It’s Spring … Get Sprinting! Sprint Into Spring Race 1 and 2

DROC members turned out in droves to the first race of Sprint Into Spring for 2016.  We returned to Eltham College, which is a fantastic venue for sprint orienteering. Not only is it super complicated, and a lot of fun to race on, but the school welcomes us with open arms, and we always have a great day.

Race 2 was on a new map, Keilor Downs Schools.  Two small but complex campuses, joined by a park, made for great courses with plenty to catch you out.  The wettest Sprint Into Spring race on record!  The rain didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of DROC members as you can see from the photos in our Gallery.

After 2 races, Prez Pete has two top 10 finishes on the Mo Farah course, which is contested by the best sprint racers in the state.  He is 5th in the overall standings.  Lanita Steer sits 2nd in the Hill Climb (polkadot) jersey competition on the same course.  Carola Ray has had two strong performances on the Sally Pearson course and is 3rd overall, while Sarah Davies’ second place in race 1 has her in 5th overall. Our junior girls, Arika and Luca, have done very well on the Usain Bolt course. Arika is the current yellow jersey holder, while Luca is second, only one point behind.

The next Sprint Into Spring race is at Ruffey Lake in Doncaster, on Saturday November 5.  Be there!

Lanita Takes Out Australian Long and Middle Distance Champs Junior Titles

In what has been a fantastic week, Lanita Steer has claimed both the Australian Long Distance and Middle Distance Junior Womens titles, on the complex granite of southern Queensland, to go with her Sprint win earlier in the carnival.  Her winning margin in the Long was a comfortable 5 minutes, but in the Middle, she finished only 16 seconds ahead of second. It was a great way to wrap up her final major carnival as a Junior.

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The maps featured plenty of green, grey and black, and required constant contact to avoid coming unstuck.  Lanita’s wins confirm her as the 2016 Junior NOL title holder.  Asha Steer also ran well to finish 6th in Junior Women in both races.  Sarah Davies also had a strong performance, finishing in the top 10 in the highly competitive W16 class in the Long, while Martin Steer had a top 10 finish in the Middle distance, and Merv Bendle was second in Open B.

Great Opening Weekend at the Aus Champs

The 2016 Australian Champs got under way with the Australian Sprint Championship on the Gold Coast.  In exciting results for DROC, Lanita Steer claimed victory in W2oE, continuing her dominant form over the short distance.  Ian Davies had a fantastic run on a very technical map to take third, in his best national result to date.  Click here for a video interview with Lanita

Next up were the Relays, in typical Queensland vegetation (ie lantana).  We had some great individual results – Asha Steer was the second fastest runner on W20E; Simon Rouse was fastest Victorian on M21E and helped his team onto the podium in third, while Ian Davies had another good run to move his team up several places into third and another podium place.

The action now shifts to the three Schools Championship races, before the final weekend in the granite of Stanthorpe.

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Victorian Long Distance Champs

DROC members coped admirably with tough conditions at Chapel Flat for the 2016 Long Distance Champs.  Heavy rain saw creeks flowing and tracks turned into skating rinks.  The gold mining terrain added plenty of technicality.

Our Victorian Champions are Lanita Steer (W20E), Martin Steer (M50A), Sarah Davies (W16A) and Cassandra Dutton (W21A).  Runners up were Asha Steer and Janine Steer, with Peter Dalwood and Debbie Dodd in third place.  Simon Rouse narrowly missed a place by less than 2 minutes, over a distance of 13 km.

We are now looking forward to a great performance at the Relays at Brimbank Park on Sunday October 9.

Simon Stars in State Series

The 2016 State Series wrapped up at Eppalock in September.  Simon Rouse claimed third place on course 1.  The points he gained were enough to send him to the top of the State Series rankings, a fantastic achievement, and well deserved after all the work he has put into his orienteering. Our other series winners were Lanita Steer, who won Course 2 by one point, and Luca Bogdanovits, winning on course 8. Runners up were Janine Steer, Sarah Davies and Arika Bogdanovits.

Simon also had a huge overall win in the recent Maxi 3 hour, cleaning up the entire course and scoring 1200 points in just under 3 hours – the only person able to achieve that feat.   Simon wasn’t the only DROC winner at the Maxi – Leo Theoharis was second in Mens Open, Alicia Dymowski won Open Women, and Vic Sedunary won Mens Ultravet.

DROC hosts Vic Relay Champs at Brimbank Park, October 9

It’s DROC’s turn again to organise the annual Club Relays, and we’ve selected a venue that will offer fast running and great spectating, without having to drive too far. The arena has parking, toilets, picnic areas and playgrounds. There’s no excuse for not being part of the action! Ian Dodd is planning exciting courses which will be a lot of fun for everyone.

