Australian Rachel Effeney wins Sprint the Bay in New Zealand

A record number of competitors contested the Sprint the Bay orienteering series in Hawkes Bay New Zealand last weekend with Australians Rachel Effeney and Matthew Parton taking out 1^st and 3^rd respectively in the elite categories. The series took place over the Waitangi long weekend with 2 sprint races each day (6 in total) with the winners determined through cumulative time for the series.

Stage 1 was a mass start race that took place around a school, a cemetery and some parkland and would determine the pecking order for the weekend. The racing was fierce as it soon became apparent that some levels of ‘physicality’ were acceptable in getting to a punch first and those runners at the front of each field were able to put valuable seconds between themselves and those further down in the train by getting in early on the first few controls. Rachel Effeney was one of those to punch first early and in a sprint finish managed to shade Lizzie Ingham by 2 seconds to gain the yellow leaders singlet for the first race. In the elite men’s race Tim Robertson won on the line to get hold of the leaders jersey which he would hold until Stage 5. Bryan Keely was the best of the Australian men in the Stage placing 5^th, 4 seconds behind the leaders with Hanny Allston scraping into the top 6 in the women’s elite race.

Winners of the various jerseys

Stages 2-4 were all urban sprints with reverse chasing starts (leaders starting last) and the competition through these races was super tight. Oscar McNulty scored 2 impressive stage victories at Napier Central in Stage 2 and Frimley in Stage 4 to move into second overall at this point, just 11 seconds behind Tim Robertson in the competition for the outright series lead. Stage 4 also saw the only Australian trifecta of the weekend with Matthew Parton and Lachlan Dow rounding out the top three which enabled them to move up into 6^th and 7^th overall, with Bryan Keely also running well into 5^th place for the stage. Rachel Effeney was dominant through these races placing 1^st in every one and with some big winning margins was able to take her lead to 1 minute 41 seconds by the end of Stage 4.

Bryan Keely gets air

Stage 5 was the only forest sprint of the series and as expected had a huge impact on the overall result. For the first time Rachel and Tim both lost their leaders jerseys dropping back to 2^nd and 4^th overall. Toby Scott won the elite men’s race by a massive 35 seconds to leapfrog from 5^th into 1^st overall and Angela Simpson moved from 2^nd into 1^st overall with her stage win. Of the Australians, Matthew Parton was fortunately placed in the start list to take advantage of Toby’s phenomenal run and after being caught 1 minute midway through the course managed to hold on for the 3^rd fastest time of the day. Lachlan Dow’s 6^th place enabled him to hold onto 6^th overall.

Stage 6 took place on the Arataki map which comprised two schools separated by an oval with every course having two loops each with each loop running through both schools. To make more interesting head-to-head racing, starts were in pairs for this race with each competitor completing one loop first and their starting partner completing the other, before swapping. As a result of this Rachel Effeney and Angela Simpson were the last pair to start in the women’s race and since only 9 seconds separated them the winner of this race could well win the series. Rachel, who needed to catch the 9 seconds, had a good race and came into the finish chute a few seconds ahead and with a big crowd screaming it was clear it was going to be a nail-biter. Unfortunately, as the dust settled it became apparent that Angela had missed a control and so was marked as a miss-punch, although Rachel had done enough to take the lead away from her anyway. 

Aislinn Prendergast

The final standings for the elite women were: 1^st Rachel Effeney, 2^nd Lizzie Ingham, 3^rd Kate Morrison. The men’s race was less wide open with big gaps separating the top 6 which meant that a mix-up in the results was unlikely based on Stage 6 racing. Despite this Matthew Parton appeared to do his best to cede his 3^rd position and after starting the race with a 35 second buffer to Tim Robertson in 4^th only held on by a meagre 6 seconds at the end of what he described as a sloppy race on tired legs. Lachlan Dow was the best placed of the Australian men on the stage in 5^th which meant that he retained 6^th place in a super competitive field. The overall results in the elite men’s division were: 1^st Toby Scott, 2^nd Tom Reynolds, 3^rd Matthew Parton.

Women's podium- First Rachel Effeney (AUS, Queensland Cyclones), 2nd Lizzie Ingham, (NZ and Canberra Cockatoos), 3rd Kate Morrison (NZ)

Men's podium- 1st Toby Scott (NZ), 2nd Tom Reynolds (NZ), 3rd Matt Parton (AUS and NSW Stingers)

A great video teaser of what Sprint the bay is all about.

For full results and splits go to http://www.sprintthebay.org/results/2012/overall.html

(Aussies in Red)

Men's Elite (61)

1	Toby Scott	1:34:35
2	Thomas Reynolds	1:35:53
3	Matthew Parton	1:36:36
4	Tim Robertson	1:36:42
5	Chris Forne	1:37:00
6	Lachlan Dow	1:37:31
7	Carsten Joergensen	1:39:30
8	Ian Lawford	1:40:00
9	Tane Cambridge	1:40:23
10	James Bradshaw	1:40:41
11	Bryan Keely	1:40:58
12	Oscar McNulty	1:41:34
13	Nick Hann	1:41:45
14	Beat Zimmermann	1:42:16
15	Bruce Arthur	1:42:25
16	Jourdan Harvey	1:43:49
17	Murray Scown	1:44:26
18	Eugene Campbell	1:47:57
19	Stefan Zingg	1:48:56
20	Alistair Richardson	1:50:22
21	Kasimir Gregory	1:50:56
22	Greg Flynn	1:51:10
23	Al Cory-Wright	1:55:29
24	Michael Smithson	1:56:21
25	Oliver Mitchell	1:59:19
26	David Hunhammar	2:02:12
27	Liam Paterson	2:02:45
28	Mathieu McGuire	2:06:44
29	Kieran Woods	2:07:57
30	Thomas Eatson	2:11:46
31	Luis Slyfield	2:17:57
32	Mikko Ruokolainen	2:24:27
33	Cairn Coghill	2:25:19
34	Bradley Ivory	2:29:12
35	Gergo Verhas	2:29:29

Women's Elite (37)

1	Rachel Effeney	1:32:56
2	Lizzie Ingham	1:34:11
3	Kate Morrison	1:38:04
4	Georgia Whitla	1:38:26
5	Laura Robertson	1:40:06
6	Hanny Allston	1:41:34
7	Aislinn Prendergast	1:42:58
8	Tessa Ramsden	1:48:23
9	Lisa Grant	1:50:28
10	Mace Neve	1:50:43
11	Cosette Saville	1:52:19
12	Belinda Lawford	1:54:11
12	Selena Metherell	1:54:11
14	Ilka Barr	1:58:29
15	Shannon Jones	2:00:27
16	Katelyn Effeney	2:00:30
17	Anna Gray	2:02:15
18	Renee Beveridge	2:03:00
19	Sara Bailey	2:03:49
20	Jula McMillan	2:04:31
21	Karin Geissbuehler	2:05:21
22	Heather Muir	2:06:42
23	Emily Cantwell	2:11:05
24	Katie Bolt	2:11:31
25	Sarah Gray	2:13:11
26	Miina Ruokolainen	2:15:12
27	Emily Dinsdale	2:20:04
28	Sarah Davidson	2:31:40
29	Katalla Kramer	2:55:28

Thanks to Sprint the Bay organisers for the photos, and Matt Parton for words of wisdom