In the mens open grade Mark Lawson made up for a succesion of flatties at the previous event to win from an improving Martin Freeman and Claude Dabaliz. But in a superb effort, Colin Palmer who is an M50 rider was unofficially just under a minute quicker than Mark, although he had ridden and won course 2 first, so knew many of the legs. Colin, who has been a top mountain biker for many years (world masters title included) claimed to be looking for some extra mileage in preparation for the Colville Connection this weekend.
The open womens grade was really interesting with 5 women within 14 minutes. The clear winner was Christina Renhart who is one of NZ's best chances for the team for the World Champs in Aussie in October this year. Christina won by 6 and 7 minutes from Victoria Pike and Debbie Chambers, who were both on their second-ever MTBO rides, with 2 minutes back to Marquita Gelderman who is new to MTBO but has extensive experience in foot orienteering. Debbie had a 4 minute lead at control 7 and shows exceptional talent. Victoria had won the first race in the series, so a powerful group is starting to form as contenders for the World Champs team.
Another very impressive time was recorded by 15 year old Thomas Reynolds who was third fastest on course 2. Full results are on the North West OC website.
The event was planned by Rob Garden and Di Michels. Chris Gelderman manned the computer used to process results from the electronic "clipping", with help from Marquita and Paul.