On Saturday 20th September the Bendigo Orienteer’s local event was held in the Apollo Hill area near Eaglehawk. Five courses were set on the gently undulating historic gold mining terrain. A great turn-out of 62 competitors enjoyed the warm and sunny Spring weather. Among them were experienced Orienteers Thor Norskov, Eskil Schoening and Jakob Edsen who are visiting from Denmark.

Course 1 was set over a distance of 7.7km with an all-male field of 11 competitors. Another scintillating performance by Bryan Keely saw him claim 1st place in 33:52 at an average speed of 1km per 4:24! Only 14 seconds separated the runners up with Thor Norskov 2nd in 35:24 and Central Highland’s Matt Doyle 3rd in 35:38.

A large field of 20 competitors took on the 5.3km course 2. Jakob Edsen took 1st place in 31:10 by the smallest of margins to 2nd place getter and talented junior Jimmy Cameron in 31:11. Melbourne Forest Racer’s Natasha Key finished 3rd in 32.12. 2nd and 3rd place for the ladies were Janine Steer in 46:50 and Sequoia Weitman in 57:08.

17 competitors tackled course 3 over 3.5km. Louis Cameron claimed a convincing win in 19:09 followed by young rising star Lanita Steer in 23:37. Michael Loughnan came third in 26:19. The dynamic mother and daughter duo of Katherine and Viv McMillan were 2nd and 3rd in the ladies standings.
The intermediate 3.6km course 4 had a small but spirited field of eight competitors. Rapidly improving youngster Karina Cherry was victorious, closely followed by Fergus Selkirk-Bell who claimed 2nd place by a 6:20 margin over 3rd place getter Cameron Bell.

Six very eager competitors blitzed the 2.5km novice course 5. Joanne Cherry took the honors with newcomers Henry and Archie Richardson rounding out the placings.

Overall another very successful event for Bendigo Orienteers and a rewarding experience for this first time course setter. Special thanks to Colin Walker for his support and guidance with course setting, Jim Russell for operating the computers at the event. Don Cherry for on-site photography and Peter Galvin, Warwick Williams and Charles Brownridge for lending a hand to pack up at the end of the day.

Results and splits are on our Results page

Andrew Wallace

Another absolutely beautiful sunny Saturday in Bendigo set the scene for the annual Bendigo Club Relays, held at Wildflower Drive in Strathfieldsaye. 3 fast paced competitive courses, with an added non-competitive novice course seen 45 enthusiastic runners head off in all directions on a mass start. A very strong field of orienteers from far afield, including Roch and Judy Prendergast who flew in from Canada, just for the event.

Course 1 was run over 6.9km of varying country and witnessed the ever reliable and quick Australian team representative Bryan Keely blitz the course, followed by the fit Simon Rouse and young gun Louis Cameron.

Bryan Keely 31.21
Simon Rouse 37.19
Louis Cameron 37.37
Ben Goonan 39.06
Nic Cherry 39.54
Andrew Cameron 40.13
Richard Goonan 40.16
Lachlan Cherry 40.18
Laurina Neumann 48.28
Neil Barr 49.33
Paul Leicester 50.24
Julie Flynn 55.11
Roch Prendergast 55.22
Warwick Williams 55.44
Sue Key 1.05.37
Peter Forbes 1.13.12
Andrew Wallace 1.19.52

Course 3 covered 4.2km and was a stroll in the park for Jimmy Cameron from the Cameron stable of runners, however only 2 seconds separated the lead from his Victorian orienteer coach Stephen Bird, then another young Victorian rep in Leisha Maggs.

Jimmy Cameron 24.48
Stephen Bird 24.50
Leisha Maggs 26.29
Nigel McGuckian 26.44
Rob Clark 28.33
Tavish Eenjes 28.45
Phil Robertson 31.08
Don Cherry 32.32
David Jones 33.19
Henry Cameron 34.28
Glenn James 36.08
Bob Cameron 36.34
Katherine McMillan 53.05
Vivienne McMillan 53.20
Heather Jones 57.08
Michael Brench 1.01.54
Bob Leicester 1.03.35
Nola Juniper and Lorraine Leversha 1.08.59

Course 4 was hotly contested over the 2.8km course which seen Amos take out the fastest run.

