Our man in Victoria Ken Dowling reports on kiwi Darryl Taylor's rides
in the Australian World Champ trials. Darryl is off to Europe shortly and
subject to endorsement by NZ will ride in the World Champs in Slovakia.
Due to crossed lines somewhere, Darryl nearly never made it into the select few riding in the first AUS WOC MTBO selection race. Fortunately Anthony Darr's late withdrawal meant the VIC MTBO chief could slot him in with little effort.
And it was well worth it for Darryl. He came in 5th on the Keith Wade designed 32km course held on the Old Quartz Hill map in Castlemaine, Victoria. WOC Middle Distance was on this map last year. His time of 109m 41s saw him 14 minutes off the pace of Adrian Jackson but within the 105m through 110m range of all other finishers (Alex Randall missed a control where a leg line passed through a previous control).
Darryl was 2nd fastest on leg 2 and had four 3rd fastest legs. That included the 1.5+ km final leg where I noted that despite having time to smile at the finish crew (see photo), he was by far the fastest to approach the finish control along the uphill alternative. Just a minute or so later the possible reason for that super fast finish hove into view down the straight. His girlfriend was on a long forest run and coincidentally had ended up returning on the road just before Darryl turned into it. He simply had to look good!
Sunday saw Darryl repeat 5th place on the Derek Morris designed 20km middle distance course at St George's Lake near Creswick. This was a training event location for WOC 2004. The map has apparently improved somewhat since then though still has a few problems.
Darryl recorded a 2nd fastest and two 3rd fastest legs. Winner Alex Randall wreaked revenge on Adrian Jackson by scoring 10 fastest of 13 legs in 57m 39s edging Adrian's 58m 27s . Darryl at 68m 49s slotted in behind Paul Darvodelsky, 64m 55s and Grant Lebbink, 65m 44s.
Postscript from the Orienteering Australia website:
The MTBO World Championship Team to race in Slovakia in September once again includes the mother and son combination of Carolyn and Adrian Jackson.
The Team includes 5 previous medal winners in MTBO World Championships in Adrian, Alex, Mary, Carolyn and Anna. They will have strong back up from Paul Darvodelsky, who is also the Team Manager, and Tony Clark. Melissa Thomas will be included in the team subject to achieving good results in both the Czech and Polish 5-day events in July. One major setback at the present time is an injury to Anthony Darr which forced him to miss the selection trials and will keep him off the bike for about another 5 weeks, after which time it is hoped that he can prove his fitness and take up a place in the team.
Full team: Men, Adrian Jackson, Alex Randall, Anthony Darr (subject to fitness),
Paul Darvodelsky, Tony Clark
Women, Anna Sheldon, Carolyn Jackson, Mary Fien, Melissa Thomas (subject to
an overseas trial).