South Island Secondary Schools Battle it out
23 secondary schools from about the South Island battled it out for the South Island Secondary Schools Adventure Racing Championships on Saturday 27th March on a demanding course around the high country surrounding the Central Otago town of Cromwell.
The event, which is in its second year, is a partnership between Multisport Adventure Racing NZ, Southern Lakes Multisport and Sport Central and has the title of top South Island team in three categories Boys, Girls and mixed up for grabs. Favourites expected to do this year included the young team from Karamea who trained hard whilst also holding fund raising activities to fund new bikes and the long trip south. They looked very composed during the briefing to disclose the secret course. Also looking confident were the returning Lincoln High School YR 13 Boys team. In the Girls’ category the Dunstan High School team looked hard to beat with great leadership from returning team captain Nakia Randle. The mixed category looked wide open with varying combinations adding spice to the category.
The race kicked off at 6:30am in slightly damp conditions which soon cleared as teams headed off from the Roaring Meg Power Station up into the high alpine region of Mt Pisa climbing to 1475m past check point 2 before descending into the Lowburn Valley. Race Director Bill Godsall had warned teams at the course briefing navigation choices here would be crucial and that was how it turned out when leaders, the experienced Karamea team, chased hard by Otago team Bayfields Blindside and 3 other teams, opted to go right down the smoother route, while following teams Hogg versus Wild, Dunstan High School Girls, Con Memento (Mt Aspiring College Girls), Lincoln High School YR 12 opted for the left turn down the steeper pack track. This effectively decided the race as Hogg versus Wild lead Dunstan High School Girls, Con Momento Girls checked into TA1 all within 14 minutes of each other while earlier leaders paid over 20 minutes for choosing the slower right side route, a decision they couldn’t recover from.
On the next MTB orienteering leg the front teams continued to battle it out, Hogg versus Wild, Soggy Muffins (Mt Aspiring Boys) Lincoln High School Boys YR12, all only just narrowly holding out Dunstan High Girls and Con Momento with the first 5 teams only separated by 8 minutes after 51/2 hours racing as they entered TA2. Teams swapped MTB for kayak to paddle across a choppy Lake Dunstan to the abseil site, the Lake got progressively more choppy with every passing minute forcing the Race Director to transport the remaining teams to the abseil site by rescue boat effectively turning the event into 2 categories. 8 teams completed the kayak leg before the cancellation of kayaking and they continued their battle onto the last MTB orienteering leg, the remaining teams who had been short coursed continued to battle it out for short course honours.
The last leg again only had a slight reshuffle of places with most teams surprising not only themselves but the support crews and staff who gathered at the finish line in Cromwell to await their arrival, first across the line were Lincoln High School YR 12 followed very closely by Dunstan High School Girls who were showing awesome team work wins the day. Hogg versus Wild held on to 3rd place some 10 minutes further back.
Southern Lakes Multisport who ran the event had set a great challenge for all teams to tackle with the day going very smoothly and once more every athlete completing the course under 12 hours. The team to perform well above expectation was without a doubt the Lincoln High School yr9 team who included 12 year old Nadia McGeachen who completed the course in 9 hour 6minutes placing 16th overall.
Overall Results South Island Secondary School Adventure Racing Champs
( teams that completed full course.)
Boys
1 Lincoln High School YR 12 7:10
2 Team Hogg versus Wild. 7:20
3 Team Soggy Muffins. 7:37
Girls
1 Dunstan High School Girls 7:11
2 Con Momento
Mixed
1 The Tarantulas (Mt Aspiring College)
Overall results from short course
(teams which were boated to abseil site across lake)
Boys
1 Verdon College 2
2 Verdon College 1
3 Bayfield Blindside
Girls
1 Team Pussy Willows (Mt Aspiring)
2 The Rashuns (Mt Aspiring)
3 Otago Girls High School
Mixed
1 Team of the RED DRAGONS (Cromwell College)
2 Cool Cats (Cromwell College)
3 Lincoln High School YR9
Image: South Otago High School team, they are Steph Craig, Emily Bowden, Kim Pellet, Emma Stark