The mixed team of Gillian Ingham of Wellington and Nick Collins from New Plymouth won the Makara Rogaine, held on 5 December near Wellington, with a score of 1340 of a possible 1860. On the day, Marlborough brothers Warren and Tony Le Sueur were declared the winners, but an adding error had given them 80 points too much; their corrected score was 1290. The event was held on the coast west of Wellington, from Ohau Point to Colonial Knob, between 6am and 6pm. The 6-hour option was won by NZOF Development Squad member Andrew Thompson, with John Kilpatrick, Ian Martin and Jon Bright, scoring 710 points.
Ingham and Collins are well known orienteers, both showing endurance running strengths alongside their orienteering experience. Ingham has represented New Zealand orienteering at elite level, while Collins was in the winning pair in the long overnight Kaweka Challenge early this year. The Le Sueur brothers are less well known to orienteers, although they are regular mountain runners, crossing Cook Strait for events such the Holdsworth-Jumbo Trail Race, the Tararua Crossing and the Kawaka Challenge. Tony has started orienteering recently, surprising Marlborough club members with his immediate ability with navigation. First-year university students Thompson, Kilpatrick, Martin and Bright are a team of old school-mates that has been in several long-distance events together, interrupted by Kilpatrick's year in England in 1997.
The 12-hour category was one of the strongest in the 9-year history of Hutt Valley-run rogaines, with 16 teams taking starters orders at 6am. Six of these were from the south island, and next home with 1200 points were World Super-Veteran Champions Peter Squires and Bill Kennedy, with Bill's sister Anne, from Christchurch. Behind them were the pre-race favourites, Auckland elite orienteers Rob Jessop and Mark Lawson (1110), fairly irregular Wellington orienteers Steve Knowles and Malcolm Chiles (1110), and last year's mixed winners Susan King and Barry Hope (1100) from Blenheim.
Results were very close in the 6-hour category with Chinese APOC Champions Peter Watson and Maurice Lloyd on 690, just 20 points behind the winners. David Stirling and Jane Calvert came third with 660 to claim the mixed title for the second year in a row; Development Squad members David Stewart, Greg Flynn and Finnish exchange student Lauri Ylonen were the first college team with 560 (seventh overall) in spite of a 30-point lateness penalty; while Dorothy Kane and Julia Fraser were first women on 430. There were 24 teams in the category. The course was fieldchecked by last year's winners Tony Gazley and Chris Tait, and the scores allocated by former elite orienteer and mountain marathoner Leo Homes.
Detailed Results here.
This story written by Michael Wood, 6 Dec 98.