Summer Shorts and Sprints 2024 AND THAT’S A WRAP! One Spooky Day, one City Race, 6 Summer Shorts/Sprints, one Sprint Champs, and one bonus Dynamic Duo Relay later, we’ve reached the end – for 2024 at least. We hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have! We’ll be back in 2025. Add some sizzle to your Spring and Summer, at a brand new series of sprint and short distance races in parks and campuses on Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings. Race at a different venue each week during October and November – the perfect lead-in to the Melbourne City Race, the Victorian Primary Schools Champs, and the Victorian Sprint Champs. Summer Shorts and Sprints Flyer Here’s what to expect: a great selection of full colour maps three action-packed, fun courses, with something for everyone from newcomers to top sprinters designed for fast thinking, with lots of controls, direction changes and route choices choose your own start time and course Sportident electronic timing, in Air mode (Sportident stick loan included in entry fee) Inflation-busting entry fees! Kids Run Free at selected events – applies to under 13s. Kids aged 13-20 pay just $6, and adults pay only $12 Coaching and assistance for newcomers, and a family-friendly outdoor activity; no limits on age or ability, and no previous experience or special equipment needed RACE DETAILS See under each heading below for information and online entry links. As each race is completed, we’ll post results, splits and maps. PRIZES All competitors will receive points each week, with 100 for the winner, 99 for second, etc. At the end of the 6-race series of Summer Shorts and Sprints, your best 4 scores will be totalled for your overall score. Final Series scores Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 males and females on each course. There are also weekly prizes on offer for the on-the-day winners on each course: Tarralla – the Mad Dash, a 200 metre sprint around the athletics track Mt Lilydale – the Flying Furlong, a handicapped gallop to the Finish Line, in keeping with the Spring Racing Carnival Ruffey Lake – the Mountain GOAT, a race to the top, to determine the best Hill Climber Deakin Burwood – another Mad Dash across the oval, in between the mayhem of this complicated campus Questions? email enquiries@drocorienteering.com.au 1- Jump In! Spooky Fun Day at Tarantula Park, Sunday 13 October Put together 60 excited kids and their parents, 7 courses, and 103 results, and you get a day full of spooky fun! The Tarantula course was the most popular, with a chance to win a Dinosaur trophy. Witch was the longest course. Look out for another Spooky Fun Day in 2025! 2 - Summer Shorts and Sprints, Penola College, Saturday 19 October (pm) A surprisingly complex campus where precision proved to be more important than pace. Course planners Geoff and Claire made great use of the compact, complex campus, keeping courses tightly concentrated around the buildings, and using a map flip and artificial barriers to good effect. And that central hedge maze never gets any easier! The random draw winner was Fredrik Johansson, who wins free entry to the Melbourne City Race on November 17. Results, Splits, Livelox Routes Maps 3 - Summer Shorts and Sprints, Tarralla Wetlands Croydon, Sunday 27 October (am) What a great place to explore with a map! No matter what pace you tackled the course at, there was an adventure to be had. All courses began with some tricky legs around the council buildings and fences, requiring immediate focus on careful map reading. After the road crossing, everyone enjoyed numerous controls along the newly landscaped creek, before preparing themselves for the Mad Dash around the athletics track. Then it was on to the Giant Frog, the final control, and into the Finish! Congratulations to course winners Torren Arthur, Sarah Love, and Izzy Greenhalgh. Torren was pipped for the Mad Dash by James Love, who ran the 200m leg in a dashing 35 seconds. Sarah was the Mad Dash winner on course 2, and Izzy took out the prize on course 3. Our lucky random draw winner this week was Victoria Greenhan, who wins a free entry to the Melbourne City Race, just by pre-entering for today’s event. The Series Scores have been calculated – check them here. Your best 4 scores are counted, and series prizes will be presented at the Victorian Sprint Champs at Tarneit on Sunday December 1. Tarralla Results and Splits Maps Photos 4 - Summer Shorts and Sprints, Mt Lilydale Indoor-Outoor, Saturday 2 November (pm) We promised you something different – and Mt Lilydale certainly delivered! The outdoor sections of this hilly campus are tricky enough, but when you add in the interior of a building with multiple entry points, a furniture maze in the centre, and more complications created by locker banks, corridors and internal doorways, you have something really out of the ordinary. Congratulations to today’s course winners – Callum White, Geoff Armstrong and Mel Kent. Today’s winners of the Flying Furlong, a gallop between the second last control and the finish line, were Lucas Kent (30 seconds), Luca Topley Vlahos (33 seconds) and Sam Scadden (46 seconds). Congratulations! You can collect your prizes from Registration at Ruffey Lake next Sunday. The winner of this week’s random prize draw was Tim Hatley. Tim wins a free entry to the Melbourne City Race, on Sunday 17 November – just for pre-entering today. We’ve updated the Series Standings – click here to see your overall points score after 3 races. Heading up Course 1 are Matthew Layton and Keely Williams. On Course 2, Geoff Armstrong has a 2 point advantage over Sarah Love. And on Course 3, Eofy Greenhan has the lead ahead of Elijah Spencer. Series winners will receive their prizes at the Victorian Sprint Championships on Sunday 1 December. Results and splits Maps Indoor map legend Photos 5 - Summer Shorts and Sprints, Ruffey Lake Park, Sunday 10 November (am) We had a huge turnout on a lovely day at Ruffey Lake! It can be hard to estimate how many maps we’ll need, so please help us out by pre-entering – especially if you have an Eventor account and are a regular orienteer. This also makes it much quicker to process new entries, avoiding queues at Registration and again at Download. Courses were planned by Ella, a member of the Junior Squad, and she did a great job. Today’s main skills were accurate bearings and reading the contours – and making sure you checked your control numbers. Each course had a different Hill Climb leg – for course 1, it was close to the end, from control 18 to 19. On course 2, it came right at the beginning, from control 1 to 2. And on course 3 it was between controls 2 and 3. Our winners were James Robertson/Matthew Layton, who tied on course 1; Dion Keech on course 2, and Ben Greenhalgh on course 3. If you didn’t collect your prize today, it will be waiting for you at Registration at the Melbourne City Race, or the next Summer Short and Sprint at Deakin Burwood on Saturday 23 November. Congratulations to Frankie Shin, who won the final Random Draw prize of a free entry to the Melbourne City Race. Results and Splits Maps Photos 6 - Melbourne City Race, Port Melbourne, Sunday 17 November (am) The 5th Melbourne City Race at Port Melbourne will mainly be remembered for some wild weather! The day started off sunny, warm, and calm. Then mid-morning, westerly wind squalls came through, playing havoc with tents and flags, while papers blew everywhere as we madly scrambled to secure everything. Meanwhile at the Start, there was a huge crash as a tree toppled nearby, damaging cars belonging to nearby residents. At the same time we had to reposition a control, whose location was causing a building alarm to go off. Then came the rain … All part of City Racing. Most people completed their course and stayed dry, and the presentations and random prize draw went ahead as planned. By the time we packed up, the sun was back! Gotta love Melbourne in spring. With over 150 participants, this was the year’s biggest event. We welcomed a team of 15 from Victoria University (VUPA), who had a fantastic time and loved the experience. Congratulations to successful team members Narangerel, Tahseen and Ali! We had some super close results on most courses, with results decided by mere seconds – and even a dead heat for first on W4, between Sophie A and Sophie T! Congratulations to all placegetters. The Melbourne City Race will be back bigger and better than ever, in November 2025! Results and Splits Maps Photos Find out more at www.melbournecityrace.com.au 7 - Summer Shorts and Sprints, Deakin Burwood, Saturday 23 November (pm) On a scorching 36 degree day, it was time to tackle the multi-level challenges of Deakin Burwood, a campus that constantly changes – and each addition brings complexity and confusion. Dion Keech was our course planner, and Vida Fox led the MFR team in presenting a great event. Congratulations to course winners Tim Hatley (c1), Geoff Armstrong (c2) and Jenny Mitchell (c3). Veteran Tim was pushed all the way by young gun Matthew Layton. Results and Splits Maps Multi Level Mayhem and Mad Dash Mishaps This early leg created a lot of confusion early on, with so many route choices between the controls, including taking the stairs and heading upwards. However, while many people came unstuck here and lost a lot of time, it wasn’t the complex legs that caused most of the mispunches, particularly on course 1. The Mad Dashers fell for the old trap – See Flag, Run to Flag, Fail to Check Map or Number, Mispunch. Yes, there were two different controls at the end of the Mad Dash leg; course 1 runners simply needed to head from control 77 towards the clearly mapped cricket nets, with their control 73 nearby. Courses 3 and 4 had their Dash to control 43. Control 73 set up a great north vs south route choice on the next, long leg to control 46. See images 8 - Summer Shorts and Sprints, Salesian Sunbury, Saturday 30 November (pm) Salesian may be small but it certainly packs a punch, with a bit of everything, from the elegance of Rupertswood Mansion, the heritage of the Ashes Oval, to multilevel school buildings, to chook sheds and an orchard. Course planner Stephen Collins set up some great route choice legs and kept us all on our toes with every step. So much fun! Salesian results and splits Salesian maps 9 - Victorian Sprint Champs, Tarneit College, Sunday 1 December am Tarneit College was a brand new map, and course planner Tim Hatley made great use of blocking tape to create more complexity and route choice all over the campus. He even built an actual maze, as part of the Dynamic Duo Relay! Congratulations to the newly crowned Victorian Sprint Champions in all age groups, including Angus Haines and Amber Riddle, who won the Cavill Cups for M21 and W21. Vic Sprint Champs results and splits Dynamic Duo Relay results (check out some creative team names!)