ASOC

The next three days we spent spectating! It was hard work.

The ASOC sprint was the first event held at The Armidale School just down the road from where we were staying. The arena was a tight spot and great for spectating. The start, finish and run through all in one spot! The day was slightly marred by a mapped gate that had an uncrossable line through it and one of the ACT junior boys was seen on live video feed shown in the arena opening the gate. There was lots of discussion revolving around the situation with the runner being disqualified. However it then came to light that many other runners had opened and run through the gate or had run through it because it was open when they got there. Upshot of the whole debacle was that runners were asked to own up and disqualify themselves if they did go through the gate - of which I think there were around 15 or so who were subsequently DSQ!

Anyhow Katy placed 11th (5th Aussie) in the junior girls and Ella came 20th (7th Aussie) in the senior girls. The ACT team had an awesome effort with 5 members making the podium!

The ASOC Long held at Pinetree, 35km west of Armidale. It was a good tough map and courses. Our girls were again consistent Katy placed 13th (9th Aussie) and Ella 20th (8th Aussie). There were two ACT members who made it on the podium today.

Final event is the fun ASOC relays! Held on the same map as yesterday's long. Katy was running with Ari and Sanda while Ella had Aoife and Mira (who was running up). The relays were certainly nail biting! Katy was second leg runner and went out in 8th position about 2 mins behind the first group of orienteers. Katy kept her nerve bringing the team home in 4th with the first team still 2mins ahead. Katy's third leg runner had a solid run and brought the team home in 2nd place outright but 1st Aussie team!

Meanwhile in the senior girls Aoife brought ACT home in 7th, Mira exceeded expectations with a blinder of a run keeping the girls in 7th (2nd official Aussie Team). Via live splits we saw Ella had made a big mistake! As she ran through the spectator control she had been caught by two QLDers! It was a nerve biting wait. Spectating, we worked out that the first sighting of a runner was coming down the hill. They then had about a 700m loop in an open flattish area before the finish. We were very excited to see Ella emerge first without any other girls on her tail. They weren't far behind though! Ella kept her cool and finished the loop without incident securing 2nd (Aussie Team) and 6th place outright for the senior girls ACT team.

 

ASOC wrapped up with a formal dinner and disco. We had several members make the Honors team and the ACT team won the scavanger hunt :)