Kiwi Greg Barbour is the current open mens world rogaining champion, with ozzie David Rowlands. Since leaving NZ he has lived in Inverness and now in the Hague, and he is making a name for himself in the "low countries". First by winning the Belgian MTBO championship, and the latest report is of Holland's "Yetiloop" event. It is described as a mountain marathon without mountains!
The British magazine "CompassSport" reports that on the first day Barbour "had pulled his partner Tom Herremans to an impressive fourteen-minute lead." But further down the report, "Greg's partner "bonked" out, leaving him to go it alone, thus forfeiting the first prize for the open course." This is not an unusual situation with Greg, who has difficulty finding partners who can keep up with his pace in endurance events.
This year Barbour is eligible to run M40 as an orienteer, which goes on age
at 31 December. It will be interesting to know if he turns 40 before the
World Rogaine in Czech, which goes on age-on-the-day. And if he and Rowlands
will defend!
Written by Michael Wood
and installed on 10 Jan 02