NZ Dominates MTBO in Oz

Michael Posted: 9 October 2017, 5:27 AM   NZ won the Australia-NZ MTBO Challenge at the weekend, held at Wingello, in the picturesque Southern Highlands near Sydney. The sprint round a small village was almost equal, but NZ drew ahead in a middle distance in surrounding forest, containing a lot of single track within a network of forest roads. But in the long distance in another part of the forest NZ won 10 classes out of 12 to make quite sure of the result. Overall it was 23-12 (one result was DNF both sides). Individual results are tied up in a Sydney traffic jam but should appear soon at www.ausmtbochamps.com.   Michael Posted: 9 October 2017, 11:07 AM   If (like me) you go first to Winsplits and second to the event website, you may be waiting some time. There isn't even a "results" tab on the event website. I think the Australian way is to stick results first onto their event calendar at https://eventor.orienteering.asn.au/Events Look for a little "R" button against the MTBO events on 7 and 8 Oct. There are also "results" for the NSW Night MTBO Champs on 4 Oct but they are garbage as it was a score event and show only times.   Michael Posted: 11 October 2017, 4:21 AM   Results and links to Winsplits are now on the event website. The 60-odd kiwis won 19 titles altogether.   rob.g Posted: 11 October 2017, 5:59 AM   There were lots of great results but the star was 16 year old Georgia Skelton, who beat Marquta twice, the first kiwi in more than 10 years to do so. The next big carnival is around Anzac Day 2018 in Otago, and there will be 3 mtbo races, as part of an A/NZ Challenge, plus a 6 hour rogaine. The week begins with the Otago Champs for foot orienteering.   Michael Posted: 16 October 2017, 1:21 PM   A part of MTBO that has yet to really take off in NZ is the sprint distance. As with foot, urban areas such as campuses are much harder than they seem, yet they provide that special challenge of being able to go much faster than your brain allows. Prior to the MTBO in Oz, Alister and I rode an foot-o sprint course on the university campus in Bathurst. We didn't manage to exceed our foot k-rates! Something you can try at home - choose a campus without lots of steps - and vacation time.