Good Win in Hawkes Bay

Nevis Ay Die 12hr, 17 April

Hamish Goodwin and Darryl Taylor (Hawkes Bay) scored a big win in the 12-hour section of the HBOC's Nevis Ay Die rogaine on Saturday. Their 1750 points was nearly 50% more than Mike Sheridan and Allan Stowell's score. Goodwin, who was in the second-placed team at the NZ Champs last month is a former multisport athlete, and Taylor is a current adventure racer. But more than that, he has been named in the NZ MTB-Orienteeering Squad aiming at the World Champs in Australia later this year, and in virtually his first foot-orienteering at Easter ran in the M21E class! "Not the same sort of navigation I'm used to," he said after spending five hours in the spaghetti contours of Waitarere Forest, but he's out to improve his navigation. Taylor also competed in the NZ Rogaine Champs, finishing 7th.

The top mixed team of Janet Wilson, Graham Peters and Yvette Cottam were close to getting second place, but not as close as the 8-hour result. There, Alan Berry and Pamela Morrison were just 20 points behind Richard Lynn and Terry Russell. And in the 4-hour class the mixed team of Geoffrey and Darryl Paget won over Derek Morrison and his son Duncan, current national orienteering champion in M12!

The terrain at Wanstead south-east of Waipukurau) was similar to that at Omakere, where HBOC ran an event in 1999. Berry, who was fourth on that occasion says "the big hills were not so big but there were lots of them." Berry's big regret this time was that they didn't reach the 90-pointer at the Wanstead Tavern, where planner Geoff Morrison had set up a control in the garden bar, and a tab at the bar itself!

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This page written by Michael Wood, and installed on 20 Apr 04.