Event report: MetrO 12 City Beach

City Beach Primary School

The final MetrO for the season was mapped and set by Nick Dale. The brand new map complements Duncan’s map of north City Beach and Ricky’s map of south-west (coastal) City Beach, to complete the mapping of this large suburb.

Starting at City Beach Primary School, the main route choice was between navigating the convoluted and undulating roads of the surrounding suburb, or to head up the steep hill to the water-tower and the challenging mix of paved, limestone and sand tracks through the hilly bushland to the east, with the bonus options of going to the tops of Reabold Hill and the Roscommon hills thrown in the mix.

Despite the difficult route choices, which normally favour the wise heads over the strong legs, the kids put in a very impressive effort, with many of them picking better routes than the more experienced competitors. Quinn Lommers won the short course ahead of Sten Classens (on loan from the long brigade) and Ken Brownlie, with Quinn having brilliantly picked the shortest possible course (unlike the two ‘oldies’). Amy Dufty came in just after them, also having picked the best route but, being the reverse of Quinn’s, she cleverly avoided having to ascend the ‘vertical beach’.

It was then only a couple of minutes before Oliver Martin powered home to win the medium, followed a couple of minutes later by Volker Gartz, with a big gap to the rest of the mediums. Ellie Sansom was the first woman on the medium, followed by Tracy Foster, and then also a big gap to the rest.

On the long course the Dufty and Pass-Braid family rivalries went the youngies in the men, with Liam pipping Craig (who had the consolation of having picked the best route), and to the oldies in the women, with Ceri beating Kate, but both coming in after Nikki Rehn and Rachel West.

Of the many class options available in the series again this season, only one of them remained properly live going into this final event, that being the Medium Veteran Female, with Christine Howitt taking the prize after beating home buddy Rosalie McCauley. Rachel in theory could have tied or even lost on a count-back to Ceri if she’d had a bad run, but coming in before Ceri today guaranteed her top spot. Hopefully next year we will be returning to the old system of just one category for each gender on each length: much more interesting and exciting.

Thanks to Rachel for kindly stepping in to do the beginners briefing; to Zali for liaising with City Beach PS; to control collectors Duncan, Tony, Ian, Jan, Moreen, and Liisa; and to Melinda and Pam for manning the computers and for packing up, including waiting for Nick who’d been hunting down allegedly missing controls and witches hats.
A big thank you to Nick Dale for setting interesting courses.

Thanks also to Tony, for co-ordinating the season, and to Alanna, who organized most of the permissions.

Results are available in Eventor.
Upload your track to Livelox and compare your route choices with those of your fellow orienteers. 
Check out the photos on the OWA Facebook page.

Final results for MetrO 2022/2023 Series can be viewed in Eventor.

Photo: Andre finishing at City Beach, taken by Sue Dowling.