Upset Win in City Safari!

New Zealand rogaining champions Jamie Stewart (Wgtn) and Greig Hamilton (Chch) were beaten today in the Metlink City Safari, an urban form of the map sport in which public transport provides a moving but predictable playing field.

Britain’s first orienteering gold medallist Yvette Baker, and three-times Irish orienteering rep Bill Edwards, both now living in New Zealand, won the 6-hour team event in Wellington.

This was an upset as Stewart and Australian David Rowlands won the Safari last year, and his NZ rogaining win was only 4 weeks ago. However the 40-yr-old Edwards is a current world masters orienteering champion and has just returned from a British Championship win. Baker retired from elite competition after her win in 1999, but evidently retains considerable fitness.

With an impossible 103 control points throughout the city including the 445m Mt Kaukau, teams had to make difficult choices about the most profitable route. From the start on the waterfront the winning pair climbed through Kelburn to Tinakori Hill before bussing to Newlands. They worked their way back through the western suburbs including Kaukau, reaching Brooklyn before finishing with 8min to spare. Their winning score was 1470, 200 ahead of the men. Wellington city councillor Andy Foster with Ramash Swamy were third on 1200 points.

A 3-hour section was won by Florence and Martyn Reynolds who tied on points with Adele Fitzpatrick and Vicki Connor, but were given the result by finishing earlier. School competitions were won by Samuel Marsden (Lauren Turner/Hannah Barnes) in the 6-hour and Rongotai College (Jonathan Wood/Ivan Wilby) in the 3-hour.

Nearly 600 participants used bus, train, ferry and cablecar services in the Metlink network. This is the largest rogaine in NZ and may be the largest orienteering event of any type in New Zealand this year.

Result summary, just the top few in each category. Full results...

Six-Hour Event