Kangaroos' Tales MTBO Review 2015

Thursday, 24 December 2015

2015 Australian MTBO Championships

 Bayside Kangaroos was the key organising club for the recently completed Australian MTBO Championships centred at Anglesea on Victoria’s Surf Coast in early November. 

The carnival was the brainchild of John Gavens and Heather Leslie who together with Carolyn and Peter Cusworth spent over 2 years planning and organising the events. They shared the overall organisation of the carnival and together set the courses for the Middle and Long races.
 
Yarra Valley assisted in running the Sprint event held at Torquay along the foreshore and nearby parkland. Nillumbik Emus organized the warm-up event at the You Yangs on the Friday afternoon.
 
The Championships were also the final round of the National MTBO Series, a round of the World Masters MTBO Series and World Ranking Events for the Middle and Long races.
 
The map areas used presented competitors with a wonderful navigation and riding experience that included some spectacular scenery, challenging orienteering and technical riding worthy of the world-class event it was.
 
Added to the four key organizers, fellow BK member Jon Sutcliffe created three highly praised maps. This involved a huge amount of work as both the Middle and Long maps included some very complex areas to be mapped.

None of the areas had ever been used for orienteering before, so Jon was starting from scratch. Added to his mapping duties, Jon also took on extra task of being Controller for both the Sprint and Middle events.

Another member, Tim Hatley, was Controller for the Long event and did a great job overseeing and checking the mapping and event planning.

Being a World Ranking event, we also needed to have an IOF level advisor check everything about the organisation and running of the events. We were fortunate to have the services of Sweden’s Patrik Gunnarsson, who has been working in Sydney for a couple of years. It was great to have Patrik’s experienced eye going over the maps, courses and organisation.
 
Bruce Paterson took on the task of managing the SportIdent requirements for the events. Everything thing went to plan and the radio timing at the spectator controls showed spectators competitor’s live progress on the big screen displays. He was ably assisted by Greg Tamblyn who as usual, did a power of work over the whole weekend, assisting with control placement and pick-up and setting up both of the main events.
 
Total entries for the weekend were fantastic with 197 people competing in at least one of the three championship events. Previous records for the Australian Champs were in the 150 mark. These numbers were boosted by 30 New Zealanders coming over.
 
After a warm-up event held at the You Yangs on Friday afternoon the championships proper started on Saturday morning at Fishermans Beach in Torquay. The Middle Distance was held on Saturday afternoon on what is a really fantastic map at Eumeralla, Anglesea.

Riders needed to navigate their way around a complex areas of a scout camp with many open areas with linking tracks added to a network of MTB single tracks snaking their way around the map. A series of larger vehicle tracks added to the network. The riding was challenging but fun with several control points located at spectacular lookout locations.
 
The Long was held at Paddy’s Swamp, Bambra, about 35 minutes  NW from Anglesea. This is an all new area even for mountain bikers and included many challenging trails. We managed to get permission to use some private property, an old coal mine that included two large lakes and a dramatic landscape of erosion gullies, native bush, open land, and a variety of tracks.

Bayside Kangaroo members featured strongly in the results too which included our World Junior Champ, Angus Robinson, taking 3 wins in M20 from fellow member Tim Jackson. Steven Cusworth, making a return to MTBO, won the Mens Elite Middle and Long races and came second in the Sprint. Carolyn Jackson was the best placed Australian in Womens elite coming second in all three races to New Zealand’s Marquita Gelderman. Even Fossum won M14 at all races too.
 
Thanks to all of the BK members who assisted with these championships. It was a great team effort overall that enabled us to put on what has been a highly commended championships.
 
Here is a list of the BK members who contributed: John Gavens, Heather Leslie, Carolyn Cusworth, Perter Cusworth, Jon Sutcliffe, Tim Hatley, Greg Tamblyn, Bruce Paterson, Helen Alexander, Anne Robinson, Henry Post, Geoff Lyons, Amy Cusworth, April McDonough, Prue Dobbin, Pierre Bruckner, John Sheahan, Jenny Sheahan, Steven Cusworth, Thor Egerton, Geoff Robinson, Carolyn Jackson, Tim Jackson, Bill Vandendool, Christine Raviart, Suzanne O'Callaghan and Ian Mack – (hope we haven't missed anyone :)