M45AS (5.1 km) 1 Barry McCrae YV.V 46.44 2 Andrew Calder AW.V 47.18 3 Hank Pepplinkhouse EU.V 51.00 4 Charles Zerafa BK.V 54.21 5 Rugby McLean BG.V 54.38 6 John Erwin EU.V 55.18 7 John Ewels CH.V 55.26 8 David Goddard YV.V 63.17 9 John Lebbink --.V 65.45 10 Richard Bice EU.V 67.47 11 Lou de Haas CH.V 69.56 12 Geoff Edgar BK.V 83.30 13 Russell Bourke EU.V 94.02 M45-54B (3.3 km) 1 John Crowe BG.V 55.54 2 Mike Clarke BK.V 67.35 M50A (7.4 km) 1 Dave Lotty UR.N 50.50 2 Leigh Privett AW.V 52.10 3 Tim Dent YV.V 53.34 4 John Brock EV.T 53.56 5 Graham Kipp YV.V 60.40 6 John Meeking YV.V 61.07 7 Robert Smith TT.S 61.08 8 Allan Woodberry EV.T 61.29 9 John Chellew BG.V 62.05 10 Ray Sheldon YV.V 63.12 11 John Williams TJ.S 70.47 12 Dick Barker TK.V 71.09 13 Blake Gordon EU.V 76.02 14 Jim McLennan NE.V 79.29 15 Barry Field KO.N 82.26 16 Alan Thompson YV.V 87.42 17 Peter Jones EU.V 90.02 18 Lincoln Erm NE.V 91.06 19 David Tilbrook OH.S 91.25 20 Peter Beggs TK.V 110.09 21 Graham Mills NE.V 111.01 22 Alex Shepherd NE.V 133.41 23 John Colls YV.V 134.24 M50+ AS (4.5 km) 1 David Crocker --.V 51.13 2 Bernie Shuttleworth NE.V 55.03 3 Kevin Maloney NE.V 55.49 Kenn Taylor BG.V DNF M55A (6.2 km) 1 Graham Fortune RR.A 46.18 2 Peter Prime TK.V 49.34 3 Keith Wade TK.V 51.36 4 John Lyon TT.S 54.30 5 Terry Davidson BG.V 57.33 6 Peter Cutten WA.S 60.55 7 Lindsay Thomas TK.V 61.19 8 Christer Norman TK.V 69.06 9 Russell Yeoman BK.V 78.31 10 Arthur Thurlow NE.V 97.36 M55+ B (3.3 km) 1 Stan Gurman BK.V 60.33 M60A (5.1 km) 1 Ian Hassall KO.N 43.59 2 George Reeves TT.S 55.38 3 Colin Steer NE.V 62.05 4 Ian Baker BK.V 77.26 Robert Charlton TK.V DNF M65A (4.5 km) 1 Ray Kelly UG.Q 50.53 2 Graeme Cadman YV.V 61.26 3 Tom Norwood EU.V 64.03 4 Keith Groves YV.V 69.49 5 Wally Cavill DR.V 70.44 6 Max Schinck NE.V 72.05 7 Keith Holmes BK.V 72.24 8 Bill Johnson NE.V 101.17 M70A (3.5 km) 1 Gordon Clarke YV.V 63.20 2 Lewis Schofield NE.V 67.12 3 Paul Adrian NE.V 68.02 4 Bill Davis TK.V 74.36 M75A (3.0 km) 1 Hjalmar Nilsen BG.V 117.39 M/W10N (2.2 km) 1 Michael Kipp YV.V 36.16 Steven Cusworth BK.V DNF W10A (2.2 km) 1 Andrea Slater BG.V 17.16 2 Kara O'Brien BG.V 20.00 3 Clare Brownridge BG.V 20.30 4 Jasmine Neve BR.V 24.22 5 Alice Perrott AW.V 25.24 6 Rachel Edmonds NE.V 26.48 7 Melinda Jackson NE.V 27.40 8 Emma Perrott AW.V 30.11 9 Tess Elam TK.V 34.06 Megan Taylor BG.V DNF W12A (2.8 km) 1 Moira Goddard YV.V 23.05 2 Ilka Barr BG.V 23.34 3 Mace Neve BR.V 25.00 4 Amy Cusworth BK.V 25.04 5 Clare Norwood EU.V 28.21 W12B (2.2 km) 1 Bridget Elam TK.V 22.08 W14A (4.1 km) 1 Clemmie Thompson YV.V 31.01 2 Becky Burbidge TT.S 38.48 3 Emily Hart EU.V 41.17 4 Kate Radford TT.S 43.04 5 Zoe Radford TT.S 44.13 6 Andrea Hughes YV.V 47.19 7 Penelope Robertson LI.S 56.22 8 Kathryn Barker TK.V 56.52 9 Lexie Ashforth WA.S 64.08 Michelle Haebich EU.V DNF W14AS (3.3 km) 1 Nicole Pepplinkhouse EU.V 68.12 W14B (2.8 km) 1 Meredith Ewels CH.V 49.25 W16A (4.5 km) 1 Kathryn Ewels CH.V 40.41 2 Amber Tomas TT.S 42.27 3 Jenny Prime TK.V 46.05 4 Lian Prendergast EU.V 58.15 