Everlasting Rogaine: Western Australia
WRC1996: 2nd World Rogaining Championship
After three years of planning it finally came the weekend for the Fruit n Veg 2nd World Rogaining Championships.
Nearly 700 people entered the Rogaine and dispite blisters and sore feet I think that everyone enjoyed the Everlasting Rogaine. The weather was good for Rogaining with clear skys for most of the night and maximum day time temperatures around 20 deg C. Even a shower just after the start did not dampen the enthausiasm too much.
The rain over the weeks leading up to the event was enough to cause the tracks to the planned Hash House site to be too soft to get all the vehicles in, so the Hash House was moved some eight kilometres NW. This, for the top teams, made the route planning more difficult than with the original Hash House site. For the more recreational teams, the planned concentration of controls close to the Hash House were no longer available and the scores were low.
Nearly half the teams set off, through the carpet of wildflowers that surrounded the Hash House, to climb directly up Mt. Singleton, 350m above the start. A heavy shower of rain made the steep rocks slippery and the views were all lost in the mist.
Many teams regreted this choice as they used too much energy climbing to the summit and the rugged slopes that were crossed to descend to the controls on the far side were slow going.
Later in the night there were three hours between sunset and moon rise and quite a few teams found themselves in difficult terrain and decided to make the long walk back the the Hash House for very few points. The teams that had missed Mt. Singleton at the begining of the course were able to reach some of the easier controls at the SW end of the map as the darkness arrived.
When dawn arrived most of the fancied teams were still out on the course. There was little opportunity for teams to plan a competitive route that included a stop at the Hash House. At the finish only a couple of teams were late but many of the best arrived within the last ten minutes.
Placings
Categories
M: Men W: Women X: Mixed J: Junior (less than 18) V: Vet (40 and over) R: Super Vet (55 and over)
The section place getters and the top ten teams were:
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Place Cat Score Who & Where from --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st 1st MO 2980 David Rowlands, James Russell (VIC) 2nd 2nd MO 2810 Allan Stradeski, Peter Mair (Canada) 3rd 3rd MO 1st MV 2770 Geoff Lawford (ACT), Rod Gray (QLD) 4th 2760 Andrew McComb, Peter McComb (SA) 5th 2nd MV 2730 Peter Merrotsy, Richard Robinson (QLD) 6th 2680 Iiro Kakko, Ossi Autio (Finland) 7th 3rd MV 2510 Liegh Privett, Rob Taylor (VIC) 8th 2490 Peter Taylor (SA), Geoff Mercer (ACT) 9th 2380 Chip Lundstrom, Martin McNiff (WA) 10th 1st XO 2370 David Ellis, John Nitschke, Vanessa Walker (SA) 16th 2nd XO 2300 Gary Carroll, Dianne Challen, John Tonai-Moore (WA) 20th 3rd XO 2230 Simon George, Joanna Parr (NSW) 21st 1st XV 2200 Ian Maley, Peta Kelsy (WA) 22nd 1st WO 2190 Christine O'Keefe, Jenny Casonova (SA) 25th 2nd XV 2120 Phil Dufty, Penny Dufty (WA) 28th 3rd XV 2010 Bob Northey, Lesley Northey (VIC) 31st 2nd WO 1st WV 1990 Bev Lockley, Patty Nathan (WA) 36th 1st MSV 1960 Gordon Birch, John Supanz (WA) 40th 3rd WO 1900 Cora Wolswinkel, Kate Hodge (VIC) 60th 1st MJ 1600 Andrew Jenkins, Daniel Towers (WA) 67th 2nd MJ 1520 Russell Honeybun, Henry Wong, David Murray (WA) 86th 2nd MSV 1200 Dick Mountstevens, Ian Rannard (NSW) 95th 3rd MJ 1220 David Elderfield, Ryan Lamp (WA) 97th 1st WJ 1200 Cassandra Wade, Josephine Lockley, Breanne English (WA) 98th 1st XSV 1190 Marjo Hill, Ian Chambers (VIC) 111th 3rd MSV 1050 Barrie Thompsett, Robert Fergie (WA) 117th 2nd WJ 1010 Theresa Klass, Elizabeth McCutcheon, Jemina Toia (WA) 123rd 2nd XSV 980 Peter Hamilton, Kathy Hamilton (WA) 136th 2nd WV 820 Theresa Howe, Lois West (WA) 140th 3rd XSV 800 John Kirke, Lorraine Kirke, Dan Hugo, Heather Hugo (WA) 141st 3rd WV 800 Kristiane Herrmann (ACT), Kathy Herrmann (NSW) 208th 3rd WJ 460 Jackie Porter, Lauree Hastie (WA) 233rd 1st WSV 380 Joyce Pitfield, Patsy Roche (WA) 260th 2nd WSV 160 Jo Hiller, Beryl Walter (WA)
Many thank you messages are needed to congratulate all the efforts that went to make the event a success and I would particularly like to record my thanks to:
The station owners Don and Leah Bell who helped from the very first visit to the station when they drove me around and proudly showed off their home, to the event days when they drove out on motorbikes to parts of the map that we could not reach to help put out controls and water drops.
The sponsors, Healthway, Wilderness Equipment and ARA who provide financial support for the event keeping the costs down to normal rogaine levels when the expenses were higher than normal.
The donors of spot prizes; Wilderness Equipment, MacPac, Big Country and Ultimate Direction. The tremendous support of these outdoor manufacturers and shops was much appreciated by the lucky winners.
Henning Lenz, the Western Australian Orienteering Association and the Scout movement who loaned extra Hash House equipment
Of the many people in WARA that put in many hours to make it all work so well I would like to highlight:
The WRC committee
Bryan Hardy and Andrew Thomas; the setters
Jane Robley; Treasurer, Bus Co-ordinator and Event Administrator.
Maggie Jones; Event Secretary
Gary Carrol; Communications and Event Booklet
Nicole Davis; Event Entry Form and Social
Other Key workers
Craig Dufty; my co-vetter
Lois Allen and Yvonne Smith; Hash House Organisers
Vince Harding; WARA President and Truck Driver
Warren Smith; WARA Volunteer Co-ordinator and Flag Man!
Ken Martin; Truck Driver
Alastair Honeybun; World Wide Web Site
Adrian Day; Cartographer
David Stephens; Press coverage
Also many thanks to all the other people who worked on Admin and Hash House over the weekend as well as the Dunny Diggers, Control Collectors, Truck Loaders and general clearing up that everyone lent a hand with.
Last but not least the rogainers - who came and said nice things at the end when they were tired and really were not sure after 24 hours of stumbling over rocks, fighting off the wild emus, getting stuck in endless spider's webs and marvelling at the display of wildflowers if rogaining really is FUN.
Yes it is - see you in Kamloops
Richard Matthews, Organiser