There are 5 courses to choose from. Course 1 is the longest, and will be approx 7 kms. Course 2 will be about 5 kms long, and Course 3 will be around 3 kms, with Moderate standard navigation. Course 4 is Easy standard. Course 5 is a combination, with 1 Hard, 1 Moderate and 1 Easy leg. Each team requires three competitors.

The Relays are a fantastic day out as we all get together and barrack loudly for our clubmates! To enter, just let Debbie know which course you would like to compete on.

World Champions

DROC salutes the mighty efforts of rogainers extraordinaire Vic Sedunary and Merv Trease, who won the Mens Ultravets category at the World Rogaining Championships in Alice Springs!  The boys put in a lot of long hours training, and their efforts certainly paid off.  Vic says that out of 24 hours, they only had one “inefficient” hour.  You can read all about the event in the September issue of Punchline.

Sarah Selected for Schools Team

Sarah Davies has been selected to represent Victoria at the Australian Schools Orienteering Championships in Queensland in late September.  Sarah will be part of the Junior Girls team, and we wish her all the best as she competes in the Sprint, Long Distance, and Relay competitions.

DROC Juniors at World Champs

Relays – It’s All Over

Our girls finished a fantastic JWOC week in the Relays.  Lanita led off for the AUS 1 team, and Asha was first leg for the AUS 2 team, so they started together.  They stayed together right through the first loop, hitting the spectator control 1 second apart.  Lani pulled away on the short final loop, to finish in 32nd – her run was the best of all the Aussie girls.  Asha was not far behind in 37th.

Both girls have a lot to be proud of.  Lanita, in her last JWOC, had the best girl’s Sprint result for some years by finishing in the top 30; she came oh so close to making the A final in the middle, and she finished up with a great Relay run.  Asha was very consistent all week, and has had a great experience with the promise of more JWOCs to come.

Lanita Just Misses A Final

After an excellent run in the Middle Distance qualifier, Lanita was very unlucky to miss the “A” final – the top 20 go through, and she finished 25th.  Asha also ran consistently to finish 35th.  The terrain was steep and complex, and every second counted.   In the B final, both girls had small errors, and finished within one second of each other!  Lanita was 42nd and Asha was 43rd.

Girls Complete Tough Long Distance

Asha and Lanita both completed the JWOC Long distance race, at an altitude of over 2000 meters, and with more contours than you can count (check out the maps on the JWOC website).  Lanita was 82nd and Asha was 89th, both girls had clean runs and were happy with their results.

The Middle Distance qualifiers are on next (Wed), followed by the Final (Thurs), then the Relay (Fri).  Follow the team’s progress live at the JWOC website and check their posts and photos at the OA Facebook page.

The Orienteering Victoria website brings you a detailed daily update.

Lanita finishes 26th in JWOC Sprint!

Lanita’s strong sprint form this year continued at JWOC, where she blitzed the second half of the race to climb from 71st at the first radio check, to 26th overall – her best ever result at JWOC!  Lanita and Asha both wore GPS trackers, and it was fascinating to follow their progress in real time on the JWOC website.  Asha had a variable run, doing well in the first half but making a couple of small errors near the end in the complicated arena section with its myriad of fences.

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JWOC swings into action this week, starting with the Sprint on July 10.  Our girls have been training in the stunning Swiss mountains – check out the photos – warning, you will be jealous of all that sunshine and scenery!

Timetable (Melbourne time):

  • Sprint – 5pm to 8.30pm Sunday July 10 (Asha starts at 7.12pm, Lanita starts at 7.39pm)
  • Long – 5pm to midnight Monday July 11
  • Middle qualifiers – 6pm to 8.30pm Wednesday July 13
  • Middle final – 5pm to 10pm Thursday July 14
  • Relays – 6.30pm to 10pm Friday July 15

 

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Boronia Gully EndurO Results

PARK AND STREET SATURDAY SERIES – ENDURO 2, JULY 2, BORONIA GULLY

DROC members were out in force at EndurO 2, which saw the debut of the new “true or false” format, and the introduction of a 90 minute course.  Both proved popular with competitors – the extended time opened up a lot more route choice options, and answering the questions was quicker (though care was still needed thanks to the devious minds of Ilze and Tina).  Bemused voters saw us running through a couple of polling places, in search of answers that had nothing to do with politics!

The map was a compilation of the very hilly Koolunga map to the east, and the flatter-in-some-places-but-not-so-flat-in-others Wattle View, to the west.  Route choice was not at all obvious, so smart thinking was as important as speed and endurance.

DROC members took out three of the four categories.  Victory on the 120 min Run went to Andrew, who cleaned up the entire course in 23 kms and a little under 2 hours.  Ian won the 90 min Run by a whisker, scoring 720 points; Colin was third with 690.  The 90 min Walk was the most popular category, and proved very competitive.  Tony did the honours, scoring 530 points, with Helen second on 500.

Boronia Gully Enduro Results

Map (facebook link) – thanks Phil