Redhead, Runners and Rain
Event: Summer Street Series Event 14
Location: Redhead
Entries: 55
Weather: Wet, wet, wet
Guest reporter: Craig Kentish
One of the great things about orienteering is that is almost never, ever called off due to poor weather. So while some cricket clubs are lucky to have played half their games this summer, we haven’t missed a single event.
And so over 50 hardy, obsessive souls made the trek to the lovely beach suburb of Redhead. The rain was torrential early, but eased for the later runners.
A fantastic little map with a lot of variation for competitors, this is a good spot for StreetO’s. Glenn Burgess set an excellent course, with challenging route choices – especially how to clean up the points in the middle of the map as well as touch on the extremities for the faster runners. The climb to the east sure looked foreboding when looking from control 2D, but that didn’t stop plenty of runners from giving it a shot.
Great to hear a few people went bush bashing again, returning to the finish a gnarled, crumpled mess much to the amusement of the setter.
It is the business end of the season, and Josh Blatchford chose a perfect event to return to the winners circle (45 pts in 44:05). This gives Josh a 4 point lead over Steven Todkill in the overall mens competition (886pts to 882pts). Second place was Stu Adams, who was equal on points with Josh but a slightly greater time (45pts in 44:50). Steven Todkill was third with 44pts.
Special mention goes to Malcolm Roberts who was fourth at Redhead but cannot be ruled out as a threat to Josh and Steven in the race to be overall champion.
In the women, Kim van Netten had a great run to win comfortably (38pts), with Karen Blatchford second (35pts) and Carolyn Matthews third (also 35pts and only 17 seconds behind Karen). If you thought the mens competition was close, this win by Kim puts her just 3 points behind Karen in the overall score (891pts to 888pts).
Thanks to Glenn and family for a great event.
NEXT WEEK: Will the scores be this close after the penultimate event next week at Broadmeadow? The usual media outlets will be in attendance!
Happy Navigating!