5 Breanna Thomas BG.V 76.06 Tanya Trevena AW.V DNF W18A (6.2 km) 1 Emma Prime TK.V 57.27 2 Anna Jenkins TT.S 59.42 3 Julie Grealy BG.V 64.11 4 Claire Davill TT.S 64.55 5 Kerryn Searle BG.V 69.11 6 Jane Ewels CH.V 73.29 W17-20AS (4.5 km) 1 Tarli Whitford YV.V 58.17 W17-20B (4.1 km) 1 Katherine Dent YV.V 69.46 2 Lisa McLennan NE.V 71.07 W20A (7.5 km) 1 Rachel Johnson NE.V 65.05 2 Allison Jones WR.N 67.48 3 Lauren Shelley BK.V 103.16 W21E (10.2 km) 1 Natasha Rowe YV.V 70.16 2 Georgina Macken WR.N 74.32 3 Karen Staudte EU.V 79.36 4 Carolyn Jackson NE.V 81.12 5 Susanne Casanova WA.S 82.39 6 Nic Plunkett-Cole BF.N 83.24 7 Susie Hogg PO.A 86.16 8 Belinda Allison RR.A 87.07 9 Emily Viner EU.V 87.16 10 Margit Breckle GER 88.32 11 Nat Smith PO.A 92.30 12 Jenny Casanova WA.S 94.15 W21A (7.5 km) 1 Sarah Campbell EU.V 68.08 2 Susannah King YV.V 70.45 W21AS (5.1 km) 1 Sandra Tarr YV.V 52.00 W21B (4.1 km) 1 Karen Aylen YV.V 46.15 2 Melanie Pither EU.V 50.34 3 Anne Kullmann LO.W 62.24 W35A (7.5 km) 1 Mary Hanna BK.V 87.04 2 Erica Johnson NE.V 109.13 W35AS (4.5 km) 1 Julie Flynn BG.V 49.41 2 Lisa Lampe UR.N 61.55 3 Judy Prendergast EU.V 65.23 4 Sue Sturges BK.V 67.59 5 Jenny Ball BG.V 77.18 6 Lynne Pepplinkhouse EU.V 78.56 7 Lorely Krippner BK.V 80.22 8 Anne Garvey TK.V 85.09 W35-44B (4.1 km) 1 Carolyn Cusworth BK.V 56.27 2 Jeni Trevena AW.V 68.30 W40A (7.4 km) 1 Helen Schofield NE.V 66.55 2 Sue Neve BR.V 69.38 3 Helen Edmonds NE.V 77.01 4 Liz Wood AW.V 77.12 5 Janet Davill TT.S 92.08 6 Elizabeth Hatley BK.V 101.06 W40AS (3.5 km) 1 Margaret Barker TK.V 50.50 2 Jan Hure RR.A 58.06 3 Linley Bowyer SE.S 95.41 W45A (6.2 km) 1 Alison Radford TT.S 64.04 2 Peta Whitford YV.V 67.06 3 Kathy Liley YV.V 67.08 4 Barbara McCrae YV.V 75.17 5 Kerrie Greenwell BG.V 79.01 6 Sheila Colls YV.V 83.17 7 Libby Meeking YV.V 84.45 8 Pam Prime TK.V 88.30 9 Laurie Niven NE.V 88.31 10 Marian Arthur TT.S 92.28 11 Christine Sinickas YV.V 100.13 12 Sue Hart EU.V 109.46 W45-54AS (3.0 km) 1 Helen Slater BG.V 80.42 2 Carmel Davidson NE.V 86.15 3 Lyn McLean BG.V 105.35 W45-54B (3.3 km) 1 Pamela King DR.V 51.02 2 Helen Dent YV.V 53.18 3 Sue Bament OH.S 53.23 4 Jackie Sheldon YV.V 56.45 5 Lois Ewels CH.V 60.22 6 Susan Edgar BK.V 79.30 7 Sue Gurman BK.V 105.11 W50A (5.1 km) 1 Shirley Viner EU.V 52.47 2 Kate Fortune RR.A 55.25 3 Ruth Goddard YV.V 56.18 4 Heather Bice EU.V 59.06 5 Janet Tarr YV.V 59.25 6 Robyn Cameron AW.V 61.20 7 Dale Gordon EU.V 63.29 8 Irena Palmer YA.S 70.25 9 Jean O'Neill FGI 75.28 10 Belinda Thompson YV.V 78.55 W55A (4.5 km) 1 Dorothy Adrian NE.V 67.00 2 Margaret King YV.V 76.46 3 Jan Thomas TK.V 81.01 4 Janet Fitzwater NE.V 84.04 5 Gill King NE.V 86.57 6 Jennifer Steer NE.V 98.19 7 Robyn Cutten WA.S 103.13 W55+ AS (3.0 km) 1 Sue Davidson BG.V 48.03 W60A (3.5 km) 1 Joyce Rowlands NE.V 53.00 2 Jeffa Lyon TT.S 56.58 3 Margot Jones BG.V 67.16 4 Lois Groves YV.V 73.02 5 Lesley Norwood EU.V 83.57 6 Marion Johnson NE.V 156.36 W65A (3.5 km) 1 Sue Healy NE.V 60.38 2 Doreen Schinck NE.V 95.14Return to Victorian orienteering page.