Orienteering Queensland
A merry contingent traveled down to the Newcastle area for five days of competitive but social orienteering between Xmas and New Years. One of the more fun aspects of the Xmas carnival is competitors can enter any of an A (elite) to E (short) class providing an opportunity for older, younger, male and female orienteers to run on the same courses. Also as a refreshing change, formats are varied. This year included a Mass-start on Day 4 and Head to Head racing in a loop style course on Day 5.
The terrain included a typical university sprint course on Day 1 and very familiar spur gully on Days 2,3 and 5. Termite mounds often described as 0.2m high made finding of the control site somewhat tricky, even when standing at the flag. The courses often had numerous tracks and this proved as much hindrance as it did help.
Day 4, the mass-start day, was quite different and the vague, flat land with marshes and low visibility created a few surprises; this was especially so for Fiona McIntyre who not only wandered off the map but subsequently found two other Queenslanders "out there". Even experienced Rob Simpson (the oldest Queenslander at Xmas) was somewhere "North of the map". The WOC trials at a NOL event later in the year will be held nearby to this map and could provide some interesting results.
All of the maps and results can be found at
http://www.ccorienteering.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=35
A number of competitors actual routes taken can be found at the bottom of the Route Gadget listings.
Queenslanders to excel were the following class winners:
Womens A - Rachel Effeney
Womens C - Morgan McIntyre
Mens B - Oliver Crosato
Mens D- Greg Chatfield
Mens Moderate - Lachlan McIntyre
Mens Easy - Daniel Gray
Mens and Womens Very Easy - Ryan Gray
A number of other Queenslanders won courses on each day and given the small number at the event against local competition there were some outstanding results.