2007 WOC Trials, Creswick, Victoria

Wednesday, 16 May 2007

The sprint.
            The 2007 WOC trials were held in Victoria starting with the sprint on the Saturday morning at Monash University in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton. It proved to be a long race by sprint standards and a very technical course.
            The womens race was a very close battle with only 30 seconds separating the top 6, and resulted in a rare dead heat between Grace Elson (TAS) and Kathryn Ewels (VIC) in 18:21. 3^rd was Jasmine Neve in 18:32 and showing continuing great form following the birth of her second child Tracy Bluett (NSW) was 4^th only 2 seconds behind Jasmine. Fellow Stinger Briohny Davey was in 8^th place in 20:04
             Visiting British competitor Matt Crane was a clear winner in 16:16, 20 seconds ahead of an impressive Bruce Arthur(VIC). The young gun Simon Uphill (SA) rounded out the podium in 17:14. Making up for their absence at Easter in South Australia the Meyer boys, David, Ian and Glenn, were mixed in the results. David in 7^th in 18:12, Glenn 13^th in 19:35 and suffering from back problems Ian was last of the stingers 18^th in 20:28. Rob Preston was 12^th with a time of 19:33.

The Middle.
             The next race was on the Saturday afternoon in the gold mining region of Creswick 1.5hrs west of Melbourne. The map, Petticoat Gully, has very detailed erosion gullies and gold mining between fast open spur gully.
             South Australian's Simon Uphill and Kerrin Rattray led the way with Simon first in 33:48 and Kerrin 2^nd in 34:29. Matt Crane (GBR) was 3^rd in 35:05. Robbie Preston had the best run of the weekend for the Stingers coming in only 6 seconds behind Matt in 4^th place. Big bustling Dave Meyer was the next Stinger finishing mid field in 13^th place in 38:33. The Ian and Glenn Meyer, seemingly disappointed with their runs, were 18^th and 25^th respectively.   
             In the women’s race Anna Sheldon (QLD) was the victor in 31.45, 1 minute ahead of a very impressive Kirsten Fairfax (VIC). Grace Elson (TAS) was again on the podium in third a further minute down form Anna. Tracy Bluett faired best of the Stingers in 9^th place and Briohny was 12^th.

The Long. 
             The next day was the classic trial on Creswick Diggings. With similar terrain to the middle distance it presented all the challenging detail of the previous day with long hilly legs adding long route choices to the mix.
             The Australian superstar Jo Allison(ACT), in her only run for the weekend, showed her Australian dominance a clear winner over the 10.4km course in 1:15:14. Anna Sheldon was once again on the podium 2minutes 45seconds behind Jo. A further minute behind was Kathryn Ewels. Tracy was again the best of the NSW contingent in 7^th place only 7 minutes down on the winner. Briohny Davey finished of the weekend with a 12^th place and a time of 1:28:45.
              15.8km didn’t seem to much of a challenge for Matt Crane won the men’s in 1:31:20 giving him two wins and a third for the weekend. Still a junior and with big hopes leading into the up coming JWOC in Dubbo in July, Simon Uphill took second, and apart from Matt Crane, was the only person to feature on the podium  in every race. Third was ex-mountain bike orienteering world champion Adrian Jackson in 1:34:42. The best place Stinger was again enduro king Robbie Preston taking 9^th in 1:45:59. In his best run of the weekend Ian Meyer was 1 minute 28 seconds behind Robbie. Dave Meyer was next in 18^th and feeling the strain, specifically in his hamstring, Glenn Meyer was unable to finish.

Full results for the weekend including route choices and splits as well as current NOL standings can be found on the VOA web site.