Storm Clouds Threaten

Round 3 National Champs 25-27 Mar 05

The championships which escaped the dismal weather experienced by most of the country during the Easter weekend provided a worthy test for the three international disciplines. Although this year's world championship sprint is expected to be in steep forest, the race is often run in park or campus terrain, and the 150-year-old Te Aute maori boys college provided an excellent example of the latter. The courses dived immediately into the maze of buildings, looped out into the college farm, and passed through the buildings a second time. Karl Dravitzki and Rachel Smith were the winners, with Jamie Stewart also helping to push Chris Forne down to a rare third place. Tania Robinson was second woman with Claire Paterson's third helping Central Magic to its best day of the weekend.

Hawkes Bay always seems to be able to find challenging new areas, with the long distance area at Whanawhana providing humps and hollows with very readable rock features in a landscape of kanuka groves; the multiple small gullies on the steeper slopes were very difficult to pick at speed from above. Smith and Robinson finished in the same order as the previous day, ahead of Penny Kane (who has two prior long-distance titles) and British gold medallist Yvette Baker in her first major outing since moving to Wellington in January. Chris Forne was six minutes clear in the mens race; but only one second separated second and third, Mark Lawson getting his nose in front of Rob Jessop. At 38 and 37yrs respectively, the pair showed the way to much younger runners. Bill Edwards (also 38yrs and 7th) was another demonstrating endurance over the 105-minute wintime event.

For the 30-minute middle distance, competition returned to an old favourite, the Smedley area with its rolling farmland sliced by gorges, amid areas of fast-run totara. The mens placegetters were a remix of the sprint with Forne in front; and for the first time in the weekend Robinson got ahead of Smith. Sara Wallen was third and top French orienteer Juliette Soulard fourth. This enabled Forne and Robinson to stay at the top of the table ahead of Dravitzki and Rachel Smith respectively, but a look at what happens if the worst scores are discarded shows an interesting picture. The final result will be the best 10 out of 13.

With Smith missing the first race at Aramiro, it has been clear for some time that she and Robinson are neck and neck. If the worst 3 scores are discounted now, Smith is actually in front of Robinson, albeit by only 3 points; the margin is 60 to 57. And in the chasing pack there are four runners who have over half the leading score: Claire Paterson looked to be comfortable in third place on gross points, but on best 4 she only has a single point over Sara Wallen. Penny Kane is 2 points back and Rebecca Smith 2 more.

And while Forne seemed to be consolidating his lead over Dravitzki, on best 4 they are actually equal on 52 points! Both have had two wins, a second and a third. There are three others with over half the leading score: Mark Lawson on 31, Jamie Stewart on 28, and Rob Jessop on 26. Also in the wings is Darren Ashmore with 23, in spite of sitting out the Easter events due to injury. None of these have had a win yet, but all are capable of it.

Check out the Easter results and the full points table. The next round of the series will be contested in Canterbury at Anzac weekend. After that come two rounds at or north of Hamilton - plenty of time for changes yet...