Qualifier 2
Location: Boomerang Park (Raymond Terrace)
Start Times: Starts between 5pm and 6:30pm (Course Closure 7:10pm)
Setter: David Messenger
Course: Long (~5km) and Short (~2km)
Directions: Car park at Freeth Street entrance to the park, corner of Freeth Street and Kangaroo Street. Parking may be required along Kangaroo Street if the car park becomes full
Facilities: TBA
Important Notice: This is an SI event. Please bring your SI stick if you own one otherwise you will need to rent one of the clubs.
REALLY Important Notice: Mosquito's are really prolific right now in the park so it is reccommended that you wear long sleeves, long pants and bring insect repellent.
From the desk of the Setter:
The rain stayed away for my first ever Park Event but it was hot and humid instead. The mosquitoes were relatively subdued until after event closure when they were vicious and in great numbers.
A brand new map crafted by Russell Rigby offered both open parklands but also the opportunity for more complicated navigation in forested areas. Some found this challenge fun, whilst others struggled with the difficult step-up from Street. An early prelude to the navigation required in Bush. Usually a new map is not revealed until you are out on the course but today it was displayed on the board to give some advance ‘warning’.
57 competitors took on the Long Course, with another 18 competitors on the Short Course.
Competitors rapidly found after the easier controls out in the open parkland that the forest needed more care and navigation. The splits reveal competitors issues with control navigation were highly varied with some forest controls problematic for some but not others (and no single control seen as problem to majority), whilst even some controls in the open parkland resulted in issues at times.
It was our first outing with use of locks and tethers … and within 10 minutes of putting out the last control the locals were spotted attempting to take a control away only to abandon their attempt due to the tether! Whilst this added substantially to the set-up time it is worth it to protect the sport-ident investment which allows the wealth of information for post event discussion and review.
I would encourage others to take on the role of setter and I learnt a lot about O-CAD and the challenges of mapping, course setting, layout and organisation and overall enjoyed the experience. It makes you appreciate how much effort is put in each week to allow our club to have a busy schedule for members enjoyment.
I also look forward to the fantastic map being used again … where I can experience for myself getting totally lost in the forest.
Start Setup – Thanks to Viola O’Connor, Russell Rigby, Carolyn Rigby, Peter Newton, Malcolm Roberts and any others I missed whilst I was out putting the remaining controls
Start / Finish – Thanks to Cheryl Todkill, Joy Guy, Malcolm Robertson and Peter Orr
Control Collection - Thanks to Alex Massey, Russell Rigby and Daniel Orr
Setting and Map – Thanks to Russell Rigby for patience and guidance through process
Results: 75 Entrants | Results | Splits | Photos | Routegadget | Routegadget Split Analysis | Attackpoint Spilts analysis Long | Attackpoint Spilts analysis Short
For those wondering Bronwyn Stafford who took a bit of a tumble just has a bad sprain of her ankle and is now on the road to recovery. Hopefully she will be back to join us again in the bush series.
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