Poland Re-joins the Lead in Runners Shop Twilight Series

Monday, 13 December 2010

Junior, Oliver Poland has re-joined Trevor Jacobs at the top of the table in the 2010-11 Runners Shop Twilight Series, both are on 499 from their best four scores after eight races.  With Jacobs missing his first race of the series and Julian Dent again a non-starter, Poland made the most of their absences in race 8 at Black Mountain South and clocked 30 min 12 sec for the 5.2 km Orange 1 course, with his time only bettered by Rob Walter recording 28 min 46 sec in the Men's Open class.

Anthony Scott made a cameo appearance to have the fastest time of 31 min 52 sec for the Men's Masters class.  He was the only one in his class to break 35 minutes and for his achievement he picked up 124 points for the second best 'normalised' time.  Walter received 123 points for best-of-the-night time and Ms Consistent, Shannon Jones (pictured), was next best on 122 points, which was enough for her to retain third place overall on 490 points.  Two other very consistent orienteers, Andrew Barnett and Phil Walter, are equal four overall on 486 points.

Red Roos Improver for 2010, Anita Scherrer, was fastest in the very competitive Orange 1 Women's Masters class, in a time of 52 min sec, 1 min 38 sec ahead of Toni Brown.

Pauli Piiroinen and Ann Ingwersen are the only regular Orange 2 competitors in the top 10 standings.  Visiting Tasmanians, Bert and son Conrad Elson, were fastest in their respective classes, Men's Open and Men's Masters, on the 3.7 km Orange 2 course.  Piiroinen was next best in the Men's Masters class and Ingwersen was fastest in the Women's Masters class.

Race 9 will be at Mt Taylor, Kambah on Wednesday 15 December.

The results for Round 7 are here

The RSTS points table is here         The competition rules are here

Trevor Jacobs Ploughs through Mud at Farrer Ridge to Lead Competition

Friday, 3 December 2010

Triple winner in 2007 to 2009, Trevor Jacobs ploughed through the mud and long grass in round seven of the 2010-11 Runners Shop Twilight Series at Farrer Ridge to score his third maximum 125 points this series for his 36m 22s for the 5.8 km Orange 1 course.  Phil Walker made the most of home terrain to clock 40m 9s for the same course to score his first ever 124 pointer.  Junior Andrew Barnett confirmed he is an emerging talent with the fastest time of 36m 18s for the Orange 1 course and earned 123 points for his efforts.  Shannon Jones on 122 points and Grant McDonald on 121 made up the top five.

So after seven rounds, Jacobs has 499 points from his best four scores, just one more than Oliver Poland who did not start at Farrer Ridge, followed by Jones on 489, Barnett on 486 and Walker on 483.  Julian Dent dropped out of the top three because he did start at Farrer Ridge as he has only three scores.  

The wet weather deterred many orienteers, with only 53 competitors starting on the Orange 1 and 2 courses, less than half of the norm, and only 11 competitors have started in all seven events.

 Race 8 will be at Black Mtn on Wednesday 8 December.
 
The results for Round 7 are here

The RSTS points table is here           The competition rules are here

Also - new Red Roo news

Julian Dent Joins the Fray

Saturday, 27 November 2010

Dual winner in 2005 and 2006 Julian Dent (pictured) has come into contention in the 2010-11 Runners Shop Twilight Series in scoring his second maximum 125 points in Round 6 at Mt Majura West.  In clocking 26 min 15 sec for the 5.7 km Orange 1 course Dent was the only competitor to break 30 minutes for the course.

Oliver Poland was second fastest in 32 min 41 sec which gave him next best points, 124 and Shannon Jones was next fastest in 34 min 6 seconds and coincidentally scored the third best points, 123.

Grant McDonald who has shown considerable improvement this series was fourth with 122 and Trevor Jacobs had to settle for 121 points, his worst score in over 22 events.

After six rounds, the leaders with the best three scores are Jacobs and Poland on 374, closely followed by Dent on 373, Lachlan Dow on 368 and Jones on 363.

Other class winners on Orange 1 course were Morten Pedersen (MM) 37m 23s, Shea-Cara Hammond (WJ) 65m 18s, and Toni Brown (WM) 52m 22s.  Fastest for their class on the 3.8 km Orange 2 course were Luke Poland (MO) 30m 19s, Ewan Barnett (MJ) 29m 15s, Andrew Cumming Thom (MM) 34m 58s, Jo Allison (WO) 23m 57s, Celine Anderson (WJ) 57m 46s, and Ann Ingwersen (WM) 38m 19s.  And on the 2.0 km Green course the fastest were Roy Prosser (MJ) 25m 49s, Ivy Prosser ((WJ) 43m 35, and Trish Batchelor (WM) 26m 55s.

In addition to each of the top three placegetters receiving Runners Shop Gift Vouchers, around five Gift Voucher encouragement awards will be made at the end of the Series.  At the end of the 2009-10 Series vouchers were awarded to the three competitors who finished in all 19 races, so even if you are not in contention for a top prize, if you turn up for every event your efforts might be rewarded.

Race 7 will be at Farrer Ridge on Wednesday 1 December.

The results for Round 6 are here

The RSTS points table is here         The competition rules are here

Tight Contest in Runners Shop Series

Saturday, 20 November 2010

The 2010-11 Runners Shop Twilight Series promises to be the tightest contest since the Series began in 1996.  Trevor Jacobs, who has won the past four Series, is facing much stiffer competition this season with challenges from the youngsters, Oliver Poland (pictured) and Lachlan Dow, dual WOC representative Shannon Jones, and dual winner in 2005 and 2006 Julian Dent.  

