Aucklander Phil Wood won the Belmont 3-hour rogaine on 26 Aug by a comfortable margin. The tussle was for second place, with Tom Ehlen/Rob Harrow 10 points ahead of Mike Sheridan/Alan Stowell, and Tony Gazley/Chris Tait 20 points further back.
However Wood had certain things in his favour, having grown up in Lower Hutt just below the Belmont Regional, where he has spent many hours training for orienteering. Nevertheless he completed a great run after an early setback when the first control was hard to find. His route headed up from the Stratton St ranger station to the Old Coach Road and the old military ammunition bunkers, around the "dress circle" of Round Knob and Cannons Head to the 456m Belmont Trig, down to Baked Beans Bend and Korokoro Dam, out to suburbia in Maungaraki and back down Stratton St to finish with seconds to spare.
The event was remarkable for its timing and organisation style. In marked contrast to most other rogaines and orienteering events, the course was not marked with flags and clippers, or even questions to answer to prove passage. The course was set by Mark Copeland entirely "on the map" and passage and scoring was by an honesty system. While clearly not suitable for a championship event, this style avoids the huge effort which bogs down orienteering clubs and diverts effort away from the fun parts of the sport.
And the event was run on a weekday after work. Participants got their maps at 5pm, they had 15 minutes route planning time, and off they went. After an hour of daylight, and a couple of more challenging hours in the dark, everyone arrived back and added up their scores. The 15 participants, recruited by word of mouth from multi-sport athletes and rogainers entered in the forthcoming World Champs in January, were delighted with what could be achieved without extensive organisation.
Full results are elsewhere in this website.
The next shoestring rogaine in the Wellington area is planned for the
Eastbourne hills, check the rogaine events page
or email Mike Sheridan.