Metro League 1. Mitchell Park Cattai National Park. April 24th

 

It certainly wasn’t the best start to the day when we hit the road as it rained off and on until well past Parramatta, just as the forecast suggested.

However, when we arrived at the picnic area at Mitchell Park magically the sun came out which led to being drenched in sweat rather than rain. One smells better than the other!

The Uringa/Central Coast Teams were down on numbers and as a result only able to field teams in Division 2 and 5. When we left the result boards it would appear that we won both matches. Now if there is a radical change to that I will not blame Dominion, as $US700+ billion is not in my league. ( I notice that Fox really hasn’t changed their tune despite the settlement, as their anchors are still pushing conspiracy theories and untruths).

Back to the event. The terrain used was hilly with a number of tracks and the bush was a mix of open running and slow going. Looking at the winning times I would suggest that courses were around 1/3 longer than needed. The job of a course setter is tough as you do the best you can but getting the distance right is always a challenge. If you were to criticise Divisions 5 and 6 left the map boxes- punched the start control and then turned around 270 degrees and headed back through the waiting runners.

Division 2 Course

Division 5

There was one very dangerous area on the map and that was a board walk approx. 200m long. Why dangerous – super slippery and you needed to hang on to the hand rail for fear of going base over apex (or A over T).

Results

Division 1 5.3km  Winner’s rate 8.15 min/km

Michael Warlters 17^th

Ian McKenzie 20^th

Division 2 4.7km  Winners rate 10.57min/km

Ant Nolan 1^st

Maggie Mackay 9^th

Wayne Eliot 16^th

Jim Mackay 17^th

Paul Prudhoe 27^th

Zoe Melling 31^st

Division 5 3.3km Winners rate  16.20 min/km

Julia Prudhoe 5^th

Ron Pallas 7^th

Gayler Sheherd 9^th

Peter Braine 18^th

Will Nolan 28^th

Dave Lotty 34^th

The next metro event is on the 28^th May at West Wianamatta. This is an interesting area and was used to store ammunition so there are lots of open spaces with large mounds surrounding them

You can enter on line: https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events/Show/18675   Meanwhile down in Victoria and in the beautiful terrain near Castlemaine avid Uringan MTBO Ori Gudes was busy competing in the Victorian Sprint and Middle Distance Championships.   M40 Sprint Course M40 Middle Distance Course Ori finished 2nd in the sprint ridden over 6.175kms and 3rd in the Middle Distance 15.875kms. It is Ori’s aim to compete in all the eastern states   MTBO champs. He has certainly made a promising start,  By the way - you can have a look at where people go on courses by looking at Livelox. On eventor  find the event look to the right for  the red arrow. Click on it and it opens to a list of courses.  Choose a course and click on Replay and then press the play button and you can watch the runners route.  It is an interesting tool for training.