The outright winners were also a mixed team: Tom Landon-Smith and Alina McMaster from NSW who were 130 points ahead of the top open men, and 240 ahead of third place, a pair of vet men. With last year's North American Champs won by a female pair, it makes you wonder if there is any performance difference for females, or old people in rogaining; and if not, do we need all these classes?
A virus and the heat beat the other two kiwi teams. Bill Kennedy, member of the World Champion Mixed Super-vet team from Canterbury was affected by a virus and had to withdraw after 4 hours. After a 10km walk back the hashhouse, Pete Squires and Anne Kennedy restarted at 8:30pm as a new team and managed about half the winning score.
And Robbie Holdaway from Blenheim was affected by the heat during the afternoon and by 5:30pm was unable to continue. He was in a team with his father Alan and brother Richard. Fortunately they reached a road which was patrolled and he was picked up by the organisers. Alan and Richard carried on knowing they would be unofficial as new teams have to be formed at the hashhouse. Their score would have put them 30th, but without the delays of course much higher.
Full results (although there are some known errors) are on the Rogaining Tasmania website. The New Zealand Championship will be held near Roxburgh on 15-16 March.
This page was written by Michael Wood and installed 3 Feb 03, with a link to the results on 6 Feb and to Annie's story on 7 Feb