Amos Walz 24.06
Karina Cherry 24.20
Henry Richardson 30.53
Jason Carter 34.38
Judy Prendergast 40.19
Margaret Lester 53.16
Luke Fisher 55.57

Course 5 non competitive novice course was well attended and had some fantastic runners and navigators out on the course including Miffy, Archie, Eleanor, Jo and some new families who we hope return again.

The Bendigo club relay champions for the 2014 season, is decided in fun spirit, by one runner from each of the three competitive courses (1,3,4), being drawn from each to form a team of three. When all competitors are placed in a team, the team with the fastest time for the three combined courses are the Bendigo Club Relay Champions.

This year the team of Simon Rouse, Nigel McGuckian and Henry Richardson took out the prestigious event, and go onto host the event next year as their prize. Congratulations. Runners up Laurina Roo Neumann, Jimmy Cameron and Karina Cherry were thanked by their parents for not winning and having to conduct the event next year. 3rd place Andrew Cameron, Rob Clarke and Henry Richardson

The next event for the Bendigo Orienteers is this Saturday, starting at 1230pm until 2pm at Apollo Hill near Simpsons Rd in Eaglehawk, and all are welcome. Please see the Bendigo Orienteers website for further details.

Darren Eenjes

Last Saturday the continued good weather saw an excellent turn out with just over 100 orienteers contesting the 15th event in the Bendigo Bush Classic series at Pearces road Mandurang.

A large field of Twenty-three competitors ran course 1 with Bryan Keely winning by over 3 minutes from Ben Goonan and David Brownridge. It was a fast run by Bryan with an average speed of just over 5 minutes/km around the 6.9 km course. Louis Cameron continued his good form and retained the family bragging rights, winning Course 2 by almost 6 minutes from Nic Cherry and dad Andrew Cameron.

The largest field of the day ran Course 3 where Jimmy Cameron won by an impressive 8 minutes from his cousin Henry Cameron and the experienced Phil Robertson. Amoz Walz headed a field of 15 on Course 4 to win by just over a minute from Cameron Bell and the improving Karina Cherry. Eight runners tackled Course 5 which was won by Torren Arthur from Mason Arthur, both from Melbourne.

It was great to see over 20 competitors travel to Bendigo to take advantage of the great weather and interesting courses set by new course setter Lorraine Leversha who did a terrific job.

Thanks to all those who helped out on the day.

Results and splits are on our Results page Check how you are going in the overall standings. Best 10 of 19 scores to count

Rob Clark

In yesterday’s Wildfire Sports Australian Ultra Long Distance event held at Kooyoora State Park the big winner was the NZ Junior Nick Hann who flew to Victoria especially to run in this event with his ultimate aim being to win the $2,500 valued return air ticket to Europe. The overall winner would be the winner of one of the four elite classes who was closest to or under the winning km rate for their class. The “base km rate” for each of the classes was: M21E 6:13min/km, M17-20E 6:27min/km, W21E 7:24min/km, W17-20E 8:05min/km.

Nick Hann was the winner of the M17-20E class in a time of 1:38:33 for the 14km course which gave him a 7:00min/km rate. This gave him the fastest km rate of all the classes as the winner of the M21E Ian Lawford in a time of 2:24:40 for the 20km course, with a km rate of 7:13min/km.

Perhaps the most exciting class was the M21E class as the lead changed a number of times during this epic long distance event. Jim Russell the course setter had the M21E doing two “short” loops with the runners coming back through the arena to a map change after each loop, with a “long” loop to finish off the course. After the first loop Bryan Keely was in the lead with Ian Lawford in 2nd and Lachlan Dow in 3rd place. From control 17 to 32 Lachlan Dow was the leader before he unfortunately had to withdraw due to an ankle injury. From that point on it was a very close battle between Ian Lawford, David Shepherd and Bryan Keely who were only 16 seconds apart at control 45. However, Dave and Bryan both lost just over 3 minutes to Ian at control 36 which enabled Ian Lawford to come into the finish a winner by 4:12 from David Shepherd in second and a tiring Bryan Keely in third place. There were some epic performances in the M21E class with Ben Goonan, Simon Rouse, Glenn Meyer and Ian Dodd all completing the 20km course in times over the 4 hours.

