Event report: MTBO 3

After showers in the preceding days, a beautiful morning greeted the 30-odd mountain bike orienteers who came to enjoy the day in and around the Heritage Trail in Glen Forrest. The most keen participants were waiting to start well before 9am, and there were several newcomers eager to try the courses. Additionally, a group of OWA runners also came to enjoy the map in the beautiful weather.

It was decided to use MapRun rather than SI and control flags due to the MTBO workshop being on the day before, reducing the chance for setters to put controls out. The system has pros and cons but seemed to work well on the day, and well enough to catch out some competitors who thought they had visited the right spot, but were actually on an incorrect nearby track.

The long course winner was Ricky Thackray, followed closely by Hadrien Devillepoix and our coaches-in-residence Jiri Vales and Veronika Kubinova. In the Medium course, Michael Dufty took the first place, with Simon Windsor coming in 2nd and Ben Coetzer 3rd. The short course winner was Graham Smith, followed by Kate Kliukina, Mike Howe, and David & Tucker Ellery. The Easy course saw the least competition, with Lois West taking the winning place. Collectively, the competitors rode their way through over 600 km of trails.

Thanks, first and foremost, to first time MTBO setter Mark Newhouse, whose courses competitors enjoyed immensely according to the positive feedback. A big thank you also to co-setter and mapper Duncan Sullivan, computer operator / entry manager Jack Dowling, and organiser Liisa Hirvonen. Thanks also to Sue Dowling for assistance with set-up.

Results and routes are available in the MapRun webpage for Long, Medium, Short and Easy courses.
Results are also available on Eventor.