Kairaki beach was really intensely vague sand dunes. The large majority of the elite fields made horrendous mistakes. The map and courses gave little room for error and most were punished accordingly. So Carsten was left to mop up the M21E grade, closely followed by the Sneaky Michael Smithson and Greg Flynn. Georgia Whitla took out the W21E grade, 6mins ahead of Claire Paterson and still running around was a fairly pregnant Jenni Adams in third.
Cragieburn was as cool as it was the first time round. A map that requires a hundred percent concentration 100% of the time. This time round instead of intense heat as for Oceania it was extremely cold (So cold that it threatened to call off this event). The bad weather never eventuated to the extent that was forecast, but none the less there was the odd patch of snow here and there in the higher parts of the map. Jason Markham who mispunched on Day 1 cleaned up the competition, minimising on mistakes and out running all those who dared challenge him. Sneaky Smithson who claimed to be slow, unfit and injured the week before snuck into his second second place, followed by Matt Scott. In the elite womens grade there was not much competition for Georgia and She won by 55mins. Maybe she should have run in the mens grade, cause she would have been close to beating a Junior boy(or boys) who shall remain nameless....for both my safety and their own!
Another solid weekend of Orienteering under the belt, bring on the South Island Champs in 3 weeks time. Will be a big field of internationals at these events as WMOC finishes the weekend beforehand. Entries close on the 9th of October....I think?
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