OCEANIA CARNIVAL

Dave Shepherd, challenging forest and Kiwis, won M21E at the carnival and was 2nd in the Oceania Champs. Photo: Rob Crawford

NEW ZEALAND dominated the 2005 Oceania Championships and Australia-New Zealand Challenge, held in early January in the Auckland region. Australia had gone into the week with reasonable hopes of winning in New Zealand for the first time since 1994, feeling that it was fielding its strongest team since then. Nearly 100 Australians attended the event, and the junior team was particularly strong thanks to the presence of the Australian Schools team. In the end the Challenge wasn’t particularly close – 16 classes to 7 in the individual, and 15 to 8 in the relay – and the locals also took out both elite individual titles, as well as winning the elite Test Match easily.

There was less ‘traditional’ sand-dune terrain during the week than most expected (partly because of recent logging), and the Championships continued the fine tradition of physically tough individual Challenges. Young pine forest on very big dunes made for route choice between the controls and detail in the circles. A hard day’s work for most. Nine minutes per kilometre was about the best the elite men could muster (an incredibly slow rate compared with other terrains).

The elite women turned on several excellent races during the week – none better than on the last individual day at the carnival when seventy seconds separated the top five. It wasn’t quite that close on Championships day, but there was still very little in it. More than once in the week Rachel Smith (NZ) had just been able to get her nose in front, and she did it again on the big day. Tania Robinson (NZ) was a close second, whilst Anna Sheldon was the best of the Australians, completing the placings just ahead of Jo Allison and Tracy Bluett.

New Zealander Darren Ashmore’s M21E win was a little more surprising, if only because Dave Shepherd had won the three lead-up races. He caught Karl Dravitzki (NZ) and Rob Preston in the first half of the race, and stayed in control of that group to the end. All three were early starters and it looked from the time they finished that Shepherd was the only likely challenger. He was still very much in contention at the map change at two-thirds distance, but fell away over the closing stages to be three minutes down. In the end he only just held second against the Swede Anders Axenborg; Dravitzki completed the Oceania placings.

Much of the Australian joy came from the junior girls, who swept all three age groups contested on both an individual and team basis. Kylee Gluskie, doing her best to imitate a certain other relatively unknown Tasmanian W16 of three years earlier, was particularly impressive in finishing eight minutes clear in W16. At the other extreme, Bridie Kean added another big-race win to her tally with an eight-second win over Heather Harding in W18, and Jasmine Neve led an Australian clean sweep in W20, ahead of Rebecca Hembrow

It’s there… somewhere. Anna Sheldon in the undergrowth. Anna was 3rd in the Oceania Champs. Photo: Rob Crawford

Simon Uppill won four M18 events at the carnival and ran up an age-group in the Oceania Champs for a 2nd place. Photo: Rob Crawford

and Kellie Whitfield. The boys found it harder and lost all three age groups, although Simon Uppill, running up an age group to fill a team, was a close second in M20, one of several fine efforts by him during the week.

There was less joy for the veterans with only four Australian team wins out of 15 classes. Two of these, in W50 and M60, were set up by the individual titles of Sue Neve and Alex Tarr - Neve finishing 20 minutes clear of the field. The other Australian team wins came in M35 and W65, and of the remainder only M40 was close - Jeff Greenwood’s win counteracting solid runs by Lance Read and Jim Russell. In these age groups Neve and Tarr were the only Australian citizens to win individual titles, although two Australian residents, Paul Pacque and Ted van Geldermalsen, took out first and second in M50 – had either been eligible for the j18

Aussie the team it might have been a bit closer.

Australia was more competitive in the relays, staged in traditional sand-dune terrain. By the end of the first leg, though, it was apparent that for Australia to win, they needed to win all the close ones, and in the end the margin drifted out to almost match that in the individual Challenge. The 23 classes were spread across only four

courses, which made for some exciting races between classes as well as within them.

