Victorian Orienteers at the 16th World Rogaining Championships

There was a good representation of Victorian orienteers at the World Rogaining Championships held at La Molina, a ski resort in Spain, on 27/28 July.

In the information published prior to the event, there was a warning that the terrain was steep and careful planning would be required to minimise the climb. However the warning still did not prepare the teams for the actual steepness of the terrain, and after the event there were many tales of teams going too hard in the early stages and running out of energy.

Leading up to the Champs the weather was postcard perfect, with temperatures in the mid to high 20s. But this did not last with stormy weather coming in on the Saturday morning and dousing competitors on the start line, and then another storm with hail and gale force winds in the late evening. The weather proved to be a big factor in some teams’ performance, with some teams caught out in the steep open area when the second storm came through and struggling to keep going. Two of the Victorian teams were among these and had to come back to the hash house to recover.

The best placing Victorians were Ted van Geldermalsen and Derek Morris, 2nd in Mens Ultra Vets; and Jon Sutcliffe and David Rowlands, 3rd in Mens Super Vets.

Rod Gray maintained his record of being the only person to have attended every World Rogaining Championship since the first one in Beechworth in 1992.

Victorian Placings

Mixed Open
76th – Kate Gavens & Tom Lothian
79th – Simin Ngan & David Heng

Women’s Vets
4th – Thorlene Egerton & Tamsin Barnes

Men’s Super Vets
3rd – David Rowlands & Jon Sutcliffe
14th – Geoff Lawford & Rod Gray

Mixed Super Vets
28th – Heather Leslie & John Gavens

Men’s Ultra Vets
2nd – Ted van Geldermalsen & Derek Morris
5th – Merv Trease & Vic Sedunary
9th – Rob Taylor & Graham Anderson
11th – Ron Frederick & Don Baker