Craig Starnes (HVOC) won the second event in the MTBO Series at Waitarere today, while additional filming was being carried out a few blocks further north for LOTR. The HVOC member won the series last year, and came second in the NZ Champs. Lady of the chainrings was Jacqui Sinclair (Egmont OC), who is the current NZ Vet Womens champion.
Starnes was well out in front of Steve Holden and Julian Cox (both WOC) on the 20km course that stayed entirely in the 2X2km square north of the village. Logging in the south block has pushed the available area further and further away, and planner Michael Wood chose to get the distance with a complex series of loops that visited the neighbouring farm-forest twice and offered the chance to cover just about every track in the forest proper. There were 25 controls on course 1.
The 15km course 2 likewise had 19 controls and plenty of zags, and the fastest time was posted by Egmont OC veteran rider Neil Higgins. Jacqui Sinclair who won the open womens class is also from Egmont, as were 11 of the entrants due to the enthusiasm of the whole Sinclair family and their promotion of urban MTBO events - the same way that HVOC began. Colin Barr saw off another Sinclair (Blake) in the junior men while Ramash Swamy (another Egmont rider) should probably have been given the Rec Men's prize ahead of T.Rev Knowles.
The way that course 3 turned out was a bit longer than normal at 10km, so a new course 4 was made by a short-cut. However the intended consumers, the 11-year-old Chilton girls, had completed a course 3 last time and nothing was going to stop them from doing it again. Which they did in the excellent time of 1hr 51. Julia Fraser took veteran womens, and Frances Rutledge Rec Women. Frances is a former top junior foot-orienteer but chronic ankle problems have driven her to water sports and cycling, and she has been enquiring about starting MTBO in the Tokoroa area. With a move to Rotorua imminent it will be great to have a disciple among the redwoods!
Rutledge is no mean rider - her k-rate would have put her about a minute behind Higgins on course 2, and if she had been able to keep it up on course 1, she'd have come in 5th!
Results and
Series Points
have been posted.
Written by Michael
Wood and installed on 26 May 02.