The best races of the day were in W21 and W18. The W21 was a particularly stirring race and provided perhaps the highlight of the week for the Australian contingent. Tracy Bluett gave the team a narrow lead on the first leg against Tania Robinson. Mace Neve was passed by Penny Kane on the second, but hung in there well enough to hand over only 40 seconds behind. It still looked a tough task with Rachel Smith running the last leg for New Zealand, but Anna Sheldon is rapidly acquiring a reputation for high-pressure last legs after the World MTB-O Championships, and she did it again.

Anna still trailed by 40 seconds at halfway, but had overhauled Smith by the final spectator control and held on for a stirring victory. W18 was close all the way with the two teams running together for two and a half legs, but Lizzie Ingham broke away from Bridie Kean on the final loop to give the win to the home side.

The M21 team was never really in the hunt after Darren Ashmore gave New Zealand a nine-minute lead on the first leg. Rob Walter cut into that gap by a couple of minutes but it was never going to be enough; a second Australian team came from a long way back to be third thanks to Eric Morris and Dave Shepherd.

The Oceania Championships was one of five individual events to contribute to the carnival pointscore, with the best four to count. Twelve Australian-based orienteers won their age groups: Dave Shepherd (M21E), Rory McComb (M14), Simon Uppill (M18), Paul Pacque (M50), Hub Carter (M65), Gordon Howitt (M70), Emily Prudhoe (W14), Jasmine Neve (W20), Sue Neve (W50), Maureen Ogilvie (W70), Adam Scammell (M21A) and Jackie Sheldon (W50AS). Paul Pacque was the most impressive, winning the first four days before losing his SI stick on the last. The nearest miss was by Jo Allison, who fell five points short (out of a possible 4000) against Rachel Smith in W21E.

Rob Preston, 6th in M21E at the carnival. Photo: Rob Crawford

Jasmine Neve (VIC) and Ted van Geldermalsen (VIC) get in each others way at the last control. Photo: Adam Scammell.

One of the features of the relay was that the 20’s, 35’s and 40’s ran the same course as the 21’s. This made for some long leg times but also provided more competition for the smaller age classes than they’re used to. Jasmine Neve (W20) and Paul Liggins (M35) both gave excellent accounts of themselves in the first-leg pack. The W20s went on with it, but lack of depth put paid to the M35’s chances.

Most of the other Australian wins came the hard way, except for W60 where a close race for two legs was blown open by Jean Baldwin on the last. The only other class where they led all the way was W16, and even there they had to survive a scare as Nicola Peat almost ran down a seven-minute gap on the last leg, Bridget Anderson just holding on. The W55 team won well after trailing narrowly after the first leg, as Libby Meeking pulled out a six-minute break which held firm (although the Australians were grateful that Patricia Aspin was organizing).

The other three winning teams all recovered from significant first-leg deficits. W50 took an unexpected course, as Gillian Ingham recovered from a nightmare individual to leave Sue Neve eleven minutes back. It was, however, one of the deeper teams; Carol Brownlie brought them back on level terms and then Liz Bourne saw them home. Gordon Howitt came from four minutes back in M70 to see that team home well clear, whilst Ryan Smyth’s fine second leg in M20, where he turned a four-minute deficit into a six-minute lead, was enough to overcome a surprising first-leg lead for Ross Morrison over Simon Uppill.

A few other age groups promised something, but by the end of the day opportunities to find another four classes to get to the magic 12 were few and far between. W45 was close for two legs, but New Zealand had Jean Cory-Wright on the last leg and never looked like losing once she was on the course, Bunny Rathbone similarly ran away with W65 at the end after two close legs, and the only other class that looked like it could have swung was M45, where Andrew McComb caught up a four-minute gap on the first half of the last leg, only to lose it on one control later on. For the locals, particularly impressive performances were posted by Ross Brighouse, who was fastest by eleven minutes in blowing Alex Tarr away on the first leg of M60, and the entire M65 team of Terry Brighouse, Terry Nuthall and John Robinson, who were only seconds apart and almost lapped their opposition.

Top End’s Jon Potter was right at home in the thick undergrowth

Jo Allison 2nd overall in W21E at the carnival. Photo: Adam Scammell