Newcastle Park Tour numbers near the ton.
Event: Park Tour Event 1
Location: Warabrook Wetlands
Organiser: Margaret & Geoff Peel
Assistants: Cheryle Todkill
Entries: 99
Weather: Overcast & moderate
The 2009 Newcastle Park tour series kicked off in fine style with participation numbers just one competitor shy of the magic 100 mark. Cooler weather, combined with a reasonably central location facilitated the continuation of the great attendances enjoyed during the 08/09 Summer Street Series. Yesterday’s attendances were about 20% greater than our best figures for any of the Park Tour events last year. This series features a crossover style of events and hopes to take competitors a little closer to bush style orienteering. Control sites feature traditional flags and stands and control card punching. What is exciting is that many of the newer street series competitors have now had a tried it and it seems the vast majority loved it.
This first event was a combination of parks surrounding the Warabrook Wetlands combined with some of the surrounding street network. Although the area had been used in the past, this event was run on a new “sprint style” map produced by Russell Rigby. Thanks Russell! The series also features two completely new areas, the Hunter Regional Park at Minmi and Lambton Park where the final will take place.
On the results front it was not a great surprise to see Josh Blatchford at the top of the “Long 4.4 km” results slats, closely followed by another rising junior, Alex Massey, who was a little over a minute behind. First woman was Jenny Enderby and it looks like she has set herself up for a big year but Kim van Netten and Karen Blatchford will be looking to improve upon their 2nd and 3rd placing. Street series winner Nicole Haigh was a little off the pace perhaps resting a little after her impressive weekend outright win with husband Andrew, in the Sydney Metrogaine.
In the “Short 2.8 km” section, junior Lewis Berkholz took out the men’s with “park newcomer” Sam Howe first woman home. This will probably not be the case next week with both suggesting they will be moving up to the longer division.
Next week sees the series move southwest to Rathmines Park for event 2 of this 4 event series.