The "Sandy Trax" map has been used twice before, but was completely reworked to international mapping specifications for the event, right down to details such as whether junctions were distinct or not. Most legs of the course provided a choice between routes, some involving maintained forest roads and others unsurfaced tracks. One of the controls was located next to the wreck of the Hydrabad, and the beach was an allowable route.
French cyclist Ramon Mira, studying winemaking at Massey University, took the open mens title by 3min from Wellington MTB rider Craig Starnes. Winners of the first two series events Julian Cox and Steven Holden were next, with the St Pats winner Marco Renalli well back in 7th place. This was a tremendous effort from Mira, who only discovered orienteering a matter of months ago, and Starnes who doesn't orienteer on foot at all. Mira's time for the 19.5km course was 90:08. Cox's result was good enough to take the series award.
The Open Womens title was won by well-known veteran orienteer Gillian Ingham of Wellington, who recently won the Australian Championships in the W45 class. She completed the 14km course in 94:02, 11 min ahead of New Plymouth's Jacqui Sinclair who had won the first two series events. Sue Lyttle from Masterton who won the St Pats event was 30min behind in 5th place. Sinclair bagged the series result.
The veteran men provided the biggest class of the event, with Neil Kane (Wellington) winning the day and fastest time on course 2, but missing out on the series by one place. This was taken by Graeme Silcock from Hutt Valley. And Masteron's Liz Nicholson became the Vet Woman's Champion with her 65:43, fastest time on the 8km Course 3. Runner-up Christine de Roo (Whitby) was nevertheless most consistent over the four races.
Junior numbers were low, no women and only two men. Colin Barr's 3-hour epic ride must have seemed hard work for a probable second place, but he arrived back to learn that Blake Sinclair had punctured, fixed, and puncturing again had retired from the race! A valuable example of persistence paying off.
Organisers Michael Wood and Brent Hoy from the Hutt Valley Orienteering Club are very pleased with the record entry, just short of 50 riders. A number of them have entered in the inaugural NZ Championships to be held at the end of September in Hanmer Forest. Wood and Hoy who are on a national MTBO committee are now looking at ways to encourage other clubs to put on these events. As they say, watch this space...
Full results are available in the HVOC
result pages.