Event report: ASOC & KC day 1

After a rainy rest day, the clouds moved over just in time for a beautiful start to the three-day Australian Schools Orienteering Championships (ASOC) & Kambarang Classic (KC) competitions. The first event, a sprint, was held at Aquinas college / Dyarlgarro in the Perth metropolitan area. An older style private school, the campus provided a mixture of old and new buildings, and not much climb apart from many short sets of stairs. There were plenty of route choices and careful map reading was required to avoid the many dead ends. Overall the competition went smoothly.

ASOC competitors had timed starts from 10am. Our friends from New Zealand provided a challenge to the Australian clubs, with most New Zealand competitors finishing in the top half in every class.

The ASOC course winners were:

• Senior boys: Zefa Fa'avae (Karahiwi), Felix Hunt (Harua), Cooper Horley (NSW)
• Senior girls: Erika Enderby (NSW), Milla Key (Victoria), Eszter Kocsik (NSW)
• Junior boys: Blake McKinnon (Karahiwi), Hayden Dent (ACT), Harry Borton (Harua)
• Junior girls: Greta Prince (Harua), Zara Toes (Harua), Ariadna Iskhakova (ACT)

ASOC provisional points after first day: NSW 21, ACT 19, Queensland 19, Tasmania 16, SA 14, Victoria 14, WA 9. In Southern Cross Junior Challenge, NZ Karahiwi 34, NZ Harua 33, then state points as above except SA are 15.

ASOC presentations were held before the courses re-opened for Kambarang Classic competitors at 11.30am for punching starts. The Men A Hard course winner, Joseph Lynch (Peninsula & Plains, NZ), completed the 3.1 km course in under 12 minutes. The Men A Hard was also the biggest class with 51 competitors, 17 of whom finished their course in under 15 minutes.

A big thank you to course setter Anthea Feaver, controller Noel Schoknecht, and our Carnival Director Graham Braid who did an excellent job mapping the school for this competition. Thanks also to ASOC commentators Blair Trewin and Riley McFarlane, and Riley also for providing a live stream of the ASOC event on Facebook for those who could not come to watch in person. As usual, there are too many people to list who helped set up, pack up and run everything smoothly - thank you to all!

Full results are available on Eventor for ASOC and Kambarang Classic events.

Many routes are also available on Livelox for both ASOC and Kambarang Classic events - upload yours, and compare with your competitor’s route choices!

Photo: ASOC presentations at Aquinas.