In the W21E class the favourite and last year’s winner of the return air ticket, Lizzie Ingham had to withdraw due to health issues. Jasmine Neve who is soon to leave to spend a year studying in Slovenia, after a slow start to control 1 was in the lead at control 19 and finished off very strongly to maintain this lead and finish in a time of 2:13:31 for a 10:01min/km rate. Sarah Buckerfield making a comeback to NOL racing was second and Clare Brownridge, third.

In the junior elite classes, our JWOC representatives Matt Doyle and Brodie Nankervis were second and third behind Nick Hann. Matt had a 7:22min/km rate and Brodie a 7:41min/km rate. In the W17-20E class in a very small field the three JWOC team members Anna Dowling, Nicola Blatchford and Michele Dawson filled the first three placing’s.

A very big thank you to the course setter Jim Russell, the controller Neil Barr for all their efforts. These two men were also the controller and course setter for the Victorian Middle Distance Championships on Saturday. Great courses on a famous iconic map and the weather was ideal. To Geoff Lawford and Jenny Bourne along with the Eureka Orienteering Club and Bendigo Orienteering Club a big thank you for all the work that went into the organization of these two great events. Especially to Eureka Orienteers who have provided the major prize of the return air ticket for the last two years.

Results and splits are on our Results page

Mens Start

Written by Nick Dent for the OA website

Forty –six competitors ventured out to compete in Bush Classic 14 in mild and sunny conditions at Mt Ida last Saturday on 5 interesting courses set by Steve Doyle. The Mt. Ida map sheet was mapped in 1992 but has not been used for a number of years. As a result a number of minor tracks were over grown but these were identified on the course maps.

Course 1 was dominated by visitors with Kurt Neumann from Queensland winning from Roman Brogli from Austria. Ben Goonan was the first local, coming home in third place.

What followed was a triumph for the Cameron family with Louis and Andrew going 1 and 2 on course 2 followed closely by Nic Cherry.

Jimmy Cameron blitzed course 3 coming in well ahead of the experienced Terry Davidson and Harm Van Rees.

To round out the day, Solomon Cameron came home first on course 4 ahead of Rick McDonald. Newcomer, Andrew McCowan took out 3rd place

Eleanor Williams did well to be first home on course 5, not that far in front of John Steer

Results and splits are on our Results page Check how you are going in the overall standings. Best 10 of 19 scores to count

Dargile Camping area

Rob Clark

The forests around Bendigo proved popular for sport last weekend, with two groups competing in close proximity. Craig setup the Orienteers at the northern end of Wildflower Drive and the local University Running Club had their club event nearby, which made parking interesting! I also heard that another running club was competing near the south of the Wildflower Drive area.

The usual 5 orienteering courses were on offer attracting around 70 competitors including several out of towners. In Course 1, Swiss/Austrian visitor Roman Brogli set a cracking pace finishing well ahead of Matt Doyle and Jim Russell. Course 2 was again the most popular with 25 competitors, however the son V father battle continues between Louis and Andrew Cameron tying up 1st and 3rd places with Steve Bird slipping in between them at the finish to collect 2nd. A clear improvement in Michael Loughnan’s times too with him now pushing up the ranks.

Jimmy Cameron claimed 1st in Course 3, well clear of Lawrie Edwards and Glenn James. Matt Jackel, a relative newcomer to the sport is also showing promise finishing 4th. It was also good to see Steve Doyle return to running after time out with injury. Course 4 only attracted 4 competitors, however it was a tough battle between the boys and the girls. Amos Walz took 1st over Jack Wigney, by a little over a minute while Sarah Davies beat Karina Cherry to 3rd by just 3 seconds. In Course 5 Solomon Cameron won by a good 10 minutes over Joanne Cherry and then Solomon Cook another 4 minutes behind. The importance of the social side of the event is also highlighted by the numbers hanging around afterwards to catch up with friends.

As a reminder to all, we have electronic registration at most of our events now, which makes the compilation of results much easier. Please Register at the computer BEFORE YOU RUN and then download at the computer AFTER YOU RUN. You still fill in the card for the Results display and you can printout your splits as normal. If you’re not sure whether you did it correctly, those greyed out in the Winsplits results are the ones that forgot.

Results and splits are on our Results page Check how you are going in the overall standings. Best 10 of 19 scores to count

Don Cherry