Poland started the series with two 125 pointers, followed by 121 and 124, before being the course planner for race 5.  Jacobs picked up the maximum points for races 3 and 4, after a 123 and 124 in the opening races. Dent missed the first three races, scored 123 in race 4 and took out race 5 from Dow and Jacobs.  And Anthony Scott was also very competitive with a 124 pointer in his only run, race 3.

So after five races, Poland and Jacobs share the lead with 374 points from their best three scores, followed by Dow on 368, Jones on 363, with Andrew Barnett and Pauli Piiroinen sharing fifth on 360 points.  As Dent has only two scores he is not among the leaders.

Race 6 will be at Mt Majura West on Wednesday 24 November.

The results for Round 5 are here

The RSTS points table is here

The competition rules are here or use the link on the Events page

Large attendance at Paddy Pallin Day event

Monday, 15 November 2010

Almost 80 people attended Saturday's 'Paddy Pallin Nav Training, Try Orienteering' event at Sports House in Hackett. The 70 attendees at the coaching course run by John Harding were mainly beginners and novice orienteers and they received coaching help from an outstanding panel including Jenny Bourne, Liz Abbott, Grant McDonald, Lachland Dow, Bill Jones, Andrew Cumming-Thom and Carol Harding.
Later finishers in the score event at 5pm were caught in a downpour but this did not hinder Michael Burt who was the top points scorer in the 60 minute event with 260 points. Bernie Morris was the top female with 210, while Matthew Richter and Brook Dixon were best in the 45 minute event with 160 points each. Gary Preston, Ron and Daniel Weber, Steve Hough and Kerrie Muir also found 5 controls to get 50 points in the 30 minute event.

Results of the score event are here 

Report and photo by John Harding

Next event is:  17th November, @ Radford College, College Street, Bruce (UBD/YP map 48:G1) Also, come and listen to our elite orienteers share their navigation secrets for the next 5 weeks at the Runner's Shop Twilight Series, 5.00 - 5.15pm.

The 2010 ACT Primary School Championships

Tuesday, 9 November 2010

The 2010 ACT Primary School Championships were held on Friday 5 November in Weston Park. Though threatening rain it was dry and cool all day.
 
The event was a lot of fun and a great opportunity for regular juniors to show their skills and for those with less experience to test their skills. There were two courses a very easy (blue) course and easy (green) course which were 2.1 and 2.8 km respectively. The atmosphere was exciting with a long uphill finish through a chute with kids cheering other competitors in. Thanks to the Blue Lightening High School team for organising a food stall.
 
There were 12 schools taking part and 57 entrants. The school competition was taken out by Canberra Grammar followed by Kaleen Primary and Campbell Primary. Most orienteers competed as individuals, but 12 students paired up and competed in the team categories.
 
A special part of the day was the help provided by three of Australia's Junior World Orienteering Championship (JWOC) competitors, Belinda Lawford, Lachlan Dow and Luke Poland. They held a great Q and A session with the kids highlighting that orienteering is a fantastic sport where you can compete all around Australia and the world, that there is great camaraderie in the teams and amongst competitors and that less than 10 years ago they were competing in the Primary School Champs in Weston Park.
 
Then individual winners were:

Thanks to Toni Brown for doing a fantastic job of organising the event, Richard Pywell for setting challenging courses and the JWOC competitors Belinda Lawford, Lachlan Dow and Luke Poland for helping and providing a great Q and A session for the kids and doing the medal presentation. There were also a myriad of other helpers that made the day possible - thanks to all of you.
 
Report by Chris Mill.

Photo by Leroy & Kerry Dickie

Results can be found here.

DONT FORGET PADDY PALLIN DAY ON SATURDAY 13th NOV! (see article below  in news items)

ACT MTBO Championships – Mount Stromlo (West)

Monday, 1 November 2010

They came from near, they came from far – Canberra, Jindabyne, Sydney, Estonia.....

The creeks were up, the tracks were muddy, there were stacks and spills, scratches and bruises, all sorts of stories about misfortune related to an appreciative audience at the finish.

Despite all this, everyone agreed that the courses set by first time MTBO planner, Wayne Gregson, were suitably challenging and worthy of an ACT Championship.

Although the area was small, and mostly comprising of forestry tracks, the allowed use of some of the “SFP” single track (only to be ridden in the prescribed direction) served to create a course planner’s nightmare. Wayne was up to the challenge, setting some long and interesting legs up, down and across the map.

All four courses covered a section west to east and all but the shortest, north to south of the map. With a number of competitors riding “down” an age group, the older classes had fewer competitors than previous years.

Congratulations to all class winners – M21: David Simpfendorfer, W21: Belinda Allison, M20: Scott Bowen, M14: Oliver Mill, M40: Andrew Rowe, W40: Steph Maxwell, M50: Robert Prentice, M60: Bob Allison, W60: Sandra Hogg and M70: Kevin Paine. Full results available elsewhere on this web site.

Thanks also to Ian Booth, Matti Kovalainen, John Scown and David Simpfendorfer for their assistance on the day

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Results can be found here.

Splits can be found here.

Pictured, our guests from Estonia, Mart Pais and Merle Rohtia. (Photo: Ian Booth)