AUS CHAMPS CARNIVAL
Tassie East Coast Escape
Grant Bluett (ACT) won M21E at the Highwayman’s Classic NOL event.
Blair Trewin
Tasmanian Championships, Pittwater Dunes, 25 September AFTER a warm-up at the Lea, south of Hobart, on the Saturday, the serious business of the carnival got under way at the Tasmanian Championships at Pittwater Dunes. With Stockton and Cantara now too thick to be in regular use, Pittwater is the one sand-dune area used for high-level competition in Australia, and provided the field with a test different to what most see on any sort of a regular basis. Given the unusual nature of the terrain, it was not surprising that there were a few unusual results, with the open classes providing two of them. Grant Bluett and Hanny Allston went into the events as warm favourites, but both made significant errors at various stages of the event, and both missed the placings. That opened the way for others, and in M21E the remaining places in the top seven were filled by three pairs who were all together for significant parts of the course: Rob Preston and Bruce Arthur, Ben Rattray and Peter Preston, and Rob Jessop and Blair Trewin. Jessop led at two-thirds distance but lost three minutes on the highly complex open dunes at the end of the peninsula, opening the way for Preston to take the lead for the first time and get a reward for a consistent season. Rattray was second, and Arthur third. The leading women were more consistent, in fact remarkably so on such a technical area. Anna Danielsson, whose prominent Australian results had hitherto been confined to sprint events, found the complex flat terrain more to her liking than most others in this country. She took an early lead of about 30secs over Danielle Winslow and the margin stayed remarkably close to that all the way; Winslow led briefly by one second and was never more than a minute behind, but Danielsson was the leader in the end. Allston, after early problems, looked like she might at least challenge Tracy Bluett for third, but a late mistake ended any chance of that. The junior elite classes had their first official airing. Ainsley Cavanagh got her carnival off to a very impressive start with a comprehensive six-minute win in W17-20E. She was already well clear of the field by the third control, and although Zebedy Hallett pegged her back to cut the margin from six minutes to three at one stage, she lost all of that again at 13, just holding off Heather Harding for second. M17-20E introduced a new face to the Australian Orienteering scene. Timo Sild carries a considerable pedigree – his father is Estonian WOC medallist Sixten – but other foreign juniors with equally impressive credentials have come out 20 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER DECEMBER 2005
on exchange in the past and failed to set the world on fire, so his win came as something of a surprise. His nearest competition fell away when Simon Uppill failed to register at a control, while Nick Andrewartha, in his first year as an M18, looked to have taken a step up when he recovered from being six minutes down by 6 to take second place. As is often the case, the cream rose to the top in the technical terrain, with particularly impressive runs being recorded by the likes of Paul Pacque (10min ahead in M50), Geoff Peck (4min ahead in M55), Jenny Bourne (4min ahead of Carolyn Jackson in W45), and, less predictably, Judy Allison, who had a career-best performance with an 11min win in W55. The New Zealand juniors also showed what they have to offer. They went 1-2 in M14 (Toby Scott and Scott McDonald) and W14 (Kate Morrison and Jaime Goodwin), and would have done likewise in M16 had Thomas Reynolds and Simon Jager not both lost four minutes on the second-last control, letting Matt Barratt through for a home-state triumph.
National League Round 12, Sandstone Valleys, 27 September NORMAL service was resumed when Grant Bluett and Hanny Allston won the midweek National League round easily over the hills and rocks of Sandstone Valleys. Allston was a particularly comfortable winner, running away from the field on terrain which was well suited to her physical strength. Anna Danielsson looked like she might be the closest challenger but lost four minutes at 8, leaving Julia Davies to get 2nd in a close contest with Tracy Bluett and Clare Hawthorne. Grant Bluett got his biggest jump on the field when he took a route choice off the map and around a big hill on the long sixth leg, but he was already in front before that. His lead grew to nearly four minutes before he lost half of it on 10, but he still had more than enough in hand to hold off Ben Rattray, who came 2nd for the second time in three days. Rob Preston just held off his younger brother for 3rd. Louis Elson and Erin Post impressed most amongst the juniors, with consistent winning runs which would have been enough to place both in the top six on the senior courses. Simon Uppill, Ryan Smyth and Kellie Whitfield were others to achieve the first target of any junior in this event – beating all the Schools Championships competitors.
