Ross and Hazel Bidmead won today's Eastbourne Rogaine over fitter, faster teams - through a clever choice of route and timing. Given 18 hours to do 12 hours of bush navigation in East Harbour Regional Park, the pair delayed starting by 2hrs to arrive at control points above Pt Howard just as a night-time bonus came into effect. This doubled the score for certain controls between 10pm and 5am. Then they worked their way back to the base at Eastbourne, using up 9 of their hours.
After rest and food, they set out again at 8am, and at 9:01 punched the first of several controls which scored double between 9 and 11am. An interesting move was to visit two bonus controls out of bonus time to ensure standard points, and revisit later to pick up the bonus. Their score of 2850 was 170 more than Andrew McLellan and Miriam Jones in second place.
In third, and initially given the win before some software glitches with the new bonus system were fixed, were Greg Thurlow and Andy Foster. Their strategy was partly determined by councillor Foster's commitment to a social function at Te Papa; so they returned to base early after a short southern loop. They set out again soon after midnight, but they lost up to three hours of the night-time bonus possibilities!
And in fourth place were two students from New Plymouth Boys High. Teams from the boys and girls college have been hugely successful in the Hillary Challenge junior adventure race, and they brought four teams to the rogaine. Athletes to watch out for are Hamish Fleming and Cameron Holden.
There was also a 6-hour contest, which could also be spread in any way between 5pm and 11am. This was won by Lowry Challenge organiser Luke Paardekooper, in a last-minute grouping with Andy Jones and Simon Faulkner. They did their time in one burst early on, but were pressed by Jenny Cassie and Murray Sim who went out twice with a good sleep in between. The base at Muritai School provided camping and food for participants throughout. Event director Mike Sheridan says he got a little sleep, but at times during the night the school hall was "like a railway station!"
Hard-luck story of the event: the three-man NPBHS team whose member badly sprained an ankle running down the Muritai track. After seeing their injured mate back to base, the remaining two re-started as a new team and completed a further 12 hours in the bush!
Good-luck story: Miriam Jones lost the electronic control recorder from here wrist between the last control point and the finish. Director Sheridan waived the rule which requires both partners to record all control visits - allowing them to claim second place. And the missing unit (2cm across) was found on a track by the control collectors.
Full results have been posted.