1981 Australian 6 Day – Day 2 Revisited

Almost 40 years ago Day 2 of the 1981 Australian 6 Day was held at Glenluce. The event was run by Brumby Orienteering Club and the course planner was Halvard Dalheim (senior). The race was won by Warren Key, second place Jörgen Mårtensson (World Champion 1991/1995), third place Rob Vincent, fourth place Neil Hooper and fifth place Øyvin Thon (World Champion 1979/1981).

In these COVID times – yawn – a few of us thought it would be fun to head up to Glenluce and run the course again; big thanks to Warren and Natasha Key, and to Hermann who has lived on the map since 1980.

Could Aston run a quicker time than Warren as he is now the same age as Warren was in 1981? To be fair the timing system was easier for Aston as a control card and manual punching was not required – just wave your hand over some pink tape. However, the bush was thicker; Warren rated it one minute per kilometre slower, Blair rated it 30 seconds slower.

I can report that Aston pipped his dad by 90 seconds running 68 minutes flat where Warren ran it in 69:43. A few others were giving it a crack; Bruce Arthur, Mason Arthur and Jensen Key – unfortunately none of them cracked a podium place.

It was a great fun day in the bush despite the fact that I did not even come close to my time in 1981 of 101 minutes, just 27 seconds behind my brother Halvard – surely, he followed me.

Carl Dalheim