Juniors Dominate First Race Of Trans-Tasman Test Match

The bad news for the New Zealand elite orienteers in the first race of the trans-Tasman Orienteering Test - they were beaten out of the top spots.

The good news? They were beaten by New Zealand juniors who are hitting top form just in time for the Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) on 4 July.

Toby Scott led the juniors charge, scooping the top podium place along with JWOC team-mates Thomas Reynolds and Matt Ogden.

Best of the elites was the Australian champion over the Long and Sprint distances, Dave Shepherd, in 4th place ahead of Kiwis Darren Ashmore and Michael Adams.

It was a similar result for the elite women with NZ Junior Champion Angela Simpson defeating Australian Jo Allison and NZ Champion Lizzie Ingham.

There was more good news for the NZ elite as they piled on the minor placings to defeat the Australians soundly by 76 to 34 points in the first round of the three day Test Match.

"It was fun, fast and furious racing" commented Darren Ashmore. "The juniors were flying through the forest."

"We all had good runs, with a few minor navigational hiccups, but those youngsters were fit, fast and in tune with the dunes" he added.

"I had to dig deep to catch up to the pack after rolling my ankle but couldn't break free after that" said Ashmore, who is expected to feature in the Middle distance, his favourite discipline, on Saturday.

Two minute start times and open forest meant that the preferred technique for finding the 28 checkpoints on the men's course was to run as hard and as straight as possible through the technical sand-dunes, with other racers easily visible.

Oceania Champion and Australian representative Simon Uppill in 7th couldn't match his reputation as their best technical orienteer ever seen, but did edge out rising NZ star Ross Morrison by 49 seconds.

Similarly Australian star Kathryn Ewels (5th at World Championships in 2009) was outside the top 5, with NZ Pinestars Lizzie Ingham, Penny Kane, Rebecca Smith and winner Angela Simpson all ahead, along with 2nd placed Aussie Jo Allison.

Consolation for the elites from both countries comes in the form of knowing that this is just the start of their extensive builduo for the World Championships, while the juniors are near the end of their buildup which has consisted of many weeks of hard training in Woodhill Forest.

And it is quite likely that the elites will find a little bit extra in the next two days of racing.

Round two of the Test Match is a two-race chasing start Middle Distance in the Woodhill Forest, with the fastest from race 1 starting first in the 2nd race.

Results – Australia New Zealand Test Match Round 1

Elite Women (8km):

Elite Men (11.8km):

Test match points, Round 1: New Zealand Pinestars 76, Australian Bushrangers 34

(Overall winner will be determined from cumulative points over 3 days.)