A misplaced control on the final day of the Anzac 4-day event,
whose overall result was to have counted as Superseries #7, has swapped the placings for
the two leading men, previously only one point apart. The womens course was affected too,
but the series positions are not so finely balanced.
An error in the placing of one of the 70-odd control points for a major event is not unknown, and there is a well-established procedure to deal with it. An affected competitor is entitled to complain, and the facts are considered by a jury of qualified event controllers. In this case the jury ruled that the final race of the 4-day Anzac series should not be counted, and the result declared on the basis of the previous three.
This relegated Danish orienteer Carsten Jorgensen, who had been one point ahead of Auckland's Rob Jessop, to second place, and Jessop now takes a 2-point lead. The points scale is 15-12-10 before dipping one point per place, so two points is not a large buffer. There are two events remaining, and competitors are able to drop their lowest two scores. If we drop the two worst to date, we have the Kiwi and the Dane level-pegging on 69 points!
The effect on the womens placings was to allow series leader Rachel Smith (Chch), who had
been beaten by Aucklander Tania Robinson and Magdalena Danielsson (Wgtn) in the aborted race, to
claim points for second equal instead. This gives her an extra 2-point buffer over
Robinson, who has passed Penny Kane (Dunedin) to move into second place. In fact Robinson
would lead by two points if the lowest two scores were dropped now.
The course error cast a shadow over what had been an excellent series of races during the Easter-Anzac week in Woodhill and Weiti Forests near Auckland. The first three days of the 4-day event 24-27 April was essentially a preliminary which arrived at a ranking for the last day; and the day-4 start times were arranged so that the first across the line would be the winner. The courses started high up on farmland overlooking Woodhill Forest where a variety of route choices was possible across the steep terrain. The route then led into young pine forest with very low visibility (where the problem control point was located) before the final legs through mature trees where high speeds could be maintained. 300 other orienteers competing in age-group competition were also in the forest.
The races were being used by the NZ Orienteering Federation to choose a team for a "test match" with Australia in May. The women chosen, with Superseries position in brackets, are: Rachel Smith (1), Tania Robinson (2), Penny Kane (3), Lisa Frith (4), Lara Prince (5) and Rebecca Smith (7). The men are Rob Jessop (1), Chris Forne (5), Jamie Stewart (6), Jason Markham (7), Alistair Cory-Wright (8) and James Bradshaw (10). A smaller team for the World Championship in July in Switzerland is expected to be announced shortly.
And in the team competition, Southerly Storm has finished round two on the Northern Knights' "home ground" with its margin reduced but still intact. Its lead of 57 points was eroded by 38 after the NZ Classic and Short Champs, but 24 was won back in the sprint and the first day of the Anzac competition. The seventh result was essentially unaffected by the course problem, Storm conceding only two points to Knights to stay 41 ahead. Central Raiders, in spite of solid performances by Wellington student Magdalena Danielsson, is well behind.
Storm and Knights are earning around 50 points per event, so neither can afford to send a weak team to the last two events in the Wairarapa at Queens Birthday. The sprint-distance (15min) event and the long (2.5-hour) races will require different tactics from the more usual 60-100 minute event, so the series isn't over yet.